UMASS/AMHe&3T 
 
 312Dbt.01412fi375 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 John Herman Randall 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 AT 
 
 AMHERST 
 
 RZ 
 400 
 R36 
 1909 
 
\0USiJi ' %M^f 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 From the Collection 
 of 
 
 Rabbi Jacob Freedman 
 
MIND AND BODY 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/mindbodyOOrand 
 
(£> 
 
 i© 5 ^ 
 
 ]l ii==ii ir .i =ir 
 
 ^1 
 
 1 
 
 MIND and BODY 
 
 By 
 
 J. HERMAN RANDALL 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DODGE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 33 55 FIFTH AVENUE 
 
 © 
 
 i@= 
 
 1' ■■"== ■■ lf=lF 
 
 .=©1 
 
 J 
 
Copyright. 1909 
 By H. M. CALDWELL CO. 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 O the most casual observer, 
 religious thought in America 
 is just now very much ab- 
 sorbed in the Gospel of Heal- 
 ing. It would almost seem in reading 
 the daily papers, not to speak of the 
 more exhaustive literature on the sub- 
 ject, as if Religion, Medicine and 
 Psychology had joined hands in form- 
 ing a New Religion, that is apparently 
 sweeping this country from end to end. 
 Many writers have referred to this 
 striking movement as a " new faith ; ' 
 and yet, in the minds of its leaders it is 
 not so much a new Faith, as it is a 
 return to the original Faith of Jesus of 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 Nazareth. As we read the Gospels, we 
 cannot escape the conviction that Jesus 
 regarded His work in the world as two- 
 fold: It was (1) to preach the Gospel 
 of the Kingdom, and (2) to heal the 
 sick. It is certainly significant, when 
 one stops to reflect upon the Gospel 
 narrative, how much of His time and 
 energy was spent in caring for the 
 bodies of men. The Founder of Chris- 
 tianity, in whom we see the revelation 
 of a truly spiritual religion, spent con- 
 siderably more time in looking after 
 people's physical welfare than He did 
 in preaching sermons. When He sends 
 forth His Apostles, to continue the 
 work which He had begun, He entrusts 
 to them the same two-fold Commis- 
 sion: they are to preach the Gospel 
 of the Kingdom, and they are to heal 
 the sick. And then, in His final 
 words of instruction and encouragement 
 He says, " And greater works than 
 
 4 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 these, will ye do." The view of the 
 Church in these later centuries has 
 been, that the power which Jesus 
 exercised in healing the sick was super- 
 natural, a power with which He was 
 endowed, as being peculiarly the Son 
 of God, a power that has not been 
 vouchsafed to others, a power that the 
 Church does not possess to-day. The 
 age of such " miracles," at least so says 
 the Protestant world, ended with the 
 Apostles. 
 
 And yet if we admit that these won- 
 ders were wrought, if we accept as 
 historical these stories, telling of how 
 Jesus went about healing the sick, or 
 how they brought their sick to be healed 
 by Him, certainly we are bound to 
 admit that it must have been due to 
 powers that were not contrary to law, 
 but rather that proceeded from the 
 knowledge of higher laws. Few intel- 
 ligent persons to-day would care to 
 
 5 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 claim that these healing works of Jesus 
 were miracles in the old sense, of being 
 exceptions to the great universal work- 
 ing of God's laws. If He did these 
 things which the Gospels record, it 
 must have been because of a knowl- 
 edge of some power perfectly natural 
 which He understood, and of which we, 
 at least until recently, have been igno- 
 rant. The meaning of the word 
 " miracle," as used in the Gospels, is 
 " wonder," or " marvel," — something 
 so extraordinary that it was not un- 
 derstood by those who witnessed it. It 
 by no means implies an act contrary to 
 law. 
 
 Many of the leaders of the present 
 movement to unite Religion and Medi- 
 cine are telling us that the Church 
 has been shorn of its powers very 
 largely, because it has neglected one- 
 half of the work entrusted to it viz., 
 the healing of the sick. One of the 
 
 6 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 strongest arguments for Christian Sci- 
 ence lies in the fact that it has en- 
 deavoured, however faulty its philos- 
 ophy, or whatever failures it may have 
 made in individual cases, to not only 
 preach the Gospel as interpreted by 
 Mrs. Eddy, but to heal the sick as 
 well. And in the face of undisputed 
 cures accomplished, the churches have 
 had nothing to say, except to make 
 the old excuse that the age when the 
 Church should care for the bodies of 
 men has gone by, and all healing of 
 the sick should now be left to skilled 
 and trained physicians. 
 
 Whatever may be our personal opin- 
 ions as to the efficacy of Mental Heal- 
 ing, or as to the function of the Church 
 in healing the sick, certainly no person 
 of intelligence to-day, within the Church 
 or outside, can fail to be respectful in 
 the presence of a movement which has 
 already assumed such proportions, 
 
 7 
 
M1JNJJ AND MEDICINE 
 
 created so large a literature, and en- 
 rolled so many illustrious names among 
 its leaders. The time has arrived when 
 ridicule and condemnation should give 
 place to a frank and sympathetic 
 endeavour to sift the truth from error, 
 and discover the facts. 
 
 With all due credit to the Christian 
 Science movement for the way in 
 which it has called the attention of the 
 Church in general to this phase of 
 work, nevertheless the modern scientific 
 interest in the cure of the body through 
 the aid of the mind antedates by several 
 years the organization of Christian 
 Science. Psychotherapy, or in plain 
 English, Mind Healing, received its 
 latter-day momentum about twenty- 
 five years ago, when Charcot, Freud 
 and Janet gave it new impulse by 
 their researches and teachings. The 
 present popular interest, outside of 
 Christian Science circles, may be said to 
 
 8 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 date from the institution of what is now 
 known as the Emmanuel Movement, 
 in connection with the old Episcopal 
 Church of that name in Boston. Most 
 people by this time are familiar with 
 the story. Dr. Worcester of Emmanuel 
 Church had formerly been rector of one 
 of the leading Episcopal Churches in 
 Philadelphia. In his congregation was 
 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, the Dean of the 
 Medical Profession in America. In 
 frequent conversations, Dr. Mitchell 
 expressed the desire that the two Pro- 
 fessions of Medicine and the Ministry 
 might be brought into closer and more 
 vital relationship. Dr. Mitchell ex- 
 plained fully his views as to the way in 
 which the ministry, rightly trained, 
 could tremendously supplement the 
 work of the physician, and vice versa, 
 how the physician could supplement 
 and aid the work of the minister. With 
 this idea in mind, Dr. Worcester re- 
 
 9 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 signed his Philadelphia church, and 
 went abroad, where he spent several 
 years in special studies in Psychology. 
 Finally he returned to the Emmanuel 
 Church in Boston, and with the assist- 
 ance of Dr. McComb, also a specially 
 trained man, instituted what is now 
 known throughout the country as the 
 Emmanuel Movement. Before this 
 movement really assumed proportions, 
 Emmanuel Church had been doing con- 
 siderable work for the poor who were 
 afflicted with tuberculosis. It em- 
 ployed only the latest and most sci- 
 entific methods for the treatment of 
 this disease. The hospital was adapted 
 to out-of-door treatment, and tents 
 were rented to those who could afford 
 to pay — and all under the auspices of 
 the Church. Dr. Worcester has made 
 the statement that this work with 
 tubercular patients has resulted in 
 eighty per cent, of cures. About three 
 
 10 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 years ago, a clinic was established in 
 connection with the church. Physi- 
 cians of standing were added to the staff, 
 giving their services gratuitously. Every 
 person who applied for help was turned 
 over to these scientifically trained men. 
 Each individual case was diagnosed. 
 If it was discovered that the trouble 
 was organic, the case was turned over 
 to the proper physician or surgeon. If 
 the disease was diagnosed as func- 
 tional, it was given to one of these 
 specially trained men for mental treat- 
 ment. 
 
 There may be some who do not 
 clearly understand the distinction be- 
 tween organic and functional disorders. 
 Stating it generally, organic diseases 
 are those which have their origin in the 
 physical organism ; functional disorders 
 are those whose cause is mental or 
 nervous. This distinction is constantly 
 made by the Emmanuel Church workers, 
 
 n 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 and has called out much criticism,, 
 especially from the Christian Scientists, 
 who have said, " Why draw any line 
 at all ? If the sub-conscious mind, by 
 which you claim to be able to reach 
 these various functional disorders, is 
 in reality a part of the Infinite Mind, 
 why can you not cure all diseases ? 
 Why have any staff of physicians or 
 surgeons? Why not do all the work, 
 as we are striving to do in Christian 
 Science ? ' Nevertheless, this distinc- 
 tion has been made, and I think very 
 wisely, for as a matter of fact, while 
 Christian Science claims to be able to 
 cure all manner of diseases, organic 
 as well as functional, still as we know, 
 it does not always meet with success. 
 One of the leading Christian Sci- 
 ence healers in Chicago, an admirable 
 woman in every way, and one who has 
 done a tremendous amount of good in 
 the world, and has been unquestionably 
 
 12 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 instrumental in effecting many cures, 
 died only a few weeks ago after a linger- 
 ing illness from cancer. Another Chris- 
 tian Science teacher who conducted 
 many classes in my old home city, and 
 was thoroughly beloved and respected 
 by all who knew her, was suddenly 
 stricken with blindness a few years 
 ago. 
 
 This is by no means to cast dis- 
 paragement upon any genuine cure ac- 
 complished through Christian Science. 
 Medicine does not always cure. I refer 
 to these cases simply to show that in 
 this field of Suggestive Therapeutics 
 there is need for caution and common- 
 sense. We gain nothing by exaggera- 
 tion. We do not need to claim every- 
 thing, as did an osteopathic friend of 
 mine, who, when asked what oste- 
 opathy could do, replied, " We can cure 
 everything now but snake bite, and in 
 a very little while we expect to control 
 
 13 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 even that." We are still on the thresh- 
 old of the whole subject of the sub- 
 conscious mind and its power over the 
 physical body. We are feeling our 
 way, by many different paths, and 
 one day we shall arrive at the whole 
 truth. The time may come when, as 
 we become more conversant with these 
 laws and their operation, we shall be 
 able to control not only functional dis- 
 orders but organic as well; but at the 
 present stage of human development, 
 with our present knowledge of the sub- 
 conscious mind and its powers, the 
 leaders in this field are saying, Let 
 us confine for the present, at least, our 
 application of these principles to func- 
 tional disorders, springing not from 
 broken down physical tissue, but rather 
 from the mind, or the " nervous sys- 
 tem." There is a tremendous field here; 
 for, as every doctor knows, about two- 
 thirds or one-half of all human mala- 
 
 14 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 dies are functional in their character 
 rather than organic. It must be re- 
 membered, however, that the authori- 
 ties in Suggestive Therapeutics frankly 
 admit the tremendous influence of the 
 mind even in organic diseases. 
 
 Since the beginning of the Emmanuel 
 Movement, various branches have 
 sprung up in different parts of the 
 country. In Chicago, Bishop Fallows, 
 of the Reformed Episcopal Church, 
 has established a clinic in connection 
 with his church. In New York City, 
 Dr. Loring W. Batten, rector of St. 
 Mark's Church, has recently instituted 
 a similar clinic. Dr. Birckhead, suc- 
 cessor of Dr. Rainsford, has said that 
 St. George's Church is about to in- 
 stitute some such work, the exact 
 nature of which is not yet announced; 
 but he feels that the Church must in 
 some way begin to show a vital interest 
 in the work of healing the sick and 
 
 15 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 caring for the bodies of men. Dr. 
 MacDonald, of Washington Avenue 
 Baptist Church, Brooklyn, has been 
 devoting considerable attention to this 
 work. Dr. Lyman Powell, rector of 
 St. John's Church, in Northampton, 
 Massachusetts, has established a clinic. 
 Besides these, there are a large number 
 of other churches, more or less promi- 
 nent throughout the country, that have 
 either already established or are pre- 
 paring to establish branches of the 
 Emmanuel Movement. 
 
 Men like Bishop Fallows and Dr. 
 Worcester go so far as to say that it is 
 only a question of a very little time 
 before all the churches will add to 
 their many functions the work of heal- 
 ing the sick. This may be an open 
 question in the minds of many. There 
 can be no doubt in the case of the 
 Emmanuel Church, Boston, where the 
 leaders are specially trained for such 
 
 16 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 work; but we can see how great injury 
 might be done and much harm arise 
 if all churches, regardless of whether 
 their pastors have any fitness or have 
 received special training in Psychology 
 or the methods of Suggestive Thera- 
 peutics, should rush pellmell into this 
 movement. In my judgment this work 
 must be done, if done rightly and effec- 
 tively, by those who are specially fitted 
 and trained. It may be that the time 
 will come when in our theological semi- 
 naries students will be required to take 
 a course in Suggestive Therapeutics. 
 Just now, however, it would seem to 
 be the part of wisdom for us to respect- 
 fully help in every possible way these 
 churches that are especially equipped 
 for this work and whose pastors are 
 trained for such service, and meantime, 
 to further study and carefully ob- 
 serve this movement before we decide 
 that all churches ought to add the 
 
 17 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 work of healing to their other activi- 
 ties. 
 
 We sometimes speak as if the subject 
 of Mental Healing was purely modern, 
 and had only existed for the last 
 generation or so; but I would remind 
 you that as far back as history goes, we 
 find that mental healing under various 
 names and different forms has been 
 practised and apparently with success. 
 In the oldest civilization with which 
 we are acquainted, that of Egypt, hun- 
 dreds of years before the Christian era, 
 it had a prominent place. The histo- 
 rian Glidden remarks: " Their priests 
 evidently appear to have perfectly com- 
 prehended the method of exciting that 
 internal sanative instinct in the human 
 organism, which in general is a pro- 
 found mystery, even to the individual 
 who excites it ; and which was naturally 
 enough, in those remote ages, repre- 
 sented as the immediate gift of the 
 
 13 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 gods. Nowhere else was this internal 
 faculty so generally cultivated for the 
 cure of the sick." The excavations at 
 Cavvadias furnish much interesting 
 material, showing that the miraculous 
 cures of Epidaurus were effected at 
 this ancient Greek shrine, 500 years 
 before our era, by suggestion, and pre- 
 cisely in the same manner as to-day at 
 Lourdes. Livy tells us that the temples 
 of the gods of Rome were rich in the 
 number of offerings which the people 
 used to make in return for the cures 
 received from them; and Pliny tells of 
 Etruscan spells used by Theophrastus 
 for sciatica, by Cato for the cure of 
 dislocated limbs, and by Varro for 
 gout. Our own Druid ancestors, using 
 similar methods, were consulted by the 
 Emperor Aurelius. 
 
 In these early days the power was 
 attributed directly to the gods. It was 
 supposed to be an arbitrary answer to 
 
 19 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 prayer, or else a supernatural bestowal 
 from Heaven of some divine gift. Yet 
 psychologists, because of the various 
 forms of healing which take place in 
 modern times — whether at some sa- 
 cred shrine, or by touching some holy 
 relic, through the faith cure of Dowieism 
 or the denial of disease by Christian 
 Science, — believe that all are to be 
 explained, by the power of the mind 
 over the body through the law of 
 suggestion. 
 
 During the Middle Ages there were 
 occasional priests who seemed to be 
 vested with a " gift of healing." Such 
 powers were attributed directly to the 
 agencies of Heaven, merely because 
 such marvels were not understood. 
 Roman Catholic history as well as 
 Protestant, has a great deal to say 
 about the miraculous healing power of 
 certain priests or other saintly indi- 
 viduals. We know how saintship was 
 
 20 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 often won, among the Catholics of the 
 Middle Ages, because of the wonderful 
 "miracles" or, as we understand to-day, 
 the psychological cures accomplished. 
 
 But coming down to modern times, 
 I want to bring you a few brief extracts 
 from leading physicians to-day, who 
 stand in the fore-front of their profes- 
 sion and are recognized authorities in 
 England and America. 
 
 Sir Andrew Clark says: " It is im- 
 possible for us to deal knowingly and 
 wisely with various disorders of the 
 body without distinctly recognizing the 
 agency of states and conditions of 
 mind, often in producing and always in 
 modifying them." 
 
 Dr. Maudsley says : " Perhaps we 
 do not as physicians consider suffi- 
 ciently the influence of mental states in 
 the production of disease, their im- 
 portance as symptoms, or take all the 
 advantages which we might get from 
 
 21 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 them in our effort to cure disease. 
 Quackery seems to have got hold of a 
 truth which legitimate medicine fails 
 to appreciate." 
 
 Dr. Robertson says: " While the 
 influence of the mind over the body 
 is universally recognized, its employ- 
 ment as a therapeutic agent is purposely 
 used by but a few in the regular ranks 
 of the profession." 
 
 Sir S. Wilks remarks: " The doctor 
 soon finds that in treating his patient 
 the practice of medicine is not only one 
 of physic, but of psychology; and that 
 the effect of his drugs depends as much 
 upon the constitution of the patient's 
 mind as that of his body." 
 
 Dr. Shoemaker of Philadelphia says: 
 " Psychotherapism plays a most im- 
 portant part in the ordinary every-day 
 practice of medicine. The influence of 
 the mind upon the bodily functions is 
 so great that every experienced, intelli- 
 
 22 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 gent physician is glad to enlist so potent 
 an auxiliary." 
 
 We read in "The Lancet:" 
 " Though the therapeutic effect of 
 faith and hope is not detailed in our 
 text-books, they are enough to turn the 
 scale in favour of recovery; and yet 
 they are but two of the many mental 
 medicines which a judicious physician 
 may use in the management of disease." 
 
 Dr. Affleck says: " The power of 
 suggestion as a factor in therapeutics 
 has gained wide recognition in recent 
 times." 
 
 " A day will come," saj s De Fleury, 
 " when there shall arise an upright 
 and intelligent physician, strong enough 
 to defy ridicule, and authorized by a 
 noble life and the merit of his labours 
 to lay claim to the superior dignity of 
 a moralist. If he knows the human 
 heart well he can draw the sick of soul 
 to him." 
 
 23 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 Dr. A. Morrison, President of the 
 iEsculapian Society, says: " We often 
 do less than half of our duty in not 
 exploring the mental life of the patient. 
 A good deal has been written on pro- 
 longed vascular tension due to physical 
 causes. Is there no such state as pro- 
 longed mental tension due to moral 
 causes ? ... In such cases, if the phy- 
 sician is to be of any service to his 
 patient, it must be by the agency of 
 mind on mind; and this takes us out 
 of the vestibule littered with micro- 
 scopes, crucibles, and retorts into that 
 inner chaml er — the holy of holies, in 
 the life of a physician and his patients — 
 where heart and mind are laid bare to 
 the sympathetic gaze of a fellow-man, 
 whose discretion may be relied upon, 
 and who may, from his training in the 
 knowledge of the human soul as well 
 as the human body, be able to cure his 
 brother of a disturbing factor in his life 
 
 24 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 beyond the reach of the most advanced 
 therapeutics of a purely physical kind." 
 
 One of the last words of Henry 
 Gawen Sutton, teacher of pathology 
 at the London Hospital, was: " Don't 
 underrate the influence of your own 
 personality. Learn to give confidence 
 to your patients." 
 
 Dr. A. T. Schofield says: " To con- 
 strain a feeble mind to be governed by 
 a good one is not a superhuman 
 labour for one who goes about it 
 adroitly. The moment the eye of the 
 patient meets the eye of the physician, 
 psychological action, influencing the 
 course of the disease, at once takes 
 place through the patient's unconscious 
 mind." 
 
 To these names should be added the 
 following, all of whom are enlisted in 
 the cause of Suggestive Therapeutics: 
 Forel, Bernheim, Dubois, Liebcault, 
 Tuckey and Vogt of Europe; Prof. 
 
 25 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 Jastrow of Wisconsin University, Jack- 
 son, Royce, and Southard of Harvard, 
 Woodworth and Peterson of Columbia, 
 Coriat of Boston City Hospital; and of 
 American physicians, Morton Prince, 
 Boris Sidis, Jas. J. Putnam, Richard 
 C. Cabot, Lewelys F. Barker and many 
 others. 
 
 I make these quotations for the sake 
 of proving that the whole method of the 
 modern physician is changed, whether 
 he has admitted it publicly or not. I 
 imagine there is no intelligent physician 
 in active practice to-day, who is not 
 using psychotherapy every day of his 
 life. It may be through the conscious 
 power of his own personality, it may be 
 by a clear understanding of the law of 
 Suggestion, it may be by recourse to 
 some harmless deception, such as the 
 bread pill — but every intelligent doc- 
 tor is recognizing the truth of what 
 these men of prominence here express; 
 
 26 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 and while many of them are not saying 
 anything about it to their patients or 
 the world outside, they are coming 
 more and more to realize the large part 
 which mind plays in disease. 
 
 A few months ago I met at the 
 steamer a physician and surgeon who 
 stands in the front rank of his profes- 
 sion in the Middle West ; a man whose 
 ear is always close to the ground, and 
 who is unusually alert and eager to obtain 
 the very latest discoveries in his pro- 
 fession. He was just returning from a 
 year's trip around the world. He had 
 spent much time in the hospitals of 
 Japan, China, India, also at Vienna, 
 Berlin and London. I asked him what 
 he had brought back to enrich his 
 professional life. His reply was very 
 significant: " There is a world-wide 
 movement on in the medical profession, 
 tending more and more toward the 
 prevention of disease . ' ' Then he added : 
 
 27 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 " In your lifetime, and perhaps in mine, 
 we will see the use of drugs reduced to 
 the minimum." Another physician 
 said to me recently: " The chief 
 trouble is that the whole business of 
 drugs has been so tremendously com- 
 mercialized. The great drug manu- 
 facturing companies are continually 
 bringing out some new combination of 
 drugs and forcing them on the physician 
 and the helpless public, until we are 
 simply swamped with innumerable 
 ' remedies.' There are a hundred 
 different remedies for every known 
 disease, each one, naturally, claiming to 
 be the best. Dr. Osier, formerly of 
 Johns Hopkins University, wrote back 
 to this country from Europe, that 
 " within a few years we shall see nine- 
 tenths of all the drugs with which the 
 American people now dope themselves 
 dumped into the bottom of the sea." 
 One of the greatest crimes, committed 
 
 28 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 by the people against themselves, is their 
 startling use of patent medicines. If 
 the advertiser is only an artist in his 
 line, most of us are susceptible enough 
 to his Suggestion. But as every doctor 
 knows, the patent medicines which are 
 annually sold in this country, literally 
 by the hundreds of carloads, have done 
 and are doing an inestimable amount of 
 harm to the physical life of the people. 
 And the reaction against their use has 
 already begun. 
 
 Let me say a word about the physi- 
 cian in his relation to this movement of 
 mental healing. From my own experi- 
 ence I believe there is no nobler class 
 of men on the face of the earth than 
 physicians and surgeons. They are for 
 the most part heroic, self-sacrificing, 
 untiring men, whose services to suffer- 
 ing humanity have never yet been 
 worthily appreciated. I have no sym- 
 pathy whatever with the general tirade 
 
 29 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 which is heard in certain quarters 
 against the medical profession. I want 
 to remind you of one or two things 
 which we should always remember, 
 before we criticize the doctors unduly. 
 Take one single illustration. Have you 
 stopped to realize what the discovery of 
 chloroform has meant to the world ? 
 Can any one estimate the amount of 
 human suffering and pain that has been 
 relieved, and from which poor humanity 
 has been saved, simply because of the 
 discovery of chloroform ? 
 
 Do you realize what preventative 
 measures have been brought about by 
 the doctor ? There was a time a few 
 years ago when the Panama Canal 
 region was known as the Death Zone, 
 but to-day the death rate is lower there 
 than in the City of New York. Who 
 changed the conditions ? The doctor, 
 the trained scientific man who went 
 down there and instituted sanitary laws 
 
 30 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 and regulations. Many will remember 
 when it was not an uncommon thing 
 for cholera or smallpox to sweep over 
 certain portions of our large cities, and 
 we are all familiar with the frightful 
 ravages wrought by the yellow fever in 
 our Southern cities. Why do we no 
 longer fear these plagues ? It is due 
 to the scientific and self-sacrificing work 
 of the doctor. Why is the death rate 
 to-day so extremely low in New York 
 City, even with its slum quarters — only 
 seventeen or eighteen, and even drop- 
 ping one month this last summer to as 
 low as thirteen per thousand ? It is 
 chiefly due to the doctor, the trained 
 scientific man, working with the Board 
 of Health. It is these heroic and 
 courageous men who are locating the 
 dark rooms, and condemning the tene- 
 ment houses where conditions are such 
 as to foster disease in all its various 
 forms, who are insisting that the streets 
 
 31 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 be kept clean and who are placing all 
 possible restrictions about contagious 
 diseases. We have by no means done 
 all we might in this regard, but we must 
 never forget that whatever has been 
 accomplished in the direction of a 
 more healthful city has been due 
 chiefly to the physician. We need to 
 remember when we are tempted to 
 criticize the doctor, that the greatest 
 part of his work is not in curing 
 disease, but in preventing it, and thus 
 making impossible these awful scourges 
 which have ravaged nations or cities 
 from the beginning of time. 
 
 Think of the accomplishments in 
 the field of surgery. Even Mrs. Eddy 
 admits that in the case of a fractured 
 bone or a dislocated limb the surgeon 
 must be called in. I think nobody 
 would be foolish enough to claim that 
 when a man breaks his leg he can sit 
 down and by concentrating his thoughts 
 
 32 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 upon it, mend the fracture. Surgery 
 is an exact science, as medicine is not 
 and perhaps never can be. Who can 
 estimate the amount of good accom- 
 plished by modern surgery, the suffer- 
 ing that has been relieved, the indi- 
 viduals who have been saved to their 
 homes and families and to society ? 
 We should bow our heads in reverence 
 in the presence of the skilled and con- 
 scientious physician or surgeon. But 
 what is extremely significant is this, 
 that the intelligent physician to-day 
 everywhere, is changing his method, 
 is depending less on drugs and more on 
 the remedial powers of the mind. Ian 
 MacClaren, in his story " A Doctor of 
 the Old School," tells of Dr. MacClure, 
 who had been called to a farm, where 
 a boy had been badly crushed in a 
 machine. A neighbour in telling the 
 experience afterwards says: " It was 
 michty tae see him come intae the 
 
 33 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 yaird that day; the verra look o' him 
 wes victory." And our modern doctor 
 is learning how to carry victory in his 
 face, in the tone of his voice, in his 
 every action, as he goes into the sick 
 room. He has become more and more 
 skillful in the art of Suggestion. As I 
 have stood by his side many a time, I 
 have marveled at the skill, with which 
 he used all the knowledge of modern 
 psychology, in seeking to effect the cure. 
 The greatest present need is that the 
 true mental healer should always have 
 the profoundest respect for the true 
 and conscientious physician; and also, 
 that the true physician should have a 
 genuine respect for the trained, con- 
 scientious and honest mental healer. 
 
 If this present movement continues 
 to grow in extent and power, it must 
 mean that the Church, Medicine and 
 Psychology will come into even closer 
 fellowship and work together in a more 
 
 34 
 
MIND AND MEDICINE 
 
 vital sympathy. Does not such a 
 vision presage a great and glorious 
 future? We have come to see in all 
 these wonderful movements of thought, 
 that man is not a being to be separated 
 into different compartments, so that we 
 can turn his body over to some doctor, 
 his soul over to some minister, and his 
 mind over to some educator. Man is a 
 unit, — body, soul and mind, — and if 
 we are going to train men, who shall be 
 in every sense symmetrical characters, 
 our educators and our ministers and 
 our doctors must work in harmony, 
 with man and for man. This is the goal 
 to which all our thought to-day is 
 tending. When that day dawns we 
 shall at last attain to a truly scientific 
 religion, and a truly sacred science. 
 
 35 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 MONG all peoples and in 
 every age, nothing has been 
 so persistently sought as bodily 
 health. The Elixir of Life 
 has been the dream not only of the early 
 alchemists but even of some modern 
 chemists and yet we seem to be no 
 nearer the consummation of that age- 
 old desire than were the Ancients. On 
 the contrary, we find that physical 
 disorders are steadily growing more 
 subtile and complex. Physicians are 
 increasing in number in a much larger 
 proportion than the population, while 
 diseases and remedies of every kind 
 multiply constantly. Insanity, insom- 
 
 39 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 nia and all forms of nervous disorders 
 are increasingly prevalent. 
 
 Professor Paul DuBoise, of Berne 
 University, has recently written a book 
 on " The Psychic Treatment of Nerv- 
 ous Disorders," consisting of thirty- 
 five chapters devoted to more than that 
 number of different manifestations of 
 nervous disease. Specialists grow more 
 numerous, and each finds what he is 
 looking for. Some years ago a friend 
 of mine was taken sick, and after seek- 
 ing in vain for relief through his family 
 physician, consulted one of the leading 
 specialists in the city where he lived. 
 He told him the trouble was with his 
 heart; that was his specialty. A little 
 later he consulted another specialist. 
 This man told him he had diabetes; 
 that was his specialty. Another diag- 
 nosed his case as due to uric acid in the 
 blood; that was his specialty. Still 
 another told him that the cause of his 
 
 40 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 difficulty lay in his digestive organs; 
 that was his specialty. Finally the man 
 died of a malady which none of these 
 specialists had discovered. 
 
 We need not question the honesty or 
 intelligence of any of these men. It 
 only shows the natural tendency, unless 
 the case is very clear and simple as few 
 cases are, for each specialist to discover 
 symptoms of his own special disease, 
 and treat the case accordingly. Yet in 
 spite of these discouraging facts, the 
 time is fast approaching when it will be 
 much easier for people to possess health 
 and strength than to be without 
 them, for both these blessings come 
 through conformity to Law both outer 
 and inner. For centuries men have 
 sought health in the outer realm of 
 sanitation, hygiene and drugs. " These 
 ought ye to have done " — with the 
 exception of a greatly superfluous 
 amount of drugs — " but not to have 
 
 41 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 left the others undone." It is no 
 disparagement of sanitary or hygienic 
 laws when I affirm that at last man is 
 beginning to realize that the laws which 
 pertain to the inner life are far more 
 important even than these external laws. 
 In a previous essay I sought to de- 
 scribe the background of the Movement 
 for Health which is just now attracting 
 so much interest, and pointed out the 
 distinguished men who have already 
 given it their support, thus showing 
 that it is not a Movement to be treated 
 with anything less than respect. The 
 average man certainly has a right to 
 know the facts; our only desire is for 
 the truth. Even if there is but a 
 modicum of virtue in mental thera- 
 peutics making for the alleviation of 
 human suffering, surely the world needs 
 sadly its reinforcement; and if it con- 
 tains no truth, if it proceeds from a 
 baseless idealism, then by all means let 
 
 42 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 us admit frankly the hollo wness of its 
 claims. 
 
 Have we to-day in mental thera- 
 peutics a great principle, capable of 
 wide application, that lies so near 
 every one of us that we have hitherto 
 looked through it or beyond it ? Are 
 there certain orderly forces in the mind, 
 far more potent for good in the life 
 of humanity than are these great 
 forces recently harnessed in the realm 
 of electricity ? These are some of the 
 questions that naturally arise in the 
 mind of every earnest seeker after truth. 
 
 At the beginning of our discussion 
 it is necessary that we should do some 
 accurate defining. Mental therapeu- 
 tics is not to be confused with Christian 
 Science, or Faith Cure, nor is it to be 
 regarded simply as a new competitor 
 of the other healing agencies already 
 in the field. Although we often use 
 the words 3fi Christian Science ' in a 
 
 43 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 rather loose and general sense, neverthe- 
 less, in the strict sense, Christian Sci- 
 ence should be identified with a dis- 
 tinct school which takes for its exclusive 
 text-book a work entitled " Science and 
 Health," by Mrs. Mary B. G. Eddy, 
 and the Bible as interpreted through it. 
 This is said in an impartial spirit, as 
 a matter of definition and simple justice 
 to all concerned. 
 
 The process of Mrs. Eddy begins 
 with the denial of everything evil. It 
 depends for its basis upon the assump- 
 tion of the unreality of the body and of 
 so-called material things. Matter is 
 unreal; pain is a fiction; disease is 
 imaginary. For myself I do not believe 
 we gain anything by denying facts which 
 are clearly patent to all. It is true we 
 are souls, but souls living on the physi- 
 cal plane, and the body is a reality on 
 its own plane and in the degree in which 
 the real unity of life is expressed 
 
 44 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 through it. Hence, to deny the reality 
 of the physical body, of pain and 
 disease, is only a juggling with words. 
 If we say, in good faith, there is no sin, 
 sickness or disease, we have simply 
 succeeded in hypnotizing ourselves into 
 a belief that is an error. All these con- 
 ditions do exist. They are not " real ' 
 in the sense of being permanent; they 
 are but transitory conditions through 
 which the soul passes, but they cannot 
 be overcome through mere denial. The 
 system of denial, which really lies at 
 the basis of Christian Science, results, 
 in fact, in emphasizing the reality of 
 the very conditions from which we 
 seek deliverance. The way to escape 
 from darkness is not to deny that dark- 
 ness exists. The only way to dispel 
 darkness is to let in the light. Error 
 of any kind is to be overcome not by 
 the denial that error exists, but by 
 affirming the existence and pownr of the 
 
 45 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 truth. There is another form of denial 
 which is both true and rational. This 
 is the affirmation of the superiority of 
 the mind over the body, involving the 
 denial that body can, of and for itself, 
 do anything or feel anything. This is 
 no mere denial or negation; it rather 
 arises from the positive assertion of 
 the higher law. There is a great 
 difference between an imaginary disease 
 and a disease of the imagination. The 
 tendency in the past has been to regard 
 many mental and nervous disorders 
 as purely imaginary, and so unworthy 
 of serious attention. Suggestive Thera- 
 peutics recognizes that such so-called 
 " imaginary disorders ' are really dis- 
 eases of the mind, causing the individ- 
 ual oftentimes more pain and suffering 
 by far, than would be produced by 
 organic diseases. 
 
 Faith Cure, in the proper sense, 
 presumes upon special divine inter- 
 
 46 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 position in answer to prayer. It im- 
 plies a suspension and violation of the 
 orderly laws of the universe. Owing 
 to the working of mental forces, many 
 remarkable cures do take place under 
 the administration of both Christian 
 Science and Faith Cure, only the 
 modus operandi is misunderstood. 
 
 Nor are we to think of Mental 
 Healing as merely another competitor 
 in the field of the " pathies," seeking 
 to relieve human suffering. This 
 broader science of Mental Healing 
 recognizes no external authority as 
 located in a single person or text-book. 
 " It is a development from within, 
 rather than a system from without. It 
 is a life rather than a doctrine. It is a 
 new consciousness, rather than a new 
 philosophy. It is a spiritual optimism, 
 rather than a material or pessimistic 
 realism. Its business is to bring inner 
 ideals into outward actualized expres- 
 
 47 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 sion. It has to do with the intuition 
 as well as with the intellect. It recog- 
 nizes that the inner and real nature of 
 man is in most intimate relation with 
 the Universal Mind of God." 
 
 Its underlying principle consists in 
 a recognition of mental causation for 
 all outward phenomena. But the idea 
 of mental causation for physical con- 
 ditions is in substantial harmony with 
 the highest and best thought of the seers 
 and philosophers, from Plato down to 
 the present time. " If primary causes 
 for physical ills are resident in the 
 clay of the body, there is no warrant 
 whatever for healing through mind. If, 
 however, causative forces are located 
 in the mental realm, there is no logical 
 basis, per se, for anything else." 
 
 We are all in bondage to the seen, and 
 constantly speak of mere occasions as 
 causes. In popular language, we say 
 that the draught caused the cold, the 
 
 48 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 contagion caused the fever, or the 
 unfriendly microbe the disease. As a 
 matter of fact, these are occasions 
 but not causes. The cause in every 
 case, is in the subjective conditions 
 which we usually call the susceptibility 
 of the individual. Occasions are always 
 without; causes within. Ten people 
 sit in the same draught, are exposed to 
 the same contagion, or swallow the 
 same microbes. Some will suffer, and 
 perhaps die, while the others go scot 
 free. The doctor and nurse can breathe 
 the atmosphere of contagious disease 
 continually, but they rarely succumb 
 themselves. 
 
 The people during an epidemic who 
 are most fearful, are usually, on the 
 testimony of physicians, the first ones 
 to succumb to the disease. All this 
 shows that occasions are only oppor- 
 tunities. Owing to general low develop- 
 ment, such opportunities must often 
 
 49 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 be avoided, but even then they never 
 become causes. The true method is 
 to so fortify our inner mental and phys- 
 ical life that we shall no longer be sus- 
 ceptible to external influences, so that 
 the contagion we all breathe and the 
 microbes we all swallow shall have no 
 power over us. The time may come — 
 it has not arrived yet — when the 
 scientist will be able to locate the mental 
 cause for every known disease; will 
 be able to state just why at such a time 
 a particular person took cold or came 
 down with fever. Remember, we are 
 but standing on the threshold of the 
 great realm of mental dynamics; but 
 dimly conscious as yet that mental 
 and moral conditions are the most 
 potent forces that make for health and 
 happiness. 
 
 It is not necessary in this connection 
 to discuss the different diseases which 
 experience has demonstrated can be 
 
 50 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 successfully treated by the mind. My 
 i purpose is to present as clearly as 
 possible the general principles which, 
 if followed out systematically and per- 
 sistently, must result in physical health, 
 strength and happiness. 
 
 If we are to understand and effect- 
 ively apply in our lives the laws of 
 mental healing, we must realize at the 
 outset the unity of our life. We speak 
 of the individual as consisting of soul, 
 mind and body. We know that mind 
 and body are not two separate entities. 
 Mind expresses itself through the body 
 and directly influences the body, and 
 in turn, the body influences the mind. 
 Mind and body are constantly acting 
 and reacting on one another. Then 
 we speak of the soul as if that were 
 another distinct entity, something sepa- 
 rate from mind and body. But what 
 we mean by soul or spirit is simply 
 the spiritual ego, the individual who 
 
 51 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 stands back of mind and body, and uses 
 both as instruments of expression. Soul, 
 the term used to describe the highest 
 expression of individual entity, is not 
 different from or independent of the 
 Universal Soul of all things. Soul, 
 mind and body are, then, bound to- 
 gether in the closest kind of unity. 
 These thoughts once fairly grasped, it 
 becomes comparatively easy to under- 
 stand the absolute oneness of Life, 
 and yet, the One Life manifesting 
 itself in many ways and through many 
 degrees. We must not pick these 
 different expressions of life apart and 
 think of them as though they were 
 entirely distinct. We must realize that 
 they are, in the last analysis, all one, 
 that the life which flows through this 
 grand Universe is all one — One Life, 
 One Intelligence. Still further, man 
 must recognize his oneness with all 
 humanity; that the life which flows in 
 
 52 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 his veins is the same life that flows in 
 the veins of every human being. He 
 must be lifted out of his sense of little- 
 ness, his sense of isolation, his sense of 
 being merely a personal entity, into the 
 sense of his oneness with the Whole, 
 of his life as part and parcel of all life, 
 inextricably bound up with the life of 
 humanity. This consciousness of life's 
 unity does not come to one suddenly. 
 It is developed as one dwells upon the 
 thought of life, as one seeks to realize 
 the deeper meaning of life, as one 
 endeavours to get back to causes and 
 tries to interpret relationships. In 
 other words, it is as a man thinks. The 
 trouble with most of us is that we spend 
 very little time in actual thinking; but 
 when one begins to seriously think 
 upon such subjects, he finds, in com- 
 pany with the great philosophers of 
 all times, that there is no other way to 
 interpret human life except in terms of 
 
 53 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 its oneness with the Infinite Life of the 
 Universe. 
 
 The next essential is to cultivate 
 within our mental life the elements of 
 faith, hope and love. Faith is the 
 opposite of distrust or suspicion. Hope 
 is the opposite of discouragement and 
 melancholy. Love is the opposite of 
 selfishness. There is a profound phil- 
 osophy underlying the statement of the 
 Apostle Paul, " Now abide th these 
 three, faith, hope and love." To 
 cultivate faith and hope and love means 
 to foster harmonious thinking, for the 
 opposite of these things constitutes the 
 very essence of discordant thought. 
 But faith in what ? Faith in your own 
 power to live the life of freedom and 
 self-control, the life full of composure 
 and cheerfulness, the life that is de- 
 livered from all fear of sickness and 
 disease. Is the phrase your own power 
 a correct one? That depends upon 
 
 54 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 how it is understood. The power acts 
 through you. In that sense, it is your 
 own, because it is expressed through 
 you. In the narrower sense, it is not 
 your own. " Of myself I can do noth- 
 ing," said the Master. "The Father 
 working in me, He doeth the works." 
 What we call faith in our own powers is 
 really just the recognition of the power 
 that God has given us to use. Faith, 
 as the New Testament uses the Word, 
 is not to be confused with belief in 
 certain dogmas of religion; it is a 
 dynamic faith in one's own power to 
 realize health, happiness and peace 
 within. 
 
 The element of Hope is the only true 
 solvent of despair, discouragement, 
 melancholy, fear and dread. Every 
 doctor knows that these mental 
 moods constitute the deadliest foes to 
 physical health and strength. Hope 
 means confidence, cheerfulness and 
 
 55 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 brightness. To cultivate Hope means 
 to look on the bright side, not only of 
 things but of people, and to believe in 
 the bright side of things and of people. 
 It is an easy thing to unconsciously 
 form the habit of always seeing the 
 darker side, of always anticipating what 
 may happen in the future to cloud the 
 sky. If we are going to live in the 
 atmosphere of Hope, — one of the 
 strongest allies of strength and health, 
 — we must cultivate the opposite of 
 all these tendencies of our nature. If 
 we desire, we can make brightness, 
 cheerfulness, composure, hope for the 
 future, faith in ourselves and con- 
 fidence in our fellows, the great domi- 
 nant forces of our daily lives. 
 
 Then cultivate most earnestly the 
 spirit of Love. The root of all discord 
 in thinking, that plays such havoc with 
 our bodies as well as our souls, is selfish- 
 ness, in the form of greed, avarice, 
 
 56 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 pride, jealousy, envy, or any other of 
 these malign influences. Foster within 
 yourself the opposite of selfishness. 
 When Paul concludes with the words, 
 " The greatest of these is Love," and 
 when Jesus sums up all the Law and 
 the Prophets in the one great com- 
 mandment — love to God and love to 
 man — they understood how the life 
 lived in the atmosphere of love, the life 
 whose attitude was habitually one of 
 loving thoughts and loving desires, 
 must inevitably be the life possessed of 
 fulness of strength and health, both 
 of body and soul. We all believe in 
 love, we all approve the sermon that 
 treats of love, and we are all quick to 
 say that what we need in our lives is 
 more of the spirit of love. But, ask 
 yourself the question, " How earnestly, 
 how persistently, how systematically in 
 my every-day life, am I seeking to hold 
 and cultivate in my mind only loving 
 
 57 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 thoughts ? ' How often do you take 
 mental inventory and say, " This is an 
 envious thought, and that is a jealous 
 thought, and that is a melancholy 
 thought; and I am allowing such 
 thoughts to lodge in my mind, and so 
 control my life ? " Read the wonderful 
 thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, 
 and then compare the ideal it presents 
 with your daily life. " Love suffereth 
 long and is kind; love envieth not; 
 love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed 
 up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
 seeketh not her own, is not easily 
 provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth 
 not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the 
 truth; beareth all things, believeth all 
 things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
 things. Love never faileth." If we 
 should determine to live in the at- 
 mosphere of that single chapter of 
 the Bible for six months, we should 
 marvel at the transformation in our- 
 
 53 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 selves and in those about us. Culti- 
 vate the spirit of faith and hope 
 and love in this systematic way, just 
 as earnestly as you would cultivate 
 your muscles by exercise, or the powers 
 of your mind by study — and see the 
 result. 
 
 Another fundamental need is to 
 change our negative thoughts to positive. 
 I wonder if any one realizes how much 
 of his thinking is on the plane of the 
 negative. An old proverb says that a 
 man is either his own physician at 
 forty or else he is a fool. But however 
 much we know at forty, we are all of us 
 fools, in this respect at least, that in our 
 conversation we pay altogether too much 
 attention to sickness and physical condi- 
 tions. Dr. Heber Newton tells of once 
 spending a month in a sanitarium. The 
 sanitary regulations and the hygiene 
 were correct; but he says the mental 
 atmosphere was harmful in the extreme. 
 
 59 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 Attending a concert given one evening 
 for the patients, there came a sudden 
 lull in the music, and in the comparative 
 silence the only words that fell upon his 
 ears were these, " Rheumatism, in- 
 fluenza, pneumonia, nervous prostra- 
 tion, etc." What kind of a place was 
 that in which to find health? The 
 whole atmosphere was surcharged with 
 the thoughts of people who dwelt con- 
 stantly on their physical disorders and 
 sufferings. When we come together 
 how much of the time is spent in con- 
 versing about our own physical con- 
 ditions or else those of our friends. 
 Our talking is by no means an idle or 
 meaningless thing. Every time we 
 dwell upon such things in conversation 
 we are giving potent suggestions of ill- 
 health to ourselves and others. What 
 we talk about habitually, is simply an 
 indication of what we think habitually, 
 and what we think habitually is what 
 
 60 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 we, sooner or later, become in our- 
 selves. Cease thinking thoughts of 
 sickness, and you will soon stop talking 
 along lines which only create the 
 atmosphere that makes for ill-health 
 and disease. Did you ever wonder why 
 the children of the rich, petted and 
 coddled from the cradle, with a nurse 
 to dog their every footstep, who are 
 bundled up with the greatest care every 
 time they step outside the door, and 
 are constantly warned against eating 
 this or drinking that — why such chil- 
 dren, protected and safeguarded by 
 all these influences, turn out so often 
 weak, puny and sickly? The children 
 of the street, on the other hand, about 
 whom nobody seems to care, who have 
 never had the guardianship of a nurse, 
 whose parents know nothing and care 
 less about the laws of diet, often grow 
 up to be strong, robust and hearty. 
 One of the causes unquestionably lies in 
 
 61 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 the fact that in the homes of the rich, 
 an atmosphere is created by the over- 
 fond parent or the too-careful nurse, 
 in which the child is made to fear 
 and dread countless ills, of which the 
 street gamin never dreams ; and what is 
 feared is invited. I have a friend who 
 believes so strongly in the power of 
 words, even casually spoken, that when 
 she meets a friend she never says, " I 
 hope you are well to-day." She has 
 changed her greeting, and always says, 
 " I hope you are good to-day; " and if 
 we are good in the broad sense of 'the 
 word, we will be well. What we need in 
 all the range of our conversation at home 
 and elsewhere, is to transfer our think- 
 ing from the negative to the positive 
 plane. Think only healthful thoughts 
 and speak only healthful words. 
 Let the thoughts that are uppermost in 
 your mind, whether you are alone or 
 with others, be always those thoughts 
 
 m 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 that make for health and strength and 
 power. If we could cultivate the habit 
 of living our lives on the plane of the 
 positive, not in the realm of what we 
 fear or dread, or doubt, or distrust, 
 our " susceptibility " to sickness of all 
 kinds would largely disappear. 
 
 Once again, we need to cultivate 
 the imaging faculty. We must take 
 pains to outline in our minds definitely, 
 clearly and intensely what we mean by 
 Health. Picture in your mind the 
 perfect man — image and likeness of his 
 Creator, without spot or blemish. It 
 is not enough to repeat formulas, par- 
 rot fashion. If you discover the root 
 trouble to be hatred, anger or jealousy, 
 then picture to yourself the idea of 
 love as the great reality; if selfishness 
 is the cause, replace it by the thought 
 that we are all members of one body, 
 etc. In this connection, there is tre- 
 mendous need of the power of Concen- 
 
 63 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 tration. The great weakness in most 
 of our lives is traceable to the fact that 
 we have so little command over our 
 mental forces; our minds fly from one 
 thing to another. We no sooner begin 
 to think about one subject than im- 
 mediately our attention is diverted, 
 and we find ourselves thinking about 
 something else. What makes the suc- 
 cessful scientist? His power of con- 
 centration in one field of investigation. 
 What makes the great inventor like 
 Edison? His power to concentrate all 
 his energies in one direction. What 
 constitutes the true student? His 
 ability to take his book in hand and sit 
 down for hours together and concen- 
 trate his attention on the problems in 
 which he is interested. Here is where 
 most of us fail. Our weakness men- 
 tally and therefore physically, nine 
 times out of ten, is due to the fact that 
 we do not command our mental forces, 
 
 64 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 that we do not know how to concen- 
 trate our mental powers; that we no 
 sooner touch one subject than we are 
 drawn away to something else. Yet I 
 want to affirm that if any man or woman 
 is really in earnest in this matter, they 
 can cultivate their powers of mental 
 concentration just as truly as any other 
 power. The first thing is to recognize 
 its real need in your life. Then realizing 
 that you cannot be any better, mentally 
 or physically, until you cultivate these 
 powers, set yourself to the task. Let 
 it be by the systematic and persistent 
 practice of holding your mind steadily 
 to the subject in hand. With a book 
 before you, or in the quiet hour as you 
 sit alone, take some uplifting thought 
 into your mind and resolve to shut out 
 every other thought for the time being. 
 Suppose you take the thought, " I am 
 God's child." Approach it from one 
 direction then from another. " Who 
 
 65 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 is God ? " and " What does it mean to 
 be God's child? " or, " If I am God's 
 child, what is my relation to Him ? ' 
 " If I am God's child, what part of 
 God is it that I possess, that I can 
 appropriate and use to my own up- 
 building ? " Think all around the 
 thought suggested, and then think 
 back again. Look at its truths from 
 this standpoint and from that, but 
 concentrate your mind on the one 
 central thought, to the exclusion of 
 everything else. Exercise your mind 
 in this way daily, and note the results. 
 You will come forth from such an 
 experience with a sense of power that 
 you have never felt before, with your 
 mind renewed, your strength quickened 
 and your confidence in God and your- 
 self wonderfully increased. 
 
 Then there is needed the cultivation 
 of peace and restfulness. A few years 
 ago a well-known German physician 
 
 m 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 visited this country. On his return he 
 wrote that he had discovered in the 
 increasingly prevalent nervous break- 
 down of the American people a new 
 disease, which he called " Americani- 
 tis." Every doctor knows that nervous 
 breakdown, in the last analysis, is due 
 to mental conditions. It is the nervous 
 hurry, the waste of nervous energy 
 due to lack of self-control, that results 
 in so many different forms of nervous 
 disorders. All this could be checked 
 and controlled and cured, if we would 
 simply take pains to cultivate in our- 
 selves peace, restfulness and quiet- 
 ness. 
 
 I know a woman who found herself 
 getting into a very nervous condition, 
 and in consequence giving way to an 
 impatient spirit in her speech, until 
 the habit seemed fixed. She finally 
 realized that the fault was altogether 
 with herself, that it lay in her own lack 
 
 67 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 of mental poise, and she said, " I am 
 going to conquer this thing." She 
 pictured clearly to herself the ideal of 
 self-control and patience, and finally 
 resolved not to utter one impatient 
 word for a week. At the end of that 
 time the habit was broken. Practise 
 self-control and self-poise as you would 
 practise your music at the piano or 
 your problems in the school room or 
 your exercises in the gymnasium. Be 
 dead in earnest in winning the victory 
 over yourself by developing your powers 
 to the full. It will take time to reach 
 perfection, but that is what we are 
 here for, and it can be done. 
 
 One last essential is the cultivation 
 of silence. If men and women would 
 simply stop in the midst of their busy 
 life for a few moments every day, and 
 be still, and in the silence think upon 
 the great realities of life, they would be 
 amazed at the result. I have a friend, 
 
 68 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 who is a manager of a street railway 
 system in one of the Western cities, 
 who told me a few years ago that, in the 
 multiplicity of his duties, he found he 
 was losing all control of himself and 
 was unable to do his required work. 
 He made it a rule every day after lunch, 
 to go upstairs to a room by himself, in 
 the building where he worked, and 
 spend a half hour alone. I asked him 
 if he prayed. He said, " No, I do not 
 believe you would call it prayer. I 
 close my eyes and just stop and think 
 carefully and slowly and clearly about 
 the things which are really worth while 
 in life; and I have found I cannot do 
 without it now." If we could but 
 realize the necessity of taking time to 
 go away into the Silence, and just let 
 our feverish lives sink down to some of 
 these deep, eternal principles of life 
 and religion, there is nothing in the 
 world that would send us back to our 
 
 69 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 work with greater physical vitality, 
 greater buoyancy and greater strength. 
 Do not misconstrue my meaning. 
 Do not imagine me as saying that when 
 you are sick or weak all you have to 
 do is to think you are well, and you 
 are well. This is a caricature on mental 
 healing. I have not said that. What 
 I have said is that when you are sick, 
 your mental condition and your 
 thoughts are far more important than 
 the physical effects from which you 
 suffer. Exactly as you take care of 
 the nourishment of the body, just as 
 you see to it that three times a day you 
 eat the proper food in the proper 
 quantities, so the mind, which lies back 
 of all physical conditions, must receive 
 its proper nourishment in the form of 
 health-producing thoughts, if you are 
 to eradicate the primary cause of your 
 disorder; and it is in your power to 
 give the right food to your mind. 
 
 70 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 Nourish your mind with these thoughts 
 of faith, hope and love, these thoughts 
 of confidence and composure, cheer- 
 fulness and hope, and you will begin to 
 see changes taking place in your ab- 
 normal or disordered physical con- 
 dition. 
 
 There are four ways in which mental 
 therapeutics can be applied in one's 
 own personal life. First of all, by the 
 direct power of the sub-conscious mind 
 inherent in itself. This is what the 
 doctor would call the vis medicatrix 
 naturae. It is what the doctor means 
 when he says in certain cases, " We 
 have done all we can. Now we must 
 let nature do the rest." All intelligent 
 physicians know that this " power of 
 nature ' is the power of the sub- 
 conscious mind. In the case where the 
 doctor says, " We can do no more, 
 there is no hope," and yet the patient 
 slowly comes back to life, the recovery 
 
 71 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 is due to the remedial powers of nature, 
 or the power of the sub-conscious mind. 
 In the second place, there is the power 
 of the sub-conscious mind influenced 
 directly by external suggestion; where 
 the trained and skillful practitioner 
 by his own suggestion, or the wise 
 parent in the case of the child, calls 
 into activity these remedial and cura- 
 tive powers of the mind. In the third 
 place, there is the power of the sub- 
 conscious mind influenced indirectly 
 by the conscious mind, because of faith 
 in persons, systems, places, etc. And 
 lastly, there is the power of the auto- 
 suggestion which the sick person sends 
 to the sub-conscious mind himself, by 
 his determination to get well, shake off 
 illness, ignore pain, etc. 
 
 Perhaps you are thinking, " This is 
 a beautiful theory, but will these prin- 
 ciples work ? " They have worked in 
 multitudes of cases. I could tell you 
 
 n 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 of a man, of whom I know, bound hand 
 and foot by the appetite for strong drink 
 for twenty years. He came into the 
 realization of his own powers through 
 this method, and to-day is free and 
 doing a man's work in the world. I 
 could tell in detail of a man who 
 has had a bitter up-hill struggle for 
 forty years, who came to the verge of 
 suicide because he felt there was noth- 
 ing left for him in life — a complete 
 nervous breakdown. That man to-day, 
 after having practised these principles 
 for only three weeks, is back again at 
 his occupation, earning his livelihood, 
 happy and strong. Or I could tell 
 you of a case described to me within 
 a fortnight, of a woman who came from 
 a Western city. For thirty long years 
 she had been the victim of fears of 
 every kind, and had developed into a 
 complete nervous wreck. The skilled 
 physician who examined her said, 
 
 73 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 " There is no use trying to do anything 
 for her by mental suggestion; her 
 case is extreme; it is perfectly hope- 
 less; nobody can help her." That 
 woman, after four weeks' treatment, has 
 gone back to her home again, per- 
 fectly strong and in her right mind. 
 These are a few results about which I 
 happen to know personally. However 
 it may seem to you, the individuals who 
 will take these principles and incor- 
 porate them in their lives, making them 
 the basis of daily experience, will reap 
 the same results that have come to 
 many others. 
 
 The timid and fearful child who has 
 lost sight of his father in the crowded 
 street, cries out with joy and reassur- 
 ance, as he comes again into his father's 
 presence and grasps his hand. The 
 crowd may jostle him, but he is no 
 longer afraid. The darkness may be 
 intense, but it does not frighten him 
 
 74 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 now. His father is there, and he holds 
 his father's hand; and as they walk 
 together through the night the child 
 knows naught save the perfect con- 
 fidence and love, that cast out all fear. 
 In setting forth the psychological side 
 of mental healing and while believing 
 that Suggestive Therapeutics must be 
 put upon a scientific and rational 
 basis, nevertheless I would not have 
 you miss its religious significance. In 
 addition to the scientific principles in- 
 volved, the deep need of our lives, the 
 great need of the age in which we live, 
 is to catch afresh the vision of God. 
 It is possible for me to realize, 
 like the little child, that God's hand 
 clasps mine; that, in spite of the dark- 
 ness and the storm, in spite of the 
 struggle and the crowd, in spite of all 
 the phantoms of fear and dread, I am 
 in His presence now and always; 
 nothing in the whole universe of space, 
 
 *5 
 
PHYSICAL WHOLENESS 
 
 nothing in the whole eternity of time 
 can ever harm me, can ever utterly 
 discourage me, for I am God's child and 
 His life is my life. As we grow into 
 such a consciousness of the divine 
 power resident within us, the hardest 
 problems will be solved, darkness and 
 dread, doubt, and uncertainty, with all 
 the malign diseases of soul and body, 
 will gradually but surely disappear. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
£