Healing power of mind. A treatise on mind-cure, with original views on the subject, and complete instructions for practice, and self-treatment

Front matter

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Preface

The mind-cure is just now exciting a great deal of public interest. Within these last few years several books have been published on the subject, and we have decided to add to the number. Our reasons for doing so are, that we hold some views different from any that have hitherto been printed, and, further, we wish to place before readers certain facts and principles that will enable them to successfully treat themselves. We have given several chapters on subjects that have a bearing upon, and are intimately related to, mental healing. These chapters are intended in some instances to be more suggestive than exhaustive, but we are nevertheless led to believe that they will in all cases prove instructive. .. ^v , ,

" Mental healing," '• mind-cure,'' " metaphysical science," or by whatever name it may be known, is not a new system. In all ages of the world there have been persons who have cured diseases that learned medical practitioners have pronounced incurable. These cases have been effected by the power of mind, and we are confident from our own experience, that the more this invisible agent is brought to bear upon the human system, the less sickness and suffering we shall have in the world. We expect the aid and co-operation of our churches, irrespective of seo^, and, in fact, of good and intelligent people everywhere, in our efforts to lessen the sum of human misery and woe. It is sad to see the lives of so many of God's children embittered by disease, when the remedy lies in their own hands. Each and all can do something towards remedying this state of things. Our efforts we feel will be crowned with at least as much success in the future as they have been in the past

JULIA ANDERSON ROOT.

San Francisco,

August 1st, 1884.

Introduction

GOD AND CREATION.

PAOB

What is Creation ? — Searches in the wrong direction— The material world cannot answer — The invisible solves the problem — Creation eternal and infinite — The personality of God— Man created after the image of God — The majesty of the soul— Nature an effect of God i

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.

Account in Genesis not accepted — Pope's argument not satisfactory — The dualistio theory — Milton's argument a failure — Evil a necessity of creation — Christ's saying — Man must transgress — Punishment for wrong doing a necessity 9

MIND AND MATTER.

Berkeley's views — What matter is — What pain is— Sound— The eye does not see, nor the ear hear — Nerves have no feeling — Matter has no intelligence, sensation or feeling — Brain, not the organ of the mind — The invisible governs matter — Mind, a picture gallery — The silent power of mind — Mind endows matter with sensation — The immortal mind, and the mortal mind — Impressions last beyond death 15

THINGS SEEN AND UNSEEN.

The egotist — The forces of Nature are unseen — The germ, acorn, telegraph and magnet — Unseen living things — Sight to be corrected by thought — Vision alone not to be trusted 21

MAN'S RELATION TO GOD AND CREATION. The influence of man on Creation — Creation not made solely for man — Nothing created in vain — Man's arrogance — The power of mind — The influence of faith — What Christ meant by faith — Can we do as Christ did 25

VI CONTENTS.

PAGE

THE MISSION AND DUTY OF MAN.

Useless to consult the material — The intuition — Man's innate belief— The creating power not malignant —Man compelled to believe in goodness — Man placed in the world to perform a task— God the Great Architect. . . 31

POWER OF MIND OVER BODY.

Cause and effect — Mind a first cause — Mind has properties peculiar to itself— Power of mind — A learned physician's opinion — Homoeopath and allopath — Professor Charcot on magnets — A man supposed he was bleeding to death-— An English physician's opinion — More killed by fear than by disease 35

LAWS OF NATURE.

Objections to mind-cure— Work in accordance with laws of nature — Definition of laws of nature — What is uniformity — Laws of mind can override laws of matter — Nothing impossible 43

DISEASE AND ITS REMEDIES.

Diseasie defined — Matter ignored as a curative agent — All things resolved into a few principles — Change in the theory of color — Technical terms serve to mystify — Pathology and therapeutics — Dr. Rush— Dr. Mason Gk>od — Dr. Waterhouse — Dr. Johnson — The worship of drugs 47

SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENTS.

Bishop Cumberland's liberality — Christ's teaching of faith — Quotations from Scripture concerning cures — Christ's cures not miracles — Christ's followers cure diseases — Use of drugs condemned by Bible 53

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.

Strictures of San Francisco Bulletin — Our letter to Bulletin — The Editor's reply — Man mysteriously connected with his fellows — Opinion of Pythagores. , 63

HEREDITY AND LONGEVITY.

The prevalence of disease — Mother's influence on children — Montaigne's opinion — Peculiar cases of heredity — Dr. Howe on drinking habits — Robert Collyer's Sermon — Duration of life in animals and in men — Old age, when desirable 73

CONTENTS. Vll

INSTRUCTIONS FOR HEALING.

PAGE

Principles must be mastered — Innate consciousness — Physical body a correspondence — Mind distinct from body — How to talk to patients — Healers must have no doubt — Avoid discussion with some patients — Much not understood — Blindness cured — Freedom of will—Huxley's opinion — Patients should be taught the science — The book of the heart — M. Reveille-Parise on Moral Therapeutics — The sarcasm of drug-men — Nerve required in mind-healers — Missionary spirit needed 83

PROGRESS.

What is progress ? — Bishop Heber— What true progress means — The possible faculties of man — Man an unfolding being — Hepler's discovery — Gilbert's perception — Change, not progress — Improvement of internal man — Brighter day for humanity — Importance of work 98

EDUCATION OF MOTHERS.

Importance of maternity — Herbert Spencer's remarks — Decrease of maternity and increase of abortion — Horses and dogs thought more of than men — The child not the exclusive property of its parents — Fathers responsible for disposition of children — Infantile diseases prevented or cured — A race of superior beings 105

SPIRITUALISM.

No controversy with spiritualists — The Divine Fountain the source of healing — We are all spirits — The laying on of hands — Why we cannot define mind — The doctors in the other world 109

ANTIQUITY OF MIND CURE.

The mind-cure as old as the human race — Opposition of medical practitioners — The pedantry of some medical men — The use of technical terms — Simplicity needed — Dr. Park Quimby — A Boston journal's description — An anecdote of Dr. Quimby — Mind-cure amongst ancient nations 113

EFFICACY OF PRAYER.

What is prayer ? — Good and bad prayers — Conventional blasphemy — What prayers will be answered — All men pray — Man made better by praying — Is prayer a force— Prayer and labor both needed — The three graces. . 121

VUl CONTENTS.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.

PAGE

Investigations — Cured of diphtheria — Neuralgia cured — A lady given up by physicians — A perfect cure — A case of salivation abandoned by physicians, but completely cured by mind treatment — Several testimonials from patients cured when their cases were considered hopeless — No cause for despair 125

INSANITY.

The line between s&nity and insanity cannot be drawn — Advanced sanity called insanity — Arkwright and Fulton deemed insane — Medical men can give us no rules — Insanity has many causes — Is often inherited — Asylums do not cure insanity — Try the mind-cure 133

NECESSITY OF CONDITIONS.

Conditions must be complied with — Our imperfect knowledge necessitates conditions — Mind makes conditions unnecessary — Argument from the inebriate — Drainage, food and air must receive attention — The cholera in France — Killed by fear— Mind the great preventive 137

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

What is God? 143

** "Creation? 149

" " Religion ? 155

" "Science? 156 f.

INTRODUCTION.

Physical courage is common enough the world over. Man, whether savage, semi-civilized or intelligent, shows himself to be possessed of powers that defy physical pain and despise death. The histories of all wars, whether amongst the barbarians or the enlightened nations, are full of deeds of heroism. But, the rn^n that will beard the lion in his den — face the tiger in the jungles, and march to the cannon's mouth without flinching, will yet tremble at the breath of public opinion — will blanch at the attack of a scurrilous newspaper, and be turned from the path of duty by a little opposition and ridicule. Physical courage is common both to man and beast, but moral courage is a plant of rarer growth. And while we hear a great deal about the wants of the age, we say that the great want of the age is that very moral courage which, in spite of all bitterness and opposition, contempt and contumely, will dare to adhere to the true and the good. The great desire of most men is to be thought, or to seem to be, good and true, without much caring whether or not they possess these qualities. Public approbation and applause may be good things in

X INTRODUCTION.

their way, but the time comes in the lives of all men when they are called upon to think in certain directions and to perform certain acts that run counter to popular knowledge and prejudice, and which are sure for a time to bring them an amount of public condemnation and ridicule. This book is published in the interests of the health of humanity, and we cannot but expect that amongst a certain class that our efforts will be received with disfavor and opposition. We refer of course to the medical practitioners. We shall certainly not say worse of this class than they say of themselves. But the fault we find with medical men as a class is, that they speak and act as if they had a monopoly of diseases and their cures. They think and act in certain grooves, and woe be to the man who dares to depart from their established methods. This fact is written all down the history of the practice of medicine. Every advanced thinker in their own ranks has been persecuted in every conceivable manner. Harvey, Jenner, Simpson, Elliotson, and a host of others who have made advanced steps have been pounced upon by the whole fraternity and characterized 'as innovators and madmen. Who does not remember the fierce and bitter opposition that awaited the man who discovered chloroform."^ Even preachers from the pulpit denounced the employment of that anaesthetic as flying in the face of the Almighty, who

INTRODUCTION. XI

according to their notions, had ordained that man should feel the pain attending upon the amputation of a limb. We could multiply these cases ad infinitum, as the schoolmen would say. But our object is to call attention to the fact that no man, and no class of men — dignify themselves by what titles they may — can say to the advancing waves of knowledge, thus far shalt thou come and no further. True knowledge Cometh from God, and it is no man's and no set of men's exclusive property. And when men can be brought to recognize this great fact, and act upon it, then will the world come to rejoice in true progl-ession. As the matter at present stands most people allow certain privileged classes to do their thinking for them, and as a consequence we are surrounded by an atmosphere of mental and moral slavery. More particularly is this true of diseases and their remedies. Now, we want the moral courage that will dare to cut aloof from these old medical traditions, and take this matter of health and disease into our own hands.

Is it not time that something should be done in this direction ? The flood-gates of disease are open and the whole army of medical practitioners are powerless to stem the tide. Archimedes is reported to have said, ** Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum strong enough, and I will move the world." We say, give us the truth of metaphysical science and the courage to

Xll INTRODUCTION.

apply it, and we will lift ft-om off humanity the mountains of disease that have so long oppressed them. How simple is truth and its application, when its principles are known. The old Romans, at immense expense and labor, built huge aqueducts over hill and valley. But the necessity of these costly labors was entirely done away with by a knowledge that water would rise to the level of its source.

But, to return to the subject of intellectual daring, ** God," says Luther, ** does not have his work made manifest by cowards." All the blessings that we enjoy under the names of civil and religious liberty, all the improvements that have taken place in science, have sprung from the small minority of daring and advanced thinkers. It is sad to think how large a number of men do their thinking by proxy, which is the same as saying they do not think at all. And yet God requires of every man that he shall exercise the powers of his own mind, and without he does this, he lives in mental slavery, which is, after all, a more degrading position than physical bondage. Let a man stand proudly and grandly before the material things of this universe, and not regard himself as an interloper in a world where he deems matter everything and himself nothing. It is mind that is everything, and before its powers matter is as nothing. It is this great truth that we have endeavored to set forth in the following pages.

GOD AND CREATION.

Creation ! What a stupendous word ! What does it mean ? Who can interpret it to us so that our intellect shall be fed and satisfied with the explanation ? Many learned and philosophical treatises have been written on this subject, but we venture to assert that but few authors, either ancient or modern, have advanced the human mind one step in this direction. Why is this ? We answer, that it is because they have started on a wrong basis ; their questions have been asked in the wrong direction. They have ransacked the rocks ; they have sounded the depths of old ocean ; delved to the very bowels of the earth ; laid bare the fossil remains of bygone ages, and showed us the footprints of all the early forms of life, from the inconceivably small insect to the huge monster that dwelt in the primeval forest ; and yet, after all these researches, the human mind still asks **What is creation."^ Had it a beginning ? Can it have an ending ?" *'A11 things from a clam V exclaimed the elder Darwin. But how did he know that a clam or anything else was the beginning of life even on this earth, to say nothing of

Other planets and worlds and suns that everywhere roll on in the boundless fields of ether ? Says the divine Herschel, ** Who shall tell what countless forms of life sleep beneath earth's granite pavements ?" And yet, most geologists assume to trace all forms of life as coming into existence after the laying down and formation of granite. But suppose, that if instead of aiming to wring the secrets of God and creation from visible and external nature, that we turn to the invisible and internal ; suppose we try the realm of mind and turn away from the realm of matter.

The idea of creation implies a creator ; and according to the popular notion, there was a time when this creator began to create ; which would mean that there was a time when the Almighty world-builder was idle. The Bible, reason, intuition, all forbid such a conclusion. We are told that God is the same to-day, yesterday and forever ; and He, accordingly, was always a creator, and has from all eternity been creating. This we affirm is the only conclusion we can arrive at ; it is the only satisfactory stand that we can take in dealing with this subject. That this world had a beginning is undoubtedly true ; but what is true of this earth cannot be true of an eternal universe that had no beginning. If we expect to fully understand this, we expect too much from the finite intellect ; but there are some things which we cannot understand and yet are compelled to believe. For instance, who can understand infinite space, and yet we are compelled to believe in its infinitude. We can conceive of no boundary ; in other words, we cannot conceive of any obstruction in space where there is not something beyond. We believe in infinity of time and space because it is a law of mind that compels us so to believe. The cause of this belief comes from the invisible mind and not from visible matter. Now, we apply the same process of reasoning, or rather of intuition, to God and creation. No man by searching — that is, searching in the realms of visible matter — can find out God ; but we can get perceptions or conceptions of Him by trusting to what we shall call, for the want of better terms, the instincts of our invisible soul. So that as we are compelled to believe that time and space are eternal, so we are compelled to believe that God and creation are eternal also.

All mythologies are full of ingenious endeavors to account for the beginning of creation. These attempts have been no more reasonable then are the endeavors to account for the origin of time and space. How can that, which from its very nature is eternal, have a beginning ? The idea is absurd and preposterous. Amongst the early Hindoos everything was supposed to be hatched from an egg. But where did the Qgg come from ? It will be seen that these people reasoned

GOD AND CREATION.

from the known phenomena of nature to account for the origin of nature itself As the egg from a chicken produces a chicken, so in their minds creation and even God Himself were hatched into being. Not only have these attempts been made to account for God's existence by a material process, but millions of persons, even in Christian lands, want to know of God through their material senses. They want to hear, touch and see God the same as they can the mortal frame of a man — God is a spirit and as such must be thought of and approached. The idea that God is a person and has parts like a man belongs to a pagan age. When we say God is not a person like a man, we do not thereby deny that he has no personality whatever. We have no desire in this connection to fly to a dictionary for a definition of the word person, for that would limit our meaning. Locke somewhere says, that **a person is a thinking, intelligent being." We mean that God is a person in that He is distinct from nature, and is the eternal, intelligent and active principle of all creation — and that as He is eternal so is creation co-eternal with God. Newton, the great Christian philosopher, says, that God is all eye, all arm, all ear. Of course these expressions are simply intended to convey to us that God is everywhere, and that he is all powerful to execute His own will. A poet writes :

GOD AND CREATION.

" When by the wind the tree is shaken, There's not a bough or leaf can fall, But of its falling heed is taken By One who sees and governs all.

The tree may fall and be forgotten,

And buried in the earth remain, Yet from its juices, rank and rotten.

Springs vegetating life again.

The world is with creation teeming.

And nothing ever wholly dies, And things that are destroyed in seeming,

In other shapes and forms arise.

And nature still unfolds the tissue

Of unseen work by Spirit wrought, And not a work but hath its issue

With blessing or with evil fraught."

With regard to the creation of man we are told in Genesis, i, 26 and 27 :

**And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them."

We must put a reasonable and intelligent construction upon these sentences. Man cannot be made in the image and likeness of God in power and intelligence. The finite cannot be like the infinite. God is b GOD AND CREATION.

not limited in knowledge and goodness, but man is. But man may be like unto God in the essence of his being, because he is a spark [of the celestial fire. A drop of water is, chemically speaking, in the image and likeness of the whole ocean, but it has not the powers of the whole ocean, for the latter can roll mighty waves — raise storms and bear ships on its bosom. In a broad and grand sense the drop is not like the ocean. And though man is in one sense the image and likeness of God, yet he is not like God in all things, for He has infinite and eternal powers not possessed by man. Nevertheless, this divine likenesss, or if we may so call it, this divine kinship, should awaken in the breast of every man a conscious grandeur of his divine origin and mission. It was in a moment of inspiration that a poet transported himself to the starry worlds above and exclaimed, —

**Even here, I feel Among these mighty things, that as I am I am akin to God ; that I am part Of the use universal, and can grasp Some portion of that reason in the which The whole is ruled and founded, and that I have A spirit nobler in its cause and end, Lovelier in order, greater in power, Than all these bright and swift immensities."

Still, though man should grandly feel the majesty of his own existence, yet when he contemplates God and creation he will feel his own littleness. He will feel his vast ignorance in the presence of this vast intelligence.

** The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused, Sustains, and is the life of all that lives, Nature is but a name for an effect. Whose cause is God.*'

THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.

The account of the origin of evil as recorded in the book of Genesis is not accepted literally by intelligent Christians of the present day. Philosophers have exercised their thought and ingenuity in endeavoring to solve this great problem, and yet to-day it remains as great a mystery as ever. Pope says —

** All nature is but art unknown to thee; All chance, direction which thou canst not see; All discord, harmony not understood; All partial evil, universal good.*'

After all, this is an unsatisfactory explanation. It is simply an admission of evil and an assertion that it is good. From whatever standpoint we view nature, we find that a system of dualism prevails through all her works. There are light and darkness, heat and cold, attraction and repulsion, upper and under, inner and outer, and good and evil. Whatever name we call evil by, whether ignorance, or as some doubtful philosophers term it, ** undeveloped good," it is still our enemy in whatever shape it appears. To destroy it is our duty, and that of everyone on earth. Make heat, and the cold is banished ; kindle a light, and the darkness dis-

XJNIV.r 1 perses of itself ; let in the rays of truth and science upon disease, and it will flee away. Most theologians start with the assertion that there are two great powers in the universe, a God who is powerful for all good, and a Devil who is powerful for all evil, and that these powers are co-existent and co-eternal, and have been warring against each other through all eternity for supremacy. We have admitted the personality of God, but we deny the personality of a Devil. ^ Discord, error, sin, sickness, ignorance and irreverence are the devils that mislead and torment us. We let in upon these the light of God's truth. We fight disease with the weapons which He has placed in the minds of all His children, and we can become conquerors.

Who has not read Milton's Paradise Lost ? This grand old man in his blindness, conceived the idea that he could ** in the height of his great argument justify the ways of God to man." According to his idea, evil commenced when some archangels in heaven began a war against their maker. They J and their adherents were overthrown in that war and were cast out of heaven. But does this idea settle the question ? Does it account for the origin of evil ? Let us see. Like produces like. The beginning of ev^:y action is a thought — a thought good or bad is the seed of an action — and it will at once be seen that no rebellious action could have taken place without being preceded by rebellious thoughts or designs. Whence came those evil thoughts ? They had their origin in something. They could not have an origin in goodness. Let no reader be startled when we assert that evil or discord or sin, or by whatever name we call it, is one of the necessities of creation. This we submit is the doctrine taught by Christ. In Mat., 18:7, it is said, ** Wo unto the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences come ; but wo to that man by whom the offence Cometh." Why must it needs be.'* Simply because it is a necessity, and this necessity is perfectly compatible with the good and righteous government of God. God is a creator, but He cannot create a being equal to Himself, all that He creates must be beneath Himself in intelligence and in power, which is the same as saying that we are limited or finite beings. Being thus limited, man must necessarily err, and from this error comes sin and suffering. This is the way, in the face of all the learned treatises on philosophy and theology, that we account for the existence of the suffering and misery of the world.

Now, let us turn to the other side of the picture. Man is made after the image of God ; he is a spark of the divine essence ; he possesses within himself the power to conquer error; to subdue disease and turn discord to harmony. Thus far we have shown the reasonableness, the justice and goodness of the creation. But when we say that man is made after the image of God, we do not mean physically. When we affirm that man is made after the likeness of God, we do not mean alike in power, in intelligence and goodness, but in likeness in having a part of his nature, in having a soul that is divine in its essence. But as this soul in him must, as we have before seen, from the necessities of creation be limited in its powers, it cannot grasp all knowledge ; it must commit errors, and thus originates sin and sickness. The objection here that can be made is this : If God has created man so that he must trangress, is it just that he should be punished for his transgression ? We answer, perfectly so, because it is a necessity.

And we speak reverently ; there are necessities that surround God himself; in other words there are impossibilities even to the Great Creator. We need here only again refer to the impossibility of God creating a being equal to Himself. He alone is perfectly good, and He cannot create the perfectly good, but while He cannot do this He can and has created beings. capable of continually striving after goodness and intelligence. This necessitates a man having a will and a power of selection for his needs, wants and progress. When he does not so select he does not fulfill the needs of his soul in its path of progression, and the result is pain. This pain is necessary and just, for without this reminder man would not strive to unfold his being and fulfil his part in the great plan of his Creator.