There is nothing contradictory or incompatible in the teachings of the Nature Cure philosophy concerning the physical and metaphysical methods of treating human ailments.  Both the independent and the dependent attitudes of mind and soul are good and true and may be entertained at the same time.  It is necessary for us to rely on our own personal efforts in carrying out the dictates of reason and of common sense.  But this need not prevent us from praying for and confidently expecting a larger inflow of vital power and intuitional discernment from the Source of all intelligence and power in the innermost parts of our being.

This two-fold attitude of mind and soul is justified not only by reason and intuition, but also by the anatomical structure of the human organism and its physiological and psychological faculties, capacities and powers.

The activities of the human organism are governed by two different systems of nerves, the sympathetic and the motor.  The sympathetic nervous system is the conveyor of vital force to the organs and cells of the body.  Just what this vital force is and where it ultimately comes from, we do not know.  It is a manifestation of that which we call God, Nature, Life, the Higher Power or the Divine Within.

Heart action, the circulation of the blood, respiration, digestion, assimilation of food, elimination and all other involuntary activities and functions of the human organism are controlled by means of the sympathetic nervous system.  The nature of the controlling force itself is not known to us.  We do know that it is supremely powerful, intelligent and benevolent.

The more we study the anatomy, physiology and psychology of the human organism, the more we wonder at its marvelous complexity and ingenuity of structure and function.  Every moment there are enacted in our bodies innumerable mechanical, chemical and psychological miracles.  Who, or what, performs these miracles?  We do not know.  Yet every moment of our lives depends upon the infinite care and wisdom of this unknown intelligence and power.

Why, then, should we not trust the One so faithful?  Why should we not ask aid from One so powerful?  Why not seek enlightenment from One who is so wise and so benevolent?

However, not all of the human entity is dependent upon a controlling power, nor are all its functions involuntary.  Within the house prepared by the Divine Intelligence, there dwells a sovereign in his own right and by his own might.  He is endowed with freedom of desire, of choice and of action.  He creates in his brain the nerve centers which control the voluntary activities of the body and from these brain centers he sends his commands through the fibers of the motor nerves to the voluntary muscles and makes them do his bidding; some he commands to walk, others to laugh, to eat, to speak, etc.

This independent principle in man we call the ego, the individual intelligence.  It imagines, desires, reasons, plans and works out, by the power of free will and independent choice, its own salvation or destruction, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually.  By means of the motor nervous system, this thinker and doer directs and controls from the headquarters in the brain all the voluntary functions, capacities and powers of the human organism.