Phineas P. Quimby: Discoverer of Mind
Healing©
By
Albert AMAO, Ph.D.
[Author's Note: The following is an excerpt from my
book
Healing Without Medicine: From Pioneers to Modern Practice.]
The contemporary practical philosophical movement
called New Thought and the so-called Metaphysical Movement in America started
with Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, who is regarded as the father of the New Thought
movement on the American continent. Quimby was born on February 16, 1802, in
Lebanon, New Hampshire. He was a clockmaker’s apprentice and inventor in New
England who attended school for a short period of time; according to W. Cather
and G. Milmine, Quimby “spent actually only six weeks in school.”[1]
He was indeed a self-made man with an inquiring and inventive mind.
Quimby contracted
pulmonary tuberculosis at young age, and his liver and kidneys deteriorated as
a result of excessive harmful medicine. As a result he abandoned his business
as a clockmaker and retired to his farm expecting to die. Quimby became disillusioned
with the medical treatment and gave up any hope of recovery. The following is
Quimby’s own description of his health condition, written around 1863:
Some thirty years ago I
was very sick, and was considered fast wasting away with consumption
[tuberculosis]. At that time I became so low that it was with difficulty I
could walk about (sic). I was all the while under the allopathic practice, and
I had taken so much calomel that my system was said to be
poisoned with it; and I lost many of my teeth from that effect. My symptoms
were those of any consumptive; and I had been told that my liver was affected
and my kidneys were diseased, and that my lungs were nearly consumed. I
believed all this, from the fact that I had all the symptoms, and could not
resist the opinions of the physician while having the proof with me. In this
state I was compelled to abandon my business; and, losing all hope, I gave up
to die, — not that I thought the medical faculty had no wisdom, but that my
case was one that could not be cured.[2]
(The bolded italics are mine)
Several important elements played a key role in Quimby’s
life that led him to develop his ideas on mental healing. According to Quimby’s
dairy, his doctor prescribed him calomel, which is also known as
mercury. Paradoxically, the remedy that Quimby was taking instead of curing was
killing him as he later realized. Calomel is toxic liquid,
mercury, used in America as a
purgative to cure several maladies, especially yellow fever during the Civil War up until early 20th
century.”[3]
Taken in great quantities has severe effects
such as loss of teeth and hair similar to Quimby’s case. Thus, the simple fact that Quimby discontinued
ingesting this harmful medication, Calomel, was in itself a positive step
toward regaining his health.
However, there were other milestones that played important
role in Quimby’s regaining his wellness. One is when he found out that one of
his friends had cured himself by doing outdoor physical activities, which
included horseback riding. Quimby attempted to emulate his friend although his
severe physical ailments prevented him from trying horseback riding; instead,
Quimby tried carriage trips. One day while he was riding in his carriage, the
horse stopped and refused to move; therefore, he opted to walk alongside the
horse. Suddenly, to his surprise, he found himself walking uphill about two
miles by the horse’s side.[4]
This incident appeared to produce a remarkable impact on his recovery.
The second milestone was when he became acquainted with
mesmerism. Dr. Charles
Poyen came to America from
France to give demonstrations of mesmerism around 1838. Quimby became very
interested in the theory of animal magnetism and saw in mesmerism an
alternative way to regain his health; therefore, he earnestly devoted time to learning
the “nuts and bolts” of this new “science.” Quimby, having a very inquisitive
mind, quickly learned the mesmeric method of healing. Soon afterwards, he felt
capable of practicing mesmerism on his own, and began giving public
demonstrations on mesmerism in New England, although he was still sick with
pulmonary tuberculosis.
In 1840, Quimby met a young lad named Lucius Burkmar during
a public demonstration of mesmerism. This encounter was the turning point in
Quimby’s life, as we will demonstrate. Lucius was a very suggestible boy, who
easily fell into a trance under the direction of Quimby. They formed a
partnership and together gave the most remarkable exhibitions of mesmerism and
clairvoyance in New England that can be verified on the newspapers of that
time.[5]
The procedure was as follows: Quimby would put Lucius into a mesmeric state (or
state of trance) with the purpose of examining the patient’s illness clairvoyantly.
Lucius would diagnose the patient’s disease and its location in the body, and
finally, he would prescribe the remedies for the cure. In most of the cases,
the patient’s health was restored.
Contrary to the common
opinion held in the New Thought movement, up this point, Lucius was the one who
was doing the healing. He was the one who was diagnosing the illness and
prescribing the remedy to the patient. Quimby’s role was limited to
induce Lucius into a trance (Alpha) state of mind. It can be confidently assumed that at some point the
question crossed Quimby’s mind; if Lucius could read the mind of people and
clairvoyantly diagnose the illness of the patients, he could do the same thing
regarding his own malady. Quimby was diagnosed with a terminal disease; in his
own words, he was expecting to die in the near future. Thus, if Quimby wanted
to continue doing public demonstrations on Mesmerism, he had to take care of
his own health first. Lucius was healing other people, so why not test Lucius’
method on himself? Consequently, Quimby, with some reservation, inquired Lucius
about his medical condition.
Here we have the beginning of the development of Quimby’s
healing philosophy. Quimby asked Lucius to clairvoyantly scan his kidneys and
liver, which were seriously infected. Lucius agreed to do that. Once the
examination was made, Lucius announced that Quimby’s kidneys were
disintegrating, and that he could repair them. Lucius was subsequently prompted
to lay his hands on Quimby infected area; while he was doing this, he told
Quimby that he was putting his kidneys back together. A few days later, Quimby
had Lucius examine him clairvoyantly again; at this point, Lucius declared that
Quimby’s kidneys were completely restored to health. Surprisingly, Quimby felt
asymptomatic and did not have any more pain. This incident was the
decisive moment for Quimby’s view of conventional medicine; he started doubting
the accuracy of his medical diagnosis. In the above quotation, Quimby himself
stated that the physicians diagnosed him with a terminal disease, and he had given
up all hope of regaining his health. However, after Lucius’ treatment, his
health was restored. I firmly belief that one of the reasons for
Quimby’s feeling much better was the fact that he discontinued taking Calomel
(mercury); although, he was completely unaware of the connection.
Quimby had his own reservations about
his healing; first, he was diagnosed by the medical profession as having a
terminal disease, and second, how had an inexpert and ignorant lad cured him by
laying his hands on him? Lucius was a simple boy having no healing power; how
would he have healed him? Analyzing these questions, he came to the conclusion
that the medical diagnosis was probably wrong. Furthermore, Quimby hypothesized
that what Lucius was doing when he was in trance was intuitively reading the
mind of the patient, rather than clairvoyantly examining him. Quimby started
thinking that he might heal himself; however, he did not have much evidence to
confirm that idea at this point.
After this incident, another important event took place
that gave Quimby the idea for the development of his future treatment method.
During a public healing demonstration, Lucius prescribed some expensive
medicine to a patient who was unable to afford it. Quimby mesmerized Lucius
again and asked him for another prescription; Lucius changed his prescription
to a cheaper one, and the medication had the same healing effect. At this
point, for Quimby, the case was crystal clear, that no matter what kind of
medicine Lucius prescribed, it would have the same effect if the patient
believed in it. This theory, later developed by Émile Coué, is now known as the placebo
effect.
Thus, in order to determine Lucius’s clairvoyant
abilities, Quimby induced the lad into a trance using the hypnotic method to
test him. Quimby found out that Lucius accepted as true the suggestions given
while in trance. These experiments convinced Quimby conclusively that Lucius,
during his clairvoyant examination, was reading the minds of the patients
rather than clairvoyantly seeing the illness. Therefore, he discovered that a
stronger mind acts directly upon another’s mind; then he realized that the
prescriptions given by Lucius were effective suggestions to the patients
as long as they believed in them. In other words, even if the “remedy”
prescribed did not have any curative value, the healing would take place anyway
because of the patient believed on the prescription. Here we have
another case of the placebo effect in action. Quimby concluded “Diseases
are embraced in our belief.”[7]
For Quimby, the problem was the wrong frame of mind
of the patient; therefore, there was no need for mesmeric sessions to heal, but
to change the belief system of the patient. Quimby arrived at this conclusion
after he recovered his health. The following quotation is extremely important
to understanding Quimby’s own healing and the ensuing events that led to the
discovery of mental healing. He described his experience in the following
words:
I had pains in
my back, which they [medical doctors] said, were cause by my kidneys, which
were partly consumed. I also was told that I had ulcers on my lungs. Under this
belief, I was miserable enough to be of no account in the world. This was the
state I was when I commenced to mesmerize. On one occasion, when I had my
subject [Lucius] asleep, he described the pains I felt in my back (I had never
dared to ask him to examine me, for I felt sure that my kidneys were nearly
gone), and he placed his hands on the spot where I felt the pain. He then told
me that my kidneys were in a very bad state, - that one was half consumed, and
a piece three inches long had separated from it, and was only connected by a
slender thread. This was what I believed to be true, for it agreed with what
the doctors had told me, and with what I had suffered; for I had not been free
from pain for years. My common sense told me
that no medicine would ever cure this trouble. But I asked if there was any
remedy. He replied, “Yes, I can put the piece on so it will grow, and you will
get well.” At this I was completely astonished, and knew not what to think. He
immediately placed his hands upon me, and said he united the pieces so they
would grow. The next day he said they had grown together, and from that day
I never experienced the least pain from then.[8]
(The italics are mine)
The sentences in italics illustrate that Lucius gave a powerful suggestion to his master Quimby when he asked Lucius if there was any remedy for his illness. This question was Quimby’s last hope. Lucius’s answer was definitively persuasive: “Yes, I can put the piece [kidney] on so it will grow, and you will get well.” And the lad proceeded to do his healing, putting his hands over the ill parts of Quimby’s body. Quimby held fast to the last hope given by Lucius, and this is evidenced by the fact that he checked the status of his recuperation on the following days with Lucius; Quimby was reassured by the young man that he was completely healed. As a result, Quimby did not feel any more pain. This event was pivotal for the breakthrough of mental healing in America. It was the epiphany or “eureka” moment for Quimby. Up to this point, he was hypnotized the medical diagnosis that kept him bound to the hopeless belief about his illness. If Lucius had answered Quimby’s last hope by saying, “No, there is no treatment or remedy for your illness,” Quimby would have continued believing in the medical diagnosis and would possibly have died in a year or so as he expected. This is confirmed by Quimby in the following quotation:
I had not the least doubt
but that I was as he [Lucius] described; and, if he had said, as I
expected he would, that nothing could be done, I should have died in a year or
so. But when he said he could cure me in the way he proposed, I
began to think; and I discovered that I had been deceived into a belief that
made me sick.[9]
(The bolded italics are mine).
The above is very significant and necessitates further
clarification. Here, in Quimby’s own words is the rationale that led him to the
discovery of mental healing. He wrote the following in his manuscript, which is
now in the public domain:
Now what was the secret
of the cure? I had not the least doubt but that I was as he [Lucius] described;
and, if he had said, as I expected he would, that nothing could be done, I
should have died in a year or so. But when he said he could cure me in the
way he proposed, I began to think; and I discovered that I had been deceived
into a belief that made me sick. The absurdity of his remedies made me doubt
the fact that my kidneys were diseased, for he said in two days they were as
well as ever. If he saw the first condition, he also saw the last; for in both
cases he said he could see. I concluded in the first instance that he read my
thoughts, and when he said he could cure me he drew on his own mind; and his
ideas were so absurd that the disease vanished by the absurdity of the cure.
This was the first stumbling block I found in the medical science. I soon
ventured to let him examine me further, and in every case he would describe my
feelings, but would vary the amount of disease; and his explanation and
remedies always convinced me that I had no such disease, and that my
troubles were of my own make.[10]
(The bolded italics are mine).
From the above quotation, we can clearly infer that Lucius
persuaded Quimby in the possibility of his healing; in fact, Lucius gave a
treatment and indirectly convinced Quimby that there was a remedy for his
illness. This was a powerful suggestions that cured him. At least for a
few moments, Quimby believed in Lucius’ treatment and explanation; actually
Lucius was the last resource; Quimby did not have anything to lose but the
opportunity to save his life.
Afterward, Quimby pondered the question about the riddle of
his cure, and he realized that the medical diagnosis made him believe that he
was so badly ill; as a consequence, he had expected to die. He concluded that
his beliefs were responsible for the illness; so if his beliefs made him sick,
changing his beliefs would make him whole. Quimby never gave any credit to
Lucius about his healing. Ironically, Mary Baker Eddy would
later likewise deny that she was cured by Quimby.
The above facts indicate that Lucius indirectly cured
Quimby. The evidence for it, is when Quimby was still under the “medical spell”
and believed that he was badly sick, Lucius gave him hope, and instilled a
healing suggestion. This suggestion was reinforced when Lucius laid his hand on
his Quimby’s body and prescribed some kind of medication. Initially, Quimby
believed in Lucius; this is verified by the fact that he allowed Lucius to lay
his hands over the ill part of his body “to put his kidneys together.” This
is exactly how the placebo effect works. The corroboration to this
reasoning is given by Quimby himself when he wrote the next paragraph in his
famous manuscript:
At this time I
frequently visited the sick with Lucius, by invitation of the attending
physician; and the boy examined the patient and told facts that would astonish
everybody, and yet every one of them was believed. For instance, he told a
person affected as I had been, only worse, that his lungs looked like a
honeycomb, and his liver was covered with ulcers. He then prescribed some
simple herb tea, and the patient recovered; and the doctor believed the
medicine cured him. But I believed that the doctor made the disease; and his
faith in the boy made a change in the mind, and the cure followed. Instead
of gaining confidence in the doctors, I was forced to the conclusion that their
science is false.[11]
(The italic are mine).
The above account given by Quimby demonstrates that
Lucius, wittingly or unwittingly, was practicing oral suggestion and placebo
very effectively. When the young lad was under a mesmeric state, supposedly
mentally reading maladies and prescribing medicine, he was giving very powerful
suggestions to the naive and gullible people of the time. It is clear that
Lucius cured by virtue of his suggestions when he diagnosed and then prescribed
folk medicine that acted as a placebo. These suggestions were all the more
compelling for the ill person because Lucius was under a mesmeric state of
mind, which made people believed that he was indeed clairvoyantly diagnosing
their illness. For the folks of that time, this was extraordinary, something
supernatural which enhanced their receptiveness to the given suggestions. As
Quimby stated above, in many cases, he visited the house of an ill person as
per the request of that person’s attending physician. After Lucius’s “clairvoyant
reading,” the attending physician usually approved and sanctioned as correct
the diagnosis and prescription given by Lucius. This fact enhanced the
effectiveness of the suggestion to its highest degree, and inevitably, the
healing took place.
Another important aspect that needs to be mentioned
here is Quimby’s intense desire to get well. Paul Foster Case has stated
that “desires are the most potent form of suggestion.” A suggestion is
immensely powerful when it is backed up by a strong desire. There is no doubt
that Quimby had an enormous desire to regain his health; that is why he became
interested in mesmerism and was seeking new methods of healing. This inner
desire was ignited when Lucius assured him that he could be healed. Before that
he had completely given up any hope of healing and was expecting to die.
After Quimby was restored to health, he concluded
that the use of mesmeric treatment and clairvoyant readings were not necessary
for a healing. Henceforth, he abandoned mesmerism and clairvoyant methods and
instead adopted the technique of changing the mindset of the patient through a
conscious explanation. Quimby came to understand that disease was in the mind
of man rather than the body. However, ordinary people were oblivious to this
psychological principle; so Quimby’s mission would be to explain that people
can heal themselves by changing their negative belief systems. At this point,
Quimby reduced disease to the realm of beliefs; since beliefs can be changed,
disease can be cured by mental means. Quimby soon arrived at his main
hypothesis: “Disease being in its roots a wrong belief, change that belief
and we cure the disease.” That is the power of the thought over the body.
Changing negative thinking will produce a positive effect on the body’s
neurological, visceral, and cellular system. This is being confirmed by the new
scientific disciplines of Neuroscience and New Biology (Epigenetics).
From the above factual conclusions, Quimby
became convinced about mental healing and developed a technique that can be
called Suggestive Explanatory Treatment. Unlike the Freudian “talking
therapy,” which consisted of allowing the patient to do most of the talk during
the session, Quimby’s treatment was explanatory; he used to say, “The
explanation is the cure.” This method consisted of first, empowering the
patient as creator of his condition; second, explaining to the patient how he
became sick by fostering wrong beliefs and how changing those beliefs could
lead to the restoration of his health; and third, “hammering”, or repeating
these ideas until they became familiar to the patient. Quimby did not make use
of denials as later Christian Scientists would do; this is one of the
most important differences between the two systems. Quimby’s main postulate
was: “The false belief is the error.”
The second phase in the evolution of Quimby’s
healing method was when he stumbled from a mesmeric technique into a new
therapeutic method that can be called Suggestive Explanatory treatment. This
therapy can be described as follows; he would sit next to the patient and
listen attentively all his/her concerns. This in itself is a therapeutic
component nowadays called the “talking cure.” It was scientifically validated
by Dr. Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud, who incorporated it into his
psychoanalytic theory.[12]
Furthermore, Quimby would ask some questions and through his personal insight
intuitively determine the nature of the problem. Then he would explain that the
illness was the patient’s creation, an error of the mind. He would make clear
the mental causes of their maladies and then replace the patient’s fear with
the firm expectation that the illness can be cured. Quimby used to repeat the
above statements until the patient understood or internalized these innovative
ideas. In modern psychology, this procedure can be considered direct
suggestion. Due to his convincing arguments he was able to accomplish a
significant change in the habitual mental attitude of the patient; as a result,
in most cases, recovery was almost immediate. The healing session was concluded
with a short period of silent prayer. Although this method of healing was
relatively simple, and no medical prescription or physical intervention was
used, for some people, it was exceedingly difficult to believe in it;
consequently, Quimby sometimes would rub or massage the patient’s head with wet
hands in order for them to believe that something had been done. Here
rests the efficacy of the placebo effect. According to Quimby’s manuscripts, he
never claimed any healing efficacy in the rubbing of patient’s heads, other
than to make them believe that “something was done,” that is, to strengthen the
patient’s confidence in the treatment. Quimby's conviction was that a patient’s
faith and expectation were essential elements for recovering health.
At this point, he became the “New England Doctor;”
although he did not hold any academic degree, Quimby was called “doctor” by his
patients and acquaintances as a courtesy, and because, at that time, it was
customary to call a person who performs healings “doctor.” It was also a token
of respect. “Dr.” Quimby summarized his method of treatment in a circular he
distributed when he formally established his professional healing practice in
Portland, Maine in 1859, as follows:
My practice is unlike
all medical practice. I give no medicine, and make no outward applications. I
tell the patient his troubles, and what he thinks is his disease, and my
explanation is the cure. If I succeed in correcting his errors, I change the
fluids of the system and establish the truth or health. The truth is the
cure. This mode of practice applies to all cases.[13]
(The italic are mine).
This is the core of mental treatment. Quimby clearly
indicated “What the patient thinks is his disease” and identified that
harmful thinking as “his error.” He further stated that if he succeeded
in correcting the patient’s faulty thinking, then Quimby “established the truth”
for the patient, and that truth was the cure. What was the error? The wrong
beliefs and ideas fostered in the mind of the patient.
The following account
given by one of Quimby’s patients and a pioneer of the New Thought movement,
Annetta G. Dresser, gives a real picture of the healing method that Quimby was
using when he started his practice in Portland, Maine. This treatment can be
divided into four stages: 1) empowering, 2) personal persuasion, 3) hammering,
and 4) silent spiritual treatment (closing healing). Annetta Dresser describes
Quimby’s healing method thusly:
He seemed to know that I
had come to him feeling that he was the last resort, and with but little faith
in him or his mode of treatment. But instead of telling me that I was not sick,
he sat beside me, and explained to me what sickness was, how I got into the
condition, and the way I could have been taken out of it through the right
understanding. [Empowering the patient]
He seemed to see through
the situation from the beginning, and explained the cause and effect so clearly
that I could see a little of what he meant. My case was so serious; however,
that he did not at first tell me I could be made well. But there was such an
effect produced by his first explanation that I felt a new hope within me, and
began to get well from that day. [Quimby’s influential and charismatic
personality stimulates healing.]
He continued to explain
my case from day to day, giving me some idea of his theory and its relation to
what I had been taught to believe, [hammering] and sometimes sat
silently with me for a short time. [Silent spiritual treatment].
The first two steps indicated above are of utmost
importance in any kind of treatment, whether mental or conventional. First is
the acknowledgment of the patient as a human being, as a spiritual entity,
regardless of his present condition and background. In humanistic terms, a man
is part of the human community and deserves care and consideration. Second, a
charismatic personality radiates positive energy and produces changes in the
other person. This characteristic was also observed as a special attribute of
Mesmer as well. The third aspect indicated above is the silent closing of the
session, which is a short period of praying and silent treatment. As Horatio
Dresser stated, the silent treatment is Quimby’s chief discovery.
When Quimby opened his
office at the International Hotel in Portland, in 1859, he devoted himself
full-time to the enterprise of curing people. Thousands of patients flocked to
his office, many of whom were diagnosed as incurable by medical professionals
of the time. The period of 1859 to 1865 was the most productive and important
chapter of Quimby’s life. This period was when he performed the most remarkable
healings of many important people of New England. Among the illustrious people
who came to his office seeking help were the two daughters of the late Judge
Ashur Ware of the United States Court[14],
the Methodist minister Warren Felt Evans, Julius Dresser, his wife Annetta
Dresser, and Mary Baker Eddy.
Many wonderful cases of
healing of incurable diseases were reported in the local newspapers, by
independent writers.[15]
It was also during this period that Quimby developed a more advanced
therapeutic theory; from Suggestive Explanatory Healing, he stepped into
Spiritual Mind Healing. This constituted a quantum leap in the evolution of his
healing theory.
Spiritual Mind Healing is a higher level of
therapy; it regards every human as a spiritual being rather than a physical
body. Also, emphasis is shifted from a mental and suggestive treatment to the
spiritual realm. Therefore, the treatment becomes metaphysical rather
than mental; the change of thought or idea is secondary. The main aspect is not
imposing different ideas on the ill person but acknowledging his divine Self,
which is never ill; the thing is the divine Self is entrapped and eclipsed by
the physical causes of the illness. Furthermore, Quimby conceived that all men
and women share a guiding principle, which is the “divine wisdom” within
humans. Amazingly, Quimby intuitively discovered the principle of the existence
of a universal mind shared by all human beings.
Furthermore, Quimby incorporated Biblical
principles into his new theory and tried to give an explanation of his healing
based on Jesus Christ’s teachings. It is astounding to find in Quimby’s thought
metaphysical principles that he intuitively was able to formulate them. For instance,
he held the idea that all human beings are connected through a “hidden mind”;
this concept can be considered in modern psychology as the subconscious mind.
For Quimby, all causes were in reality spiritual; that is, all causation in the
physical world is internal rather than external. Quimby spoke about the “hidden
mind” that is accessible to the spiritual healer. Here we find that Quimby
intuitively foresaw the existence of the subconscious independent of the
conscious mind. This finding made intuitively was before of the studies of the
Nancy School of Hypnosis and prior Thomson J. Howard and Sigmund Freud.
For Quimby, any human has two parts: the Inner
Being, what he called Principle-Christ or Scientific man; and the outward
personality, which he called the mortal man. The spiritual being (or
Principle-Christ) that dwells in man is concealed by the physical or mortal
one. Quimby recognized the supremacy of the spirit over matter. He believed the
material world springs from spiritual sources. Quimby’s greatest conception was
that man essentially is a “spiritual being”; he distinguished between the
mortal (physical) and immortal (spiritual) being. Horatio Dresser further
clarifies that Quimby addressed the treatment to the “real man, the spirit, who
needed to be summoned into power.”[16]
Quimby kept a journal in which he noted all his
experiences and findings in developing his metaphysical theories on
mental/spiritual healing. Quimby’s manuscripts verify that he was the first to
use the term Christian healing. He sincerely thought that he had
rediscovered the spiritual technique by which Jesus Christ cured people, and
that is why he did not want to take any credit as the discoverer of this mental
treatment. Instead, he practiced Jesus’ example in healing people to mitigate
their suffering. That is why Quimby called his therapeutic method “Science
of Christ” or “Christ Science.” Note the resemblance to the words
“Christian Science.”
Quimby held the idea that it is through divine
wisdom that healing can be achieved. He resorted to the New Testament to find
evidence for his healing method, and he arrived at the conclusion that his
therapeutic treatment was similar to Jesus Christ’s. He definitely abandoned
the theory of mental healing, the power of one person’s mind influencing
another’s, and he replaced it with what can be called mind/spiritual
healing. This is his greatest legacy to humanity. It is an extraordinary
contribution to healing without medicine, a new way to alleviate human
suffering. At this point, his fundamental doctrine goes beyond considering a
disease a wrong belief. His healing paradigm was shifted to the
spiritual conception of man.
Quimby would also
request the participation of the patient in the healing process. The patient
had to believe in the effectiveness of the treatment. He was aware that beliefs
are of great importance; that most of our beliefs are erroneous, and that God
is an invisible Wisdom which fills all space and whose attributes are light,
wisdom, goodness and love. God is the only reality, everlasting essence,
existing in all matter. He wrote, “The true God is benevolent, and could never
have created disease. Sickness comes from beliefs and fears and faith is the
remedy.”[17]
This insightful statement is remarkable, because it is close to the
metaphysical concept of the existence of a universal mind or
consciousness.
By the end of
1865, the master Quimby decided to withdraw from his healing practice and moved
to Belfast, Maine. It appears he was overburdened from too much work. An
article published in the Portland Advertiser gives an interesting
account of his retirement. The writer acknowledged that Quimby was well
respected by the people who knew him and that “his departure will be viewed as
a public loss.” The article further continues making the following observation:
That he has manifested
wonderful power in healing the sick among us, no well-informed an unprejudiced
person can deny. Indeed, for more than twenty years the doctor [Quimby] has
devoted himself to this one object; namely, to cure the sick, and to
discover through his practice the origin and nature of disease. By a method
entirely novel and at first sight quite unintelligible, he has been slowly
developing what he calls the “Science of Health”… [18]
(The bolded italics are mine).
The last words of the above quotation are worthy to be
noted; we see that the terms “Science of Health” were attributed to Quimby’s
intellectual discovery and they were in public domain before the publication of
Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health. This was the first title of her
book.
Finally, Julius A. Dresser, one of the first pioneers of
New Thought, knew Quimby personally; he describes Quimby as a humble and
“remarkable man [….] to this was united a benevolent and an unselfish nature,
and love of truth.”[19]
This noble and compassionate characteristic of Quimby’s personality, mentioned
many times by the people who knew him, is evidenced in his legacy left to
future generations. He never thought of copyrighting his discoveries or his
teachings; following Jesus’ Christ’s teachings, Quimby selflessly gave them to
his disciples and to the world. He articulated this intellectual heritage in
the following words: “This is my theory, to put man in possession of a science
that will destroy the idea of the sick, and teach man one living profession of
his identity with life free from error and disease.”[20]
The master, Phineas Quimby, died on January 16, 1866, at
the age of sixty-four, in Belfast, Maine. It is said that his death was the
result of excessive work and dedication to his healing profession. His epitaph
accurately describes him as one of great people of this time: "Greater
love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends."
His kindness and devotion to the welfare of his fellow men were well known. He
loved his neighbors and was a genuine seeker of truth. Quimby did not take any
credit as the discoverer of mind/spiritual healing; he was
content enough believing that he re-discovered the way Jesus had healed
people, and saw his mission as teaching and sharing his discoveries with anyone
who was interested and ready for them.
In the late 1850s Quimby had
postulated his metaphysical ideas regarding healing the sick by changing the
mind of the patient. Since then, more than a century and half have elapsed.
Currently, several modern scientific disciplines have emerged that are
confirming the fundamental thesis of the New England healer. Neuroscience, New
Biology (Epigenetics), Quantum Physics, Depth Psychology, and Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI); all of them, in some degree, validate Quimby’s
theory regarding the power of the mind to cure the physical body.
www.amazon.com/author/amao
www.albertamao.com
[1] Willa Cather & Georgina Milmine, The
Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy & The History of Christian Science
(University of Nebraska Press, 1993), p. 45.
[2] Horatio W. Dresser, The Quimby
Manuscript, Showing the Discovery of Spiritual Healing and the
Origin of Christian Science (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1921).
[3] Wikipedia, the Free
Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury(I)_chloride.
See also the interesting article entitled Heavy Metal Medicine, at http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/tcaw/10/i01/html/01chemch.html. Retrieved on Aug.
2, 11.
[5] Also refer to the books of Annetta G.
Dresser, The Philosophy of P.P. Quimby, and by Horatio Dresser, A
History of the New Thought Movement.
[7] Horatio W. Dresser, A History of the
New Thought Movement (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company Publishers, 1919)
pp.31-32.
[12] This subject will be discussed in
detail in the subchapter devoted to S. Freud and his psychoanalysis.
[13] Julius A. Dresser, The True History
of Mental Healing (Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son Printers, 1887), p. 8.
[15] See the extracts of local newspapers
inserted in the book mentioned in the note number 18, as well as in Quimby Manuscripts.
[18] Annetta Gertrude Dresser: The
Philosophy of P. P. Quimby (Cornerstone Books). An online copy of it can be
found at http://jadresser.wwwhubs.com/quimby1/htm.
[20] Julius A. Dresser: The True History of Mental Science, op. cit.
