VARIOUS SCHOOLS OF THE NEW THOUGHT.
Just now, the general cause of metaphysical therapeutics is separating
rapidly into various "schools," few of them having much consideration for
the pretentious health-trust, "Christian Science."
In the South, for instance--at Sea Breeze, Florida--a Mrs. Helen Wilmans
has founded a settlement of houses and lands, souls and bodies, with
books, pamphlets, and a weekly press, all devoted, mentally, morally and
physically, to psychic dominion over all things. _Freedom_ is the name of
the organ that specially spreads Mrs. Wilmans' light and curatives. She
has capacity in a comparative degree, and energy, with self-confidence, in
the superlative. She proclaims this:
"Intellectual power in the individual comes from concentration of the mind
upon an idea until the truth or falsity of the idea becomes apparent.
Likewise the power of the race in the unfoldment of a race problem must
come from a concentrated effort to discover a hitherto unfolded racial
capacity; and this is the meaning of the movement I am inaugurating here."
The Wilmans' conception of mind-healing has been illustrated as follows by
a correspondent of _Freedom_, who discusses and admits the curing of
disease among devout Catholics, exalted and prayerful, at the shrine of
St. Anne in Illinois. It is all natural, he says:
"If with equally strong belief they should pray to God, Buddha, St. Peter
or Paul, Mrs. Eddy or Mrs. Wilmans, or a stump or stone--or should they
stand on their heads, or drink water from a certain river, or anoint the
sick parts with clay and spittle--the result would be the same. Their mind
would cure their bodies. Mind is king."
In some respects, the paper, _Freedom_, is almost as free from "material
sense" as the book, _Science and Health_. Mrs. Wilmans has a correspondent
who asserts, and probably believes, that, by the concentrated power of her
finite female mind, she has "never failed once in five years to avert the
fury of severe summer storms." She has "demonstrated," she says, the
dominion of mind over material nature, "as clearly as any Mental Scientist
has demonstrated it over disease."
And here is an official announcement from Mrs. Wilmans' organ:
"_Freedom_ is the only paper published whose leading and constantly avowed
object is to overcome death right here in this world and right now. If you
want to learn something of the newly-discovered power vested in man which
fits him for this stupendous conquest, read this paper, and keep on
reading it."
"The new thought" has traveled West as far as South. It recently had among
its organs _The Temple_, of Denver, Colorado, "a monthly magazine devoted
to the fuller unfoldment of the divinity of humanity," the editor of which
was Mr. Paul Tyner, who afterwards conducted the _Arena_ of Boston,
consolidated with _The Journal of Practical Metaphysics_. The purpose of
the latter periodical was "the unification of scientific and spiritual
thought and the new philosophy of health." The editor was Horatio W.
Dresser, a Harvard graduate, an excellent philosopher of the ontological
trend, and a polished writer, reminding one partly of Spinoza and partly
of Emerson. Mr. Dresser's books, _The Power of Silence_, _The Perfect
Whole_, and others, have given him a wide reputation in his particular
field of work, and have constituted him a center of the most logical and
scholarly literature connected with "metaphysical healing." This
literature, too extensive for specialized designation, is under the
propagandism of the Boston "Metaphysical Club," an active and growing
organization.
The Boston "Metaphysical Club" comprises too much exact information and
solid learning to accept or countenance the extreme vagaries of "Christian
Science," and appears to be acting as a balance-wheel to the whole
movement of "the new thought." In a recent leaflet the Club has taken
special occasion to dissect and repudiate that most preposterous doctrine
of Mrs. Eddy's "science," the absolute nothingness of matter.
The title of the leaflet referred to is _Christian Science and the New
Metaphysical Movement_, with the added phrase, _An Intelligent
Discrimination Desirable_. One excerpt is this:
"Christian Science proclaims the unreality of matter, and of the body. The
rational and broader thought, not only admits the validity of the body, as
veritable expression, but claims that it is as good, in its own place and
plane, as is the soul and spirit. While susceptible to mental molding, it
is neither an error nor an illusion. Moreover, it is friendly to its
welfare to affirm both its validity and goodness. It is to be ruled,
beautified, and utilized in its own order, and not denied an existence.
Even admitting that the whole cosmos is, in the last analysis, but one
Universal Mind and its manifestation; even admitting that all matter is
but a lower vibration of spirit, and that the human body is essentially a
mental rather than a physical organism; still, matter has its own relative
reality and validity, and is not to be ignored as illusion."
Of its kind, nothing better than this could be said even by a Hegel. It is
exactly the correct statement of the great metaphysical truth.
The leaflet agrees with the criticism of this volume, that "the spirit of
Christian Science is autocratic rather than democratic," and says:
"Its polity and ritual, in every detail, are shaped and directed
arbitrarily by a single will. There is no room for investigation, liberty
of thought, progress, or further revelation. There is no recognition of
related physical science or evolutionary progress."
The monograph continues thus:
"The liberal movement stands for freedom of soul, and is in no way opposed
to subordinate orders of truth.... It does not ignore the good in existing
systems, disparage reasonable hygiene, or deny the place of certain
departments of surgery. It is not insensible to the present and
provisional uses of simple external therapeutic agencies, at least until
individual unfoldment and the recognition of higher law become more
general.... While understanding, both from experience and observation,
that a systematic employment of mental potency in a rational, scientific,
and idealistic manner has a wonderful and unappreciated healing energy,
its exponents do not think it necessary to form a new and exclusive
religious sect."
The main premise, of course, of all the schools of "mind-healing" is that
"the mind can and should control the body." Let us go straight from this
premise to the manner of applying it, as explained, for instance, in a
little book entitled _The New Philosophy of Health_, excellently well
written, by a Miss Harriet B. Bradbury.
"The healer [says this author] simply holds in mind with great tenacity,
for perhaps ten or fifteen minutes, an image of the patient as he should
be. This image, by the process known as 'thought transference' is
impressed upon the sick man's mind as a possibility, when his own strong
desire, seizing it, is able to reproduce it as an actuality. He may be
quite unconscious that he has done anything for himself, and when he finds
himself well, gives all the credit to the man who, as he thinks, has
'healed' him. Yet the change is wrought by no man, but by the great
life-giving force which two wills working in harmony have called into
perfect action."
In confirmation of "the law of mental causation," Miss Bradbury says:
"The most significant of recent biological experiments are those which
have been conducted at the Smithsonian Institute with a view to
discovering the physical effects of different mental states. They have
proved that the different emotions produce immediate chemical changes
within the physical organism, and it only remains to continue the
investigation to learn just how each habitual emotion is finally reflected
upon the outward frame."
So that "old mesmerist," Dr. Quimby--for this was exactly his view--has
got along as far as the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. And here let
us introduce the names and cogitations of a few authorities so "eminently
respectable" that the "very best and most conservative people" need not
shrink from becoming acquainted with them.
In a work on _Practical Idealism_, William DeWitt Hyde, President of
Bowdoin College, tells us:
"There are certain classes of disease for which hypnotic treatment is
highly beneficial. Mental healing in all its various forms, in so far as
it is valuable, rests on the principle that body and mind are very closely
inter-related through the partly conscious but chiefly unconscious control
of the vital functions through the nervous system; and that the state of
the mind at any given time, and consequently the state of the body, in so
far as we know it at that time, is made up of a relatively small
presentation of sensation, and a very large contribution of associations.
Hence a very slight suggestion through the senses, by speech, or physical
contact, or eradication of fixed images, anxieties, and fears, may
introduce a new nucleus around which an entirely new set of associations
will cluster; so that through the renewing of the mind the body may come
to be transformed."
Charles Van Norden, D.D., LL.D., at one time President of Elmira College,
tells us in his outline of psychology, _The Psychic Factor_, that
"So tremendous is this power of mind over body, that disease may often be
cured and ailments caused by a new idea."
"A woman [says Rev. Dr. Van Orden] once came to Surgeon-General Hammond
with what he considered an incurable disorder. She sighed as she turned to
go away disconsolate, saying, 'Ah, if I but had some of the water of
Lourdes!'--for she was a devout Catholic. Now it so happened that a friend
had brought the doctor a bottle of the genuine water of Lourdes to
experiment with. He informed the patient of this, and promised her some
provided she would first try a more potent remedy, Aqua Crotonis (New York
City aqueduct water). The woman consented, but protesting that this latter
could not reach the case. He then gave her a little vial of the real
article, but labeled 'Aqua Crotonis.' When this had failed he gave her
Croton water, but labeled 'Water of Lourdes.' The result was a complete
cure."
Prof. William James, of Harvard, in the chapter of his _Principles of
Psychology_ treating "the production of movement," quotes many authorities
and gives various diagrams illustrating the effects of sensations and
emotions upon the pulse, the respiration, the glands, muscles, and other
organs and functions of men and animals. The celebrated Prof. Bain is
quoted as saying that "according as an impression is accompanied with
_feeling_, the aroused currents diffuse themselves over the brain, leading
to a general agitation of the moving organs, as well as affecting the
viscera." The conclusion of Prof. James is that
"Using sweeping terms and ignoring exceptions, we might say that every
possible feeling produces a movement, and that every movement is a
movement of the entire organism, and of each and all its parts."
"The effect," says Prof. James, "of fear, shame and anger, upon the
blood-supply of the skin, especially the skin of the face, are too well
known to need remark. Sensations of the higher senses produce, according
to Couty and Charpentier, the most varied effects upon the pulse-rate and
blood-pressure of dogs."
Now if the higher emotions of dogs produce marked effects upon their
physical structure, we must naturally infer that hope, faith, joy--all,
indeed, of the loftier emotions of human beings--may set up high and
healthful movements in the human body, while base emotions set up low,
harmful, and diseased conditions. In this claim, anyhow, we have,
according to "metaphysical healing," the cause and cure of disease,
capped, too, with the ethics of "the new thought."
Thomas Jay Hudson, in his book, _The Law of Psychic Phenomena_, gives this
compend of the facts:
"The science of psycho-therapeutics is yet in its infancy. Thus far just
enough has been learned to stimulate research. It has been demonstrated
that there is a psychic power inherent in man which can be employed for
the amelioration of his own physical condition, as well as that of his
fellows. When this is said, nearly all the ground covered by present
knowledge has been embraced. It is true that many wonderful cures have
been effected, many marvelous phenomena developed. Nevertheless, all are
groping in the dark, with only an occasional glimmering of distant light
shed upon the subject; and this light serves principally to show how
little is now known, compared with what there is yet to learn."
In discussing the conditions necessary to psychic healing, Mr. Hudson
affirms that the exemplar and healer of Nazareth, the founder of our
Christian religion, always recognized these conditions in the "miracles"
imputed to him. We shall end our quotations, at this point, with one from
Mr. Hudson's chapter on "The Physical Manifestations and Philosophy of
Christ."
"I do not mean to say that Jesus could not heal in such cases where the
mental environment was unfavorable; but the fact that he took infinite
pains, wherever practicable, to secure the best conditions, shows that he
understood the law and worked within its limitations. Certain it is that
he never performed any of his wonderful works outside the laws which he
proclaimed, nor did he ever intimate that he could do so. It is true that
his biographers do not always relate the details of the transactions
recorded; but it must be remembered that they wrote at a later day, and
may not have been in possession of all the details. It is, however, a
marvelous fact, and is one which constitutes indubitable evidence of the
truth of his history, that in no instance do they relate a single act
performed or word spoken by him, relating to the healing of the sick,
which does not reveal his perfect knowledge of and compliance with the
laws which pertain to mental therapeutics as they are revealed in modern
times through experiment and the processes of inductive reasoning."