Читать книгу The Secret Source - Maja D'Aoust - Страница 11

Every phenomenon in the natural world has its origin in the spiritual world.

—Phineas Quimby

It was in 1838 that Quimby learned of Mesmerism by attending a lecture by a Dr. Collyer, and he shortly thereafter set about becoming a Mesmerist. Quimby went through spurts of success and failure with treating patients for many years, until finally he found one individual whom he could influence no matter the situation.

This patient was a young boy named Lucius Burkmar. Lucius appeared not only to be prone to Quimby’s influence, but to actually possess clairvoyant abilities of his own. Quimby discovered that Lucius could in fact diagnose the diseases of others with great accuracy.

One day Lucius offered a diagnosis for Quimby himself, who had been suffering considerable back pain that he had never mentioned to Lucius. Lucius told Quimby that his kidney was detaching, and he proceeded to pass his hands over the area, telling Quimby it was now fixed. Afterwards, Quimby never again felt a pain in this area, and was effectively cured. This lead Quimby to believe that Lucius was reading his mind, and convincing him that his ailment did not exist.

Phineas Quimby’s son George wrote about his father’s life and curious healing techniques for New England Magazine in 1888:

Mr. Quimby was of medium height, small in stature, his weight being about one hundred and twenty-five pounds; quick motioned and nervous, with piercing black eyes, black hair and whiskers; a well-shaped, well-balanced head; high, broad forehead, a rather prominent nose, and a mouth indicating strength and firmness of will; persistent in what he undertook, and not easily defeated or discouraged.

In the course of his trials with subjects, he met with a young man named Lucius Burkmar, over whom he had the most wonderful influence; and it is not stating it too strongly to assert that with him he made some of the most astonishing exhibitions of mesmerism and clairvoyance that have been given in modern times . . .

Mr. Quimby’s manner of operating with his subject was to sit opposite to him, holding both his hands in his, and looking him intently in the eye for a short time, when the subject would go into that state known as the mesmeric sleep, which was more properly a peculiar condition of mind and body, in which the natural senses would or would not operate at the will of Mr. Quimby. When conducting his experiments, all communications on the part of Mr. Quimby with Lucius were mentally given, the subject replying as if spoken to aloud. . . .

It should be remembered that at the time Mr. Quimby was giving these exhibitions, the phenomenon was looked upon in a far different light from that of the present day. At that time it was a deception, a fraud, and a humbug; Mr. Quimby was vilified and frequently threatened with mob violence, as the exhibitions smacked too strongly of witchcraft to suit the people.

As the subject gained more prominence, thoughtful men began to investigate the matter, and Mr. Quimby was often called upon to have his subject examine the sick. He would put Lucius into the mesmeric state, [and Lucius] would then examine the patient, describe his disease, and prescribe remedies for its cure.

After a time Mr. Quimby became convinced that whenever the subject examined a patient, his diagnosis of the case would be identical [to] what either the patient himself or someone present believed, instead of Lucius really looking into the patient, and giving the true condition of the organs; in fact, [Quimby believed] that he was reading the opinion in the mind of someone, rather than stating a truth acquired by himself.

Becoming firmly satisfied that this was the case, and having seen how one mind could influence another, and how much there was that had always been considered as true, but was merely some one’s opinion, Mr. Quimby gave up his subject, Lucius, and began the developing of what is now known as mental healing, or curing disease through the mind.

While engaged in his mesmeric experiments, Mr. Quimby became more and more convinced that disease was an error of the mind, and not a real thing; and in this he was misunderstood by others, and accused of attributing the sickness of the patient to the imagination, which was the very reverse of the fact. No one believed less in the imagination than he. “If a man feels a pain, he knows he feels it, and there is no imagination about it,” he used to say.

But the fact that the pain might be a state of the mind, while apparent in the body, he did believe. As one can suffer in a dream all that it is possible to suffer in a waking state, so Mr. Quimby averred that the same condition of mind might operate on the body in the form of disease, and still be no more of a reality than was the dream.

As the truths of his discovery began to develop and grow in him, just in the same proportion did he begin to lose faith in the efficacy of mesmerism as a remedial agent in the cure of the sick; and after a few years he discarded it altogether.

Instead of putting the patient into a mesmeric sleep, Mr. Quimby would sit by him; and, after giving him [an] account of what his troubles were, [Quimby] would simply converse with him, and explain the causes of the troubles, and thus change the mind of the patient, and disabuse it of its errors and establish the truth in its place; which, if done, was the cure.

He sometimes, in cases of lameness and sprains, manipulated the limbs of the patient, and often rubbed the head with his hands, wetting them with water. He said it was so hard for the patient to believe that his mere talk with him produced the cure, that he did this rubbing simply [so] that the patient would have more confidence in him; but he always insisted that he possessed no “power” nor healing properties different from anyone else, and that his manipulations conferred no beneficial effect upon his patient.

He never went into any trance, and was a strong disbeliever in Spiritualism, as understood by that name. He claimed, and firmly held, that his only power consisted in his wisdom, and in his understanding the patient’s case and being able to explain away the error and establish the truth, or health, in its place. Very frequently the patient could not tell how he was cured, but it did not follow that Mr. Quimby himself was ignorant of the manner in which he performed the cure.

Suppose a person should read an account of a railroad accident, and see in the list the name of his son who was killed. The shock on the mind would cause a deep feeling of sorrow on the part of the parent, and possibly a severe sickness, not only mental, but physical.

Now, what is the condition of the patient? Does he imagine his trouble? Is it not real? Is his body not affected, his pulse quick, and has he not all the symptoms of a sick person, and is he not really sick?

Suppose you can go and say to him that you were on the train, and saw his son alive and well after the accident, and prove to him that the report of his death was a mistake. What follows? Why, the patient’s mind undergoes a change immediately, and he is no longer sick.

It was on this principle that Mr. Quimby treated the sick. He claimed that “mind was spiritual matter and could be changed,” that we were made up of “truth and error;” that “disease was an error, or belief, and that the Truth was the cure.” And upon these premises he based all his reasoning, and laid the foundation of what he asserted to be the “science of curing the sick” without other remedial agencies than the mind.

Quimby’s escapades with Lucius and his clairvoyant abilities had no small influence on spiritualists of the time, and, based upon their performances, many began utilizing the Mesmeric trance to achieve clairvoyant capabilities. It was on account of these unexplainable mind readings that Quimby came to question what was happening in Mesmerism, eventually developing his own system of spiritual healing. In Quimby’s teachings, the emphasis was on the action of God, rather than merely the influence of one human mind on another. Quimby was convinced that he had rediscovered the healing method of Jesus. He abandoned his assistant Lucius and developed his own theory of healing, called the “Quimby Method,” reintroducing the earlier Hermetic ideas that God was the driving force behind the success of Mesmeric treatment.

“Now for my particular experience,” writes Mr. Quimby in an article quoted in The True History of Mental Science:

I had pains in the back, which, they said, were caused by my kidneys, which were partly consumed. I was also 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 in when I commenced to mesmerize. On one occasion, when I had my subject 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 hand 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, and therefore I must suffer till death relieved me. But I asked him 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 have experienced the least pain from them.

Now what was the secret of the cure? I had not the least doubt but that I was as he 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 that 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 could describe my feelings, but would vary about 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.

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 of a person affected as I had been, only worse, that his lungs looked like a honey comb 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 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.

Man is made up of truth and belief; and, if he is deceived into a belief that he has, or is liable to have, a disease, the belief is catching, and the effect follows it. I have given the experience of my emancipation from this belief and from my confidence in the doctors, so that it may open the eyes of those who stand where I was. I have risen from this belief; and I return to warn my brethren, lest, when they are disturbed, they shall get into this place of torment prepared by the medical faculty. Having suffered myself, I cannot take advantage of my fellow men by introducing a new mode of curing disease by prescribing medicine. My theory exposes the hypocrisy of those who undertake to cure in that way. They make ten diseases to one cure, thus bringing a surplus of misery into the world, and shutting out a healthy state of society . . . . When I cure, there is one disease the less . . . . My theory teaches man to manufacture health; and, when people go into this occupation, disease will diminish, and those who furnish disease and death will be few and scarce.

What really were the differences between Dr. Quimby’s methods and those of Mesmer? Quimby studied and practiced Mesmerism for no less than twenty-one years (1838–1859) before establishing his own methodologies. Quimby went to great pains to separate himself from the Mesmerists, most likely due to certain stigma becoming attached to them through the Spiritualism community.

As my practice is unlike all other medical practice, it is necessary to say that I give no medicines and make no outward applications, but simply sit by the patient, tell him what he thinks is his disease, and my explanation is the cure. And 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.”¹⁹

Quimby claimed to have “changed the fluids,” which is precisely what animal magnetism does. What is the difference between a “spiritual force” and a “cosmic fluid?” What exactly is the difference between mental influence and animal magnetism? The reality is that there is no appreciable difference, despite the different names.

Mesmer was trying to prove that a physical force was at work, while Quimby went about trying to prove that it was a spiritual force. Mesmer removed the word “God” from his Hermetic sources, and Quimby put it back in. Instead of putting the patient into a mesmeric sleep, Quimby himself would go into a trance-like state.

It is important to realize that this method dates back to shamanic traditions. Quimby would sit next to the patient and speak in hushed tones. Sometimes he would lay on hands and massage, after wetting his hands with water. Quimby said that sometimes he ran into resistance from the patient if he didn’t touch them, although he asserted that touch was unnecessary to bring about a cure.

As you have given me the privilege of answering the article in your paper of the 11th inst., wherein you classed me with spiritualists, mesmerisers, clairvoyants, etc., I take this occasion to state where I differ from all classes of doctors, from the allopathic physician to the healing medium. All of these admit disease as an independent enemy of mankind . . . . Now I deny disease as a truth, but admit it as a deception, without any foundation, handed down from generation to generation, till the people believe it, and it has become a part of their lives . . . . My way of curing convinces [the patient] that he has been deceived; and, if I succeed, the patient is cured. My mode is entirely original.²⁰

Well, not entirely original, since such faith-healing had in fact been used since the time of Hermeticists and shamans.

There is no small amount of scientific research to support the fact that some form of energy can be transferred from one person to another through the windows of our eyes, the gateways to our souls. Rupert Sheldrake has laid forth his considerable research into this matter in his book Seven Experiments That Could Change the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Revolutionary Science. Sheldrake asserts that “Vision may involve a two-way process, an inward movement of light and an outward projection of mental images.”

This means that our minds reach out and “touch” the things we see. If this happens, our minds can have some influence on what is within our vision. This is also corroborated by findings of quantum physicists such as Heisenberg, that our observation of electrons alters their behavior. In 1898, the psychologist Edward B. Titchener tested what people can sense when they are being stared at by another person; his findings were later corroborated by several scientists.²¹ That we can physically “feel” a stare certainly implies some form of energy exchange. This energy can be either helpful or malicious, according to various folk traditions, especially in the Middle East. The “evil eye” has been used for centuries to send bad energy to people, such as curses and diseases. It fits, then, that if one can send a disease to someone through their eye, they may heal them of it by the same means.

As shocking as this may sound to some, it is by no means a new concept. The East Indian equivalent of hypnosis is called sammohan.

Sammohan shakti has been practiced in India since Vedic times. It can be defined as the power of attraction. Sammohan is inborn in every human being. Even while I talk to you, there is a kind of hypnosis where I try to attract and hold your attention, planting subtle suggestions.²²

In Hermetic literature, the world is thought of as a panoply of mental images, the mental images as contained within the intellect of the adept (and God) and projected upon the world. We “dream the world into being.” Once the mind of the adept is aligned with the mind of God, the adept can affect change in the world simply through thought.

Having attained unity with the God whose thought was the universe, a Hermeticist was presumably empowered to work magic by commanding his thoughts. As a rationalization of already existing Hermetic practices of conjuring, Hermetic rebirth may, as Nock suggested, have been “a curious sacrament of auto-suggestion.”²³ The Corpus Hermeticum I concludes: “This is the final good for those who have received knowledge: to be made god.” We become the God-mind once we align ourselves to its thoughts.