The Church of St. Bunco Part 13

Third, is the vast fact of Spirit-background--Infinite Spirit "in itself"--which is revealed, and can only be revealed, _to the finite_, as transformed through fixed modes of finite receptivity.

A man, therefore, is simply an individualization of the process by which the Absolute--That Which Is--expresses itself and lives. Whatever may be our environment under some changed state of our receptivity--say "the future life"--our environment of spirit objected through sense, in s.p.a.ce and time, is the environment of _matter_; and the human body is a part of it. We are not only "in matter," therefore, but we sub-create the matter, through our G.o.d-given modes of sensuous receptivity, and can only escape from it through an entire change of those modes, called "senses." The door of escape is the door of death, and no human being has ever avoided it.

_Can_ any human being avoid it? We say _no_: because to be out of matter is to be out of the kind of receptiveness--our five senses--through which matter itself exists. If there be exceptional persons of clairvoyant susceptibility, who can pa.s.s sufficiently out of our average material condition to realize aught beyond them, the _bodily_ state of these persons, too, must end, as we all end.

Let us not mix conditions, like the metaphysical tyros of Christian Science; but while we are in the state of spirit known and experienced as mind _and_ matter, let us acknowledge the plain fact. As a corollary of this fact, if we are out of health, let us look to remedies good for _both mind and matter_--the body and the soul. Such will probably be the ultimate equipoise between "mental medicine" and material curatives.

This, at any rate, is the best conclusion for "the new thought" that the scribe at hand can reach. He may be wrong; for he is totally "uninspired,"

and has nothing to follow but his nose and his "mortal mind." But, the conclusion once reached, he stood on it as an _a-priori_ breathing-spot.

And then it occurred to him that, peradventure, some radical, independent son of Galen might be conducting the business of therapeutics on a psycho-corporeal, double platform. If so, Boston would be the place to look for him, and the search was begun. In due time it was successful. The result may at least prove suggestive and entertaining.

Let our new friend be called Prof. P.; for he has been an instructor in his kind of work, and he bears the t.i.tle of "doctor" only by the courtesy of his patients, as Dr. Quimby did.

Now it is certain that if Prof. P. does not cure all sorts of diseases, his patients think he does, vouch for it when questioned, and give most sincere testimonials to that effect. Even the cure of cancer is vigorously affirmed, and in connection with cases that have been given up by eminent physicians. But, as this book is doing no medical advertising, one ordinary instance of Prof. P.'s work must suffice.

A large, strong woman, as the consequence of a fall, incurred violent sciatic rheumatism, and was treated at a hospital for three months, being worse at the end of that time than at first. On personally interviewing her--and she is a woman of more than average intelligence--she informed the writer that, in one treatment of twenty minutes, Prof. P. had "entirely cured" her, and that after five months--which had elapsed at the time of the conversation--there had been no recurrence of her trouble.

Our search for light has led to a somewhat close acquaintance with Prof.

P. and has induced him to explain his theory and practise of healing, for our use as a writer, excepting a few of his personal discoveries not immediately important to the public, which he must withhold, he says, for something like the same reason that his learned brothers, the physicians, write their prescriptions in Latin.

Prof. P. requires it to be said explicitly that he is a Spiritualist. He is so p.r.o.nounced in the faith that he impatiently scoffs at all denial, evasion or concealment, of what he deems his "positive knowledge" that we exist after "our mere change of condition called death," and that "the spirits of our departed friends are interested in our earthly welfare." He declares, however, that Dr. Quimby was sensible in not trusting spirit communications at the expense of his own judgment--"as, taking the long generations of mankind, there are necessarily more fools disembodied than in the flesh."

According to our friend P., there are now four great remedial agencies possible to healing the sick, apart from medicines in the usual sense. The intelligent and careful use of such medicines he believes in, and he seeks to cooperate with all broad-minded physicians, rather than to antagonize them. The more occult, but often more effective agencies, than drugs or herbs, he says, are these:

_First_: Animal Magnetism.

_Second_: Natural Healing-Power--this power being inherent to some extent in all human beings, but greatly concentrated and developed in certain individuals.

_Third_: Mental or Psychic Force--a force existing in both embodied and disembodied spirits, and as a universal principle.

_Fourth_: "Sensitized" devices containing these powers and elements, with the function of imparting them to the ailing and the weary.

"Magnetism," says our Professor, "as a material phenomenon, is a force so potent that it rearranges the unsystematized molecules of certain metals, and gives them harmonious direction and integral traction. The application of it--termed polarization--has been known even to produce 'clicks' within metallic bodies, loud enough to be distinctly heard. Animal magnetism, pertaining to organized beings, acts upon their corresponding but higher molecules in the same general way. The sick are disordered, locally clogged, 'out of tune.' They have lost, as it were, their polarity. Animal magnetism restores it to them. It then goes further and vitalizes them; for, if imparted to the feeble by a person strong, well, and stored full of it, an equilibrium takes place between an operator and his patient.

Animal magnetism, however unconsciously utilized, doubtless takes part in all so-called 'mind-cures' that are _physical_ afflictions, not the results of bugaboos and whimsies. The absurd fulminations of Mrs. Eddy, at this late day, against animal magnetism, are only equaled by the comprehensive ignorance, in general, which Bishop Brooks is said to have considered the only possible excuse for the production of a book like _Science and Health_.

"Inherent Healing Power is more occult than animal magnetism, but has become almost as well established. According to the accepted evidence of centuries, this power was fully exemplified in ancient times by the most faithful and unselfish of all the sons of G.o.d and man, Jesus, our Christ.

According to recent and contemporary evidence, both widespread and exact, the Protestant world of late centuries has had no example of the same quality so marked as that of Dr. P. P. Quimby. Inherent healing power goes with close and tender sympathy for the afflicted, and grows with use, like the brawn of a stevedore, or the intellectual dexterity of a practised writer. It may eventuate in a Quimby as naturally as the poetic faculty eventuates in a Kipling.

"By mental or psychic force," says the Professor, "I mean the principle of apprehending, understanding, and reasoning, with the moral elements pertaining to conscience and will. This combination of our essential being, in whatever phase of it we may exist, affects and modifies, if it does not altogether dominate, all the rest of our make-up. Its importance is very great, but may be exaggerated by forgetting that man is a microcosm, and that while he is in the externalized condition of spirit known as matter he is not at the same time _out_ of it. For the finite to put itself in harmony with the Infinite, by right thinking, right feeling, right conduct, is indispensable to the highest health; but an imaginary union with G.o.d through fict.i.tious conceptions of our own ego is unnatural and unwholesome exaltation, inducing disease of the mind, whatever it may do to the body.

"Psychic power is an absolutely universal principle, common, in degree, to men, spirits, and G.o.d. It is sometimes employed by hypnotists to such an extent that the physical sensation of a subject is rendered void, even under amputation of a bodily member. It can destroy the taste for intoxicants in a drunkard. It can supplant melancholia with hope and cheerfulness. What it can _not_ do is yet a problem.

"Of course such a power is a part, and great part, of sane therapeutics.

In the application of it," said the Professor, with much warmth, "I affirm--let those who have not my knowledge and experience think what their ignorance or prejudice saddles upon them--that 'departed spirits,'

as we call them, combine their efforts with those of men and women, to heal the sick. The power is thus redoubled.

"We have taken but a few steps in this sort of knowledge, and it is accompanied by a plenty of deception and twaddle. But the truth underlying it has now procured a hearing even before eminently timid 'societies of psychical research,' and will soon conquer them, as mesmerism has done.

Certain spirit-conditions are coming to be rationalized. In this country, for instance, the spirits of Indians everywhere manifest themselves, especially in connection with the cures of disease. The reason is simple.

Indians were close to the earth, near to nature, in their lives, and they enjoy the scene of their old 'hunting grounds' more than such etherealized spirits as were slightly attached to it. But spirit-aid in therapeutics is mostly co-operative. Essential physicians, whether in our state of being or the higher state, feel an interest in their pursuit, and practise it.

The most intelligent guide their a.s.sistants; but robust spirits of earthly qualities and attractions sometimes furnish a basic healing force that is almost physical."

Prof. P.'s system of healing is remarkable enough in all ways; but his claims for his "sensitized devices" would be too astounding for credence were it not that the things appear "to work," just as he says they will.

Seemingly, they are nothing but small metallic plates; but they are charged, he affirms, with earth-magnetism as a "power-house," and then with animal magnetism, with natural human healing quality, with attractiveness to spirit-co-operation in that quality, and finally with psychic power and control--that is, direction of mind and will. In other words, Prof. P. says that, after twenty years of study and experiment he can transmit to his "sensitized devices," and store in them, all the four great healing agencies which can be employed in therapeutics apart from ordinary medicines.

By such means, he affirms, "not only healing, but instantaneous healing,"

to the extent at least of immediate relief from pain, can always be effected in all cases adapted to his treatment.

"Christian Science," he says--"mind-cure--faith-cure--oh yes, they 'demonstrate' over things, as the phrase goes. I admit it, at least in some instances. But, at their very best, they all _take time_. The patient must wait to exalt himself into some vision or condition he is told about, or to accept some theological doctrine or other, whether true or false.

Suppose a man is knotted up with rheumatism, has a fit, or is insane. I don't wait for him to build up a belief, or to get into harmony with the Highest. I take him just as he is, clap my sensitizers on him, go to work myself, and, if he is not too far gone for aid on earth, I restore an equilibrium of body and brain. If I do this--if I instantly drive away the worst kind of pain--if I retrieve lost consciousness or a disordered mind--I can put faith enough into my patient for a beginning. Later, I will attend to his theology to the extent of my knowledge, if he desires my services as a priest."

The operation of Prof. P.'s sensitized appliances, according to his claim for them, is correction and vitalization of both mind and body, when disarranged or "ill," and then concentration of power in accordance with location of disease or pain. "As strange as it may seem," he says, "these little pieces of metal take upon themselves the physical and mental conditions of sickness, which can even be conveyed by them from one person to another, as I have proved by various experiments. But these conditions can be discharged from the plates, or 'grounded,' like electricity, and this, too, without destroying the higher, firmer, normal charge of health and strength.

"Do you look incredulous; do you smile with a tinge of pity?" asked Prof.

P., as he talked. "Wait a minute. You have heard of Dr. Luys, one of the most distinguished physicians in the world, Charcot's favorite a.s.sistant, and now the head of the great Charity Hospital of Paris. Not long ago he had a patient--a young woman who had suffered nervous prostration, and was losing her mind from melancholia. She was affectionate, and greatly attached to her family. But she became aware that her love was strangely turning to aversion, which she could not control. Frightened and ashamed, she went to Dr. Luys. He tried everything he could think of to cure her, but unavailingly. At his wits' end--not knowing _what_ to do--he took up, one day, a large electro-magnet, and, as a pure experiment of impulse, fastened it to her head. He was suddenly called away for three-quarters of an hour. Returning, he found his patient weak, but her head better and clearer than usual. Dismissing her, he put the magnet on his own head, took the chair she had sat in, and remained there as long as she had done. He then went to dine with his wife and children, of whom he is very fond. But, greatly to his surprise, he found that, with no fault of their own, they were not agreeable to him. _He had taken the conditions of his patient._

"He was keen enough to recognize the fact, and announce it to his profession and the world. He drew the conclusion that the electro-magnet can absorb morbid brain-influences. Also that it can transfer such influences from the sick to the well, though two healthy persons are not affected by it. He added that the transference of conditions from the healthy to the diseased almost always benefits them.

"I am not hanging on 'high authorities,'" continued the Professor, "but they are sometimes useful to me. There is Dr. Julius Althaus, of Berlin, a member, too, of the English Royal College of Physicians. As explained in a recent issue of the _Lancet_, the chief English organ of the medical fraternity, Dr. Althaus is now rejuvenating old age, and prolonging our present term of life, by certain galvano-electric appliances--which, by the way, he does not tell quite all about. Henry Irving is understood to have been held back from the infirmities of advancing years, and restored to the stage, by Dr. Althaus."

Prof. P. claims to have been at work half a life-time in the general direction indicated by the experiments and achievements of Luys and Althaus, but to have been so busy that he has had no time to think about a degree of M. D. "The world," he says, "should be very grateful to these eminent gentlemen, and _I_ certainly am grateful; for though I antic.i.p.ated the happenings of Dr. Luys by several years, and though almost any 'magnetic healer' would a.s.sert the _hypothesis_, at least, of Dr. Althaus, my own theories and results are so far beyond my epoch that without the steps, however short, taken by such men as Luys and Althaus, I could get no sort of hearing. I am often laughed at, of course, as a 'crank'; but I generally laugh last--for, as the phrase goes nowadays, I 'get there.'"

CHAPTER XX.

CONCLUSION.

The moral of our story is an old one, always new. "There are more things in heaven and earth than"--anybody short of Mary Baker G. Eddy can put into a "science." From this text it would be logical to educe a cyclopedia every month or so. But one little point will do here.

The practise of medicine, notwithstanding its grand achievements, is still in its infancy. When I am ill, I call a doctor--the best in the vicinity.

It is the custom; and, as Montaigne said, _Que sais-je?_ I am not sure of much, and when I have "_grippe_" I am quite certain of less than ever. But the materials I have lately been at work on make me wish that "my doctor,"

instead of scorning all new things, would look into some of them, and add them to his acquirements. He will have no need to accept "Christian Science," which has been accurately described as "a way of getting cured of things by believing something that isn't true." I must excuse "my doctor" from accepted that inverted "science." But the general subject of occult and psychic healing is worthy of his attention. "My doctor" knows much: but, if he should enlarge his knowledge just a little, my faith in him would stand the increment.

One thing I shall insist on. "My doctor" must not endeavor to supersede Torquemada, Henry the Eighth, and the learned ecclesiastical doctors of the Inquisition. He must not interfere with the right of private judgment in saving the body, as they did in saving the soul. In such a case I should count them his superiors, inasmuch as the soul is really worth more than its external machinery, which, in a few years, more or less, must wear out and go to the cemetery.

The Inquisition honestly held a theory that the soul could only be saved by accepting a certain creed, and ought to be saved even at the cost of breaking the body on a wheel. The Inquisition would have been right, if its creed had really been the thing supposed. But four centuries of Protestantism have established a different theory: it is that, whatever any creed may be or do, every man has the prerogative of deciding for himself the manner of thinking which shall raise him to heaven or lower him to sheol. Still, I repeat, the soul is worth more than the body, and if Protestantism applies to the greater, it should apply to the less.

Some things have been settled, I suppose, by long experience, and have become matters of law for the protection of nations. Civilization requires that a man who knows nothing of physiology shall not practise surgery; that scarlet fever shall be quarantined; that school-children shall be saved from small-pox by vaccination. Medical degrees certify that the holders have studied medicine long enough at least to know something about it in a way that the common judgment recognises. Nothing is to be said against such requirements impartially applied to a whole people. They simply must be enforced. Christian Science opposes them, dodges them when it can; for it holds that human beings have no bodies except reflections of a wretched lie called "mortal mind." In spite of its source, this dangerous form of insanity should be dealt with as gently as possible, but certainly should not go unrestrained.[59] Let it conform to laws, not special to any religion or to any humbug masquerading as a religion, but general to the citizens who compose a free and sane community.

THE END

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