AN ADVANCED HEALER OF TO-DAY.
Recapitulating what we have been over, it appears that "metaphysical
healing" is simply the suggestion and determination of health--the ideal
photograph, as it were, of health--transferred from the well to the ill,
in the conviction that Universal Spirit is the principle of all health,
which we may receive from its Source by opening ourselves to it. That is
to say, the health of the Infinite Spirit, so far as absorbed by a finite
spirit, corrects finite errors of mind, and the mind, thus corrected,
corrects, or cures, the body. Such, certainly, was the "truth-cure" of
Phineas P. Quimby. With him, starting as a mesmerist, it was, really, a
kind of normal and sacred hypnotism, by which he endeavored to put his
patients under the close, immediate influence and operation of Supreme
Life, and Sympathy, and Vigor.
Such treatment should do much for the ailing--how much we must wait to
know.
But the effects of it must have limits, and these limits must be the
general, the fixed conditions, of what we designate as mind and matter. It
may be well to re-state these conditions, but with focal reference to this
point--the one vital point of our whole theme.
Metaphysically speaking, we are spirit, and all else is spirit. But what
_is_ spirit? What are the constituents of it, to the extent that man may
grasp them?
First, is the universal principle of intelligent conjunctive unity,
instinctive and conscious, which, individualized in men and animals,
manufactures, or sub-creates, all the unities of their environment, which
they take to be "the forms of matter."
Second, is the equally universal principle of subjective (negative)
sensibility--the receptiveness of spirit in its forms called "the senses."
Transmuted through these senses, ultimate objective spirit--to us "the
unknown and unknowable"--furnishes the filling, or contents, of what
consciousness and sub-consciousness make up, or unify, into objects.
Third, is the vast fact of Spirit-background--Infinite Spirit "in
itself"--which is revealed, and can only be revealed, _to the finite_, as
transformed through fixed modes of finite receptivity.
A man, therefore, is simply an individualization of the process by which
the Absolute--That Which Is--expresses itself and lives. Whatever may be
our environment under some changed state of our receptivity--say "the
future life"--our environment of spirit objected through sense, in space
and time, is the environment of _matter_; and the human body is a part of
it. We are not only "in matter," therefore, but we sub-create the matter,
through our God-given modes of sensuous receptivity, and can only escape
from it through an entire change of those modes, called "senses." The door
of escape is the door of death, and no human being has ever avoided it.
_Can_ any human being avoid it? We say _no_: because to be out of matter
is to be out of the kind of receptiveness--our five senses--through which
matter itself exists. If there be exceptional persons of clairvoyant
susceptibility, who can pass sufficiently out of our average material
condition to realize aught beyond them, the _bodily_ state of these
persons, too, must end, as we all end.
Let us not mix conditions, like the metaphysical tyros of Christian
Science; but while we are in the state of spirit known and experienced as
mind _and_ matter, let us acknowledge the plain fact. As a corollary of
this fact, if we are out of health, let us look to remedies good for _both
mind and matter_--the body and the soul. Such will probably be the
ultimate equipoise between "mental medicine" and material curatives.
This, at any rate, is the best conclusion for "the new thought" that the
scribe at hand can reach. He may be wrong; for he is totally "uninspired,"
and has nothing to follow but his nose and his "mortal mind." But, the
conclusion once reached, he stood on it as an _a-priori_ breathing-spot.
And then it occurred to him that, peradventure, some radical, independent
son of Galen might be conducting the business of therapeutics on a
psycho-corporeal, double platform. If so, Boston would be the place to
look for him, and the search was begun. In due time it was successful. The
result may at least prove suggestive and entertaining.
Let our new friend be called Prof. P.; for he has been an instructor in
his kind of work, and he bears the title of "doctor" only by the courtesy
of his patients, as Dr. Quimby did.
Now it is certain that if Prof. P. does not cure all sorts of diseases,
his patients think he does, vouch for it when questioned, and give most
sincere testimonials to that effect. Even the cure of cancer is vigorously
affirmed, and in connection with cases that have been given up by eminent
physicians. But, as this book is doing no medical advertising, one
ordinary instance of Prof. P.'s work must suffice.
A large, strong woman, as the consequence of a fall, incurred violent
sciatic rheumatism, and was treated at a hospital for three months, being
worse at the end of that time than at first. On personally interviewing
her--and she is a woman of more than average intelligence--she informed
the writer that, in one treatment of twenty minutes, Prof. P. had
"entirely cured" her, and that after five months--which had elapsed at the
time of the conversation--there had been no recurrence of her trouble.
Our search for light has led to a somewhat close acquaintance with Prof.
P. and has induced him to explain his theory and practise of healing, for
our use as a writer, excepting a few of his personal discoveries not
immediately important to the public, which he must withhold, he says, for
something like the same reason that his learned brothers, the physicians,
write their prescriptions in Latin.
Prof. P. requires it to be said explicitly that he is a Spiritualist. He
is so pronounced in the faith that he impatiently scoffs at all denial,
evasion or concealment, of what he deems his "positive knowledge" that we
exist after "our mere change of condition called death," and that "the
spirits of our departed friends are interested in our earthly welfare." He
declares, however, that Dr. Quimby was sensible in not trusting spirit
communications at the expense of his own judgment--"as, taking the long
generations of mankind, there are necessarily more fools disembodied than
in the flesh."
According to our friend P., there are now four great remedial agencies
possible to healing the sick, apart from medicines in the usual sense. The
intelligent and careful use of such medicines he believes in, and he seeks
to cooperate with all broad-minded physicians, rather than to antagonize
them. The more occult, but often more effective agencies, than drugs or
herbs, he says, are these:
_First_: Animal Magnetism.
_Second_: Natural Healing-Power--this power being inherent to some extent
in all human beings, but greatly concentrated and developed in certain
individuals.
_Third_: Mental or Psychic Force--a force existing in both embodied and
disembodied spirits, and as a universal principle.
_Fourth_: "Sensitized" devices containing these powers and elements, with
the function of imparting them to the ailing and the weary.
"Magnetism," says our Professor, "as a material phenomenon, is a force so
potent that it rearranges the unsystematized molecules of certain metals,
and gives them harmonious direction and integral traction. The application
of it--termed polarization--has been known even to produce 'clicks' within
metallic bodies, loud enough to be distinctly heard. Animal magnetism,
pertaining to organized beings, acts upon their corresponding but higher
molecules in the same general way. The sick are disordered, locally
clogged, 'out of tune.' They have lost, as it were, their polarity. Animal
magnetism restores it to them. It then goes further and vitalizes them;
for, if imparted to the feeble by a person strong, well, and stored full
of it, an equilibrium takes place between an operator and his patient.
Animal magnetism, however unconsciously utilized, doubtless takes part in
all so-called 'mind-cures' that are _physical_ afflictions, not the
results of bugaboos and whimsies. The absurd fulminations of Mrs. Eddy, at
this late day, against animal magnetism, are only equaled by the
comprehensive ignorance, in general, which Bishop Brooks is said to have
considered the only possible excuse for the production of a book like
_Science and Health_.
"Inherent Healing Power is more occult than animal magnetism, but has
become almost as well established. According to the accepted evidence of
centuries, this power was fully exemplified in ancient times by the most
faithful and unselfish of all the sons of God and man, Jesus, our Christ.
According to recent and contemporary evidence, both widespread and exact,
the Protestant world of late centuries has had no example of the same
quality so marked as that of Dr. P. P. Quimby. Inherent healing power goes
with close and tender sympathy for the afflicted, and grows with use, like
the brawn of a stevedore, or the intellectual dexterity of a practised
writer. It may eventuate in a Quimby as naturally as the poetic faculty
eventuates in a Kipling.
"By mental or psychic force," says the Professor, "I mean the principle of
apprehending, understanding, and reasoning, with the moral elements
pertaining to conscience and will. This combination of our essential
being, in whatever phase of it we may exist, affects and modifies, if it
does not altogether dominate, all the rest of our make-up. Its importance
is very great, but may be exaggerated by forgetting that man is a
microcosm, and that while he is in the externalized condition of spirit
known as matter he is not at the same time _out_ of it. For the finite to
put itself in harmony with the Infinite, by right thinking, right feeling,
right conduct, is indispensable to the highest health; but an imaginary
union with God through fictitious conceptions of our own ego is unnatural
and unwholesome exaltation, inducing disease of the mind, whatever it may
do to the body.
"Psychic power is an absolutely universal principle, common, in degree, to
men, spirits, and God. It is sometimes employed by hypnotists to such an
extent that the physical sensation of a subject is rendered void, even
under amputation of a bodily member. It can destroy the taste for
intoxicants in a drunkard. It can supplant melancholia with hope and
cheerfulness. What it can _not_ do is yet a problem.
"Of course such a power is a part, and great part, of sane therapeutics.
In the application of it," said the Professor, with much warmth, "I
affirm--let those who have not my knowledge and experience think what
their ignorance or prejudice saddles upon them--that 'departed spirits,'
as we call them, combine their efforts with those of men and women, to
heal the sick. The power is thus redoubled.
"We have taken but a few steps in this sort of knowledge, and it is
accompanied by a plenty of deception and twaddle. But the truth underlying
it has now procured a hearing even before eminently timid 'societies of
psychical research,' and will soon conquer them, as mesmerism has done.
Certain spirit-conditions are coming to be rationalized. In this country,
for instance, the spirits of Indians everywhere manifest themselves,
especially in connection with the cures of disease. The reason is simple.
Indians were close to the earth, near to nature, in their lives, and they
enjoy the scene of their old 'hunting grounds' more than such etherealized
spirits as were slightly attached to it. But spirit-aid in therapeutics is
mostly co-operative. Essential physicians, whether in our state of being
or the higher state, feel an interest in their pursuit, and practise it.
The most intelligent guide their assistants; but robust spirits of earthly
qualities and attractions sometimes furnish a basic healing force that is
almost physical."
Prof. P.'s system of healing is remarkable enough in all ways; but his
claims for his "sensitized devices" would be too astounding for credence
were it not that the things appear "to work," just as he says they will.
Seemingly, they are nothing but small metallic plates; but they are
charged, he affirms, with earth-magnetism as a "power-house," and then
with animal magnetism, with natural human healing quality, with
attractiveness to spirit-co-operation in that quality, and finally with
psychic power and control--that is, direction of mind and will. In other
words, Prof. P. says that, after twenty years of study and experiment he
can transmit to his "sensitized devices," and store in them, all the four
great healing agencies which can be employed in therapeutics apart from
ordinary medicines.
By such means, he affirms, "not only healing, but instantaneous healing,"
to the extent at least of immediate relief from pain, can always be
effected in all cases adapted to his treatment.
"Christian Science," he says--"mind-cure--faith-cure--oh yes, they
'demonstrate' over things, as the phrase goes. I admit it, at least in
some instances. But, at their very best, they all _take time_. The patient
must wait to exalt himself into some vision or condition he is told about,
or to accept some theological doctrine or other, whether true or false.
Suppose a man is knotted up with rheumatism, has a fit, or is insane. I
don't wait for him to build up a belief, or to get into harmony with the
Highest. I take him just as he is, clap my sensitizers on him, go to work
myself, and, if he is not too far gone for aid on earth, I restore an
equilibrium of body and brain. If I do this--if I instantly drive away the
worst kind of pain--if I retrieve lost consciousness or a disordered
mind--I can put faith enough into my patient for a beginning. Later, I
will attend to his theology to the extent of my knowledge, if he desires
my services as a priest."
The operation of Prof. P.'s sensitized appliances, according to his claim
for them, is correction and vitalization of both mind and body, when
disarranged or "ill," and then concentration of power in accordance with
location of disease or pain. "As strange as it may seem," he says, "these
little pieces of metal take upon themselves the physical and mental
conditions of sickness, which can even be conveyed by them from one person
to another, as I have proved by various experiments. But these conditions
can be discharged from the plates, or 'grounded,' like electricity, and
this, too, without destroying the higher, firmer, normal charge of health
and strength.
"Do you look incredulous; do you smile with a tinge of pity?" asked Prof.
P., as he talked. "Wait a minute. You have heard of Dr. Luys, one of the
most distinguished physicians in the world, Charcot's favorite assistant,
and now the head of the great Charity Hospital of Paris. Not long ago he
had a patient--a young woman who had suffered nervous prostration, and was
losing her mind from melancholia. She was affectionate, and greatly
attached to her family. But she became aware that her love was strangely
turning to aversion, which she could not control. Frightened and ashamed,
she went to Dr. Luys. He tried everything he could think of to cure her,
but unavailingly. At his wits' end--not knowing _what_ to do--he took up,
one day, a large electro-magnet, and, as a pure experiment of impulse,
fastened it to her head. He was suddenly called away for three-quarters of
an hour. Returning, he found his patient weak, but her head better and
clearer than usual. Dismissing her, he put the magnet on his own head,
took the chair she had sat in, and remained there as long as she had
done. He then went to dine with his wife and children, of whom he is very
fond. But, greatly to his surprise, he found that, with no fault of their
own, they were not agreeable to him. _He had taken the conditions of his
patient._
"He was keen enough to recognize the fact, and announce it to his
profession and the world. He drew the conclusion that the electro-magnet
can absorb morbid brain-influences. Also that it can transfer such
influences from the sick to the well, though two healthy persons are not
affected by it. He added that the transference of conditions from the
healthy to the diseased almost always benefits them.
"I am not hanging on 'high authorities,'" continued the Professor, "but
they are sometimes useful to me. There is Dr. Julius Althaus, of Berlin, a
member, too, of the English Royal College of Physicians. As explained in a
recent issue of the _Lancet_, the chief English organ of the medical
fraternity, Dr. Althaus is now rejuvenating old age, and prolonging our
present term of life, by certain galvano-electric appliances--which, by
the way, he does not tell quite all about. Henry Irving is understood to
have been held back from the infirmities of advancing years, and restored
to the stage, by Dr. Althaus."
Prof. P. claims to have been at work half a life-time in the general
direction indicated by the experiments and achievements of Luys and
Althaus, but to have been so busy that he has had no time to think about a
degree of M. D. "The world," he says, "should be very grateful to these
eminent gentlemen, and _I_ certainly am grateful; for though I anticipated
the happenings of Dr. Luys by several years, and though almost any
'magnetic healer' would assert the _hypothesis_, at least, of Dr. Althaus,
my own theories and results are so far beyond my epoch that without the
steps, however short, taken by such men as Luys and Althaus, I could get
no sort of hearing. I am often laughed at, of course, as a 'crank'; but I
generally laugh last--for, as the phrase goes nowadays, I 'get there.'"