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 a large 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 the _New
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, but _the 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 person is 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 certain substance 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 may easily 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
attention was 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 will and 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
method at 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 therefore not
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
a brother-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 that _she has been in the
country and would put him under treatment the next day_. Realizing
that all his treatment had been only 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 tidings to 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 and _vice versa_. These changes
are not miraculous, but proceed from natural causes in the operation
of the mind, 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 of its 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,' said the 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 the
benefit 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."