The How and Why of the Emmanuel Movement:
A Handbook on Psychotherapeutics

By Thomas Parker Boyd

A worldwide movement — a distinct stage in the evolution of humanity — a new book: This is logical. The literature of a movement is an essential part of it.

Yesterday the physical man was having his day; today the mental man is having his day; tomorrow the spiritual man is to have his day. It is not a day of separation from the physical and mental, but of combination, in which the spiritual nature shall be supreme, and that "holiness (wholeness) without which no man shall see the Lord," shall be realized.

We popularly believe that unknown and unused powers exist in and about us that might be used if men knew how. While much has been said and written about principles, comparatively little has been put forth as to methods of applying them. These reasons have seemed to warrant me in telling the How and the Why, so that the wayfaring man may apply these powers and secure their benefits.

If it is objected that the knowledge of methods in the use of these mighty powers may be a dangerous thing to broadcast, the answer is found in the words that few will care to challenge, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" – John 8:32. It is also true that everybody uses these essential and spiritual powers, consciously or otherwise. The man who knows how may use them uniformly for good, while he who does not will be a blind Samson, doing wonders often, but eventually pulling the house of achievement down upon his head.

If it is urged that only experts should know of and use these powers, the reply comes in the question, How is a man to become expert in this or any science without studying its principles and practicing its methods? Some have claimed that it is well enough for the public to have a general knowledge of this science, but that its use should be restricted to the physician, the psychologist, or the clergy, lest mistakes be made or unwise use occurs.

If it could be shown that physicians have proven infallible, or psychologists always scientific, or clergymen always wise, then the point would be well taken. Yet sound judgment, knowledge, and good intention are not restricted to these professions, but to be quite generally distributed among men.

Since God has endowed all men in greater or less degree with the powers used in mental and spiritual healing, requiring only average intelligence to understand, and common sense to apply them, it follows that the more widespread the knowledge of these powers and the methods of their use, the greater must be the blessing to humanity.

For fifteen years, I have been a student and practitioner of mental and spiritual medicine. I have generally cooperated with the physician, but often proceeded without one in cases in which the physician had seemingly exhausted his skill.

In the earlier years of practice, my method was simply religious conversation, inspiring the patient with hope of recovery through his faith in the goodness of God, whose love could only provide the best things for his children. This was accompanied with prayer and the laying on of hands in the name of the Lord.

After some years of practice, my reading and experience convinced me that the law of suggestion lay at the basis of this and every method of mental and spiritual healing. Following this, I found that purely mental methods were insufficient. The spiritual factor must enter for decisive and permanent results. Then it became clear that mental and spiritual powers could not reach, or at least did not affect to any extent, certain classes of cases, and my practice has been in accordance with it.

The substance of this book has been given in lectures, addresses, and newspaper articles during some years past, but in the present form, as lectures, before my class for the study of the "Emmanuel Movement," in the Ascension Church, Vallejo, California.

The purpose was to instruct the people in How, When, and Why to use these mental and spiritual powers, so that they could use them alone or with their physician and rector. So great has been the blessing to my own parishioners, so general was the interest aroused in the subject, and the demand for the instruction in more permanent form, that I have decided to publish them for more general use, believing that they will be a definite contribution to the great movement now going forward for the well-being of the whole man.

The Author

















Introduction

Since the beginning of man's career, he has sickened and died. He has been sick — sick unto death, and has recovered. The art of healing has been practiced from the earliest times. A long list of methods and remedies is our inheritance.

At one end of the procession stands the medicine man with the clangor of drum, trumpet, and bells, to drive disease and the devil away. At the other end of this evolution stands the educated physician, armed with scientific knowledge of the body, its organs, circulation of the blood, relation of pulse and temperature to disease, to give him a correct diagnosis, anesthetics, antiseptics, antidotes and specifics, tried by generations and known to be helpful.

Between these extremes of development are all the pathies, shrine cures, bones of the saints, holy waters, quackery, and charlatanism, allopath, homeopath, isopath, osteopath, electric, botanic, magnetic, mind cure, faith cure, divine healing, and what not. Each has its following. Each is destined to supplant all the others when the world becomes sufficiently enlightened.

All can present facts, such as no sensible person cares to deny. Each can present long lists of minutely described cures, and if you accept their records, in which usually they record no failures, they make a truly wonderful showing.

Under the heroic treatment of the regulars, some very sick people have recovered, and this is the case with all of the more refined methods of treatment. Many who have "suffered many things of many physicians, and spent all, and grew worse" have gone to some quack, scientist, or faith-healer, and have fully recovered.

They have testified, "I was sick; I tried every remedy; I took this one, and it cured me." Their friends attest, "We have seen these cases. There can be no question of their genuineness."

Seeing is believing. The argument is irresistible. If a fisherman, carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, soldier, clergyman, man or woman, announces the discovery of the possession of healing power, they will in this way soon have a large clientage.

Unquestioning assurance of the operator and expectation of the patient will result in cures, and soon they build up a reputation. Then it is easy, for the devil did not lie when he almost said, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his health."

Medicine recognizes that nineteen of twenty of the ordinary acute attacks of disease will, with careful attention to diet, hygiene, and nursing, recover without medicine. The wise physician places more dependence upon this "vis medicatrix naturae" [healing powers of nature], than all else, seeking to follow and assist in the direction of its indicated movement, and so hasten the cure.

The quack, the scientist, or the fakir comes to such a case with nineteen chances to one in his favor. The cure is attributed to him. Nature did the work, but he gets the fee — an important matter.

The great medical scientists have been placing less and less reliance upon material remedies, and more upon the mental and moral influences about their patients. Psychologists have been busy formulating and demonstrating the law that underlies all these mental methods, or those means of a cure in which mental and moral influences have some part. From these efforts a scientific basis has been established for psychotherapeutics which commends itself to all schools of the healing art.

The most significant and influential religious therapeutical movement of this or any age since the time of Christ has come forth as the bloom and fruition of all these efforts. It is called the "Emmanuel movement," after the name of the Emmanuel (Episcopal) Church, Boston, where it originated.

The rector, Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester, and his assistant, Rev. Dr. McComb, both trained psychologists, saw the church standing dumb and helpless in the presence of disease and melancholy. Remembering that Jesus both taught and healed, and so commissioned his followers, they lent themselves to the study of practical methods, by which the church might minister to the physical and mental, as well as the moral, illness of their people.

Their problem was to bring the orthodox Christian faith and the latest approved scientific knowledge concerning the mutual relationships of the body, mind and soul of man into working harmony. Upon these two fundamental pillars of truth they conduct a church clinic.

They have adopted such methods as would commend themselves to an intelligent public, and be in line with the conservative spirit of the Protestant Episcopal church. The movement resolves itself into a return to the spirit and method of Christ.

The philosophy of the new movement holds certain concepts that are interesting and vital. Briefly they are that all things are of God, in Him we live, move and have our being. Harmony with Him is health for the whole man.

The laws of the body, mind and soul are equally divine. A clean, healthy, strong body, a rational, well-balanced mind, and a pure heart are equally acceptable to God. The obligation to have them all is equally binding, and these act and react one upon the other for sickness and for health.

Disease may be of purely physical origin, affecting in turn the mind and soul, or it may be of mental origin, filling the body with pain and compromising the moral integrity, or it may arise from moral degeneracy, crippling the mind and poisoning the body in turn. It therefore follows that rational treatment for human ills may be purely physical, or mental, or moral, but generally a combination of two or more.

So the Emmanuel movement enlists the skilled physician, the learned psychologist, and the priest of spiritual things. The staff of healers consists of expert physicians who know their materia medica, the human anatomy, and the use of instruments, but who recognize that their personal visits often accomplish far more than their pills and powders.

Then they have psychologists with expert knowledge of the human mind, its constitution and laws; men who know that pain is a real thing, and that a large share of human ills is of mental origin, not imaginary, real diseases resulting from allowing the imagination to run riot without the balance wheel of intelligent reason and will power.

They have also priests of the church who believe that high moral principle exercising itself in the true worship of unselfish service to man and God is the good medicine that will lead to the cure of mind and body. Working in harmony, these disciples of faith and science have wrought works that are little short of marvelous.

The work, begun as a parish movement, has grown so that the local demands have overtaxed a large corps of workers. Importunate calls from many cities and lands for knowledge of the work, and from sick ones everywhere have had to be put aside. Recognizing the urgent and widespread need, the "Emmanuel movement" has been officially launched.

They have now arranged for establishing the movement in the large centers, and for instructing clergymen who desire to carry on the work in their own parishes, but do not know how. Meanwhile, in two years ministers of many faiths have taken up the work, who see in the new movement a return to the faith and practice of the Apostolic Church. These, using the same methods as the "Emmanuel" people in general, are finding a new power in their work.

Like all great movements that have blessed humanity in a permanent way, the Emmanuel movement was born in the church, and under the leadership of churchmen. To meet opposition was to be expected, but the new psycho-therapeutic movement does not seek, neither does it shun controversy.

It points the skeptical medical practitioner, and those of the laity who have the pill, powder and operation habits, to the two great textbooks, Dr. A. T. Schofield's Mental Factor in Medicine, and Dr. Paul Dubois' Psychic Treatment of Nervous Disorders.

Mental philosophers and thinkers who desire to break a lance with the new movement on psychological grounds are respectfully asked first to demolish such authorities as James, Munsterberg, Prince, Sidis, Dubois, Bramwell, Florel and a host of other great psychologists.

Religious objectors are pointed to the command and example of Christ, the practice of the apostles, and the therapeutic triumphs of the primitive church.

Thus far the two most helpful books on the movement are Religion and Medicine, by Dr. Worcester and his associates, and Health and Happiness, by Bishop Samuel Fallows.

The Author has for many years practiced the principles of the movement, working in harmony with the physician, praying with the sick, imparting hope to the discouraged, and in a definite way making large use of suggestion, and meeting sometimes bitter opposition and even persecution by the ill informed. He therefore hailed this work coming with the sanction of the Church and under the leadership of eminent men, as a vindication of his faith and practice.

The "class for the study of the Emmanuel movement" during the year past has been of untold value, not only in a prophylactic way, but in relieving people of their ills by showing them how to help themselves. The diverting power of a new idea has done much to harmonize a disturbed parish life.

Probably one of the most helpful features of the work has been the banishing of discontent from among Christians who have limited the scope of their divine sonship to a purely spiritual sphere, by bringing them to realize how intensely religious a thing it is to have a healthy body and a sound mind. They have come to see that the full realization of God's presence and power in their lives is contingent on presenting to Him a perfect agent for service, a body, a mind and a spirit, as a perfectly tuned harp of a thousand strings, upon which He may bring forth divine harmony.

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I. Back to Christ

When the great Teacher answered the inquiry of John the Baptist, as to his being the true Christ, his answer was in substance: "The sick are healed, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." This was the proof offered, and it was sufficient for those who knew the prophetic outline of the Messiah's work.

Whatever construction we may put upon it, the ministry of our Lord was a dual one, dispensing health to the bodies of men, and ministering spiritual solace to their souls. In prophecy and in fulfillment, this stands as a fact.

When that ministry drew to a close, our Lord chose others to continue his work, and his great commission to them was to preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and to absolve men from their sins, with the promise that the same signs should attend their ministry as had marked his. Have they followed?

One has but casually to glance at the ministry of Peter, Paul, James, and in fact, the entire primitive church for some three centuries to find the dual ministry of preaching and healing in operation. Then all is changed.

The therapeutic triumphs cease, and for fifteen centuries Christianity has been busy trying to explain why. As Thomas Aquinas passed through the Vatican treasury where the monks were counting the sacks of gold, one of them said, "Dr. Thomas, Peter can no longer say, as he did at the beautiful gate, 'Silver and gold have I none.'"

"Alas, 'tis true," answered Thomas. "Neither can he say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.'"

This loss of power is not peculiar to any single communion. Spiritual impotence is well-nigh universal.

To account for it, men have put forth every sort of specious pleading to show that the double ministry of Jesus — teaching and healing — was not intended to be universal, for all men, and for all time. They point to the long centuries of a preaching ministry only as a proof that the healing ministry was to cease from the simple fact that it did cease.

The vast majority of clergy and laity have accepted this abnormal Christianity, shorn of its right arm of power, as the will and plan of God. Do you, reader? Then go back, man, back to Christ!

Take your New Testament and the history of the primitive church, and in the light of their therapeutic triumphs, see if there is not another and truer answer. Is not the true cause found in emphasizing the organism at the expense of the life?

When the Church began to reach out toward world politics and temporal power, how long did she retain the power of her double commission? How long until false miracles are set forth to replace the true wonderworking power of the Gospel?

The overemphasis of any feature of that Gospel has ever been attended by impotence in some direction vital to the Church's largest success. Candor compels the statement that no greater danger can threaten the Church today than to unduly emphasize the healing of the body, making it the primary thought of the Church, rather than the cure of the soul.

Loaves and fishes are good in their place, but to follow Christ for these is, to say the least, not the noblest motive. Yet it must be said that the poor, to whom the Gospel was preached, flocked to his standard, and the common people heard him gladly, and doubtless because that Gospel brought physical as well as spiritual benefit.

It was significant that at a mass-meeting of working men, mention of the Church by one of the speakers called forth hisses, while the mention of Christ was greeted with cheers. The lament is world-wide that the Church has lost her hold upon the common people, who heard her great founder with gladness.

It is claimed that working men no longer throng her services. Have they become irreligious, or has the church no adequate message for the world's toilers? Here and there, a clergyman has answers, the question by going to these people with a message that answered the demand of their lives, and the response has been gratifying.

Let us go back to Christ, learn anew his message of health and happiness for all people. Instead of following the Christ of the flesh, let us go forward with the spiritual Christ, who is with his people for all time — the true Emmanuel.

The difficulty of an incomplete, and often defective record necessarily limits any study of the Christ's method. Incomplete in that it does not always make clear what the disease was, so that we are left with an imperfect diagnosis. Also, the sparse details of the treatment given leave much to inference.

The record is defective in that it reflects the crude notions of the time concerning "possession of devils, etc." These ideas our Lord himself seems to have held, whether in accommodation to the generally accepted views of the time, or from a lack of scientific knowledge, we cannot determine.

Take, for instance, the case of the boy at the close of the Transfiguration scene, with his convulsions, his gnashing of teeth, his foaming lips, the sudden onset of the attacks, in which he flings himself into the water or the fire, the sudden cessation of the seizure (Mark 9:17-29). The boy's father, the narrator, the apostles, and the Lord himself ascribe these painful manifestations to demonic possession. Yet any modern physician would diagnose the case as one of epilepsy.

The demoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum appears to have been afflicted with some type of hysteria. Luke says that the demon threw him down, but did him no harm, a clear case of anesthesia, or loss of sensation, which is one of the stigmata of hysteria.

The demoniac of Gedara, with his wild cries, self-inflicted injuries, frantic gestures, ferocious onslaughts on passers-by, is plainly the victim of some type of mania. The analysis of all the cases of demonIc possession leads to the same result when reduced to the terms of modern scientific knowledge, although they were in accord with the views of that day.

The universe was filled with malign spirits, who got possession of men and carried on a great variety of exercise and affliction. Those afflicted with hysteria, epilepsy, mania and kindred ailments were said to be possessed with some kind of a devil.

One cannot get rid of the impression that our Lord did share that view of it. Even if he did accept the popular notion, it does not alter the fact that he had power to speak the word that set them free.

Exorcists of his day, with charms, incantations, spells, formulas, etc., were in great vogue, but against them, armed with the spiritual power of faith in God and love for men, stood Jesus with authority over every form of obsession. With him, the mastery is simple and sublime.

An infinite storehouse of energy is pressing upon him, and he is in touch with it so that his touch and his word are all powerful to heal. This was the secret of Christ's authority over disease for himself and for all others: "I with the finger of God cast out devils" (Luke 11:20).

Did his disciples fail in a given case? The reason and the suggested remedy lay in the failure to exercise in fasting and prayer as the means of becoming and remaining the channels through which the divine power flows as a healing flood.

Certain significant facts are clearly brought out in his healing ministry:

First, he recognized the moral causes that in certain instances lie back of physical ailments. Not that he taught or thought with the philosophers of his day that the presence of disease was a sure indication of a past act, or a present state of sinning, but recognized that a certain reciprocal relation exists between sin and disease, in that the state of the mind — the character of its thinking, its general moral atmosphere — does affect the body profoundly.

These acts and states of the mind might be perfectly involuntary in their violation of the laws of life, and no moral turpitude could attach to them. Still they entail the necessary penalty of the law, which is self-punishing. Thus, often he said to those coming to be healed, and who had no apparent thought of moral wrongdoing, "Thy sins be forgiven thee."

The healing of the disease follows naturally the spiritual uplift consequent upon the revelation of a state of disharmony with God, and the ending of that disharmony by the authority of Christ.

Just how far much of our ills and disease arise from moral springs none can tell, but certainly it is due to a moral fault far more than we usually think. So that the chief work of the healer is to bring light, hope, love and faith to calm, pacify, invigorate and stimulate the moral nature and bring it into harmony with the All-Life.

Second, the great Healer required faith on the part of the sick one, his friends, or both as a condition of his healing power. This is the rule from which there is but one clear exception, viz. the healing of the demoniacs, in which cases the mental operations were so disorganized that faith or any other rational or motived act was impossible.

In such cases he soothed, if possible, the mind, abstracting it from its possession. Then, with the naked force of his own personality, in the manner and words of authority, he broke down the structure of hallucination and delusion which the morbid action of the mind had built up, and thereby set the sufferer free from his disorder.

In these cases, the afflicted one could not exercise faith, and it was not demanded. Where any measure of mental self-control was left, he exacted faith, or assumed its exercise.

For example, the case of the woman with the issue of blood, breathes out the implicit faith of her soul in the words, "If I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole." The Master's word to her was, "Thy faith hath made thee whole."

The blind beggar at Jericho, whose cry of expectant trust could not be silenced, heard from Christ's lips the same benediction. At Nazareth, his hands were tied because of the unbelief of his fellow townsmen. "He could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief."

In the case of the man let down through the roof by the hands of his four companions, the record says that "when he saw their faith" he spoke the healing words. No doubt the man himself in such an atmosphere of faith must have had some measure of faith himself, but the active cause of the cure is ascribed to the faith of his friends.

When Jairus' daughter lay dead, or apparently so, Jesus at once put out the whole company of weeping, hysterical relatives and friends, retaining only the father and mother, who were most apt to be in sympathetic communion with the spirit of the child, and Peter, James and John, a tremendous battery of faith and power. He took her by the hand and bade her rise.

In these and in other cases recorded, all things were done to create an atmosphere of confidence. Upon this faith, the divine love and grace that moved Jesus to his cures, acted with what often seemed miraculous power, producing results that were nothing short of marvelous.

Third, the Master gave the secret of his healing power when he said, "The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works" (John 14:10).

Never once did he lose sight of that sense of dependence on the indwelling God, but in public word and act, and in private prayer, fasting and meditation, he asserted and maintained it. He explains his disciples' failure to cure the epileptic boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration, not in that they had undertaken something that belonged only to him to do, but rather that they were weak in the exercise of fasting and prayer, whereby strong desire and faith are born, that set the divine will in motion.

For himself and for his disciples, there was no magical endowment given once for all, but rather an ethical and spiritual quality born of his and their oneness with the infinite God — a oneness to be maintained by prayer, fasting and spiritual communing, and issuing in poise of soul, peace of mind and a resistless authority over disease.

Hence those frequent calls to come apart into a desert place, or to rise hours before an arduous day of teaching and healing, for those exercises that would insure power to his word and touch. For him, for his disciples and for us, there is but one way to power, to recognize and to maintain our oneness with the ever-living God, to live and move and have our being in him, so that we are complete in him, while he in turn dwells within us.

The I AM within you will give you authority over disease and all evil.

Fourth, the element of physical contact also played an important part in the Lord's work and that of his disciples. Other than the demoniacs, he usually touched the blind eyes, the deaf ears, the paralyzed body.

He so frequently did this, the people supposed that some subtle influence to be resident in his person, the touch of which was sufficient to restore. At least the one who touched his garment so believed.

The case of Paul healing people by sending to them aprons and handkerchiefs that had touched his body, of Peter healing people by his shadow falling on them in the street, and the formula of James for the anointing with oil — all involve the same factor of the touch or laying on of hands. The laying on of hands has its value in the subtle vitality set free by it, and which for want of a better name we call personal magnetism.

The laying of hands on the affected part has the effect also of centering the attention and marshaling all the powers of the patient on the affected part, making their action more direct and powerful.

Fifth, other cases bring out various factors of interest. The healing of the nobleman's son and the centurion's servant are illustrations of healing at a distance, or what is known as silent or absent treatment. They rest upon the principle of telepathy, or thought transference.

While, as yet the authorities are divided as to telepathy being scientifically proven, there are certain phenomena that lead to a popular belief in telepathy. For instance, such words as "Talk about Satan, and his imps appear," or "Talk about the angels and you hear the rustle of their wings," show that doubtless the majority of people believe the possible connection between the mention of an individual's name and his arrival on the scene soon after.

There is a simple explanation, in the thought that the individual, intent on his visit, unconsciously sends ahead a wireless message to that effect, that falls into the net of some one's attention who is sufficiently passive to receive it and record it on the level of conscious thinking. If we grant such an explanation, we have opened the way for the transmission of all sorts of thoughts.

After repeated experiments in thought transference, I have no doubt whatever that it can be done and is done almost universally by people who are not conscious of it — and it is but a step to its use consciously and intelligently. Elsewhere I have given instances of its use in relieving people of various ills.

Sixth, then we have the case of Jesus giving the blind man two treatments for his eyes, also using such material applications as clay and spittle.

Finally we have the parable of the healed demoniac who suffered a relapse, and whose last state was worse than the first, indicating clearly that all cures were not necessarily permanent, but were conditioned upon future actions.

The most critical study of Jesus' healing works reveals a knowledge of spiritual laws and methods that we today regard as scientific, and anyone who knows how may use. This view does not put our Lord on a plane of miraculous wonder-working as separate and apart from us, and unlike us. It makes his life and work that of an elder brother who would teach us how, that we might do the works that he did, and even greater works than he did.

Lest any devout soul should feel that by this method of interpretation his cherished notion of the utter difference between the Christ and the other sons of God should suffer, let him remember that Christ is in each one of us, the hope of glory. He is only waiting for us to call upon him to manifest himself, just as he slept in the fisherman's boat long ago, and waited for his disciples to awaken him, and call upon him to manifest his power in their behalf.

Too many are still following the Christ, who in Jesus walked the hills of Judea long ago, and have not thought that true discipleship is to follow The Christ who with the Father dwells in every believer, and enables us to say, "I live, and yet not I live, but Christ liveth in me."

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II. Therapeutic Triumphs of the Apostles and the Primitive Church

When the seventy returned from the preaching mission upon which they had been sent throughout the cities of Israel, they rejoiced that the devils had been subject unto them. Their work had been to "Heal the sick, and say unto them, 'The kingdom of God is nigh unto you.'"

Upon their triumphant return Jesus said unto them, "I beheld Satan as lightning fallen from heaven. Behold I have given you authority to tread on scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. Nevertheless, in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather that your names are written in heaven." – Luke 10:18-20.

Thus, while giving them immunity from all physical evil, he made it secondary to their spiritual welfare. That was the supreme motive in the spreading of the Gospel, although health was a necessary part of it, and was used as a means of getting the attention directed toward the higher good.

The commission to the twelve Apostles in the beginning of their ministry was attended with authority over all unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of diseases and sickness. Jesus specified the scope of their work, "As ye go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of God is at hand'; heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely give." – Matthew 10:7-8.

By comparing this commission with the description of the work of our Lord, it appears to be identical. He did not do anything that he did not also authorize his disciples to do. In fact he said, "The work that I do shall ye do, and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to my Father." – John 14:12.

The only recorded case of the apostles' failure, that of the boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration, the Lord referred to as their failure to use the means of power, rather than the case not falling within the terms of their commission. That commission was never revoked, but rather intensified after his resurrection.

The brief record of apostolic labor is replete with incidents of their healing ministry. Peter became so famous that the Scriptures tell us that the people placed their sick in the streets so, "that the shadow of Peter falling on them might heal them." We have such cases as Peter and John healing the paralytic at the beautiful gate, the healing of Eneas, the paralytic, the raising of Dorcas from the dead, and with Ananias and Sapphira, death fell on them at his word.

Of Paul, they record that they carried aprons and hand kerchiefs that had touched his body to the sick and they recovered. Some specific cases set down to his healing ministry are, the healing of the young woman in Philippi, who had a malicious spirit of divination; the young man who fell from the window and was taken up for dead; the restoration of Epaphroditus by prayer; his own immunity from the reptile's bite on the island of Malta, and the smiting of Aelymas, the sorcerer, with blindness.

Nothing is recorded of James' healing ministry save his formula for healing the sick, preserved in his epistle.

Tradition is full of reference to the healing ministry of the primitive Church. The literature of the Church before the Nicene Council, 325 A.D., is permeated with a sense of conquest over sickness, disease, and moral ills of every sort.

To be sure, the common belief throughout the Graeco-Roman world, among Jews and Gentiles, was shared by the early Christians, that demons, or malignant spirits, caused all sorts of diseases and psychical disorders. Nor was this confined to the uneducated alone.

The highly cultured Celsus, the great critic and adversary of the early Church, believed in demoniacal activity. Tertullian (A.D. 197) devotes two chapters of his great "Apology" to the discussion of these evil powers, telling how they inflict on the body diseases, and many grievous mishaps, and violently visit their victims with sudden and extraordinary aberrations.

Harnack, the celebrated historian and critic, speaking of the ante-Nicene period, says: "The whole world and the atmosphere were filled with devils. Not merely idolatry, but every phase and form of life was ruled by them. They sat on thrones, they hovered over cradles, and the earth was literally a hell, although it was the creation of God."

The early Church, accepting the current theory of disease, firmly believed that Jesus had committed to her weapons wherewith to attack and rout these evil forces and rescue souls from their grasp. The great mass of that ancient world lay sunken in superstition. In this profound darkness the Church was the only ray of light.

"No flight of the imagination," says Harnack, "can form any idea of what would have come over the ancient world, or the Roman empire, during the third century had it not been for the Church."

Gibbon, the sneering historian, mentions as the third cause of the spread of Christianity, "the miraculous powers of the primitive Church," among which he mentions the expulsion of demons.

Indeed, so vital a part of the Church's ministry was this healing power, that the third century saw the rise of a special order of men in the church, whose function it was to cast out demons, or, as we would now say, to heal nervous disorders. The great apologists or advocates of the Church refer again and again to this fact as one not open to doubt.

Justin, martyr (A.D. 138-150), writing to the Roman emperor of his day, gives the very formula which the Christian exorcists used. He says, "Many of our Christian people have healed a large number of demoniacs throughout the whole world and in your own city (Rome), exorcizing them in the name of Jesus Christ who was crucified under Pontius Pilate; yet all other exorcists and magicians and dealers in drugs failed to heal such people."

Irenaeus, writing about the year A.D. 180, says, "Those who are the true disciples of Jesus exercise in his name a healing ministry, according to the gift each one has received from him. Some surely drive out demons, so that it frequently happens that those thus purged from demons believe and become members of the Church."

Tertullian challenges his opponents boldly by appealing to their own experience: "All this dominion of ours over demons derives its force from the naming of Christ. So at our touch and at our breath, they depart, unwillingly and reluctantly at our command, from the bodies of men, and blush in your presence." Again, "What else would deliver you from those secret enemies who are ruining both your mental and physical powers in every way? I refer to the attacks of the demons whom we expel from you without price or reward."

Cyprian, Origen, Athanasius — all great bishops of the early Church, and other ecclesiastical writers of the time bear similar witness. As late as Augustine of Hippo, in the fourth century, belief in the Church's healing ministry still exists. He describes various wonders of which he was an eyewitness, and which were done in the name of Christ.

In the course of time, exorcism and the healing ministry in general as a regular function of the Church, died. The reasons were several: Partly through its abuses, partly through the secularization of the Church, with a consequent loss of faith, and partly through the growing belief that pain, disease and weakness were expressions of the divine will and were specially helpful to the spiritual life.

So there came a cessation of the healing ministry during the ages when the belief was common that the more miserable the body, the more saintly the soul. Men afflicted their bodies, punished and neglected them in the interest of spirituality, because they conceived disease and evil to be inherent in the body. Those were indeed "dark ages."

Significantly, in the later history of the Church, the appearance of any great religious personality with a message to the world has been attended by an outburst of healing faith and power. Francis of Assisi, Luther, George Fox, and John Wesley were not only great spiritual thinkers and leaders, but by the strength of their faith were able to set up a powerful psychic stimulus resulting in the restoration to health of many sufferers.

Every great revival of religious life has been accompanied by a sense of well being, both in soul and body. I therefore affirm that of all the records of the life and work of Christ, and his Apostles and his Church, none are more authentic and trustworthy than those relating to the healing of the body.

It is only an honest confession to say that we are suffering today from the Church's neglect of this divinely appointed ministry. Every bishop of the Anglican communion at his ordination receives the charge to "heal the sick." It has been neglected or given a spiritual interpretation.

Meanwhile, outside of the Church's borders, mental healing cults of various sorts are springing up and seeking in various ways to supply the lack. The majority of them have broken with historical and orthodox Christianity, decry scientific research and look with contempt on academic medicine. Some interpret Holy Scripture in a way to excite a scholar's derision. Others discard the Bible altogether.

Yet, in some degree, they all heal the sick and dissipate the miseries of men, affording moral uplift to the depressed, by creating an atmosphere of faith, hope and courage, in which achievements are wrought that recall the springtime of Christianity. Had the Church been loyal to her commission, had she not lost her heroism of faith, none of these healing cults had been born. However, they will serve no mean purpose if they recall the Church to her primitive practice and to the realization of the unsuspected riches of the Christian Gospel.

Modern research has brought to the scientific age the most compelling reasons for a return to the ancient faith and practice. The belief that the great commission to the Church to preach the Gospel and heal the sick was for all time, is backed by the whole history of the Church. It is supported by a brilliant array of great scientists and psychologists and doctors of medicine, while many are alert to encourage any minister or church to preach and practice his full commission.

Therefore, be strong and of good courage, for in seeking to heal the mind and body as well as to save the soul, you are in line with the practice of our Lord, his Apostles, and his Church for the three most wonderful centuries of the Church's history.

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III. Mental Medicine

Suggestion is the great word in psychotherapy today, but its best definition is that given by the Master of psychology, in the words, "If two of you shall agree as touching anything, it shall be done for them of my Father in heaven." (Matthew 18:19).

This is truly a scientific definition, for suggestion, in its last analysis, is agreement, either intentionally or unconsciously, by which an idea is conveyed from one mind to another for a specific purpose. To be sure, such ideas are often conveyed without any conscious purpose, and produce results when the mental attitude of agreement exists.

In this sense, all people practice suggestion more or less, but when done in ignorance of the laws of suggestion, the results are somewhat like Samson among the Philistines, doing prodigies one day, the next pulling the house down on his own head. It is important to know the law, and this chapter will make clear all that is needful in practical operation. The secret of power lies in this knowledge.

The mental constitution of man is dual, if not in nature, at least in operation. In terms of psychology, a man has an outer, objective, or conscious mind, and an inner, subjective or subconscious mind, or he may be said to have a mind that is objective and subjective, conscious and subconscious in its action. Either theory is near enough to the truth for all practical purposes.

The function of the conscious mind is to receive and dispose of the reports of the five senses, to exercise the will, reason, judgment and all the activities of mental consciousness. Its processes are by induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis.

The conscious mind gathers any number of concepts, compares them, draws a conclusion, determines a truth, announces a law, etc. It also stands a sentinel at the gateway to the subjective or subconscious mind, and in its normal action, allows only true ideas and ideals to pass it and become commands to the subconscious self.

The subconscious mind reasons only by deduction. Given any fact, its deductions are logical and in harmony with the nature of the fact. Yet subconscious mind has no power of analysis or comparison, and cannot determine the truth or falsity of any proposition, because it cannot hold two opposite ideas at the same time.

This is the significant feature of the subconscious mind. It can hold only one idea at a time, and it acts upon that idea with equal facility, whether it is true or false; and it does not originate an idea, but merely takes whatever idea passes the sentinel at the gateway, and begins at once to work it out in the physical condition or the mental and moral character.

It is the particular function of the subconscious mind that all the activities of the bodily organs are under its control. All the vital powers act under its direction. Whether we wake or sleep, it does not rest.

The subconscious carries on the functions of the respiratory organs, heart's action and circulation, fiver, stomach, bowels and all the organs of the body. Discordant thought, strife, hurry and worry, and other objective thoughts, giving rise to conflicting emotions which are at once impressed on the subconscious self, produce a train of physical ills and disease and pain, abnormal action of some organ begins, and the foundation of a functional disorder is laid.

Once started on a wrong course of action, the subconscious mind holds the organ to it until the idea that produced it is dislodged, and the idea of ease and health, conveyed by some form of suggestion is impressed on the subconscious mind instead.

It therefore follows as true that if there is some method by which the idea of pain, weakness, disease, can be displaced by the idea of ease, strength, health, that all the vitality of the body will at once begin to remove the symptoms of ill and replace them with those of health. For if the subconscious mind can entertain but one idea at a time, and the character of that idea is within our own power to determine, then the moral responsibility of being well is as binding as that of being morally upright, which no man denies.

Suggestion is the royal road to health and strength of body and of mind and character. There are various kinds of suggestion, such as autosuggestion, hetero-suggestion, and various others. By far the most important of these is autosuggestion, which means a suggestion given to oneself.

The conscious mind conveying to the subconscious, by positive command or deep desire, some idea that it has coined or received from others is the most powerful form of suggestion. A knowledge of how to do it places the key to health, power and success in the individual's hands.

Two factors enter this form of suggestion. Let there be the conviction that vigorous health is the normal state; that to "enjoy poor health" is a sin against yourself and others; that health is contagious, and that all the vital processes of the body make for health when left alone.

With this in mind, think of all the advantages health will give you to fill in the fullest measure your place in the world. Think of this till it becomes a powerful ambition, a deep, earnest desire, that you feel intensely.

Now call up your will, direct the attention of all your faculties to the end to be attained, concentrate your mind upon the idea of health. Determine to have it, by using the powers at hand.

Then as the master of the house, direct your the key to health, power and success mind to produce the result you wish. Command it to set all the powers of your mind and body to realizing and manifesting the condition desired. Remember, that, as the servant of the house, it will gladly obey, and will throw off the abnormal conditions and replace them with normal ones.

Let your commands be positive and constructive, rather than negative. Do not dwell upon your ills and symptoms, but upon the ideal condition you desire.

For example, instead of saying, "You will no longer have a poor memory," say, "You will have, a good memory; that you will remember anything you wish to."

Instead of saying, "You will not stammer," put it in the positive form, "You will speak easily and enunciate clearly and readily."

So, in dealing with any difficulty, if you use the negative form of affirmation, a denial, you dangerously emphasize the difficulty, neutralize the suggestion, and will fail to have positive results.

Rightly applied, auto-suggestion will work wonders. Yet it often happens that bad mental habits have depleted the willpower, and mental concentration is so weak that the patient finds himself unable to get results.

The loss of the proper balance and functioning of the dual mind, conscious and subconscious, makes the aid of a second person indispensable, one with a knowledge of mental laws, to join the diseased one in restoring the lost harmony. We call this hetero-suggestion, or suggestion given by another.

Remember always that the powers that bring results are resident within the patient himself. The second person, the healer, by agreement with him, adds his willpower and concentration to that of the patient, holding the wavering mind upon the thought until it is profoundly impressed upon the subconscious mind of the patient, and the processes for health are set up. Often, after assistance in this way a time or two, the patient will be able to take up the work alone and work out a permanent cure.

To illustrate the method and difference in these two forms of suggestion, I will refer to a lullaby. The tune is almost a monotone, but the words are in substance, "Baby's going to sleep." The monotone, the thought of sleep, the rocking motion, the position of rest and relaxation, never fail to do the work. The baby has gone to sleep by suggestions given by another. In other words he has been hypnotized, and left to himself, he soon passes into natural sleep.

You use practically the same principle in going to sleep. Not that you try to go to sleep, for that will often defeat the purpose, the more you try the more sleep eludes you. Still, you put on the garments of sleep, assume a restful position, and relax your muscles. Calm your mind, filling it with images of sleep, or, at least, with soothing thoughts, so that all your physical and mental conditions suggest sleep.

Soon you have passed over the threshold of the land of dreams. In both cases, the idea of sleep has penetrated to the inner mind and held it to the exclusion of all else and sleep is the result.

Suppose that, instead of the idea of "sleep," you make the idea of "health," "ease," "success," "courage," or "strength," penetrate and hold the subconscious mind. Just as it manifests the phenomenon of sleep, so it will manifest the phenomena of these other ideas. This is the royal road to what you want to be.

Accept God's will for your good, for health, for success. Accept the fact that health is contagious, and that it is the normal condition. Accept the fact of your power to realize health and success, and finally accept your responsibility to manifest these things in your life.

Then take that subconscious mind aside for a curtain lecture. Talk to it calmly and confidentially. Tell it that it is your best friend and while you trust it fully, it must stop doing certain things, and must do other things, and that you will depend on it to bring it to pass.

Then, if indigestion is your weak point, go to the table and eat what is set before you. Stop fearing cabbage or any other creature of food. Eat it with the purpose that you will be nourished and strengthened, and your enemy will vanish.

Use the same method with any other ailment and you will know the power of self-mastery. Be positive and persistent, and you can scratch the word "fail" from your vocabulary.

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IV. Moral Medicine

In a previous chapter, the law of suggestion as applied mentally was shown to be well nigh all-powerful in relieving the ills to which flesh is heir. The same law applied to things of moral and spiritual character is equally efficacious.

Few of us have caught the full significance of the words, "As a man thinks in his heart so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). Usually we have put them aside with the idea that a man thinks in his "mind" and not his "heart."

There may be a few such thinkers whose thoughts are as clear as an icicle — and as cold, but the vast majority of us think with our hearts. In other words, our affections, emotions, and desires color our thought, and lend wings to our imagination, and bias our wills, so that our decisions are really determined in the heart — the affectional and emotional nature.

Comparatively few people understand how and why one material substance will stop or start the chemical action of another substance. We all know that every poison has its antidote, and we are not concerned to inquire further.

Few of us have learned that there is a law of mental and spiritual chemistry by which every disquieting thought that comes in and disturbs the poise of the soul, upsets the mind, and fills the body with disease, has its antidote. It is proven and accepted that such thoughts and emotions as anger, fear, jealousy, hurry, worry, "the blues," etc., cause the secretion of poisonous substances in the body that wreck the nerves and upset the health.

We know that sudden bad news takes the appetite, causes fainting and other physical ills; that anger is followed by headache, lassitude and weakness; that hurry and worry burn up the nervous energies without achieving the desired end. A medical journal tells of a nursing mother indulging in a fit of violent anger, and the babe at her bosom was in convulsions within an hour, the high emotional state causing the secretion of poison along with the milk.

They claim that there are chemical tests fine enough to analyze the saliva and determine the particular emotion that held sway at the time of its secretion. The experience of any observing person will corroborate the claim that the emotions do profoundly affect the physical health.

For every one of these poisons there is a mental and spiritual antidote. Against hatred place love, instead of fear, put hope, replace anxiety, hurry and worry with calm confidence in the goodness of your Father in heaven, and in your own ability to achieve what you undertake.

There are two methods of applying suggestion: One is the law of direction. It consists in denying the disturbing factor a place in your thoughts. Command the disturber to depart and leave you in peace. Affirm with all the positive purpose of your character that hatred has no place or part in your life. This alone will be sufficient often to dislodge the intruder.

If direction should fail, then use the method of indirection. Place its antidote, love, against the disturber that refuses to go. Concentrate your attention upon love, its nature and effects. Affirm repeatedly that love dominates you, that you do and will act upon its dictates alone.

Hold your attention upon the remedy, and soon its power will fill the mind and heart, and your disturbing disease-producing thought will flee as the darkness flees from the light. In a like manner, every sinful thought that wars against the soul poisons the imagination, weakens the will and brings havoc where order, beauty, and peace ought to reign, can be routed and all can be set right by the application of this spiritual chemistry.

For just as evil persons are abashed in the presence of a person of noble purpose and pure character, so ever do dark and hurtful thoughts flyaway when the mind sets itself to Godlike contemplation. The scientific value of religious exercise for the individual is at once apparent. To live in the atmosphere of joy and love is to maintain antiseptic conditions against the germs of doubt and worry and all disease and pain-producing emotions.

"The joy of the Lord is your strength," while "'love never faileth." These, claimed and affirmed, bring gladness of heart, and "a merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Cultivate a cheerful frame of mind. Move over on the sunny side of the street. Live in "rooms with a southern exposure."

Whistle when you feel like whining. When you feel "blue," stand before the mirror and lift the corners of you mouth and watch the shadows fly away. Get interested in someone else. Organize yourself into a committee of one and go into the "cheering-up" business.

Lay aside your veil, and let your face shine. Go ahead doing good, thinking good, and you will feel good. Quit talking about being "a poor, weak worm of the dust." You're not. You are the child of the great King. He calls you to come from weakness into strength, from sickness into health, from sorrow into joy, from self into Christ. Come out and stay out. Enter and stay in. Enter the peace, and power, and plenty, in the joy of thy Lord.

The gateway is prayer, and there are two factors important here. They are confession and commitment. Confess to God, direct or through your confessor. It unburdens the soul and prepares it for flight into the higher realms of thought and feeling.

Then comes commitment to God. All your failures have come by taking yourself from His hand. All your success will come by committing yourself into His hands.

Our Lord taught the way of prayer when he said: "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet and shut to thy door." "When thou prayest" — and you do sometimes, the oftener the better — "enter into thy closet," the secret place of thy soul, the storm-center, where, in the midst of life's storm, there is calm, "and shut thy door."

Before you shut it, take all your cares, worries, sins and sicknesses, bind them into a bundle, cast them out upon the bosom of God's fathomless love, then shut thy door, lock it, and swallow the key. If you don't swallow the key, in three minutes you will be hunting for that precious bundle again.

Shut thy door; close up the avenues of the five senses. When your friend met you, looked at you, and passed on without recognition, you said he was "absent-minded." He was behind closed doors. His attention was abstracted from the sense of sight, so that no image of you was reported to his mind. He had eyes to see, but they saw not, for the door was shut.

So shut to thy door — of sight, of hearing, of touch, of taste and smell, and enter thy dumb house, insulated and isolated from earth, and you'll come to visions and revelations of the Lord. Walk up the path trodden by seers and prophets of all ages.

Stand before God, behold thy Savior, bathe thy spirit in Infinite Spirit, the source of all life and love, and know, for once, that the unseen things are the eternal things, and that earthly things are born for but one brief day. Having touched the eternal strength, return to thy earthly task, "and thy Father, which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

Such commitment does not lessen your own personality and power, but rather multiplies it by infinity, to meet every present need, just as the loaves and fishes were multiplied to meet the needs of the hour. No one could tell just where the original bread and fish quit and the multiplied part commenced. They didn't need to know, and probably there was no difference save in quantity.

It comes to every man who discovers it, as a distinct surprise that his own best personality, power and character are not essentially different from that divine Being with whom we are one. He stepped down into our conditions and expressed divine life in the terms of humanity. We are to step up into his conditions and manifest human life in the terms of divinity.

This Paul refers to as a "law of life in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and death." This means, in a word, to identify your life with the life of God, and from henceforth, that life will manifest itself in power, in joy, in hope, in health, in all that goes into the makeup of a complete life.

In the sudden squalls that threaten to overwhelm you, a voice of authority within will say, "Peace, be still!" In a moment the calm of heaven will be yours.

When you find yourself the target for the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, a voice within, sounding like the voice of him who walked the hills of Judea long ago, but now walking with you, will whisper, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

In that hour "the peace of God" — the God dwelling in you — "shall keep your heart and mind in the knowledge and love of God." Disease seldom ventures into this plane of living.

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V. The Law of Suggestion and Its Practical Uses

In this study of suggestion, let us remember and amplify the facts regarding the dual nature of the mind's action, the two sets of mental faculties — the outer, objective or conscious faculties, and the inner, subjective, or subconscious faculties.

We use the outer conscious faculties in the waking state, whose brain centers are dormant while we sleep, and active while we are awake. We use the inner, subjective, or subconscious faculties, whose operations do not cease, and whose brain centers continue active in either hypnotic or natural sleep.

There is no physiological difference between the two kinds of sleep. We can easily determine this by the fact that a dream of the night that one cannot recall on awaking, can be reproduced by placing the dreamer in hypnotic sleep, when he will readily recall it and remember it when he awakens.

It is important to keep this identity of action in the subconscious mind clearly before us, so as to grasp the scope and power of suggestion. In natural sleep, the sleeper goes to sleep at his own suggestion by surrounding himself with the usual conditions of sleep, and by filling his mind with mental images of sleep.

He is under his own control and will awaken at the intrusion of any foreign idea or noise, save in the case of a skillful operator, who can get in touch with him and change his natural sleep into hypnotic sleep.

In hypnotic sleep, the sleeper goes to sleep at the suggestion of another, by the repetition of the ideas, and producing the sensations of sleep. In this sleep all his conscious faculties are inhibited as in natural sleep, and he is under the control of the operator whose further suggestions he will receive and carry out.

Suggestions as to health, ease from pain, quickened action of the various organs of the body, of anesthesia, so that the skin may be pricked, and minor surgical operations can be performed without pain. Bad habits of every sort can be broken, dullness of any of the faculties can be removed, and all sorts of abnormal conditions, physical, mental and moral, can be changed.

Not only will this hold true during the sleep, but while in the hypnotic sleep, a suggestion can be given that will take effect hours or days afterward, under conditions prescribed by the operator.

For instance: "When you take up your arithmetic tomorrow, you will take great pleasure in mastering your lesson. You will be able to concentrate your mind on it, and you will not let up until you have solved all the problems in your lesson."

At the time appointed, the suggestion which has been quietly gripping the subconscious mind will spring up with a power to do things that were not manifest before. This is called a post-hypnotic suggestion and is very effective in all sorts of cases of subnormal action.

In producing hypnotic sleep, you simply make the idea of sleep penetrate the subconscious mind. In curing disease or bad habits, or mental or moral shortcomings, the principle is the same. You make the idea of a cure penetrate the mind.

Take, for instance, some of the first steps to the hypnotic state, and see just how they help suggestion. Take the drawing test. The subject stands with his heels together, hands at his sides, head erect, eyes closed, standing easily, not rigid. Make passes from the top of his head down back and in front to the waist. Then tell him that you are going to take hold of a cord at the back of his neck and pull backwards, that he will feel the pull and yield to it.

Then, before beginning to pull, tilt his body back and forth and around. When you take off your hands to pull, leave him two or three inches forward from his usual attitude. This destroys his sense of exact position, and when he feels himself moving backward to a perpendicular, he mistakes it for the drawing power, and keeps coming till you stop him.

Or have him clasp his hands together and grip them tightly together and to imagine that they are sticking tight. After affirming that they are stuck, ask him to try to pull them apart. They mechanically cling together for a moment, and this leads him to think that they are stuck, and often they will stay as if glued until you release them.

Having a subject look at a bright object four or five inches above the level of his eyes, brings his eyes to the position they naturally assume when going to sleep. Having his eyes follow the circular motion of a coin imitates the rhythmic roll of the eyes in sleep.

So with all the little devices that are intended to bring about some condition common to the experience of going to sleep. The presence of these, backed up by your affirmation, makes him imagine that he is going to sleep, and sure enough, he is, largely as a result of his imagination stimulated by images and conditions of sleep.

The credulity of the subconscious mind is marvelous. It has no power to consider the premises of any statement. It will accept as true without question statements that are false.

Once let the sentinels of the outer mind be inhibited, or passed, and any illusion of the senses can be produced. Pure water will at your word become exceedingly bitter, or it will become a stimulant producing all the signs of intoxication, or it will become a cathartic producing immediate results. Foul odors can be made to smell as sweet as a garden of Persian roses, and the most discordant jargon becomes the sweetest music. Ice can be made to feel as hot as a coal. Sensation can be inhibited, and pain banished.

Such is the range of the subconscious mind's credulity. It accepts as facts things that are contrary to all the facts of experience, and it is this quality that must be depended on by all mental and spiritual healers for producing health instead of disease. All the experiences of the man are those of pain, illness, disease. He is sick and he knows it, and the subjective mind holds to this idea and tends to keep him sick, especially in functional disorders.

Yet if you can by any method gain access to his mind, and fill it with images of ease, health, and strength, although they are untrue to his present experience, he accepts them and his subconscious self at once marshals all the powers of mind and body to produce the new condition. Chronic ailments of every sort yield as if by magic to the benign influence of suggestion.

Headache, toothache, neuralgia, rheumatism, insomnia, epilepsy, hysteria, neurasthenia, covering all sorts of imaginary ailments, alcoholism, morphine, tobacco and similar habits, stammering, sciatica, vicious habits, St. Vitus' dance, nervous dyspepsia, constipation, dysmenorrhea, paralysis, goiter, tumors, all sorts of manias, melancholy, etc., in these and kindred ills, the law of suggestion, understood by some friend, minister, or physician, can bring the blessing of health to thousands of pain-racked sufferers.

I have traced carefully the operation of suggestion in hypnotism. I now call your attention to another side of the law's operation. That is, to suggestion given in the waking state by one's self or by another.

After fifteen years of experimenting I affirm that every result that can be produced in health or character by hypnotic suggestion can be produced by suggestion given in the waking state, if one knows how to do it.

In either case, the problem is how to pass the faculties of the conscious mind and gain access to the subconscious mind. This may be done in the waking state by the agreement of two persons touching anything they desire. This agreement secured, all the gates to the sanctuary of the inner mind are thrown open, and it will accept every suggestion as an authoritative command.

Failing to secure a conscious, intentional agreement you must secure it by other means, chief among which is the eye. I affirm here that no one can look you straight in the eye without winking and let you do the talking, without accepting what you say as true.

I have found no difficulty, by showing and feeling a sympathetic interest in my patient, in securing his hearty cooperation and fullest confidence, and this gained, success is in sight. One has only to explain to him that the powers within him are of God, and are limited only by his own faith; that we are going to set them to work to cure him, and that they cannot fail.

Then, remember that the key-note of suggestion is repetition. That is one of the valuable things in learning a hypnotic formula. It gives you the habit of repeating an idea and emphasizing it, and gives it such cumulative force as to make it irresistible. A thing once told may not produce much of an impression, but repeated over and over positively and enthusiastically, it simply cannot fail to take effect.

Often a suggestion will grip the mind, and after hours, when he falls to sleep, it works on the statements you have made, and on the morrow accepts them. If your suggestions fail, it is simply because you have failed to give them with that soul emphasis, that makes them effective. It is not loudness, but positiveness born of your own conviction of the truth of what you are saying.

The ability to give a suggestion effectively is to be coveted above every physical or mental acquirement, and can be had by persistent practice, willingness to take time, and determination, which are the stepping stones to success. Remember that repetition is the big word in suggestion.

Suggestion is also the secret of success with the agent, the advertiser, the professional man, the orator or teacher, or any calling in which people are influenced to do and be what they might not otherwise have done and been. In other words, just as the idea of sleep is made to enter and hold the mind captive, to produce all the phenomena of sleep. So, by repetition, can any other idea be made to penetrate the mind and determine its action.

The secret of the success of cults and propaganda is found in this law of suggestion — constantly suggesting some idea, doctrine, or set phrase, until often the most striking results are produced from causes that are, to say the least, fearful distortions of the truth. After a careful study of men and their methods of address, I am convinced that the sermon, address or talk, whatever its purpose, is most effective when it sticks to one thought, put in various ways.

Masters of assemblies, who are always men of great personal magnetism, make much of this principle. It is only another form of hypnotic suggestion, using another idea instead of sleep. The application of the principle is universal.

Prepare your talk, whatever its purpose, either to sway a multitude, to fish for men, to sell goods, to heal the sick, direct yourself or others, or carry an election for constable with this principle in mind, and you will discover the true power of words. Practice on an imaginary subject, or an indulgent friend, and you will get it.

In daily life we little think the good or the havoc we do for ourselves or others by saying and repeating things that may indeed be true, but would better be left unsaid. "Johnny is such a naughty boy, always getting into mischief," is probably only true, but to keep saying it is to keep Johnny going the same pace. "Mary is so slow, she moves like a snail," etc., said and thought, adds weights to Mary's feet. "Jack is such a dull boy; he never knows his lesson." Tell him, and he'll continue to wear the dunce's cap.

"Jim is such a cruel child, killing helpless bugs, and quarreling and fighting." Tell him rather that he is a manly little fellow; that he loves his playmates, and will treat them kindly; that of all boys you last of all expect to hear of him being in trouble; that he must have the same respect for a bug that he has for the business end of a hornet." Try this plan on him, and save heartaches, court expenses and hemp. A wise teacher can thus change the disposition of her pupils almost at will.

The effect of telling your friends how poorly they look has passed into a proverb, while the other method is just as effective in keeping them in health. One of our boys delayed for three years in his growth, gaining neither an inch nor a pound. His mother feared he would never grow. We had him sleep outdoors, and I often repeated that he would start to grow some night and wake up with his hands and feet hanging over the ends of the bed. Just how much it had to do with it, I do not know. However, he soon started and in two years he hastened up toward six feet.

It is remarkable how a suggestion will influence a child. When a boy, one of the men said, "If you want to grow to be a big man, drink lots of water." After that I developed an insatiable thirst for water, for I wanted to get to be a big man in short order. I do not know if it had anything to do with my six feet and four inches of height.

This law of suggestion is the basic principle of all mental healing, by whatsoever name or method practiced. It consists, in last analysis, in giving suggestions to oneself or to others, while in the waking state.

For instance a pain in the knee or chest is relieved by crowding out the thought of pain from the mind with such suggestions as, "I have no pain. It is purely imaginary. I am well. There is nothing the matter with me."

Repeat it to yourself and aloud. Write it down. Affirm it mentally. Make up your mind that you are well, and usually you will be.

It is especially effective when one reclines and becomes passive, or on retiring for the night. No matter what terms or methods are used, the cure arises invariably from causing the idea of cure to penetrate and hold the subconscious mind to the exclusion of the idea of disease.

Some schools of thought use the law of suggestion by the direct method of affirmation, denying the existence of pain and sickness, and enforcing it by denying the reality of the body in which the pain is manifest. [We strongly caution against using denials, which serve to reinforce the negative.]

They affirm health and strength on the ground that the divine Mind in you is not and cannot be sick. They repeat the affirmation in varying phrases, until the idea of "health" hypnotizes or controls the subconscious mind instead of sickness, of "ease" instead of "disease."

Silent or absent treatment often achieves the same result when we convey the silent affirmations telepathically. The system also practices the indirect method of suggestion, by distracting the mind from itself and its pains when they substitute the thought of "health" for its past ills.

These mental methods are valuable, and effect many striking cures. The underlying principle is the same in all mental methods, although some methods are more in harmony with the law of suggestion than others.

All claims to exclusive rights to use the law, or to give it some other terminology, must eventually be abandoned. A man who knows the law can call it human, mental, or divine, and not fail of success, although the larger the element of faith in the law as something given of God, and a part of God, does wonderfully enhance the value of its operation.

Yet to debate on whether it is human or divine is like imagining Jesus' disciples trying to tell where the natural bread and fishes quit and the supernatural began. Probably there was no difference, and possibly there is none in this case. A human spirit in touch and "at one" with the infinite God is at once human and divine.

There remains yet another phase of suggestion to be considered, namely autosuggestion or the suggestions which we give ourselves in our waking state. These may be given intentionally or unconsciously, but they are the most effective of all suggestions.

For example of an autosuggestion, take the common experience of looking at something sour or think of eating, or see someone else eating, and your mouth waters. Perhaps you see someone else hurt, and you feel the hurt or the sensation of the fall. You have a lively sensation of the power of autosuggestion.

Sit by the seaside, or waterfalls, or other displays of natural power and be passive to them, and your strength will begin to multiply. Study the strength of well people, animals, anything that displays strength, and weakness will be banished by the thoughts of ease and strength that fill the mind.

Fill the mind with suggestions and images of strength and health and be accepting of them. But to pain, disease, decay and age be positive that they are not for you, and you can postpone old age, live in vigor, and die as painlessly as you were born.

The more positive side of autosuggestion consists in taking yourself in hand to produce any desired mental or physical condition by affirming it to and of yourself and by instructing your subconscious mind to produce it. Not only may we relieve ourselves of our manifold and recurring ills, but we can build ourselves up in vigor of body and mind.

Our best time to do so is in our passive moments, or on retiring for the night, giving ourselves the idea what we want to manifest, and repeating until we fall asleep.

If you desire to attain to anything, give your subconscious mind the order to produce the power to perform it, and show you the ways and means. Speak the Word and it shall be done.

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VI. Sleep: Its Therapeutic Value

"Sleep, that knits up the raveled sleeve of care," has had its praises sung in every tongue and tune. Of all the remedies discovered for the relief of human ills, none are to be mentioned in the same hour with natural, sound, refreshing sleep.

Who has not watched a child, with his enthusiastic pursuits, perpetual motion, wearing him down at eventide to the point of exhaustion, filling the mind and heart with multiform ideas and emotions? We marvel to see the same child rise in the morning, fresh and active as ever, with memory and conscience a clean white page for all the impressions of the new day.

We have reverently blessed the name of the Good Being who has prepared for His children this fountain of healing and repair for all of life's wasting activities, pains and ills.

So many of us, caught in the whirl of life's activities, are cheated of nature's methods of repair in her laboratory of sleep by the almost mad rush after wealth and preferment, which poisons our minds with false ideals and twists our moral sense under the idea of "necessary evil." We have felt, as we lay and tossed feverishly upon our beds, that of all the specters that haunt the imagination, and harass us to the verge of nervous breakdown and lunacy, none can be compared to insomnia.

The person who can retire to rest with such profound certainty of sleep that he is able in a few moments to compose the mind, relax the body, and be lost to all earthly things till morning, has an inheritance with which no earthly possessions can be compared. He who wastes such a patrimony is guilty of prodigality compared with which the ancient younger son was a paragon of virtue.

Probably some are constitutionally light sleepers, but most are made so by circumstances. Many a mother owes the beginning of her breakdown in health to the habit of "sleeping with one eye open." Eventually the habit is formed, and she has practically forfeited the ability to sleep soundly and refreshingly.

The excessive wear and tear on body and nerves, with inadequate rest and recuperation, gradually produces that condition that calls from her friends the half-pitying statement, "Oh, she's a little nervous." Others find life's cares with them all day, and the last thing on getting to sleep, worry with them in their dreams, and rise haggard and unrefreshed, to wrestle a losing contest in the day after.

Of all the causes of insomnia, none can be compared to that archenemy — worry. It grows from a defective mental and moral education.

For centuries religion has concerned itself too much about tomorrow. It has stood on the tiptoes of vision, looking and longing for a heaven in the tomorrow of life, instead of living in the "sweet now-and-now," and finding a heaven in this life and today.

The fear of hell, and all sorts of disaster, has done much to keep men writhing in flame all the days of their lives, and make their fears realities. Fortunately, after nineteen centuries, men are learning that hell was made for "the devil and his angels" and is not for the children of God.

Worry is born of fear and distrust. We worry about tomorrow, about our health, our wealth, our friends, our children, our plans, and fail to walk by life's crystal river of trust and content, to eat of its life-giving fruit of joy and peace, and to find balm for our healing in the leaves of faith, hope and love.

We forget that "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," or for that matter the good thereof, and we worry lest one does come, or the other does not, on the morrow. We forget that "no man by worrying can add a cubit to his stature," any more than he can lift himself by his bootstraps.

We utterly fail to catch the thought of the Savior's rebuke, "Why worry ye about tomorrow." Take wise forethought, and make provision for tomorrow, but live today. We have no other day, and the first step back to sleep, health, and to happiness, is to begin to live today.

A man came to my office one day, a total stranger he was whose whole makeup was the picture of misery. He said, "I have lost the greatest of God's gifts, sleep. For days I go without sleep, and haven't slept now for seventy-two hours, and am on the verge of distraction."

After hearing the story of his sleep troubles, I began by assuring him that there was no good physical or mental reason why he might not sleep as soundly as a babe, and do so that very night. I told him that he needed a moral thunderstorm to clear his mental atmosphere.

I started in to produce it by asking him if he were not running from something in his past, or after something in the future. He admitted that he was afraid of his past. I told him that the first step in his cure would be to begin to live in today, as if there were no past, and would be no future. That he was not to run from his past, either actually or mentally, but to face it like a man.

If the past came for an accounting, I told him to meet it frankly and honestly, to make any amends possible. Having purposed to do this, he must leave it all in the care of the great God, who is better to us than all our fears.

Having secured his resolution, I told him to stop worrying about whether he would sleep or not. To go back to his hotel, have his dinner, and retire early, opening his window wide. As he laid aside his garments for the night, to think of how refreshing and restful sleep was, how it came, knocking at all the doors of our senses for admission, seeking us when we were not looking for it, flying from us when we began to pursue it.

When he lay down, he was to relax every muscle and assume the position in which he had slept as a boy. Then compose his mind with thoughts concerning sleep, to draw long, regular breaths, and to think of his eyelids, his limbs and body growing heavy; to mentally picture himself asleep, and he would find himself hours later wondering how it was done.

Before he left, I had him lie down on a couch, and gave him a lesson in relaxation, giving him suggestions of sleep and cure. That night he had the best sleep for years, and in a few days had reestablished the habit of natural sleep.

Familiar to all are those little aids to falling easily to sleep, such as counting imaginary sheep, with closed eyes watching daylight fade into twilight, and darkness. Some open and close the eyes at gradually increasing intervals, counting and gradually increasing the time between numbers, until they fall to sleep before reaching the next number.

Then there is the device of repeating to yourself all the signs of approaching slumber, letting your imagination make each step as real as possible:

"My muscles are all relaxed. My heart's action is regular. My temperature is normal, breathing deep and steady. Circulation is equalized, hands and feet warm, digestion and assimilation perfect. All the organs of the body are functioning perfectly. I give God all my cares. My mind is at rest. I am getting drowsy, drowsier, very drowsy, feeling, sleepy, sleepier, very sleepy, so sleepy, I'm going to sleep, going sound asleep."

Repeating each of these a few times will often conquer the most stubborn case of wakefulness. Then there are the accessories of a warm bath, a glass of milk, or water, hot or cold, and other such agents that often aid slumber.

Personally, after experimenting with every known method of going to sleep, and finding them more or less helpful, I have for years used one almost exclusively — that of engaging the mind in prayerful meditations.

I turn my thoughts from my cares and trials, which are not to be compared to those that others bear, turning to the Christ, recounting his many mercies, and ascribing praise to him, so losing myself in the sense of his all-loving protection and care. In this way I can at almost a moment's notice, drop to sleep, riding, sitting or lying down, regardless of noise or discomfort, and at any hour of the day, when I feel the need of a few minutes or hours' sleep.

Another helpful exercise in falling asleep is that of picturing my friends and patients, one by one, sending them messages of health, of comfort and good cheer. Unless I set my mind not to sleep before I have finished the list, I almost invariably go to sleep while sending messages to others. Whether they reach them or not, they at least react for good in my own subconscious mind.

This is not so much to discourse on how to go to sleep, and sleep soundly, as to show you how to make the hours of sleep most effective in building up the health and mental activities and the moral character. That place called the threshold of slumber, the state of abstraction, in which we are neither asleep nor awake, is fraught with untold possibilities of well-being.

Men owe more than they can ever know in this life to the sweet old hymns that mother sang, and the stories she told, as they were crossing to the land of dreams in childhood. Those simple classics of love and truth, of courage and honesty, from the lips of her who served in a thousand holy ministries in our childhood and youth, filled the most receptive and important moments of life.

Mother's words acted as potent suggestions, filling and holding the mind during all the hours of slumber with noble ideals that she wove into every fibre of the child's being. A mother's tender words to the sleeping child enlarge his affection and fidelity to her in life.

If the mother only knew that here lies the secret of binding her child to her for all life, to create in him all noble ideals and purposes, to shield him from evil influences and safeguard him from temptation, to cure him of any bad habits he may form or tendencies he may develop, to build up his physical health — a new race of men would live on the earth.

She holds the key, and has the facility to use, as none other can, the powers that make for the physical, mental and moral welfare of her child. Sadly, few know it, and those who do are often prejudiced by false things they have read or heard about suggestion. Happily the mother-instinct leads most mothers to use, without knowing it, the law of suggestion in a way that is helpful to the child.

It needs to be said repeatedly again that if a mother wants her child to be "bad," "stubborn," "slow," etc., she has only to keep telling him that he is so, and daily it will grow to fill his conscious life. If she will have him be brave, true, loving and kind, she must keep these ideals before him by affirming them to and of him, and especially preceding and during sleep.

The best method is to sit by the child and talk to him as he goes to sleep. After his breathing announces that he is asleep, he still hears what you are saying. It will stay with him long after you have ceased talking.

During his hours of sleep your encouragement will be taken up by the subconscious mind and woven into his character. On the morrow it will affect his view of things, his decision and actions.

You may go to your child or friend of any age, when he is wrapped in slumber, and sit or stand by him for a few moments in silence, until he becomes accustomed to your presence. Make passes over him at a distance of about a foot, from the head down, for two to five minutes, saying in a very low tone of voice, and repeating each phrase several times, "Sleep, sleepy, sleeping soundly, you are sound asleep."

If he shows signs of awakening, cease briefly, then resume. Laying your hand on his hand or head, say, "You are sound asleep. You will hear all I say, and do all I tell you to do, but nothing will disturb or awaken you."

Then talk to him of health, of morals, of what you wish to see brought out in his life, and he will hear and carry out your suggestions, without knowing why, save that he has the inward impulse to do so.

Always give the suggestions for health, or mental or moral improvement as the last thing before leaving him, so that it will rest on his mind. As you leave him, assure him that he will not remember anything about it in the morning. He will not, but he will do what you have told him.

After years of experimenting, I know that you can, by suggestion during sleep, remedy almost any ill of childhood and maturer years. When you have learned the secret of suggestion, you can give them in the waking state with equal effectiveness.

Of course, in acute attacks or diseases of an organic nature, you will call a doctor, but even his skill will be greatly enhanced by suggestion. Most parents know enough by intuition not to speak of how seriously ill he is in his presence. Yet, We are going to see the good doctor who loves children. He will make you feel much better," has started the cure before seeing the doctor.

While the trend of this chapter is toward the relief of bodily ills, do not forget that suggestions, given as above indicated, are fully as effective in righting all sorts of bad habits. Mental faculties that stumble at mathematics or other, studies can be sharpened. The wise parent who uses these simple but potent means can bless whole career of the child.

While we have spoken with special reference to the effectiveness of these methods in child life, they are no less potent in the lives of adults. Some sympathetic friend may use the very same methods as are used for children.

Any intelligent man may produce his own desired results, by suggesting to himself, either during his waking hours or on going to sleep. Take any feature of your life, physical, mental, or moral, that you wish improved, and upon retiring give yourself suggestions for that purpose, and you can work marvels.

Call upon your subconscious mind, which directs all your vital powers, and talk to it as your best friend. Tell it firmly and repeatedly just what you want it to do, what you expect it to do, and trust it to carry it out.

Go to sleep with these ideas in mind, or at least without letting any counter- suggestions enter the mind, and while you sleep, the powers within will work to carry out your wishes. Suggestions given in our waking, working hours will be equally effective.

In the midst of daily cares and perplexities, take your Bible or prayer book, with its daily lesson and psalms, or your "daily help for daily need," or any book of prose or poems embodying a cheerful philosophy of life. Fix your mind on some sentence or thought. Make it your motto for the day. Think of it; think around it; think through it; hold on to it until you have a vision of its real meaning.

Do this as you go from task to task. Claim it for yourself. Stop for a moment, relax yourself and let your mind grasp your need, then remember that your Father has supplied all your need. It is at hand to be claimed and used every moment. Claim it, affirm it as true now of yourself. Grasp it with all the mental and moral purpose you have. Then say to yourself:

"I am unworried about anything. Nothing can make me nervous. I shall be calm and quiet. I shall not be hurried. I shall do, one at a time, all the duties that the day brings forth, and keep cool and sweet. Nothing can disturb the calm of my mind."

If you are suddenly confronted with a crisis that threatens to upset the calm frame of mind, whisper to yourself, "Courage," "peace," "strength," "calm," and hold the fitting thought in mind until the crisis is past. Or if an organ of the body is not working properly, tell it by repeated affirmation the normal action it ought to have.

If your life seems to hold much toil and trial, glorify the toil by doing it gladly. Disarm the trials by summoning up the patience and strength to meet them courageously. Above all, dwell upon the good things, the bright things in your condition, and you will find much of sunshine and blessing.

Whether we sleep or wake, these suggestions are seeds that produce after their kind. You will realize in your feelings, and thoughts, and achievements, of the same kind that you have thought into your life.

Our thoughts are energies whose laws we are coming to know. Knowing and using them, we can make our destiny what we will.

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VII. Typical Treatments

These sample treatments are intended to conduct you into the healer's inner sanctuary, and make plain the exact method of procedure. You must remember that the same disease manifests itself differently in any two cases. The factor of personality enters into the case, so that the treatment will vary with every person you seek to help, placing the emphasis in a different way to suit each case.

Having a patient before you, let your surroundings be as quiet, harmonious and cheerful as possible. Let your own demeanor be that of perfect calm — the outward insignia of self-mastery, of self-control.

Suppose your patient is a neurasthenic, with the three sure signs — indigestion, constipation and insomnia. [Neurasthenia is a psychological disorder characterized by chronic fatigue and weakness, loss of memory, and generalized aches and pains.]

You will find that he or she has exhausted the skill and probably the patience of the doctors. He can give you a minutely detailed description of all his ills and troubles. Encourage a full and free unbosoming of it all, for you will get certain clues to guide you in the treatment of each individual case.

When you have gotten the full story, tell him calmly, but with earnest conviction, that he will not be able to tell the story so well again, for you have a cure that never falls. You can say this in all sincerity, for if you will faithfully follow these directions you cannot fail on any case of neurasthenia.

Tell him of cases that you have cured, or known to be cured by these methods. Explain the difference between organic and functional disorders, and show him that his being a typical functional case, is perfectly amenable to mental and moral treatment.

Do not begin the actual treatment until your patient is at ease. Then, while he sits in a reclining chair, look at him calmly and kindly, and say to him in all confidence as follows:

"The powers I am about to set in motion for your recovery are within yourself. There is no magical influence about it. I am going to use my knowledge of the vital powers of life to set them to work harmoniously, to restore you to perfect health, and not only to restore you, but to keep you in perfect health.

"Were I to inhibit your objective mind by hypnosis, and so reach and command your subconscious mind to remove the symptoms of disease and the disease itself, it might prove only temporary in the results. I shall instruct you as to each step in the cure and secure your intelligent cooperation, so that later you can still intelligently direct the powers within you to complete the cure and make it permanent.

"The two great factors in your restoration are spiritual and mental, namely, your relation to the God who is the Author of all health and health giving agencies, and the interrelations of your complex mind. Let your thoughts turn to God in the confidence that He is good, and kind, and loving; that He does not will the suffering of any creature of his; that He is the God of perfect life.

"Life manifests itself in His being perfectly well, and therefore, sickness, pain, or disease is unknown to Him. Remember that He is the Father of the spirits of all flesh; that all life is from Him, whether it be in the stone, tree, bird, animal or man, differing only in the degree of its manifestation. Think of Him as the Infinite Ocean of life, that ebbs and flows in every bay and inlet of manifestation, giving to each individuality, yet retaining the unity of the whole. Think of yourself as being at one with this perfect life, for this is the law of the spirit of life that makes you free from sin, sickness, and disease.

"If you have these, it shows that you have broken the law. If you did it knowingly, there is moral turpitude attached. If you did it unwittingly, the law is still operative, and your ill is the penalty, for the law carries its own penalty.

"The remedy is to 'Cease to do evil, learn to do well.' Turn to the Father of life and humbly claim your oneness with Him, and your purpose to maintain that oneness in all harmony. You will thus banish fear, for there can be naught to fear, so long as you maintain your identity with Him. There can be no worry, for your steps are ordered of Him, and peace, courage and strength are magnified in you.

"Turn now to the mental side of your case. Your trouble is, in its last analysis, the result of wrong thinking, of wrong mental habits, and until these are remedied permanent relief cannot be had. Your mind is dual in its action. It is conscious and subconscious, objective and subjective.

"The conscious mind is the master of the house, determining what shall be done and how it shall be done. It weighs facts, reaches conclusions, decides on causes of action, and stands as sentinel over the subconscious mind, as a mother over her babe.

"The subconscious accepts any desire or command that passes the outer sentinel, the conscious mind, or that is handed down by it. As a servant, it obeys every suggestion, carrying out implicitly every positive command and earnest desire. Its field of action is to command all the powers of life, to direct the functions of every organ.

"While you sleep, and the conscious action of the mind is inhibited. Your subconscious mind keeps you breathing, equalizes the temperature, keeps up the circulation, the action of the heart, stomach, liver and other organs of the body. These are directly under its control, and it directs them just as the conscious mind directs it. If it has formed bad mental habits and is manifesting pain, or abnormal conditions of any sort, then you must command it with all firmness and earnest desire to cause the organs to function aright.

"Remember, the subconscious cannot determine the truth of anything that we tell it. Its office is to obey, no matter what the command may be, whether to stimulate the action and secretions of the stomach, and the bowels, or other organs, or to gather up and cast from the system a lump or other deposits in any part of the body. It will, on command, muster all your life powers and set them to the task.

"All this subconscious mind action is under your own control, but having someone else in perfect sympathy with your desire for health, and in perfect harmony with your purpose to have it, to join forces with you is often helpful. Thus you multiply your will power and concentration, hastening the results by more profoundly impressing the subconscious mind. 'If two of you shall agree as touching anything, it shall be done,' are the words of the Master healer of all time.

"Now, hold these principles in mind while I give you a positive suggestion. Close your eyes, relax yourself, let your breathing be full and regular. Think only of health, strength, courage.

"Your heart's action is regular; the secretions of your stomach, liver and bowels are normal; the action of all the organs is healthy and natural. After this treatment, you will find that you will be able to eat anything you want without fear, of disturbance. You can digest anything, and your stomach will be perfectly normal in its action. It will not rebel at anything; it will always do with ease — ease, the task given it.

"Your bowels will act normally every day. You will appoint a time for them, and keep the time punctually, expecting them to keep it, and they will not disappoint you. They cannot fail, for you have given the command to your inner self, and it will carry it out without fail.

"You will sleep tonight. You will retire without any concern about not sleeping. You will lie down, relax your muscles, compose your mind, let your breathing be deep and regular. Do not try to go to sleep, but just let the mind think of images of sleep, and of pleasant things, and you will drift away into the land of dreams. Your mind will at all times dwell on the positive, constructive thoughts — thoughts of perfect health and strength. You will find yourself already greatly helped by the treatment, and your mind will carry out every suggestion we have given it."

Let your patient open his eyes; take his hands in yours, your thumbs in his palms, and, looking steadily into his eyes, say: "Your mind will carry out these suggestions without fail. You will sleep, digest your food, and be perfectly normal in every way, and you will continue to improve until permanently cured."

My custom has been to have the patient sit in an easy position in a reclining chair, and, standing behind him, gently strike downward and outward from the top head and forehead, with my hands, while I am giving him the suggestions for health. The wording varies with every case. One may use the exact words here, but with a little experience he will merely follow the general thought, making his specifications to suit each case. I give a few detailed cases of treatment to show my method of dealing with each case.

L—, a girl of seventeen, was brought to me by her mother to be treated for epilepsy. She appeared the picture of health, rather stout, with rosy cheeks, and nothing to indicate to the casual observer anything abnormal. Yet she had for some five years been an epileptic, the spells being attended with falling, crying out, frothing at the mouth, often biting the tongue and lips, and unconsciousness, varying from once a month to many times daily.

She could no longer attend school, was unable to sleep without having a light burning in the room. She ate ravenously especially of meat, used butter and sugar plentifully, and was never quite satisfied with enough food, and was habitually constipated. She had been to many physicians and one or two specialists, with no relief.

I explained that her trouble had been purely physical at the start, but it had become also a psychic habit, and that the cure must proceed on that basis. The doctor might easily have removed the physical cause, but, having done nothing to break the mental habit, his treatment must necessarily fail.

I assured her that I could and would cure her, and I was as sure of it then as I ever was afterward. But she must do just what I told her. I then took up the matter of her diet, cutting out absolutely meat, coffee, sugar and butter.

Beginning next morning, she must observe a strict fast, eating no food whatever during the day, but drinking any quantity of water. The following two days she might eat freely of fruits and any light, nutritious foods, closing each meal with a tablespoonful of olive oil sprinkled liberally with salt. This amount of olive oil was to be gradually increased, and she was to use salt freely with all foods. An enema of water, from a quart to a half gallon, as hot as could be borne, with a teaspoonful of salt, and a touch of Castile soap, was to be used before retiring for two nights. After that, every other night.

Having given her mother a memorandum of the physical treatment, I then explained to her that there was a psychic side to her ailment, that only prayer and faith could reach. I told her of the work of Christ and his apostles in laying on hands with prayer and of the power of God to heal. I assured her that the God of all love and grace desired her to be well, and happy, and useful in the world.

Then, kneeling in prayer with mother and daughter, I laid my hands upon her head and prayed God to deliver her from her infirmity, closing the prayer, "in the name of the Lord." When we were seated, I took hold of her hands, and, directing her to look straight into my eyes, I gazed steadfastly into her eyes, and said: "You will be able to carry out my directions, and you will never have another attack — never. Their power is broken, and you are free."

I directed them to return once a month from that day, which they did. There had been no return of the fits nor any symptom. She came at the end of another month and was dismissed as permanently cured. Some four years after her cure she was married, and there has been no recurrence of the trouble in the six years that have elapsed since her treatment.

Mr. S—, a young man of thirty-one years, six feet tall and of a powerful build, some 25 pounds underweight, a shuffling manner in walking, very timid, a shifting gaze that rarely looked you in the eye, and then only for a moment, memory very poor, and stammered frightfully, an irascible temper, pronounced indigestion, constipation, and insomnia; circulation very poor, hands and feet cold and clammy, fingernails blue, well educated, with a philosophical trend of mind. He had studied quite extensively in physiology, psychology, and had analyzed his own case with the aid of many physicians, until he had it all tagged and pigeonholed, had tried many regulars, some quacks, mental healers, and treated over a year with an osteopath, without improvement. He had the ultimate purpose of suicide when there seemed no longer any hope. He came to me at the recommendation of Dr. E. D. Curtis of Woodland, Cal., a former family physician.

In my first conversation, it developed that he had come to me to be cured by hypnotism. Having tried everything else, he had decided that only inhibition of all his faculties in profound hypnosis could enable one to cure his case. Then he announced that he had tried, but had never been hypnotized, and did not believe that it could be done.

I began a process of reeducation, by instructing him in the laws of mental action, showing him that the subconscious mind was fully as amenable to suggestion given in the waking state as in the hypnotic sleep. I assured him that, knowing the law, I could produce in him in the waking state any results that it would be possible to produce by hypnosis. After an extended experience in hypnotic suggestion, I had practically ceased to use hypnosis, because I could get the same results without it.

I assured him that I had never had a failure in neurasthenia, and had not found it necessary to resort to hypnotism. I told him of various cases, some better, some worse than his, that I had cured by suggestion in the waking state. It was necessary to do this to dislodge him from the impregnable position he had assumed, namely, that only hypnotic suggestion could cure him, and that he could not be hypnotized.

I knew that the latter proposition might easily prove true, and then the case would be beyond my reach. So I assailed and took his first position by storm, and the other one surrendered. I gave him no further treatment the first sitting.

At his second visit, on the following day, I instructed him in the helpfulness of hope, and faith, and love, as exercises calculated to make him more cheerful, and cure him of a bad "grouch" that he had habitually. I next outlined to him the operations of the mind in its conscious and subconscious activities.

I then had him recline in an easy chair, close his eyes, relax his muscles, breathe deeply, and compose his mind by thinking of the words, peace, courage, and strength. I stood by his side, making full passes over his head, arms, body, and limbs, for two or three minutes; then, standing at his side and placing my thumb on his forehead at the root of his nose, I said:

"Breathing deep and steady, muscles all relaxed, heart's action regular, circulation good, all the functions of the body operating normally. All your life powers are now at work to build up your body and give you perfect health. Your stomach is secreting normally, so that your food will be thoroughly digested, and properly assimilated, enriching the blood and feeding the nerves and building up the entire body. Your bowels will be active and regular. You will attend them at a regular time, and they will always respond.

"Your sleep will be natural, sound and refreshing. You will find yourself going to bed with calm expectation of a good sleep, and you will not be disappointed. Your sleep will be as sweet and refreshing as a child's. You will find your mind dwelling upon the hopeful, healthful, bright side of things. Your memory will grow stronger, your thinking will be rational and connected.

"You will have your sentence clearly in mind before you begin to speak, and then you will speak each word without hesitation. Your eyes will be bright and strong, so that you can look men in the face while talking to them. We have set all your life powers to work, and your subconscious mind will keep them at work day and night, carrying out your wishes and commands. You are the master of your own house, and your servant will do exactly what you command him."

Then, asking him to open his eyes and sit up, I "looked steadfastly upon him," said to him, "Courage, health and strength are yours!" This treatment was repeated with variations every day for two weeks. I explained the reason for each suggestion and the method of its operation, so as to satisfy his philosophical bent of mind.

A marked improvement was noticeable from the first. His digestion was entirely normal at the end of two weeks, so that he ate anything with perfect ease. His bowels became active after the second treatment. The pallor of his face gave way to a good, healthy pink. His eye was clear and bright; his whole air that of one who had gotten hold of himself again.

The insomnia was in his case the most persistent feature, but that was greatly improved. After this he came twice a week for a while, until his cure was so far complete that he was able to carry it on by himself. At the end of two months he had regained his lost weight, and had shaken off his old enemies, and a recent letter tells me that he is "a new man," and is continually building himself up, by using the information I gave him and by reading books I recommended for his case.

In my pastoral rounds I found a boy of fifteen years who had been suffering from St. Vitus' dance for some three years. It developed after a serious attack of inflammatory rheumatism, and in spite of skilled medical aid, had grown steadily worse. He had ceased attendance at school, then left Sunday school, and had so rapidly failed in body and mind, especially the latter, that his mother was at the point of sending him to the insane asylum.

I asked her to let me try suggestion on him, and after explaining its method to her, secured her consent. I began by placing him in hypnotic sleep and giving him suggestions as to the voluntary use and control of his muscles, taking him through all sorts of exercises in his sleep, and then telling him that he could and would also have the power to control his movements when awake. I also gave him suggestions to remedy his mental weaknesses.

This was repeated every day, for ten days; then every other day for the same length of time, after which he came to me once in two or three days, until entirely cured. The entire treatment covered a period of seven weeks. Then, after spending the summer on his uncle's farm, he returned to school. Some eight years have passed and the boy is a man with no trace of the trouble that loomed up so seriously in his earlier life.

By way of contrast in treatment I give the following case which came to me at the seaside, during a vacation period. He was a boy of sixteen years, who had St. Vitus' dance of five years' standing. His mental processes were very slow, speech difficult, often interrupted, unable often to feed himself, could not walk within the width of a wagon track, and often fell down. He had ceased attendance at school some two years before. His mother besought me to try his case with suggestion.

Having only six days left of my vacation, I took him in hand. I talked with him a few minutes to secure his confidence that I was going to cure him. Then I put him through a series of exercises, which in turn called into action every muscle of his body, each movement being repeated from six to ten times. Then I told him that he could walk home as straight as anyone, which he did without falling or seriously stumbling.

I repeated this treatment with some variations during the six days, once each day. On the last day I called his attention to the marked improvement in his case, and told him he was to keep up the exercises, and that he would be completely cured.

Six months later I was on a mission in an adjoining state, and the first evening, on entering the church, I met this same boy at the door, in perfect health, with no sign of his old trouble, and doing full duty at home and in school. Seven years attest the permanency of the cure.

Once, while conducting a mission in one of the larger cities of California, I was asked by a pastor to call with him to see a man who had made up his mind to die. We went, and after talking with him awhile I assured him that he was going to get well. Although he was bedfast and could not stand on his feet, I noticed that his muscles were not unduly wasted, and judging from the hamper basket full of bottles of medicine, I fancied that he had exhausted the doctor's skill, and probably his patience, which he later confirmed by saying that the doctor swore at him on his last visit.

I secured his consent to give him a treatment, and using the easy device of opening and shutting the eyes at increasing intervals, I easily induced sleep, and satisfied that he would carry out my suggestion, I commanded him to rise and dress and walk about inside the house, which he did. After spending ten minutes studying the pictures on the wall, some of which were purely imaginary, I had him undress and return to bed. I gave him strong post hypnotic suggestions of strength, courage and hope, and left him, wide awake, and unconscious that he had been out of bed.

Next day I repeated the treatment, except that I awoke him fully dressed and in the parlor, having first provided against any shock or collapse. I then explained to him that his trouble was of the mind rather than of the body, and that he would be as well and strong as ever in his life. His treatment progressed rapidly, each day he increased the amount of exercise, and in two weeks from my first treatment he went for a visit with his children in a country town.

A year afterward, I had a letter stating that he was as hearty and strong as a man at sixty could possibly hope to be. This case is of about nine years standing, and in that time no sign of the trouble has returned.

To be sure, these are striking cases, but they are taken at random from a large number, with all sorts of variations in disease, conditions, treatment and time of cure.

I have not had universal success in treating morphine habits, owing more, I believe to the lack of a sanatorium, with the accessories for a cooperative treatment.

The cases given herein illustrate truly what may be reasonably expected in the treatment of nervous disorders, and a large per cent of present-day disorders are of that character.

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VIII. Hypnotism

Probably no word so arouses the prejudice of the unthinking man as the word hypnotism. It is simply a condition of artificial sleep, or sleep induced by suggestions of sleep from a second person, in which the sleeper is partially, or wholly insensible to his surroundings, and yet in perfect harmony with the operator, who controls his thoughts and whose wishes he will obey.

In natural sleep, the sleeper obeys his own suggestions in going to sleep and while asleep, while in hypnotic sleep he goes to sleep at the suggestion of another person and is under his control during the hypnotic sleep. One goes to sleep by surrounding himself with all the conditions that suggest sleep, although he may not give them a conscious thought.

Another fills his mind with suggestions and induces, by artificial means, all the symptoms of sleep in his body. Otherwise the sleep is alike, the same brain centers being active or dormant in both. Natural sleep may be turned into hypnotic, and the latter into natural by the simplest devices. It is popularly supposed that this imitation of nature's great restorer is beset with many possible dangers.

Undoubtedly the power to hypnotize can be abused, but it is an indisputable fact that a person will not do anything in a state of hypnotism contrary to the instincts of self-preservation, nor can he be made to do a thing that is against his conscientious scruples. People have made deeds, signed notes, wills, etc., bought gold bricks of all sorts, and violated the moral law under the influence of the hypnotic spell.

Yet, while judgment may be badly warped by suggestion from another, conscience does not obey hypnotic suggestion. The person who does moral wrong under hypnotic suggestion would commit the wrong act in his waking state if he had the opportunity.

It is an open question whether it is possible by suggestion to pervert someone's imagination, bias his judgment, and weaken his will until conscience would eventually be overruled, and an act performed that at one single effort would have been impossible. Herein lies the real danger of hypnotism.

The danger of getting a person to sleep and being unable to awaken him is purely imaginary. If the operator doesn't know enough to be able to awaken him, he ought to know enough to leave the sleeper alone. In a short time his condition will change to natural sleep, from which he will wake up of his own accord.

Some have claimed that we should restrict the use of hypnotism to physicians, but until we can show that physicians are less fallible than the rest of humanity, it is a vain expedient. The safest method is the widespread distribution of the knowledge of its principles and methods of operation, so that we can distribute its benefits and guard against its dangers.

"The people perish for lack of knowledge," in this as in other things. Only the knowledge of the truth can make people free from danger. It is upon this conviction that we now set forth the exact methods of producing hypnotic conditions.

These methods we have used often, and know their practical value. Everything that is essential for anyone to know is here in plain speech, so that any person who can understand such language can read the directions and use them with perfect confidence of success.

Like everything else, hypnotism has a starting point, and that point is the law of agreement. The only reason one person can hypnotize another is that the two minds can perfectly agree on a single purpose or idea. All known methods, and all instructions given, show how to secure this agreement.

We may say that hypnotism is the science of the agreement of two wills. It is not one will overpowering another, but two agreeing. It matters not whether whose will is stronger or weaker. They must agree.

It is a rank fallacy to think that we can hypnotize only feeble-minded persons. Men of strong personality, trained intellects, and strong willpower are often the easiest, and always the best subjects, while weak, nervous, timid men and women are often the hardest to hypnotize, and are usually poor subjects. The one essential condition to success is the willingness to submit to the experiment, and the ability to make the mind attend to a single idea.

The popular notion that it weakens the will or injures them to be hypnotized is another error. Proper suggestion during hypnotism may greatly strengthen every mental and moral faculty of the subject. No one ought to undertake to experiment in hypnotism until he has learned never to awaken a subject until he has given him suggestions for the bettering of his physical and mental and moral condition.

It is true, however, that one whom we have hypnotized is easier to put to sleep the second time, not because his will is weakened, but because a man travels over a road easier the second time than the first. He has become familiar with the way marks and the sense of strangeness, or fear of getting lost, is gone. For the same reason, one who has hypnotized a few people does so with a confidence and ease that he did not have the first time.

Since these instructions are to teach one how to use hypnotism for purely therapeutic purposes and not for any public exhibition, we have given only what is essential to that end, omitting directions for producing any of the features connected with the spectacular phases of hypnotic phenomena.

The dual nature of man's mentality is the scientific basis on which we produce hypnotic effects. Researchers disagree whether our mind is dual in nature or in operation.

Whether we have two minds, or one mind with two distinct methods of operation, is immaterial to securing results. It is sufficient to say that one set of faculties with which we reason by induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis, is called the outer, objective or conscious mind. Nothing controls it against reason, knowledge or the evidence of the senses. Conscious mind's province is to gather facts, weigh them, decide their truth, falsity or expediency, and to accept or reject them.

If the conscious mind accepts a fact, it is at once passed on to the inner, subjective or subconscious mind, whose business it is to make the facts a part of the physical, mental and moral being of the person. This subjective mind reasons only by deduction. It has no power to detect the truth of anything, because it can hold only one mental concept at a time, and so cannot compare one idea with any other. However well we might adapt it to a world in which only truth exists, its office and normal action, under present human conditions, is subjective.

When hypnotism inhibits the objective mind, the subjective mind will accept any proposition as true, no matter how absurd it may be, or how untrue to the facts of objective experience. The remarkable therapeutic value of hypnotic suggestion is due to this fact.

We tell the sick man, in hypnosis, that he has no pain, the diseased conditions are disappearing, he will soon be well. Being unable to compare the suggestion with his waking experience, his subjective mind holds the thought of health, excluding the thought of disease. He awakens with the return to health begun, and often the cure is immediate and complete.

In other cases, the process of cure covers a considerable period, and we must repeat the treatment. Since the functions of the body's organs are under the direct control of the subjective mind, whether we sleep or wake, it follows that any suggestion able to penetrate and hold the subjective mind, will have directly influence any given organ or bodily process.

If an organ is not doing its normal work, we have a functional disorder, which we can at once begin to correct by suggesting its normal action to the subjective mind. In diseases where the structure and integrity of the tissue are involved, this great subjective builder that marshals all the vital powers of the body, may have much to do in hastening the cure of organic disease, supplementing the work of the physician or surgeon.

The methods of producing hypnotism are so simple that the learner is apt to be incredulous that they can effect such striking results so easily. He is apt to think that only one of long experience and peculiar personal qualifications can produce them. He has only to follow these simple directions, and the results will be forthcoming.

Your office ought to be as congenial to your patient as possible. He must be calm, and his surroundings as quiet and harmonious as possible. If he prefers to be alone, have someone present, sit up, recline or lie down, so be it. Being alone with your patient is better, but if others are present, impress upon them the necessity of perfect quietness, as the least noise is apt to distract the patient's mind from what you are saying.

Let your personal appearance impress your patient favorably. Manner, dress, cleanliness, attention to teeth and fingernails, absence of tobacco odors, or other kinds, apt to be offensive to sensitive nerves, kindliness of manner in speaking to the patient — these and many other details are essential to the highest success.

Let your bearing be confidence itself. Your very manner of doing things should impress your patient with the idea that what you say is about to happen, will surely happen, and success is yours. Your patient imagines he is going to be hypnotized, and sure enough he is, mainly because of his own imagination.

You must be positive in your actions and assertions. To do this, learn a formula for producing hypnosis until you can repeat it without having to think what comes next. Then remember that the powers that produce the results are in the patient. You are using your knowledge of the laws of their operation to set them to work to produce the result. The chapter on "Personal Magnetism" will give you some valuable suggestions as to your eye, hands and voice.

A patient will be easier to hypnotize at the ages of fifteen to thirty years than later in life. The patient has come to you to be healed or helped, and because he strongly desires to be relieved, will have every reason for cooperating with you.

You may save time on those who sit with knees crossed, hands locked, head thrown back and a general air of knowing it all. Being passive will be difficult for them.

If the patient is not too positive in his statements, agrees readily, with what you say, is indirect in his answers, and is inclined to talk a great deal, he will not be difficult. Almost anyone whose profession requires a good deal of talking will make a good hypnotic subject. Ask the patient to sit, and talk to him on some topic connected with his case until he is at ease.

If he is uninformed of the nature of the mind and its dual operation, explain it to him. Explain also the difference between hypnotic and natural sleep, also that the more intelligent and strong-willed a man is, the easier it is for him to carry out a suggestion given.

Explain that the hypnotic sleep varies in degree of intensity, from a simply passive state, in which the mind is essentially abstracted from its surroundings, to the profound slumber, in which he knows nothing save the healer's presence, and that suggestions given in any of these stages are effective. You may now continue at once to hypnotize him by any method suggested here, or by one of your own, following the suggestions given in these formulas.

If you wish to test the suggestibility of your patient before trying to hypnotize him, then say to him that you are not going to hypnotize him just yet, maybe not at all. Nevertheless, you want to test him in his power to relax. Have him rest his elbow on a table, letting his hand rest on yours, which you hold four to six inches above the table. Tell him to let the full weight of his hand and forearm rest on your hand, then suddenly take away your hand; if his arm falls to the table, he knows how to relax.

If you wish to test his power to receive a suggestion, try the drawing test or the clasped fingers as described in the chapter, "The Law of Suggestion."

Place your subject in a chair, in as comfortable a position as possible, with his back to the light. Observe all the precautions as to quiet and comfort. Tell him that you are going to hold a coin or other bright object before his eyes, and that he is to look at it steadily, winking as little as possible, and that in a short time the nerve of the eye will grow weary, the muscles of the eye will grow tired, his eyelids will grow heavy, and close, and that he will get drowsy and sleepy and go sound asleep.

Assure him that he will have no unpleasant sensations, and that his sleep will be as sweet and refreshing as if he were going to sleep in the usual way. Standing at his side, hold a coin or a cork covered with tinfoil from six to ten inches from his eyes in front and about four inches above the level of the eyes, and tell him to look steadily at it without winking.

Then slowly move it in a circle of three or four inches while you say firmly, "Now look straight at it — straight at it. Don't blink the eye, but look straight at it — straight at it." Repeat this slowly and positively. Don't be in a hurry.

In from one to three minutes you will notice a tired expression of the eye. Then begin, "Your eyelids are getting heavy, very heavy — the nerve of the eye is growing weary; your eyes are so heavy you can hardly hold them open; they are going closed; they are closing, almost closed."

As they seem now trembling and inclined to shut, say, "Close them, close them, your eyes are closed, fast closed."

Then lay aside your coin and, after a few moments' pause, say, "Your eyes are closed; your breathing is deep and steady; your heart is beating regularly; all the organs of the body are operating normally; drowsiness is stealing over the brain and body; you are getting drowsy, drowsier, very drowsy; you want to go to sleep; you are getting sleepy, sleepier, very sleepy; you are going to sleep, going to sleep; so sleepy, so sleepy; you are going sound asleep, going sound asleep."

Give the suggestions time to work, so don't hurry. Repeat each step often.

"You are asleep, you are asleep, you are asleep, sleeping soundly, sound asleep, sound asleep; sleep on, sleep on, and go further away to sleep. Nothing will disturb you. All sounds have faded away in the distance, and you are sound asleep; you hear all I say to you and will do all I tell you to do, but you are sound asleep. Nothing can awaken you until I tell you to wake up; sleep on and go further away to sleep."

If you want to give him any little test to see how deeply he is asleep, try sticking his hands together, or making his arm stiff by having him stiffen it; then make a few passes over it with your hands from the shoulder down, pressing on the arm as you move downward. Then tell him he cannot bend it. Or you can try the sensation of heat or cold.

Be sure to always tell him beforehand just what you are going to do, and what the result will be, and assure him that he will not wake up. If you do not care to make any of these tests, then, as soon as he is asleep, treat him for whatever his ailment is. The method of giving suggestion during sleep is first to know what the ailment is, and this can usually be determined by a physician's diagnosis, which it is always wise to have, although most cases that come for treatment have gone the rounds of physicians and specialists and the nature of their complaint is clear.

Your suggestions will take up all the symptoms in a general order for health, for normal action of all the organs and processes of the body. Having given these general suggestions, take up the specific difficulty and give the most positive instructions to the stomach, liver, or whatever organ, or organs, are involved.

Always close with the affirmation that this curative process will continue, that he will feel greatly improved on awaking, and will continue to improve. Then tell him that you are going to let him rest a few moments and afterward wake him up, and that he will feel fine. This method, with variations, is useful in inducing hypnosis the first time; after that almost any method that indicates to the patient that you want him to go to sleep, will be effective.

We can induce hypnosis in a great many ways, and we give a few that are effective. After a little experience one makes up a formula of his own, varying it to suit each case.

A very simple method is to have your patient seated or reclining, eyes closed, and muscles relaxed. Place a folded handkerchief over his eyes and tell him to go to sleep, to think of sleep and the sensations of going to sleep, and that in three minutes he will be asleep; then go away and leave him quiet for a few moments. You will find a large number will go to sleep in this way.

Another effective way is to have him sit relaxed, with his hands in his lap. Place in his hands a crystal, a coin or other bright object and direct him to look steadily at it, and that he will soon feel drowsy and drop to sleep.

To press steadily on the nails of the second and third fingers of each hand with your thumbs, or to tap lightly on the front, top part of the head, accompanying with sleep suggestions will influence a good many.

Sit in front of your patient with his knees between yours. Place your hands firmly on his shoulders. Direct him to relax all his muscles and look you steadily in the eye. Then fix your eyes upon the root of his nose, intently willing that he shall do what you suggest, and repeat to him some suggestions of sleep. This is called the fascination method and is often effective.

Another simple and useful device is to rest your fingers lightly on the head and, placing the thumb on the center of the forehead, press steadily, directing him to close his eyes and look at the spot where your thumb rests, suggesting to him its color, and that it will gradually fade away, and that as it does so he will fall to sleep.

One method used a great deal, with excellent success, is to have the patient close his eyes. Then tell him that you want him to open and close them instantly each time you count aloud. Then begin, "one-two-three," making the time longer between each number.

You can regulate this, for instance, by saying "four"; then starting at one, count to yourself until you come to "five," which you say aloud. Keep on counting for a while after he ceases to open his eyes, then tell him to go sound asleep.

After you have given health or other suggestions suitable to your patient, tell him that you are now going to awaken him. Always tell him what you are going to do. It will usually be sufficient to say, "Wake up! — wide awake! — all right!"

Or tell him that you are going to count five, and at the word "five" he will be wide awake. Then count five and clap your hands, saying "wide awake," etc. Or tell him you are going to let him sleep ten minutes, and that he will wake up then of his own accord.

If, after the patient wakes up, he seems drowsy or shows a tendency to drowsiness, press with your thumbs on the forehead at the root of the nose, passing them out over the eyebrows. A few times will get him wide awake, especially if you tell him why you do it.

If all efforts seem to fail to rouse your patient, a thing that rarely occurs, and never has in my experience, you must remember not to get nervous or frightened, nor let anyone else become excited, for if you leave your patient alone, his hypnotic sleep will change to natural sleep, from which he will awaken of his own accord.

Remember that suggestion is the underlying principle in hypnotism, and the key to suggestion is repetition. Let each form of the suggestion be a little stronger than the last one, as "drowsy, sleepy, very sleepy," etc. Above all, be positive, not noisy, nor boastful, nor boisterous, but the sense of certainty that you know just what you are doing.

First learn perfectly the first formula given, and then you are ready to commence, but you will need to read and keep reading standard works on psychology, in order to have a broad culture and thorough grasp of the principles. Only practical experience can make you expert in the use of hypnosis.

When you have become an adept in the use of hypnotic suggestion you will find yourself making less and less use of it, for you can produce the same, and better, and quicker, results by waking suggestion, in conjunction with mental and moral re-education. The reader will find other methods described in the different chapters, where they are given in connection with cases that are used for illustration.

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IX. Personal Magnetism

The student of psychic ability, in the beginning of his experiments, is apt to make large use of hypnotism, just as a child makes large use of his A B C's. As the child passes to the higher process of thought and statement, he proceeds without any thought of his alphabet.

Just so does the investigator in psychic law make less and less use of hypnotism as such, for he finds that hypnotism consists in making the idea of sleep penetrate the mind and hold it, to the exclusion of all others, thus inducing all the phenomena of sleep in the mind and body. In this state of induced sleep he can suggest almost any idea to the patient and it will be accepted without question.

Soon he will find a large percentage of people who, for various reasons, do not enter the hypnotic state to any perceptible degree. In fact, most of the people he wants to influence in a business, social, or professional way, are wide awake with every faculty alert, and to ask them to sit down and be hypnotized while you read business or health into them is out of the question.

If you have passed on from mere hypnotism to the higher laws of personal influence, these same alert, wide-awake people will acquiesce in the dictates of a will more royal than their own. The will whose purposes they accept may be no stronger naturally, but it operates in harmony with the laws of personal magnetism, and the result is that a man does things that are for his good, although he refuses before either to see or do it.

He also does things not to his interest. He signs instruments, buys property, gold bricks, takes a life partner, accepts the most absurd ideas, accepts the non-reality of things that are intensely real, and afterward wonders how he could have failed to see through it.

The knowledge of the laws of personal magnetism reveals the secret. Many people unconsciously use these laws of influence and owe their measure of success to it. A full knowledge of the laws and their methods of use would multiply their power many times. So general has the knowledge of these powers and their use become, that the man who fails to secure a mastery of them is easily distanced in the race for success.

The methods for using these powers of such regal potent authority, are so simple that anyone can learn them and practice them, and none but an adept will recognize the nature of the power you are bringing to bear upon him. These powers of personality are all under the control of the will, to which a separate chapter is given.

They find certain channels of operation, the main ones of which are as follows: The use of the eyes, the use of the hands and body in gesture and manner, the use of the voice, the use of language, written or spoken, and that invisible influence, that in moments of great mental concentration, or nervous excitement, when the eye flashes and the whole face glows with a subtle emanation. Telepathy has an element of power.

By using these intelligently, a man who is naturally magnetic may add greatly to his power, while the non-magnetic may become so. In fact, he cannot help becoming a masterful personality by following out the directions given in this chapter. If you are slow in learning it, let that spur you on to double your diligence. You cannot fail to acquire it. Without it you will be at a disadvantage all your life, while one less perfectly endowed will achieve success where you failed.

Now to your task, which is to pass the outer sentinels of the mind and gain access to the subconscious mind within. In hypnotism this is done by inducing sleep, and all these sentinels are put off duty, so that you may introduce almost any idea you will, and it will be accepted, but your task is to take your subject or patient when he is awake and has all his guards mounted, and pass by them successfully, lodging your thought in his subconscious mind with such force as to produce conviction and action.

For this purpose the eye is the most powerful of all the agencies to be used. To be able to "look" at a thing is to have success assured. "I looked him right in the eye and told him what I thought of him" is a hint that we are slow to take. No one can look steadily into your eye, while you look steadfastly into his and talk to him, and think of anything else than what you are saying.

The reason is that you have in this one way passed all the sentinels of his mind and are talking to his subconscious mind, which can think of only one idea at a time, and that is the one you are projecting into it. While you hold his eye, he has no opportunity to reflect on what you say, and will accept the truth of your statement. He thinks that his own judgment has decided it, when in fact he has unconsciously allowed you to do his thinking for him.

If he looks away, it gives him time for reflection, and unless by some device you catch his attention, results may be very different from what they might have been. When you first meet a man and are introduced to him, as you shake hands, if you look calmly into his eye, you will see what you will not see again. You will get the key to his character.

When you approach a man in his office, home or on the street, or in your own office, have a determined look. I mean one that has no indecision, no wavering. You cannot look determined unless you are. Cultivate the habit of determination. Assume that what you have to propose or offer, he will assent to.

Do not question in your own mind, or he will telepathically know your indecision. Know your business to the last detail, whether it is to cure a headache or sell a bill of goods. Be calm, clear, forcible and in earnest. Look him straight in the eye, and especially in the climax of your proposition.

Since we intend this chapter to apply specially to practice in psychotherapy, we give no further details of application here for business and social life, beyond to say that promotion and success in every laudable enterprise finds the right use of the eye, an engine of power.

To see its use in healing, you have but to read the Bible record of cures. In the case of the lame man at the beautiful gate, certain facts are suggestive. "Peter with John fastened his eyes upon him," while the lame man gave them the attention of his eyes to see what they would give him. Peter commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to rise up and walk. And he took him by the hand.

In the case of Paul and Elymas, the sorcerer, it is recorded that he "fastened his eyes upon him" before pronouncing the curse of blindness. Also at Lystra it is said that Paul "steadfastly beholding him perceived that he had faith to be healed." These are cases in which this detail of the treatment, the use of the eyes, is mentioned. Doubtless it had its place in all the cases treated.

To use this power of the eye effectively you must learn to look steadily — not staringly, or as if gazing into space, that will reveal the method at once. Cultivate a pleasing expression of the eye. Study your eye in the mirror until you are sure of it.

An eye that wavers or blinks will lack power in carrying your suggestions forcibly. Put a small piece of paper on a mirror and look at it steadily, stopping at any sign of tears or pain. Don't injure the eye, but just practice.

Pick out objects on the street as you walk, and try your sight on them. Persist in it and you will soon be able to "look" at a thing intensely and penetratingly, yet pleasingly.

I am often asked by people how to prevent being unduly influenced by others. If you are seated, cross your legs, or clasp your hands, fingers intertwining, or twirl the thumbs, or chew gum, or something to keep your attention divided, and determine within yourself that you will not be influenced against your judgment.

Do not look too steadily into his eyes while he is talking. If, from courtesy, you must look his way, pick out some blemish or odd formation of features, let your eyes rest on that, for nothing will disconcert him so quickly. Yet if you look steadily into his eye while he talks, you cannot help being influenced. The public speaker, the social conversationalist, the business man or the mental healer who fails to look his auditor in the eyes loses a great increment of power.

The use of the hands in gesture, in passes and in the various contacts with the body under the idea of "laying on of hands," is very effective in influencing others. Add to a clear, steady, frank eye beauty of form and grace of movement, and you have a large magnetic combination.

Passes made over the head or face or the affected parts, at a distance or touching the body, tend to fix the patient's attention upon the afflicted region, and give your verbal suggestions added, effectiveness. To place the fingers over the place of pain, press steadily and strongly, and releasing them suddenly, distracts the mind from its pain, by bringing a new sensation to its attention, and this will also help your suggestions to take immediate effect.

Place the right hand at the back, over the solar plexus, which is located back of the stomach, and with the left on the stomach, pressing strongly. Tell the patient that this solar plexus, called the "abdominal brain", directly controls the stomach, causing it to secrete properly and digest thoroughly if properly directed; that you are causing powerful vibrations to pass throughout that part of the nervous system, at the same time giving the right hand a slightly tremulous motion, will act as a powerful suggestion in breaking up indigestion.

So with regard to any of the organs of the body. A very brief study of the location of the various nerve centers along the spine and the organs they control will help you in giving quick relief.

So also to a tired, bedridden or nerve-exhausted sufferer, if you take the hands and limbs one at a time, and, beginning at the hands and feet, wring them out, moving your hands toward the body and wringing vigorously as you would a cloth, explaining to your patient that the stagnant blood and juices are forced out, and fresh nourishing secretions rush in to invigorate him.

When this is done, have him lie on his face, and, placing the fingers on each side of the spine, press on, and move them with a circular motion, not letting the fingers slip on the clothing, or skin, so traverse an inch at a time the spinal column to the base of the skull. Attend this with suggestions of rest, and vigor, and returning strength, and your patient will rest and sleep like a child.

All these movements have a twofold value, the elements of massage itself being very helpful, while this treatment is a vehicle for the most potent suggestions. If there is any magnetic emanation from the operation, it is a third, valuable factor.

A voice that perfectly expresses the various moods of the soul is an invaluable factor in exercising personal influence. One should be able to speak in a full, round tone and then decrease its volume to a whisper. The voice of authority must drop easily to the confidential tone of speech. The short, sharp command must be able to fade imperceptibly into the long-drawn, sleepy tone that says, "I am almost gone."

The voice is a mighty factor in making your suggestions. The form of your suggestion is important, but the way you say it is of great moment. To be able to say a thing with the tone and air of finality is a rare gift for one who would heal the sick by mental and spiritual methods.

I give one or two methods for securing strength and control of the voice. Practice deep breathing, using the diaphragm. Place your hand on the stomach and upper part of the abdomen, slowly inhale, pushing the hand outward, then exhale, letting the hand sink inward.

Inhale as you count two, or take two steps, then exhale naturally, then inhale gradually while you count four, exhaling naturally, and so on up to twenty or thirty. Then reverse the process, inhaling naturally and gradually increasing the time of exhalation.

A good exercise is to breathe in the same manner, hang up a cloth or kerchief, and, standing six feet away, purse up the lips and blow steadily until you move the cloth. Gradually increase the distance. These and similar exercises, which you can devise for yourself, will cultivate your breathing power and greatly add to the control and power of your voice.

Faulty construction of a suggestion may impair, if not entirely neutralize its power. For instance, to say, "You will not be troubled with indigestion. Your non-assimilation of your food," etc., are weak for the reason that the trouble is positively stated, while the desired end is left to inference. "Not troubled," and "indigestion" contains powerful reference to actual conditions, while nothing suggests the positive result.

If you say, "Your stomach will, act normally, your food will digest thoroughly and be perfectly assimilated, enriching the blood and feeding the nerves," you leave no negative thought in the mind as a residuum, from which the mind forms a counter-suggestion, but only a positive, constructive idea that at once takes hold of the subconscious mind and sets it to work with the life powers to bring about what your suggestion calls for.

Finally, as the crown of it all, and the heart of it all, "He that believeth in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." To believe in him, to step into his life, to be at one with him and the Father, is the magnetism that draws all men — a spiritual, divine quality, without which all else must forever be incomplete.

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X. The Will and How to Use It

The will is the keystone in the arch of human achievement. It is the culmination of our complex mental faculties. It is the power that rules minds, men and nations. Man's noblest occupation is to bring all his powers into subjection to his own will, until he attains self-mastery. His ultimate goal of action and destiny in this or any world is to stand whole in the presence of the Eternal Will, and say, "Thy will be done."

Willpower does not mean obstinacy nor stubbornness, but such a direction of his own powers as to perfectly control them, and when he can do that he can also control others. For will-power means the ability to grapple the minds of those about one and those with whom he comes in contact, and to influence and control them.

The will holds your mind to its task until you see the vision of success, and until the vision is made reality. Of all qualities entering into success in anything, none can compare with patient, persistent determination to stop only with success. A man can do anything that he believes that he can do, and is determined to do, and sets himself to the task.

His will is the power that holds him to the undertaking, so that he can meet criticism with silence, opposition with courtesy, and defeat with the air of one who says, "I haven't begun to fight yet," and so makes that defeat seem like a victory. That will keeps his eyes open, his mouth shut, with the corners lifted, his face shining, and defies the world to discern any discouragements, and the genius of success is to keep people from finding out how discouraged you feel.

"I can," and "I will," puts a man in touch with powers that enable him to feed a flock or shake a kingdom, to banish pain, heal a distempered mind, or soothe a wounded spirit. Let your cause be just, so that conscience cannot raise a mutiny among your faculties, and face your problem with the will of one who said, "There shall be no Alps." You can turn your dreams into reality; you can speak, and it is done; you can command, and it will stand steadfast.

A royal will gives one a masterful presence, and that presence is felt. He need not utter a word. His presence has changed in a few moments the entire atmosphere of the room. He has determined to accomplish certain things, and an invisible something has gone forth that commands respect and assent, as no words alone can do. He has, by his will alone, raised the mental temperature, or lowered it to a level with his own.

Will-power is not exercised in that straining effort of the body and nerves that notifies everyone that you are making a great effort, but rather the calm, quiet, forcible way that "speaks, and it is done." The rules for the development of the will are to begin with the easy things first, and practice them until you can do them perfectly. Exercise is as essential to the strength of the will as it is to the body.

First, practice holding the eyes open for a minute without winking, and as you acquire the power to do it without fatigue or injury to the eye, increase the time. This exercise will both strengthen the will and give you control of your eyes.

Second, when sitting in an assembly, or riding in a car, determine that someone sitting ahead of you shall look back. Then concentrate your gaze on the nape of the neck, willing the person to turn and look. [A word to he wise: This practice is the not-so-subtle use of force. Use it selfishly and you will accrue spiritual debts to pay.] At first, the percentage of your success may be small, but persistently practice it and your power will increase until you seldom fail.

Below is a series of directions for exercising the will. Begin with the simpler ones, and persistently practice them, and you will acquire a power that often needs not to speak, but sends out its silent, invisible force to sway men and assemblies.

Select some part of the body, a foot or hand, with the idea of heat. While holding the mind in this attitude, breathe deeply and steadily, and in from one to four minutes you will feel the warm glow coming to the foot. In this way you can soon master the entire body.

Begin with the sense of feeling. If the body itches, make it stop by the force of your will. In from three days to three weeks you can stop the itching sensation at will. Then try the habit of sneezing; stubbornly resist the inclination to sneeze, and you will soon have the mastery. Now try your will on coughing. When the tickling sensation comes, stop it by the exercise of your will. You can soon master it.

Next try it on pain. When you feel a pain in the body, instead of rubbing on liniment, rub in a little will-power. Soon it will ease your pain as if by magic. With the fingers of one hand rub the skin on the back of the other hand, stroking toward the elbow, and willing that all feeling shall disappear. In from one to three minutes take a needle and you can stick it through the skin on the back of the hand without pain. You may have to try it a dozen times, but persistence will bring success.

Having mastered the sense of feeling, take up that of hearing. It may seem impossible at first thought, but you have seen people so absorbed in what they were reading or thinking that they heard nothing, although you addressed them directly. They are, simply abstracted from all else and are thinking of one thing to the exclusion of everything else. They entered this state of abstractedness unconsciously.

To do so intentionally, you go by the law of indirectness. For instance, take sight; concentrate your vision and your whole attention upon some object, real or imaginary, until soon the sense of hearing becomes dormant. A little practice will enable you to study, think, or sleep, regardless of noise.

Having mastered hearing, begin on sight. You have known people who walked on the street, looked at you and passed by without recognition, although they knew you well. A person deeply thinking on some subject, neither sees nor hears, but uses the mental sense entirely. The method is to let the eyes be open, but concentrate the thoughts on hearing or feeling.

After getting control of your sight, take up the taste. Take some tasteless thing on the tongue, abstract the mind to something else until the taste becomes dormant. Then take something with more taste to it, abstracting the taste, until by this gradual process you can make the sourest pickle sweet.

Smell: Finally take some light odor, and hold it before the nostrils, abstracting the attention from the sense of smell, by hearing or seeing, etc.," until by practice you can pass through the foulest odor without inconvenience or notice.

When you can control the five senses at will, you have a will-power that is well nigh invincible. At the same time you have entered a new world of experiences.

You can hold the senses dormant, and the sixth sense, that of intuition, will operate untrammeled. This opens the door of eternity's storehouse of knowledge, from whose divine resources the prophets wrote and spoke. First master yourself, then the fullness of peace, of power, and of plenty is yours.

In concluding this chapter, I give a few very simple devices for exercising the attention and strengthening the will. The reader will think of others better suited to his condition which he may substitute and practice.

Sit or stand absolutely motionless, except your breathing, for one to five minutes at a time. Do this often.

Practice closing each finger in rotation; then, when you have closed them all, open them one at a time very slowly, keeping your attention fixed on what you are doing. Keep all the other fingers still, save the one you are exercising.

Inhale gradually for ten seconds, then exhale in the same way and time.

Look steadily at some point or object for a minute without winking the eye, keeping your attention fixed on the object.

Look at a picture critically, then close your eyes and mentally reconstruct it. Close your eyes and construct the face of a friend, feature by feature.

Fix your attention on a hand or foot, hold on it the idea of heat, and continue until the hand or foot feels warm. Then try cold; then try pain. Hold your hand on someone in pain and say, "I will the pain to depart." Repeat till the pain goes. These and similar exercises persistently practiced will do very much in educating your will and giving you what is known as a "strong will-power." It is not only invaluable in practical life, but is a duty, for Peter, in enumerating the virtues, says that we should "give all diligence to add to our faith, power, to power, knowledge, to knowledge, balance-wheels," etc.

Whatever other wheels people add, none is as important as this balance-wheel, called self-control, which is the outward sign of a strong will, that can stand in the presence of disease and say, "I will; be thou well."

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XI. The Unknown Quantity in Psychotherapy

Every experimenter in psychic forces, and especially mental healers of the various schools, is constantly meeting with experiences that cause him to marvel. He is able to accomplish things without any unusual effort that seem so disproportionate to the means employed as to seem almost beyond belief. Then he finds himself confronted with similar conditions, and what seems an easy case, that almost defies his effort and that yields only after the most stubborn resistance. To illustrate, I give two cases that came under my own experience.

At the close of a public lecture on psychotherapy, with various illustrations of suggestion on different individuals who volunteered for the purpose, I announced that if anyone present had any affliction from which they desired relief, they might come forward and I would cure them. Among those who came was a woman of about thirty years of age, the mother of several children, who had a lump on the neck and shoulder, just above the collarbone, on the left side, as large as, a large-sized hen's egg, quite hard to the touch, interfering with the free use of the arm, and of some four years' growth.

After a brief examination and eliciting the above facts, I pressed the fingers of the right hand strongly upon the lump and, looking her steadily in the eyes, said: "In the name of the Lord, in five days it will disappear, and not a sign or vestige of it will remain." This was on a Monday night. She, with many of the audience, was of my Sunday congregation. One of them said on the way home, "I am afraid you will be discredited by that case. Five days is too short a time."

On the following Sunday afternoon, the woman and her husband drove by my office to say that on the Saturday afternoon before, she had gone to a pump for a bucket of water, and in working the handle became conscious that the inconvenience in using her arm was gone. She felt for the lump, to find that no trace of it remained.

Within a short time she brought another woman with a similar lump on her limb, just in the hollow behind the knee. She was a sensible and devout person. She evinced all the faith and other conditions favorable to a successful treatment, yet it required months of the most persevering treatment before any signs of yielding were noticeable.

Why the healer should confront such a difference in results has been referred to the unknown quantity in each personality, the degree of suggestibility which varies as all other elements of individuality vary. People vary widely in this respect. Suggestibility, or the ability to receive a suggestion, seems to belong to the subconscious mind rather than the conscious volition.

One person will seem to agree with you on any proposed treatment, and yet the healer finds that the patient's mind is really set against the result. The suggestion seems to have little or no effect, because unconsciously the patient antagonizes or neutralizes your suggestion by his own mental operations. Often he tries so hard to help you that he actually counters your suggestion instead of agreeing with you.

Some people who profess to have no faith in your treatment get the quickest results. For example: I went for dinner, in company with another minister, to the home of one of the church people where we were holding a mission. Our hostess spoke of her inability to come to all the services on account of a painful foot. It was an affliction of long standing, located half way between the instep and third toe, so that only the loosest shoe could be borne, and walking was always painful and often impossible.

My companion suggested to me that I relieve her of the difficulty, to be met with the reply that she had no faith whatever in such things. I explained that she didn't need to have any faith; that my friend believed, and I knew that I could cure it, and if she was willing to try it far enough to put out her foot, I would relieve her of the difficulty.

When she set forth the foot, I placed two fingers on the foot, shoe and all, at the point where the pain was located and, pressing strongly, looked earnestly into her eyes and said, as I took my fingers quickly from the shoe, "Now it's gone, never to return." After a few moments I directed her to find it, but she could not, and she didn't find it for the eight years that I knew her afterward.

In spite of her skeptical attitude, she was highly susceptible to suggestion. In the presence of this unknown quantity called suggestibility, the healer must stand with unshaken confidence in the power that works in him to will and to do the works of God.

A second factor in the unknown quantity is that which, for want of a better name, we call personal magnetism. It is most abundant in people of great vital force. You know at once the difference in the touch or handshake of the person largely endowed with vital force and one poorly endowed. Nor is it confined alone to the touch. The eye, the voice, the general air of the individual proclaims its presence.

Every person carries that something called "atmosphere." One warms like the sun, another chills like a fog. One is of goodness all compact, in whose presence every virtue flourishes. Another exhales iniquity, consumes integrity and blights like the plague. You see it in the leaders in life's manifold activities. In business, politics, trades, professions, and even the sacred calling of the ministry, men lead by virtue of this one quality. Yet how different is its manifestation!

One does it by eloquence, another by alert activity, one by kindness that smooths out the wrinkles for others and himself. One does it by bold aggressiveness, amounting to audacity, another by sheer force of personality.

We must never forget that no person is magnetic to all people. Our Lord was the one perfect man. Such a light was in his face, a kindliness in his eye, a music in his voice, a charm in his whole manner, that when he said, "Follow me, " a man couldn't very well help doing so. Yet he also said, "All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me." He recognized that some people did not respond, even to his magnetic personality.

It is still true that no one man is magnetic to everyone. Yet it frequently happens that people who do not respond to the magnetic personality of one will do so to that of another, and hence we have one reason why the original twelve, in their double ministry of teaching and healing, were sent forth by twos. Everyone has more or less of this as a natural endowment, which may be tremendously increased by cultivation.

Personal magnetism enters largely into the healer's work, and he will need to exercise almost infinite patience, kindliness, consideration for others, and the tact that can accept a seeming failure so gracefully as to make it seem like an actual success. A study of the laws of personal magnetism will be found in another chapter.

A third factor in this unknown quantity in the practice of psychotherapy is the yet unsettled question of the magnetic fluid, or a fluidic force, which though unseen, passes out not only in our contacts with others, but also in the thought waves we send out. One need not accept the vagaries of animal magnetism. Yet he cannot close his eyes to the fact that some vital force went from our Lord and his Apostles in their healing ministry.

Recall the case of the woman who approached him in a crowd and touched his garment unknown to him and was healed. "Jesus, perceiving that power had gone out of him said, 'Who touched me?' " His disciples said: "Why, Master, do you ask that question in such a jostling crowd?" Yet it was a different from that of the throng about him, it was the touch of faith that let loose the vital force of his magnetic personality.

One has but to lay hands on ten or fifteen diseased people in a day to discover that power has gone out from him, and that having periods of retirement for rest is needful for him, for prayer, for keeping the perfect poise of his soul, and the recuperation of his vital powers, for continuous healing without ample rest will bankrupt the most opulent resources of vital power.

Often the similarity of magnetic power is too great, and results in restoring to health are apt to be slow. The Master said that "A man's foes shall be they of his own household." Not in the sense of enemies, but in the sense that the most difficult people to help, or to enlist in helping themselves to health often are those of our own families.

It grows from the fact where two people live in the same house, eat at the same table, sleep in the same bed, and are in frequent contact with each other every day in the year, their magnetic force becomes so much alike that it does not operate in relieving pain. The touch that would instantly relieve another than his own family, will prove unavailing, and he must resort to purely mental methods. The old challenge, "Physician, heal thyself," has one explanation in this same lack of a contrasted magnetic force.

It is well at this point to recall that Jesus usually touched the sick or afflicted, and the "laying on of hands" became a regular formula for healing. With it goes this unknown quantity called magnetic force.

Most mental healers who begin their healing ministry with the use of such methods as Phineas P. Quimby's use of mesmerism, eventually by an inevitable process of evolution, rise to the higher plane of purely mental operations and eliminate the magnetic factor. It is also true that those who make large use of hypnotism gradually discard it, as an advanced scholar stops reciting the alphabet, for the reason that he can secure equally as positive results without it, when he knows the law, and more permanent cures.

Another factor in the unknown quantity is a purely psychic one. It is that quality that enables the healer to approach each patient without any definite method of procedure, yet with certainty of results.

Usually you begin a case without the slightest idea of how you will treat him. If he has no doctor's diagnosis, encourage him to talk, and tell you all about it. When you have the clue to his trouble, lead him to talk in that direction, until the nature of his affliction is perfectly clear.

While the general principles of practice are uniform always, scores of variations exist in order, method and substance that this psychic element within prompts. It is as if you turned an eye inward and looked for and depended on receiving definite impression about what to do next.

You will not look in vain. If you depend on the great Within, it will make good. Some inner sense will enable you to say, with a sense of final authority, the statement of fact in the present case.

You may be led to say, "From this moment your pain is gone," or "Within three days, or three weeks you will be permanently cured," or "You will gradually, but surely recover." You may say, "I can help you, but am not sure that I can cure you," or "I do not know if I can help you," or to be compelled to say, "I think your case is one purely for the physician or surgeon."

Use develops this power of perception. AT first, it is a small factor in the healer's work, yet grows when he follows a definite form, giving his suggestions according to the symptoms.

Another element in this unknown quantity is the religious one, and is resident in the character of a man's religious convictions and the quality of his spiritual conceptions. He may hold some antediluvian idea of God that is monstrous, some conception of the divine government that enables him to hug the delusion that he is a sinner — vagaries of one sort and another that will almost defy your effort to uproot them and effect a cure.

Questions of theology and history may stump him, but he is willing to argue on it and be convinced by his own arguments rather than yours. I have always assumed, as a matter of course, that my patient is all right in his religious views, no matter what his "isms" may be.

Without dragging his views in for debate, act on the assumption that he clearly understands that he is embarking on a definitely religious process; that to be well is an intensely religious truth; that nothing can please a kind Father so much as the health and welfare of his child. Proceed while holding to the truth that the revelation of God's will and character progressively rises as men rise in enlightenment.

Consequently if the patient holds wrong notions of God or his relations to Him, it lies entirely with the patient himself. Assume that the patient agrees with you without debate. Do not ask him to believe this or that but, assuming by your manner and word that he does accept it, go on to do it. The only faith required is a belief sufficiently strong to try it, and his visit is evidence of his having that. After trying it, he will have the evidence of his own senses to its truth and power.

Finally, it is well to follow the hint our Lord gave with Jairus' daughter, in putting out all distracting persons. Every critic or believer in some rival "ism," or skeptic will usually be a detriment to your treatment, while every sympathetic person is a help. Often people think they ought to leave the room, lest they be a detriment, when, if sympathetic, they would be a help, especially if the patient is timid.

Some healers allow no one present during the actual treatment, either for the above reason or for fear they will learn how. Don't be afraid that too many will learn it.

I am anxious that all the sensible people who can be induced to learn it may do so, and find the royal road to health, to peace, to contentment and success, which lie along the highway of self-knowledge and self-mastery, and helpfulness to others. We may safely refer all these factors of the unknown quantity in mental and moral medicine to the realm of the subconscious mind and its activities, and mention them because they are apt to puzzle the beginner in psychotherapy.

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XII. The Complete Life

The scientists tell us that man's life is a matter of correspondence with his environment, and that the various points of contact are so many avenues through which life flows into him. We live in an ocean of life, of which we are a part. It ebbs and flows into and from the gulfs, bays and inlets, giving each an individuality, yet maintaining the unity of all.

Every rock, tree, insect, bird, beast and man manifests forth that life in proportion to the number of contacts maintained, or the number of laws obeyed by which that life is imparted. The rock obeys one law, and rests motionless in place. The worm obeys two laws and adds motion, and enlarges its life. The bird obeys three laws, and adds flight and a new realm of living.

The more complex the organism, the greater the number of laws obeyed, or the larger the variety of contacts with the All-Life about us, the more complete is our life, the more perfect its manifestation. Man obeys one law, and he has fire. He obeys another law, and he has mental power. He obeys the law of Christ, and he has life in its truest sense.

The poet sings, "Prayer is the Christian's vital breath," for in its exercise, every side of his life turns fully to, and harmonizes perfectly with, the life of God. In the act of prayer the subconscious self reaches out and touches God. It is so thrilled with the sensation of wisdom, of love, of holiness that it is often able to thrust up into the plane of our conscious experiences.

In some such manner as wireless telegraphy, man can send out vibrations upon the universal ether, to be gathered far away by some delicately attuned instrument that registers the message. So this gives a hint of how one life may launch out upon the All-Life, which it touches in prayer, thoughts, and desires, which persist until they have dropped into the heart of another far away.

We are beginning to believe that those experiences that we have set down as coincidences have actually come about by some strong will and dauntless faith, sending forth subtle waves of thought through the universal mind, in which they have been carried, until their vibrations have moved the mind and heart of him to whom we send them.

The efficacy of a mother's prayer is not all a fancy, for here the sending and receiving minds are attuned by long years of intimacy, and the all-present Mind of the loving God as the medium of transmission. If some law exists, by which the mind of man may commune with God and receive revelations of truth, and few deny it, then that same law makes possible communion between the minds of men, without material means.

If it is possible for the infinite mind so to impress a thought upon the subjective mind of man, and to have that thought become so conscious and real to him that he can say, "Thus saith the Lord," then a man may also receive a message, intentionally thought out and projected no matter distance, say, "Thus saith my friend," and to know that it is true.

Every man "has eyes to see, that see not, and ears to hear that hear not," because he never uses them. He is the center of a system reaching out to all worlds, and within him is a desk at which he receives reports from every realm. He has a net so fine that none of these vibrations fall through it, and, although comparatively few of them are ever registered in his conscious experiences, they all enter his subconscious activities.

To see how part of us can "understand our thoughts afar off," and can bring into judgment with us every secret thought is not difficult. The arrival of a friend about whom you were just speaking is not merely a coincidence, although it has passed into a proverb that you "Talk about Satan and his imps appear," or "Speak about the angels and you hear the rustle of their wings."

The only adequate explanation is that your friend had been thinking of you before starting. Perhaps she came to mind and that thought dropped into your subjective mind, and found your objective mind sufficiently passive that it could push the message into your conscious thinking. Often the thoughts that you receive cannot crowd themselves up to conscious expression, so at night, while the objective mind sleeps, you dream about your friend or what he said or did, and remember it in the morning.

One of the first striking experiences that led me to further investigation occurred some fifteen years ago. On a Sunday afternoon, after a strenuous week's work, I lay down on a couch to rest. My wife sat beside me and gently ran her fingers through my hair, at the same time silently reading a paper. I soon dropped to sleep, from which I awakened with a start. She asked what was the matter.

I told her that I dreamed of standing on the steps of a street car, which ran out on a trestle and, leaving the track, plunged into a ravine below, and that, as it made the plunge, I jumped and woke up. She told me that she had been reading an account of just such an accident that occurred on the day before.

I had not read nor heard anything about it, but, on taking the paper and reading it, I found it to agree minutely with my dream. This was the first of many experiences in which I became aware of events of which I consciously knew nothing, and of the intended actions of people who had given no expression of their purposes.

I give a few of them to show as nearly as possible the principle and the method. It need hardly be said that this faculty is possessed in larger measure by some than others, but it is latent in all, waiting systematic development.

I had kept up occasional correspondence with an old college chum and roommate. I could always tell when to expect a letter from him by the fact that I dreamed of him on the night of the day on which he wrote. I often heard him say things that on receipt of his letter, I found contained therein. No doubt his thought registered itself at the desk of my subconscious self at the time of his writing, but found no opportunity for conscious expression until I fell asleep.

In treating an epileptic, I used hypnotic suggestion, sending him into the profoundest stage possible. He was making substantial progress when I decided to test him with a thought-gram. One night at two o'clock I awoke and, after constructing a mental image of the man's face, repeated to him mentally some eight times: "You are going to be entirely cured."

When he came next evening for treatment, I asked him if he had a dream the night before, but he could not recall it if he had one. After placing him in profound hypnosis, I asked the same question, and he said, "Yes, my little daughter came to me and told me that I was going to be entirely cured."

I said, "I sent you that message," but he contended that his little girl had told him. I told him that on awaking he would remember the dream. He did remember it, and explained that he had received a letter from his little girl the day before the dream, telling him that she was coming to see him soon.

The message dropped into his mind without reporting from whence it came. His subjective mind had proceeded to construct the most plausible setting for it, as is characteristic of the subjective processes, and had taken the thought most vivid in his memory, and, putting the two together, gave him the dream.

Doubtless Daniel's recalling the king's vanished dream was a purely subjective process by which this "master of the magicians" was able to subjectively read the king's dream and so save his own and the lives of his companions. However, it does not follow that all dreams have significance, nor does it follow that these thought-grams can only be received, or rather, apprehended in sleep.

A prominent California business man went to New York for his firm, to purchase supplies for a large department store. I had instructed him in the use of his latent powers, to help him in business, and had seen him rise from a clerk to the position of manager.

He determined to test it, and told his wife just when he would arrive in New York, instructing her that she was to think it over after his departure, and decide what she wanted him to bring her from the East as a present. On the morning of his arrival she was to send him a mental message, as he had shown her how to do.

He reached the city, and on the way down town it kept occurring to his mind, "A pearl ostrich feather boa." This one sentence stuck, and knowing this was the time for his wire's message, he decided to get it.

On returning home and inquiring of his wife what she had asked him to bring to her, the answer was, "A pearl ostrich feather boa." He said, "It will be here in a few minutes."

Among the essentially successful tests was the following: Several colleagues gathered to meet with me. I went into another room, and at the signal that they were ready, entered. I sat in the circle, closed my eyes, and in a few moments got a mental image of a card with ten diamond shirt studs in three rows, the middle row having two and the two outside ones having four each.

I announced this fact, and they said that was what they had concentrated their eyes and minds upon — the ten of diamonds. The only fault in the transmission being the jewel forms instead of the form on the card.

For many years I have found that gifts at Christmas were always known to me beforehand. The image of them would come up before me so clearly that I could see them when my eyes were open.

I have received more than one gift that had been specially made and unlike anything else on the market, with a view to mislead me, but all to no purpose. When the giver knew what it looked like, I also came into possession of the knowledge.

Once, when a skeptical friend was having an article made, she became anxious lest it be too large for my pocket, and told the maker not to make it too large. At the close of some meeting in the church, as she was leaving, she said, "You're going to get something this time, and you'll never guess what it is."

I answered, "Don't make it too large," for I could distinctly hear the words. The expression on her face told me that I was not mistaken. I also, on the day she received it, described it minutely as it appeared to me at the dining room table.

I have frequently exercisedvmentally in going to the post office to see if I would receive any letters. Sometimes I could tell the number, color and shape, and recognize the handwriting. Often it was indistinct. So I have tried under test conditions to tell the locations of the hands on the watch or clock without seeing them.

These have been most exact when all conscious notice of the passage of time has been suspended in sleep, in travel or conversation. These are a few of the experiments that have convinced me that not only can man send, but he can receive mental messages so definite and so frequent as to place them beyond the possibility of coincidence.

Almost everyone can recall incidents of similar character, but they did not seek to know why, by study and experiment. These psychic powers, which are latent in every person, must be developed by use, just as you develop your mental faculties by persistently following the curriculum laid out for that purpose.

Jesus, talking with Nathaniel, told him of having seen him under such circumstances that Nathaniel at once knew that no vision power of the natural eye had seen him, and he was so impressed by it that he said, "Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel."

He evidently thought that such supernormal power was something not common to men, but Jesus, as if to set him right in the matter, said, "Because I said I saw thee under the fig tree believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these, for thou shalt see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." – John 1:50-51.

Jesus clearly recognized that his power to see and know events beyond the range of the five senses was not a peculiar gift of his own, but that all men have it, although, as in Nathaniel's case, it is undeveloped.

Having indicated the presence of powers resident in the subconscious mind, by which one may convey thought, regardless of material conditions, I refer to the cases of the healing of the centurion's servant and the nobleman's son as illustrations of how we may use these powers in sending messages of healing and of help to our friends. We should not have to seek far to find why we must give an account for every idle word and secret thought that we have sent out into the world of minds.

In the more present effects, we can see how valuable is the message of health, of courage, of patience, of kindness, that goes out to a friend in need. For though he knows not of your beneficent purpose, still that message you sent in love and prayerfulness will certainly drop into his subjective mind. Your thought stimulates and marshals the powers under its command to bring about a realization of your message.

I am often asked as to the value of absent treatment by those who have read of the fakery often practiced in the guise of such treatment. The method is usually for the patient to assume a passive, receptive condition at a certain hour, when the healer sends out his thoughts of health for the patient.

If you paid attention to the effectiveness of autosuggestion, you can realize that, although the alleged healer may be fishing or feasting at the appointed hour, still the patient's own thoughts and desires for health, coupled with his faith that such help is being sent, will benefit him. I have not followed the practice of sending the health thoughts at an hour known by the patient, for the message will reach him just as effectively.

Yet, with my absent treatment I have prescribed frequent periods of a few minutes' relaxation, and some suitable autosuggestions. My experiences, and those of the classes that I have instructed, have proven to me the value of silent or absent treatment.

Particularly in cases of prejudice or unwillingness actively to cooperate in such a treatment, I have found it possible in this way not only to benefit the person, but to secure a reversal of his mental attitude into favorable cooperation. With a working knowledge of suggestion, autosuggestion and thought transference, a person enters upon a new life.

He can realize something of what Paul meant when he said that God "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." He is coming into his own, to live in the realm of mental and spiritual things. He is starting up that way of growth and life that shall bring him "to the measure of the stature of Christ."

One case illustrates the use of this telepathic power: A lady, whom I had cured some years before of a chronic bronchial cough, wrote me that she had a fine position as a soloist, but that she never arose to sing without being almost overcome with nervousness, and that while it was not apparent to others, it destroyed all the joy and satisfaction she had formerly experienced in singing.

She wrote, "I know that you can relieve me of this affliction." I took up the case, sending her a thought-gram each evening, embodying the thoughts of self-control, joy of service, and qualification to do whatever she undertook. This continued for some five weeks, when I received word that the trouble had ended.

A gentleman asked me to give absent treatment to his brother-in-law, who had suddenly begun drinking so much that he had become incapacitated for business. I began by daily sending him thoughts of the shame of such a waste of his talents and power, of the shame and mortification it caused his friends, and finally suggested to him a loathing for the very sight or smell of beer. Then, affirming his own strength of will to do anything he wished to do, I suggested the complete and final end of his beer drinking.

After some two months of this treatment, he passed from my mind, and I thought no more of it. Four months afterward I met the gentleman who had requested the treatment. He told me that his brother-in-law had reformed and had not touched beer for months.

These are few of many experiences that have convinced me that, although telepathy is not an accepted science, it may be used to bless our friends and help them up to a complete life, and that it will yet take its place among the accredited sciences.

This lecture will have gained its end if it induces its readers to abstain from sending out to, and holding over their friends, thoughts of sickness, loss, disaster, unhappiness, doubt and despair. Instead, prayerfully envelop them in the thoughts of health, success, strength, happiness, hope, and all else that will help their struggling feet to walk in the pathway of the just that grows brighter to the day of perfect realization.

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Thomas Parker Boyd
1864 –1936
Episcopalian theologian, D.D., PhD,
teacher, preacher and author



Thomas Parker Boyd, originally published The How and Why of the Emmanuel Movement in San Francisco, 1909. Revised 2016. Copyright ©2016 The Society of the Universal Living Christ.


References

Ante-Nicene period. Harnack, Adolf. The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries. Translated and edited by James Moffatt, B.D., D.D., St. Andrews, 1908.

The Emmanuel Movement was a psychologically-based approach to religious healing introduced in 1906 as an outreach of the Emmanuel Church in Boston, Massachusetts. In practice, the religious element was de-emphasized and the primary modalities were individual and group therapy.