Legitimate Scope and Natural Limitations
of Mental and Metaphysical Healing
During the last generation people have perceived more or less
clearly the fallacies of "Old School" medicine and surgery. They
have grown more and more suspicious of orthodox theories and
practices. From allopathic "overdoing" the pendulum has swung to the
other extreme of metaphysical nihilism, to the "underdoing" of
mental and metaphysical systems of treating human ailments.
Some of these systems and cults of metaphysical healing have met
with success and wide popularity and this is looked upon by their
followers as a proof that all the claims and teachings of these
cults and isms are based upon absolute truth.
However, a thorough understanding of the fundamental Laws of Cure,
as I have explained them in this volume, will reveal in how far
their teachings and their practices are based upon truth and in how
far they are inspired by erroneous assumptions.
Let us then apply the yardstick and the weights and measures of
Nature Cure philosophy in testing the true value of the claims of
metaphysical healers.
For ages people have been educated in the belief that almost every
acute disease will end fatally unless the patient is drugged or
operated on. When they find to their surprise that the metaphysical
formulas or prayers of a mental healer or Christian Scientist will
"cure" baby's measles or father's smallpox just as well as, and
possibly better than, Dr. Dopem's pills and potions, they are firmly
convinced that a miracle has been performed in their behalf and
straightway they become blind believers in and fanatical followers
of their new idols.
They simply exchange one superstition for another: the belief in the
efficacy of drugs and surgical operations for the belief in the
wonder-working power of a metaphysical formula, a self-appointed
savior or a reason-stultifying and will-benumbing cult. They have
not been taught that every acute disease is the result of a healing
effort of Nature and therefore fail to see that it is vital force,
the physician within, that, if conditions are favorable, cures
measles and smallpox as easily as it repairs the broken blade of
grass or heals the wounded deer of the forest.
"That is exactly what we say," exclaim healer and scientist. "Have
unlimited faith in the God within and all will be well."
True, faith is good, but faith and works are better. Though we
cannot heal and give life, we can in many ways assist the healer
within. We can teach and explain Nature's Laws, we can remove
obstructions and we can make the conditions within and around the
patient more favorable for the action of Nature's healing forces.
When the Great Master said: "Go forth and sin no more, lest worse
things than these befall you," he acknowledged sin, or the
transgression of natural laws, to be the primary cause of disease,
and made health dependent upon compliance with the Law. The
necessity of complying with the Law, in all respects and on all the
planes of being, is still more strongly emphasized in the following:
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all."
The skeptic and the superficial reader may reply: "This saying is
utterly unreasonable. Stealing a penny is not committing a murder;
overeating does not break the law of chastity; how, then, is it
possible to break all laws by breaking any single one of them?"
There is, however, a deeper meaning to this seeming paradox which
makes it scientifically true.
Self-Control, the Whole Law
Obedience to all laws on all planes of being depends primarily on
self-control. Self-control is, therefore, in a sense, the whole law,
for man cannot break any one law unless he breaks first this
fundamental Law of all Laws. This implies that the demoralizing
effect of sinning or law-breaking, on any one of the planes of
being, does not depend so much upon the enormity of the deed as upon
the loss of self-control. Continued weakening of self-control in
trivial things may therefore, in the end, prove more destructive
than a murder committed in the heat of passion. If there is not
self-control enough to resist a cup of coffee or a cigar, whence
shall come the will-power to resist greater temptations?
Truly, lack of self-control in small things is the "dry rot" of the
soul. Is it not, then, somewhat unreasonable to expect God or Nature
to strain and twist the immutable laws of Nature at the request of
every healer in order to save us from the natural consequences of
overeating, red meat eating, whisky drinking, smoking, tobacco
chewing, drugging and a thousand and one other transgressions of
natural laws?
In spite of the finest-spun metaphysical sophistries, we continue to
burn our fingers in the fire until we know enough to leave it alone.
Herein lies the corrective purpose of that which we call
evil--suffering and disease. The rational thing to do is not to deny
the existence of Mother Nature's punishing rod, but to escape her
salubrious spankings by conforming to her Laws.
What about the "Cures"?
As in medicine, so also in metaphysical healing, men judge by
superficial results, not by the real underlying causes. The usual
answer to any criticism of Christian Science or kindred methods of
cure is: "That may be all right; but see the results! Nobody can
deny their wonderful cures," etc.
Let us see whether there really is anything wonderful or
supernatural about these cures or whether they can be explained on
simple, natural grounds.
In another chapter we explain the difference between functional and
organic disease and show how in diseases of the functional type the
life force or healing force, which always endeavors to establish
normal conditions and the perfect type, may work unaided up to the
reconstructive healing crises and through these eliminate the morbid
encumbrances from the system and reestablish normal structure and
function.
It is in cases like these that metaphysicians attain their best
results simply because Nature helps herself.
On the other hand, in cases of the true organic type, where the
vitality is low and the destruction of vital parts and organs has
progressed to a considerable extent, the system is no longer able to
arouse itself to self-help.
In such cases, faith alone is not sufficient to obtain results. It
must be backed and assisted by all the natural methods of treatment
at our command.
Healers Work with Laws that
They Do Not Understand
In our critical analysis of "Old School" methods we found that by
far the greater part of all chronic ailments is due to drugging and
to surgery. People commence doctoring for little troubles, which are
aggravated by every dose of medicine and every surgical operation
until they end in big troubles.
Is it marvelous that such patients improve and that many are cured
when they are weaned from drugs and the knife?
Metaphysical healers unwittingly do their best and most beneficial
work because they induce their followers not to suppress acute
diseases and healing crises by drugs and surgical operations, thus
allowing them to run their natural course in harmony with the
fundamental law of Nature Cure, which states that every acute
disease is the result of a cleansing and healing effort of Nature.
People will refrain from the suppressive drug treatment under the
influence of metaphysical teachings, which appeal to the
miracle-loving element in their nature, when they cannot be
convinced by common sense Nature Cure reasoning.
Thus metaphysicians assist Nature indirectly by noninterference and
directly by soothing fear and worry, by instilling faith, hope and
confidence. Frequently they also aid Nature by prohibiting the use
of tobacco, alcohol and pork, and by regulating otherwise the life
and habits of their followers.
Let us consider the problem from another point of view. Let us
assume, for argument's sake, that the average person passes in the
course of a lifetime through a dozen different diseases. He recovers
from eleven of these, no matter what the treatment. It is only the
twelfth to which he succumbs. Yet, whosoever happened to treat the
first eleven diseases claims to have cured them and, perhaps, to
have saved the patient's life when, as a matter of fact, he
recovered very often in spite of the treatment and not because of
it.
These explanations account for the seemingly miraculous results of
metaphysical healing. If healers and Christian Scientists were to
explain their cures by the laws and principles of Nature Cure
philosophy, mystery and miracle would be taken out of their
business.
"Faith Without Works" Is Dangerous
To believe that God or Nature will overcome the natural effects of
our ignorance, laziness and viciousness by wonders, signs and
metaphysics, or to deny the existence of sickness, sin and
suffering, must lead inevitably to intellectual and moral stagnation
and degeneration. I am a thorough and consistent optimist and New
Thought enthusiast, but I do not overlook the fact that in this, as
in everything else, there lurks always the danger of overdoing and
of exaggerating virtue into fault.
The greatest danger of this revulsion from old-time pessimism to
modern optimism lies in the fact that the Higher Thought enthusiast
may cut from under his feet the solid ground of reality; that he may
become a dreamer instead of a thinker and doer; and that he may
mistake selfish, emotional sentimentalism for practical charity and
altruism.
This unhealthy "all-is-good, there-is-no-evil" emotionalism leads
only too often to weakening of personal effort, a deadening of the
sense of individual responsibility and thereby to mental and moral
atrophy; for any of our voluntary functions, capacities and powers
which we fail to exercise will in time become benumbed and
paralyzed. Unprejudiced observers who come in close contact with
metaphysicians cannot help perceiving the pernicious effect of their
subtle sophistries on reason and character.
A chronic invalid who had been under the treatment of a faith healer
for several years exclaimed, when we gave her our various
instructions for dieting, bathing, breathing exercises, etc.: "How
glad I am that you give me something to do! I fear I have been
imposing too long on the goodness of the Lord, expecting Him to do
my work for me." Often afterwards, while recovering from lifelong
ailments, she expressed her happiness and contentment in that she
herself was doing something which in her opinion was rational and
helpful because it assisted Nature's healing efforts.
We believe firmly and fully in the influence of mind over matter, in
the fact that vibrations of the physical plane by continuity create
corresponding vibrations on the mental and psychical planes and vice
versa. We know that, in accordance with this law, anything which
affects the mind or the moral life of a person affects also his
physical condition; but instead of hypnotizing the minds of our
patients by law-defying, reason-and will-benumbing dogmas and
formulas, we strengthen and harmonize their mental vibrations by
appealing to reason, by teaching and explaining natural laws instead
of obscuring and denying them.
The more intelligent the patient, the more amenable he will be to
such normal suggestions based on scientific truth and on the
dictates of reason and common sense.
While nonresistance to Nature's healing efforts is better than
suppression by drugs or the knife, there is something more helpful
and rational than the negative attitude toward disease on the
physical plane assumed by metaphysical healing cults. That
"something" is intelligent cooperation with Nature's cleansing and
healing efforts.
Where the Old School fails by sins of commission, the Faith Schools
fail by sins of omission. Many patients are sacrificed daily through
fanatical inactivity, when their lives might be saved by a wet pack
or a cold sponge bath, by an internal bath, rational diet, judicious
fasting, scientific manipulation or some other simple yet powerful
remedy of natural healing. To permit a patient to perish in a
burning fever, depending solely upon the efficacy of prayers,
formulas and mental attitude, when wet packs and cold sponging would
in a few minutes reduce the temperature below the danger point, is
manslaughter, even though it be done in the name of religion.
Incidents like the following are common in our practice: A little
girl in the neighborhood of our institution was taken with
diphtheria. The mother, an ardent Christian Scientist, called in
several healers of her cult, but the child grew worse from day to
day, until the false membranes in the throat began to choke her to
death.
A boarder in the house, who was a follower of Nature Cure, finally
induced the mother to call upon us for advice by threatening to
notify the City Health Department. Within an hour after the
application of the whole-body packs and the cold ablutions, the
blood was sufficiently drawn away from the local congestion in the
throat into the surface of the body, so that the child breathed
easily and freely, and from then on made a splendid recovery.
Another instance: A man had been suffering from sciatic rheumatism
for fifteen years. He had swallowed poisonous drugs to no avail. For
several years he had been under Mental Science treatment, but the
suffering had grown more intense.
When he applied to us for help, we found that the right hip bone
(the innominate) had slipped upward and backward. A few manipulative
treatments replaced the bone where it belonged, and the sciatic
rheumatism was cured.
In this case, the combined concentration and prayers of all the
metaphysical healers on earth would not have succeeded in replacing
the dislocated hip bone, which required the full strength of a
trained manipulator.
Metaphysicians could not have accomplished this feat any more than
they could have moved, by their mental efforts, a hundred-pound
weight from one place to another. Mechanical lesions of that kind
(and there are many of them) require mechanical treatment.
Another factor which makes converts to metaphysical healing cults by
the hundreds and thousands is the get-rich-quick instinct in human
nature, the desire to get something for nothing, or with as little
effort as possible. Herein lies the seductive pull of old-time
drugging and of modern metaphysics. "It does not matter how you
live; when you get into trouble, a bottle of medicine or a
metaphysical formula will make it all right." That sounds very easy
and promising, but the trouble is--it does not always work.
Our forefathers were too pessimistic; higher thought enthusiasts are
often too optimistic. While the former poisoned their lives and
paralyzed their God-given faculties and powers by dismal dread of
hell's fire and damnation, our modern healers and Scientists have
drifted to the other extreme. They tell us there is no sin, no pain,
no suffering. If that be true, there is also no action and reaction,
no Law of Compensation, no personal responsibility, no need of
self-control, self-help or personal effort.
The ideal of the faith healer is the ideal of the animal. The animal
trusts implicitly, it has absolute faith; guided by instinct, God,
or Nature, it follows the promptings of its appetites and passions
without worrying about right or wrong. It acts today as it did ten
thousand years ago.
In man, reason has taken the place of instinct; we must think and
manage for ourselves. We are free and responsible moral agents. If
we deny this, we deny the very foundations of equity, justice and
right. It behooves us to use the talents which God has given us, to
study the laws of our being and to comply with them to the best of
our ability, so that enlightened reason may take the place of animal
instinct and guide us to physical, mental and moral perfection.