Legitimate Scope and Natural Limitations of Mental and Metaphysical
Healing
During the last generation people have perceived more or less
clearly the fallacies of "Old School" medicine and surgery.
They have grown more and more suspicious of orthodox theories
and practices. From allopathic "overdoing" the pendulum
has swung to the other extreme of metaphysical nihilism, to the
"underdoing" of mental and metaphysical systems of treating
human ailments.
Some of these systems and cults of metaphysical healing have met
with success and wide popularity and this is looked upon by their
followers as a proof that all the claims and teachings of these
cults and isms are based upon absolute truth.
However, a thorough understanding of the fundamental Laws of Cure,
as I have explained them in this volume, will reveal in how far
their teachings and their practices are based upon truth and in
how far they are inspired by erroneous assumptions.
Let us then apply the yardstick and the weights and measures of
Nature Cure philosophy in testing the true value of the claims
of metaphysical healers.
For ages people have been educated in the belief that almost every
acute disease will end fatally unless the patient is drugged or
operated on. When they find to their surprise that the metaphysical
formulas or prayers of a mental healer or Christian Scientist
will "cure" baby's measles or father's smallpox just
as well as, and possibly better than, Dr. Dopem's pills and potions,
they are firmly convinced that a miracle has been performed in
their behalf and straightway they become blind believers in and
fanatical followers of their new idols.
They simply exchange one superstition for another: the belief
in the efficacy of drugs and surgical operations for the belief
in the wonder-working power of a metaphysical formula, a self-appointed
savior or a reason-stultifying and will-benumbing cult. They have
not been taught that every acute disease is the result
of a healing effort of Nature and therefore fail to see
that it is vital force, the physician within, that, if conditions
are favorable, cures measles and smallpox as easily as it repairs
the broken blade of grass or heals the wounded deer of the forest.
"That
is exactly what we say," exclaim healer and scientist. "Have
unlimited faith in the God within and all will be well."
True, faith is good, but faith and works are better. Though we
cannot heal and give life, we can in many ways assist the healer
within. We can teach and explain Nature's Laws, we can remove
obstructions and we can make the conditions within and around
the patient more favorable for the action of Nature's healing
forces.
When the Great Master said: "Go forth and sin no more, lest
worse things than these befall you," he acknowledged sin,
or the transgression of natural laws, to be the primary cause
of disease, and made health dependent upon compliance with the
Law. The necessity of complying with the Law, in all respects
and on all the planes of being, is still more strongly emphasized
in the following:
"For
whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all."
The skeptic and the superficial reader may reply: "This saying
is utterly unreasonable. Stealing a penny is not committing a
murder; overeating does not break the law of chastity; how, then,
is it possible to break all laws by breaking any single one of
them?" There is, however, a deeper meaning to this seeming
paradox which makes it scientifically true.
Self-Control, the Whole Law
Obedience to all laws on all planes of being depends primarily
on self-control. Self-control is, therefore, in a sense, the whole
law, for man cannot break any one law unless he breaks first this
fundamental Law of all Laws. This implies that the demoralizing
effect of sinning or law-breaking, on any one of the planes of
being, does not depend so much upon the enormity of the deed as
upon the loss of self-control. Continued weakening of self-control
in trivial things may therefore, in the end, prove more destructive
than a murder committed in the heat of passion. If there is not
self-control enough to resist a cup of coffee or a cigar, whence
shall come the will-power to resist greater temptations?
Truly, lack of self-control in small things is the "dry rot"
of the soul. Is it not, then, somewhat unreasonable to expect
God or Nature to strain and twist the immutable laws of Nature
at the request of every healer in order to save us from the natural
consequences of overeating, red meat eating, whisky drinking,
smoking, tobacco chewing, drugging and a thousand and one other
transgressions of natural laws?
In spite of the finest-spun metaphysical sophistries, we continue
to burn our fingers in the fire until we know enough to leave
it alone. Herein lies the corrective purpose of that which we
call evil—suffering and disease. The rational thing to do
is not to deny the existence of Mother Nature's punishing rod,
but to escape her salubrious spankings by conforming to her Laws.
What about the "Cures"?
As in medicine, so also in metaphysical healing, men judge by
superficial results, not by the real underlying causes. The usual
answer to any criticism of Christian Science or kindred methods
of cure is: "That may be all right; but see the results!
Nobody can deny their wonderful cures," etc.
Let us see whether there really is anything wonderful or supernatural
about these cures or whether they can be explained on simple,
natural grounds.
In another chapter we explain the difference between functional
and organic disease and show how in diseases of the functional
type the life force or healing force, which always endeavors to
establish normal conditions and the perfect type, may work unaided
up to the reconstructive healing crises and through these eliminate
the morbid encumbrances from the system and reestablish normal
structure and function.
It is in cases like these that metaphysicians attain their best
results simply because Nature helps herself.
On the other hand, in cases of the true organic type,
where the vitality is low and the destruction of vital parts and
organs has progressed to a considerable extent, the system is
no longer able to arouse itself to self-help.
In such cases, faith alone is not sufficient to obtain results.
It must be backed and assisted by all the natural methods of treatment
at our command.
Healers
Work with Laws that
They Do Not Understand
In our critical analysis of "Old School" methods we
found that by far the greater part of all chronic ailments is
due to drugging and to surgery. People commence doctoring for
little troubles, which are aggravated by every dose of medicine
and every surgical operation until they end in big troubles.
Is it marvelous that such patients improve and that many are cured
when they are weaned from drugs and the knife?
Metaphysical healers unwittingly do their best and most beneficial
work because they induce their followers not to suppress acute
diseases and healing crises by drugs and surgical operations,
thus allowing them to run their natural course in harmony with
the fundamental law of Nature Cure, which states that every acute
disease is the result of a cleansing and healing effort of Nature.
People will refrain from the suppressive drug treatment under
the influence of metaphysical teachings, which appeal to the miracle-loving
element in their nature, when they cannot be convinced by common
sense Nature Cure reasoning.
Thus metaphysicians assist Nature indirectly by noninterference
and directly by soothing fear and worry, by instilling faith,
hope and confidence. Frequently they also aid Nature by prohibiting
the use of tobacco, alcohol and pork, and by regulating otherwise
the life and habits of their followers.
Let us consider the problem from another point of view. Let us
assume, for argument's sake, that the average person passes in
the course of a lifetime through a dozen different diseases. He
recovers from eleven of these, no matter what the treatment. It
is only the twelfth to which he succumbs. Yet, whosoever happened
to treat the first eleven diseases claims to have cured them and,
perhaps, to have saved the patient's life when, as a matter of
fact, he recovered very often in spite of the treatment and not
because of it.
These explanations account for the seemingly miraculous results
of metaphysical healing. If healers and Christian Scientists were
to explain their cures by the laws and principles of Nature Cure
philosophy, mystery and miracle would be taken out of their business.
"Faith Without Works" Is Dangerous
To believe that God or Nature will overcome the natural effects
of our ignorance, laziness and viciousness by wonders, signs and
metaphysics, or to deny the existence of sickness, sin and suffering,
must lead inevitably to intellectual and moral stagnation and
degeneration. I am a thorough and consistent optimist and New
Thought enthusiast, but I do not overlook the fact that in this,
as in everything else, there lurks always the danger of overdoing
and of exaggerating virtue into fault.
The greatest danger of this revulsion from old-time pessimism
to modern optimism lies in the fact that the Higher Thought enthusiast
may cut from under his feet the solid ground of reality; that
he may become a dreamer instead of a thinker and doer; and that
he may mistake selfish, emotional sentimentalism for practical
charity and altruism.
This unhealthy "all-is-good, there-is-no-evil" emotionalism
leads only too often to weakening of personal effort, a deadening
of the sense of individual responsibility and thereby to mental
and moral atrophy; for any of our voluntary functions, capacities
and powers which we fail to exercise will in time become benumbed
and paralyzed. Unprejudiced observers who come in close contact
with metaphysicians cannot help perceiving the pernicious effect
of their subtle sophistries on reason and character.
A chronic invalid who had been under the treatment of a faith
healer for several years exclaimed, when we gave her our various
instructions for dieting, bathing, breathing exercises, etc.:
"How glad I am that you give me something to do! I
fear I have been imposing too long on the goodness of the Lord,
expecting Him to do my work for me." Often afterwards,
while recovering from lifelong ailments, she expressed her happiness
and contentment in that she herself was doing something which
in her opinion was rational and helpful because it assisted Nature's
healing efforts.
We believe firmly and fully in the influence of mind over matter,
in the fact that vibrations of the physical plane by continuity
create corresponding vibrations on the mental and psychical planes
and vice versa. We know that, in accordance with this law, anything
which affects the mind or the moral life of a person affects also
his physical condition; but instead of hypnotizing the minds of
our patients by law-defying, reason- and will-benumbing dogmas
and formulas, we strengthen and harmonize their mental vibrations
by appealing to reason, by teaching and explaining natural laws
instead of obscuring and denying them.
The more intelligent the patient, the more amenable he will be
to such normal suggestions based on scientific truth and on the
dictates of reason and common sense.
While nonresistance to Nature's healing efforts is better than
suppression by drugs or the knife, there is something more helpful
and rational than the negative attitude toward disease on the
physical plane assumed by metaphysical healing cults. That
"something" is intelligent cooperation with Nature's
cleansing and healing efforts.
Where the Old School fails by sins of commission, the Faith Schools
fail by sins of omission. Many patients are sacrificed daily through
fanatical inactivity, when their lives might be saved by a wet
pack or a cold sponge bath, by an internal bath, rational diet,
judicious fasting, scientific manipulation or some other simple
yet powerful remedy of natural healing. To permit a patient to
perish in a burning fever, depending solely upon the efficacy
of prayers, formulas and mental attitude, when wet packs and cold
sponging would in a few minutes reduce the temperature below the
danger point, is manslaughter, even though it be done in the name
of religion.
Incidents like the following are common in our practice: A little
girl in the neighborhood of our institution was taken with diphtheria.
The mother, an ardent Christian Scientist, called in several healers
of her cult, but the child grew worse from day to day, until the
false membranes in the throat began to choke her to death.
A boarder in the house, who was a follower of Nature Cure, finally
induced the mother to call upon us for advice by threatening to
notify the City Health Department. Within an hour after the application
of the whole-body packs and the cold ablutions, the blood was
sufficiently drawn away from the local congestion in the throat
into the surface of the body, so that the child breathed easily
and freely, and from then on made a splendid recovery.
Another instance: A man had been suffering from sciatic rheumatism
for fifteen years. He had swallowed poisonous drugs to no avail.
For several years he had been under Mental Science treatment,
but the suffering had grown more intense.
When he applied to us for help, we found that the right hip bone
(the innominate) had slipped upward and backward. A few manipulative
treatments replaced the bone where it belonged, and the sciatic
rheumatism was cured.
In this case, the combined concentration and prayers of all the
metaphysical healers on earth would not have succeeded in replacing
the dislocated hip bone, which required the full strength of a
trained manipulator.
Metaphysicians could not have accomplished this feat any more
than they could have moved, by their mental efforts, a hundred-pound
weight from one place to another. Mechanical lesions of that kind
(and there are many of them) require mechanical treatment.
Another factor which makes converts to metaphysical healing cults
by the hundreds and thousands is the get-rich-quick instinct in
human nature, the desire to get something for nothing, or with
as little effort as possible. Herein lies the seductive pull of
old-time drugging and of modern metaphysics. "It does not
matter how you live; when you get into trouble, a bottle of medicine
or a metaphysical formula will make it all right." That sounds
very easy and promising, but the trouble is--it does not always
work.
Our forefathers were too pessimistic; higher thought enthusiasts
are often too optimistic. While the former poisoned their lives
and paralyzed their God-given faculties and powers by dismal dread
of hell's fire and damnation, our modern healers and Scientists
have drifted to the other extreme. They tell us there is no sin,
no pain, no suffering. If that be true, there is also no action
and reaction, no Law of Compensation, no personal responsibility,
no need of self-control, self-help or personal effort.
The ideal of the faith healer is the ideal of the animal. The
animal trusts implicitly, it has absolute faith; guided by instinct,
God, or Nature, it follows the promptings of its appetites and
passions without worrying about right or wrong. It acts today
as it did ten thousand years ago.
In man, reason has taken the place of instinct;
we must think and manage for ourselves. We are free and responsible
moral agents. If we deny this, we deny the very foundations of
equity, justice and right. It behooves us to use the talents which
God has given us, to study the laws of our being and to comply
with them to the best of our ability, so that enlightened reason
may take the place of animal instinct and guide us to physical,
mental and moral perfection.