A history of the new thought movement, by Horatio W. Dresser ..

Preface

For several years there has been a demand for a history of the liberal wing of the mental-healing movement known as the "New Thought." This demand is partly due to the fact that the movement is now well organized, with international headquarters in Washington, D. C, hence there is a desire to bring its leading principles together and see them in their unity ; and in part to interest in the pioneers out of whose practice the present methods and teachings have grown. The latter interest is particularly promising since the pioneers still have a message for us. Then, too, we are more interested in these days in tracing the connection between the ideas which concern us most and the new age out of which they have sprung. We realize more and more clearly that this is indeed a new age. Hence wq are increasingly eager to interpret the tendencies of thought which express the age at its best.

In order to meet this desire for a history of the New Thought, Mr. James A. Edgerton, president of the International New Thought Alliance, decided in 1916 to undertake the work.

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For it seemed well that some one should write it who has not been identified with any particular phase of the movement, either as teacher or healer. As Mr. Edgerton was not directly acquainted with the early history and the mental-healing pioneers, he asked me to write the chapters about Mr. Quimby and his followers. This I agreed to do. But then came interruptions due to the war, and the work was not begun. It has since seemed advisable that I should undertake the work as a whole, making use of such material as Mr. Edgerton had gathered. I have responded in the spirit in which the work was originally planned. This History is in fact the kind of book I had in mind in preparing and editing the companion volume, The Spirit of the New Thought, New York, 1917, in which were published various representative essays by different writers, with historical notes and a bibliography indicating the successive periods of the movement. The introduction to the latter volume defines the term "New Thought," and traces its use since it was adopted in 1895 as the name of the liberal wing of the therapeutic movement. The essays give expression to divergent opinions concerning the movement, while also indicating the development of the cardinal principles. In the present volume I have taken the definition for granted, and have assumed that the reader

Preface v

is interested to turn directly to the early history.

This History might disappoint some readers, if they had made up their minds that it is necessary to look into the far past and discover ideas in India, in ancient Greece, in the Middle Ages, which resemble the therapeutic ideas of today. But this venture has been tried by several writers in recent years and has led to merely general results. This interest in the past could be developed endlessly. The objection would be that there is no actual historical connection, no explanation of the modern movement.

Still others have undertaken to explain the New Thought by interpreting it as an expression of the liberalism of the nineteenth century from a point of view so general that all the distinctive characteristics of the movement have been lost in the effort to claim too much for it. The tendency is to attribute to the New Thought far more than can with historical accuracy be claimed for it. The New Thought as matter of fact is only one of many liberalizing tendencies. It may be regarded by itself, just as in other connections one might follow the history of Unitarianism, the philosophy of evolution, or the rise of spiritism. All these studies would be interesting and valuable in their proper place. Only in recent years has the New Thought become distinctively a liberalizing movement, with vi Preface

churches and other organizations devoted to this work. The mental healing movement was purely special at first. It had to be to attract attention to principles and methods which needed to be recognized. The movement grew up with little connection with any other of the special movements of the age.

With no desire to attribute to the mental-healing movement any results which do not belong to it, I am also without desire to place more emphasis on the work of the pioneers than that work deserves in the light of its fruits. But there is certainly no reason to ignore the work of those who patiently and faithfully labored for the good of humanity. The history here narrated may be followed without indulging in controversies. The early history especially is based on a study of the manuscripts, books, and practice with the sick of the leading therapeutists. I have enjoyed the perspnal acquaintance of those who aided Mr. Quimby in the more important years of his work in Portland, Maine. I was also acquainted with Rev. W. F. Evans, the first writer on the subject, and have known most of the leaders of the movement save the newer teachers and healers. The main facts on which a controversy concerning the origin of the movement might be founded were long ago published in The True History of Mental Science,

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by Julius A. Dresser, Boston, 1887, and no one has ever been able to dispute the authenticity of these facts. Selections from Mr. Quimby's manuscripts were incorporated in The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, by Annetta G. Dresser, Boston, 1895. Therefore, people have had opportunity to judge for themselves concerning the type of thought and the value of the teachings for which Mr. Quimby stood. I have since gathered the more permanent portions of these two books and added other matters of historical interest in Health anct\ the Inner Life, New York, 1906. Accordingly, I have assumed in the present volume that the reader takes the "true history" for granted and is ready to turn to larger things.

The devotee of a special interpretation of the New Thought might still maintain that the historian is of a certain persuasion and that therefore the personal equation should be taken into account. This is true, for every writer has a point of view. I must admit that, after an acquaintance with the movement which dates from the years when it was known as "mental science," "mind-cure," and the "Boston craze," the teachings of the early leaders still seem more profitable. But why should a history ever be written unless we hold that there are ideas of value not yet recognized in their true worth by the world ? If there

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Preface are truths for the new age that surpass some of the later claims put forward in behalf of the New Thought, let us by all means try to grasp and apply these truths. This is all the more important now that mental healing is well known, now that everybody makes some use of suggestion, and is familiar with the psychological principles underlying the movement. What remains to be done is to pass beyond the more popular ideas and estimate the spiritual principles, see in what sense the New Thought is in very truth an expression of the new age. Therefore the point of view of this History is that true history is analysis. It shows us what principles are most important in the light of the tendencies from which they came; it is spiritual interpretation. Those who hold this point of view have no desire to attribute power to men which belongs to God. They take no interest in claims for priority or for special teachings said to be beyond debate as if they came by revelation. What we care for is the truth which finds expression in God's own time, when it is needed. If we find that this truth became known without much connection with similar teachings long ago recognized in the world, there is no reason why we should not say so. Nothing is gained for a cause by claiming too much for it. The test after all is not history but actual life, utility today. My

Preface ix part is that of the appreciative historian, not that of the ardent advocate or the devotee of a special cause or organization. Consequently, I have not brought forward any views of my own.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I The New Age 1

II Quimby the Pioneer 19

II

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby was a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. He did not carry on his investigations in the mental world as the representative of any sect or school. He was not aware that treasures lay before him in the promised land which he was about to enter. Few men have owed so little to the age in which they lived. His ancestors were not in any way remarkable. His early life gave no indication of the public work to which his productive years were to be devoted. He is not to be accounted for by reference to his education in the schools or by reference to the books which he read. Consequently, there is no reason for inquiring into his life, ancestry, and environment, as we ordinarily study the life of a man who has been of service to the world. At the outset he was simply an explorer in a little known region, that is, a region little known in his day. He was like the hardy pioneer who makes his way through a primitive forest unaware of his destination, unacquainted with the difficulties along the way, and not burdened by the opinions of predecessors whose advice might have been misleading. When new lines of inquiry are to be developed for the good of mankind, God usually summons a man from the common walks of life, one who is sufficiently open and responsive to follow where the wisdom within him leads.

There is a great advantage in leadership of this sort. For the pioneer becomes acquainted with all the obstacles and grows strong by overcoming them. Face to face with difficult situations, he must find a way to meet them. He is led to the first-hand sources of reality. He proves a principle which becomes to him a great truth because of his own immediate needs, and so he is able to appeal to tangible results by way of verification of his teachings. But those who merely follow, and that means the majority of mankind in every land and in all time, believe on authority and gradually lose touch with reality. Thus new pioneers, sages, or prophets are needed every now and then through the ages, to lead the way back to the original sources of life and truth. The moral would be, if we could read it, that we should all adopt the pioneer's spirit and explore for ourselves, learning the great lesson taught by those who made their own way in new fields.

The spiritual pioneer in whose career we are at present interested lived a very simple early life. Born in a small New England town, he spent his entire life in New England, and his work was little known outside of Maine until after his death. He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, February 16, 1802. From there the family moved to Belfast, Maine, when he was about two years old. His death occurred in the latter place, January 16, 1866, at the close of twenty-five years in the practice of spiritual healing.

His father was a blacksmith, and his life and education were such as one might enjoy in the humblest of homes in a country town in New England. Mr. Quimby attended school as a boy for a brief period only, and he acquired knowledge of the elementary branches with such training as the district schools of the day afforded* The meagreness of his education is accounted for by the fact that there were few resources at hand, and his father was financially unable to give him other opportunities. If we conclude that he was in any degree an educated man, it will be because we deem education in the school of experience or in the inner life superior to that of the schools.

Mr. Quimby had an inquiring, inventive type of mind, and during his middle life he produced several inventions on which he obtained letterspatent. He took great interest in scientific subjects but not in a way that led him to become a reader of scientific works. Nor was he ever a reader of books in general. His manuscripts contain remarkably few quotations or references, except that in his later years he frequently introduced passages from the New Testament in order to put his own interpretation upon them. He refers to but one philosopher by name, and he appears never to have heard of the names of the idealists, such as Berkeley and Emerson, whose philosophy might have aided him had he been acquainted with their works.

He felt no antagonism to the Church in his early years, but the churches seem to have had no direct influence upon him, and he did not take up the study of the New Testament until his investigations led him to a point where he believed he had a clue to its inner meaning. Although the title "doctor" has been applied to him, he was without medical or other therapeutic training. In fact, he stood in avowed antagonism to the "old school" in the medical world. He was not a spiritist, despite the fact that the rise of spiritism in the United States was contemporaneous with his work, and despite the resemblance between some of his views and the teachings of spiritualists.

The reason for his lack of interest in books is found in the fact that he regarded most books as full of unproved assertions, whereas he was interested to test all matters for himself. He was fond of referring to most statements passing current in the world as knowledge in a somewhat sceptical way, since this boasted knowledge seemed to him mere "opinion," in contrast with truth that could be established on a basis of verifiable evidence and sound reasoning. He did not raise objections as did people trained in the schools, through mere love of argument, but because by implication he already possessed intuitively those principles which were to guide him in his investigations. His awakening came, not through intellectual development in the usual sense of the word, but through the demands of practical experience.

At the time Mr. Quimby began his investigations in the mental world he was described by a newspaper writer as "in size rather smaller than the medium of man, with a well-proportioned and well-balanced head, and with the power of concentration surpassing anything we have ever witnessed. His eyes are black and very piercing, with rather a pleasant expression; and he possesses the power of looking at one object, without even winking, for a great length of time." His son, George A. Quimby, in the New England Magazine, March, 1888, adds to this description the fact that Mr. Quimby weighed about one hundred and twenty -five pounds ; that he was quick-motioned and nervous, with a high, broad forehead, a rather prominent nose, and a mouth indicating strength and firmness of will, "persistent in what he undertook, and not easily discouraged."

Speaking of Quimby's discoveries, Mr. Julius A. Dresser says, "If you think this seems to show that Quimby was a remarkable man, let me tell you that he was one of the most unassuming of men that ever lived; for no one could well be more so, or make less account of his achievements. Humility was a marked feature of his character (I knew him intimately). To this was united a benevolent and an unselfish nature, and a love of truth, with a remarkably keen perception. But the distinguishing feature of his mind was that he could not entertain an opinion, because it was not knowledge. His faculties were so practical and perceptive that the wisdom of mankind, which is largely made up of opinions, was of little value to him. Hence the charge that he was not an educated man is literally true. True knowledge to him was positive proof, as in a problem in mathematics. Therefore, he discarded books and sought phenomena, where his perceptive faculties made him master of the situation." x

i The True History of Mental Science.

Another writer, speaking of the impression produced upon Mr. Quimby's patients, says, "He seemed to know at once the attitude of mind of those who applied to him for help, and adapted himself to them accordingly. His years of study of the human mind, of sickness in all its forms, and of the prevailing religious beliefs, gave him the ability to see through the opinions, doubts, and fears of those who sought his aid, and put him in instant sympathy with their mental attitude. He seemed to know that I had come to him feeling that he was a last resort, and with but little faith in him or his mode of treatment. But, instead of telling me that I was not sick, he sat beside me, and explained to me what my sickness was, how I got into the condition, and the way I could be taken out of it through the right understanding. He seemed to see through the situation from the beginning, and explained the cause and effect so clearly that I could see a little of what he meant. . . .

"The most vivid remembrance I have ... is his appearance as he came out of his private office ready for the next patient. That indescribable sense of conviction, of clear-sightedness, of energetic action — that something that made one feel that it would be useless to attempt to cover up or hide anything from him — made an impression never to be forgotten. Even now in recalling it ... I can feel the thrill of new life which came with his presence and his look. There was something about him that gave one a sense of perfect confidence and ease in his presence— a feeling that immediately banished all doubts and prejudices, and put one in sympathy with that quiet strength or power by which he wrought his cures." 1

The attitude of mind which Mr. Quimby was in when he began to investigate is clearly indicated by the following from an article written in 1863 in which he describes what he calls his "conversion from disease to health, and the subsequent changes from belief in the medical faculty to entire disbelief in it," and to the knowledge of the truth on which he based his theory of spiritual healing.

"Can a theory be found," Mr. Quimby asks, "can a theory be found, capable of practice, which can separate truth from error? I undertake to say there is a method of reasoning which, being understood, can separate one from the other. Men never dispute about a fact that can be demonstrated by scientific reasoning. Controversies arise from some idea that has been turned into a false direction, leading to a false position. The basis of my reasoning is this point: that whatever is true to a person, if he

cannot prove it is not necessarily true to another. Therefore, because a person says a thing is no reason that he says true. The greatest evil that follows taking an opinion for a truth is disease. Let medical and religious opinions, which produce so vast an amount of misery, be tested by the rule I have laid down, and it will be seen how much they are founded in truth. For twenty years I have been investigating them, and I have failed to find one single principle of truth in either. This is not from any prejudice against the medical faculty ; for, when I began to investigate the mind, I was entirely on that side. I was prejudiced in favor of the medical faculty; for I never employed any one outside of the regular faculty, nor took the least particle of quack medicine.

"Some thirty years ago I was very sick, and was considered fast wasting away with consumption. At that time I became so low that it was with difficulty I could walk about. I was all the while under the allopathic practice, and I had taken so much calomel that my system was said to be poisoned with it; and I had lost many of my teeth from the effect. My symptoms were those of any consumptive; and I had been told that my liver was affected and my kidneys diseased, and that my lungs were nearly consumed. I believed all this, from the fact that I had all the symptoms, and could not resist the opinions of the physician while having the [supposed] proof with me. In this state I was compelled to abandon my business; and, losing all hope, I gave up to die — not that I thought the medical faculty had no wisdom, but that my case was one that could not be cured.

"Having an acquaintance who cured himself by riding horseback, I thought I would try riding in a carriage, as I was too weak to ride horseback. My horse was contrary; and, once, when about two miles from home, he stopped at the foot of a long hill, and would not start except as I went by his side. So I was obliged to run nearly the whole distance. Having reached the top of the hill I got into the carriage; and, as I was very much exhausted, I concluded to sit there the balance of the day, if the horse did not start. Like all sickly and nervous people, I could not remain easy in that place ; and seeing a man plowing, I waited till he had plowed around a threeacre lot, and got within sound of my voice, when I asked him to start my horse. He did so, and at the time I was so weak I could scarcely lift my whip. But excitement took possession of my senses, and I drove the horse as fast as he could go, up hill and down, till I reached home; and, when I got into the stable, I felt as strong as ever I did."

This experience was of course only the beginning. It led Mr. Quimby to doubt the diagnosis in his case. It showed him what could be accomplished through a vigorous arousing out of a state of bondage and mere acceptance. He was not cured, but precisely what his malady was and how it would be overcome he did not know. It was his investigation of the phenomena of hypnotism, then called mesmerism, which gave him the direct clue.

The subject of mesmerism was introduced into the United States in 1836 by Charles Poyen, a Frenchman, and was taken up in New England by a Dr. Collyer, who gave a lecture with demonstrations in Belfast, Maine, in 1838. Mr. Quimby regarded the mesmeric sleep, or hypnosis as it would now be called, as an interesting phenomenon worthy of investigation, and without knowing what his interest would lead to he began to experiment, and in 1840 gave his first public demonstrations. Whenever opportunity offered, he had tried to put people into the mesmeric sleep. Sometimes he failed, but again he found a person whom he could influence.

"In the course of his trials with subjects," says Mr. George A. Quimby in the account quoted from above, Mr. Quimby "met with a young man named Lucius Burkmar over whom he had the most wonderful influence ; and it is not stating it too strongly to assert that with him he made some of the most astonishing exhibitions of mesmerism and clairvoyance that have been given in modern times.

"Mr. Quimby 's manner of operating with his subject was to sit opposite to him, holding both his hands in his, and looking him intently in the eye for a short time, when the subject would go into that state known as the mesmeric sleep, which was more properly a peculiar condition of mind and body, in which the natural senses would or would not operate at the will of Mr. Quimby. When conducting his experiments, all communications on the part of Mr. Quimby with Lucius were mentally given, the subject replying as if spoken to aloud. . . .

"As the subject gained more prominence, thoughtful men began to investigate the matter; and Mr. Quimby was often called upon to have his subject examine the sick. He would put Lucius into the mesmeric state, who would then examine the patient, describe his disease, and prescribe remedies for its cure.

"After a time Mr. Quimby became convinced that, whenever the subject examined a patient, his diagnosis of the case would be identical with what either the patient or some one else present believed, instead of Lucius really looking into the patient and giving the true condition of the organs; in fact, that he was reading the opinion in the mind of some one rather than stating a truth acquired by himself.

"Becoming firmly satisfied that this was the case, and having seen how one mind could influence another, and how much there was that had always been considered as true, but was merely some one's opinion, Mr. Quimby gave up his subject, Lucius, and began the developing of what is now known as mental healing, or curing disease through the mind."

That this discovery concerning the influence of medical opinion and the influence of one mind on another was worth pursuing to the end is clear from Mr. Quimby's account of the way he overcame his own illness. He was still in quest of health while experimenting with Lucius. His investigations showed him that there was a great discrepancy between the ordinary diagnosis and the actual state of a person suffering from disease, and it occurred to him that light could be thrown on his own malady. In fact, he had been led to believe by the astonishing results produced in cases where Lucius made an intuitive diagnosis that disease itself was, as he tells us, "a deranged state of mind," the cause of which is to be found in some one's unfortunate belief. "Disease," he assures us, and its power over life, its curability, "are all embraced in our belief. Some believe in various remedies, and others believe that the spirits of the dead prescribe. I have no confidence in the virtue of either. I know that cures have been made in these ways. I do not deny them. But the principle on which they are done is the question to solve ; for the disease can be cured, with or without medicine, on but one principle"

When he had discovered what that principle was and how it could be employed, namely, by producing changes in the mind of the patient holding the belief in question and subject to medical opinion, with all that this dependence implies, he saw that it was no longer necessary to make use of his mesmeric subject, but that he could apply the principle directly himself. First, however, he had to prove the principle by recovering his own health.

"Now for my particular experience," writes Mr. Quimby in the article quoted in The True History of Mental Science. "I had pains in the back, which, they said, were caused by my kidneys, which were partly consumed. I also was told that I had ulcers on my lungs. Under this belief, I was miserable enough to be of no account in the world. This was the state I was in when I commenced to mesmerize. On one occasion, when I had my subject asleep, he described the pains I felt in my back (I had never dared to ask him to examine me, for I felt sure that my kidneys were nearly gone), and he placed his hand on the spot where I felt the pain. He then told me that my kidneys were in a very bad state, — that one was half consumed, and a piece three inches long had separated from it, and was only connected by a slender thread. This was what I believed to be true, for it agreed with what the doctors had told me, and with what I had suffered; for I had not been free from pain for years. My common sense told me that no medicine would ever cure this trouble, and therefore I must suffer till death relieved me. But I asked him if there was any remedy. He replied, cYes, I can put the piece on so it will grow, and you will get well.' At this I was completely astonished, and knew not what to think. He immediately placed his hands upon me, and said he united the pieces so they would grow. The next day he said they had grown together, and from that day I never have experienced the least pain from them.

"Now what was the secret of the cure? I had not the least doubt but that I was as he described; and, if he had said, as I expected he would, that nothing could be done, I should have died in a year or so. But, when he said he could cure me in the way he proposed, I began to think; and I discovered that I had been deceived into a belief that made me sick. The absurdity of his remedies made me doubt the fact that my kidneys were diseased, for he said in two days that they were as well as ever. If he saw the first condition, he also saw the last; for in both cases he said he could see. I concluded in the first instance that he read my thoughts, and when he said he could cure me he drew on his own mind; and his ideas were so absurd that the disease vanished by the absurdity of the cure. This was the first stumbling-block I found in the medical science. I soon ventured to let him examine me further, and in every case he could describe my feelings, but would vary about the amount of disease; and his explanation and remedies always convinced me that I had no such disease, and that my troubles were of my own make.