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.]
Phineas P. Quimby (02/16/1802—01/16/1866)
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.
Phineas Quimby and Lucius Burkmar[6]
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.
http://www.amazon.com/Healing-Without-Medicine-Pioneers-Practice/dp/0835609219
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=11826
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=11826
[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.
[4] Horatio W. Dresser, The Quimby Manuscript, op. cit.
[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.
[8] Horatio W. Dresser, The Quimby Manuscripts, op. cit., Chapter 3: Quimby’s Restoration
to Heath.
[9] Ibidem.
[10] Ibidem.
[11] Ibid.
[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.
[14] Annetta G. Dresser, The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby.
[15] See the extracts of local newspapers
inserted in the book mentioned in the note number 18, as well as in Quimby
Manuscripts.
[16] Horatio W. Dresser, A History of the New Thought Movement, op. cit., p. 52
[17] Ibidem.
[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.
[19] Horatio W. Dresser: A History of the New Thought Movement, op. cit., p. 24.
