“The cure consists in the repairing of the wasted tissue, and in the cells restoring and repairing themselves into a definite pattern, necessary to mutual work, so that the commonwealth may prosper. Air, water, sunshine, food, etc., are necessary to the performance of this work of repair. When these are furnished, even under the best conditions possible, the cells must use them to build up the waste, and this they do by their internal forces. But this process is what is called repair on the one hand, and cure on the other. External means may be essential, but that will not make them really curative.... It is well, also, to keep in mind that external in the true sense of the term as we are using it here.Any force outside of the diseased cell is an external force to that cell even if it be thought-force.Disease is always treated by external force, external as defined above, and all disease is just as surely cured by internal force—viz.:force resident in the cell itself. Here we all stand around the suffering cell, one with drug-power in his hand, another with electricity, or water, or heat, or directed attention—thought-force or more nourishment which necessitates a better circulation to that area, or some other of the thousand therapeuticmeasures, and we are close enough together at last to see that we are simply using different stimuli to try to aid the real worker within the cell to do his work by furnishing, not only material that is necessary, but force as well, that out of the abundance his work may be easy and rapid.”
The reader who will consider the numerous instances of cure by Suggestion or Faith-Cure, as noted in the following chapters, will be better able to understand the principle underlying these cures if he will realize the fact brought out so forcibly by Dr. Meacham, as above quoted. The attention of the patient being directed to the organ affected, in connection with the stimulating and vitalizing effect of Faith and Belief, starts into renewed activity the cell-mind of the organ in question, and arouses its reparative and recuperative energies. Each organ, and its component cells and cell-groups, is of course under the control of the Subconscious Mind, and forms a part of the material embodiment thereof. The Subconscious Mind, being stimulated by the Suggestion and Faith, and having its ExpectantAttention aroused, concentrates its energies upon the reparative and recuperative processes in the organ, and the work of cure proceeds. The cure, in every case, is simply either repair work, or else the restoration of normal functioning—in either case the cells themselves doing the work.
In the consideration of the reasons underlying the cure of disease by Psycho-Therapeutics, we must first consider the question of what disease really is. And in this phase of the consideration, it will be well for us to first dispel the erroneous ideas concerning disease which we have been entertaining. Perhaps the following striking statement from Sidney Murphy, M. D., printed in the magazine “Suggestion” several years ago, may help you to form a correct idea of the nature of disease, or rather a correct idea of what diseaseis not. Dr. Murphy says, in the said article, among other things: “Prof. S. D. Gross, formerly of the New York University Medical School, says: ‘Of the essence of disease very little is known—indeed nothing at all.’ Nevertheless it is evidentthat medical men have an idea on the subject. The theory generally held, I believe, is that disease is destructive action; but just what this means, whether destructive action on the part of vitality itself, or by something acting upon the vitality, is not so clear; but we are enabled to gain some light by reference to the expression used in medical books concerning it. Thus we find that disease ‘attacks us,’ that it ‘seats itself in an organ,’ that ‘it works through us, runs its course,’ etc. It is also said to be ‘very malignant,’ or ‘quite mild,’ ‘persistently resisting all treatment,’ or ‘yielding readily’ to it. In fact, it is considered an entity, possessing character and disposition and general vital qualities—a something which domiciles itself in the vital domain, and exercises its forces to the destruction of the vital powers. It is indeed spoken of as one would speak of a rat in his granary, or a mouse in his cupboard, and efforts are made to dislodge it, or kill it, as one would dislodge or kill any other living thing. This theory of disease is beginning to be looked upon even by the medical world as untenable. Living thingsare always possessed of organizations having form or shape; and hence if disease were such, its form would be discerned and described; a thing which never has been done. Disease by our ancestors was considered a subtile and mysterious thing which pounced down upon us, and runs its course without any reference to causes; and language being formed to convey this idea, it has been transmitted almost unchanged from generation to generation down to the present time. And the medical profession of to-day is simply an embodiment of that idea. It is probable that the term ‘destructive action’ is generally held to mean destructive action on the part of the vitality itself.... Life in organic form is developed according to law. Slowly rising into power, organization at length reaches its zenith, and then goes down the gentle declivity, until the soul steps off into the great beyond, without pain or struggle, provided always that the conditions of life are natural and therefore favorable; but if these be unfavorable, unfavorable results must of course follow; vitality, nevertheless, doing the best it can under the circumstances to preserve the normal state of the body. Disease, we propose to show, is not antagonistic to vital action, but the opposite, a remedial effort,or vital action on the defensive. It is not a downward tendency, nor the result of a downward tendency on the part of a living organism, but is itself an upward or self-preservative tendency, the result of disobedience to natural laws.It is simply abnormal action, because of abnormal conditions.”
In considering the above revolutionary statement of Dr. Murphy, we must remember that “vitality” or “vital force” is simply the action of the Subconscious Mind operating through the sympathetic system, the organ-minds, and the cell-minds.All vital energy, at the last is mental energy.And, we must also remember that the “abnormal conditions” which Dr. Murphy speaks of as being the cause of “abnormal action” or disease, are not confined alone to physical or material conditions, but also to abnormal mental conditions, such as fear-thought, adverse suggestions, improper use of the imagination, etc. As we have seenin the preceding chapters, the causes of disease may be mental as well as material or physical.
The Subconscious Mind in its vital activities is constantly at work building up, repairing, growing, nourishing, supporting and regulating the body, doing its best to throw off abnormal conditions, and seeking to do the best it can when these conditions cannot be removed. With its source pure and unpolluted the stream of vitality flows on unhindered, but when the poison of fear-thought, adverse suggestion and false belief is poured into the source or spring from which the stream rises, it follows that the waters of life will no longer be pure and clear. Let us notice the general direction of the vital activities of the Subconscious Mind.
In the first place we find that the vital activities are primarily concerned withself-preservation, that is with the preservation of the individual and the race. One has but to notice the ever-present manifestation of the “race instinct” which draws the males and females of the several species together, that they may mate and bring forth theyoung needed to keep alive the species. The parental devotions, with its many sacrifices of personal pleasure for the young, are instances ever before us. And no less striking is the companion activities which make for the preservation of the individual. The instinctive tendency toward self-preservation is so strong that it overpowers the reason in the majority of cases. Men may decry the value of life, but let their life be threatened and the instinctive protective feeling causes them to fight for life against all odds. “All that a man hath will he give for his life.” And this instinctive activity is manifest not only in the individual as a whole, but in every cell of his body. Every cell is striving hard for the welfare of the community of which it forms a part. Even in disease it strives to throw off the abnormal conditions which afflict the body, and failing to do so it hobbles along doing the best it can under the circumstances.
The tiny seed sprouting in the ground, and lifting weights a thousand times that of itself, shows the self-preservative energies and activities of the mind principle withinit. The healing work of the cells in the case of a wound, or of a broken bone, as described elsewhere in this book, gives us another example. The healing efforts of the organism striving to throw off the morbid substances within the body, purging them away in a flux, or burning them up with a fever, show the operations of the same principle. This, we have seen, is called thevis medicatrix naturae, or “healing power of nature,” which operates in man as well as in the case of the lower animals—but it is really but the operations of the great Subconscious Mind of the individual. As Dr. Murphy, previously quoted, says: “Certainly all experience declares and all physicians will admit that where vital power is abundant in a man he will get well from almost any injuries short of complete destruction of vital organs; but where vitality is low, recovery is much more difficult, if not impossible, which can only be explained on the principle that vitality always works upward toward life and health to the extent of its ability under the circumstances, because, if it worked downward, theless vitality, the more surely and speedily would death result.”
Following the law of self-preservation, we find that ofaccommodationmanifesting itself in the vital activities of the Subconscious Mind. This principle or law works in the direction ofadjusting the organism to conditions which it cannot remedy. Thus a sapling bent out of shape, will bend its branches upward until once more they will reach toward the sky notwithstanding the deformed trunk. Seed sprouting from a narrow crevice in a rock, and unable to split the rock, will assume a deformed shape but will hold tenaciously to life, and will thrive under these abnormal conditions. This principle of accommodation acts upon the idea of “life at any price,” and of “making the best of things.” Man and the lower animals accommodate themselves to their environment, when they are unable to overcome the unsatisfactory conditions of the latter. The study of anthropology, natural history, and botany will convince anyone that the principle of accommodation is everywhere present in connection with that of self-preservation. And the diseased conditions, and abnormal functioning, which we find in cases of chronic diseases is simply the principle of accommodation in the vital activities of the Subconscious Mind, but which it is “trying to make the best of it,” and holding on to “life at any price.”
Dr. Murphy, previously quoted, says: “Disease, in its essential nature, has a deeper significance than simply abnormal manifestations. It is really a remedial effort, not necessarily successful, but an attempt to change, or have changed existing conditions. And for this reason any improper relation of the living organism to external agents necessarily results in an injury to that organism, which by virtue of its being self-preservative, immediately sets up defensive action, and begins as soon as possible to repair the damages that have accrued. This defensive or reparative action, of course, corresponds to the conditions to be corrected, and hence is abnormal and diseased; and its severity and persistence will depend upon the damages to be repaired, and the intensity and persistence of thecauses that produced it. Serious injury present or impending will demand serious vital action; desperate conditions, desperate action. But in all cases the action is vital, an attempt at restoration, and the energy displayed will exactly correspond to the interests involved and the vitality that is available.”
From the above, and from what has been shown in previous chapters, it will be seen that just as is health the result of the normal functioning of the Subconscious Mind, so is disease the result of its abnormal functioning. And it may also be seen that the true healing power must come alone from and through the Subconscious Mind itself, although the same may be aroused, awakened and directed by various outside agencies. As Dr. Thomson J. Hudson says: “Granted that there is an intelligence that controls the functions of the body in health, it follows that it is the same power or energy that fails in case of disease. Failing, it requires assistance; and that is what all therapeutic agencies aim to accomplish. No intelligent physician of any school claimsto be able to do more than to ‘assist nature’ to restore normal conditions of the body. That it is a mental energy that thus requires assistance, no one denies; for science teaches us that the whole body is made up of a confederation of intelligent entities, each of which performs its functions with an intelligence exactly adapted to the performance of its special duties as a member of the confederacy. There is, indeed, no life without mind, from the lowest unicellular organism up to man.It is therefore a mental energy that actuates every fiber of the body under all its conditions. That there is a central intelligence that controls each of these mind organisms, is self-evident....It is sufficient for us to know that such an intelligence exists, and that, for the time being, it is the controlling energy that normally regulates the action of the myriad cells of which the body is composed.It is, then, a mental organism that all therapeutic agencies are designed to energize, when, for any cause, it fails to perform its functions with reference to any part of the physical structure.”
THE HISTORY OF PSYCHO-THERAPY
One of the most remarkable achievements of the New Psychology is that of gathering up the scattered instances of the effect of the power of the mind over the body, under the various masks and guises worn during the ages, and uniting them in one broad and general synthesis in which is to be seen the one fundamental principle of Mental Healing operating under a thousand names, forms and theories, in every race, nation and clime in all ages past and present. The New Psychology is the great reconciler of the various theories, dogmas and speculations concerned with the subject of the strange cures effected by the mind, as well as with the equally strange adverse effect upon the physical organism of negative thoughts.
From the earliest days of history we find records of strange and marvelous cures effected by non-material agents. In somecases the effect is attributed to magical power, while in others, and the majority of cases, the cure is attributed to some particular religious belief, creed or ceremony. Not only in the folk-lore of the several races, and in their general traditions, but also in the written and graven record do we find traces of the universality of the principle of mental therapeutics.
H. Addington Bruce says: “Psychotherapy might well be cited in support of the old adage that there is nothing new but what has been forgotten. Traces of it are to be found almost as far back as authentic history extends, and even allusion to methods which bear a strong resemblance to those of modern times. The literature and monumental remains of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, India and China reveal a widespread knowledge of hypnotism and its therapeutic value. There is in the British Museum a bas-relief from Thebes which has been interpreted as representing a physician hypnotizing a patient by making ‘passes’ over him. According to the Ebers papyrus, the ‘laying on of hands’ formed a prominentfeature of Egyptian medical practice as early as 1552 B. C., or nearly thirty-five hundred years ago; and it is known that a similar mode of treatment was employed by priests of Chaldea in ministering to the sick. So, also, the priests of the famous Temples of Health are credited with having worked numerous cures by the mere touch of the hands. In connection with these same Temples of Health were sleeping chambers, repose in which was supposed to be exceptionally beneficial. Asclepiades of Bithynia, who won considerable fame at Rome as a physician, systematically made use of the ‘induced trance’ in the treatment of certain diseases. Plautus, Martial, and Seneca refer in their writings to some mysterious process of manipulation which had the same effect—that is, of putting persons into an artificial sleep. And Solon sang, apparently, of some form of mesmeric cure:
“‘The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rageMore than all art of physic can assuage;Sometimes the fury of the worst diseaseThe hand by gentle stroking, will appease.’
“‘The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rageMore than all art of physic can assuage;Sometimes the fury of the worst diseaseThe hand by gentle stroking, will appease.’
“‘The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rageMore than all art of physic can assuage;Sometimes the fury of the worst diseaseThe hand by gentle stroking, will appease.’
“‘The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rage
More than all art of physic can assuage;
Sometimes the fury of the worst disease
The hand by gentle stroking, will appease.’
“Many other instances might be mentioned testifying to the remarkable extent to which psycho-therapy, in one form or another, was utilized in the countries of the ancient world. This, of course, does not necessarily imply that the ancients had any real understanding of the psychological and physiological principles governing its operation. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that they used it much as do too many of the mental healers of to-day—on the basis of ‘faith cure’ pure and simple, with no attempt at diagnosis, and in a hit-or-miss fashion. It was not until the very end of the Middle Ages, so far as history informs us, that anything even remotely resembling a scientific inquiry into its nature and possibilities was undertaken, and then only in a faint, vague, indefinite way, by men who were metaphysicians and mystics rather than scientists. The first of these, Petrys Pomponatius, a sixteenth-century philosopher, sought to prove that disease was curable without drugs, by means of the ‘magnetism’ existing in certain specially gifted individuals. ‘When those who are endowed with this faculty,’ he affirmed, ‘operate by employing the force of the imagination and the will, this force affects their blood and their spirits, which produce the intended effects by means of an evaporation thrown outwards.’ Following Pomponatius, John Baptist von Helmont, to whom medical science owes a great deal, also proclaimed the curative virtue of magnetism, which he described as an invisible fluid called forth and directed by the influence of the human will. Other writers, notably Sir Kenelm Digby, laid stress on the power of the imagination as an agent in the cause as well as the cure of disease, compiling in a curious little treatise published in 1658, as interesting a collection of illustrative cases as is contained in the literature of modern psycho-therapy.”
In the Middle Ages, we read that there were many instances of miraculous cures effected at the various shrines of the saints, and in the churches in which were exhibited the bones and other relics of the holy people of church history. As Dr. George R. Patton says: “A word scrawled upon parchment, for instance, would cure fevers; anhexameter from the Iliad of Homer cured gout, while rheumatism succumbed to a verse from Lamentations. These could be multiplied, and undoubtedly all were equally potent of cure in like manner.... At one time holy wells were to be found in almost every parish of Ireland, to which wearisome journeys were made for the miraculous powers of cure. It was the custom of the cured to hang upon the bushes contiguous to the springs small fragments of their clothing, or a cane, or a crutch as a memento of cure, so that from afar the springs could be easily located by the many colored fragments of clothing, rags, canes and crutches swayed upon the branches by the wind. Inasmuch as the bushes for many rods around were thus adorned, the cures must have been far from few.”
In the Middle Ages it was the custom of persons afflicted with scrofula and kindred disorders to come before the king upon certain days to receive the “Royal Touch,” or laying-on-of-hands which was held to be an infallible specific for the disease. The custom was instituted by Edward the Confessor, and continued until the accession to power of the house of Brunswick. It is a matter of history that many persons were cured by the touch of the king’s hands. Wiseman, a celebrated surgeon and physician of old London testifies as follows: “I myself have been an eye-witness of many thousands of cures performed by his majesty’s touch alone, without any assistance of medicine or surgery, and those, many of them, such as had tired out the endeavors of able surgeons before they came hither.... I must needs profess that what I write will little more than show the weakness of our ability when compared with his majesty’s, who cureth more in one year than all the surgeons of London have done in an age.” The virtue of the “King’s Touch” was finally brought in doubt by the wonderful successes of a man by the name of Valentine Greatrakes, who in the Seventeenth Century began “laying on hands” and made even more wonderful cures than those of the king. So marked was his success that the government had difficulty in suppressing thegrowing conviction among the common people that Greatrakes must be of royal blood, and the rightful heir to the throne, because of the great healing virtues of his hands, which, they argued, could be possessed only by those having royal blood in their veins. The Chirurgical Society of London investigated Greatrakes’ cures, and rendered an opinion that he healed by virtue of “some mysterious sanative contagion in his body.”
But perhaps the most notable figure in the European history of Mental Healing was Franz Anton Mesmer, a native of Switzerland, who was born in 1734, and who later in the century created the greatest excitement in several European countries by his strange theories and miraculous claims. Frank Podmore in a recent work says of Mesmer: “He had no pretensions to be a thinker; he stole his philosophy ready-made from a few belated alchemists; and his entire system of healing was based on a delusion. His extraordinary success was due to the lucky accident of the times. Mesmer’s first claim to our remembrance lies in this—that he wrested the privilege of healing fromthe churches and gave it to mankind as a universal possession.”
Mesmer held that there was in Nature a universal magnetic force which had a powerful therapeutic effect when properly applied. He cured many people by touching them with an iron rod, through which he claimed the universal magnetism flowed from his body to that of the patient. He called this magnetic fluid “animal magnetism.” Later on he devised his celebrated “magnetic tub” orbaquet, by means of which he was able to treat his patientsen masse. Podmore gives the following interesting account of scenes surrounding his treatments:
“The baquet was a large oaken tub, four or five feet in diameter and a foot or more in depth, closed by a wooden cover. Inside the tub were placed bottles full of water disposed in rows radiating from the center, the necks in some of the rows pointing towards the center, in others away from it. All these bottles had been previously ‘magnetized’ by Mesmer. Sometimes there were several rows of bottles, one above the other; themachine was then said to be at high pressure. The bottles rested on layers of powdered glass and iron filings. The tub itself was filled with water. The whole machine, it will be seen, was a kind of travesty of the galvanic cell. To carry out the resemblance, the cover of the tub was pierced with holes, through which passed slender iron rods of varying lengths, which were jointed and movable, so that they could be readily applied to any part of the patient’s body. Round this battery the patients were seated in a circle, each with his iron rod. Further, a cord, attached at one end to the tub, was passed round the body of each of the sitters, so as to bind them all into a chain. Outside the first a second circle would frequently be formed, who would connect themselves together by holding hands. Mesmer, in a lilac robe, and his assistant operators—vigorous and handsome young men selected for the purpose—walked about the room, pointing their fingers or an iron rod held in their hands at the diseased parts.”
Mesmer made many wonderful cures, and attracted wide attention. In 1781 the kingof France offered him a pension of thirty thousand livres if he would make public his secret. The offer was refused, but he gave private instruction and opened a school. He had many pupils and followers, prominent among whom was the Marquis de Puysegur, who made discoveries resulting in the identification of Mesmerism with the “trance condition” now commonly associated with the term, whereas originally Mesmerism included simply the healing process. Mesmer’s methods continued popular for many years after his death, until Braid’s work resulted in the founding of the modern school of Hypnotism, and Mesmerism died out.
The Abbe Faria, about 1815, after investigating Mesmerism and attracting much attention, discarded the “fluidic” theory of Mesmer, and held, instead, that in order to induce the mesmeric state and to produce the phenomena thereof, it was necessary merely to create a mental state of “expectant attention” on the part of the patient. The cause of the state and the phenomena, he held, was not in the operator but in the mind of the patient—purely subjective, infact. Alexander Bertrand, a Frenchman, published a work about this time, holding theories similar to those of Faria. In 1841 James Braid, an English physician, becoming interested in Mesmerism, discovered that the mesmeric state might be artificially induced by staring at bright objects until the eyes became fatigued, etc., and, later, that any method whereby concentration and “expectant attention” might be induced would produce the phenomenon. He duplicated all the feats of the mesmerists, including the healing of diseases. He called his new system “Hypnotism” to distinguish it from Mesmerism, and under its new name it gained favor among the medical fraternity. Moreover, in connection with his predecessors, Faria and Bertrand, he laid the basis for the modern theories of Suggestive Therapeutics.
Shortly after Braid’s death, in 1860, Dr. A. A. Liebault, a French physician, established his since famous School of Nancy, in which during the after years the later wonderful discoveries in Suggestive Therapeutics were made. He used the methods ofhypnotism, but Suggestion was ever the operative principle recognized and applied. Liebault said: “It is all a matter of Suggestion. My patients aresuggestedto sleep, and their ills aresuggestedout of them. It is very simple, once you understand the laws of Suggestion.” Dr. Charcot, in his celebrated clinic in the Salpetriere, in Paris, did great work along the same general lines, although proceeding under somewhat different theories. Following the example of these and other eminent authorities, the medical fraternity has gradually adopted many of the ideas of Suggestive Therapeutics, and to-day many of the best medical schools throughout this country and Europe give instruction in this branch of healing. Many books have been written on the subject by eminent medical authorities, and the indications are that during the present century Suggestive Therapeutics, in its various forms, will come even more prominently into popular favor, and that it will be developed far beyond its present limits. Experimental work along these lines is nowbeing conducted in many psychological laboratories in our great universities.
At the same time, as we shall now see, Mental Healing has been attracting much attention along other lines, outside of the medical profession, and often allied with religious and metaphysical movements. To understand the subject, we must study it in all of its phases.
In the early part of the nineteenth century Elijah Perkins, an ignorant blacksmith living in Connecticut conceived a queer idea of curing disease by means of a peculiar pair of tongs manufactured by himself, one prong being of brass and the other of steel. These tongs were called “tractors,” and were applied to the body of the patient in the region affected by disease, the body being stroked in a downward direction for a period of about ten minutes. The tractors were used to treat all manner of complaints, ailments and diseases, internal and external, with a wonderful degree of success. Almost miraculous cures of all manner of complaints were reported, and people flocked to Perkins from far and near in order to receive the benefit of his wonderful treatments.
Soon this system of healing came to be called “Perkinsism,” as a tribute to the inventor. The popularity of the system spread rapidly in the United States, particularly in New England, every city and many towns patronizing Perkins’ practitioners and healers. From this country the craze spread to Great Britain, and even to the Continent. Centers of treatment, and even hospitals, were established by the “Perkinsites,” and the fame of the tractors increased daily in ever widening circles. In Europe alone it is reported that over 1,500,000 cures were performed, and the medical fraternity were at their wit’s ends to explain the phenomenon. Finally, Dr. Haygarth, of London, conceived the idea that the real virtue of the cures was vested in the minds, belief and imagination of the patients rather than in the tractors, and that the cures were the result of the induced mental states of the patients instead of by the metallic qualities of the apparatus. He determined to investigate the matter under this hypothesis, andaccordingly constructed a pair of tractors of wood, painted to resemble the genuine ones. The following account by Bostock describes the result: “He accordingly formed pieces of wood into the shape of tractors and with much assumed pomp and ceremony applied them to a number of sick persons who had been previously prepared to expect something extraordinary. The effects were found to be astonishing. Obstinate pains in the limbs were suddenly cured; joints that had long been immovable were restored to motion, and, in short, except the renewal of lost parts or the change in mechanical structure, nothing seemed beyond their power to accomplish.” The exposure of this experiment, and the general acceptance of the explanation of the phenomena, caused “Perkinsism” to die out rapidly, and at the present time it is heard of only in connection with the history of medicine and in the pages of works devoted to the subject of the effect of the mind over the body.
The success of “Perkinsism” is but a typical instance which is duplicated every twenty years or so by the rapid rise, spreadand then rapid decline of some new “craze” in healing, all of which, when investigated are seen to be but new examples of the power of the mental states of faith and imagination upon the physical organism. The well-known “blue glass” craze of about thirty-five years ago gives us another interesting example. General Pleasanton, a well-known and prominent citizen of Philadelphia, announced his discovery that the rays of the sun passing through the medium of blue glass possessed a wonderful therapeutic value. The idea fired the public imagination at once, and the General’s book met with a large sale. Everyone, seemingly, began to experiment with the blue glass rays. Windows were fitted with blue glass panes, and the patients sat so that the sun’s rays might fall upon them after passing through the blue panes. Wonderful cures were reported from all directions, the results of “Perkinsism” being duplicated in almost every detail. Even cripples reported cures, and many chronic and “incurable” cases were healed almost instantaneously. Bedridden people threw aside their blankets andwalked again, after a brief treatment. The interest developed into a veritable “craze,” and the glass factories were operated overtime in order to meet the overwhelming demand for blue glass, the price of which rapidly advanced to fifty cents and even a dollar for a small pane, because of the scarcity. It was freely predicted that the days of physicians were over, and that the blue glass was the long-sought-for panacea for all human ills. Suddenly, however, and from no apparent cause, the interest in the matter dropped, and now all that is left of the blue glass craze is the occasional sight of an old blue pane in some window, the owner of which evidently felt disinclined to pay the price of replacing it with a clear pane. Only a few days ago, in an old-fashioned quarter of a large city, the writer saw several panes of the old blue glass in the frame of the window of an old house which had seen better days but which was now used as a cheap tenement house.
The history of medicine is filled with records of similar “crazes” following the announcement of some new method of “cure.” The striking peculiarity of these cures is that they all occur during the height of the excitement and notoriety of the early days of the announcement, whilethey decline in proportion to the decline in public faith and interest, the explanation being that in every instance the cure is effected by the action of the mental states of expectancy, faith, and the imagination of the patient, irrespective of any virtue in the method or system itself. In short,all these cures belong to the category of faith-cures—they are merely duplicates of the world-old cures resulting from faith in sacred relics, shrines, bones of holy people, sacred places, etc., of which nearly every religion has given us many examples. The history of medicine gives us many instances of the efficacy of the therapeutic power of Faith.
Sir Humphrey Davy relates a case in which a man seriously ill manifested immediate improvement after the placing of a clinical thermometer in his mouth, he supposing that it was some new and powerful healing instrument. The grotesque remedies of the ancient physicians, and thebizarredecoctions of the quacks of the present, all work cures. The “bread-pills” and other placebos of the “regulars” have cured many a case when other remedies have failed.
It is related that several hundred years ago, a young English law-student while on a lark with several of his boon companions found themselves in a rural inn, without money with which to pay their reckoning. Finally, after much thought, the young man called the inn-keeper and told him that he, the student, was a great physician, and that he would prepare for him a magic amulet which would cure all diseases, in return for the receipted account of himself and friends. The landlord gladly consented, and the young man wrote some gibberish on a bit of parchment, which together with sundry articles of rubbish he inserted in a silk cover. With a wise and dignified air he then departed. Many years rolled by, and the young man rose to the position of a High Justice of the realm. One day before him was brought a woman accused of magic and witchcraft. The evidence showed that shehad cured many people by applying to their bodies a little magic amulet, which the church authorities considered to be the work of the devil. The woman, on the stand, admitted the use of the amulet and the many cures resulting therefrom, but defended herself by saying that the instrument of cure had been given to her father, now deceased, many years ago, by a great physician who had stopped at her father’s inn. She held that the cures were genuine medical cures resulting from the medicinal virtues of the amulet, and not the result of magic or witchcraft. The Justice asked to be handed the wonderful amulet. Ripping it open with his pen-knife, he found enclosed the identical scrawl inserted by himself many years before. He announced the circumstances from the bench, and discharged the woman—but the healing virtues of the amulet had disappeared, never to return. The cures were the result of the faith and imagination of the patients.
The modern instances of the several great “Divine Healers,” such as John Alexander Dowie of Chicago, and Francis Schlatter ofDenver, give us additional evidence of the efficacy of Faith as a therapeutic agent. John Alexander Dowie, a Scotch preacher, came to America some twenty years ago, and instituted a new religion in which healing was an important feature. He claimed that all disease was the result of the devil, and that belief in God and the prayers of Dowie and his assistants would work the cure of the devil’s evil operations. Great numbers flocked to Dowie’s standard, and thousands of wonderful cures were reported. His “Tabernacle” was filled with testimonials and trophies from cured people. Back of Dowie’s pulpit were displayed many crutches, plaster-casts, braces, and other spoils wrested from the devil by Dowie and his aids. His experience meetings were thronged with persons willing and anxious to testify that whereas they had been afflicted they were now whole again. Dowie succeeded in building up a great following all over the world, and had he not overreached himself and allowed his colossal vanity to overshadow his original ideas, the probability is that he would have founded a churchwhich would have endured for centuries. As it is, he was discredited and disowned by his followers, and his church is now but little more than a memory.
Francis Schlatter, the German shoemaker of Denver, with his Divine Healing, was a well known figure in the west several years ago. He was undoubtedly a half-insane fanatic, believing himself inspired by God to heal the nations. Persons flocked to him from afar, and he is reported to have healed thousands, many of whom were suffering from serious ailments. He afterward disappeared, and is believed to have died in the desert of the far west. Students of Mental Suggestion and Psychic Therapeutics find in the instances of Dowie and Schlatter merely the same underlying principle of Mental Healing resulting from faith, which is operative in all of the other cases mentioned. The theology, creed, theories of methods have but little to do with the cures, so long as the proper degree of faith is induced in the mind of the patient. Faith inanythingwill work cures, providing it is sufficiently intense and active.
Another branch of Mental Healing is seen in the modern schools of the “New Thought,” “Mental Science,” “Christian Science,” and the “Emmanuel Movement.” The authorities generally agree upon tracing the rise of these several schools to the general interest in the subject manifested in the United States and Great Britain about the middle of the last century. Some of the authorities believe that this general interest was induced largely by the teachings of Charles Poyen, a Frenchman who came from France to New England about 1835, bringing with him the French teachings and theories regarding mesmerism and the phenomena allied thereto. Poyen’s teachings attracted marked interest and attention, and he soon had a host of followers, students and imitators. Teachers of the “new science” sprang up on all sides. Many theories were evolved and actively supported by the adherents of the several prominent teachers. The rise of interest in phrenology and the dawning interest in spiritualism aided the spread of the new teachings regarding mesmerism, clairvoyance, psychic healing, etc.,and the pages of many magazines and books published about that time show that a public taste had been created for the strange and mysterious.
Dr. J. S. Grimes, a physician interested in phrenology, taught that the phenomena were due to the action of a strange atmospheric force which he called “etherium.” Rev. J. Bovee Dods evolved a theory based upon the supposed existence of an electrical principle, and called his system “Electro-Biology,” by means of which he attracted to himself a large following. Dods wrote several large books on the subject, and traveled on lecture tours in this country and Great Britain, arousing great enthusiasm and making many cures. Rev. Leroy Sunderland expounded the doctrine of “patheism,” in which he combined a strange mixture of mysticism and what has since been called “suggestion,” to which he afterward added the current teachings of spiritualism after his conversion to that philosophy. It would seem that credit should be given Sunderland for his early announcement of the principle of suggestion, for he said: “When a relation is once established between an operator and his patient, corresponding changes may be induced in the nervous system of the latter by mere volition, andby suggestions addressed to either of the external senses.” The decade, 1840-1850 witnessed a remarkable interest in psychic phenomena of all kinds, and during that time there was undoubtedly laid the foundations upon which the later structures have since been erected. Any one reading the short stories of Poe, and other writers of that period, may readily see the state of public interest in these subjects at that time.
The authorities generally agree that in Phineas Parkhurst Quimby we have the direct connecting link between the period just mentioned and the present. Quimby played quite an important role in the evolution of the modern conceptions of mental healing, or psycho-therapy as it is now called. He was a poor clockmaker, of quite limited means, of good character and a strong personality. His education is said to have been limited, but he made up for his lack in this respect by his naturally keen and inquiringmind. In 1838 one of the teachers of mesmerism visited his home in Belfast, Maine, and Quimby attended the seance. He became intensely interested in what he saw, and in the theories propounded, and began to experiment on the people in his town, the result being that he soon acquired a reputation as a powerful mesmerist and a good healer. He followed along the general lines of the “Electro-Biology” theory for a time, and then evolved theories of his own. He cured himself and many others by manual treatment, and was soon kept quite busy in his healing work.
Quimby, thinking deeply regarding the cures he was making, soon came to the conclusion that while hiscureswere genuine, histheorieswere wrong. He gradually evolved the idea that diseases are caused by erroneous thinking, and that his cures resulted from changing these wrong mental states for those based upon true conceptions. He held that all that is required to effect a cure is to bring about “a change of thought.” Following upon this new conception, he ceased mesmerizing his patients, and beganto treat them by simply sitting by the side of the afflicted person, picturing him as well and whole, and impressing upon the patient’s mind that he is well and whole,in Truth. From this fundamental idea he gradually evolved a philosophy which has strongly influenced that of later schools. Quimby talked much regarding his great “discovery,” as he called it, and built great hopes upon establishing “the science of health and happiness.” He began to speak of the “Truth” in his “science,” which he held to be identical with that taught by Christ, and by means of which Jesus performed his miraculous cures. Before he had firmly established his “science,” however, he died, leaving his work to be carried on by others, notably by Dr. Warren F. Evans, and Julius A. Dresser, to whom should be given the credit for launching what is now known as “the New Thought Movement.”
Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, who afterward established “Christian Science” was one of Quimby’s patients and students, and Dresser and others have positively stated and claimed that from him she received herideas of the philosophy which she afterward developed into the great “Christian Science” movement. Mrs. Eddy, and her adherents, as positively deny to Quimby any credit for having inspired Mrs. Eddy’s work. We merely state the opposing sides of the controversy here, taking no sides in the matter, the discussion not concerning us in the present consideration.
The success of Evans and Dresser, and of Mrs. Eddy, in their respective schools and organizations, have caused many other teachers to come to the front, until at the present time there are many schools, cults and organizations basing their cures upon the broad principles of Mental Healing. Mrs. Eddy, and her followers, deny having anything in common with the other schools, however, holding that the latter are concerned with “mortal mind” while “Christian Science” alone is based upon Divine Mind, or Truth. In spite of the conflicting claims and theories, the fact remains that thousands of persons have been healed of various diseases by the various schools, cults, and teachings. To the authorities whostand outside of and apart from these opposing organizations, it seems that all the cures are based upon the same general principle,i. e., that of the influence of mental states over physical conditions, and that religious theories or metaphysical philosophies have nothing whatever to do with the production of the cures, except in the direction of giving a strong suggestion to those accepting them. The fact thatallthe schools make cures, in about the same proportion, and of the same general classes of complaints, would seem to show that the theories and dogmas have nothing to do with the process of cure—and that the healing is donein spite of the theories, rather than because of them.
The much advertised “Emmanuel Movement” now so popular in the orthodox churches throughout the country, is recognized by all the authorities as being nothing more than suggestion applied in connection with the religious and theological principles of the churches in question, and, in truth, as applying methods more in favor by the old school of mesmerists than by thelater “New Thought” practitioners, or by the “Christian Science” healers. From this movement, however, there will probably evolve a more scientific system, manifesting none of the crudities which so disfigure its present stage, at least in the hands of some of its practitioners.
In the following chapter we may see that the same element of Faith, Belief and Expectancy is manifested in all the various forms of Mental Healing, by whatever name, or under whatever theory, the method is applied. In short, that the cures are purelypsychological, rather than metaphysical or religious, in their nature.
FAITH CURES
Following the scientific study of the phenomena of cures of physical illness by means of the power of mental states, and the recognition of the fact that there is a common principle operative under the various guises and forms, there sprang into scientific usage the term “Faith Cures” which was used to designate all instances and forms of cures coming under the general classification of mental healing. Prof. Goddard defines the term as follows: “A term applied to the practice of curing disease by an appeal to the hope, belief, or expectation of the patient, and without the use of drugs or other material means. Formerly it was confined to methods requiring the exercise of religious faith, such as the ‘prayer cure’ and ‘divine healing,’ but has now come to be used in the broader sense, and includes the cures of ‘Mental Science,’ and hypnotism; also alarge part of the cures effected by patent medicines and nostrums, as well as many folk-practices and home remedies. By some it is used to include also Christian Science, but the believers in the latter regard it as entirely distinct.”
The term “Suggestion,” used in the same sense as “Faith Cure” in relation to the healing of disease, has also come into popular usage, but inasmuch as Suggestion has a much larger meaning outside of its therapeutic phases, it may be said the best authorities to-day use the term “Faith Cure” as representing simply one phase of Suggestion.
Prof. Goddard, in his article on “Faith Cure,” in theNew International Encyclopaedia(Dodd, Mead & Co., New York), says: “Besides these recognized forms (divine healing, mental science, etc.), faith cure is an important element in cures wrought by patent medicines and nostrums, home remedies and folk practices. The advertisement, testimonial of friend, or family tradition arouses the faith of the sick man, and he comes to believe that he needs only to follow directions to be fully cured. The actual value of faith cure as a therapeutic method has been the subject of much discussion. It can no longer be denied that it has value. From divine healing to patent medicine and Father Kneipp’s water cure, all cure disease. Each appeals to a particular type of mind, butthe results are practically the same in all—same diseases cured, same successes, same failures. Many faith-curists claim that all diseases in all persons can be cured by their method; others hold that the principle is of limited application. Of them all, the hypnotists are the only ones who do not make sweeping claims.”
After stating “the tendency to exaggeration and the infrequency of impartial judgment” in connection with many instances of claimed cures, the above mentioned authority proceeds as follows: “The actual cures, however, are sufficiently numerous and sufficiently striking to need an explanation. These different forms agree in only one point—viz.,the mental state of the patient is one of hope and expectation. Can states of mind cause or cure disease? Some familiar occurrences seem to justify an affirmative answer. It is well known that certain glands and secretions are markedly affected by emotions. Fright causes the saliva to cease to flow and the perspiration to start. Sorrow causes the lachrymal glands to secrete tears. Happiness favors digestion, unhappiness retards it. Mosso has demonstrated that the bladder is especially sensitive to emotional states. In general, the pleasant emotions produce an opposite physical effect from the unpleasant ones. There are many glands within the body whose action under emotion we cannot observe; but we may reasonably assume that they also are affected by emotional states. Hence, if unpleasant emotions so act upon the glands as to derange the system and cause disease, the pleasant emotions may reasonably be assumed to tend to restore the normal functions. The various forms of faith cure tend strongly to put the patient in a happy frame of mind—a condition favorable to health. However, there are all degrees of faith and wide differences in the way the system responds to the emotional state. One personis slightly affected by a strong emotion; another is strongly affected by a weak emotion. Hence, there must always be a wide difference in the results of faith-cure methods. The diseases most amenable to faith cure are nervous—including many not recognized as nervous, but having a neural condition as their basis—and functional derangements. Organic diseases are not usually cured, though the symptoms are frequently ameliorated. Chronic diseases due to neuro-muscular habit often yield to hypnotic treatment.”
Prof. R. P. Halleck says: “Were it not for this power of the imagination, the majority of quack nostrums would disappear. In most cases bread pills, properly labeled, with positive assurances of certain cures accompanying them, would answer the purpose far better than these nostrums, or even much better than a great deal of the medicine administered by regular physicians. Warts have been charmed away by medicines which could have had only a mental effect. Dr. Tuke gives many cases of patients cured of rheumatism by rubbing them with a certainsubstance declared to possess magic power. The material in some cases was metal; in others wood; in still others, wax. He also recites the case of a very intelligent officer who had vainly taken powerful remedies to cure cramp in the stomach. Then ‘he was told that on the next attack he would be put under a medicine which was generally believed to be most effective, but which was rarely used.’ When the cramps came on again, ‘a powder containing four grains of ground biscuit was administered every seven minutes, while the greatest anxiety was expressed (within the hearing of the party) lest too much be given. Half-drachm doses of bismuth had never procured the same relief in less than three hours. For four successive times did the same kind of attack recur, and four times was it met by the same remedy, and with like success.’ A house surgeon in a French hospital experimented with one hundred patients, giving them sugared water. Then, with a great show of fear, he pretended that he had made a mistake and given them an emetic instead of the proper medicine. Dr. Tuke says: ‘The result mayeasily be anticipated by those who can estimate the influence of the imagination. No fewer than eighty—four-fifths—were unmistakably sick.’
“We have a well authenticated case of a butcher, who, while trying to hang up a heavy piece of meat, slipped and was himself caught by the arm upon the hook. When he was taken to a surgeon, the butcher said he was suffering so much that he could not endure the removal of his coat; the sleeve must be cut off. When this was done, it was found that the hook had passed through his clothing close to the skin, but had not even scratched it. A man sentenced to be bled to death was blindfolded. A harmless incision was then made in his arm and tepid water fixed so as to run down it and drop with considerable noise into a basin. The attendants frequently commented on the flow of blood and the weakening pulse. The criminal’s false idea of what was taking place was as powerful in its effects as the reality, and he soon died.... There is perhaps not a person living who would not at times be benefited by a bread pill, administered by some one in whom great confidence was reposed.”
The same authority also says: “It has been known for a long time that if the attention is directed toward any bodily organ, abnormal sensations may be caused in it, and disease may be developed. The renowned Dr. John Hunter said: ‘I am confident that I can fix my attention to any part, until I have a sensation in that part.’” Dr. Tuke says that these “are words which ought to be inscribed in letters of gold over the entrance of a hospital for the Cure of Disease by Psychopathy.” Hunter’s confident assertion is the more interesting because, drawn from his own experience, it shows that the principle is not confined in its operation to the susceptible and nervous, but operates even on men of the highest mental endowment. We have examples from the literature of the seventeenth century, showing how the expectation of a complaint will produce it. In 1607 an ignorant English physician told a clergyman’s wife that she had sciatica, although there was, in reality, nothing the matter with her sciatic nerve. Her attentionwas thereby directed to it and a severe attack of sciatica was the result. When a person inexperienced in medicine reads carefully the symptoms of some disease, he is apt to begin an attentive search for those symptoms and to end by fancying he has them. Seasick persons have been relieved of their nausea by being made to bail a leaking boat from the fear that it would sink. All their attention was thereby diverted from themselves. Many can recall how children, and grown persons, too, have forgotten all about their alleged intense thirst, as soon as their attention was diverted. Some persons, after eating something which they fancy is a trifle indigestible, center their attention upon the stomach, expecting symptoms of indigestion, and are often not disappointed. A man who had good reason to fear hydrophobia, determined that he would not have it. The pain in the bitten arm became intense, and he saw that he must have something to divert his attention from the wound and his danger. He therefore went hunting, but found no game. To make amends, he summoned a more inflexible willand exerted at every step ‘a strong mental effort against the disease.’ He kept on hunting until he felt better, and he mastered himself so perfectly that he probably thereby warded off an attack of hydrophobia. Accordingly as we center our attention upon one thing or another, we largely determine our mental happiness and hence our bodily health. One person, in walking through a noble forest, may search only for spiders, and venomous creatures, while another confines his attention to the singing birds in the branches above. One reason why travel is such a cure for diseases of body and mind is because so many new things thereby come in to claim the attention and divert it from its former objects. The following expression from Dr. Tuke should be remembered: ‘Thought strongly directed to any part tends to increase its vascularity, and consequently its sensibility.’”
Dr. C. F. Winbigler says: “The practitioner secures the same effects from a placebo or powdered pop-corn as from some drugs by using suggestion with the former. Every successful physician has used this methodat one time or another, and sometimes when he was utterly puzzled as to what he should prescribe, he thus secured a marvellous result, and a cure of the patient was effected.... Every believer in Psycho-therapeutics knows that there is a psychical as well as a physical effect from the use of drugs. The psychical value is based on the expectation of their special action, and that which is in the physician’s mind may be subtly and powerfully carried over into the patient’s mind. The physician’s personality, attitude and interest in the patient accomplishes vastly more than the drugs he prescribes or administers. If he is cheerful and hopeful, he gives potency to their action; if he is gloomy, pessimistic and hopeless, he nullifies their effects. The cure of the patient is effected through the subconscious mind, and the attitude and bearings of the physician, attendants, the surroundings and the medicines employed, become powerful suggestions.”
Prof. Elmer Gates says: “The system makes an effort to eliminate the metabolic products of tissue-waste, and it is thereforenot surprising that during acute grief tears are copiously excreted; that during sudden fear the bowels and the kidneys are caused to act, that during prolonged fear, the body is covered with a cold perspiration; and, that during anger, the mouth tastes bitter, due largely to the increased elimination of sulpho-cyanates. The perspiration during fear is chemically different, and even smells different from that which exudes during a happy mood.... Now if it can be shown in many ways that the elimination of waste products is retarded by sad and painful emotions; nay, worse than that, these depressing emotions directly augment the amount of these poisons. Conversely, the pleasurable and happy emotions, during the time they are active, inhibit the poisonous effects of the depressing moods, and cause the bodily cells to create and store up vital energy and nutritive tissue products.”
In an issue of “The American Practitioner and News,” is reported a discussion before the Lexington (Ky.) Medical and Surgical Society, in which a member, Dr. Guest, related the following experience: “I have abrother-in-law who suffers every summer with hay-fever. He has a relative who believes in Christian Science. She told him that she felt positive that she could direct him to a woman, a Christian Scientist, who would cure him. He at first objected, because he hated to go to a woman physician. He arranged, however, to communicate with her daily by letter. When his hay-fever broke out he suffered with it all that day and night, and the next morning wrote her a note telling her to put him on treatment immediately. When he returned that night he was improved and slept better. He wrote a second note the next morning and was much encouraged. The third day he repeated his letter writing and stated that the symptoms had almost ceased. And he was guying me about being cured by Christian Science when regular physicians could do nothing for him. The night of the third day, when he came home to supper, he found a note from the Christian Scientist, stating thatshe has been in the country and would put him under treatment the next day. Realizing that all his treatment had beenonly in his imagination, the symptoms reappeared with the same intensity as before.”
Dr. A. J. Parks of New York, says: “The absolute and complete control that the sympathetic nervous system exercises over the physical organization is so perfectly clear and well-known to every observer that the recital of the phenomena in the vast and countless series of manifestations is unnecessary. We are all aware of the fact that digestion is promptly arrested upon the receipt of bad news. The appetite at once disappears. It ceases, and the whole system feels the effect of the depressing impulse—the mental and spiritual wave which lowers the vital thermometer. Fear not only suspends the digestive function but arrests the formation of the secretions upon which digestion depends. A sudden fright frequently paralyzes the heart beyond recovery, whereas a pleasant and pleasing message soothes and gently excites the whole granular system, increases the secretions, aids digestion and sends a thrill of joy to the sensorium, which diffuses the glad tidingsto every nerve fibril in the complex organization.”
Dr. T. A. Borton, in an address before the Indiana State Medical Society, said: “The subject which I desire to present to you to-day has to do with the influence of the mind over the functions of the body. Its silent, unobserved force results in producing pathological conditions, and those, by reflex action, excite morbid sensibilities of the mind and thus derange the nerve centres, resulting in a changed condition or over-excitability of the nerve energies, which becomes a secondary diseased condition in the form of different types of neurasthenia. I have been interested in this subject for many years, and in my practice have had extended opportunities for making observations as to the potency of the mental and suggestive pathology bearing on this subject. I would especially refer to the healing of the body through these mental forces, changing healthy, normal conditions into unhealthy or diseased conditions andvice versa. These changes are not miraculous, but proceed from natural causes in the operation of themind, as a therapeutic agency, operating through the functions of the body, sometimes as a tonic or stimulant, warding off diseases under the most exposed conditions, defending and holding the system in a state of health, while those void of these mental assurances become victims to the ravages of disease through contagion or infection. This protective mental force of the mind has been demonstrated many times in hospitals and other places where contagious diseases were prevailing. The mental force possesses a protective power when rightly exercised beyond what is usually conceded, not only in the way of defense; but also in correcting disease when in existence. I believe these to be much greater than has been generally admitted or understood.... We all know how difficult it is to get good results from medication in which our patients have no confidence, and it is an established fact that we get better results from drugs which are given with the patient’s knowledge of their intended effect.I have often produced desired results from means entirely inert, stating the desired and expected effect ofits administration. I have frequently quieted the severest pain by injecting pure water into the arm of the patient.”
Dr. G. R. Patton, in an address before the Wabasha County (Minn.) Medical Society, said: “As Bacon said, ‘Faith, confidence, belief and hope are the working forces that make the cure—that work the miracle.’ The mind as a dynamic force exerted over the functions of the body has been, doubtless, operatively manifest from the cradle of our existence. By the phrase, ‘the mind as a dynamic force,’ I refer to the various forms of suggestion as well as to various affective faculties of the mind, or those states caused by the sympathetic action of the brain, such as faith, confidence, belief, imagination, emotions, hope and the like. Any or all of them may become active over the bodily functions.... As instance of the mental impression acting upon observable functions revealed through the capillary circulation as revealed to the sight, I will mention blushing or pallor of the face, depending upon the theme presented to the thought; the mouth watering on the sight or thought of tempting food; the flow of tears from words or thoughts that excite grief; nausea or vomiting from a sickening spectacle; sexual excitement from obscene thought or lascivious sights. Instances might be multiplied. And is it not a fair inference, indeed, that through the vasomoter nerves, the internal viscera may be subject to like effects through mental impressions, and that thus acute as well as chronic congestive ailments thereof may be favorably influenced or even cured thereby?... It is my conviction that recognition of the power and usefulness of mental dynamics, including all forms of suggestion over physiological and pathological processes in combating diseases, is unquestionably the most impressive advance in modern medicine. Mental influence alone may diminish or increase the activities of the physiological processes to the extent of removing the pathological effects of disease.... A celebrated medical teacher, after an exhaustive dissertation over a case was leaving the bedside without prescribing any treatment when the house physician asked what should be given the patient. ‘Oh,’ saidthe professor, ‘a hopeful prognosis and anything else you please.’ To this he added, ‘the doleful doctor will be a failure, while the hopeful one will prove a winner from start to finish.’ It is reasonably assured that ultimately the physician will become not so much the man behind the pill as the judicious advisor, the wise counsellor, gently leading the sick ‘into green pastures, beside still waters,’ through paths that lead onward to recovery, assisting nature at times, if needs be, with a big bread pill.”
Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, the well-known authority on suggestive therapeutics, says: “Certain results will follow certain thoughts, and in every instance that it is possible to get the patient to think the thoughts we desire, we secure the results we desire. It is the work of the suggestionist to place these thoughts in the mind of the patient so that he is bound to think them, and this can be done to some degree, if not perfectly, in every case. It is well to have faith, but faith is not absolutely necessary at the outset. It is time enough for the patient to have faith in the treatment when he can perceive thebenefit he is receiving. Understanding the mental and physical changes which follow a certain thought, the suggestionist is able to bring about those mental or physical changes, by using direct suggestion in such a way that his patient is bound to think the thoughts which will produce the results. A man may not have faith in the statement that the thought of lemon juice will stimulate the flow of saliva, but if he will imagine for a moment that he is squeezing the juice of a lemon into his mouth the saliva will immediately flow more freely than usual, regardless of his faith. Similarly, many, if not all of the organs of the body, can be affected by impulses following certain lines of thought, and these impulses will follow the thought and stimulate the organs regardless of faith. It is simply necessary to get a patient to think the proper thoughts, and it is in the thought directing that the work of the suggestionist lies.”