Paramahansa Yogananda was a prominent yogi and monk who is credited for introducing the West to yoga and specific forms of meditation and has been given the title “Father of Yoga in the West”. His book Autobiography of a Yogi remains one of the top 100 most influential spirituality books of the century. Steve Jobs purchased 500 copies of the book before his death to be given to those who attended his funeral.
I still have yet to read Autobiography of a Yogi and when I came across this small book by Yogananda, one that I’d never heard of, I took a chance and grabbed it.
I was shocked to learn (knowing nothing about this monk) that he knew all about the Law of Assumption. While this book deals with healing physical and mental afflictions, Yogananda impresses upon the reader the importance of their own mental states. For it is these very mental states that are the direct cause of all disease and suffering.
“They do not realize that their mental troubles of fear, despair, bereavement, worry, violent anger, lack of self-control, and their spiritual suffering through ignorance of the clue to the mystery and meaning of human life are still more important and over-powering, and that all physical diseases originate in mental and spiritual inharmony.”
Just as Neville Goddard urged, Yogananda asks you to turn away from that which displeases you. Turn away from acknowledging anything that emotionally wounds you, as well as turning your attention from acknowledging the disease or sickness. And instead, place all of your mental thought and focus into that which pleases you and into the good health of you or others. This is something that Neville would speak of often and it was surreal to find so many of his teachings echoed in this book that predated him.
“During the physical curing process, the attention must not be on the disease, which always damps the faith, but on the mind. During mental cures of fear, anger, any bad habit, consciousness of failure, unsuccess, nervousness, etc., the concentration should be on the opposite mental quality, e.g., the cure for fear is culturing the consciousness of bravery; of anger-peace; of weakness-strength; of sickness-health.”
Scientific Healing Affirmations is directed at people who are looking to heal others from physical or mental ailments. We might call this a guide for lightworkers. Naturally, it can also be used to improve upon your own health and mental state. Another item of note is that he believed in our true nature of immortality (both physically and energetically), which can be achieved if desired.
Yogananda provides simple guidelines for meditative practices as well as several affirmations to repeat for different purposes. I found most of the affirmations to be far too poetic for practical use, at least for me. But they might work for you! The rest of the book – getting into the right frame of mind and knowing and understanding that your thoughts and frequencies are a divine gift from God that can be used to alter outcomes – is the crux of this book.
Highly suggested.