Introduction: Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) and his wife Myrtle Fillmore (1845–1931) founded the Unity Church in Kansas City, Missouri in 1914. (The foundational work began in the 1880s when Myrtle recovered from tuberculosis through prayers and affirmations). As shown in the article by Charles Fillmore (1927) below, the Unity Church believes that a plant-based diet, as prescribed by God in Genesis 1:29, causing no harm to innocent creatures, and containing no elements of corruption and decay, is conducive to both physical health and spiritual development.
Charles Fillmore is adamant that "God is love", and that life in its fullness, which God's Spirit will help us to enter, does not approve of death in any form. Those who follow the Compassionate Christ will see the need of protection and understanding for animals, and the animal kingdom should be redeemed and liberated from all forms of cruelty.
According to Charles Fillmore, the Sixth Commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill" covers not only humans but also other animals. All the current sufferings of humankind, both physical and mental, can be traced back to their violation of this command. In this connection, Charles affirms that non-human animals possess intelligence, affections, and souls almost equal to humans'.
Charles Fillmore is indeed one of the first modern church leaders to raise the issue of meat poisoning concerning both the body and the soul. He points out that the mental vibrations of the anger, anxiety and terror felt by farmed animals facing brutal slaughter, and of the pain, fear and frustration suffered by them in their entire abusive farmed life, will poison their flesh and in turn the spirit and the body of whoever consumes it. Charles, moreover, quotes Dr. W.R.C. Latson's (1903) sayings that meat is a poisonous stimulant that will invariably throw the eater into a state of excitation which is mistaken for strength, that meat is much less nutritious than vegetables, and that the strongest persons of the present world, including prominent athletes, do not consume animal flesh.
Below please find Charles Fillmore's article, "As To Meat Eating (1927 Unity Tract)", which denounces meatism and upholds a plant-based diet.
As To Meat Eating (1927 Unity Tract). By Charles Fillmore
....Personal experiment has proved to me that there is but very little change in the character of the food until it passes through the refining process called regeneration. The stamp of individual identity is put upon it only through a concentrated effort of the I AM in spiritual meditation and affirmation. It is true that all persons who are much in prayer and in conscious spiritual states, are constantly drawing upon these reserve cells in the seminal ducts and regenerating them. But the process is not well sustained until man consciously co-operates with the law, and seeks daily, regeneration and purification of all the cells in the organism. Then a system is established, and the new body is built up as designated by Jesus Christ in the symbology of the New Testament.
With this understanding of body substance, and of the process of body building, both physically and psychically, we can see the necessity of discrimination in choosing foods. If the cells pass into the blood and the glands essentially the same as they were formed by the animal or vegetable from which they came, it is highly important that their character be of the highest and purest.
1. Dead Animal Flesh = Elements of Discord & Decay
We eat the flesh of the animal for the life it contains, yet the fact is that that life has disappeared in its highest degree, and there is left only a lot of cells in various stages of corruption and decay. These are a burden to the human body because of the disintegrating process that has already set in. Instead of the vigor and force that once animated the flesh of the animal, there is left a mass of dead cells. Yet ignorant man loads his system with these elements of discord and decay, and expects to get life out of them. No wonder his body dies.
Again, it is proved by experiments that certain fleshly conditions peculiar to the animal, accompany its flesh in all its journeys through the body of man.
2. The Anger and Terror of the Steer Poisons his Flesh
In San Francisco a few years ago many persons were made violently ill from eating meat bought at a certain shop. Physicians investigated; they found that the carcass of a certain steer was the source of the trouble. It was believed that the steer was diseased. Further inquiry showed this to be an error; the animal was unusually healthy and vigorous — in fact so vigorous and forceful that he fought for his life for more than an hour when attempt was made to kill him. He was in a frenzy of terror and anger; his eyes were bloodshot and he frothed at the mouth while the butchers were trying to slay him. The physicians decided that the anger and terror of the steer poisoned his meat in a manner similar to the way in which the anger of a mother poisons her milk and makes her infant sick.
This instance was but an exaggeration of conditions that exist in a milder form in all animal flesh offered for food in our markets. Before they are slain, these poor brutes are maltreated in ways almost beyond description. Visit shipping pens, stock trains, stockyards, and packing houses, if you want evidence of the sufferings of the poor beasts of the field. And these very sufferings are, through sympathetic mental vibrations, transferred to the flesh of those who eat the bodies of these animals. The undefined fears, the terrors of the nightmare, and the many disturbances in stomach and bowels that man endures, may be traced, in a measure, to these unsuspected sources.
3. Genesis 1:29: Behold, I Have Given you Every Herb...
The argument that life is also destroyed in eating fruits and vegetables is used to excuse this slaughter of beings having intelligence, affections, and apparently souls almost equal to man's. This argument is so far fetched that a moment's sincere thought ought to disclose its fallacy to any one. The fruit and the vegetable have completed their life course and have apparently been prepared by a wise Creator for food, as we are told in Gen. 1:29: "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for food." Here is plainly indicated a vegetable and fruit diet for man. When these abundant products of nature are found spread upon her green garnished tables everywhere, why should man dye his hands with the lifeblood of things that resent the carnage, and cry out in terror when his cruel knife is raised against them? This is in direct opposition to the divine law of freedom and right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all of God's creatures.
Plants, by the aid of the sun, convert the mineral elements of the earth, and the poisons of the air (none of which would sustain animal life) into foods. It is only by the agency of plants that animal life is sustained. The plant purifies the air and converts the animal waste into food. Man in turn develops the plant and protects it from insects, waters it, and supplies it with nourishment; then the cycle is complete. When man eats an animal, divine order is disturbed; the animal is denied the right of expression, and man clogs his system with sewage and secondhand food.
4. Thou Shalt NOT Kill!
Man is today suffering, in his body and mind, from the results of transgressed law, and he will continue to suffer until he observes in its fullest degree the command, "Thou shalt not kill."
We rejoice that progressive metaphysicians are giving this question attention. It is easy to theorize and argue — the ranks are well supplied with these voluble wise ones — but it is a real pleasure to find the results of the tests of nonmeat eaters in our metaphysical ranks.
5. Meat is No Food but Stimulant!
Dr. W.R.C. Latson, a recognized authority upon diet, has this to say about meat:
So far from being a strong food, flesh meat is, strictly speaking, not a food but a stimulant. The meat of the animal contains food and poisons. The food we can use. The poisons we must excrete, and in the effort to get rid of these irritating poisons the organism, is thrown into a state of excitation which is mistaken for strength. As a matter of fact it is like the "strength" which comes from alcohol.
Doctor Latson goes on to say that it is a fact that, the heart of the habitual meat eater will beat at least ten times more a minute than the heart of a person living on a pure diet. He says further:
The strongest argument against the use of flesh meat is that to eat the animal's flesh is to eat the animal's excreta, which are inseparable from it.
Doctor Latson presents various tables and, diagrams in relation to the amount of nourishment contained in everyday food. These tables show conclusively that meat is less rich in food materials than are many other common articles of diet.
6. The Strongest Persons are Vegetarian
It is a fact that at least seven tenths of the population of the globe never eat meat. Dr. Felix L. Oswald says: "The strongest men of the three manliest races of the present world are non-flesh-eating." During the heroic periods of Greek and Roman history, the food of the soldiers was entirely vegetarian. The Greek athletes were trained upon vegetarian diet. It is a fact, that the most successful athletes of the day are those who abstain from meat entirely, or at least during their periods of training. Bernarr MacFadden, once a successful athlete and later editor of Physical Culture magazine, has this to say regarding meat eating:
But the most startling evidence, in favor of vegetarianism is the fact proved in my own athletic experience, and in the experience of many others, that the vegetarian diet gives one far greater endurance than the meat diet.
7. Seek Dominion of the Christ Mind in Eating
Question:
What is the best way to discipline, the appetite and to bring it under the dominion and authority of the Christ mind?
All man's appetites and desires are primarily spiritual. They are his means of appropriating the life and substance of Spirit. But the whole man has fallen short of the divine law, and he expresses his power in unrighteous ways. So appetite has taken on carnality, and when man begins his conscious growth in the spiritual life, he finds that he must overcome carnal appetite and bring all his powers into obedience to divine law.
The following affirmation is the first step in restoring appetite to its rightful place:
My appetite is spiritual, and it now finds its perfect expression in the purity and righteousness of the Christ mind.
This affirmation should be carried out in thought, word, and deed. To speak the affirmation, and then continually to deny it by willfully betraying it into the hands of the sense man, will not produce any speedy change. If sense desire calls for false stimulants in food and drink, the higher self should say no. Faithful discipline of this kind will make many changes in the kind and quantity of food that is eaten, and the appetite will be set free from its bondage to the carnal mind.
In addition to this, very definite statements of dominion and power and authority in Christ should be made. A firm hold on an overcoming word like this will prove helpful:
I am established in the power, and mastery, and dominion of the Christ mind. My appetite is no longer in bondage to sense man. I speak this word of authority in the name of Jesus Christ.
One means of taking control of the appetite is practice in eating slowly. When one eats too fast, it shows that one is not poised. Dominion comes through poise. Poise is a result of dominion. These two act together. While eating one should remember that one "shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God." All foods are representative of ideas. The idea is the "word." While the food is being eaten, digested, and assimilated, another process goes on. The ideas back of the food are being appropriated by the mind, and are being built into the soul and body.
Besides the inherent, essential, fundamental idea in a food, there are associative thoughts producing effects, like fear. A man who was a hunter in the early days of Kentucky, would not eat the flesh of any animal that saw him before he fired his gun. He said that it was not fit to eat. He was not a metaphysician and never heard of anything along that line, but by observation and experience he had learned that the fear that the animal felt when it saw him and felt his murderous thought, poisoned the meat. It is hardly necessary to add that the hours and days of suffering and fear that animals now undergo before they are slaughtered, render their flesh unfit for food. This is but one of many, reasons why one who would discipline his appetite finds vegetarian diet necessary.
8. Drink No Inflammatory Fluids (Alcohol)
Question:
Is it not inconsistent in temperance people, who are careful "to drink no fluids that will inflame them, to eat indiscriminately solid foods that are known to be stimulating, and, according to dietitians fully as deleterious as alcohol?
The overcomer must take complete control of his appetite and instead of allowing sense appetite to dominate him, he should be the master, deciding in spiritual wisdom what he will eat and drink. Appetite has to do with eating as well as with drinking, and it is therefore inconsistent to avoid the use of drinks that sense appetite demands, while allowing that appetite full sway in all solid foods. The absurdity of this is easily seen when we carry the matter back far enough to see that "temperance," as commonly accepted, means choice in what one swallows that does not require chewing, and absolutely unbridled appetite when it comes to things that must be chewed.
There are many aspects to this question. First, there is the gain of mastery and control, without which no man can be an overcomer; and none but overcomers can attain spiritual consciousness and eternal life.
Secondly there is the need of choosing food and drink that have spiritual qualities, suitable for building into the spiritual body which the overcomer is forming. As men grow spiritually, the character of their food changes, and they gradually grow out of the grosser foods and drinks desired by the man in sense consciousness, and seek more and more to keep the body temple pure in every way. Animal products and beer, whisky, and tobacco usually go first, as the sense consciousness loses its hold through the quickening of spiritual consciousness. The finer foods become more desired, and step by step we arrive at the place where we have overcome all sense appetite, and find ourselves hungering only for the "bread of life," the substance of Spirit, and desiring to drink only of the "water of life," that pure, crystal stream that flows through our organism from the throne, the place of Christ dominion within us. This dominion we gain by daily overcoming all the lusts of the flesh, among which is sense appetite.
A third reason for turning away from the fleshpots of Egypt is the need of cultivating love and mercy, and overcoming all cruelty and all indifference to the peace and comfort and well-being of every created thing. The importance of this is seen when we consider that the attainment of eternal life depends upon universal love.
9. Liberate Animals for "God is Love"!
Question:
In what manner do you pray for those who wish success in trapping, fur farming, chicken raising, stock ranches, and so forth? As a Truth teacher I have this problem to meet in my work, and I cannot conform these things, to my ideas of Truth.
We are indeed glad to receive your question, and to note the spirit of earnest endeavor that it reveals. "God is love." It is His love seeking expression in and through you that makes you question the advisability of killing animals for the provision of man, either for food or for raiment. "God is Spirit." His Spirit, even the Spirit of life within you, will help you to find the way to enter life in its fullness, and to give this message of life to those who come to you. This life does not countenance death in any form. He who has earnestly sought the higher way finds that it is not good for the upbuilding of his body temple to feed it with food that is filled with elements of fear and death — feelings such as are experienced by animals about to be slain to meet the lust of appetite; nor is it well for a person to surround his body with death thoughts by covering it with skins of dead animals, animals that were his fellow creatures. God is calling you through the questioning of your soul, calling you to come up higher into the fullness of all Truth. God is setting you free, free from all thought of death, free from the need of killing. In God you have no needs, the satisfaction of which causes other persons to carry on industries of death. God has given you the vision. He will give you the wisdom to share your vision with others.
When we receive requests such as you mention, we follow the example of God who, looking put upon the darkened void which was the world unborn, said, "Let there be light." We pray for the light of God to illumine the person seeking our help; we ask for the love of God to shine forth; we ask for the goodness of God to bring to the seeker true prosperity and lasting success; we pray for the wisdom of God to guide him to the work which will be for his highest good. In faith we speak the word — and you would rejoice with us if you could read some of the answers that reveal the ways in which God has opened other avenues of expression to those who would really serve Him. In all prayer it is essential that no thought of condemnation or judgment be allowed to enter the mind; nor should a person seek to coerce in any way the one for whom he is praying, or to dictate to him as to the course that he should follow.
Looking into the darkness, God saw the need of light — and light was given. Looking into the hearts and souls of men, He saw the need of love — and the Christ was given. Even so, those who are following Him look into the animal world and see the need of protection and understanding for the lower creatures — and are assured that as the word of Truth continues to take root and grow in the race consciousness, the animal kingdom shall be raised above the untoward conditions that have been placed upon it by man. It shall be redeemed and set free, free from death, free from all forms of cruelty, free to grow and advance into that which is the Father's perfect idea for it. Through those who are willing to follow the Christ, the God of life, love, and purity, this work is even now being accomplished. We rejoice that you are questioning former things, that you are seeking the way. We can even now hear the Christ say to you, "I am the way." We see you going forward through Him, helping humanity and lifting all creatures to life, peace, love, and well-being. God bless you.
10. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables
"Fruits and vegetables supply elements that sweeten the body fluids and have a decidedly beneficial effect upon the disposition and temperament of all members or the family," says Meatless Meals, a vegetarian cookbook containing more than three hundred healthful, palatable recipes. This book is printed in large type, and durably bound in linen. Price, $1.
Another fine vegetarian cookbook is The Science of Food and Cookery, giving more than five hundred practical and pleasing recipes, besides scientific information about foods and nutrition. We have this book in a revised, enlarged edition, although the price remains the same, $2.50. It is attractively bound in dark-green cloth.
UNITY SCHOOL OF CHRISTIANITY
917 Tracy, Kansas City, Mo.PRINTED IN U.S.A.
A2-2SC-4-37