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MIND AND BODY 
 
MIND AND BODY 
 
 OR 
 
 MENTAL STATES AND PHYSICAL 
 CONDITIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON 
 
 L. N. FOWLER & COMPANY 
 
 7. Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circui 
 
 London, E. C, England 
 
 1910 
 
 THE PROGRESS COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 

 COPTRIOHT, 1910 
 
 By 
 THE PROGRESS COMPANY 
 
 P. F. Pettibone & Oo. 
 
 Printers and Blndors 
 
 Chicago 
 
 (gC.lA268?77 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Foreword . .; 9 
 
 I. The Subconscious Mind 15 
 
 11. The Sympathetic System 29 
 
 m. The Cell-Minds 39 
 
 IV. The Mental Basis of Cure 58 
 
 V. The History of Psycho-Therapy. 84 
 
 VI. Faith Cures 115 
 
 Vn. The Power of the Imagination . . . 135 
 
 Vin. Belief and Suggestion .155 
 
 IX. Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 173 
 
 X. The Reaction of the Physical 196 
 
I 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Mind and Body— Mental States and Physi- 
 cal Conditions 1 To tlie mind of those who 
 have contented themselves with merely the 
 snperficial aspects of things, these two things 
 —mind and body; and mental states and 
 physical conditions— seem to be as far apart 
 as the two poles; seem to be opposites and 
 contradictories impossible of reconciliation. 
 But to those who have penetrated beneath the 
 surface of things, these two apparent oppo- 
 sites are seen to be so closely related and in- 
 ter-related—so blended and mingled together 
 in manifestation— that it is practically im- 
 possible to scientifically determine where the 
 one leaves off and the other begins. And so 
 constant and close is their mutual action and 
 reaction, that it often becomes impossible to 
 state positively which is the cause and which 
 the effect. 
 
 In the first place. Science now informs ua 
 that in all living substance, from cell to mam- 
 
10 Mind and Body 
 
 moth, there is and must be Mind. There can 
 be no Life without Mind. Mind, indeed, is 
 held to be the very **livingness" of Life— 
 the greater the degree of manifestation of 
 Mind, the higher the degree of Life. More- 
 over, the New Psychology informs us that 
 upon the activities of the Subconscious Mind 
 depend all the processes of physical life— 
 that the Subconscious Mind is the essence of 
 what was formerly called the Vital Force— 
 and is embodied in every cell, cell-group or 
 organ of the body. And, that this Subcon- 
 scious Mind is amenable to suggestion, good 
 and evil, from the conscious mind of its 
 owner, as well as from outside. When the 
 subject of the influence of Mental States upon 
 Physical Conditions is studied, one sees that 
 the Physical Condition is merely the reflec- 
 tion of the Mental State, and the problem 
 seems to be solved, the mystery of Health 
 and Disease solved. But in this, as in every- 
 thing else, there is seen to be an opposing 
 phase — the other side of the shield. Let us 
 look at the other side of the question : 
 
 Just as we find that wherever there is liv- 
 ing substance there is Mind, so do we find 
 
Foreword 11 
 
 that we are unable to intelligently consider 
 Mind unless as embodied in living substance. 
 The idea of Mind, independent of its sub- 
 stantial embodiment, becomes a mere ab- 
 straction impossible of mental imaging— 
 something like color independent of the col- 
 ored substance, or light without the illumi- 
 nated substance. And just as we find that 
 Mental States influence Physical Conditions, 
 so do we find that Physical Conditions in- 
 fluence Mental States. And, so the problem 
 of Life, Health and Disease once more loses 
 its simplicity, and the mystery again deep- 
 ens. The deeper we dig into the subject, the 
 more do we become impressed with the idea 
 of the universal principle of Action and Ee- 
 action so apparent in all phenomena. The 
 Mind acts upon the Body; the Body reacts 
 upon the Mind ; cause and effect become con- 
 fused; the reasoning becomes circular— like 
 a ring it has no beginning, no end ; its begin- 
 ning may be any place we may prefer, its 
 ending likewise. 
 
 The only reconciliation is to be found in 
 the fundamental working hypothesis which 
 holds that both Mind and Body— both Men- 
 
12 Mind and Body 
 
 tal States and Physical Conditions— are the 
 two aspects of something greater than either 
 —the opposing poles of the same Reality, 
 The radical Materialist asserts that the Body 
 is the only reality, and that Mind is merely 
 its ** by-product." The Mentalist asserts 
 that the Mind is the only reality, and that 
 the Body is merely its grosser form of mani- 
 festation. The unprejudiced philosopher is 
 apt to stand aside and say: **You are both 
 right, yet both wrong— each is stating the 
 truth, but only the half-truth." With the 
 working hypothesis that Mind and Body are 
 but varying aspects of the Truth— that Mind 
 is the inner essence of the Body, and Body 
 the outward manifestation of the Mind— we 
 find ourselves on safe ground. 
 
 We mention this fundamental principle 
 here, for in the body of this book we shall 
 not invade the province of metaphysics or 
 philosophy, but shall hold ourselves firmly to 
 our own field, that of psychology. Of course, 
 the very nature of the subject renders it nec- 
 essary that we consider the influence of psy- 
 chology upon physiology, but we have re- 
 membered that this book belongs to the gen- 
 
Foreword 13 
 
 eral subject of the New Psychology, and we 
 have accordingly emphasized the psychologi- 
 cal side of the subject. But the same mate- 
 rial could have been used by a writer upon 
 physiology, by changing the emphasis from 
 the psychological phase to the physiological. 
 We have written this book to reach not 
 only those who refuse to see the wonderful 
 influence of the Mental States over the Phys- 
 ical Conditions, but also for our '* metaphys- 
 ical" friends who have become so enamored 
 with the power of the Mind that they practi- 
 cally ignore the existence of the Body, in- 
 deed, in some cases, actually denying the ex- 
 istence of the latter. We believe that there 
 is a sane middle-ground in ''metaphysical 
 healing," as there is in the material treat- 
 ment of disease. In this case, not only does 
 Truth lie between the two extremes, but it is 
 composed of the blending and assimilation of 
 the two opposing ideas and theories. But, 
 even if the reader does not fully agree with 
 us in our general theories and conclusions, he 
 will find within the covers of this book a 
 mass of facts which he may use in building 
 up a new theory of his own. And, after all, 
 
14 Mind and Body 
 
 what are theories but the threads upon which 
 are strung the heads of facts— if our string 
 does not meet with your approval, break it 
 and string the beads of fact upon a thread of 
 your own. Theories come, and theories go 
 —but facts remain. 
 
 '^ 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND 
 
 In order to understand the nature of the 
 influence of the mind upon the body— the 
 effect of mental states upon physical func- 
 tions—we must know something of that won- 
 derful field of mental activity which in the 
 New Psychology is known as **The Subcon- 
 scious Mind/' and which by some writers 
 has been styled the '^Subjective Mind;" the 
 '* Involuntary Mind;'' the ^* Subliminal 
 Mind;'' the *' Unconscious Mind," etc., the 
 difference in names arising because of the 
 comparative newness of the investigation 
 and classification. 
 
 ■Among the various functions of the Sub- 
 conscious Mind, one of the most important is 
 that of the charge and control of the invol- 
 untary activities and functions of the human 
 body through the agency of the sympathetic 
 nervous system, the cells, and cell-groups. 
 As all students of physiology know, the 
 
 15 
 
16 Mind and Body 
 
 greater part of the activities of the body are 
 involuntary— that is, are independent (or 
 partly so) of the control of the conscious 
 will. As Dr. Sohofield says: **The uncon- 
 scious mind, in addition to the three quali- 
 ties which it shares in common with the con- 
 scious— t;t>., will, intellect and emotion— has 
 undoubtedly another very important one- 
 nutrition, or the general maintenance of the 
 body/' And as Hudson states: **The sub- 
 jective mind has absolute control of the func- 
 tions, conditions and sensations of the body.*' 
 Notwithstanding the dispute which is still 
 raging concerning what the Subconscious 
 mind is, the authorities all agree upon the 
 fact that, whatever else it may be, it may be 
 considered as that phase, aspect, part, or field 
 of the mind which has charge and control of 
 the greater part of the physical functioning 
 of the body. 
 
 Von Hartmann says: *'The explanation 
 that unconscious psychical activity itself ap- 
 propriately forms and maintains the body 
 has not only nothing to be said against it, but 
 has all possible analogies from the most dif- 
 ferent departments of physical and animal 
 
Subconscious Mind 17 
 
 life in its favor, and appears to be as scien- 
 tifically certain as is possible in the infer- 
 ences from effect to cause. ' ' Mandsley says : 
 *'Tlie connection of mind and body is such 
 that a given state of mind tends to echo itself 
 at once in the body.'' Carpenter says: **If 
 a psychosis or mental state is produced by a 
 neurosis or material nerve state, as pain by 
 a prick, so also is a neurosis produced by a 
 psychosis. That mental antecedents call 
 forth physical consequents is just as certain 
 as that physical antecedents call forth men- 
 tal consequents.*' Tuke says: **Mind, 
 through sensory, motor, vaso-motor and 
 trophic nerves, causes changes in sensation, 
 muscular contraction, nutrition and secre- 
 tion. ... If the brain is an outgrowth 
 from a body corpuscle and is in immediate 
 relation with the structures and tissues that 
 preceded it, then, though these continue to 
 have their own action, the brain must be ex- 
 pected to act upon the muscular tissue, the 
 organic functions and upon the nervous sys- 
 tem itself." 
 
 Von Hartmann also says: **In willing any 
 conscious act, the unconscious will is evoked 
 
18 
 
 Mind and Body 
 
 to institute means to bring about the effect. 
 Thus, if I will a stronger salivary secretion, 
 the conscious willing of this effect excites the 
 unconscious will to institute the necessary- 
 means. Mothers are said to be able to pro- 
 vide through the will a more copious secre- 
 tion, if the sight of the child arouses in them 
 the will to suckle. There are people who per- 
 spire voluntarily. I now possess the power 
 of instantaneously reducing the severest hic- 
 coughs to silence by my own will, while it 
 was formerly a source of great inconvenience 
 to me. . . . An irritation to cough, which 
 has no mechanical cause, may be permanently 
 suppressed by the will. I believe we might 
 possess a far greater voluntary power over 
 our bodily functions if we were only accus- 
 tomed from childhood to institute experi- 
 ments and to practice ourselves therein. 
 . . . We have arrived at the conclusion 
 that every action of the mind on the body, 
 without exception, is only possible by means 
 of an unconscious will; that such an uncon- 
 scious will can be called forth partly by 
 means of a conscious will, partly also through 
 the conscious idea of the effect, without con- 
 
Subconscious Mind 19 
 
 scious will, and even in opposition to tKe 
 conscious will.'' 
 
 Henry \Yood says of the Subconscious 
 Mind : * * It acts automatically upon the phys- 
 ical organism. It cognizes external facts, 
 conditions, limitations, and even contagions, 
 quite independent of its active counterpart. 
 One may, therefore, *take' a disease and be 
 unaware of any exposure. The subconscious- 
 ness has been unwittingly trained to fear, 
 and accept it; and it is this quality, rather 
 than the mere inert matter of the body, that 
 succumbs. Matter is never the actor, but is 
 always acted upon. This silent, mental part- 
 ner, in operation, seems to be a living, think- 
 ing personality, conducting affairs on its 
 own account. It is a compound of almost un- 
 imaginable variety, including wisdom and 
 foolishness, logic and nonsense, and yet hav- 
 ing a working unitary economy. It is a hid- 
 den force to be dealt with and educated, for 
 it is often found insubordinate and unruly. 
 It refuses co-operation with its lesser but 
 more active and wiser counterpart. It is 
 very 'set' in its views, and only changes its 
 qualities and opinions by slow degrees. But, 
 
 
 
20 Mind and Body 
 
 like a pair of horses, not until these two men- 
 tal factors can be trained together can there 
 be harmony and efficiency/' 
 
 In order to understand the important part 
 played in the physical economy by the Sub- 
 conscious Mind, it is only necessary to un- 
 derstand the various processes of the human 
 system which are out of the ordinary field 
 of the voluntary or conscious mind. We then 
 realize that the entire process of nutrition, 
 including digestion, assimilation, etc., the 
 processes of elimination, the processes of 
 circulation, the processes of growth, in fact 
 the entire processes manifested in the work 
 of the cells, cell-groups, ganglia, physical or- 
 gans, etc., are in charge of and controlled by 
 the Subconscious Mind. Our food is digested 
 and transformed into the nourishing sub- 
 stances of the blood; then carried through 
 the arteries to all parts of the body, where 
 it is absorbed by the cells and used to replace 
 the worn-out material, the latter then being 
 carried back through the veins to the lungs 
 where the waste matter is burned up, and the 
 balance again sent on its journey through the 
 arteries re-charged with the life-giving oxy- 
 
Subconscious Mind 21 
 
 gen. All of these processes, and many others 
 of almost equal importance, are out of the 
 field of the conscious or voluntary mind, and 
 are governed by the Subconscious Mind. As 
 we shall see when we consider the Sympa- 
 thetic Nervous System, the greater part of 
 the body is dominated by the Subconscious 
 Mind, and that the welfare of the major 
 physical functions depends entirely, or al- 
 most so, upon this great area or field of the 
 mind. 
 
 The best authorities now generally agree 
 that there is no part of the body which may 
 be considered as devoid of mind. The Sub- 
 conscious Mind is not confined to the brain, 
 or even the greater plexuses of the nervous 
 system, but extends to all parts of the body, 
 to every nerve, muscle, and even to every 
 cell and cell-group of the body. The func- 
 tions and processes of the body are no longer 
 considered as purely mechanical, or chemi- 
 cal, but are now seen to be the result of men- 
 tal action of some kind or degree. There- 
 fore, in considering the Subconscious Mind, 
 one must not thinE of it as resident in the 
 brain alone, but rather as being distributed 
 
 J 
 
22 Mind and Body 
 
 over the entire physical body. There is 
 mind in every cell, every organ, every muscle, 
 every nerve— in every part of tlie body. 
 
 The importance of the above statements 
 regarding the power and importance of the 
 Subconscious Mind may be realized when 
 one remembers the dictum of the New Psy- 
 chology, to wit: The Subconscious Mind is 
 amenable to Suggestion. When it is realized 
 that this great controller of the physical or- 
 ganism is so constituted that it accepts as 
 truth the suggestions from the conscious 
 mind of its owner, as well as those emanating 
 from the conscious minds of other people, it 
 may be [understood why Faith, Belief, and 
 Expectant Attention manifest such marked 
 effects upon the physical body and the gen- 
 eral health, for good or for evil, as indicated 
 in the preceding chapters. All of the many 
 instances and examples recited in the pre- 
 ceding chapters may be understood when it 
 is realized that the Subconscious Mind, which 
 is in control of the physical functions and 
 vital processes, will accept the suggestions 
 from the conscious mind of its owner, and 
 also suggestions from outside s^hich the con- 
 
Subconscious Mind 23 
 
 scious mind of its owner allows to pass down 
 to it. If, as Henry Wood lias said in the 
 paragraph previously quoted, it *'acts auto- 
 matically upon the physical organism,'' and 
 *^ seems to be a living, thinking personality, 
 conducting affairs on its own account," and 
 at the same time, accepts and ^ takes on' sug- 
 gested conditions, it may be readily under- 
 stood how the wonderful and almost incred- 
 ible statements of the authorities mentioned 
 in the preceding chapters have had real and 
 substantial basis in truth. 
 
 'This understanding of the part played by 
 the Subjective Mind in controlling and affect- 
 ing physical conditions and activities, to- 
 gether with its suggestible qualities and na- 
 ture, gives us a key to the whole question of 
 the ''Why?'' of Mental Healing. Suggestion 
 is the connecting link between Mind and 
 Body, and an understanding of its laws and 
 principles enables one to see the moving 
 cause of the strange phenomena of the Faith 
 Cures, under whatever name they may pass, 
 and under whatever guise they may present 
 themselves. ''Suggestion" is the explana- 
 tion offered by the New Psychology for the 
 
24 Mind and Body 
 
 almost miraculous phenomena wMeh other 
 schools seek to explain upon some hypothe- 
 sis based either upon religious beliefs, or 
 upon some metaphysical or philosophical doc- 
 trine. The New Psychology holds that it is 
 not necessary to go outside of the realms of 
 psychology and physiology in studying Men- 
 tal Healing or Psycho-Therapy ; and that the 
 theories of the semi-religious and metaphys- 
 ical cults are merely strange guises or masks 
 which serve to conceal the real operative 
 principle of cure. 
 
 , The following quotation from Dr. Scho- 
 field will serve to call the attention to the 
 important part played by the Subconscious 
 Mind in the physical activities, a fact which 
 is not generally recognized: ^*It has often 
 been a mystery how the body thrives so well 
 with so little oversight or care on the part of 
 its owner. No machine could be constructed, 
 nor could any combination of solids or liquids 
 in organic compounds, regulate, control, 
 counteract, help, hinder or arrange for the 
 continual succession of differing events, 
 foods, surroundings and conditions which are 
 constantly affecting the body. And yet, in 
 
Subconscious Mind 25 
 
 the midst of this ever-changing and varying 
 succession of influences, the body holds on its 
 course of growth, health, nutrition and self- 
 maintenance with the most marvelous con- 
 stancy. We perceive, of course, clearly, that 
 the best of qualities— regulation, control, 
 etc., etc.— are all mental qualities, and at the 
 same time we are equally clear that by no 
 self-examination can we say we consciously 
 exercise any of these mental powers over the 
 organic processes of our bodies. One would 
 think, then, that the conclusion is sufficiently 
 simple and obvious— that they must be used 
 unconsciously ; in other words, it is, and can 
 be nothing else than unconscious mental pow- 
 ers that control, guide and govern the func- 
 tions and organs of the body. 
 
 **Our ordinary text-books on physiology 
 give but little idea of what I may call the in- 
 telligence that presides over the various sys- 
 tems of the body, showing itself in the bones, 
 as we have seen, in distributing the available 
 but insufficient amount of lime salts in dis- 
 ease; not equally, but for the protection of 
 the most vital parts, leaving those of lesser 
 value disproportionally deficient. In the 
 
26 Mind and Body 
 
 muscular system nearly all contractions are 
 involuntary. Even in the voluntary (so- 
 called) muscles, tlie most we can do is to will 
 results. We do not will the contractions that 
 carry out these results. Muscles, striped 
 and unstriped, are ceaselessly acting with- 
 out the slightest consciousness in maintain- 
 ing the balance of the body, the expression 
 of the face, the general attributes correspond- 
 ing to mental states, the carrying on of di- 
 gestion and other processes with a pur- 
 posiveness, and adaptation of means to new 
 • ends and new conditions, ceaselessly arising, 
 that are beyond all material mechanism. 
 Consider, for instance, the marvelous in- 
 crease of smooth muscle in the uterus at 
 term, and also its no les^s marvelous subse- 
 quent involution; observe, too, the compen- 
 sating muscular increase of a damaged heart 
 until the balance is restored and the neces- 
 sity for it ceases, as does growth at a fixed 
 period; consider in detail the repair of a 
 broken bone. These actions are not mere 
 properties of matter ; they demand, and are 
 the result of, a controlling mind. 
 *^The circulation does not go round as 
 
Subconscious Mind 27 
 
 most text-books would lead us to believe, as 
 the result merely of the action of a system 
 of elastic tubes, connected with a self-acting 
 force-pump. It is such views as these that 
 degrade physiology- and obscure the marvels 
 of the body. The circulation never flows for 
 two minutes in the same manner. In an in- 
 stant, miles of capillaries are closed or 
 opened up, according to the ever-varying 
 body needs, of which, consciously, we are en- 
 tirely unaware. The blood supply of each 
 organ is not mechanical, but is carefully 
 regulated from minute to minute in health, 
 exactly according to its needs and activities, 
 and when this ever fails, we at once recog- 
 nize it as disease, and call it congestion and 
 so forth. The very heart-beat itself is never 
 constant, but varies pro rata with the amount 
 of exercise, activity of vital functions, of 
 conditions of temperature, etc., and even of 
 emotions and other direct mental feelings. 
 The whole reproductive system is obviously 
 under the sway and guidance of more than 
 blind material forces. In short, when thor- 
 oughly analyzed, the action and regulation of 
 
28 Mind and Body 
 
 no system of the body can be satisfactorily 
 explained, without postulating an uncon- 
 scious mental element, which does, if allowed, 
 satisfactorily explain all the phenomefna/' 
 
 k 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE SYMPATHETIC SYSTEM 
 
 The average person has a general under- 
 standing of what is meant by ^^the nervous 
 system/' but inquiry will show that by this 
 term he usually includes only that part of 
 the nervous system which is known as the 
 * ^ cerebro-spinal system,'* or the system of 
 nerves consisting of the brain and spinal 
 cord, and the nerv^es extending therefrom 
 throughout the body, the offices of which are 
 to control the voluntary movements of the 
 body. The average person is almost entirely 
 ignorant of the existence of the Great Sym- 
 pathetic System which controls the involun- 
 tary movements and processes, such as the 
 processes and functions of nutrition, secre- 
 tion, reproduction, excretion, the vaso-motor 
 action, etc. In physiology, the term ** sym- 
 pathetic" is used in the sense of: ** Recipro- 
 cal action of the different parts of the body 
 on each other ; an affection of one part of the 
 
 29 
 
30 Mind and Body 
 
 body in consequence of something taking 
 place in another. Thus when there is a local 
 injury, the whole frame after a time suffers 
 with it. A wound anywhere will tend to 
 create feverishness everywhere; derange- 
 ment of the stomach will tend to produce 
 headache, liver complaint to produce pain in 
 the shoulder, etc.'' 
 
 An old authority thus describes the Sym- 
 pathetic Nerves: *^A system of nerves, run- 
 ning from the base of the skull to the coccyx, 
 along both sides of the body, and consisting 
 of a series of ganglia along the spinal col- 
 umn by the side of the vertebraB. With this 
 trunk of the sympathetic there are communi- 
 cating branches which connect the ganglia, 
 or the intermediate cord, with all the spinal 
 and several of the cranial nerves proceeding 
 to primary branches on the neighboring or- 
 gans or other ganglia, and finally numerous 
 flexures of nerves running to the viscera. 
 Various fibers from the sjnupathetic commu- 
 nicate with those of the cerebro-spinal sys- 
 tem. The term ^sympathetic' has been ap- 
 plied on the supposition that it is the agent 
 in producing sympathy between different 
 
Sympathetic System 31 
 
 parts of the body. It more certainly affects 
 the secretions. ' ' In the New Psychology the 
 S}Tnpathetic Nervous System is recognized 
 as that directly under the control of the Sub- 
 conscious Mind. 
 
 The Cerebro-Spinal Nervous System is 
 concerned with the activities arising from the 
 conscious activities of the mind, including 
 those of the ^ve senses. It controls the 
 muscles by which we speak, walk, move our 
 limbs, and pursue the ordinary activities of 
 outer life. But, while these are very impor- 
 tant to the individual, there is another set of 
 activities— inner activities— which are none 
 the less important. The Sympathetic Sys- 
 tem controls the involuntary muscles by 
 means of which the heart throbs, the arteries 
 pulsate, the air is conveyed to the lungs, the 
 blood moves to and from the heart, the va- 
 rious glands and tubes of the body operate, 
 and the entire work of nutrition, repair, and 
 body-building is performed. While the Cere- 
 bro-Spinal System, and the Conscious Mind 
 are able to rest a considerable portion of the 
 twenty-four hours of the day, the Sympa- 
 thetic System and the Subconscious Mind 
 
32 Mind and Body 
 
 must needs work every minute of the twenty- 
 four hours, without rest or vacation, during 
 the life of their owner. 
 
 Dr. E. H. Pratt, in his valuable ^^ Series of 
 Impersonations'' published in the medical 
 magazines several years ago, and since re- 
 produced in book form, makes ^ ^ The Sympa- 
 thetic Man" speak as follows: ^^The entire 
 body can do nothing without me, and my oc- 
 cupation of supplying the inspiration for our 
 entire family is so constant and engaging 
 that I am compelled to attend strictly to 
 business night and day from one end of life 
 to the other, and have no time whatever for 
 observation, education, or amusement outside 
 of my daily tasks. As a rule, I perform my 
 work so noiselessly that the rest of the family 
 are scarcely conscious of my existence, for 
 when I am well everything works all right, 
 each organ plays its part as usual, and the 
 entire machinery of life is operated noise- 
 lessly and without friction. When I am not 
 well, however, and am not quite equal to the 
 demands made upon me, I have two ways of 
 making it known to the family. One is by 
 appealing to self-consciousness through the 
 
Sympathetic System 33 
 
 assistance of my cerebro-spinal brother, with 
 whom I am closely associated, thereby caus- 
 ing some disturbance of sensation or locomo- 
 tion (the most frequent disturbance in this 
 direction being the instituting of some form 
 of pain) ; or I sometimes take it into my head 
 to say nothing to my cerebro-spinal brother 
 about my affairs, but simply shirk my duties, 
 and my inefficiency becomes manifest only 
 when some one or all of the organs suffer 
 from some function poorly performed.'' 
 
 The nerve-centres of the Cerebro-Spinal 
 System are grouped closely together, while 
 those of the Sympathetic System, are scat- 
 tered about the body, each organ having its 
 appropriate centre or tiny-brain. The 
 heart, the liver, the kidneys, the spleen, the 
 brain, the intestinal tract, the bladder, the 
 generative organs, have each its own particu- 
 lar nerve-centre of the Sympathetic System 
 —each its tiny-brain— each, however, con- 
 nected with all the others. And more than 
 this— in addition to the tinv-brains in each of 
 the important vital organs, there are found 
 scattered through the trunk a number of 
 ganglia, or knots of gray nervous matter, ar- 
 
I 
 
 34 Mind and Body 
 
 ranged longitudinally in two lines extending 
 from just in front of the spinal column from 
 the base of the skull to the end of the spinal 
 column, each vertebra having its appropriate 
 ganglia. In some cases several of these gan- 
 glia are grouped together, the number rang- 
 ing from two to three. Each ganglion is a 
 distinct centre giving off branches in four 
 directions. 
 
 There is also one place in which are 
 grouped together several very large ganglia, 
 forming what is known as the Solar Plexus, 
 or Abdominal Brain, which is situated at the 
 upper part of the abdomen, behind the stom- 
 ach and in front of the aorta and the pillars 
 of the diaphragm, and from which issue 
 nerves extending in all directions. By some 
 authorities the Solar Plexus is regarded as 
 the great centre of the Sympathetic System, 
 and the main seat of the Subconscious Mind. 
 
 'Dr. Byron Eobinson bestowed upon this 
 
 • 
 
 centre the name *^The Abdominal Brain, '^ 
 saying of the use of the term: ''I mean to 
 convey the idea that it is endowed with the 
 high powers and phenomena of a great ner- 
 
Sympathetic System 35 
 
 vous centre; that it can organize, multiply, 
 and diminish forces/* 
 
 One of the most interesting and significant 
 features of the ganglia is that of their con- 
 nection with the nerve centres of the Cere- 
 bro- Spinal System, indicating the reciprocal 
 action existing between the two great ner- 
 vous systems. From each one of the ganglia 
 in the two great lines forming the system, is- 
 sues a tiny filament which connects with the 
 spinal cord ; and at the same time it receives 
 from the spinal cord a tiny filament in re- 
 turn, thus establishing a double line of com- 
 munication. It is held by some authorities 
 that one of these filaments acts as a sending 
 wire, and the other as a receiving wire be- 
 tween the two systems. Be this as it may, 
 the inter-communication between the two sys- 
 tems is clearly indicated. 
 
 It must be remembered that the involun- 
 tary muscles which move the heart, as well 
 as the tiny muscles which form the middle- 
 coat of the arteries and the veins, are con- 
 trolled by the Sympathetic System, and thus 
 the important work of the circulation, which 
 goes on day and night, year in and year out, 
 
36 Mind and Body 
 
 during life, is directly under tlie charge of 
 the Sympathetic System and the Subcon- 
 scious Mind. Also, the involuntary muscles 
 which are concerned with the activities of the 
 liver, the kidneys and the spleen, are under 
 the same direct control. 
 
 Dr. E. H. Pratt, in the *^ Series of Imper- 
 sonations" above referred to makes the 
 ''Subconscious Man" tell the following won- 
 derful truth, which we suggest each reader 
 read carefully and ^x in his mind: ''My 
 brother the Sympathetic Man has told you 
 that I am the animating spirit of his con- 
 struction ; and as he is the great body builder, 
 having furnished the emotions under which 
 our entire family has been put into form, 
 you can understand by what right I pose be- 
 fore you as the human form of forms. All 
 the rest of the family are because I am. 
 Even my Conscious brother, who claims su- 
 periority to his fellow-shapes because he 
 bosses them around a little and makes use 
 of them, is a subject of my own creation. 
 . I am the life of the Sympathetic 
 Man, whose existence as a human shape has 
 already sufficiently been well established, and 
 
Sympathetic System 37 
 
 as there is no part of him whicli is not alive, 
 the conclusion is very evident that his shape 
 and mine are identical. There is no part of 
 the sympathetic system which is not ani- 
 mated by my oivn principle of vitality. In- 
 deed, he is but a cup of life, though I can 
 assure you that his cup is full, and he would 
 not be good for much if it was not. So, if 
 you are able to conceive the shape of the 
 Sympathetic Man, you can regard this form 
 as identical with my own. This is really a 
 very modest claim on my part, and does not 
 quite do justice to myself, for in reality the 
 Sympathetic Man does not contain all there 
 is of me by any means, for I am not only in 
 him, but all around him, and he is not by any 
 means capable of containing my full self. ' ' 
 
 When it is seen that the vital activities of 
 the physical body are ruled, governed and 
 controlled by the Sympathetic System, ani- 
 mated by the Subconscious Mind, and that the 
 latter is amenable to Suggestion from the 
 Conscious Mind and from outside, we may 
 begin to get a glimmer of the great light 
 which illuminates the principle of Mental 
 Healing. If the Subconscious Mind, the 
 
38 Mind and Body 
 
 builder, is influenced by Suggestion to neg- 
 lect Ms work, or to build wrongly, it is like- 
 wise possible for bim to beed proper Sugges- 
 tion and to repair bis mistakes and to rebuild 
 properly. Tbis principle being grasped, tbe 
 rest will seem to be merely an understand- 
 ing of tbe best metbods of reacbing tbe Sub- 
 conscious Mind by Suggestion or Auto-Sug- 
 gestion. We may now begin to understand 
 tbe trutb of tbe old axiom : * * As a man tbink- 
 etb in bis beart, so is be"— pbysically. And 
 -as Tbougbt is based largely upon Belief, can 
 we not see tbe dynamic force of Faitb? Is 
 tbere not a real psycbological basis for so- 
 called ^'miracles?'' Is not tbe wonder-work- 
 ing of tbe cults now understandable? 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CELL-MINDS 
 
 Modern science has demonstrated that the 
 human body is composed of a multitude of 
 microscopic cells, that is, that the muscles, 
 nerves, tissues, blood, bones, hair and nails 
 are made up of minute cells, and groups of 
 cells. Virchow says : ^ ^ It is of the cells that 
 the tissues are built up and the nerves 
 formed. There is no part of the human 
 body in which the cell is not seen. All these 
 cells are neuclated— have in them a central 
 life-spot like the yolk of an egg. Each cell 
 is born, reproduces itself, dies and is ab- 
 sorbed. The maintenance of life and health 
 depends upon the constant regeneration of 
 the cells. When man can control the life and 
 death of the cell he becomes the creator.'* 
 Medical science now practically asserts that 
 disease of the body is really disease of the 
 cells of which the body is composed, and that 
 all healing of the body must consist of the 
 
 3a 
 
40 Mind and Body 
 
 healing of the cells— that is, of restoring the 
 cells to normal activity and functioning. 
 
 The following quotation from Hudson, fol- 
 lowing Stephens, is interesting: '^ An aggre- 
 gation of cells became a confederation, with 
 its differentiation of cell functions and still 
 further division of labor. As a result of a 
 long process of such differentiation, the or- 
 ganisms of the larger animals and of man 
 came to be composed, as we find them, of 
 thirty or more different species of cells. For 
 example, we have the muscle cells, whose vital 
 Energies are devoted to the office of contrac- 
 tion, or vigorous shortening of length; con- 
 nective-tissue cells, whose office is mainly to 
 produce and conserve a tough fibre for bind- 
 ing together and covering in the organism; 
 bone cells, whose life work is to select and 
 collocate salts of lime for the organic frame- 
 work, levers and joints; hair, nail, horn and 
 feather cells, which work in silicates for the 
 protection, defense, and ornamentation of 
 the organism; gland cells, whose motif in 
 living has come to be the abstraction from 
 the blood of substances which are recom- 
 bined to produce juices needed to aid the 
 
The Cell-Minds 41 
 
 various processes or steps of digestion; 
 blood cells, wliicli have assumed the labor- 
 ious function of general carriers, scavengers, 
 and repairers of the organism ; eye, ear, nasal 
 and palate cells, which have become the spe- 
 cial artificers of complicated apparatus for 
 transmitting light, sound, odors, and flavors 
 to the highly sentient brain cells; pulmo- 
 nary cells, which elaborate a tissue for the in- 
 troduction of oxygen and the elimination of 
 carbon dioxide and other waste products; 
 hepatic (liver) cells, which have, in response 
 to the needs of the organism, descended to 
 the menial office of living on the waste prod- 
 ucts and converting them into chemical re- 
 agents to facilitate digestion— these and 
 numerous other species of cells; and lastly, 
 most important and of greatest interest, 
 brain and nerve cells." 
 
 The various cells of the body are constant- 
 ly busy, each performing its particular task, 
 either singly or in connection with other cells 
 in the cell-group. Like a great arm, the cells 
 are divided into classes, some being engaged 
 in the active daily work, while others are 
 held back on the reserve line. Some are en- 
 
42 Mind and Body 
 
 gaged in building up the tissues, muscles and 
 bones, while others are busy manufacturing 
 the juices, secretions, fluids and chemical 
 compounds required in the great laboratory 
 of the body. Some remain at their posts, 
 stationary during their entire life, while 
 others remain stationary only until the call 
 comes for their services, while a third class 
 are in constant motion from place to place 
 either following regular routes or else trav- 
 elling under a roving conmaission. Some of 
 the moving cells act as carriers of material— 
 the hod-carriers of the body, while others 
 move about doing special repair work such 
 as the healing of wounds, etc., while others 
 still are the scavengers and street cleaners of 
 system, and others form the cell army and 
 cell police force. The body has been com- 
 pared to a vast communistic or socialistic 
 colony, each member of which cheerfully de- 
 votes his life-work, and often his life itself, 
 to the common good. The brain cells are of 
 course the most highly organized, and the 
 most highly differentiated of the cells. The 
 nerve cells constitute a living telegraph sys- 
 tem over which is carried the messages from 
 
The Cell-Minds 43 
 
 the several parts of the body, each cell being 
 in close contact with its neighbor on each 
 side— the nerve cells practically clasp hands 
 and form a living chain of commnnication. 
 
 The blood cells are important members of 
 the cell-community, and are exceedingly nu- 
 merous, there being over 75,000,000,000 of the 
 red-blood cells alone. These red-blood cells 
 move in the blood currents, carrying through 
 the arteries each its little load of oxygen 
 which it transports to the distant tissues that 
 they may be invigorated and vitalized anew ; 
 and, returning, carrying through the veins 
 the debris and waste products of the system 
 to the great crematory of the lungs where the 
 waste is burnt and thrown off from the body. 
 Like the ships that sail the sea, each cell 
 carries its outgoing cargo, and returns with 
 another one. Some of these cells perform 
 the office of special repairers, forcing their 
 way through the walls of the blood-vessels 
 and penetrating the tissues in order to per- 
 form their special tasks. There are several 
 other kinds of cells in the blood besides the 
 carriers just mentioned. There are the won- 
 derful soldier and police cells which main- 
 
44 Mind and Body 
 
 tain order and fight battles when n'e<jessary. 
 The police cells are on the constant lookout 
 for germs, bacteria and other microscopic 
 disturbers of the peace of the body. When 
 these tiny policemen discover vagrant germs, 
 . or criminal bacteria, they rush upon the in- 
 truder and tying him up in a mesh, proceed 
 to devour him. If the intruder be too large 
 or vigorous, a call for assistance is sent out, 
 and the reserve police rush to the assistance 
 of their brothers and overpower the dis- 
 *turber of the peace. Sometimes when the 
 vagrants are too numerous, the policemen 
 throw them out from the body, by means of 
 pimples, boils and similar eruptions. In case 
 of infectious diseases, an army corps is or- 
 dered out in full strength and a royal fight is 
 waged between the invading army and the 
 defenders of home and country. 
 
 Some of the blood cells take a part in the 
 process of extracting from the food its nour- 
 ishing particles, and then carrying the same 
 through the blood-channels to all parts of the 
 body, where it is used to feed and nourish the 
 stationary cells there located. These cells 
 manufacture the chemical juices of the body, 
 
The Cell-Minds 45 
 
 such as bile, gastric juice, pancreatic juices, 
 milk, etc., in short the entire physical process 
 is carried on by these indefatigable tiny cells. 
 The body of each of us is simply a great com- 
 munity of cells of various kinds. The cells 
 are born by the form of reproduction com- 
 mon to all cells, that of sub-division. Each 
 cell grows until a certain size is reached, 
 when it assumes a ^'dumb-belP' shape, with 
 a tiny waist line, which waist is afterward 
 dissolved and the two cells move away from 
 each other. In this way, and this way alone, 
 does the body grow, the material required for 
 the enlargement of the cell being supplied 
 from the food and nourishment partaken by 
 the individual. Cells die after having per- 
 formed their life-work, and their corpses are 
 carried through the veins by the carrier cells, 
 and cast into the crematory of the lungs 
 where they are consumed. 
 
 The body is constantly undergoing a proc- 
 ess of change and regeneration. Old cells 
 are being cast off every second, and new cells 
 are taking their places. Our muscles, tis- 
 sues, hair, nails, nerves, brain substance, and 
 even our bones are constantly being made 
 
46 Mind and Body 
 
 over and rebuilt. Our bodies to-day do not 
 contain a single particle of the material 
 which composed them a few years back. A 
 few weeks suffices to replace our entire skin, 
 and a few months to replace other parts of 
 the body. If a sufficiently large microscope 
 could be placed over our bodies, we would 
 see each part of it as active as a hive of bees, 
 each cell being in action and motion, and the 
 entire domestic work of the human hive being 
 performed according to law and order. Ver- 
 ily, ''we are fearfully and wonderfully 
 made. ' ' 
 
 . 'A number of the best authorities have 
 used the illustration of the process of the 
 cells in healing an ordinary wound, in order 
 to show the activity and ''mind" of the tiny 
 cells. We have become so accustomed to 
 the natural healing of a wound, scratch or 
 broken skin, that we have grown to regard 
 it as an almost mechanical process. But, 
 science shows us that there is manifested in 
 the healing process a marvellous degree of 
 life and mind in the cells.. Let us consider 
 the process of healing an ordinary wound, 
 that we may see the cells at work. Let us 
 
The Cell-Minds 47 
 
 imagine that we are gazing at the wounded 
 part through a marvellously strong micro- 
 scope which enables us to see every cell at 
 work. If such a glass were provided we 
 should witness a scene similar to that now 
 to be described. 
 
 In the first place, through our glass, we 
 should see the gaping wound enlarged to gi- 
 gantic proportions. We should see the torn 
 skin, tissues, lymphatic and blood vessels, 
 glands, muscles and nerves. We would see 
 the blood pouring forth washing away the 
 dirt and foreign substances that have entered 
 the wound. We would then see the messages 
 calling for help flashing over the living tele- 
 graph wires of the nerves, each nerve-cell 
 rapidly passing the word to its neighbor un- 
 til the great sympathetic centres received the 
 call and sounded the alarm and sent out a 
 ** hurry up" call to the cells needed for the 
 repair work. In the meantime the cells of 
 the blood, coming in contact with the out- 
 side air have begun to coagulate into a sticky 
 substance, which is the beginning of the scab, 
 the purpose being to close the wound and to 
 hold the severed parts together. The repair 
 
48 Mind and Body 
 
 cells Having now arrived at the scene of the 
 accident begin to mend the break. The tis- 
 sue, nerve, and muscle cells, on each side of 
 the wound begin to multiply rapidly, receiv- 
 ing their nourishment from the blood cells, 
 and quickly a cell bridge is built up until the 
 two severed edges of the wound are reunited. 
 This bridging is no haphazard process, for 
 the presence of directing law and order is 
 apparent. The newly-born cells of the blood- 
 vessels unite with their brothers on the other 
 side, evenly and in an orderly manner, new 
 tubular channels being formed skillfully. 
 The cells of the connective tissues likewise 
 grow toward each other, and unite in the 
 same orderly manner. The nerve-cells re- 
 pair their broken lines, just as do a gang of 
 linemen repair the interrupted telegraph sys- 
 tem. The muscles are united in the same 
 way. But mark you this, there is no mis- 
 take in this connecting process— muscle does 
 not connect with nerve, nor blood-vessel with 
 connective tissue. Finally, the inner repairs 
 and connections having been completed, the 
 scab disappears and the cells of the outer 
 skin rebuild the outer covering, and the 
 
The Cell-Minds 49 
 
 wound is healed. This process may occupy 
 a few hours, or many days, depending upon 
 the character of the wound, but the process 
 is the same in all cases. The surgeon merely 
 disinfects and cleans the wound, and placing 
 the parts together allows the cells to per- 
 form their healing work, for no other power 
 can perform the task. The knitting together 
 of a broken bone proceeds along the same 
 lines— the surgeon places the parts in jux- 
 taposition, binds the limb together to pre- 
 vent slipping, and the cells do the rest. 
 
 When the body is well nourished, the gen- 
 eral system well toned up, and the mind 
 cheerful and active, the repair work proceeds 
 rapidly. But when the physical system is 
 run down, the body poorly nourished, and the 
 mind depressed and full of fear, the work is 
 retarded and interfered with. It is this heal- 
 ing power inherent in the cells that physi- 
 cians speak of as the vis vita or vis medi- 
 catrix naturae j or *^the healing power of na- 
 ture." Of it Dr. Patton says: '^By the 
 term 'efforts of nature' we mean a certain 
 curative or restorative principle, or vis 
 vita, implanted in every living or organized 
 
50 Mind and Body 
 
 body, constantly operative for its repair, 
 preservation and health. This instinctive en- 
 deavor to repair the human organism is sig- 
 nally shown in the event of a severed or lost 
 part, as a finger, for instance ; for nature un- 
 aided will repair and fashion a stump equal 
 to one from the hands of an eminent surgeon. 
 . . Nature, unaided, may be equally 
 potent in ordinary illness. Many individ- 
 uals, even when severely ill, either from mo- 
 Jives of economy, prejudice, or skepticism, 
 remain at rest in bed, under favorable hy- 
 giene, regimen, etc., and speedily get well 
 without a physician or medicine." 
 
 Dr. Schofield says: **The vis medicatrix 
 naturae is a very potent factor in the amelio- 
 ration of disease, if it only be allowed fair 
 play. An exercise of faith, as a rule, sus- 
 pends the operation of adverse influences, 
 and appeals strongly through the conscious- 
 ness, to the inner and underlying faculty of 
 vital force (L e., unconscious niind)." Dr. 
 Bruce says: **We are compelled to acknowl- 
 edge a power of natural recovery inherent 
 in the body— a similar statement has been 
 made by writers on the principle of medicine 
 
 i 
 
The Cell-Minds 51 
 
 in all ages. . . . The body does possess 
 a means and mechanism for modifying or 
 neutralizing influences which it cannot di- 
 rectly overcome.'' Oliver Wendell Holmes 
 says: ** Whatever other theories we hold 
 we must recognize the ^vis medicatrix nor 
 turae* in some shape or other." Bruce says: 
 *'A natural power of the prevention and re- 
 pair of disorders and disease has as real and 
 as active an existence within us, as have the 
 ordinary functions of the organs themselves. ' * 
 Hippocrates said: *^ Nature is the physidan 
 of diseases." And Ambrose Pare wrote on 
 the walls of the great medical school, the 
 Ecole de Medicine of Paris, thes« words: '^Je 
 le ponsez et Dieu le guarit/' which trans- 
 lated is: **I dressed the wound, and God 
 healed it." 
 
 It is of course true that the life and mind 
 in the cells is derived from the Subconscious l 
 Mind, in fact the cells themselves may be I 
 said to embody the Subconscious Mind, just 1 
 as the cells of the brain emhody the Con- 
 scious Mind. In every cell there is to be 
 found intelligence in a degree required for 
 the successful performance of the particular 
 
52 Mind and Body 
 
 task of that cell. Hudson says: ''All or- 
 ganic tissue is made up of microscopic cells, 
 each one of which is a living, intelligent en- 
 tityJ' And, again, ''The subordinate intel- 
 ligences are the cells of which the whole 
 body is composed, each of which is an intel- 
 ligent entity, endowed with powers comment 
 surate with its functions.' ' In short, the 
 cells of the body are living organs for the 
 expression and manifestation of the Subcon- 
 Sfious Mind. There is not a single cell, 
 group, or part of the party which is devoid 
 of mind. Mind is imminent in the entire 
 body, and in its every part, down to the 
 smallest cell. 
 
 The following quotation from Dr. Thom- 
 son J. Hudson's "Mental Medicine" clearly 
 expresses a truth conceded by modern 
 science. Dr. Hudson says: 
 
 "It follows a priori, that every cell in the 
 body is endowed with intelligence; and this 
 is precisely what all biological science tells 
 lis is true. Beginning with the lowest form 
 of animal life, the humblest cytode, every liv- 
 ing cell is endowed with a wonderful intelli- 
 gence. There is, in fact, no line to be drawn 
 
The Cell-Minds 53 
 
 between life and mind; that is to say, every 
 living organism is a mind organism, from 
 the monera, crawling upon the hed of the 
 ocean, to the most highly differentiated cell 
 in the cerebral cortex of man. Volumes 
 have been written to demonstrate that * psy- 
 chological phenomena begin among the very 
 lowest class of beings ; they are met with in 
 every form of life, from the simplest cellule 
 to the most complicated organism. It is they 
 that are the essential phenomena of life, in- 
 herent in all protoplasm.' (Binet.) It is, 
 in fact, an axiom of science that the lowest 
 unicellular organism is endowed with the po- 
 tentialities of manhood. I have remarked 
 that each living cell is endowed with a won- 
 derful intelligence. This is emphatically 
 true, whether it is a unicellular organism or 
 a constituent element of a multicellular or- 
 ganism. Its wonderful character consists not 
 so much in the amount of intelligence pos- 
 sessed by each individual cell, as it does in 
 the quality of that intelligence. That is to 
 say, each cell is endowed with an instinctive, 
 or intuitive, knowledge of all that is essential 
 to the preservation of its own life, the con- 
 
54 Mind and Body 
 
 servation of its energies, and the perpetua- 
 tion of its species. In other words, it is en- 
 dowed with an intuitive knowledge of the 
 laws of its own being, which knowledge is 
 proportioned to its stage of development and 
 adapted to its environment." 
 
 The cell has the intelligence sufficient to en- 
 able it to seek nourishment, and to move 
 from one place to another in search for food 
 or for other purposes. It holds to its food 
 when secured, and envelops it until it is ab- 
 sorbed and digested. It exercises the power 
 of choice, accepting and selecting one por- 
 tion of food in preference to another. It 
 has the power of discriminating between 
 nourishing food and the reverse. The au- 
 thorities show that it has a rudimentary 
 memory, and avoids the repetition of an un- 
 pleasant or painful experience, and also 
 returns to the locality in which it has previ- 
 ously secured food. Biological experiments 
 have shown that the cells are capable of ex- 
 periencing surprise, pleasure and fear, and 
 that they experience different degrees of feel- 
 ing, and react accordingly in response to 
 stimuli. Verworn, a biologist, even goes so 
 
The Cell-Minds 55 
 
 far as to assert that they habitually adapt 
 tneans to ends, near and remote. In his re- 
 markable work on cell-life, **The Psychic 
 Life of Micro-organisms, ' * Binet says : ' * We 
 shall not regard it as strange, perhaps, to 
 find so complete a psychology in the history 
 of the lower organisms, when we call to mind 
 that, agreeably to the ideas of evolution now 
 accepted, a higher animal is nothing more 
 than a colony of protozoans. Every one of 
 the cells composing such an animal has re- 
 tained its primitive properties, giving them 
 a higher degree of perfection by division of 
 labor and by selection. The epithelial cells 
 that secrete the nails and hair are organisms 
 perfected with reference to the secretion of 
 protective parts. Similarly, the cells of the 
 brain are organisms that have been perfected 
 with reference to psychical attributes." 
 
 Dr. Schofield says: ^'That life involves 
 mind has, of course, like all else, been vigor- 
 ously disputed and equally vigorously af- 
 firmed. ^Life,' says Prof. Bascom, *is not 
 force ; it is combining power. It is the prod- 
 uct and presence of mind.' . . . The 
 extent to which the word mind may be em- 
 
56 Mind and Body 
 
 ployed as tlie inherent cause of purposive 
 movements in organisms is a very difficult 
 question to solve. There can be no doubt that 
 the actual agents in such movements are the 
 natural forces, but behind these the directing 
 and starting power seems to be psychic. 
 . There being an indwelling power, 
 not only for purposive action in each cell, 
 but for endless combinations of cell activi- 
 ties for common ends not at all connected 
 with the mere nutrition of the single cell, but 
 for the good of the completed organism." Dr. 
 E. Dunn says: '^From the first movement 
 when the primordial cell-germ of a human 
 organism comes into being, the entire indi- 
 vidual is present, fitted for human destiny. 
 From the same moment, matter, life and 
 mind are never for an instant separated, 
 their union constituting the essential work 
 of our present existence." Carpenter says: 
 '^The convertibility of physical forces and 
 correlation of these with the vital and the 
 intricacy of that nexus between mental and 
 bodily activity which cannot be analyzed, all 
 lead upwards towards one and the same con- 
 clusion— ^/^e source ol all power is mind. 
 
The Cell-Minds 57 
 
 And that physical conclusion is the apex 
 of the pyramid which has its foundation in 
 the primitive instincts of humanity.*' 
 
 Having seen the evidences of life and mind 
 in the single cell, let us now proceed to a 
 consideration of the intelligence or mind in- 
 herent and manifest in the groups of cells, 
 large and small, including the largest groups 
 which compose the several organs of the 
 body. This line of investigation will lead us 
 to a fuller understanding of the influence of 
 the mental states upon the health or disease 
 of the organs and parts. It will be seen that 
 Mental Healing has a sound biological as 
 well as a psychological basis of truth, and 
 that it is not necessary to invade the fields of 
 metaphysics or theology in order to find an 
 explanation of the effect of mind over body. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE MENTAL BASIS OF CUBE 
 
 We have seen that in each cell in the hu- 
 man body is embodied a part of the Sub- 
 conscious Mind, sufficient in quantity and 
 quality to enable the cell to perform its par- 
 ticular work in the physical community of 
 cells. In the same manner each group of 
 cells, large or small, is possessed of the quan- 
 tity and quality of mind adapted to the suc- 
 cessful performance of its particular func- 
 tion. And, rising in the scale, we find that 
 each of the physical organs is possessed of 
 a *' composite cell-souP' or * ^ organ-mind. ' ' 
 As Hudson says: *^Each organ of the body 
 is composed of a group of cells which are 
 differentiated with special reference to the 
 functions to be performed by that organ. In 
 other words, every function of life is per- 
 formed by groups of co-operative cells, so 
 that the body as a whole is simply a confed- 
 eration of the various groups.'' 
 
 58 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 59 
 
 For instance, as Haeckel says: '^This 'tis- 
 sue sonP is the bigber psycbological function 
 wbicb gives physiological individuality to the 
 compound multicellular organism as a true 
 'cell commonwealth.' It controls all the sep- 
 arate 'cell souls' of the social cells— the mu- 
 tually dependent 'citizens' which constitute 
 the community. . . . The human egg- 
 cell, as soon as it is fertilized, multiplies by 
 division and forms a community, or colony 
 of many social cells. These differentiate 
 themselves, and by their specialization, by 
 various modifications of these cells, the va- 
 rious tissues which compose the -various or- 
 gans are developed. The developed many- 
 celled organisms of man and of all higher 
 animals resemble, therefore, a social civil 
 community, the numerous single individuals 
 of which are, indeed, developed in various 
 ways, but which were originally only simple 
 cells of one common structure." 
 
 Biology shows us that there are unques- 
 tionably methods of communication between 
 cell and cell, although it has not as yet been 
 definitely determined just how this communi- 
 cation is effected. In the cell-communities 
 
60 Mind and Body 
 
 of tlie micro-organisms there is undoubtedly 
 present the power to communicate on the 
 part of the several cells composing the com- 
 munity, and the pain or discomfort of one 
 part is evidently felt by the whole community. 
 Just as an army, or a congregation, has a 
 mind common to the whole, in addition to the 
 individual minds of its units, so has every or- 
 gan of the body an *' organ mind" in addition 
 to the individual cell minds of its unit cells. 
 Tlje fact of the existence of ''group-mind,'' 
 or ''collective-mind" is recognized by the 
 best authorities in modern psychology, and 
 the study of its principles throws light on 
 some hitherto perplexing phenomena. 
 
 Prof. Le Bon, in his work "The Crowd," 
 says of the "collective mind" of men: "The 
 sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the 
 gathering take one and the same direction, 
 and their conscious personality vanishes. A 
 collective mind is formed, doubtless transi- 
 tory, but presenting very clearly marked 
 characteristics. The gathering has become 
 what, in the absence of a better expression, 
 I will call an organized crowd, or, if the term 
 be considered preferable, a psychological 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 61 
 
 crowd. It forms a single being, and is sub- 
 jected to the law of the mental unity of 
 crowds. . . . The most striking pecu- 
 liarity presented by a psychological crowd 
 is the following: Whoever be the individuals 
 that compose it, however like or unlike be 
 their mode of life, their occupation, their 
 character, or their intelligence, the fact that 
 they have been transformed into a crowd 
 puts them in possession of a sort of collective 
 mind, which makes them feel, think, and act 
 in a manner quite different from that in 
 which each individual of them would feel, 
 think and act, were he in a state of isolation. 
 There are certain ideas and feelings which 
 do not come into being, or do not transform 
 themselves into acts, except in the case of 
 the individuals forming a crowd. 
 In the collective mind the intellectual apti- 
 tudes of the individuals, and in consequence 
 their individuality, is weakened. 
 The most careful observations seem to prove 
 that an individual immerged for some length 
 of time in a crowd in action soon finds itself 
 in a special state, which most resembles the 
 state of fascination in which the hypnotized 
 
62 Mind and Body 
 
 individual finds himself. . . . The con- 
 scious personality has entirely vanished, will 
 and discernment are lost. All feelings and 
 thoughts are bent in the direction determined 
 by the hypnotizer. . . . An individual in 
 a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains 
 of sand, which the wind stirs up at will. ' ' 
 
 In short, psychology recognizes a mental 
 fusion between the individual minds of units 
 composing a community of cells, insects, 
 higher animals and even men. The '* spirit 
 of the hive*' noted by all students of bee-life, 
 and the community spirit in an ant-hill are 
 instances serving to illustrate the general 
 principle of '*the collective mind." As we 
 have seen in the preceding chapter, the en- 
 tire human body is a vast community of cells, 
 each unit in the community having relations 
 with every other unit, and all having sprung 
 from the same original egg-cell. This great 
 community, or nation of cells is divided into 
 many smaller communities, chief among 
 which are the principal organs of the body, 
 as the stomach, the intestines, the liver, the 
 kidneys, the spleen, the heart, etc. And, fol- 
 lowing the general rule, each of these organ- 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 63 
 
 communities possesses its own ^^ collective 
 mind," subordinate, of course, to the great 
 community mind known as the Subconscious 
 Mind. Ordinarily these communities live in 
 peace and harmony, and in obedience to the 
 national government. But occasionally re- 
 bellions and revolutions are started, which 
 cause much inharmony, pain and disease. 
 Sometimes these rebellions arise from abuse 
 of the particular organ by its owner, or from 
 sympathy with another abused organ, or 
 from general abuse of the system. But, at 
 other times, there seems to be an active dis- 
 content springing up in an organ, to the quell- 
 ing of which the entire Subconscious Mind 
 bends its energy and forces. Very often 
 these rebellions are started by adverse auto- 
 suggestions or fear thoughts emanating from 
 the conscious mind of the individual, which 
 act according to the law of suggestion and 
 practically hypnotize the mind of the organ 
 in question. 
 
 This idea of each organ having a mind of 
 its own— being practically an entity, in fact— 
 may be somewhat startling to those who have 
 never had the matter presented to them, but 
 
64 Mind and Body 
 
 the statement is backed up by tbe best scien- 
 tific authorities who, however, do not usually 
 state it in so plain terms, or popular form. 
 It is likely that the science of the future will 
 make some great discoveries regarding this 
 matter of the ^^ collective mind'' of the or- 
 gans, and that the schools of medicine will 
 adapt the new knowledge to the treatment of 
 disease. In the meantime, the practitioners 
 of Mental Healing are availing themselves of 
 this principle, often without realizing the 
 principle itself. 
 
 The writer has been interested in this sub- 
 ject of the ^' organ mind'' for a number of 
 years, and has conducted a number of experi- 
 ments along this line, the result being that he 
 feels more firmly convinced each year of the 
 truth of the theory or idea. He has found 
 that mental treatments based on this theory 
 have been very successful, much more so in 
 fact than those conducted in pursuance to 
 other theories. It seems that by applying the 
 suggestive treatment direct to the affected 
 organ a quicker response is had. The writer 
 is indebted to Dr. Paul Edwards, a well 
 known mental healer, who several years ago 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 65 
 
 advanced the idea that the mind or *' intelli- 
 gence*' in the several organs differed greatly 
 in temperament and quality. He informed 
 US that he had proven to his own satisfac- 
 tion that the heart is *^very intelligent/' and 
 qnite amenable to mild, gentle, coaxing sug- 
 gestions, advice or orders; while, on the 
 other hand, the liver is a most mulish, stub- 
 born, obstinate organ-mind, which requires 
 one to drive it in a sharp positive maimer. 
 Investigation along these lines suggested by 
 Dr. Edwards has convinced the writer that 
 the theory is warranted by the facts. Ex- 
 periments have shown that the heart organ- 
 mind is gentle, mild, and easily influenced by 
 kindly suggestion, advice and requests, and 
 that it needs but a word directed to it to at- 
 tract its attention. Likewise, the liver has 
 been found to be brutish, stubborn and ob- 
 stinate, needing the most vigorous sugges- 
 tions—in short the liver-mind is a donkey 
 and must be so treated. The liver-mind is 
 sluggish, torpid and sleepy, and needs much 
 prodding before it will * * sit up and take no- 
 tice." The stomach has been found to be 
 quite intelligent, especially when it has not 
 
66 * Mind and Body 
 
 been brutalized by ^ * stuffing. ' ' It will readily 
 respond to suggestive treatment of all kinds, 
 it being noticed that it may be easily flat- 
 tered or ** jollied" into good behavior, just 
 as may certain children. The nervous sys- 
 tem has a mind of its own, and will accept 
 suggestions, although it is usually difficult 
 to attract its attention, owing to its habit of 
 concentration upon its regular work. The 
 bowel-mind will respond to firm, kind treat- 
 ment, as will also the uterus-mind and the 
 mind controlling the other organs peculiar 
 to women. 
 
 In another work, the writer has said re- 
 garding this form of treatment of the organs 
 through their organ-minds: '^Eemeinber, 
 always, that you are mind talking to mind, 
 not to dead matter. There is mind in every 
 cell, nerve, organ and part of the body, and 
 in the body as a whole, and this mind will 
 listen to your central mind and obey it, be- 
 cause your central mind is positive to it— 
 the organ is negative to you. Carry this 
 idea with you in giving these treatments, and 
 endeavor to visualize the mind in the or- 
 gans, as clearly as may be, for by so doing 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 67 
 
 you get them in better rapport with you, and 
 can handle them to better advantage. And 
 always remember that the virtue lies not in 
 the mere sound of the words that happen to 
 reach the organ or cells— they do not under- 
 stand words as words, but they do under- 
 stand the meaning behind the words. But 
 without words it is very hard for you to 
 think, or clearly express the feeling— and 
 so, by all means use the words just as if the 
 organ-mind understood the actual meaning 
 thereof, for by so doing you can drive in the 
 meaning of the word— and induce the men- 
 tal state and conditions necessary to work 
 the cure. 
 
 Dr. S. F. Meacham, in a magazine article 
 published several years ago, said: *^Let me 
 once more call your attention to that one 
 great principle of disease and cure. It is 
 the only medical creed I hold to-day and will 
 bear repeating, lest we neglect it. Disease 
 is a failure of the cells to make good their 
 waste J or to do their full duty. This may be 
 an individual matter with the cell, or may 
 result from imperfect co-operation; there 
 
68 Mind and Body 
 
 may be a mutiny in tlie co-operative com- 
 monwealth, constituting the body. Apart 
 from all mutual help, or co-operation of cells, 
 each individual cell must either do its full 
 duty, or suffer, and perchance die, as the 
 result. Remember that each individual cell 
 lives, and has an office that no other cell can 
 fill to save it. If the other cell does the work, 
 it will live, but the failing cell will not profit 
 thereby. By co-operating they may lighten 
 each other's labors, but no cell is or can he 
 exempt from doing its part. Any failure of 
 this kind is disease either local or general, 
 according to the degree and nature of the 
 failure, or according to the importance of 
 the mutinous or weakened cell. A cure re- 
 sults wben the cells again do their work. Or, 
 if a certain number die, a cure is established 
 when other cells learn to do that particular 
 work, which is sometimes the case. A rem- 
 edy is any substance, or force, ar procedure 
 tbat will stimulate, or help, or remove obsta- 
 cles that prevent these cells from doing their 
 work. Keep in mind, that the life process 
 acting through or in the cell does the work 
 either aided, or alone. The lesson then is 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 69 
 
 that all tliese methods do good, and that ow- 
 ing to the view point, mental status, or ex- 
 pectancy of the individual, now one and now 
 another method will appeal to him and be 
 accepted. No matter what we do, we aid, 
 we assist only— we do not cure. 
 The process going on in each cell is cm in- 
 telligent one, and all extrinsic methods are 
 really but suggestions offered to the cell, 
 the real worker ; and the fact is that any one 
 of these helps may be chosen, and all may 
 be rejected. . . ." 
 
 **The repair of a cell is as equally as in- 
 tellectual a process as any other can be. If, 
 for instance, blind force can repair one cell, 
 it can many; if it can build one, it can all, 
 and mind and intellect are then without 
 causal efficacy, without spontaneity, and 
 blind force, fatality and purposeless action 
 reign supreme. . . . According to this 
 theory the building and repairing of cells 
 would not be intellectual, as there would be 
 no working plan or purpose. I am aware 
 that a purely extrinsic study of the cells 
 and of the body will force this conclusion 
 upon any candid, unprejudiced mind; but 
 
70 Mind and Body 
 
 a study from the inside is a different mat- 
 ter. A cell, looked at from without, moves 
 only when stimulated; but is this really true? 
 The body is but a compound of cells when 
 viewed from the outside; then if one cell 
 moves when stimulated, why not twenty, a 
 hundred, a thousand, a billion, the entire 
 body! But is it true of the body? You 
 come to me and propose some scheme, or act, 
 which I carry out. Now is your proposition 
 the real cause of my act, or only a condition! 
 I>o I not choose, and either do the thing or 
 not, as determined from within! If this is 
 true of the body, why not of the cell! May 
 not the stimulation we see be a condition 
 only, and the real cause of the act be within 
 the cell itself! . . . The cell is not a 
 mere machine, hut a living entity, doing 
 everything that the body does. It eats, 
 drinks, moves, reproduces its kind, selects 
 its food, repairs its waste, etc. These are 
 intellectual processes, but may not be 
 conscious. . . 
 
 *^The cure consists in the repairing of 
 the wasted tissue, and in the cells restoring 
 and repairing themselves into a definite pat- 
 
Mental Basis of Cuke 71 
 
 tern, necessary to mutual work, so that the 
 commonwealth may prosper. Air, water, sun- 
 shine, food, etc., are necessary to the per- 
 formance of this work of repair. When 
 these are furnished, even under the best con- 
 ditions possible, the cells must use them to 
 build up the waste, and this they do by their 
 internal forces. But this process is what is 
 called repair on the one hand, and cure on 
 the other. External means may be essential, 
 but that will not make them really curative. 
 . . . It is well, also, to keep in mind that 
 external in the true sense of the term as 
 we are using it here. Any force outside of 
 the diseased cell is an external force to that 
 cell even if it be thought- force. Disease is 
 always treated by external force, external as 
 defined above, and all disease is just as 
 surely cured by internal force— viz: force 
 resident in the cell itself. Here we all stand 
 around the suffering cell, one with drug- 
 power in his hand, another with electricity, 
 or water, or heat, or directed attention— 
 thought-force or more nourishment which 
 necessitates a better circulation to that area, 
 or some other of the thousand therapeutic 
 
72 Mind and Body 
 
 measures, and we are close enough together 
 at last to see that we are simply using dif- 
 ferent stimuli to try to aid the real worker 
 within the cell to do his work by furnishing, 
 not only material that is necessary, but force 
 as well, that out of the abundance his work 
 may be easy and rapid. ' ' 
 
 The reader who will consider the numer- 
 ous instances of cure by Suggestion or 
 Faith-Cure, as noted in the following chap- 
 ters, will be better able to understand the 
 principle underlying these cures if he will 
 realize the fact brought out so forcibly by 
 Dr. Meacham, as above quoted. The atten- 
 tion of the patient being directed to the or- 
 gan affected, in connection with the stimu- 
 lating and vitalizing effect of Faith and Be- 
 lief, starts into renewed activity the cell- 
 mind of the organ in question, and arouses 
 its reparative and recuperative energies. 
 Each organ, and its component cells and cell- 
 groups, is of course under the control of the 
 Subconscious Mind, and forms a part of the 
 material embodiment thereof. The Subcon- 
 scious Mind, being stimulated by the Sug- 
 gestion and Faith, and having its Expectant 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 73 
 
 Attention aroused, concentrates its energies 
 upon the reparative and recuperative proc- 
 esses in the organ, and the work of cure pro- 
 ceeds. The cure, in every case, is simply 
 either repair work, or else the restoration 
 of normal functioning— in either case the 
 cells themselves doing the work. 
 
 In the consideration of the reasons under- 
 lying the cure of disease by Psycho-Thera- 
 peutics, we must first consider the question 
 of what disease really is. And in this phase 
 of the consideration, it will be well for us to 
 first dispel the erroneous ideas concerning 
 disease which we have been entertaining. 
 Perhaps the following striking statement 
 from Sidney Murphy, M. D., printed in the 
 magazine ** Suggestion" several years ago, 
 may help you to form a correct idea of the 
 nature of disease, or rather a correct idea 
 of what disease is not. Dr. Murphy says, in 
 the said article, among other things: *'Prof. 
 S D. Gross, formerly of the New York Uni- 
 versity Medical School, says: *0f the es- 
 sence of disease very little is known— indeed 
 nothing at all.' Nevertheless it is evident 
 
74 Mind and Body 
 
 tliat medical men have an idea on the sub- 
 ject. The theory generally held, I believe, 
 is that disease is destructive action; but just 
 what this means, whether des.truotive action 
 on the part of vitality itself, or by something 
 acting upon the vitality, is not so clear; but 
 we are enabled to gain some light by reference 
 to the expression used in medical books con- 
 cerning it. Thus we find that disease * at- 
 tacks us,' that it * seats itself in an organ,' 
 that *it works through us., runs its course,' 
 etc. It is also said to be *very malignant,^ 
 or * quite mild, ' ^ persistently resisting all 
 treatment,' or * yielding readily' to it. In 
 fact, it is considered an entity, possessing 
 character and disposition and general vital 
 qualities— a something which domiciles it- 
 self in the vital domain, and exercises its 
 forces to the destruction of the vital powers. 
 It is indeed spoken of as one would speak of 
 a rat in his granary, or a mouse in his cup- 
 board, and efforts are made to dislodge it, 
 or kill it, as one would dislodge or kill any 
 other living thing. This theory of disease 
 is beginning to be looked upon even by the 
 medical world as untenable. Living things 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 75 
 
 are always possessed of organizations hav- 
 ing fonn or shape ; and hence if disease were 
 such, its form would be discerned and de- 
 scribed; a thing which never has been done. 
 Disease by our ancestors was considered a 
 subtile and mysterious thing which pounced 
 down upon us, and runs its course without any 
 reference to causes; and language being 
 formed to convey this idea, it has been trans- 
 mitted almost unchanged from generation 
 to generation down to the present time. And 
 the medical profession of today is simply 
 an embodiment of that idea. It is probable 
 that the term * destructive action' is gener- 
 ally held to mean destructive action on the 
 part of the vitality itself. . . . Life in 
 organic form is developed according to law. 
 Slowly rising into power, organization at 
 length reaches it zenith, and then goes down 
 the gentle declivity, until the soul steps off 
 into the great beyond, without pain or strug- 
 gle, provided always that the conditions of 
 life are natural and therefore favorable ; but 
 if these be unfavorable, unfavorable results 
 must of course follow; vitality, neverthe- 
 less, doing the best it can under the eircum- 
 
76 Mind and Body 
 
 stances to preserve the normal state of tlie 
 body. Disease, we propose to show, is not 
 antagonistic to vital action, but the oppo- 
 site, a remedial effort, or vital action on the 
 defensive. It is not a downward tendency, 
 nor the result of a downward tendency on 
 the part of a living organism, but is itself 
 an upward or self -preservative tendency, the 
 result of disobedience to natural laws. It 
 is simply abnormal action, because of abnor- 
 mal conditions/' 
 
 In considering the above revolutionary 
 statement of Dr. Murphy, we must remem- 
 ber that ^* vitality" or *^ vital force" is sim- 
 ply the action of the Subconscious Mind 
 operating through the sympathetic system, 
 the organ-minds, and the cell-minds. All 
 vital energy, at the last is mental energy. 
 And, we must also remember that the ** ab- 
 normal conditions" which Dr. Murphy 
 speaks of as being the cause of ^'abnormal 
 action" or disease, are not confined alone to 
 physical or material conditions, but also to 
 abnormal mental conditions, such as fear- 
 thought, adverse suggestions, improper use 
 of the imagination, etc. As we have seen 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 77 
 
 in the preceding chapters, the causes of dis- 
 ease may be mental as well as material or 
 physical. 
 
 The Subconscious Mind in its vital activi- 
 ties is constantly at work building up, re- 
 pairing, growing, nourishing, supporting 
 and regulating the body, doing its best to 
 throw off abnormal conditions, and seeking 
 to do the best it can when these conditions 
 cannot be removed. With its source pure and 
 unpolluted the stream of vitality flows on 
 unhindered, but when the poison of fear- 
 thought, adverse suggestion and false be- 
 lief is poured into the source or spring from 
 which the stream rises, it follows that the 
 waters of life will no longer be pure and 
 clear. Let us notice the general direction of 
 the vital activities of the Subconscious Mind. 
 
 In the first place we find that the vital ac- 
 tivities are primarily concerned with self- 
 preservation^ that is with the preservation 
 of the individual and the race. One has but 
 to notice the ever-present manifestation of 
 the **race instinct" which draws the males 
 and females of the several species together, 
 that they may mate and bring forth the 
 
78 Mind and Body 
 
 young needed to keep alive the species. The 
 parental devotions, with its many sacrifices 
 of personal pleasure for the young, are in- 
 stances ever before us. And no less strik- 
 ing is the companion activities which make 
 for the preservation of the individual. The 
 instinctive tendency toward self-preserva- 
 tion is so strong that it overpowers the rea- 
 son in the majority of cases. Men may de- 
 cry the value of life, but let their life be 
 threatened and the instinctive protective 
 feeling causes them to fight for life against 
 all odds. *^A11 that a man hath will he give 
 for his life.'^ And this instinctive activity 
 is manifest not only in the individual as a 
 whole, but in every cell of his body. Every 
 cell is striving hard for the welfare of the 
 community of which it forms a part. Even 
 in disease it strives to throw off the abnor- 
 mal conditions which afflict the body, and 
 failing to do so it hobbles along doing the 
 best it can under the circumstances. 
 
 The tiny seed sprouting in the ground, 
 and lifting weights a thousand times that of 
 itself, shows the self-preservative energies 
 and activities of the mind principle within 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 79 
 
 it. The healing work of the cells in the case 
 of a wound, or of a broken bone, as described 
 elsewhere in this book, gives ns another ex- 
 ample. The healing efforts of the organism 
 striving to throw off the morbid substances 
 within the body, purging them away in a 
 flux, or burning them up with a fever, show 
 the operations of the same principle. This, 
 we have seen, is called the vis medicatrix na- 
 turae, or ** healing power of nature,'* which 
 operates in man as well as in the case of the 
 lower animals— but it is really but the oper- 
 ations of the great Subconscious Mind of the 
 individual. As Dr. Murphy, previously 
 quoted, says: *^ Certainly all experience de- 
 clares and all physicians will admit that 
 where vital power is abundant in a man he 
 will get well from almost any injuries short 
 of complete destruction of vital organs; but 
 where vitality is low, recovery is much more 
 diflficult, if not impossible, which can only 
 be explained on the principle that vitality 
 always works upward toward life and health 
 to the extent of its ability under the circum- 
 stances, because, if it worked downward, the 
 
so Mind and Body 
 
 less vitality, the more surely and speedily 
 would death result.'^ 
 
 Following the law of self-preservation, we 
 find that of accommodation manifesting it- 
 self in the vital activities of the Subconscious 
 Mind. This principle or law works in the 
 direction of adjusting the organism to con- 
 ditions which it cannot remedy. Thus a sap- 
 ling bent out of shape, will bend its branches 
 upward until once more they will reach to- 
 ward the sky notwithstanding the deformed 
 trunk. Seed sprouting from a narrow crev- 
 ice in a rock, and unable to split the rock, 
 will assume a deformed shape but will hold 
 tenaciously to Hfe, and will thrive under 
 these abnormal conditions. This principle 
 of accommodation acts upon the idea of **life 
 at any price," and of '^making the best of 
 things.'' Man and the lower animals ac- 
 commiodate themselves to their environment, 
 when they are unable to overcome the un- 
 satisfactory conditions of the latter. The 
 study of anthropology, natural history, and 
 botany will convince anyone that the prin- 
 ciple of accommodation is everywhere pres- 
 ent in connection with that of self-preserva- 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 81 
 
 tion. And the diseased conditions, and 
 abnormal functioning, which we find in cases 
 of chronic diseases is simply the principle 
 of accommodation in the vital activities of 
 the Subconscious Mind, but which it is ** try- 
 ing to make the best of it," and. holding 
 on to *'life at any price.'' 
 
 Dr. Murphy, previously quoted, says: 
 *' Disease, in its essential nature, has a 
 deeper significance than simply abnormal 
 manifestations. It is really a remedial ef- 
 fort, not necessarily successful, but an at- 
 tempt to change, or have changed existing 
 conditions. And for this reason any im- 
 proper relation of the living organism to 
 external agents necessarily results in an in- 
 jury to that organism, which by virtue of its 
 being self-preservative, immediately sets up 
 defensive action, and begins as soon as pos- 
 sible to repair the damages that have ac- 
 crued. This defensive or reparative action, 
 of course, corresponds to the conditions to 
 be corrected, and hence is abnormal and dis- 
 eased; and its severity and persistence will 
 depend upon the damages to be repaired, 
 and the intensity and persistence of the 
 
82 Mind and Body 
 
 causes that produced it. Serious injury- 
 present or impending will demand serious 
 vital action; desperate conditions, desper- 
 ate action. But in all cases tlie action is 
 vital, an attempt at restoration, and tlie en- 
 ergy displayed will exactly correspond to 
 the interests involved and the vitality that 
 is available." 
 
 From the above, and from what has been 
 shown in previous chapters, it will be seen 
 that just as is health the result of the nor- 
 mal functioning of the Subconscious Mind, 
 so is disease the result of its abnormal 
 functioning. And it may also be seen that 
 the true healing power must come alone from 
 and through the Subconscious Mind itself, 
 although the same may be aroused, awak- 
 ened and directed by various outside agen- 
 cies. As Dr. Thomson J. Hudson says: 
 ** Granted that there is an intelligence that 
 controls the functions of the body in health, 
 it follows that it is the same power or en- 
 ergy that fails in case of disease. Failing, 
 it requires assistance; and that is what all 
 therapeutic agencies aim to accomplish. No 
 intelligent physician of any school claims 
 
Mental Basis of Cure 83 
 
 to be able to do more than to * assist nature' 
 to restore normal conditions of the body. 
 That it is a mental energy that thus requires 
 assistance, no one denies ; for science teaches 
 us that the whole body is made up of a con- 
 federation of intelligent entities, each of 
 which performs its functions with an intelli- 
 gence exactly adapted to the performance of 
 its special duties as a member of the confed- 
 eracy. There is, indeed, no life without 
 mind, from the lowest unicellular organism 
 up to man. It is therefore a mental energy 
 that actuates every fiber of the body under 
 all its conditions. That there is a central in- 
 telligence that controls each of these mind 
 organisms, is self-evident. ... It is 
 sufficient for us to know that such an intelli- 
 gence exists, and that, for the time being, 
 it is the controlling energy that normally 
 regulates the action of the myriad cells of 
 which the body is composed. It is, then, a 
 mental organism that all therapeutic 
 agencies are designed to energize, when, for 
 any cause, it fails to perform its functions 
 with reference to any part of the physical 
 structure.'* 
 
CHAPTER Y ' 
 
 THE HISTORY OF PSYCHO-THERAPY 
 
 One of the most remarkable acliievements 
 of the New Psyeliology is that of gathering 
 np the scattered instances of the effect of 
 the power of the mind over the body, under 
 the various masks and guises worn during 
 • the ages, and uniting them in one broad and 
 general synthesis in which is to be seen the 
 one fundamental principle of Mental Heal- 
 ing operating under a thousand names, 
 forms and theories, in every race, nation 
 and clime in all ages past and present. The 
 New Psychology is the great reconciler of 
 the various theories, dogmas and specula- 
 tions concerned with the subject of the 
 strange cures effected by the mind, as well as 
 with the equally strange adverse effect upon 
 the physical organism of negative thoughts. 
 From the earliest days of history we find 
 records of strange and marvelous cures ef- 
 fected by non-material agents. In some 
 
 84 
 
History of Psycho-Theeapy 85 
 
 cases the effect is attributed to magical 
 power, while in others, and the majority of 
 cases, the cure is attributed to some particu- 
 lar religious belief, creed or ceremony. Not 
 only in the folk-lore of the several races, and 
 in their general traditions, but also in the 
 written and graven record do we find traces 
 of the universality of the principle of mental 
 therapeutics. 
 
 H. Addington Bruce says: ^* Psycho- 
 therapy might well be cited in support of 
 the old adage that there is nothing new but 
 what has been forgotten. Traces of it are to 
 be found almost as far back as authentic his- 
 tory extends, and even allusion to methods 
 which bear a strong resemblance to those of 
 modern times. The literature and monu- 
 mental remains of ancient Egypt, Greece, 
 Eome, Persia, India and China reveal a 
 widespread knowledge of hypnotism and its 
 therapeutic value. There is in the British 
 Museum a bas-relief from Thebes which has 
 been interpreted as representing a physician 
 hypnotizing a patient by making * passes' 
 over him. According to the Ebers papyrus, 
 the * laying on of hands' formed a prominent 
 
86 Mind and Body 
 
 feature of Egyptian medical practice as 
 early as 1552 B. C, or nearly thirty-five hun- 
 dred years ago ; and it is known that a simi- 
 lar mode of treatment was employed by 
 priests of Chaldea in ministering to the sick. 
 So, also, the priests of the famous Temples 
 of Health are credited with having worked 
 numerous cures by the mere touch of the 
 hands.. In connection with these same 
 Temples of Health were sleeping chambers, 
 ijepose in which was supposed to be excep- 
 tionally beneficial. Asclepiades of Bithynia, 
 who won considerable fame at Eome as a 
 physician, systematically made use of the 
 induced trance' in the treatment of certain 
 diseases. Plautus, Martial, and Seneca re- 
 fer in their writings to some mysterious 
 process of manipulation which had the same 
 effect— that is, of putting persons into an ar- 
 tificial sleep. And Solon sang, apparently, 
 of some form of mesmeric cure : 
 
 "'The smallest hurts sometimes increase and rage 
 More than all art of physic can assuage; 
 Sometimes the fury of the worst disease 
 The hand by gentle stroking, will appease.' 
 
 ''Many other instances might be men- 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 87 
 
 tioned testifying to the remarkable extent to 
 which psycho-therapy, in one form or an- 
 other, was utilized in the countries of the 
 ancient world. This, of course, does not 
 necessarily imply that the ancients had any 
 real understanding of the psychological and 
 physiological principles governing its oper- 
 ation. On the contrary, there is every rea- 
 son to believe that they used it much as do 
 too many of the mental healers of to-day— 
 on the basis of * faith cure' pure and simple, 
 with no attempt at diagnosis, and in a hit- 
 or-miss fashion. It was not until the very 
 end of the Middle Ages, so far as history in- 
 forms us, that anything even remotely re- 
 sembling a scientific inquiry into its nature 
 and possibilities was undertaken, and then 
 only in a faint, vague, indefinite way, by 
 men who were metaphysicians and mystics 
 rather than scientists. The first of these, 
 Petrys Pomponatius, a sixteenth-century 
 philosopher, sought to prove that disease 
 was curable without drugs, by means of the 
 * magnetism' existing in certain specially 
 gifted individuals. ^When those who are en- 
 dowed with this faculty,' he affirmed, *oper- 
 
88 Mind and Body 
 
 ate by employing the force of the imagina- 
 tion and the will, this force affects, their 
 blood and their spirits, which produce the 
 intended effects by means of an evaporation 
 thrown outwards. ' Following Pomponatius, 
 John Baptist von Helmont, to whom medical 
 science owes a great deal, also proclaimed 
 the curative virtue of magnetism, which he 
 described as an invisible fluid called forth 
 and directed by the influence of the human 
 will. Other writers, notably Sir Kenelm 
 Digby, laid stress on the power of the imagi- 
 nation as an agent in the cause as well as 
 the cure of disease, compiling in a curious 
 little treatise published in 1658, as interest- 
 ing a collection of illustrative cases as is 
 contained in the literature of modern psycho- 
 therapy.'' 
 
 In the Middle Ages, we read that there 
 were many instances of miraculous cures ef- 
 fected at the various shrines of the saints, 
 and in the churches in which were exhibited 
 the bones and other relics of the holy peo- 
 ple of church history. As Dr. George E. 
 Patton says: ''A word scrawled upon parch- 
 ment, for instance, would cure fevers; an 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 89 
 
 hexameter from the Iliad of Homer cured 
 gout, while rheumatism succumhed to a verse 
 from Lamentations. These could be multi- 
 plied, and undoubtedly all were equally po- 
 tent of cure in like manner. ... At one 
 time holy wells were to be found in almost 
 every parish of Ireland, to which wearisome 
 journeys were made for the miraculous pow- 
 ers of cure. It was the custom of the cured 
 to hang upon the bushes contiguous to the 
 springs small fragments of their clothing, or 
 a cane, or a crutch as a memento of cure, so 
 that from afar the springs could be easily 
 located by the many colored fragments of 
 clothing, rags, canes and crutches swayed 
 upon the branches by the wind. Inasmuch 
 as the bushes for many rods around were 
 thus adorned, the cures must have been far 
 from few.'' 
 
 In the Middle Ages it was the custom of 
 persons afflicted with scrofula and kindred 
 disorders to come before the king upon cer- 
 tain days to receive the ^^Eoyal Touch,*' or 
 laying-on-of-hands which was held to be an 
 infallible specific for the disease. The cus- 
 
90 Mind and Body 
 
 torn was instituted by Edward the Confes- 
 sor, and continued until the accession to 
 power of the house of Brunswick. It is a 
 matter of history that many persons were 
 cured by the touch of the king's hands. 
 Wiseman, a celebrated surgeon and physi- 
 cian of old London testifies as follows: **I 
 myself have been an eye-witness of many 
 thousands of cures performed by his maj- 
 esty's touch alone, without any assistance of 
 metiicine or surgery, and those, many of 
 them, such as had tired out the endeavors 
 of able surgeons before they came hither. 
 . . . I must needs profess that what I 
 write will little more than show the weak- 
 ness of our ability when compared with his 
 majesty's, who cureth more in one year than 
 all the surgeons of London have done in an 
 age." The virtue of the ^^ King's Touch" 
 was finally brought in doubt by the wonder- 
 ful successes of a man by the name of Valen- 
 tine Greatrakes, who in the Seventeenth Cen- 
 tury began ** laying on hands" and made 
 even more wonderful cures than those of the 
 king. So marked was his success that the 
 government had difficulty in suppressing the 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 91 
 
 growing conviction among the common peo- 
 ple that Greatrakes must be of royal blood, 
 and the rightful heir to the throne, because 
 of the great healing virtues of his hands, 
 which, they argued, could be possessed only 
 by those having royal blood in their veins. 
 The Chirurgical Society of London investi- 
 gated Greatrakes' cures, and rendered an 
 opinion that he healed by virtue of ^*some 
 mysterious sanative contagion in his body.'' 
 But perhaps the most notable figure in the 
 European history of Mental Healing was 
 Franz Anton Mesmer, a native of Switzer- 
 land, who was born in 1734, and who later 
 in the century created the greatest excite- 
 ment in several European countries by his 
 strange theories and miraculous claims. 
 Frank Podmore in a recent work says of 
 Mesmer: **He had no pretensions to be a 
 thinker; he stole his philosophy ready-made 
 from a few belated alchemists; and his en- 
 tire system of healing was based on a delu- 
 sion. His extraordinary success was due to 
 the lucky accident of the times. Mesmer 's 
 first claim to our remembrance lies in this— 
 that he wrested the privilege of healing from 
 
92 Mind and Body 
 
 the cliurclies and gave it to mankind aS' a 
 ■universal possession." 
 
 Mesmer held that there was in Nature a 
 universal magnetic force which had a pow- 
 erful therapeutic effect when properly ap- 
 plied. He cured many people by touching 
 them with an iron rod, through which he 
 claimed the universal magnetism flowed 
 from his body to that of the patient. He 
 called this magnetic fluid ''animial mag- 
 netism. ' ' Later on he devised his celebrated 
 ** magnetic tub'' or haquet, by means of^ 
 which he was able to treat his patients en^ 
 masse. Podmore gives the following inter- 
 esting account of scenes surrounding his 
 treatments : 
 
 '^The baquet was a large oaken tub, four 
 or five feet in diameter and a foot or more 
 in depth, closed by a wooden cover. Inside 
 the tub were placed bottles full of water dis- 
 posed in rows radiating from the center, the 
 necks in some of the rows pointing towards 
 the center, in others away from it. AH these 
 bottles had been previously ^magnetized' by 
 Mesmer. Sometimes there were several 
 rows^ ef bottles, one abovei the otherj the 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 93 
 
 machine was then said to be at high pres- 
 sure. The bottles rested on layers of pow- 
 dered glass and iron filings. The tub itself 
 was filled with water. The whole machine, 
 it will be seen, was a kind of travesty of the 
 galvanic cell. To carry out the resemblance, 
 the cover of the tub was pierced with holes, 
 through which passed slender iron rods of 
 varying lengths, which were jointed and 
 movable, so that they could be readily ap- 
 plied to any part of the patient's body. 
 Eound this battery the patients were seated 
 in a circle, each with his iron rod. Further, 
 a cord, attached at one end to the tub, was 
 passed round the body of each of the sit- 
 ters, so as to bind them all into a chain. Out- 
 side the first a second circle would fre- 
 quently be formed, who would connect them- 
 selves together by holding hands. Mesmer, 
 in a lilac robe, and his assistant operators— 
 vigorous and handsome young men selected 
 for the purpose— walked about the room, 
 pointing their fingers or an iron rod held in 
 their hands at the diseased parts." 
 
 Mesmer made many wonderful cures, and 
 attracted wide attention. In 1781 the king 
 
94 Mind and Body 
 
 of France offered him a pension of thirty 
 thousand livres if he would make public his 
 secret. The offer was refused, but he gave 
 private instruction and opened a school. 
 He had many pupils and followers, promi- 
 nent among whom was the Marquis de Puy- 
 segur, who made discoveries resulting in the 
 identification of Mesmerism with the * France 
 condition" now commonly associated with 
 the term, whereas originally Mesmerism in- 
 cluded simply the healing process. Mes- 
 mer's methods continued popular for many 
 years after his death, until Braid's work re- 
 sulted in the founding of the modern school 
 of Hypnotism, and Mesmerism died out. 
 
 The Abbe Faria, about 1815, after inves- 
 tigating Mesmerism and attracting much at- 
 tention, discarded the ^^fluidic'^ theory of 
 Mesmer, and held, instead, that in order to 
 induce the mesmeric state and to produce the 
 phenomena thereof, it was necessary merely 
 to create a mental state of *^ expectant at- 
 tention'^ on the part of the patient. The 
 cause of the state and the phenomena, he 
 held, was not in the operator but in the 
 mind of the patient— purely subjective, in 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 95 
 
 fact. Alexander Bertrand, a Frencliman, 
 published a work about this time, holding 
 theories similar to those of Faria. In 1841 
 James Braid, an English physician, be<?om- 
 ing interested in Mesmerism, discovered that 
 the mesmeric state might be artificially in- 
 duced by staring at bright objects until the 
 eyes became fatigued, etc., and, later, that 
 any method whereby concentration and '* ex- 
 pectant attention" might be induced would 
 produce the phenomenon. He duplicated all 
 the feats of the mesmerists, including the 
 healing of diseases. He called his new sys- 
 tem *^ Hypnotism" to distinguish it from 
 Mesmerism, and under its new name it 
 gained favor among the medical fraternity. 
 Moreover, in connection with his predeces- 
 sors, Faria and Bertrand, he laid the basis 
 for the modern theories of Suggestive 
 Therapeutics. 
 
 Shortly after Braid's death, in 1860, Dr. 
 A. A. Liebault, a French physician, estab- 
 lished his since famous School of Nancy, in 
 which during the after years the later won- 
 derful discoveries in Suggestive Thera- 
 I)eutics were made. He used the methods of 
 
96 Mind and Body 
 
 hypnotism, but Suggestion was ever the op- 
 erative principle recognized and applied. 
 Liebault said : * ^ It is all a matter of Sugges- 
 tion. My patients are suggested to sleep, 
 and their ills are suggested out of them. It 
 is very simple, once you understand the laws 
 of Suggestion." Dr. Charcot, in his cele- 
 brated clinic in the Salpetriere, in Paris, 
 did great work along the same general lines, 
 although proceeding under somewhat differ- 
 ent theories. Following the example of 
 these and other eminent authorities, the 
 medical fraternity has gradually adopted 
 many of the ideas of Suggestive Thera- 
 peutics, and to-day many of the best medi- 
 cal schools throughout this country and 
 Europe give instruction in this branch of 
 healing. Many books have been written on 
 the subject by eminent medical authorities, 
 and the indications are that during the pres- 
 ent century Suggestive Therapeutics, in its 
 various forms, will come even more promi- 
 nently into popular favor, and that it will 
 be developed far beyond its present limits. 
 Experimental work along these lines is now 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 97 
 
 being conducted in many psychological labo- 
 ratories in our great universities. 
 
 At the same time, as we shall now see, 
 Mental Healing has been attracting much at- 
 tention along other lines, outside of the 
 medical profession, and often allied with re- 
 ligious and metaphysical movements. To 
 understand the subject, we must study it in 
 all of its phases. 
 
 In the early part of the nineteenth century 
 Elijah Perkins, an ignorant blacksmith liv- 
 ing in Connecticut conceived a queer idea of 
 curing disease by means of a peculiar pair 
 of tongs manufactured by himself, one prong 
 being of brass and the other of steel. These 
 tongs were called *' tractors/' and were ap- 
 plied to the body of the patient in the region 
 affected by disease, the body being stroked 
 in a downward direction for a period of 
 about ten minutes. The tractors were used 
 to treat all manner of complaints, ailments 
 and diseases, internal and external, with a 
 wonderful degree of success. Almost mi- 
 raculous cures of all manner of complaints 
 were reported, and people flocked to Per- 
 
98 Mind and Body 
 
 kins from far and near in order to receive 
 the benefit of his wonderful treatments. 
 
 Soon this system of healing came to be 
 called **Perkinsism," as a tribute to the in- 
 ventor. The popularity of the system spread 
 rapidly in the United States, particularly in 
 New England, every city and many towns 
 patronizing Perkins' practitioners and heal- 
 ers. From this country the craze spread to 
 Great Britain, and even to the Continent. 
 Centers of treatment, and even hospitals, 
 were established by the ^^Perkinsites," and 
 the fame of the tractors increased daily in 
 ever widening circles. In Europe alone it 
 is reported that over 1,500,000 cures were 
 performed, and the medical fraternity were 
 at their wit's ends to explain the phenome- 
 non. Finally, Dr. Haygarth, of London, 
 conceived the idea that the real virtue of 
 the cures was vested in the minds, belief and 
 imagination of the patients rather than in 
 the tractors, and that the cures were the re- 
 sult of the induced mental states of the pa- 
 tients instead of by the metallic qualities of 
 the apparatus. He determined to investi- 
 gate the matter under this hypothesis, and 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 99 
 
 accordingly constructed a pair of tractors of 
 wood, painted to resemble the genuine ones. 
 The following account by Bostock describes 
 the result: **He accordingly formed pieces 
 of wood into the shape of tractors and with 
 much assumed pomp and ceremony applied 
 them to a number of sick persons who had 
 been previously prepared to expect some- 
 thing extraordinary. The effects were found 
 to be astonishing. Obstinate pains in the 
 limbs were suddenly cured; joints that had 
 long been immovable were restored to mo- 
 tion, and, in short, except the renewal of lost 
 parts or the change in mechanical structure, 
 nothing seemed beyond their power to ac- 
 complish. '* The exposure of this experi- 
 ment, and the general acceptance of the ex- 
 planation of the phenomena, caused ''Per- 
 kinsism" to die out rapidly, and at the pres- 
 ent time it is heard of only in connection 
 with the history of medicine and in the pages 
 of works devoted to the subject of the effect 
 of the mind over the body. 
 
 The success of '^Perkinsism'* is but a 
 typical instance which is duplicated every 
 twenty years or so by the rapid rise, spread 
 
100 Mind and Body 
 
 and then rapid decline of some new ^^ craze" 
 in healing, all of which, when investigated 
 are seen to be but new examples of the power 
 of the mental states of faith and imagina- 
 tion upon the physical organism. The well- 
 known *^blue glass" craze of about thirty- 
 five years ago gives us another interesting 
 example. General Pleasanton, a well-known 
 and prominent citizen of Philadelphia, an- 
 nounced his discovery that the rays of the 
 ^n passing through the medium of blue 
 glass possessed a wonderful therapeutic 
 value. The idea fired the public imagination 
 at once, and the General's book met with a 
 large sale. Everyone, seemingly, began to 
 experiment with the blue glass rays. Win- 
 dows were fitted with blue glass panes, and 
 the patients sat so that the sun's rays might 
 fall upon them after passing through the 
 blue panes. Wonderful cures were reported 
 .from all directions, the results of ** Perkins- 
 ism" being duplicated in almost every de- 
 tail. Even cripples reported cures, and 
 many chronic and 'incurable" cases were 
 healed almost instantaneously. Bedridden 
 people threw aside their blankets and 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 101 
 
 walked again, after a brief treatment. The 
 interest developed into a veritable ^* craze/' 
 and the glass factories were operated over- 
 time in order to meet the overwhelming 
 demand for blue glass, the price of which rap- 
 idly advanced to fifty cents and even a dol- 
 lar for a small pane, because of the scarcity. 
 It was freely predicted that the days of 
 physicians were over, and that the blue glass 
 was the long-sought-for panacea for all hu- 
 man ills. Suddenly, however, and from no 
 apparent cause, the interest in the matter 
 dropped, and now all that is left of the blue 
 glass craze is the occasional sight of an old 
 blue pane in some window, the owner of 
 which evidently felt disinclined to pay the 
 price of replacing it with a clear pane. Only 
 a few days ago, in an old-fashioned quarter 
 of a large city, the writer saw several panes 
 of the old blue glass in the frame of the 
 window of an old house which had seen bet- 
 ter days but which was now used as a cheap 
 tenement house. 
 
 The history of medicine is filled with rec- 
 ords of similar ** crazes" following the an- 
 nouncement of some new method of ^'cure." 
 
102 Mind and Body 
 
 The striking peculiarity of these cures ia 
 that they all occur during the height of the 
 excitement and notoriety of the early days 
 of the announcement, while they decline in 
 proportion to the decline m public faith and 
 interest, the explanation being that in every 
 instance the cure is effected by the action of 
 the mental states of expectancy, faith, and 
 the imagination of the patient, irrespective 
 of any virtue in the method or system itself. 
 In short, all these cures belong to the cate- 
 gory of faith-cures— thej are merely dupli- 
 cates of the world-old cures resulting from 
 faith in sacred relics, shrines, bones of holy 
 people, sacred places, etc., of which nearly 
 every religion has given us many examples. 
 The history of medicine gives us many in- 
 stances of the efficacy of the therapeutic 
 power of Faith. 
 
 Sir Humphrey Davy relates a case in 
 which a man seriously ill manifested imme- 
 diate improvement after the placing of a 
 clinical thermometer in his mouth, he sup- 
 posing that it was some new and powerful 
 healing instrument. The grotesque reme- 
 dies of the ancient physicians, and the 
 
History of Psyoho-Therafy 103 
 
 bizarre decoctions of the quacks of the pres- 
 ent, all work cures. The ^* bread-pills'^ and 
 other placebos of the * * regulars ' ' have cured 
 many a ease when other remedies have 
 failed. 
 
 It is related that several hundred years 
 ago, a young English law-student while on a 
 lark with several of his boon companions 
 found themselves in a rural inn, without 
 money with which to pay their reckoning. 
 Finally, after much thought, the young man 
 called the inn-keeper and told him that he, 
 the student, was a great physician, and that 
 he would prepare for him a magic amulet 
 which would cure all diseases, in return for 
 the receipted account of himself and friends. 
 The landlord gladly consented, and the 
 young man wrote some gibberish on a bit of 
 parchment, which together with sundry arti- 
 cles of rubbish he inserted in a silk cover. 
 With a wise and dignified air he then de- 
 parted. Many years rolled by, and the 
 young man rose to the position of a High 
 Justice of the realm. One day before him 
 was brought a woman accused of magic and 
 witchcraft. The evidence showed that she 
 
104 Mind and Body 
 
 had cured many people by applying to their 
 bodies a little magic amulet, which the 
 church authorities considered to be the work 
 of the devil. The woman, on the stand, ad- 
 mitted the use of the amulet and the many 
 cures resulting therefrom, but defended her- 
 self by saying that the instrument of cure 
 had been given tO' her father, now deceased, 
 many years ago, by a great physician who 
 had stopped at her father's inn. She held 
 that the cures were genuine medical cures 
 resulting from the medicinal virtues of the 
 amulet, and not the result of magic or witch- 
 craft. The Justice asked to be handed the 
 wonderful amulet. Eipping it open with his 
 pen-knife, he found enclosed the identical 
 scrawl inserted by himself many years be- 
 fore. He announced the circumstances from 
 the bench, and discharged the woman— but 
 the healing virtues of the amulet had disap- 
 peared, never to return. The cures were the 
 result of the faith and imagination of the 
 patients. 
 
 The modern instances of the several great 
 ** Divine Healers," such as John Alexander 
 Dowie of Chicago, and Francis Schlatter of 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 105 
 
 Denver, give us additional evidence of the 
 efficacy of Faith as a therapeutic agent. 
 John Alexander Dowie, a Scotch preacher, 
 came to America some twenty years ago, and 
 instituted a new religion in which healing 
 was an important feature. He claimed that 
 all disease was the result of the devil, and 
 that belief in God and the prayers of Dowie 
 and his assistants would work the cure of 
 the deviPs evil operations. Great numbers 
 flocked to Dowie's standard, and thousands 
 of wonderful cures were reported. His 
 *^ Tabernacle'' was filled with testimonials 
 and trophies from cured people. Back of 
 Dowie 's pulpit were displayed many 
 crutches, plaster-casts, braces, and other 
 spoils wrested from the devil by Dowie and 
 his aids. His experience meetings were 
 thronged with persons willing and anxious 
 to testify that whereas they had been afflicted 
 they were now whole again. Dowie suc- 
 ceeded in building up a great following all 
 over the world, and had he not overreached 
 himself and allowed his colossal vanity to 
 overshadow his original ideas, the probabil- 
 ity is that he would have founded a church 
 
106 Mind and Body 
 
 wliicli would have endured for centuries. As 
 it is, he was discredited and disowned by 
 his followers, and his church is now but 
 little more than a memory. 
 
 Francis Schlatter, the German shoemaker 
 of Denver, with his Divine Healing, was a 
 well known figure in the west several years 
 ago. He was undoubtedly a half -insane fa- 
 natic, believing himself inspired by God to 
 heal the nations. Persons flocked to him 
 from afar, and he is reported to have 
 healed thousands, many of whom were suf- 
 fering from serious ailments. He after- 
 ward disappeared, and is believed to have 
 died in the desert of the far west. Students 
 of Mental Suggestion and Psychic Thera- 
 peutics find in the instances of Dowie and 
 Schlatter merely the same underlying prin- 
 ciple of Mental Healing resulting from 
 faith, which is operative in all of the other 
 cases mentioned. The theology, creed, theo- 
 ries of methods have but little to do with 
 the cures, so long as the proper degree of 
 faith is induced in the mind of the patientc 
 Faith in anything will work cures, providing 
 it is sufficiently intense and active. 
 
History of Psycho-Therafy 107 
 
 Anotlier branch of Mental Healing is seen 
 in the modern schools of the ^*New Thought/' 
 *^ Mental Science," *' Christian Science,'* 
 and the ^^ Emmanuel Movement." The au- 
 thorities generally agree upon tracing the 
 rise of these several schools to the general 
 interest in the subject manifested in the 
 United States and Great Britain about the 
 middle of the last century. Some of the au- 
 thorities believe that this general interest 
 was induced largely by the teachings of 
 Charles Poyen, a Frenchman who came from 
 France to New England about 1835, bring- 
 ing with him the French teachings and theo- 
 ries regarding mesmerism and the phe- 
 nomena allied thereto. Poyen 's teachings 
 attracted marked interest and attention, and 
 he soon had a host of followers, students and 
 imitators. Teachers of the **new science" 
 sprang up on all sides. Many theories were 
 evolved and actively supported by the ad- 
 herents of the several prominent teachers. 
 The rise of interest in phrenology and the 
 dawning interest in spiritualism aided the 
 spread of the new teachings regarding mes- 
 merism, clairvoyance, psychic healing, etc., 
 
108 Mind and Body 
 
 and the pages of many magazines and books 
 published about that time show that a pub- 
 lic taste had been created for the strange 
 and mysterious. 
 
 Dr. J. S. Grimes, a physician interested in 
 phrenology, taught that the phenomena were 
 due to the action of a strange atmospheric 
 force which he called * * etherium. ' * Eev. J. 
 Bovee Dods evolved a theory based upon the 
 supposed existence of an electrical principle, 
 and called his system *^ Electro-Biology, "by 
 means of which he attracted to himself a 
 large following. Dods wrote several large 
 books on the subject, and traveled on lec- 
 ture tours in this country and Great Britain, 
 arousing great enthusiasm and making 
 many cures. Rev. Leroy Sunderland ex- 
 pounded the doctrine of ^^patlieism," in 
 which he combined a strange mixture of 
 mysticism and what has since been called 
 ''suggestion," to which he afterward added 
 the current teachings of spiritualism after 
 his conversion to that philosophy. It would 
 seem that credit should be given Sunderland 
 for his early announcement of the principle 
 of suggestion, for he said: ''When a rela- 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 109 
 
 tion IS once established between an opera- 
 tor and his patient, corresponding changes 
 may be induced in the nervous system of the 
 latter by mere volition, and hy suggestions 
 addressed to either of the external senses/^ 
 The decade, 1840-1850 witnessed a remark- 
 able interest in psychic phenomena of all 
 kinds, and during that time there was un- 
 doubtedly laid the foundations upon which 
 the later structures have since been erected. 
 Any one reading the short stories of Poe, 
 and other writers of that period, may read- 
 ily see the state of public interest in these 
 subjects at that time. 
 
 The authorities generally agree that in 
 Phineas Parkhurst Quimby we have the di- 
 rect connecting link between the period just 
 mentioned and the present. Quimby played 
 quite an important role in the evolution of 
 the modern conceptions of mental healing, 
 or psycho-therapy as it is now called. He 
 was a poor clockmaker, of quite limited 
 means, of good character and a strong per- 
 sonality. His education is said to have been 
 limited, but he made up for his lack in this 
 respect by his naturally keen and inquiring 
 
110 Mind and Body 
 
 mind. In 1838 one of the teachers of mes- 
 merism visited Ms home in Belfast, Maine, 
 and Quimby attended the seance. He be- 
 came intensely interested in what he saw, 
 and in the theories propounded, and began 
 to experiment on the people in his town, the 
 result being that he soon acquired a reputa- 
 tion as a powerful mesmerist and a good 
 healer. He followed along the general lines 
 of the ** Electro-Biology*' theory for a time, 
 and' then evolved theories of his own. He 
 cured himself and many others by manual 
 treatment, and was soon kept quite busy in 
 his healing work. 
 
 Quimby, thinking deeply regarding the 
 cures he was making, soon came to the con- 
 clusion that while his cures were genuine, 
 his theories were wrong. He gradually 
 evolved the idea that diseases are caused by 
 erroneous thinking, and that his cures re- 
 sulted from changing these wrong mental 
 states for those based upon true conceptions. 
 He held that all that is required to effect a 
 cure is to bring about **a change of thought.'' 
 Following upon this new conception, he 
 ceased mesmerizing his patients, and began 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 111 
 
 to treat them by simply sitting by the side 
 of the afflicted person, picturing him as well 
 and whole, and impressing upon the patient *s 
 mind that he is well and whole, in Truth, 
 From this fundamental idea he gradually 
 evolved a philosophy which has strongly in- 
 fluenced that of later schools. Quimby 
 talked much regarding his great ** discov- 
 ery,'* as he called it, and built great hopes 
 upon establishing ''the science of health and 
 happiness/' He began to speak of the 
 ''Truth*' in his "science," which he held to 
 be identical with that taught by Christ, and 
 by means of which Jesus performed his mi- 
 raculous cures. Before he had firmly estab- 
 lished his "science," however, he died, leav- 
 ing his work to be carried on by others, 
 notably by Dr. Warren F. Evans, and Julius 
 A. Dresser, to whom should be given the 
 credit for launching what is now known as 
 "the New Thought Movement." 
 
 Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, who afterward 
 established "Christian Science" was one of 
 Quimby 's patients and students, and Dresser 
 and others have positively stated and 
 claimed that from him she received her 
 
112 Mind and Body 
 
 ideas of the philosopliy which she afterward 
 developed into the great ^^ Christian Sci- 
 ence" movement. Mrs. Eddy, and her ad- 
 herents, as positively deny to Quimby any 
 credit for having inspired Mrs. Eddy^s 
 work. "We merely state the opposing sides 
 of the controversy here, taking no sides in 
 the matter, the discussion not concerning us 
 in the present consideration. 
 
 The success of Evans and Dresser, and of 
 Mrs. Eddy, in their respective schools and 
 organizations, have caused many other 
 teachers to come to the front, until at the 
 present time there are many schools, cults 
 and organizations basing their cures upon 
 the broad principles of Mental Healing. 
 Mrs. Eddy, and her followers, deny having 
 anything in common with the other schools, 
 however, holding that the latter are con- 
 cerned with ^^ mortal mind" while ^* Chris- 
 tian Science" alone is based upon Divine 
 Mind, or Truth. In spite of the conflicting 
 claims and theories, the fact remains that 
 thousands of persons have been healed of 
 various diseases by the various schools, 
 cults, and teachings. To the authorities who 
 
History of Psycho-Therapy 113 
 
 stand outside of and apart from these op- 
 posing organizations, it seems that all the 
 cures are based upon the same general prin- 
 ciple, i. e.y that of the influence of mental 
 states over physical conditions, and that re- 
 ligious theories or metaphysical philosophies 
 have nothing whatever to do with the pro- 
 duction of the cures, except in the direction 
 of giving a strong suggestion to those ac- 
 cepting them. The fact that all the schools 
 make cures, in about the same proportion, 
 and of the same general classes of com- 
 plaints, would seem to show that the theories 
 and dogmas have nothing to do with the 
 process of cure— and that the healing is done 
 in spite of the theories, rather than because 
 of them. 
 
 The much advertised ''Emmanuel Move- 
 ment'' now so popular in the orthodox 
 churches throughout the country, is recog- 
 nized by all the authorities as being noth- 
 ing more than suggestion applied in connec- 
 tion with the religious and theological 
 principles of the churches in question, and, in 
 truth, as applying methods more in favor by 
 the old school of mesmerists than by the 
 
114 Mind and Body 
 
 later ^^New Thought'' practitioners, or by 
 the * * Christian Science ' ' healers. From this 
 movement, however, there will probably 
 evolve a more scientific system, manifesting 
 none of the crudities which so disfigure its 
 present stage, at least in the hands of some 
 of its practitioners. 
 
 In the following chapter we may see that 
 the same element of Faith, Belief and Ex- 
 pectancy is mamifested in all the various 
 forms of Mental Healing, by whatever name, 
 or under whatever theory, the method is ap- 
 plied. In short, that the cures are purely 
 psychological^ rather than metaphysical or 
 religious, in their nature. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 FAITH CURES 
 
 Following tlie scientific study of the phe- 
 nomena of cures of physical illness by means 
 of the power of mental states, amd the rec- 
 ognition of the fact that there is a common 
 principle operative under the various guises 
 and forms, there sprang into scientific usage 
 the term ** Faith Cures'' which was used to 
 designate all instances and forms of cures 
 coming under the general classification of 
 mental healing. Prof. Goddard defines the 
 term as follows: *'A term applied to the 
 practice of curing disease by an appeal to 
 the hope, belief, or expectation of the pa- 
 tient, and without the use of drugs or other 
 material means. Formerly it was confined 
 to methods requiring the exercise of religious 
 faith, such as the Sprayer cure' and 'divine 
 healing,' but has now come to be used in the 
 broader sense, and includes the cures of 
 * Mental Science,' and hypnotism; also a 
 
 115 
 
116 Mind and Body 
 
 large part of the cures effected by patent 
 medicines and nostrums, as well as many 
 folk-practices and home remedies. By some 
 it is used to include also Christian Science, 
 but the believers in the latter regard it as 
 entirely distinct.'' 
 
 The term ** Suggestion," used in the same 
 sense as '* Faith Cure" in relation to the 
 healing of disease, has also come into popu- 
 lar usage, but inasmuch as Suggestion has a 
 much larger meaning outside of its thera- 
 peutic phases, it may be said the best au- 
 thorities to-day use the term ''Faith Cure" 
 as representing simply one phase of Sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 Prof. Goddard, in his article on ''Faith 
 Cure," in the New International Encyclo- 
 paedia (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York), 
 says: "Besides these recognized forms (di- 
 vine healing, mental science, etc.), faith cure 
 is an important element in cures wrought by 
 patent medicines and nostrums, home reme- 
 dies and folk practices. The advertisement, 
 testimonial of friend, or family tradition 
 arouses the faith of the sick man, and he 
 comes to believe that he needs only to fol- 
 
Faith Cures 117 
 
 low directions to be fully cured. The actual 
 value of faith cure as a therapeutic method 
 has been the subject of much discussion. It 
 can no longer be denied that it has value. 
 From divine healing to patent medicine and 
 Father Kneipp's water cure, all cure dis- 
 ease. Each appeals to a particular type of 
 mind, but the results are practically the same 
 in all — same diseases cured, same successes, 
 same failures. Many faith-curists claim that 
 all diseases in all persons can be cured by 
 their method; others hold that the principle 
 is of limited application. Of them all, the 
 hypnotists are the only ones who do not 
 make sweeping claims.'' 
 
 After stating *4he tendency to exaggera- 
 tion and the infrequency of impartial judg- 
 ment*' in connection with many instances of 
 claimed cures, the above mentioned author- 
 ity proceeds as follows: ''The actual cures, 
 however, are sufficiently numerous and suffi- 
 ciently striking to need an explanation. 
 These different forms agree in only one 
 point— viz., the mental state of the patient 
 is one of hope and expectation. Can states 
 of mind cause or cure disease? Some fa- 
 
118 Mind and Body 
 
 miliar occurrences seem to justify an affirma- 
 tive answer. It is well known that certain 
 glands and secretions are markedly affected 
 by emotions. Fright causes the saliva to 
 cease to flow and the perspiration to start. 
 Sorrow causes the lachrymal glands to se- 
 crete tears. Happiness favors digestion, 
 unhappiness retards it. Mosso has demon- 
 strated that the bladder is especially sensi- 
 tive to emotional states. In general, the 
 pleasant emotions produce an opposite phys- 
 ical effect from the unpleasant ones. There 
 are many glands within the body whose ac- 
 tion under emotion we cannot observe; but 
 we may reasonably assume that they also 
 are affected by emotional states. Hence, if 
 unpleasant emotions so act upon the glands 
 as to derange the system and cause disease, 
 the pleasant emotions may reasonably be as- 
 sumed to tend to restore the normal func- 
 tions. The various forms of faith cure tend 
 strongly to put the patient in a happy frame 
 of mind— a condition favorable to health. 
 However, there are all degrees of faith and 
 wide differences in the way the system re- 
 sponds to; the emotional state. One person 
 
Faith Cures 119 
 
 is slightly affected by a strong emotion; an- 
 other is strongly affected by a weak emo- 
 tion. Hence, there must always be a wide 
 difference in the results of faith-cure meth- 
 ods. The diseases most amenable to faith 
 cure are nervous— including many not rec- 
 ognized as nervous, but having a neural 
 condition as their basis— and functional de- 
 rangements. Organic diseases are not us- 
 ually cured, though the symptoms are fre- 
 quently ameliorated. Chronic diseases due 
 to neuro-muscular habit often yield to hyp- 
 notic treatment.^' 
 
 Prof. R. P. Halleck says: ''Were it not 
 for this power of the imagination, the ma- 
 jority of quack nostrums would disappear. 
 In most cases bread pills, properly labeled, 
 with positive assurances of certain cures ac- 
 companying them, would answer the purpose 
 far better than these nostrums, or even much 
 better than a great deal of the medicine ad- 
 ministered by regular physicians. Warts 
 have been charmed away by medicines which 
 could have had only a mental effect. Dr. 
 Tuke gives many cases of patients cured of 
 rheumatism by rubbing them with a certain 
 
120 Mind and Body 
 
 substance declared to possess magic power. 
 The material in some cases was metal; in 
 others wood; in still others, wax. He also 
 recites the case of a very intelligent officer 
 who had vainly taken powerful remedies to 
 cure cramp in the stomach. Then ^he was 
 told that on the next attack he would be put 
 imder a medicine which was generally be- 
 lieved to be most effective, but which was 
 rarely used.' When the cramps came on 
 again, *a powder containing four grains of 
 ground biscuit was administered every seven 
 minutes, while the greatest anxiety was ex- 
 pressed (within the hearing of the party) 
 lest too much be given. Half-drachm doses 
 of bismuth had never procured the same relief 
 in less than three hours. For four successive 
 times did the same kind of attack recur, and 
 four times was it met by the same remedy, 
 and with like success.* A house surgeon in 
 a French hospital experimented with one 
 hundred patients, giving them sugared 
 water. Then, with a great show of fear, he 
 pretended that he had made a mistake and 
 given them an emetic instead of the proper 
 medicine. Dr. Tuke says: 'The result may 
 
Faith Cures 121 
 
 easily be anticipated by those who can esti- 
 mate the influence of the imagination. No 
 fewer than eighty— four-fifths— were un- 
 mistakably sick/ 
 
 **We have a well authenticated case of a 
 butcher, who, while trying to hang up a 
 heavy piece of meat, slipped and was himself 
 caught by the arm upon the hook. When he 
 was taken to a surgeon, the butcher said he 
 was suffering so much that he could not en- 
 dure the removal of his coat ; the sleeve must 
 be cut off. When this was done, it was 
 found that the hook had passed through his 
 clothing close to the skin, but had not even 
 scratched it. A man sentenced to be bled 
 to death was blindfolded. A harmless in- 
 cision was then made in his arm and tepid 
 water fixed so as to run down it and drop 
 with considerable noise into a basin. The 
 attendants frequently commented on the 
 flow of blood and the weakening pulse. The 
 criminal's false idea of what was taking 
 place was as powerful in its effects as the 
 reality, and he soon died. . . . There is 
 perhaps not a person living who would not 
 at times be benefited by a bread pill, admin- 
 
122 MiKD ANi> Body 
 
 istered by some one in whom great confi- 
 dence was reposed.'' 
 
 The same authority also says: *^ It has been 
 known for a long time that if the attention 
 is directed toward any bodily organ, abnor- 
 mal sensations may be caused in it, and dis- 
 ease may be developed. The renowned Dr. 
 John Hunter said: *I am confident that I can 
 fix my attention to any part, until I have 
 a sensation in that part. ' ' ' Dr. Tuke says 
 that these * * are words which ought to be in- 
 scribed in letters of gold over the entrance 
 of a hospital for the Cure of Disease by Psy- 
 chopathy.'' Hunter's confident assertion is 
 the more interesting because, drawn from 
 his own experience, it shows that the princi- 
 ple is not confined in its operation to the 
 susceptible and nervous, but operates even 
 on men of the highest mental endowment. 
 We have examples from the literature of the 
 seventeenth century, showing how the ex- 
 pectation of a complaint will produce it. In 
 1607 an ignorant English physician told a 
 clergyman's wife that she had sciatica, al- 
 though there was, in reality, nothing the 
 matter with her sciatic nerve. Her attention 
 
Faith Cures 123 
 
 was thereby directed to it and a severe at- 
 tack of sciatica was tlie result. Wlieb a 
 person inexperienced in medicine reads care- 
 fully the symptoms of some disease, he is 
 apt to begin an attentive search for those 
 symptoms and to end by fancying he has 
 them. Seasick persons have been relieved of 
 their nausea by being made to bail a leak- 
 ing boat from the fear that it would sink. 
 All their attention was thereby diverted 
 from themselves. Many can recall how chil- 
 dren, and grown persons, too, have forgot- 
 ten all about their alleged intense thirst, as 
 soon as their attention was diverted. Some 
 persons, after eating something which they 
 fancy is a trifle indigestible, center their at- 
 tention upon the stomach, expecting symp- 
 toms of indigestion, and are often not dis- 
 appointed. A man who had good reason to 
 fear hydrophobia, determined that he would 
 not have it. The pain in the bitten arm be- 
 came intense, and he saw that he must have 
 something to divert his attention from the 
 wound and his danger. He therefore went 
 hunting, but found no game. To make 
 amends, he summoned a more inflexible will 
 
124 Mind and Body 
 
 and exerted at every step 'a strong mental 
 effort against the disease/ He kept on 
 hunting until he felt better, and he mastered 
 himself so perfectly that he probably thereby 
 warded off an attack of hydrophobia. Ac- 
 cordingly as we center our attention upon 
 one thing or another, we largely determine 
 our mental happiness and hence our bodily 
 health. One person, in walking through a 
 noble forest, may search only for spiders, 
 and venomous creatures, while another con- 
 fines his attention to the singing birds in the 
 branches above. One reason why travel is 
 isuch a cure for diseases of body and mind 
 is because so many new things thereby come 
 in to claim the attention and divert it from 
 its former objects. The following expres- 
 sion from Dr. Tuke should be remembered: 
 'Thought strongly directed to any part tends 
 to increase its vascularity, and consequently 
 its sensibility / *' 
 
 Dr. 0. F. Winbigler says: ''The practi- 
 tioner secures the same effects from a place- 
 bo or powdered pop-corn as from some drugs 
 by using suggestion with the former. Every 
 successful physician has used this method 
 
Faith Cures 125 
 
 at one time or another, and sometimes when 
 he was utterly puzzled as to what he should 
 prescribe, he thus secured a marvellous re- 
 sult, and a cure of the patient was effected. 
 . Every believer in Psycho-therapeu- 
 tics knows that there is a psychical as well 
 as a physical effect from the use of drugs. 
 The psychical value is based on the expec- 
 tation of their special action, and that which 
 is in the physician's mind may be subtly and 
 powerfully carried over into the patient 'tJ 
 mind. ( The physician's personality, atti- 
 tude and interest in the patient accomplishes 
 vastly more than the drugs he prescribes or 
 administers. If he is cheerful and hopeful, 
 he gives potency to their action; if he is 
 gloomy, pessimistic and hopeless, he nulli- 
 fies their effects. The cure of the patient is 
 effected through the subconscious mind, and 
 the attitude and bearings of the physician, 
 attendants, the surroundings and the medi- 
 cines employed, become powerful sugges- 
 tions." \ 
 
 Prof. ^ Elmer Gates says: *'The system 
 makes an effort to eliminate the metabolic 
 products of tissue-waste, and it is therefore 
 
126 Mind and Body 
 
 not surprising tliat during acute grief tears 
 are copiously excreted; that during sudden 
 fear the bowels and the kidneys are caused 
 to act, that during prolonged fear, the body 
 is covered with a cold perspiration ; and, that 
 during anger, the mouth tastes bitter, due 
 largely to the increased elimination of sul- 
 pho-cyanates. The perspiration during fear 
 is chemically different, and even smells dif- 
 ferent from that which exudes during a hap- 
 py mood. . . . Now if it can be shown 
 in many ways that the elimination of waste 
 products is retarded by sad and painful emo- 
 tions ; nay, worse than that, these depressing 
 emotions directly augment the amount of 
 these poisons. Conversely, the pleasurable 
 and happy emotions, during the time they 
 are active, inhibit the poisonous effects of 
 the depressing moods, and cause the bodily 
 cells to create and store up vital energy and 
 nutritive tissue products." 
 
 In an issue of ^^The American Practitioner 
 and News," is reported a discussion before 
 the Lexington (Ky.) Medical and Surgical 
 Society, in which a member, Dr. Guest, re- 
 lated the following experience: *'I have a 
 
Faith Cures 127 
 
 brotber-in-law who suffers every summer 
 with hay-fever. He has a relative who be- 
 lieves in Christian Science. She told him 
 that she felt positive that she could direct 
 him to a woman, a Christian Scientist, who 
 would cure him. He at first objected, be- 
 cause he hated to go to a woman physician. 
 He arranged, however, to communicate with 
 her daily by letter. When his hay-fever 
 broke out he suffered with it all that day 
 and night, and the next morning wrote her 
 a note telling her to put him on treatment 
 immediately. When he returned that night 
 he was improved and slept better. He wrote 
 a second note the next morning and was 
 much encouraged. The third day he re- 
 peated his letter writing and stated that the 
 symptoms had almost ceased. And he was 
 guying me about being cured by Christian 
 Science when regular physicians could do 
 nothing for him. The night of the third day, 
 when he came home to supper, he found a 
 note from the Christian Scientist, stating 
 that she has been in the country and ivould 
 put him under treatment the next day, 
 Eealizing that all his treatment had been 
 
128 Mind and Body 
 
 only in his imagination, the symptoms reap- 
 peared with the same intensity as before." 
 Dr. A. J. Parks of New York, says: **The 
 absolute and complete control that the sym- 
 pathetic nervous system exercises over the 
 physical organization is so perfectly clear 
 and well-known to every observer that the 
 recital of the phenomena in the vast and 
 countless series of manifestations is unnec- 
 essary. We are all aware of the fact that 
 digestion is promptly arrested upon the re- 
 ceipt of bad news. The appetite at once dis- 
 appears. It ceases, and the whole system 
 feels the effect of the depressing impulse— 
 the mental and spiritual wave which lowers 
 the vital thermometer. Fear not only sus- 
 pends the digestive function but arrests the 
 formation of the secretions upon which di- 
 gestion depends. A sudden fright frequent- 
 ly paralyzes the heart beyond recovery, 
 whereas a pleasant and pleasing message 
 soothes and gently excites the whole granu- 
 lar system, increases the secretions, aids di- 
 gestion and sends a thrill of joy to the 
 sensorium, which diffuses the glad tidings 
 
Faith Cures 129 
 
 to every nerve fibril in the complex organi- 
 zation. * ' 
 
 Dr. T. A. Borton, in an address before the 
 Indiana State Medical Society, said: '^The 
 subject which I desire to present to you to- 
 day has to do with the influence of the mind 
 over the functions of the body. Its silent, 
 unobserved force results in producing patho- 
 logical conditions, and those, by reflex ac- 
 tion, excite morbid sensibilities of the mind 
 and thus derange the nerve centres, result- 
 ing in a changed condition or over-excitabil- 
 ity of the nerve energies, which becomes a 
 secondary diseased condition in the form of 
 different types of neurasthenia. I have been 
 interested in this subject for many years, 
 and in my practice have had extended op- 
 portutnities for making observations as to 
 the i>otency of the mental and suggestive 
 pathology bearing on this subject. I would 
 especially refer to the healing of the body 
 through these mental forces, changing 
 healthy, normal conditions into unhealthy or 
 diseased conditions and vice versa. These 
 changes are not miraculous, but proceed 
 from natural causes in the operation of the 
 
130 Mind and Body 
 
 mind, as a therapeutic agency, operating 
 throngli tlie functions of the body, sometimes 
 as a tonic or stimulant, warding off diseases 
 under the most exposed conditions, defend- 
 ing and holding the system in a state of 
 health, while those void of these mental as- 
 surances become victims to the ravages of 
 disease through contagion or infection. This 
 protective mental force of the mind has been 
 demonstrated many times in hospitals and 
 other places where contagious diseases were 
 prevailing. The mental force possesses a 
 protective power when rightly exercised be- 
 yond what is usually conceded, not only in 
 the way of defense; but also in correcting 
 disease when in existence. I believe these 
 to be much greater than has been generally 
 admitted or understood. . . . We all 
 know how difficult it is to get good results 
 from medication in which our patients have 
 no confidence, and it is an established fact 
 that we get better results from drugs which 
 are given with the patient's knowledge of 
 their intended effect. I have often produced 
 desired results from means entirely inert, 
 stating the desired and expected effect of 
 
Faith Cures 131 
 
 its administration. I have frequently quieted 
 the severest pain by injecting pure water 
 into the arm of the patient," 
 
 Dr. G. R. Patton, in an address before the 
 Wabasha County (Minn.) Medical Society, 
 said: ^*As Bacon said, ^ Faith, confidence, be- 
 lief and hope are the working forces that 
 make the cure— that work the miracle.' The 
 mind as a dynamic force exerted over the 
 functions of the body has been, doubtless, 
 operatively manifest from the cradle of our 
 existence. By the phrase, 'the mind as a 
 dynamic force,' I refer to the various forms 
 of suggestion as well as to various affective 
 faculties of the mind, or those states caused 
 by the sympathetic action of the brain, such 
 as faith, confidence, belief, imagination, emo- 
 tions, hope and the like. Any or all of them 
 may become active over the bodily functions. 
 . As instance of the mental impres- 
 sion acting upon observable functions re- 
 vealed through the capillary circulation as 
 revealed to the sight, I will mention blushing 
 or pallor of the face, depending upon the 
 theme presented to the thought; the mouth 
 watering on the sight or thought of tempt- 
 
132 Mind and Body 
 
 ing food; the flow of tears from words or 
 thoughts that excite grief; nausea or vomit- 
 ing from a sickening spectacle; sexual ex- 
 citement from obscene thought or lascivious 
 sights. Instances might be multiplied. And 
 is it not a fair inference, indeed, that through 
 the vasomotor nerves, the internal viscera 
 may be subject to like effects through men- 
 tal impressions, and that thus acute as well 
 as chronic congestive ailments thereof may 
 be favorably influenced or even cured there- 
 by? . . . It is my conviction that recog- 
 nition of the power and usefulness of men- 
 tal dynamics, including all forms of sugges- 
 tion over physiological and pathological 
 processes in combating diseases, is unques- 
 tionably the most impressive advance in 
 modern medicine. Mental influence alone 
 may diminish or increase the activities of 
 the physiological processes to the extent of 
 removing the pathological effects of disease. 
 . A celebrated medical teacher, after 
 an exhaustive dissertation over a case was 
 leaving the bedside without prescribing any 
 treatment when the house physician asked 
 what should be given the patient. ' Oh, ' said 
 
Faith Cures 133 
 
 the professor, *a hopeful prognosis and 
 anything else you please/ To this he added, 
 *the doleful doctor will be a failure, while 
 the hopeful one will prove a winner from 
 start to finish.' It is reasonably assured 
 that ultimately the physician will become not 
 so much the man behind the pill as the judi- 
 cious advisor, the wise counsellor, gently lead- 
 ing the sick *into green pastures, beside still 
 waters,' through paths that lead onward to 
 recovery, assisting nature at times, if needs 
 be, with a big bread pill." 
 
 Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, the well-known au- 
 thority on suggestive therapeutics, says: 
 * ' Certain results will follow certain thoughts, 
 and in every instance that it is possible to 
 get the patient to think the thoughts we de- 
 sire, we secure the results we desire. It is 
 the work of the suggestionist to place these 
 thoughts in the mind of the patient so that 
 he is bound to think them, and this can be 
 done to some degree, if not perfectly, (in 
 every case. It is well to have faith, but faith 
 is not absolutely necessary at the outset. It 
 is time enough for the patient to have faith 
 in the treatment when he can perceive the 
 
134 Mind and Body 
 
 benefit he is receiving. Understanding tlie 
 mental and physical changes which follow a 
 certain thought, the suggestionist is able to 
 bring about those mental or physical changes, 
 by using direct suggestion in such a way 
 that his patient is bound to think the 
 thoughts which will produce the results. A 
 man may not have faith in the statement that 
 the thought of lemon juice will stimulate the 
 fk)W of saliva, but if he will imagine for a 
 moment that he is squeezing the juice of a 
 lemon into his mouth the saliva will imme- 
 diately flow more freely than usual, regard- 
 less of his faith. Similarly, many, if not all 
 of the organs of the body, can be affected by 
 impulses following certain lines of thought, 
 and these impulses will follow the thought 
 and stimulate the organs regardless of faith. 
 It is simply necessary to get a patient to 
 think the proper thoughts, and it is in the 
 thought directing that the work of the sug- 
 gestionist lies.'' 
 
CHAPTEE VII 
 
 THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION 
 
 Dr. F. W. Sonthwortli says: '*Fear is it- 
 self a contagious disease and is sometimes 
 reflected from one mind to another with great 
 rapidity. It passes from one to another, 
 from the healthy to the ill, from doctor or 
 nurse to patient, from mother to child, and 
 so on. The greatest fears we can usually 
 get away from, but it is the little fears and 
 anxieties, constant apprehension, fears of 
 imagined evils of all sorts which prey upon 
 our vitality and lessen our powers, thus ren- 
 dering us more susceptible to disease. To 
 avert disease, then, we must eradicate fear; 
 but how shall we accomplish it? Through 
 wise education— educating the people to a / 
 higher standard of living; by teaching a 
 sounder hygiene; a wiser philosophy and a 
 more cheerful theology. By erasing a thou- 
 sand errors and superstitions from fear- 
 ful minds and pointing them to the light, 
 
 135 
 
136 Mind and Body 
 
 beauty and loveliness of tlie trntli. This 
 mental and moral sanitation is still ahead of 
 ns, but it is more valuable and desirable than 
 all quarantines, inventions, experiments, and 
 microscopical researches after physical or 
 material causes." 
 
 Sir George Paget, M. D., says: *^In many 
 cases I have seen reasons for believing that 
 cancer has had its origin in prolonged anxi- 
 etj." Dr. Murchison says: '*I have been 
 surprised to find how often patients with 
 primary cancer of the liver have traced the 
 cause of this illness to protracted grief and 
 anxiety. These cases have been far too nu- 
 merous to be accounted for as merely coin- 
 cidents. ' ' Sir B. W. Eichardson, M. D., says : 
 ** Eruptions of the skin frequently follow ex- 
 cessive mental strain. In all these, as well 
 as in cancer, epilepsy and mania, the cause 
 is frequently partly or wholly mental. It is 
 remarkable how little the question of the 
 origin of physical disease from mental in- 
 fluences has been studied." Prof. Elmer 
 Gates says: ^*My experiments show that 
 irascible, malevolent and depressing emo- 
 tions generate in the system injurious com- 
 
Power of the Imagination 137 
 
 pounds, some of which are extremely poison- 
 ous. Also that agreeable, happy emotions 
 generate chemical compounds of nutritious 
 value which stimulate the cells to manufac- 
 ture energy/' 
 
 Dr. Patton, in the address before the Wa- 
 basha County Medical Society, above men- 
 tioned, gives the following interesting case 
 of the effect of faith and expectant atten- 
 tion, or Suggestion: He said: '^ While sur- 
 geon of a Cincinnati hospital one of the mes- 
 senger boys was often disobedient of orders. 
 The sister superior once asked me how to 
 punish him. I suggested putting him to bed 
 and making him sick with medicine. My ad- 
 vice was acted upon with alacrity. A tea- 
 spoonful of colored ivater was given him 
 every fifteen minutes. With assumed grav- 
 ity, I ordered the nurse, in the boy's pres- 
 ence, to keep giving the medicine until he be- 
 came sick and vomited. Within an hour he 
 vomited profusely. ... A funny inci- 
 dent illustrative of the faith and confidence 
 sometimes reposed in the medical man and 
 his power in curing disease, happened in 
 my first year of practice. An Irish laborer, 
 
138 Mind and Body 
 
 mncli given to profanity, came to my office, 
 with a cold on his chest. I prescribed a 
 soothing mixture and a liniment of cam- 
 phor, ammonia and soap. A few days later, 
 meeting him on the street, I asked him if the 
 medicine had cured him all right. He re- 
 plied with enthusiasm, * Oh ! yes, yes, it acted 
 
 most beautifully and cured me pretty d d 
 
 quick, but it was awful hot stuff, for it 
 btirned in my throat like hell-fire itself.' I 
 knew at once, but did not tell him, that he 
 had been swallowing the liniment of cam- 
 phor, hartshorn and soap, and rubbing the 
 cough mixture on the outside. His faith was 
 even stronger than the liniment, and cured 
 him in spite of the blunder. 
 
 ** Perhaps the most wonderful confirma,- 
 tion came under my observation while win- 
 tering in San Antonio, Texas, in 1880. Some 
 nostrum fakirs with a retinue of fourteen 
 musicians and comedians came to this city 
 in an immense chariot, drawn by eight gaily 
 caparisoned horses. Every evening they 
 came upon the military plaza to sell their 
 panacea. I went over one evening out of 
 curiosity, being attracted by the songs and 
 
POWEE OF THE IMAGINATION 139 
 
 nmsic. The head fakir was shouting to an 
 immense crowd about the virtues of his spe- 
 cific. He claimed that it contained thirteen in- 
 gredients, gathered at a great expense from 
 all quarters of the globe, and would cure all 
 the ills that flesh was heir to. Cures were 
 warranted in every case, or the money re- 
 funded on the following evening. After this 
 harangue, he said that the medicine was for 
 sale at $1 per bottle, until 300 bottles had 
 been sold, as it was an invariable rule to sell 
 only that number on any one evening. Im- 
 mediately a frenzied mob rushed pell-mell 
 to the end of the chariot, each one holding 
 aloft a silver dollar. He had previously an- 
 nounced that no change would be made, and 
 that every one to get the medicine should 
 have a dollar ready in his hand. In half an 
 hour 300 bottles had been sold, the empty 
 trunk closed with a bang, and the statement 
 made that no more could be had until the 
 following evening, although there was yet a 
 great multitude clamoring for more. Curi- 
 osity again led me to the plaza the next 
 evening, and I went early. The initial per- 
 formance was a free tooth-pulling, to last 
 
140 Mind and Body 
 
 thirty minutes. He said lie was the king- 
 pin of the tooth-pullers, and I believe he 
 was. The rapidity of his work was a marvel. 
 He snatched from various jaws about 250 
 teeth, including the good ones, within the 
 limit, throwing them from his forceps right 
 and left among his audience. Those oper- 
 ated upon were wrought to such a frenzy 
 of excitement and wonder that each one, 
 without an exception, declared that no pain 
 whatever had been experienced. A call was 
 •then made for the 300 who had bought medi- 
 cine on the previous evening to mount the 
 chariot and tell what the medicine had done 
 for them. 
 
 '^From every quarter men and women, 
 both white and colored, pressed forward to 
 give their experience. Their stories were 
 grotesque and curious enough., but no mat- 
 ter what their ailments, cures had resulted in 
 every case. At the end of half an hour, 
 while the experience meeting was at its acme, 
 the fakir abruptly closed it, saying, in a re- 
 gretful voice, that the rest would have to 
 wait until the next evening to tell of their 
 
Power of the Imagination 141 
 
 cures, as he now wanted those to come for- 
 ward who had not been cured by the medi- 
 cine bought on the previous evening. He 
 stood in silence with folded arms for three 
 minutes. No one having come forward, the 
 voice of this arrant charlatan rang out in 
 stentorian tones, 'All, all have been cured! 
 We have cured everyone!' Then another 
 300 bottles were sold in a jiify, I myself 
 being one of the fortunate purchasers. The 
 chief of this outfit stopped in the hotel where 
 I was. After dinner the next day, I made 
 his acquaintance in the smoking room, say- 
 ing I was a doctor, too ; that I had attended 
 two of his soirees, bought his medicine and 
 was greatly interested in it. I surprised him 
 by the statement that his medicine was made 
 by M. & Co., wholesale druggists of Cincin- 
 nati, and that it was fluid extract of podo- 
 phyllin. He stared for some moments, but 
 made no reply. I continued, *I know M.'s 
 fluid extract, as his process of its manufac- 
 ture is peculiar, and differs from other man- 
 ufacturers in this, that he exhausts the root 
 by percolation with alcohol, ether and gly- 
 cerine, giving the product a sweetish taste 
 
142 Mind and Body 
 
 and a slight ethereal odor/ The man asked 
 if I was also a chemist. I replied, *Yes, I 
 once lectured in a medical college in Cin- 
 cinnati on drugs and their uses, and I can 
 readily tell fluid extracts by their taste, odor 
 and physical characteristics.' 
 
 '* After some hesitation, he said, *Yes, this 
 is M.'s podophyllin and nothing else, I in- 
 quired if he attributed all his success to the 
 medicine. He answered, ^No, for once in 
 Missouri the mandrake ran out before a new 
 let arrived. We found something like it in a 
 drug store of the town, and the people got 
 well just the same. If the people believe 
 you can cure them, and have faith in your 
 medicine, they get well anyway, or they 
 think they do, which is the same thing/ 
 The fakirs remained one week, sold 2,100 bot- 
 tles, and presumably cured 2,100 people, as 
 no one came forward to reclaim his dollar 
 for the medicine, which was contained in a 
 two-drachm vial of 120 drops. A dose was 
 one drop after each meal in one spoonful of 
 water. 
 
 *^When I was in California recently a 
 friend mentioned that an intelligent relative 
 
Power of the Imagination 143 
 
 of his was being treated by a celebrated 
 Cliinese doctor. The relative claimed that 
 Chinese physicians were better than our 
 own; that they had devoted 5,000 years to 
 medicine and had thus become so learned and 
 skillful that they could tell all diseases with- 
 out asking a single question, simply by feel- 
 ing the pulse. Out of curiosity I visited this 
 physician, ostensibly as a patient. Without 
 so declaring myself, he knew intuitively that 
 I came to consult him. Without asking any 
 questions he placed his finger upon my right 
 wrist, communed with himself for a few 
 moments, and then gravely informed me that 
 I had thirty-seven diseases; some in the 
 blood, some in the brain, some in the kidneys, 
 some in the liver, and many others in the 
 heart and lungs. He said it would take six- 
 teen different herbs to cure me. He volun- 
 teered the statement that he could detect 
 6,000 diseases by the pulse alone, and that 
 he used 400 herbs in the treatment of the 
 various diseases. Upon his request, I ex- 
 amined his portfolio containing 350 testi- 
 monials of marvellous cures, wrought upon 
 American residents of California during his 
 
144 Mind and Body 
 
 seventeen years ' practice on the coast. M§iny 
 of them were from parties of intelligence 
 and eminence, and were so extraordinary 
 that nothing short of their being attested by 
 numerous witnesses of unimpeachable ver- 
 acity, could satisfy one of their truth. Now, 
 permit me to say that I have no pulse in the 
 right wrist, the pulse being congenitally ab- 
 sent ; but through it he made the pretense of 
 locating so many diseases. This doubtless is 
 the form and character of medical practice 
 in China among the native Chinamen, and 
 probably has been for many centuries among 
 a population of 400,000,000. Is not the logic 
 from the above facts irresistible, that in 
 China the native physician cannot tell one 
 disease from another, and that all his work 
 is simply nonsense and guess work? There 
 can be no escape from this conclusion— it 
 follows as lucidly as a demonstrated prob- 
 lem in "Eudid—that any benefit that may 
 ever accrue from their treatment is wholly 
 due to the dynamic force of the brain upon 
 the functions of the body.'' 
 
 The following, from a Philadelphia jour- 
 nal, gives a striking illustration of the fact 
 
Power of the Imagination 145 
 
 that the imagination is a real factor in many 
 cases of physical aihnent: *^The fact that 
 the throes of the imagination under great 
 nervous excitement often produce a corre- 
 sponding physical frenzy was illustrated re- 
 cently in the case of a man who had gone to 
 sleep with his artificial teeth in his mouth. 
 Waking suddenly with a choking sensation, 
 he found his teeth had disappeared. He 
 looked in the glass of water where they were 
 usually deposited, did not see them and real- 
 ized they must he far down his throat. Chok- 
 ing and struggling, he hammered on the door 
 of a friend sleeping in the house, who, see- 
 ing his critical condition, vainly tried to 
 draw the teeth out of the sufferer's throat. 
 He could feel the teeth, but had not the 
 strength to extract them. He ran for a 
 blacksmith who lived a few doors away, but 
 the blacksmith's hand was too big to put into 
 the man's mouth. A doctor had been sent 
 for, but he was so long in coming that the 
 victim of the accident seemed likely to die 
 of suffocation before the physician arrived. 
 A little girl of ten years was brought under 
 the impression that her small hand might 
 
146 Mind and Body 
 
 reacli the obstacle and withdraw it, but she 
 got frightened and began to cry. The suf- 
 ferer became black in the face, his throat 
 swelled out, and his friends expected every 
 moment to be his last, when finally the doc- 
 tor arrived. He heard the history of the 
 case, saw that the teeth were not in the man's 
 jaws nor in their nightly receptacle, felt the 
 throat and cast his eyes seriously upon the 
 floor. There, on the floor, he saw the 
 whole set of teeth. He adjusted them to 
 ^the jaws of the patient, told him to breathe 
 freely, and every symptom of suffocation 
 disappeared. ' ' 
 
 The following from an Eastern journal il- 
 lustrates another phase of the subject: '*Salt- 
 petriere, the hospital for nervous diseases, 
 made famous by the investigations of Dr. 
 Charcot, has an interesting case of religious 
 mania. The patient, who is a woman of 
 about forty years of age, entertains the be- 
 lief that she is crucified, and this delusion 
 has caused a contraction of the muscles of 
 the feet of such a nature that she can walk 
 only on tip-toe. The patient, moreover, is 
 
Power of the Imagination 147 
 
 subject occasionally to the still more extraor- 
 dinary manifestation— that of * stigmata.' 
 Instances of * stigmata' are tolerably fre- 
 quent in the * Lives of the Saints' of alleged 
 supernatural marks on the body in imitation 
 of the wounds of Christ. These * stigmata' 
 have been observed beyond all question on 
 the woman at the Saltpetriere. Their ap- 
 pearance on the body coincides with the re- 
 turn of the most solemn religious anniver- 
 saries. These 'stigmata' are so visible that 
 it has been possible to photograph them. The 
 doctors of the Saltpetriere in order to assure 
 themselves that these manifestations were 
 not the result of trickery, contrived a sort 
 of shade having a glass front and metal 
 sides, and capable of being hermetically at- 
 tached to the body by means of India rub- 
 ber fixings. These shades were placed in 
 position a considerable time before the dates 
 at which the stigmata are wont to appear. 
 When they were affixed there were no marks 
 whatever on the patient's body, but at the 
 expected period the * stigmata' were visible 
 as usual through the glass." 
 In a Southern journal there is reported an 
 
148 Mind and Body 
 
 interesting case, in whicih a New Orleans 
 physician tells tiie following story: ^* A ner- 
 vous man recently called on me and asked, 
 'In what part of the abdomen are the pre- 
 monitory pains of appendicitis felt?' On 
 the left side, exactly here,' I replied, indi- 
 cating a spot a little above the point of the 
 hip-bone. He went out, and next afternoon 
 I was summoned in hot haste to the St. 
 Charles hotel. I found the planter writhing 
 on his bed, his forehead beaded with sweat, 
 •and his whole appearance indicating intense 
 suffering. ^I have an attack of appendicitis,' 
 he groaned, * and I'm a dead man ! I'll never 
 survive an operation!' 'Where do you feel 
 the pain?' I asked. 'Oh, right here,' he re- 
 plied, putting his finger on the spot I had 
 located at the office. 'I feel as if somebody 
 had a knife in me turning it around.' 'Well, 
 then, it isn't appendicitis, at any rate,' I 
 said cheerfully, ^because it is the wrong side/ 
 'The wrong side!' he exclaimed, glaring at 
 me indignantly. 'Why, you told me your- 
 self it was on the left side!' 'Then I must 
 have been abstracted,' I replied calmly; 'I 
 
Power of the Imagination 149 
 
 should have said the right side.' I pre- 
 scribed something that wouldn't hurt him, 
 and learned afterward that he ate his dinner 
 in the dining-room the same evening. Oh! 
 yes; he was no doubt in real pain when I 
 called, but you can make your finger ache 
 merely by concentrating your attention on it 
 for a feu; moments.'^ 
 
 Frank F. Moore, in ^^A Journalist's Note 
 Book" tells the following amusing and sig- 
 nificant story of the influence of imagination 
 upon health. ^^A young civil servant in In- 
 dia, feeling fagged from the excessive heat 
 and from long hours of work consulted the 
 best doctor within reach. The doctor looked 
 him over, sounded his heart and lungs, and 
 then said gravely: ^I will write you tomor- 
 row. ' The next day the young man received a 
 letter telling him that his left lung was gone 
 and his heart seriously affected, and advis- 
 ing him to lose no time in adjusting his busi- 
 ness affairs. *0f course, you may live for 
 weeks,' the latter said, ^but you had best 
 not leave important matters undecided.' 
 Naturally the young official was dismayed 
 by so dark a prognosis— nothing less than a 
 
150 Mind and Body 
 
 deatli warrant. Within twenty-four hours 
 lie was having difficulty with his respiration, 
 and was seized with an acute pain in the 
 region of the heart. He took to his bed with 
 the feeling that he should never rise from 
 it. During the night he became so much 
 worse that his servant sent for the doctor. 
 * What on earth have you been doing to your- 
 self?' demanded the doctor. * There were no 
 indications of this sort when I saw you yes- 
 terday!' *It is my heart, I suppose,' weak- 
 ly answered the patient. ^Your heart!' re- 
 peated the doctor. ^ Your heart was all right 
 yesterday.' ^My lungs, then.' ^What is the 
 matter with you, man? You don't seem to 
 have been drinking!' *Your letter,' gasped 
 the patient. ^You said I had only a few 
 weeks to live.' ^Are you crazy!' said the 
 doctor. ^I wrote you to take a few weeks 
 vacation in the hills, and you would be all 
 right.' For reply the patient drew the let- 
 ter from under the bedclothes and gave it to 
 the doctor. * Heavens ! ' cried that gentleman 
 as he glanced at it. ^ This was meant for an- 
 other man! My assistant has mixed up the 
 letters.' The young man at once sat up in 
 
Power of the Imagination 151 
 
 bed and made a rapid recovery. And what 
 of the patient for whom the direful prog- 
 nosis was intended? Delighted with the re- 
 port that a sojourn in the hills would set 
 him right, he started at once, and five years 
 later was alive and in fair health.'' 
 
 The following is clipped from a medical 
 journal: ^^Some physician makes use of this 
 suggestive phrase— ^ the dynamic power of an 
 idea,' and, as an illustration of what is meant 
 by this expression, the following incident is 
 related. Not long ago a man in taking medi- 
 cine was suddenly possessed by the notion 
 that he had by mistake taken arsenic. His 
 wife insisted to the contrary, but he pro- 
 ceeded to manifest all the peculiar symp- 
 toms of arsenical poisoning, and finally died. 
 So certain was his wife that he had not taken 
 arsenic that an autopsy was held, when not 
 an atom of the poison could be found. Of 
 what did this man die? Arsenic! No, of 
 the dynamic power of an idea or arsenic. 
 Happily for humanity this dynamic power of 
 ideas works constructively no less certainly 
 than it does destructively, and an idea of 
 health fixed in the consciousness and persis- 
 
152 Mind and Body 
 
 tently adhered to would tend to bring the 
 best results. Over a hundred years ago, old 
 John Hunter said, ^As the state of mind 
 is capable of producing disease, another 
 state of it may effect a cure/ " 
 
 Dr. William C. Prime relates the follow- 
 ing case in his book *^ Among the Northern 
 Hills." *^The judge was summoned in a 
 hurry to see an old lady who had managed 
 her farm for forty years since her husband's 
 death. She had two sons, and a stepson, 
 John, who was not an admirable person. 
 After a long drive on a stormy night the 
 judge found the old lady apparently just 
 alive, and was told by the doctor in attend- 
 ance to hurry, as his patient was very weak. 
 The judge brought paper and ink with him. 
 He found a stand and a candle, placed them 
 at the head of the bed, and after saying a 
 few words to the woman, told her he was 
 ready to prepare the will if she would go on 
 and tell him what she wanted him to do. He 
 wrote the introductory phrase rapidly, and 
 leaning over toward her said, ^Now, go on, 
 Mrs. Norton.' 
 
 ^*Her voice was quite faint, and she 
 
Power of the Imagination 153 
 
 seemed to speak with an effort. She said: 
 'First of all, I want to give the farm to my 
 sons, Harry and James. Jnst put that 
 down.' 'But,' said the judge, 'you can't do 
 that, Mrs. Norton. The farm isn't yours to 
 give away.' 'The farm isn't mine!' she said 
 in a voice decidedly stronger than before. 
 'No, the farm isn't yours. You have only a 
 life interest in it.' 'This farm that I've 
 run for goin' on forty- three year next spring 
 isn't mine to do with what I please with it! 
 Why not. Judge I'd like to know what you 
 mean!' 'Why, Mr. Norton, your hus- 
 band, gave you a life estate in all his 
 property, and on your death the farm 
 goes to his son, John, and your chil- 
 dren get the village houses. I have ex- 
 plained that to you very often before.' 'And 
 when I die, John Norton is to have this 
 house and farm whether I will or not?' 'Just 
 so. It will be his.' 'Then I ain't goin' to 
 die!' said the old woman, in a clear and de- 
 cidedly ringing and healthy voice. And so 
 saying, she threw her feet over the front of 
 the bed, sat up, gathered a blanket and cover- 
 let about her, straightened her gaunt form, 
 
154 Mind and Body 
 
 walked across the room and sat down in a 
 great chair before the fire. 
 
 **The doctor and the judge went home. 
 That was fifteen years ago. The old lady is 
 alive to-day. And she accomplished her in- 
 tent. She heat John after all. He died four 
 years ago." 
 
CHAPTER Vin 
 
 BELIEF AND SUGGESTION 
 
 The writer has been informed by a promi- 
 nent physician of Chicago, that for many 
 years he has been in the habit of administer- 
 ing hypodermic injections of distilled water, 
 accompanying the same by the statement 
 that he is injecting morphine. He states 
 that in every case, he has succeeded in in- 
 ducing a quiet, peaceful sleep, and a cessa- 
 tion of pain after the injection, which can 
 be attributed only to the belief of the patient. 
 The same physician also relates the case of 
 a woman who believed that she had taken 
 strychnine by mistake. When the doctor 
 was called he found the woman manifesting 
 every symptom of strychnine poisoning, 
 even down to the most minute details, and 
 he is of the opinion that death would have 
 ensued in a short time had he not proceeded 
 to administer the regular antidotes and re-- 
 storative treatment. After the woman was 
 
 155 
 
156 Mind and Body 
 
 brought out of tlie condition, it was discov- 
 ered that the supposed strychnine was 
 nothing but a harmless powder. In relating 
 the case, the physician always adds that the 
 woman had witnessed the death struggles of 
 a dog which had been poisoned by strych- 
 nine several months previous, which might 
 have had some effect in enabling her to un- 
 consciously counterfeit the symptoms. 
 
 Dr. Max Eastman, in a recent magazine 
 article says: *^The mission of this paper is 
 io offer guidance in a matter about which a 
 great quantity of the general public is very 
 much at sea. In this question of ^mind over 
 matter,' the reformers have done their work. 
 They have stirred things up. They have be- 
 stowed upon the world about a hundred and 
 fifty little religions and a confused idea that 
 there must be some truth in the matter some- 
 where. The ignorant have done their work. 
 They have persecuted the believers, jeered at 
 them, or damned them with a vacuous smile. 
 The world will never lack ballast. It is only 
 the scientists that have failed of their duty. 
 They have stalked through a routine of ele- 
 vated lectures, written a few incomprehen- 
 
Belief and Suggestion 157 
 
 sible books, and kept the science of psychol- 
 ogy, so far as the hungry world goes, sealed 
 up in their own proud bosoms. In all this 
 uproar of faith-cures, and miracles, and 
 shouting prophets, we have heard few il- 
 luminating words from the universities. 
 The consequence is that we are without a 
 helm, and the reform blows now one way and 
 now another. . . . 
 
 **The law of suggestion, which is one of 
 the great discoveries of modern science, was 
 first formulated by Dr. Liebault at Paris, in 
 a book published in 1866. Since his day the 
 number of physicians who practice ^sug- 
 gestive therapeutics' has steadily increased, 
 until to-day no thorough clinical hospital is 
 without a professional suggestionist. The 
 practice does not involve any metaphysical 
 theories, the passage of any hidden force 
 from one brain to another, any 'planes of 
 existence,' or any religious upset, or any 
 poetic physiolog}', or the swallowing of any 
 occult doctrines whatever. It is one of the 
 simplest and coolest of scientific theories. 
 It is a question of the relation between the 
 brain and the bodily organs. It seems never 
 
158 Mind and Body 
 
 to have been clearly stated that healing dis- 
 ease by suggestion depends not in the least 
 degree upon any theory of the relation of 
 mind and matter. . . . The attempt to 
 fix an idea in the mind without reason is sug- 
 gestion. It is accomplished usually in medi- 
 cal practice by asking the patient to lie 
 down and relax his body and his mind and 
 then vigorously stating to him the desired 
 idea. It may be accomplished in a number 
 of ways. The patient may be told that the 
 pperator is a wizard and is about to trans- 
 fer an idea from his own mind to that of the 
 patient. If the patient believes him he will 
 very likely accept the idea. It may be ac- 
 complished by gestures or incantations which 
 the patient regards with superstitious awe, 
 provided it is explained beforehand what 
 these gestures are meant to produce. It may 
 be accomplished by telling the patient he has 
 no body, and sitting with him for awhile in 
 spir'itual silence, provided he knows what 
 to expect. 
 
 ''All these methods, if one Relieves in 
 them, are good, and they prove by their suc- 
 cess the law of suggestion. But the method 
 
Belief and Suggestion 159 
 
 that is based on a sure truth is the method 
 of the scientist. He reasons with his patient, 
 he stirs in him what moral or religious en- 
 thusiasm he can, and to these means he adds 
 tactfully the subtle suggestive powers of his 
 own presence and eloquence. This force, to- 
 gether with the power which is revealed in 
 a man of correcting his own mental habits, 
 is the greatest practical discovery of mod- 
 ern psychology. . . . Suggestive thera- 
 peutics is the use of suggestion to fix in the 
 mind ideas of healthy mental habits. . . . 
 ' * Our question is : can the physical condi- 
 tions of the brain affect the physical condi- 
 tion of the stomach? We know that the 
 brain-building condition which accompanies 
 the idea of raising our hand can affect the 
 condition of the muscles of our arm— and we 
 call that a voluntary function. Now the 
 question is whether the brain condition which 
 accompanies the idea of enlivening our 
 stomach can have an effect upon that in- 
 voluntary function. Experiments with sug- 
 gestion have proved that in some cases it 
 can, if it continues long enough. Persons of 
 a very suggestible nature, can, for instance, 
 
160 Mind and Body 
 
 by concentrating tlieir mind upon a certain 
 part of the body, increase the flow of blood 
 to that part, although the regulation of blood 
 flow is supposed to be entirely involuntary. 
 The action of the heart, also the movements 
 of the digestive organs particularly, and of 
 the organs of elimination, are almost direct- 
 ly affected in suggestible persons by that 
 change in their brains which accompanies 
 certain ideas. . . . Science has estab- 
 lished then, that suggestion can effect to some 
 extent, the so-called involuntary functions of 
 the body; but the extent or limitation of 
 these effects is by no means determined. It 
 could not be determined scientifically with- 
 out years of diligent experiment and tabu- 
 lation. Any dogmatic statement upon one 
 side or the other of that question, is there- 
 fore premature and against the spirit of 
 science. ' ' 
 
 Dr. Leith, in his Edinburgh lectures in 
 1896, said: **I am inclined to doubt whether 
 the benefits of Nauheim (a treatment for the 
 heart) is not after all to be explained large- 
 ly, if not entirely, by the influence of the 
 mental factor." Tuke says that: ''John 
 
Belief and Suggestion 161 
 
 Hunter says he was subject to spasm of his 
 * vital parts' when anxious about an event; 
 as, for instance, whether his bees would 
 swarm or not, whether the large cat he was 
 anxious to kill would get away before he 
 could get the gun. After death it was found 
 that he had some heart disease. 
 Lord Eglinton told John Hunter how, when 
 two soldiers were condemned to be shot, it 
 was arranged the one who threw the number 
 with the dice should be reprieved; the one 
 who proved successful generally fainted, 
 while the one to be shot remained calm.'* 
 Dr. Schofield says: ^^ During the rush of 
 Consumptives to Berlin for inoculation by 
 Dr. Koch's tuberculin, a special set of symp- 
 toms were observed to follow the injection 
 and were taken as being diagnostic of the 
 existence of tuberculosis; among others, a 
 rise of temperature after so many hours. 
 These phenomena were eagerly looked for 
 by the patients, and occurred accurately in 
 several who were injected with pure water. 
 The formation of blisters full of serum from 
 the application of plain stamp and other 
 
162 Mind and Body 
 
 paper to various parts of the bodies of pa- 
 tients in the hypnotic state, is well attested 
 and undoubtedly true." 
 
 Dr. Krafft-Ebing has produced a rise 
 from 37 degrees centigrade to 38.5 degrees 
 centigrade in patients by fixing their minds 
 by suggestion. In the same way Bine t low- 
 ered the temperature 10 degrees centigrade. 
 The latter authority says: **How can it be, 
 when one merely says to the patient: ^Your 
 hand will become cold ' and the vaso-motor 
 system answers by constricting the artery? 
 C^est ce que depasse notre imagination/' 
 Schofield commenting on the above, says: 
 ** Indeed there is no way of accounting for 
 such a phenomena but by freely admitting 
 the presence of unconscious psychic forces 
 in the body, capable of so influencing the 
 structures of the body as to produce physi- 
 cal changes." Tuke says: **A lady saw a 
 child in immediate danger of having its 
 ankle crushed by an iron gate. She was 
 greatly agitated, but could not move, owing 
 to intense pain coming on in her correspond- 
 ing ankle. She walked home with difficulty, 
 took off her stocking and found a circle 
 
Belief and Suggestion 163 
 
 around the ankle of a light red color, with a 
 large red spot on the outer side. By the 
 morning her whole foot was inflamed, and 
 she had to remain in bed for some days. 
 A young woman witnessing the lancing of 
 an abscess in the axilla immediately felt pain 
 in that region, followed by inflammation. 
 Dr. Marmise of Bordeaux tells us of a lady^s 
 maid, who when the surgeon put his lancet 
 into her mistress's arm to bleed her, felt the 
 prick in her own arm, and shortly after 
 there appeared a bruise at the spot.'' 
 
 It is related that St. Francis d'Assisi dwelt 
 so long in concentrated meditation upon the 
 thought and picture of the Crucifixion that 
 he suffered intense pain in his hands and 
 feet, at the points corresponding to the place 
 of the nails in the hands and feet of Christ, 
 which was afterward followed by marked in- 
 flammation at those points, terminating in 
 actual ulceration. The phenomena of the 
 stigmata in the cases of religious enthu- 
 siasts and fanatics has been mentioned else- 
 where in this book. Prof. Barrett says of 
 the phenomenon: ^^It is not so well known, 
 but it is nevertheless the fact, that utterly 
 
164 Mind and Body 
 
 startling physiological changes can be pro- 
 duced in a hypnotized subject merely by con- 
 scious or unconscious mental suggestion. 
 Thus a red scar or a painful burn, or even a 
 figure of a definite shape, such as a cross or 
 an initial, can be caused to appear on the 
 body of the entranced subject solely through 
 suggesting the idea. By creating some local 
 disturbance of the blood-vessel in the skin, 
 the unconscious self has done what would be 
 impossible for the conscious to perform. 
 'And so in the well-attested cases of stig- 
 mata, where a close resemblance to the 
 wounds of the body of the crucified Saviour 
 appears on the body of the ecstatic. This is 
 a case of unconscious self-suggestion, aris- 
 ing from the intent and adoring gaze of the 
 ecstatic upon the bleeding figure on the 
 crucifix. ' ' 
 
 Dr. Schofield says: **The breath is altered 
 by the emotions. The short quiet breath of 
 joy contrasts with the long sigh of relief 
 after breathless suspense. Joy gives eup- 
 noea or easy breathing, grief or rather fear 
 tends to dyspnoea or difficult breathing. 
 Sobbing goes with grief, laughter with joy, 
 
Belief and Suggestion 165 
 
 and one often merges into the other. Yawn- 
 ing is produced by pure idea or by seeing it, 
 as well as by fatigue. Dr. Morton Prince 
 says a lady he knew always had violent ca- 
 tarrh in the nose (hay fever) if a rose was 
 in the room. He gave her an artificial one and 
 the usual symptoms followed. How many 
 cases of hay-fever have a somewhat similar 
 origin in the unconscious mind? 
 The hair may be turned grey and white by 
 emotion in a few hours or sooner. With re- 
 gard to the stomach and digestion, apart 
 from actual disease, we may notice one or two 
 instances of unconscious mind action. A 
 man who was very sea-sick lost a valuable 
 set of artificial teeth overboard, and was in- 
 stantly cured. If the thoughts are strongly 
 directed to the intestinal canal, as by bread- 
 pills, it will produce strong peristaltic action. 
 Vomiting occurs from mental causes, apart 
 from organic brain disease. Bad news will 
 produce nausea; emotion also, or seeing an- 
 other person vomit, or certain smells or 
 ideas, or thoughts about a sea-voyage, etc., 
 or the thought that an emetic has been taken. 
 . . . The thought of an acid fruit will fill 
 
166 Mind and Body 
 
 the moutli with water. A successful way of 
 stopping discordant street music is to suck 
 a lemon within a full view of a German band. 
 Fear will so dry the throat that dry rice can- 
 not be swallowed. This is a test in India 
 for the detection of a murderer. The sus- 
 pected man is brought forward and given a 
 handful of dry rice to swallow. If he can do 
 this he is innocent; if he cannot he is guilty, 
 fear having dried up his mouth. 
 A young lady who could not be cured of 
 "vomiting was engaged to be married. On 
 being told that the wedding day must be 
 postponed till cured, the vomiting ceased. 
 . . . A mother nursing her child always 
 found the milk secreted when she heard the 
 child crying for any length of time. Fear 
 stops the secretion of milk, and worry will 
 entirely change its character, so as to be- 
 come absolutely injurious to the child.'' 
 
 Maudsley says: *' Perhaps we do not as 
 physicians consider sufficiently the influence 
 of mental states in the production of dis- 
 ease, their importance as symptoms; or real- 
 ize all the advantages which we take of them 
 in our efforts to cure disease. Quackery 
 
Belief and Suggestion 167 
 
 seems to have got hold of a truth which legit- 
 imate medicine fails to appreciate or use 
 adequately.'' Dr. Buckley says: **A doctor 
 was called to see a lady with severe rheuma- 
 tism, and tried to extemporize a vapor bath 
 in bed, with an old tin pipe and a tea-ket- 
 tle; and only succeeded in scalding the pa- 
 tient with the boiling water proceeding from 
 the overful kettle through the pipe. The 
 patient screamed; ^Doctor, you have scalded 
 me,' and leaped out of bed. But the rheu- 
 matism was cured, and did not return." 
 Tuke relates an amusing instance of the 
 effect of suggestion and faith upon warts. 
 He had been considering the subject of the 
 various *^pow-wows" or ^^ wart-cures" of the 
 old women, and determined to try some ex- 
 periments in order to see whether these 
 cures were not due simply to mental in- 
 fluences and expectant attention. On an 
 official tour he visited an asylum, where he 
 was regarded as a great personage by rea- 
 son of his ofi&ce. He noticed that several of 
 the inmates were afflicted with warts, and 
 muttering a few words over the excresences, 
 he told the owners that by such and such a 
 
168 Mind and Body 
 
 day the warts would have completely disap- 
 peared. He forgot the circumstances, owing 
 to the press of his official duties, and was 
 agreeably surprised when, on his next round 
 of visits, he was told that his patients had 
 been cured at the time he had predicted. 
 Nearly everyone has had some personal ac- 
 quaintance with some of these *^pow-wow'' 
 wart cures, in one form or another. Tying 
 a knot in a piece of cord, then rubbing the 
 wart with it, and burying the string, has 
 cured thousands of cases of warts— the sug- 
 gestion being the real cause behind the mask. 
 Ferassi cured fifty cases of ague by a 
 charm, which consisted merely of a piece of 
 paper with the word ^^ Febrifuge" written 
 on it. The patient was directed to clip off 
 one letter of the word each day imtil cured. 
 Some patients recovered as soon as the first 
 ^^F" was clipped from the paper. The 
 writer hereof knows personally of a num- 
 ber of people having been cured of fever 
 and ague by means of a written ''charm" 
 which an old man in Philadelphia sold them 
 at a dollar a copy. The old man informed 
 him that he, ''and his father before him" 
 
Belief and Suggestion 169 
 
 had cured thousands of people in this way, 
 making a comfortable living from the prac- 
 tice. Dr. Gerbe, of Paris, cured 401 out 
 of 629 cases of toothache by masked sugges- 
 tion administered in the form of causing the 
 patients to crush a small insect between their 
 fingers, after having strongly impressed 
 upon them the fact that this was an infal- 
 lible cure. 
 
 Dr. Schofield reports the following inter- 
 esting cases of cures by auto-suggestion and 
 faith: **A surgeon took into a hospital ward 
 some time ago, a little boy who had kept his 
 bed for five years, having hurt his spine in 
 a fall. He had been all the time totally par- 
 alyzed in the legs, and could not feel when 
 they were touched or pinched; nor could he 
 move them in the least degree. After care- 
 ful examination, the doctor explained min- 
 utely to the boy the awful nature of the elec- 
 tric battery, and told him to prepare for its 
 application the next day. At the same time 
 he showed him a sixpence, and sympathiz- 
 ing with his state, told him that the sixpence 
 should be his if, notwithstanding, he should 
 have improved enough the next day to walk 
 
170 Mind and Body 
 
 leaning on and pushing a chair, which would 
 also save the need of the battery. In two 
 weeks the boy was running races in the park, 
 and his cure was reported in the ^Lancet,' 
 . . .A young lady who had taken ether 
 three and a half years before, on the inhaler 
 being held three inches away from the face, 
 and retaining a faint odor of ether, went 
 right off, and becoming unconscious without 
 any ether being used or the inhaler touch- 
 ing her face. A woman was brought on a 
 .couch into a London hospital by two ladies, 
 who said she had been suffering from incur- 
 able paralysis of the spine for two years, 
 and having exhausted all their means in 
 nursing her, they now sought to get her ad- 
 admitted, pending her removal to a home 
 for incurables. In two hours I had cured 
 her by agencies which owed all their virtue 
 to their influence on the mind, and I walked 
 with the woman half a mile up and down the 
 waiting-room, and she then returned home 
 in an omnibus, being completely cured. An 
 amusing case is that of a paralyzed girl, 
 who on learning that she had secured the af- 
 fections of the curate, who used to visit her, 
 
Belief and Suggestion 171 
 
 got out of bed and walked— cured; and soon 
 afterwards made an excellent pastor's wife. 
 A remarkable instance of this sort of cure 
 is that of a child afflicted with paralysis, 
 who was brought up from the country tO' 
 Paris to the Hotel Dieu. The child, who had 
 heard a great deal of the wonderful metrop- 
 olis, its magnificent hospitals, its omnipo- 
 tent doctors, and their wonderful cures, was 
 awe- struck, and so vividly impressed with 
 the idea that such surroundings must have 
 a curative influence, that the day after her 
 arrival she sat up in bed much better. The 
 good doctor just passed around, but had not 
 time to treat her till the third day ; by which 
 time when he came round she was out of 
 bed, walking about the room, quite restored 
 by the glimpses she had got of his majestic 
 iDresence." 
 
 Having now shown by numerous disinter- 
 ested authorities, the majority of whom be- 
 long to the medical profession, that the men- 
 tal states of belief, faith and expectancy, 
 and their negative aspects of fear, appre- 
 hension, and false-belief, may, and do, in- 
 fluence physicial conditions, functioning and 
 
172 Mind and Body 
 
 activities, irrespective of tlie particular 
 theory, creed, or explanation accepted by the 
 patient himself, or herself, we see the neces- 
 sity of seeking for the common principle of 
 cure manifesting in the various forms of 
 phenomena. And before this common prin- 
 ciple may be grasped, we must needs acquaint 
 ourselves with the physical organism in- 
 volved in the process of cure. Accordingly 
 the several succeeding chapters will be de- 
 voted to that phase of the general subject. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 PSYCHO-THERAPEUTIC METHODS 
 
 The reader will have seen from the pre- 
 ceding chapters that we have proceeded 
 upon the theory that Suggestion is the uni- 
 versal operative principle manifesting in all 
 forms of mental healing, under whatever 
 guise the latter may be presented and by 
 whatever method it may be applied. But 
 it must be remembered that by ** Suggestion'* 
 we do not mean the theories of any particu- 
 lar group of psycho-therapists, but rather 
 the broad general principle indicated by that 
 term which operates in the direction of in- 
 fluencing the Subconscious Mind and its ac- 
 tivities. Let us consider the principle of 
 Suggestion that we may understand what it 
 is, and what it is not. 
 
 The term '* Suggestion" has as its root 
 the Latin word suggero, which is trans- 
 lated as follows: sug (or sub), ''under;" and 
 gero, '*to carry;" that is, ''to carry or place 
 
 173 
 
174 Mind and Body 
 
 under." In its general usage it signifies 
 '^The introduction indirectly into the mind 
 or thoughts ; or that which is so introduced. ' ' 
 Ordinarily a ** suggestion" is an idea in- 
 directly insinuated into the mind, and gen- 
 erally without the process of argument or 
 reasoning. In the New Psychology, the term 
 '^^suggestioki" is used in the sense of an 
 idea which is '* carried under" the objec- 
 tive or conscious mind, and introduced to 
 the subjective or Subconscious Mind. In 
 Suggestive Therapeutics, a ^^ suggestion" is 
 an idea introduced into that part of the 
 Subconscious Mind which governs and con- 
 trols the physical functions and activities, 
 and which is embodied in the cells and cell- 
 groups of the body as we have stated in the 
 preceding chapters. 
 
 By many mental healers the term ^'Sug- 
 gestion" is applied only to the particular 
 method of applying Suggestion employed by 
 physicians and others who practice under the 
 general theories of Suggestive Therapeutics, 
 and the first mentioned class deny that they 
 use Suggestion because, as they say, they do 
 not use the methods of the practitioners of 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 175 
 
 Suggestive Therapeutics, and make their 
 cures by '^ metaphysical" or ** spiritual'' 
 means, or according to some creed or meta- 
 physical theory which, accepted, works the 
 cure. We think that the unprejudiced 
 reader who has followed us this far will have 
 seen that these metaphysical theories, creeds, 
 and special dogmas are simply the outward 
 mask of Suggestion. These healers simply 
 supply a form of Suggestion which is accept- 
 able to the patient because of his tempera- 
 ment, training, etc., and the healing process 
 operates along the lines of the ' ' faith cure. ' ' 
 The fact that healers of entirely opposite 
 theories and doctrines manage to make cures 
 in about the same proportion and in about 
 the same time, would seem to prove that the 
 theories or dogmas have but little to do with 
 the real work of healing. Whatever form 
 of Suggestion is most acceptable to the pa- 
 tient, will best perform the healing work in 
 that particular case. This will also serve 
 to explain why some patients failing to ob- 
 tain relief from one school of mental heal- 
 ing often are cured by healers of another 
 
176 Mind and Body 
 
 school, and vice versa. Some need Sugges- 
 tion couched in the mystical terms of some 
 of the cults; others need it garbed in relig- 
 ious drapings, while others prefer some 
 vague metaphysical theory which seems 
 to explain the phenomena. Others still are 
 repelled by any of the above forms, but re- 
 spond readily to the Suggestion of a physi- 
 cian administering *^ straight" suggestive 
 treatment, without any religious, metaphysi- 
 cal, or mystical disguise. In all of these 
 'cases the real healing work is done by the 
 Subconscious Mind of the patient himself, 
 the various forms of Suggestion serving mere- 
 ly to awaken and rouse into activity the la- 
 tent forces of nature. 
 
 We invite your consideration of the fol- 
 lowing forms of * treatment'* for various 
 disorders, as given by some of the ** Divine 
 Scientists" and other metaphysical and 
 semi-religious organizations and cults. As 
 you read them, try to discover the Sugges- 
 tive germ so nicely surrounded by the sugar- 
 coating— the Suggestive pill so cleverly con- 
 cealed by the ** metaphysical" raisin. 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 177 
 
 From a journal published in Chicago sev- 
 eral years ago, called ^^ Universal Truth/ ^ 
 the following '^treatments" were clipped: 
 
 [A. correspondent who asked for a *^ treat- 
 ment" adapted to the cure of nervousness, 
 is instructed to use the following formula, 
 .which must be *' repeated over and over": 
 
 **I am warmed and fed and clothed and 
 healed hy Divine Love.'' 
 
 Another correspondent is given the fol- 
 lowing formula for the cure of sore feet, the 
 affirmation to be made frequently: 
 
 '*I so thoroughly understand the divine 
 working of the Truth, and I so thoroughly 
 realize the presence of the Father in me and 
 about me that I am now conscious that omnip- 
 otent Love rules in every atom of my being, 
 soul and body. My feet can never be tveary 
 nor sore. God created my feet perfect. I 
 walk the pathway of life in perfect ease and 
 comfort. All the obstacles in my path have 
 vanished, and my feet are bathed in a sea of 
 pure love. Through a knoivledge and reali- 
 zation of the presence of Omnipotence, I 
 praise and thank God for the perfect spirit 
 of peace that now dwells within me." 
 
178 Mind and Body 
 
 The following additional ** treatment" is 
 suggested to this sufferer from sore feet: 
 
 '^Mentally place yourself in an attitude to 
 realize the power of the words you utter, for 
 the fullness of peace and harmony in your 
 feet comes with realization. The more fre- 
 quently this spiritual medicine is used, 
 the sooner comes manifestation of perfect 
 health.'' 
 
 The same journal contained the following 
 item: 
 
 '^The following invigorating affirmations 
 are used at the Exodus Club, Chicago, Sun- 
 day mornings, the congregation repeating 
 them after the leader: 'With reverent recog- 
 nition of my birthright, I claim my son ship 
 ivith the Almighty. I am free from disease 
 and disorder. I am in harmony with my 
 source. The Infinite Health is made mani- 
 fest in me. The Infinite .Substance is my 
 constant supply. The Infinite Life fills and 
 strengthens me. The Infinite Intelligence il- 
 lumines and directs me. The Infinite Love 
 surrounds and protects me. The Infinite 
 Power upholds and supports me. I am out 
 of bondage. I have the freedom of the sons 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 179 
 
 of God, With all that is in me I rejoice and 
 give thanks. God and man are the all in all, 
 noiv and forever more,' " 
 
 The same journal recommends the follow- 
 ing affirmations for general health treat- 
 ment : 
 
 '* Monday— Per/ec^ health is my external 
 birthright, 
 
 Tuesday— 7 have health of intellect, there- 
 fore I have ivise judgment and clear under- 
 standing, 
 
 Wednesday—/ am morally healthful, there- 
 fore in all my dealings I love to realize that 
 I am quickened by the spirit of integrity, 
 
 ThuYsdaj— Health fidness of soul gives me 
 a pure heart and righteousness of motive in 
 everything I do, 
 
 Fridaj— Meditation upon the health of my 
 real being outpictures in physical health and 
 strength, in even temper, joyous spirits and 
 in kind words, 
 
 Saturday— M^ health is inexhaustible, be- 
 cause I keep my eye steadily fixed upon its 
 eternal Principle, and my mouth filled with 
 words of its Omnipotence, 
 
 Sunday— T/ie Father and I are one; one 
 
180 Mind and Body 
 
 in purpose, alike in Substance, and one in 
 manifestation/* 
 
 In the same journal a correspondent gives 
 tlie following treatment for rupture: 
 
 "You were conceived in Divine Love. You 
 are the expression of that pure, perfect Love, 
 Divine Love is a binding, cementing power. 
 It is the power that holds all atoms in their 
 places. Every atom of your body is drawn 
 and held together in its place by this power. 
 If any of them get separated as by rupture 
 * or any other appearance, they may be drawn 
 together and cemented by the omnipotent 
 power of Love; but the word must be spoken. 
 Therefore use the following: 'The omnipo- 
 tent spirit of Love in me heals this rupture 
 and gives me peace,' Then, mentally real- 
 ize the truth of your words, for the Spirit 
 alone can heal,*' 
 
 The following treatment for appendicitis 
 is given in the same journal : 
 
 ''The false theories of physicians and sur- 
 geons, and the general impressions regard- 
 ing that error named Appendicitis are pow- 
 erless to produce or perpetuate such mani- 
 festation. The great law of harmony reigns 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 181 
 
 and only ivaits the universal acknowledg- 
 ment of its supremacy to obliterate all such 
 falsity, thereby obliterating the manifesta- 
 tion. We claim, therefore, freedom from 
 such error for every soul. We make this 
 claim in the name of Jesus Christ/' 
 
 From tlie same source is taken this treat- 
 ment for periodical nausea in a child: 
 
 ^^Dear child, every organ of your body is 
 designed to represent the ideal and perfect 
 organ in your real spiritual being; and every 
 function of your body must respond to the 
 word of truth which is now sent forth to es- 
 tablish hnrmony in your consciousness. The 
 infinite Love that is omnipresent and all- 
 powerful permeates and penetrates every 
 organ and function of your body, and cor- 
 rects every tendency to discord or disease. 
 By that infinite Love you are now made 
 free. You are fearless and free. You are 
 joyous and free. You are free from the fear 
 of others. You manifest health, strength 
 and peace. Harmony reigns in mind and 
 body. The word of truth has made you 
 freer 
 
182 Mind and Body 
 
 [Also tlie following treatment for constipa- 
 tion: 
 
 '*I do realize that the poiver of divine 
 Love so permeates every atom of my being 
 that my bowels move freely and without ef- 
 fort. This inflowing of divine Love removes 
 all obstructions and I am healed, I realize 
 joy and eternal life so fully that the spirit of 
 Peace is ever present with me, I acknowl- 
 edge the fullness of joy, peace and power, 
 and have come into a realization of my one- 
 ness with infinite Spirit; therefore I rest in 
 thee, my father/' 
 
 Another journal of *^ Divine Science" gave 
 tlie following ** Health Thought" to be held 
 during the month: 
 
 ''All the natural channels of my body are 
 open and free. The substance of my body is 
 good.'' 
 
 Also the following treatment for general 
 health: 
 
 "What is true of God is true of man, God 
 is the One All, and is always in a state of 
 wholeness. I, the man of God, am always 
 whole, nice unto the One All, No false belief 
 environs or limits me. No shadow darkens 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 183 
 
 my mental vision. My body is a heavenly 
 body, and my eyes do behold the glory of 
 God in all visible things, I am well, and pro- 
 vided for, thank God, and nothing can make 
 me think otherwise,*' 
 
 While to the orthodox practitioner of 
 medicine the above affirmation and ^'treat- 
 ments'' may seem to be nothing but a ridicu- 
 lous conglomeration of mystical, religious 
 and metaphysical terms, without sequence, 
 logical relation, or common-sense, it is true 
 that statements and treatments similar to 
 the above have successfidly healed many 
 cases of physical ailments. There are thou- 
 sands of people who will testify that they 
 were healed in a similar manner, and the 
 majority of them believed that there was 
 some particular and peculiar virtue in the 
 formula used, or in the theories and beliefs 
 upon which the formula was based. But the 
 imprejudiced student of Suggestion will 
 readily see that the real healing force was 
 with the mind and being of the i^atients 
 themselves, and that the faith, belief and ex- 
 pectant attention was aroused by the formula 
 and the theories. The principle is that of 
 
184 Mind and Body 
 
 all Faith Cures— the principle of Sugges- 
 tion. 
 
 Other schools of metaphysical or religious 
 healers treat the patient by impressing upon 
 his mind the fact that God being perfect, 
 good and loving could not be guilty of creat- 
 ing evil, pain or disease, and that such 
 things are non-existent in the '* Divine 
 Mind," and are merely illusion, errors, or 
 false claims of the *' mortal mind," or ''car- 
 nal mind" of the patient; therefore, if the 
 patient will deny their reality, and will ad- 
 mit as existent only such things as are held 
 in the Divine Mind, i, e., the good things, 
 then the evil things, being merely illusions 
 and untruths, must of necessity fade away 
 and disappear and perfect health will result. 
 Others treat their patients by impressing 
 upon their minds the idea that sickness and 
 disease is either the world or ''the devil," 
 or of the "principle of evil," the latter be- 
 ing described as "the negation of truth," 
 and similar terms; and that therefore fixing 
 the mind and faith upon the "principle of 
 Good," or God, must result in driving away 
 
Psycho-Thebapeutic Methods 185 
 
 the evil conditions. Others hold that disem- 
 bodied spirits are aiding in the cure. There 
 are thousands of variations rung on the 
 chimes of metaphysical or religious sugges- 
 tions in the cults. And they all make some 
 cures, remember— m spite of their theories 
 rather than because of them. 
 
 The Mental Scientists come nearest to the 
 ideas of the New Psychology, when they 
 teach that **As a man thinketh, so is he,'' 
 and that the mind of man creates physical 
 conditions, good and evil, and that the con- 
 stant holding of the ideal of perfect health 
 and the assertion thereof, will restore nor- 
 mal healthy conditions to the person suffer- 
 ing from physical ailments. Mental Science 
 is very near to being ^* straight suggestion" 
 so far as the actual method of treatment is 
 concerned, although it resembles some of the 
 other cults when it begins to speculate or 
 dogmatize regarding the nature of the uni- 
 verse, etc. 
 
 Differing from these metaphysical, mysti- 
 cal, or religious schools of healing in theory, 
 although employing the same principle, we 
 find the school of Suggestive Therapeutics, 
 
186 Mind and Body 
 
 proper, favored by many of the regular 
 physicians and by a number of other healers 
 who base their treatment upon the idea of 
 ** straight suggestion" coupled with hygienic 
 truth and rational physiological facts. Per- 
 haps a better idea of the theories and ideas 
 of this school may be obtained by referring 
 to the actual treatments given by some of 
 their leading practitioners. 
 
 Herbert A. Parkyn, M. D., an eminent 
 practitioner of Suggestive Therapeutics, 
 gives the following instruction to his pupils : 
 ^* Students often ask for information as to 
 what they should say to a patient when 
 thorough relaxation is realized. As no two 
 cases are exactly alike, it follows that the 
 suggestions given must necessarily fit the 
 case, and be given with a view to bring 
 about the mental and physical condition de- 
 sired. For instance, in treating a patient 
 who is afflicted with insomnia, suggestions 
 of sleep should be persistently given; and 
 in cases of malnutrition suggestions of hun- 
 ger should be made to stimulate the appetite 
 for food. The operator should bear in mind 
 that the reiteration of the suggestion that 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 187 
 
 tvill change the condition existing, to that 
 desired, is always the right one, and Ms own 
 intelligence will be the best guarantee as to 
 what the suggestion should be. . . . Al- 
 ways arouse the expectant attention of a pa- 
 tient. ... So logical a line of argument 
 can be made that each patient will have a 
 reason for expecting certain conditions to be 
 brought about. With the patient's atten- 
 tion on the desired results, they generally 
 come to pass. It is better not to give nega- 
 tive suggestions, such as, *You will not, or 
 cannot do this, that or the other thing,' etc. 
 Pointing out what is not desirable does not 
 suffice. In place of such suggestions, tell 
 what you really wish your patients to do. 
 For example, if a man should mount his 
 bicycle incorrectly, he would profit nothing 
 if we should merely tell him that the way he 
 mounted was not the proper one. How much 
 easier it would be for all concerned if the 
 proper manner of mounting should be shown 
 at once. Just so it is with therapeutic sug- 
 gestions, keep suggesting the conditions of 
 mind or body you wish to bring about/' 
 
188 Mind and Body 
 
 The following treatment given as an ex- 
 ample by F. W. Southworth, M. D., in his 
 little book on ^^True Metapliysical Science, 
 and its Practical Application through the 
 Law of Suggestion, " furnishes an excellent 
 illustration of the form of suggestive treat- 
 ment favored by this particular school. The 
 patient is addressed as follows: 
 
 ^^As thoughts are not only things, but 
 forces and act upon our mental and physical 
 life for good or ill, we must be careful to 
 always keep ourselves in that condition of 
 thought which builds up and strengthens, to 
 constantly think thoughts of health, of hap- 
 piness, of good, to be cheerful, hopeful, con- 
 fident and fearless. (Eepeat five or six 
 times.) In order to sustain this condition 
 of positive thinking it requires the develop- 
 ment of the will power. The will is the 
 motive power and the controlling force in all 
 aspects of our life, but we develop it espe- 
 cially for the concentration and control of 
 thought. This is the higher self —the infinite 
 will. Exercise it with vigor and earnest 
 persistency, and learn to rely upon it. As- 
 sert its power as you assert the power of the 
 
Psycho-Thekapeutic Methods 189 
 
 muscles in exercise and it will manifest it- 
 self and the thought will be positive, the 
 secretions of the body will be normal, and 
 the circulation of the blood in the head will 
 be kept at that proper equilibrium which in- 
 sures the constant nutrition of the cells of 
 the brain and their constant vigor and 
 strength of control of all the organs and tis- 
 sues of the body, and this vast and intricate 
 machinery of the body will work har- 
 moniously for the production of nutrition 
 through elaboration of the food elements. 
 
 **As our body is constantly changing and 
 wasting, we must rebuild and restore it con- 
 stantly, and we do so from the air we 
 breathe, the water we drink, and the food 
 we eat. The most important of these is the 
 air you breathe, as it is not only a food in 
 itself to the tissues, but it vitalizes the food 
 you eat and the water you drink. Give it 
 that quality of your thought and breathe it 
 as you have been directed at least six times 
 per day for a period of from five to ten min- 
 utes each time. Eecognize it as both a food 
 and an eliminator of poisons, as it is, and 
 
190 Mind and Body 
 
 breathe, breatlie, breathe, by Nature's meth- 
 od, and the lungs will distribute the oxy- 
 gen to the blood, and the blood being 
 the common carrier of the body will take 
 it to all parts of the body and on its return 
 will gather up all the waste and poisonous 
 matters and will bring them to the lungs, 
 where, meeting the fresh oxygen, they will 
 be burned up and exhaled as carbonic acid 
 gas, leaving the body pure and clean. 
 
 **The water you drink, in the proportion 
 of three and one-half pints each day, is 
 necessary in all adult bodies to insure per- 
 fect secretion and excretion. As the result 
 of this required liquid being provided in nor- 
 mal quantity, the secreting glands will 
 manufacture the proper amount of juices 
 needed in digestion, absorption and assimi- 
 lation of your food, and the excreting glands, 
 those which bring about excretion or the re- 
 moval of waste matters from the body— the 
 liver giving you the bile, which produces a 
 daily movement of the bowels— the kidneys 
 and bladder removing the chemical deposits 
 which come about through the processes of 
 digestion, and the skin excreting a large 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 191 
 
 amount of waste matter from its twelve 
 square feet of surface, which you remove 
 with a towel each morning after moistening 
 it with cold water. By following these laws 
 of Nature you will have a good appetite and 
 digestion, a daily movement of the bowels, 
 refreshing sleep, and, as your nutrition is 
 restored from day to day, a feeling of satis- 
 faction and happiness will be the result. Be 
 earnest and persistent and do everything 
 cheerfully, with a firm determination of do- 
 ing your part to restore nutrition. 
 
 **When you breathe, give it the quality of 
 your thought; it is for the purpose of get- 
 ting food, life; feeding from the air and 
 eliminating poisons from your body. (Ke- 
 peat five and six times.) When you sip the 
 water, think each time that it is to produce 
 perfect secretion and excretion— to give you 
 a good appetite, digestion, refreshing sleep 
 and a free movement of the bowels each 
 morning. (Repeat ^ve or six times.) Each 
 day look forward to the morrow for prog- 
 ress and advancement. Think health— talk 
 it and nothing else. Do not talk with any- 
 one about disease or allow any person to 
 
192 MiN-D AND Body 
 
 talk to you on such subjects. Be cheerful, 
 hopeful, confident and fearless always, and 
 you will be happy and healthy. Eat, drink, 
 breathe and be merry." 
 
 It will be noticed that in the above de- 
 scribed treatment, the suggestions are made 
 along physiological and hygienic lines. That 
 is, the suggestions indicate the physiological 
 processes which are performed normally in 
 the healthy person, the idea being to set up 
 an ideal pattern for the Subconscious mind 
 to follow. In all scientific suggestive treat- 
 ment the idea is always to paint a mental 
 picture of the desired conditions rather than 
 to dwell upon the existing undesirable con- 
 ditions. The ideal is always held up to view, 
 and the patient's mind is led to realize the 
 ideal— to make the ideal real— to manifest 
 the thought in action— to materialize the 
 mental picture. 
 
 The general principles of Suggestive 
 Therapeutics may be applied effectively by 
 means of Auto-Suggestion. In fact, the * * af- 
 firmations," ** statements" and ** asser- 
 tions" used by many of the New Thought 
 schools are but forms of Auto-Suggestion. 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 193 
 
 There is no essential difference between the 
 Suggestion given by others, and the Auto- 
 suggestion given by one's self to one's self. 
 The healing power is in the mind of the pa- 
 tient, and whether it is called forth by his 
 own Auto-Suggestion or the Suggestion of a 
 healer matters not. The Auto-Suggestion is 
 merely a case of self-healing by Suggestion, 
 and is administered upon the principle of 
 *' every man his own suggestionisf— ^*sez I 
 to meself, sez I." Auto-Suggestions are 
 usually given to one's self in the form of 
 *^ affirmations," as, *^I am improving; my 
 stomach is doing its work well, digesting 
 what is given it, and the nourishment is as- 
 similated, etc." In other works by the 
 writer hereof, the method of addressing 
 one's self as one would another is recom- 
 mended as particularly efficacious. That is 
 to say, instead of sa^^ng, **/ am, etc," in 
 Auto-Suggestion, it is better to address one's 
 self in the second person, as ^^John Smith 
 (naming yourself), you are, etc." In short, 
 the Auto-Suggestion seems to have addi- 
 tional force imparted to it by being directed 
 as if it were being given to another person. 
 
194 Mind and Body 
 
 The following thought of Dr. Schofield is 
 worthy of careful consideration in connec- 
 tion with the methods of applying Sugges- 
 tion. He says, referring to the treatment of 
 hysterical disorders and ailments: **"We 
 must, however, remember one great point 
 with regard to suggestion— that it is like 
 nitrogen. Nitrogen is the essential element 
 in all animal life ; it forms four-fifths of the 
 air we breathe, and yet, curious to say, we 
 have no power to use it in a pure state. We 
 can only take it unconsciously, when com- 
 bined with other substances in the form of 
 proteid food. It is the same with sugges- 
 tions. Not one hysterical sufferer in a hun- 
 dred can receive and profit by them in a raw 
 state— that is, consciously; they must gener- 
 ally be presented, as we have said, indirectly 
 to the sub-conscious mind by the treatment 
 and environment of the patient. An elec- 
 tric shock often cures slight hysterical dis- 
 eases instantaneously, acting, as it often 
 does, on the unconscious mind through the 
 conscious. No doubt it would be easier if we 
 could say to these sufferers, ^The disease is 
 caused by suggestions from ideal centers, 
 
Psycho-Therapeutic Methods 195 
 
 and to cure it, all you have to do is to 
 believe you are well.' Still, it would be as 
 impossible for us to take our nitrogen pure 
 from the air, the mind cannot as a rule be 
 thus acted on directly when the brain is un- 
 healthy. Suggestion must be wrapped in ob- 
 jective treatment, directed ostensibly and 
 vigorously to the simulated disease." 
 
 Not only is the above true regarding the 
 treatment of hysterical disorders, but to all 
 disorders as well. The methods which will 
 bring about the best results must be care- 
 fully modeled upon the patient's particular 
 temperament, education, prejudices for and 
 against, and general belief. The skilled sug- 
 gestionist adapts his treatment and methods 
 to each individual case coming to him for 
 treatment. Whatever method will best 
 arouse the patient's belief, faith and expect- 
 ant attention is the best method for admin- 
 istering the suggestions. The successful 
 suggestionist must be ^ ' all things to all men, ' ' 
 never, however, losing sight of the funda- 
 mental principle of Suggestion— the arous- 
 ing of faith, belief, and expectant attention. 
 
CHAPTEE X 
 
 THE EEACTIOK OF THE PHYSICAE 
 
 [As we have stated in our Foreword, there 
 is a constant action and reaction between the 
 Mental States and the Physical Conditions. 
 In this book, from the nature of our subject, 
 we have started with the phase of the Men- 
 tal State and worked from that point to the 
 consideration of the Physical Condition. In 
 the same way, many physiologists start from 
 the phase of the Physical Condition, and 
 work up to the Mental State. But, starting 
 from either phase, the candid investigator 
 must admit that there is an endless chain of 
 action and reaction between Mind and Body 
 —between Body and Mind. 
 
 This action and reaction works along the 
 lines of building-up as well as tearing-down. 
 For instance, if a person's Mental States are 
 positive, optimistic, cheerful and uplifting, 
 the body will respond and the Physical Con- 
 ditions will improve. The Physical Condi' 
 
 196 
 
Reaction of the Physical 197 
 
 tions, thus improving, will react upon the 
 Mental States giving them a clearness and 
 strength greater than previously manifested. 
 The improved Mental State again acts upon 
 the Physical Conditions, improving the lat- 
 ter still further. xVnd so on, an endless chain 
 of cause and effect, each effect becoming a 
 cause for a subsequent effect, and each cause 
 arising from a preceding effect. Likewise, a 
 depressed, harmful Mental State will act 
 upon the Physical Conditions, which in turn 
 will react upon the Mental States, and so on, 
 in an endless chain of destructive cause and 
 effect. It is a striking illustration of the old 
 Biblical statement: ^^To him who hath shall 
 be given ; to him who hath not shall be taken 
 away even that which he hath.'' In improv- 
 ing either the Mental State or the Physical 
 Condition, one gives an uplift to the whole 
 process of action and reaction; while, what- 
 ever adversely affects either Mental State or 
 Physical Condition, starts into operation a 
 depressing and destructive process of action 
 and reaction. The ideal to be aimed at is, of 
 course, '*A healthy Mind in a healthy Body" 
 —and the two are so closely related that 
 
198 Mind and Body 
 
 wliat affects one, favorably or unfavorably, 
 is sure to react upon the otber. 
 
 Just as the influence of the Mental States 
 over the Physical Conditions has been 
 shown to operate by means of the Sympa- 
 thetic Nervous System (controlled of course 
 by the Subconscious Mind), so the influence 
 of Physical Conditions over Mental States 
 may be explained in physiological terms. 
 In order to understand the reaction of the 
 Body upon the Mind, we have but to recall 
 -the fact that the Subconscious Mind is the 
 builder and preserver of the very brain- 
 cells which are used by the Conscious Mind 
 in manifesting thought. And also, that the 
 entire Nervous System, both Cerebro-Spinal 
 as well as Sympathetic, is really under the 
 control of the Subconscious Mind so far as 
 growth ^nd nourishment is concerned. The 
 very brain and nerve-centers in and through 
 which is manifested thought, feeling, emo- 
 tion, and will, are nourished by the Sympa- 
 thetic System, and are hurt by anything af- 
 fecting the latter. The Sympathetic System 
 joins all parts of the organism so closely to- 
 gether that trouble in one part is reflected 
 
Reaction of the Physical 199 
 
 in other parts. Just as depressing thoughts 
 will cause the organs to function improperly, 
 so will the improper functioning of an or- 
 gan tend to produce depressing thoughts. 
 
 Herbert A. Parkyn, M. D., well states the 
 action and reaction of Mind and Body, as 
 follows: *^A tree is much like a human be- 
 ing. Give it plenty of fresh air, water and 
 a rich soil, and it will flourish. In the same 
 degree in which it is deprived of these does 
 it wilt, and the first part of the tree to wilt 
 when the nutrition becomes imperfect is the 
 top. This is owing to the force of gravity; 
 the blood of the tree, the sap, having to 
 overcome this force of nature when nourish- 
 ing the highest leaves. The blood of man is 
 also affected by this same force, and the 
 moment a man's circulation begins to run 
 down, owing to stinted nutrition, we find 
 that the first symptoms of trouble appear in 
 the head. ... The brain failing to re- 
 ceive its accustomed amount of blood, such 
 troubles as impaired memory, inability to 
 concentrate the attention, sleeplessness, ner- 
 vousness, irritableness, the blues and slight 
 headaches develop ; and the impulses sent all 
 
200 Mind and Body 
 
 over tlie body becoming feebler, tbe various 
 organs do not perform their functions as 
 satisfactorily as usual. Tbe impulses to tbe 
 stomach and bowels becoming weaker and 
 weaker, dyspepsia, or constipation, or both, 
 soon follow. As soon as these, the main or- 
 gans of nutrition, are out of order, nutrition 
 fails rapidly and more *head symptoms' de- 
 velop. Every impulse of the muscular sys- 
 tern leaves the brain, and the strength of 
 these impulses depends upon the nutrition 
 to the brain centers controlling the various 
 groups. As the nutrition to these centers 
 declines, the whole muscular system, includ- 
 ing the muscles of the bowels, becomes 
 weaker and the patient complains that he 
 exhausts easily. The impulses for elimina- 
 tion becoming weaker, waste products re^ 
 main in the circulation, and any of the evils, 
 which naturally follow this state of a:ffairs, 
 such as rheumatism, sick-headache, bilious- 
 ness, etc., are likely to develop. The centers 
 of the special senses feeling the lessening of 
 the vital fluid, such troubles as impaired 
 vision, impaired hearing, loss of appetite 
 (sense of taste) and inability to detect odors 
 
Reactioi^ of the Physical 201 
 
 quickly soon follow. The sense of toueli be- 
 comes more acute, and it is for this reason 
 that one in poor health becomes hypersensi- 
 tive. Lowered circulation in the mucous 
 membrane of the throat and nose is often 
 the cause of nasal catarrh appearing on the 
 scene as an early symptom." 
 
 It will thus be seen that the Physical Con- 
 ditions, perhaps originally caused by de- 
 pressing Mental States, have brought about 
 a state of affairs in which the brain is im- 
 perfectly nourished and which consequently 
 cannot think properly. The liver being out 
 of order, the spirits are depressed; the brain 
 being imperfectly nourished, the attention 
 and will are weakened, and the patient finds 
 it hard to use his mind to influence his bod- 
 ily conditions. The bowels not moving 
 properly, the waste-products poison the cir- 
 culation, and the brain is unable to think 
 clearly. In fact, the whole physical system 
 is often so disturbed that a condition known 
 as ** nervous prostration" sets in, in which 
 it is practically impossible for the patient to 
 hold the Mental States which will improve 
 
202 Mind and Body 
 
 tlie Physical Conditions. In these cases out- 
 side help is generally necessary, unless in 
 cases where a sudden shock, or an urgent 
 necessity arouses the latent mental forces of 
 the individual, and he asserts the power that 
 is in him, and hegins to reverse the chain of 
 cause and effect and to start on the upward 
 climb. 
 
 The following additional quotation from 
 Dr. Parkyn, gives us a vivid insight into the 
 effect upon the Mental States of abnormal 
 •Physical Conditions : Dr. Parkyn says : * ^ No 
 organ of the body can perform its functions 
 properly when the amount of blood supplied 
 to it is insufficient, and we find, when the 
 blood supply to the brain is not up to the 
 normal standard, that brain functions are 
 interfered with to a degree corresponding to 
 the reduction in the circulation. Since the 
 amount of blood normally supplied to the 
 brain is lessened in nervous prostration, we 
 find that the memory fails and the ability to 
 concentrate the attention disappears. The 
 reasoning power becomes weakened and the 
 steadiest mind commences to vacillate. 
 
Eeaction of the Physical 203 
 
 Fears and hallucinations of every descrip- 
 tion may fill the mind of a patient at this 
 stage, and every impression he receives is 
 likely to be greatly distorted or miscon- 
 strued. Melancholia with a constant fear of 
 impending danger is often present. In fact, 
 the brain seems to lose even the power to 
 control its functions, and the mind becomes 
 active day and night. . . . The reduc- 
 tion of the nutrition to the brain lessens the 
 activity of all the cerebral centers also, 
 and digestion becomes markedly impaired, 
 thereby weakening the organ itself upon 
 which the supply of vital force depends.'' 
 
 The physiologist is able to furnish a great 
 variety of illustrations of the effect of Phys- 
 ical Conditions over Mental States. He 
 shows that many cases of mental trouble are 
 due to eye-strain, and other muscular dis- 
 turbances, and that serious mental com- 
 plaints sometimes arise by reason of phys- 
 ical lesions. The very terms used to desig- 
 nate certain abnormal mental states show 
 the relation, as for instance, melancholia 
 which is derived from the Greek words 
 meaning *^ black bile"; and hysteria, which 
 
204 Mind and Body 
 
 is derived from tlie Greek word meaning ' * the 
 womb; or nterus." Every one knows the 
 Mental States produced by a sluggish liver, 
 or by dyspepsia, or from constipation. We 
 all know the difference between our mental 
 capacity for thinking when we are tired, as 
 contrasted with that accompanying the re- 
 freshed physical condition. No man, what- 
 ever his philosophy, can truthfully claim to 
 be able to maintain a placid, even disposi- 
 tion, and a perfectly controlled temper, when 
 he is suffering from a boil on the back of his 
 neck. And, all know that after indulging in 
 the midnight ^^ Welsh rarebit," one is apt to 
 dream of his grandmother's ghost, or see 
 dream elephants with wings. All know the 
 delirium produced by overindulgence in 
 liquor, and the hallucinatiolns that accom- 
 pany fever. The effect of drugs, tobacco, 
 and alcohol upon the Mental States are well 
 known. ** Philip drunk" is a very different 
 mentality from *^ Philip sober." The Men- 
 tal States accompanying particular diseases 
 are well known to physicians. One disease 
 predisposes the sufferer to gloominess, while 
 
Eeaction of the Physical 205 
 
 another will induce a state of feverish hi- 
 larity. Some leading authorities now hold 
 that many cases of insanity are really due 
 to abnormal conditions of the blood, rather 
 than to any diseased condition of the brain. 
 One of the most marked instances of the 
 action and reaction of Mental States and 
 Physical Conditions is met with in the ac- 
 tivities of the sexual organism. Psycholo- 
 gists very properly hold that sexual excesses 
 and abnormalities are largely due to improper 
 thinking, that is, by allowing the attention 
 and interest to dwell too strongly and continu- 
 ously upon subjects connected with the ac- 
 tivities of that part of the physical system. 
 Mental treatment along the lines of Sugges- 
 tive Therapeutics has resulted in curing 
 many persons of troubles of this sort. But, 
 note the correlated fact— excess and. abnor- 
 malities of the kind mentioned, almost in- 
 variably react upon the mentality of the per- 
 son indulging in them, and softening of the 
 brain, paralysis, or imbecility have often 
 arisen directly from these physical abuses. 
 It will be seen that any sane treatment of 
 these troubles must take into consideration 
 
206 Mind and Body 
 
 both Body and Mind. In the same way it is 
 a fact that jnst as certain Mental States, no- 
 tably those of fear, worry, grief, jealousy, 
 etc., will injuriously affect the organs of di- 
 gestion and assimilation, so will imperfect 
 functioning of these organs tend to produce 
 depressing mental states similar to those 
 just mentioned. Many instances of the 
 strange correspondences are met with in the 
 study of physiological-psychology, or psy- 
 chological-physiology. 
 
 In order to more fully appreciate the re- 
 lation between the Body and the Mind, let 
 us read the following lines from Prof. Hal- 
 leck: ^* Marvelous as are the mind's achieve- 
 ments, we must note that it is as completely 
 dependent upon the nervous system as is a 
 plant upon sun, rain and air. Suppose a 
 child of intelligent parents were ushered into 
 the world without a nerve leading from his 
 otherwise perfect brain to any portion of his 
 body, with no optic nerve to transmit the 
 glorious sensations from the eye, no audi- 
 tory nerve to conduct the vibrations of the 
 mother's voice, no tactile nerves to convey 
 the touch of a hand, no olfactory nerve to 
 
Reaction of the Physicai. 207 
 
 rouse the brain with the delicate aroma from 
 the orchards and the wild flowers in spring, 
 no gustatory, thermal or muscular nerves. 
 Could such a child live, as the years rolled 
 on, the books of Shakespeare and of Milton 
 would be opened in vain before the child's 
 eyes. The wisest men might talk to him 
 with utmost eloquence, all to no purpose. 
 Nature could not whisper one of her inspir- 
 ing truths into his deaf ear, could not light 
 up that dark mind with a picture of the rain- 
 bow or of a human face. No matter how 
 perfect might be the child's brain and his 
 inherited capacity for mental activities, his 
 faculties would remain for this life shrouded 
 in Egyptian darkness. Perception could 
 give memory nothing to retain, and thought 
 could not weave her matchless fabrics with- 
 out materials." 
 
 The very feelings or emotions themselves 
 are so closely related to the accompanying 
 physical expressions, that it is difficult to 
 distinguish between cause and effect, or in- 
 deed to state positively which really is 
 the cause of the other. Prof. William 
 
208 Mind and Body 
 
 James, in some of his works, strongly in- 
 dicates this close relation, as for instance 
 when he says: '^The feeling, in the coarser 
 emotions, result from the bodily expression. 
 . . . My theory is that the bodily changes 
 follow directly the perception of the excit- 
 ing fact, and that onr feeling of the same 
 changes as they occur is the emotion. . . . 
 Particular perceptions certainly do produce 
 widespread bodily effects by a sort of imme- 
 diate physical influence, antecedent to the 
 arousal of an emotion or emotional idea. 
 . . . Every one of the bodily changes, 
 whatsoever it may be, is felt, acutely or ob- 
 scurely, the moment it occurs. ... If 
 we fancy some strong emotion, and then try 
 to abstract from our consciousness of it all 
 the feelings of its bodily symptoms, we have 
 nothing left behind. ... A disembodied 
 human emotion is a sheer nonentity. I do 
 not say that it is a contradiction in the na- 
 ture of things, or that pure spirits are neces- 
 sarily condemned to cold intellectual lives; 
 but I say that for us emotion disassociated 
 from all bodily feelings is inconceivable. 
 The more closely I scrutinize my states, the 
 
Reaction of the Physical 209 
 
 more persuaded I become that wliatever 
 ^coarse' affections and passions I have are 
 in very truth constituted by, and made up 
 of, those bodily changes which we ordinarily 
 call their expression or consequence. . . . 
 But our emotions must always be imvardly 
 what they are, whatever may be the physio- 
 logical ground of their apparition. If they 
 are deep, pure, worthy, spiritual facts on 
 any conceivable theory of their physiologi- 
 cal source, they remain no less deep, more 
 spiritual, and worthy of regard on this pres- 
 ent sensational theory.'' 
 
 A deeper consideration of the relation be- 
 tween Mind and Body would necessitate our 
 invading the field of metaphysical specula- 
 tion, which we have expressed our intention 
 to avoid doing. Enough for the purposes of 
 our present consideration is: the recognition 
 that each individual is possessed of a mind 
 and a material body; that these two phases 
 or aspects of himself are closely related by 
 an infinite variety of ties and filaments; that 
 these tivo phases of his being act and react 
 npon each other constantly and continu- 
 ously; that in all considerations of the ques- 
 
210 Mind and Body 
 
 tion of either mental or physical well-being , 
 or both, that both of these phases of being 
 must be considered; that any system of 
 therapeutics which ignores either of these 
 phases, is necessarily '^one-sided*' and in- 
 complete; and that, while, for con^venience 
 and clearness of specialized thinking, we 
 may consider the Mind and the Body as sep- 
 arate and independent of each other, yet, we 
 must, in the end, recognize their interde- 
 pendence, mutual relation, action and reac- 
 tion. 
 
 Thus, the New Psychology recognizes the 
 importance of the Body, while the New Phys- 
 iology recognizes the importance of the 
 Mind. And, in the end, we feel that both 
 physiology and psychology must be recog- 
 nized as being but two different phases of 
 one great science—the Science of Life. 
 
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