The Text - Section 23
Answer to a Question
BU G:286
"Why do you not rub your head when sick?" Becuase I have nothing to rub out.
Now here are the two modes of reasoning. The natural man never sees that the
misery follows his acts. When he reasons it is all action with him and he never
dreams that reaction is the true wisdom, so the natural man is courageous at
first, for he does not see his real enemy. His real enemy is the natural result of
his acts, which is reaction, the true wisdom that will always measure to action its
own measure.
The wise man sees the wisdom of the thought before it takes effect and destroys
it. When the patient asked the question, he had the answer in the question for his
ignorance was what I was rubbing out, so if he had known that he would not have
wanted any rubbing. I will illustrate this mode of reasoning by Jeff Davis and
Abraham Lincoln. Davis' wisdom is all action, not having the element of true
wisdom or reaction in all his acts. He is ambitious and wants his own way; this
makes him a one-idea-man, all go-ahead without wisdom. His will is law and man
must obey. As he sees no reaction or wisdom, he shows courage, but it is the
effect of ignorance. Lincoln does not reason, his acts are governed by the
people, and his wisdom is in knowing the laws and in putting them into execution
according to the will of the people. He is not a dictator but a servant whom the
people have chosen. Here is the difference. Davis is a dictator without wisdom or
courage. Lincoln is a servant who has respect for his master, the people.
Knowing that his acts are the wishes of the people, he is strong; he does not
boast, for boasting is cowardice. Now when Davis sees the reaction of his folly,
he will flee, for his wisdom is of this world, not of science; for if he had the
science that action and reaction are equal, he would have seen that he was
building up a tower that would fall and crush him in the ruins of his own wisdom.
He did indeed show some spirit when his tower was rising, but when the winds of
the Northwest blew upon it, it commenced to tumble, the rocks and mortar began
to fall and he trembled, for his reason had departed from him. His friends forsook
him and he tried to find a place in the mountains to hide himself, for the day of
retribution had come and woe to them to whom it shall fall.
The last is a prophesy foretold the latter part of April 1861.
The Birth and Order of Intelligence in Man
BU 7:7
Life is the substance. Happiness and misery are independent of life. They are the
effect of our opinions. Our belief is the earthly or natural man. Science or wisdom
is the spiritual man or woman. Adam was the being of opinions, man or woman.
Science is the scientific man. The natural man or woman of earth has enslaved
the scientific man to the earth and called her woman, has himself received the
seed, so that the fruits of the earth are of man. So with intelligence. The natural
man or opinion is the woman, and the scientific man is the one that teaches the
natural intellect. Now the child is of the earth, earthly, but this mother is not its
scientific parent; the father of scientific intellect is its father, for it teaches what it
cannot receive from its mother earth or opinions. This was the case with Adam;
he was of the earth like all other brutes, but when the science came, he called it
woman because it came out of man. Adam or opinions brought forth science and,
as opinions rule, they put science down and called it woman. So the natural man
is of the woman, and the spiritual or scientific man is woman or the scientific
man.
The Brothers
BU 25:1, LC 7:50
[orig. untitled]
There once were two brothers who looked very much alike. They were in the
same business, dressed alike, were both lame and each had a pumple foot.
Their names were John and William R. A gentleman wished to find John, but
could not recall to mind his given name and he asked a friend if he had seen Mr.
R. Which one? There are two brothers. The lame one. They are both lame. Well,
the pumple-footed one. They are both so. Well he is a pedlar. They are both so.
Well, this man trades too. So do both. Well, my man is a democrat. So are they
both. After thinking awhile, he says, He wears a buffalo coat and drives a lame
horse. So they both do, replied the other. Well, said he, I will give up and wait till I
can see him. The difficulty was that the gentleman was not aware that there were
two brothers. As soon as he learned the fact, he must find out the name in order
to discover the right one.
Wisdom is the surname and Science and error the given names. Science is the
Christian name of wisdom and error that of ignorance. Neither ignorance nor
wisdom act, but as matter is the medium of both, it is difficult to distinguish them
unless you know their surnames. All through the Old Testament, these two
opposites are found as Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau. And in
the New Testament, Jesus and Christ, Paul and Saul, etc. These two characters
are in every person, but the natural man recognizes only one. Both can create,
God or Science through the scientific man, and error through the natural man.
And if you do not know their names, you will be liable to be deceived.
Opinions is the man that can invent stories and give false directions, that is,
creating disease. Wisdom never creates an idea that tends to make man
unhappy. Wisdom is outside of matter while opinions are in matter. The masses
of the people are the medium to act upon. An error exists in the masses which
sets the mind at work and after error has created a disturbance, it has not
wisdom enough to guide it. Being in ignorance of its wrong ideas, it finds fault
only with itself and guides and controls the storm by what intelligence there is in
matter. Error will fault but cannot show any reason for its acts. After the storm
has raged and destroyed the country, as those out of matter had prophesied,
then the same ones who caused the trouble commence a war against the
expenses the government have been to, to put out the fire these same persons
have kindled. Error commences the trouble by exciting the minds till a
phenomenon is produced. And while science is all the time trying by mild means
to correct the lie, error is attributing the cause to science. After it succeeds in
correcting the lie, then error berates it on account of the cost it has been to for
nothing, trying to show that had the capital been spent in another way, how much
better it would have been.
This is a fair example of how error works. When error is so subdued that science
takes the lead, then the two characters will be recognized and kept separate and
the acts will determine which is of science and which of error.
In order to show how error can invent a lie and have it admitted as truth, I have
only to refer to the rebellion. Every intelligent person will admit that had there
been no slavery in this country, we should not be engaged in the present war.
Here we have a starting point-slavery. Now the idea slavery exists in the minds of
man and every man individually will admit that he wants his liberty; yet, if every
one had his liberty as the world is now, there would be no liberty at all, for by
abolishing all laws, perfect liberty would be granted everyone. Then might would
be right and man is so constituted that the stronger would enslave the weaker. A
compormise must be made between liberty and slavery. In this compromise, man
has no right to bind or enlarge its bounds beyond the contract which is confined
to what the parties agree to.
The United States has great extent of territory and it embraces the two brothers-
freedom and slavery. To act on the agreement of equal rights as far as possible,
an agreement was made that the majority should decide which brother should
govern them when any new territory was annexed to the old homestead. As the
party for freedom increased, as it always will, slavery being the opposite
contracted with aristocracy and wanted that which it could not get by the
agreement. These two brothers are elements in every person and the
government is the voice of the one or the other. They are chosen as President or
oracle to utter the voice of the people, and the people are the matter to be acted
upon. Slavery is advocated and wants its power extended and all the elements of
the institution are brought to bear to help its progress. Freedom also appeals to
the people to prevent the spread of slavery. Now as freedom and slavery are
wedded together, as it were, a family quarrel ensues and the children take sides
with one or the other of their parents. Slavery is the father or brutal man.
Freedom is the mother. As slavery has the brutal strength of the father, it
endeavors to crush out freedom. But freedom having the sagacity of the mother
is shrewder and keeps herself more on her guard, while slavery having no other
motive than to rule tries to govern by its will.
Freedom is more powerful and is always on the lookout, while slavery being a
brutal element has no regard to self preservation. Its motto is, Let us eat, drink
and be merry and take no thought of the the morrow. So it does eat and drink till
the flood of liberty comes and washes it away. Man's life, his health and his
happiness is as much a science as chemistry and his errors will submit to
wisdom as much as they do in chemistry. Tell a person or a multitude of persons
that you can raise a ship upon the hydraulic principle with a gallon of water and
they will laugh you to scorn. You tell them, I do not wish you to believe what I say
merely because I say it, as I can demonstrate it. Then when you show the
experiment to be true, their mouths are closed and they bow in reverence to the
law or principle.
When man can be shown scientifically that his life is one that can be lengthened
or shortened by scientific computation, or changed from good to bad and bad to
good, then he will bow to that principle. The good does not change to bad nor the
bad to good, but science destroys the bad and the good lives, while error only
creates bad and covers up the good. Man's life and happiness are the things to
be attended to as that is for his happiness. For if he is unhappy and without
health, he is of all beings the most miserable. It has not entered man's mind that
his happiness is an effect and not a cause. In mathematics when a person is
working out a problem, if it is difficult, he is unhappy until he arrives at the
answer. Then if the answer is correct, he is happy and his error is swallowed up
in science and his science becomes wisdom. Man has analyzed everything but
himself which to him is a complete wilderness and full of false ideas which run
wild and destroy all his prospects. He rises in the morning apparently safe from
these wild beasts or ideas but before night, he is caught and devoured, else his
estate is mortgaged to the devil for a ransom to get rid of some error that he has
been accused of, such as going out of doors and taking cold, contrary to the laws
of his God. Man becomes a slave to the medical and religious world and is all his
life subject to their laws. This is the way that science is punished by its own. It
comes to its own and its own receives it not but turns and opposes it. All the
happiness that man has, has had to pass through the fire of excitement before it
could establish its claim; yet, there never has been a person who has been able
to resist this wicked generation that holds the life of man in slavery. Let man's
wisdom once get its standard established, that he must fight his way through the
rebel armies of medical and religious ideas before they will abandon the field to
him; then he will buckle on the armor of God or wisdom and fight the battle of
liberty from religious and medical slavery and establish the Science of God in the
intelligence of man. Then opinions will be cast out and man will live by science,
for opinions lead to death and misery, while science leads to health and
happiness. Then he will see that disease is the creation of error and that the
introduction of science is its destruction.
Man's happiness is in his wisdom and as he frees himself from the medical
faculty and their opinions by analyzing them, he destroys the phenomenon of
disease which he has built in himself, and this edifice or disease is matter and is
made by error and can be destroyed by science, for wisdom does not recognize
any matter and man's life is in it. Science is the light of his life with which to light
up the lamp of wisdom, and as the light springs up, the error dissolves. Now
admit this truth as a science and then the man will walk by science or light,
instead of error or darkness. Then he will learn that this world which contains all
kinds of disease, evil spirits and every miserable idea that makes us unhappy is
of our own make and created by our beliefs.
We can create this idea called matter and condense it into any form that our
belief is capable of forming. And if our power of imitation is sufficient, we can
form any idea we choose. Every disease is a manufactured article of our own
make and children being but a lump of our own ideas, their mind or matter is as
much under our control as their education. We can teach our children to be just
what we wish and even give form to their matter and certain actions to their
bodies. So we can create tumors, coughs, and every disease that flesh is heir to.
Mind or matter is like mortar or potter's clay. And no one can deny that the clay in
experienced or scientific hands can be made into better vessels than in the
hands of an unscientific person.
Mind is like the clay and wisdom and error are the potters. Error can make
vessels which wisdom can destroy. For error is merely an apprentice to wisdom,
as it were, and when wisdom molds the clay, error stands aside. The two
characters are spoken of by different names. Paul spoke of them as the inner
and outward man. If there is not some way to distinguish one from the other, how
are we to know which one speaks? The word science is not used but once in the
Old Testament and once in the New Testament. The people knew that there was
a difference between a truth and an error, but the two characters could not be
known except through the oracle or medium through which they spoke. The
natural man or error put the wisdom in the oracle, but the scientific man puts the
oracle in the wisdom. This makes two invisible beings acting through one oracle.
Therefore to know which one spoke, it was necessary to have them named. They
named one and the other when it became old enough to have a being. Science
was never applied to the inner or the outer man by the world, but science is the
one and error is the other.
The natural man is composed of gases and these gases must have a separate
identity. If the gases ever had identities, they must have had them in their original
state. If the gases separate, are the two characters of man; then man can have
an identity when he is separated from the gases which make what is called flesh
and blood. If oxygen is the life of man, then there must be life outside of matter,
for the oxygen cannot be destroyed or changed. Therefore the oxygen is the
outward man. Now divide the gases into two characters. One, that character
called truth or wisdom, the other error, and then the element embracing truth
cannot be changed; it includes all intelligence without matter. The other element
is under the control of wisdom which is the element I call God. It cannot be seen,
for it is all wisdom. The other element is the gases which compose the natural
man. These elements are the gases which are combined together to produce
certain effects. For instance, oxygen and nitrogen united go to make up the air.
Then there are elements called carbon and hydrogen, the carbon being a solid
and the hydrogen being a gas. Water is formed by the combination of oxygen
and hydrogen in certain proportions. Could we take away oxygen from the water,
what remains, being hydrogen, will burn. Now the caloric is the invisible principle
that we call heat. This principle is something, but we do not find any intelligence
which man admits except these gases when they are combined into the form
called body. Then the life is visible or the body has motion.
If these gases when combined produce wisdom and when separate are nothing,
what was it that made the gases whose combination makes wisdom? The
element of caloric does not seem to belong to any of these gases, yet it is a
power or principle which cannot be seen. Oxygen is not water, neither is
nitrogen; yet when mingled together in certain proportions, these two produce
water. Water is matter and the two gases which are not matter can produce it;
therefore nothing can produce something. Remove the oxygen from the water
and what remains burns, so according to this theory, oxygen is water and
nitrogen is fire. It is certain that everything animate or inanimate, matter or solid
dies or dissolves and passes out of sight. Now if each and every one of these
endless bodies or beings that are formed by the combinations of these gases,
when resolved into their original state do not hold their distinct identities, then
there can be no First Cause.
I assume that every element when disturbed is combined with other elements to
produce some idea and when the idea is destroyed, the elements of which it is
composed return to their original state. If life is a combination of elements which
when they are dissovled destroys life, then life is not an element of itself but a
result of a combination. And let me ask what was it that made the elements a
combination? It must be something that is outside these gases. I contend that
wisdom contains all this and everything in the form of gases or fluids are subject
to it. Then we have an endless space filled with invisible matter and governed by
an invisible wisdom which sees things that are invisible to our eyes. Give wisdom
an existence outside of matter and give it a being and then you can have
something which will exist when opinions are gone.
I assume wisdom to be the father of all and science the son of wisdom, and
those of us who know science or the son know wisdom or the father, for wisdom
and science are one. Science is the Christian name of wisdom. Error is the child
of ignorance, and the generation of ignorance will roll on till it destroys itself; and
out of its ashes rises science, the child of wisdom. Wisdom and error are both in
the world together, but error being the elder, it keeps science in subjection as
long as it can. But as science grows, it expands and error loses its hold of
science. Now these two distinct identities have been kept up ever since wisdom
began to act; yet, they have always been applied to matter and the world has
always been trying to convert the one into the other.
The religious world have made a man of matter and endowed him with these two
principles, thus making the word of no effect by their doctrines, for wisdom is not
of this world. Man is ever trying to make a wheat out a tare but Jesus never
confounded the two together. He called them by various names: sometimes the
rich man and the poor man, the law and the gospel and sometimes the difference
was made in one person as Saul and Paul. Jesus was one character and Christ
was another, but the religious people of his day and the Christians of ours had
the same opinion of Jesus. They considered Jesus Christ was like George
Washington, that is a single person with a double name. So it was with Paul. His
other name was Saul. No one believes that Saul was the surname for it was the
Christian name and Paul was the other, yet, they did not belong to the same
character and we have Paul's own words to prove this testament correct.
We also have Jesus' own words to prove that he was not God but Christ was.
Paul tried to show the difference between himself and Saul whom he called
brother for he says, If meat make my brother to offend, I, that is Paul, will eat no
more meat while the world stands lest I make my brother to offend. Here are the
two ideas error and wisdom in one body. Wisdom says if meat or argument on
false ideas offend my brother, error, I will not argue any more so long as these
false ideas stand. In other words, cease from arguing about what you do not
understand till you learn what you are talking about.
The people have no idea of God at all. It is true they have a belief about God but
it is as absurd as their belief in heaven, and they cannot locate him either in
heaven or earth or under the earth and yet they believe in Him. The great fault is
in the first state. Man has been taught to believe that matter is intelligent and that
matter can be developed as science can. This is an error, for when science is
developed, it is done through matter, not that there is the least wisdom in matter,
however. The old idea that beauty and ugliness, good and evil, strength and
weakness, pleasure and pain is in the thing spoken of causes all the trouble.
There is no intelligence in anything that can be seen by the eye; one can only
see the working of intelligence in matter. With pain, the pain is in the invisible,
while the effect is apparent in the visible, the visible being one character and the
invisible another. Science has one character and is not seen, but its brother is
seen in matter or the natural man. For instance, science acting through matter or
man's body gives to the world some scientific fact and the matter is the brother
and science can only be seen through its brother. Aaron has an impediment in
his speech. So has science and it makes its brother or Moses speak for it. Error
has the same brother to speak through, so the brother becomes the oracle of the
two, yet in fact they are all separate beings.
When wisdom is acknowledged to contain every idea and it is acknowledged that
nothing can exist without its knowledge, then although man, as we call him,
cannot admit it because of his unbelief, it will not prove that it does not exist.
Teach this truth that matter is nothing but gases combined together by wisdom
for certain purposes and directed just according to the will of wisdom, then he will
see that although he, that is the Christ or the Scientific man, is not seen by the
natural man or Jesus, yet he exists with all his wisdom. He will find that errors
and opinions exist and he can see them, yet they cannot see him. All that you
know scientifically is God or Wisdom and to prove what you know so all will admit
it is science. For instance, when the idea first started that a steamer could cross
the Atlantic, error disputed the fact. The ignorant said nothing, the scientific
believed, but even their wisdom had not rid itself of the old garment of error.
When the voyage was accomplished, then science threw off the old garment of
error and arrayed itself in the white robes of wisdom which shone like the star of
science in the heaven of wisdom. This light threw its rays on the world of error
which caused its dry bones to shake, and those that had been dead in the grave
of doubt came forth, saved by the everlasting truth. Some of these false prophets
were in the City of Gotham, lecturing to the poeple that the steamer never could
cross the ocean. And even while they were eating and drinking at the feast of
error, the steamer arrived at their very city. Then those that were dead were
resurrected and those that slept, awoke, some to everlasting shame and others
to life.
This was the first resurrection of steam and those that rose at that resurrection
never die again. We never have been taught to believe that what we see is not
that which sees. Being ignorant of ourselves, we have put all our wisdom into
matter and believe that matter can bring forth life. All the theories of the ancients
prove that what we call intelligence was the result of the combination of gases
formed into what is called man. The Christian believes the same, but they have a
superstition of the ancients of a light. But as to what it is or where it goes, they
are as much in the dark as ever. Every generation has made a distinction
between good and bad and truth and error, but they have never given either an
identity. If man would call them elements like light and darkness and admit that
every person is in one or the other, then he will easily learn to distinguish
between the two. All kinds of evils are darkness and science from the least to the
greatest is light. Man should choose light rather than darkness, but he has got so
far in the dark that to come to the light or science is a greater cross than he can
bear, and rather than be the subject of conversion, they remain in the dark. For
then they are in company with their own flesh who are the children of darkness
and whose father was a liar in the beginning and abode not in the truth. The
elements of error are as real as that of darkness and no one disputes the fact
that there is darkness, but take it and bring it to the light, and it vanishes. So error
vanishes when brought to the light of science.
These two characters spoken of in the Bible are contained in the present
rebellion, Freedom and Slavery. Slavery is the natural working of error, yet it
seems hard that these wars must take place. There is such a thing as ignorance
and that begets ignorance. At last they get quarrelling among themselves and out
of the war comes error. Science is an element that is kept in reserve till the time
of reformation comes and matter must go through certain processes before it can
be molded by science. For instance, take paper; cotton is the matter, rags is the
error. The rags go through a process to destroy their identity and then comes the
pulp or ignorance. Then comes a higher process. The pulp goes through a
number of changes. All the error or impediments are removed and the wheels of
time set the rocks of freedom in motion, and the hand of science guided by the
power of wisdom rolls out the white scroll which John held in his hand when the
angel wrote the things which shall shortly come to pass. This is the parable of the
end of slavery to the African race.
There are many other rebellions yet to be battled before man can sit by the
throne of wisdom in every department of science. The nation like an individual
embraces these two characters, science and error, and both are elements.
Science is the element of freedom in the lawful minds and error is the element of
slavery in the slavish minds. These two elements have been acting together like
white lead and oil, but each element or substance retained its own identity.
Slavery or the brutal element has tried to keep freedom in chains, but freedom
expands while slavery contracts. Therefore, the bands that once bound freedom
are broken and the cry has gone forth from the temple of liberty to those that are
bound to prepare for the battle, and the word of freedom has gone forth to all the
world even to the whole length and breadth of the kingdom and will not return till
every one shall acknowledge the rights of the enslaved at the cradle of liberty.
Christ Explained
BU 167:1, LC 4:1
I am often accused of making myself equal with Christ. When I ask what Christ
is, I am told that Jesus Christ is one and the same. If I ask if Jesus, the man, was
God, the answer is No, but God manifest in the flesh. Then can flesh and blood
be God? No. Then what was that being that had flesh and blood who was
crucified eighteen-hundred years ago? Jesus Christ. Is Christ God? Yes. Is God
flesh and blood? No. Will you give me some idea of what that being was called
Jesus Christ? Still the answer is, God manifest in the flesh. What do you mean
by God manifest in the flesh? Why, that God took upon himself flesh and blood.
Then what was that something that took upon itself flesh and blood? God. Is God
a substance? No. Then can that which is not matter take matter upon itself? You
ask too many questions, I am told. Well, if you cannot answer my questions,
must I believe what you say without any proof? No, but we have the Bible and
that says that Christ is God. Well, suppose it does and I ask you to explain Christ
and you give me this answer, God manifest in the flesh. When I ask to have this
explained you say, Why it is Christ. In all this you see, I get as intelligent answer-
only an opinion of some person who knows no more than you do about it. Some
think that words are all that is necessary, so they quibble about a certain word
like this-the name Christ is said to be a Greek word meaning anointed. But what
is that, I say. Does anointed throw any more light upon the Christ? Anointed is
the name of something and this is what I want to have explained. To call it by this
or that name is no explanation of the thing named. To call it Christ or Anointed or
Messiah or Prince of Peace is only hopping from one name to another. I want to
know what made that man Jesus who lived eighteen-hundred years ago different
from other men. His birth I care nothing about nor is it of any consequence to this
world why he was called Jesus Christ. If he was different from other men as I
have no doubt he was, where was that difference and how was the world
benefited by that difference? These are the questions. Now if you or any other
man can prove to me that Jesus was not a man of flesh and blood, you make him
a liar, for he says that he was flesh and blood; so now we have a man of flesh
and blood just like any other man.
The difference between him and other men was called Christ. Now what did that
difference consist in? In his life. What had his life to do with healing the sick? Has
your life anything to do with healing a palsied limb? No. Then your good life
cannot cure disease? No. Did Jesus' life cure? Yes. Then you must not claim to
be a good disciple of Jesus, for if you claim to be a good man and we see no
proof of your goodness on others, your goodness is of this world and not of
Christ. You say he had a power. Now what do you mean by a power? We call
steam a power and electricity a power but no one ever associates wisdom with
them. Do you mean that Jesus' power was like the above or was it in what he
said and did? It was in what he said and did. Well, what did he do? Did he not
cure the sick? Yes. Well, how did he do it? Was it his power? Yes. How did he
get it? It came from God. Did you not just say that Jesus was God? Yes. Then
how could God come from one place when you and I both believe that God fills
all space? Well, there is a mystery in the Godhead or Trinity that man cannot find
out nor understand. Was not the Bible written for our understanding? Yes, but the
mystery cannot be found out, so we have no right to penetrate the ways of God.
There is enough in the Bible to learn and make us happy without searching into
the hidden mysteries of another world. If the Bible was not for man's benefit, what
was it for? If we are to take it for the word of God, who is to explain it? It explains
itself. Do you understand it? In a measure. What do I understand by your
answer? Can you give me any more light on the subject than what you have? No.
Then I am as ignorant as I was when I began. Give me your opinion of Jesus
Christ. Well, if you will listen, I will tell you what I know of Christ and what I
believe of the man, Jesus.
The Christian Religion Reduced to a Science
BU 3:4
What is Dr. Quimby's theory? It is reducing the Christian Religion to a Science so
that it can be applied to ourselves and others for the happiness and knowledge of
mankind. By his theory we correct our errors which ignorance and superstition
have bequeathed to us. It separates us from the pheonomenon and makes man
look for science or the cause outside of the phenomenon. Ignorance directs us to
look for the cause inside the phenomenon. Now all mankind think and act upon
these two theories. This is the field where all the battle must be fought.
The sun is the representative of true science, and the moon, of darkness and
error, and every one has these two lights in his mind and his mind is the field.
Joshua is the representative of the law or science. His standard was truth. His
opponents are represented by the five kings. Their standard was error. Now as
truth goes forth in the mind to make war against error, when they meet, the
armies stop while the leaders parley. Science shows itself to error as Joshua
showed himself to the Amorites. The sensation of truth and error throws error in
confusion and truth commands the two powers to stand still and they obey. The
theories or kings flee, truth takes the field and the people rejoice.
Circular to the Sick
LC 9:287
Dr. P. P. Quimby would respectfully announce to the citizens of ___________
and vicinity that he will be at the __________where he will attend to those
wishing to consult him in regard to their health, and, as his practice is unlike all
other miedical practice, it is necessary to say that he gives no medicines and
makes no outward applications but simply sits down by the patients, tells them
their feelings and what they think is their disease. If the patients admit that he
tells them their feelings, etc., then his explanation is the cure; and if he succeeds
in correcting their error, he changes the fluids of the system and establishes the
truth or health. The Truth is the Cure.
This mode of practice applies to all cases. If no explanation is given, no charge is
made, for no effect is produced. His opinion without an explanation is useless, for
it contains no knowledge and would be like other medical opinions, worse than
none. This error gives rise to all kinds of quackery, not only among regular
physicians but those whose aim is to deceive people by pretending to cure all
diseases. The sick are anxious to get well, and they apply to these persons
supposing them to be honest and friendly; whereas they are made to believe
they are very sick and something must be done ere it is too late. Five or ten
dollars is then paid for the cure of some disease they never had nor ever would
have had but for the wrong impressions received from these quacks or robbers
(as they might be called), for it is the worst kind of robbery, tho' sanctioned by
law. Now, if they will only look at the true secret of this description, they will find it
is for their own selfish objects-to sell their medicines. Herein consists their
shrewdness, to impress patients with a wrong idea, namely, that they have some
disease. This makes them nervous and creates in their minds a disease that
otherwise would never have been thought of. Wherefore he says to such, never
consult a quack. You not only lose your money but your health.
He gives no opinion; therefore you lose nothing. If patients feel pain they know it,
and if he describes their pain he feels it, and in his explanation lies the cure.
Patients, of course, have some opinion as to what causes pain. He has none;
therefore the disagreement lies not in the pain but in the cause of the pain. He
has the advantage of patients, for it is very easy to convince them that he had no
pain before he sat down by them. After this it becomes his duty to prove to them
the cause of their trouble. This can only be explained to patients, for which
explanation his charge is _______dollars. If necessary to see them more than
once, ________dollars. This has been his mode of practice for the last
seventeen years.
There are many who pretend to practice as he does, but when a person while in
"a trance" claims any power from the spirits of the departed and recommends
any kind of medicine to be taken internally or applied externally, beware! Believe
them not. "For by their fruits ye shall know them."
Comparison between Christians
Eighteen-Hundred Years Ago and Now:
Science and Ignorance Illustrated
BU 1:16, LC 5:133
PART 3
Here is the difference between the followers of Jesus, who was crucified
eighteen-hundred years ago, and the disciples of Calvin at this day. One believer
disbelieves in everything that cannot be substantiated by cures and the other
believes in nothing but forms and ceremonies which Jesus denounced. One's
works are their religion, the other their belief. This difference was the same in
Paul's day and he says, Show me your religion without works and I will show you
mine by my works. To be a disciple of Jesus is to put his wisdom into practice,
not to be calling yourself a Christian, but by your acts, to separate yourself from
opinions and beliefs that can never make a man happy or wise and to enter into
that world of Science where opinions never come. The world's religion is a belief,
that of Jesus is his acts.
A belief is merely a belief in some idol or man. Paul says of idols, We know that
an idol or belief is nothing in the world and that there is no other truth but one,
that is Science or God. I will here relate an incident. A lady came to see me who
was troubled with what she called neuralgia in the head and neck, running into
the shoulders. She was a person with what would be called an expansive mind.
She reasoned from cause to effect and was quick to understand, but. she was
very religious. She had imbibed this error in her youth and never tested it as she
had tested other things. Now a person is known by the company he keeps and
public opinion is the judge by which we are judged. So man's opinions and ideas
of science and superstition are tested by the wisdom of science and science
respects science, but it has no dealings with opinions; therefore, a religious man
and one purely scientific have no more dealings than the Jews and the
Samaritans. The Jews represent the religious man of opinions and belief, the
Samaritans, the scientific or infidel. Jesus was a scientific man and the woman at
the well was also a Samaritan. But she mistook him for a Jew or a man of
opinions, for when he asked for water, her answer showed this.
Now if Jesus had not shown himself superior to an opinion, there would have
been no explanation, for one opinion is as good as another. But was that the
case? No, for he said, If you know of whom you ask water, I would be a well, etc.
Here were some dealings whereby she was to receive something and you see
she did, for she went away into the city and told all he had said and then inquired
if he was the true Christ-not a Jew. Jesus knew her thoughts which was her
character and the good he appreciated, while the bad he despised. All men are
made up of good and bad and carry the two characters with them in every
capacity in life. When you are talking with a person of opinions and scientific
subjects are not named, the world that sits listening is as wise as it was before.
They may have some new ideas but they are like sounding brass; they contain
no wisdom that the world is put in possession of. Ask for proofs you get an
opinion or ask for bread and you get a stone. A politician will talk all day and
night, yet he will never say one word that cannot be found in someone's speech;
still he talks of his wisdom. Listen to the priest. He repeats some old story that
never had any science or wisdom above opinion and you leave as hungry as you
entered. True you may be amused by his talk, so you might in a barroom. The
only difference is made by the public opinion; neither advances the science of
wisdom.
These two characters appear in the sick; so when they come to me, Satan
comes also. Now Satan is error or opinions and his honesty and religion are all
hypocrisy, and science knows it. I always address myself to the scientific man.
This rouses the dignity of Satan, for he expects to be respected and when he
finds he is discovered by me, he assumes a sort of dignity and appears very
religious, etc. This is returned by me with a sort of scorn. This contempt often
rouses the disease. Then it leaves and I am the persecuted one. For it will rail
and call me everything bad, but if it is kept in check by reason, it is modest in its
denunciantions of me. When I say me, I mean this truth. The world knows no
other character than one, so if they speak a truth, it is all the same. Here is the
mystery; man as we see him is not the man but the shadow. No one sees the
creator of the thing created. You see a man walking, but the man that moves the
form that walks, called man, cannot see the man that makes him walk. We see
the automaton, but the wisdom cannot be seen for it has no matter. The two men
are not seen at all, yet they have an identity and the body is the instrument of
both. Every body contains the two: the father and son. The father is science, the
son is matter and opinions; when the father speaks, he speaks through the son.
Now when the science is the son, that is the offspring of the father, through the
matter or son.
When the child science is born, it is nursed by the son or matter till it comes of
age or understanding; then it speaks for itself. But its father being wisdom and its
mother being matter, it takes its mother's name. So Adam was the son, wisdom
the father, and the science or rib taken from Adam was another offspring, for God
saw that it was not good that matter should be alone. Science then came forth
and matter called it woman. Here is the generation of man. Adam means earth in
Hebrew. As God or wisdom spoke man into existence in this form, he called it
Adam or earth. That form of Adam is man, not science. So as God saw that earth
was not fit to be alone, he takes from it a higher element, science-the rib and
shows it to the earth and the earth calls it woman or science.
I will give another illustration. Every idea that man has is either the offspring of
science or error. Each is a character of itself, but as science cannot be seen by
error, error does not admit it except as a principle or mystery. Each has its
senses and each its life; error has its death, but science never dies. So life is to
be wise and happiness is the result of true wisdom. I will try once more to make
the above plain. The natural man speaks of man, woman and child; this is the
trinity: father, wife and son. But when I speak of the generation of the scientific
man, I have nothing to do with error or the natural man; the latter is at enmity with
the scientific man. This scientific man is not subject to the man of error nor never
can be. Every man is in fact four persons; wisdom is the father and mother of all.
When he created Adam or earth, it was without form; but when he formed man
out of the earth and breathed into him science, then man became a living soul.
So man being of Adam was of the earth, earthly. Now the life of the earth or
Adam must come forth. So wisdom caused a sleep in Adam, took the rib or
science and explained it to him and he called it woman because she was taken
out of man. Therefore, science is the woman; ignorance, the Adam or man.
Here are two characters: science and man and woman, separate from wisdom.
Adam says science or woman is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.
Therefore, shall man or ignorance leave his father or Adam and cleave to
science or woman that they may be one flesh or life? The wedding of science
and ignorance brings forth a son called error or Cain, which means a posession
in Hebrew. Abel was the brother or spiritual son of Science, for Abel in Hebrew
means vanity or vapor or breath. Here you have the spiritual and natural son of
Adam and Eve: Cain the natural man, Abel the spiritual man or woman. When
the two sons brought unto wisdom the fruit of their labors, the wisdom had
respect for Abel or science, but for Cain or error, he had no respect. So Cain or
error was wroth as all error is with science. Then wisdom says to error, Whom
are you wroth with? If you do well, you will be accepted, but if you do evil, sin
lieth at your door. While Cain or error and Abel or Science were reasoning
together, error rose up as it always does and fells science down or slays it. So
when wisdom asks error where science is, it answers, Am I my brother's keeper?
Then wisdom says for this act you are cursed or separated from the earth or
ignorance which might receive you. So when you investigate or till the ground or
matter, it shall bring forth not science but error and thou shall be a fugitive and
vagabond on the earth. This is the character and science would slay it, and
wisdom would not have it slain but let it kill itself, so error undisturbed will destroy
itself. The death of Abel or science means the smothering or cramping of the
truth, as they did with Jesus. And as science cannot be killed, its place is in the
hearts of man. It has never risen from the dead or error, but the time will come
that it will rise from the dead and there are persons standing here that shall not
die or denounce it till they see it coming in the clouds of their minds. Then every
scientific eye shall see it and opinions shall flee. Science will then take her place
in the world of opinions and opinions will worship it like all other sciences.
Comparison between Two Gods
BU 100:20, LC 5:71
All the parables were intended to illustrate the two principles, truth and error.
Truth is the wisdom of God; error is the god of opinions; and the two have no
dealing with each other. Each has his disciples, the god of opinions and the god
of Science or Love; but their acts are so different that their characters can be
easily explained. I will give you the religious or political god. He is represented as
watching the movements of the armies and dictating to the heads of the nation.
No one approaches him except the ordained priest. He takes particular care of
the President and the heads of departments; in fact he is the ruler and dictator of
all things. But he must be approached with as much reverence as the President
or General Scott. The South has another god, not so great, according to the
account of Jeff Davis; he seems to be of a lower intellect, for he sanctions this
low guerilla warfare and a kind of cruelty which is only practiced by the Indians.
These are the gods of the religious world.
Now where is my God? He is in the hearts of the people. How does he act? He is
not a man, nor a being, nor has he form. He is neither male nor female. I will give
you some illustration of his wisdom. If you see a man in trouble, you are or you
are not bound to help him. If you have ever admitted it is right to help a man in
distress, he will put you in mind of your agreement. Then if you neglect your duty,
punishment must follow, for action and reaction are equal and the truth never
varies. This embraces the law and the gospel, and on this hangs all man's
happiness and misery. If man is governed by this truth, it develops his higher
wisdom and enables him to prove all things by a standard based not on opinions
but on what can be proved. It shows that all man's happiness and misery are in
keeping or breaking this agreement. Now if a man is in trouble, although you may
bind yourself to help him in the best of your ability, if you do not know it you
cannot be punished. This is the law of opinion, so it is with the higher law. This
higher law is not known as having any responsibilities, but it is the most perfect of
all laws. It is very little understood, and not at all intelligently. To understand it
intelligently is to make it your rule of action with the sick, or those in trouble, for
the well are not bound by it.
I will show you how a well person is not bound by this higher wisdom. Suppose a
person is sick and in great distress. A well person sees the sick one but cannot
feel his aches and pains. Then he is not bound to relieve him, for he is ignorant
of his feelings. To bind him so he is responsible for his acts, he must be born
again, as it is said of Christ, so that he can feel another's feelings. Then he
knows what the world of opinions is ignorant of. Then he stands in relation to the
sick as one man stands to another who is in trouble of the natural world of right
and wrong.
I will take myself as one risen from these dead ideas or opinions into that higher
kingdom of wisdom where my acts have as much restriction over my life as my
acts toward the well. My wisdom shows me the sick in prison; it also puts me in
possession of their troubles and the causes, and if I listen and agreed to help
them out of their trouble, the agreement on me is more binding than any
obligation towards the well.
I will here say a word or two which the well must take as an opinion but which the
sick will admit as a truth. The sick are imprisoned for their belief; the
imprisonment is what they suffer. When I come in contact with them they affect
me not in the way one man of opinion affects another. Their language is different.
The well speak in my own tongue, but the sick cannot do that for the language of
the well cannot describe the feelings of the sick. Thus they are prisoners in their
own land, among strangers and not understood.
Concerning Human Standards
BU 100:18, LC 5:70
Every science has its standard based on knowledge, not on opinion. I say
nothing about such, for they prove their wisdom by their works. But it is of false
standards with no evidence of truth except the misery they produce that I shall
speak of. The two most dangerous to the happiness of man are those of the
medical science and the priests. These two classes are the foundation of more
misery than all other evils, for they have a strong hold on the minds of the people
by deception and cant. They claim all the virtue and wisdom of the nation and
have so deceived the people that their claims are acknowledged in war and
peace. Let us analyze the beliefs of these guides. Take the medical man, what is
his science except that of killing human beings? Is the world wiser by his
opinions? Do not the very medical men themselves recommend to the people not
to read medical works? Does the mathematician warn the people to keep clear of
mathematical books? Is not the world wiser, better and more enlightened by
them? Is the world made wiser or better by quack medicine or opinions of the
faculty? Are not these opinions like the locusts of Egypt in everything you eat and
drink? Science and progression have had to fight both theories ever since the
world began to think and act.
It is a common saying that the religious or Christian souls are the foundation of
God's moral government, but let us see if it is not the reverse. Take the North
and South of this American Republic as specimens of mankind. According to
religious statistics, the South is more religious than the North, for all religion is
confined to sectarian creeds. For instance, how long is it since the Unitarians
were admitted as Christians? And even the Universalists are scarcely admitted
within the pale of Christianity. The religion of which I speak, and with which
science and revelation have had to contend includes more of the liberal classes.
Show me where the people are called the most intelligent. It is in New England.
This mixing up of religion and science is like establishing honor among thieves.
Religion and politics always went together, but science, progress and good order
never had anything to do with either.
Religion is what crucified Christ. Pilate's wisdom found no fault with him, but the
religion of the priests said, "Crucify him." Paul had this idea of religion when he
said to the Athenians, "I perceive you are altogether too religious or
superstitious." Then he goes on to show them how their religion led them to
worship this same something of which I am talking, so he said, "This something
that you ignorantly worship, I declare unto you." Here you see that Paul was not
a religious man, but was converted from a man of religious and superstitious
opinions to a man of science and progression and he showed that this something
was not far off, but the religious world did not know it. This always has and
always will be the case till wisdom separates religion and politics from the
scientific world. All science is spiritual and is not known by the priests and
demagogues or doctors. The theories of these three classes are not based on
wisdom but on opinions. Wisdom is the solid or substance. Matter or mind is the
shadow of the spiritual wisdom. Now put man in possession of this wisdom so
that he can make an application of it for the benefit of the suffering community,
then this wisdom will soon separate the chaff from the wheat.
Concerning Revolutions and Rebellions
LC 7:71
Freedom is the child of science; error or aristocracy is its opponent and is the
casket or earth which holds the child till it is able to take care of itself. Man as a
nation has both these principles, freedom and aristocracy. The working of error to
keep freedom bound creates revolution. These revolutions must take place and
will, till error is destroyed.
There is a species of rebellion that is a sin against the Holy Ghost or Science. It
has been said that revolutions never go backwards, but revolution is only another
name for a rebellion to destroy some error. It is true that rebellion is the natural
working of the mind and is in some cases right. Rebellions that go backward are
evils for they not only destroy themselves but they do much damage to society,
but still they work out a greater truth.
Probably the rebellion in this country is the first one started for enslaving liberty
and freedom. All other rebellions have been to free man from oppression and
improve his condition. The Revolutionary War was to free us from the oppressive
yoke of Great Britain, and after we had achieved our freedom, we still had the
elements of oppression or slavery in us. And although we formed a constitution,
based on the principle of self-government, yet there was an element in it that
would not agree to this. It was a government admitting the right of revolution.
Those revolutions which expand the areas of freedom are the natural workings of
mind.
Revolutions in religion have always been taking place, but you will find that the
liberal principles of freedom get the mastery over the aristocracy of slavery. It is
the same with the medical; there is also a revolution, and freedom has not got its
just due yet. The medical faculty holds its iron grasp on the people from which
they cannot escape. The sins for the nation are like individual sins. Slavery is the
effect of man's belief and the belief was fastened on us by our fathers.
We do not believe in the old Mosaic priesthood that sin is of divine origin, nor that
our parents, having eaten of sour grapes, the teeth of the children will be set on
edge, but that every one must answer for his own sins. And if we sin against God
or Truth, we must pay the penalty. The United States Government is not a thing
you can take in your hand, but like Science is a principle that is implanted in the
heart of every man. And if its presence is not felt, it is because it has been kept
down by the error of slavery or aristocracy. So revolutions must take place till
every one feels that he is a part of the government and constitution, and if he has
not this feeling, he is a stranger in his own land.
The revolutions of progression which are dictated by wisdom never made war to
oppress but to liberate. Rebellion is to rebel against freedom in support of
slavery, and all the states which are in rebellion have lost all rights under the
constitution and have no claims to state rights which they had at the formation of
the government. And a revolution of opinion and gunpowder must take place in
order to destroy this right in the states. For the states are all combined to make
the government and this union was sanctioned by God or Wisdom. Then the
people bowed in subjugation to the will of the majority. Yet the right of states was
acknowledged. But when some of the states seceded against the will of the
majority, then this error was cast out, never to be reinstated.
The difference between rebellions and revolutions is this. Revolution is headed
by the liberty party of all the world. Rebellion is got up by the aristocracy for their
benefit and the enslavement of the many. Now the idea that a revolution and a
rebellion depend on circumstances to change the name is wrong. But as all
governments are founded on revolutions, the idea or revolution was right to a
certain extent; but when a government is formed on the popular voice of the
people, that is the answer to all the questions of self-government. For if a
government cannot stand against a rebellion, waged against liberty, it clearly
shows that the time for revolutions to cease has not arrived. But when all will
admit that the people themselves are the government and to destroy the voice of
the people is to destroy the government, then any act perpetrated against the
liberties of the people must necessarily come under the head of rebellion; for the
change must bring anarchy, aristocracy and despotism.
It must be admitted that our government is intended to be the voice of the people.
It is perfection, as far as man's wisdom goes, and therefore to destroy it is wrong.
The South, having destroyed their claims to the right of self-government, cannot
destroy what they gave to make up the Constitution of the United States. By
rebellion they gain nothing but lose everything. They lose the privilege of state
rights and they guarantee to the Union the right to govern all the states, subject
to the laws delegated to them, and to oppose them was rebellion against their
own state. And thus, as a House divided against itself, they could not stand. Now
they, having lost their state rights, it does not carry the state out of the union, for
the state belongs to the will of the loyal men in it. And if there are enough loyal
men left in the state to form a constitution, leaving out state rights, then the state
is at harmony with itself. And no rebellion would have taken place in the United
States, but in the state laws, which can always revolutionize for the better. But to
rebel against itself is suicide to all concerned, and they lose all claims to self-
government and must be treated as rebels or aliens and have no voice in the
state till they are restored to their rights through a proper course of law.
Copperheads Caught in Their Own Trap
BU 44:8, LC 11:32
The trap set by the Copperheads defeat the administration, and for that purpose
they invented all sorts of plans to embarass the administration. They opposed the
war as unjust and cruel and used all their efforts to embarass the government in
raising troops, saying it was a Nigger war and let them fight it out, and by trying
to prevent men from enlisting. Yet some of the Democrats would not heed the
warning, so when the people appeared to cry aloud to those that would enlist,
they used all their efforts to stop their men from going.
At last when the cities and towns voted to pay the soldiers for going they
opposed that and said it was not legal and they would not pay their taxes. So
they threw every obstacle in the way they could to prevent the government from
getting men.
They would not take any interest in the welfare of the poor sick soldiers, would
not subscribe anything, nor go themselves. In all this there was no law to compel
them and they expected to have their property protected and get rid of all the
burdens that they could. So when the government saw the drift of these
copperheads, they saw that the burden was on the administration. So to remove
this burden or make it fair and equal, they passed the conscription act.
Now this act worked like all traps and caught them in their own trap for this
brought them up all standing. At first they bounded and surged and tried to get
clear, but the more they tried the tighter the bands held. Seeing that the draft
must come, the next thing was to prevent the men from going, so a plan was set
on foot to let the towns vote to pay them three hundred dollars for a substitute.
This is all the government wanted, for they could get men everywhere for that;
thus they have been caught in their own trap. So now if the towns have to pay,
they will have to be taxed, so they have but one more loophole; that is this: there
is no law to collect this tax if the people refuse to pay, and in this case there must
be a law passed. So they expect the Republican Party will take the loans and
they would say to their Copperhead brothers, This money was raised by the
Black Republicans and if you will vote for me I will oppose every law that will
make you liable and they will repudiate this debt. So one ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure. All vote for the money to be raised but let the capitalist
assure the money to the bank.
The Cure
BU 100:26, LC 5:76
In the darkness of this superstition when all are either sleeping or ignorant of the
danger that awaits them and the sentinels on the watch tower of those minds that
see their craft are warning the multitude of the danger, when the enemies of
science and progression are mustering the thoughts of the scientific world and
casting everyone into prison for their belief, I enter this land of darkness, light the
lamp of liberty, search out the dark prisons where the lives of the sick are bound,
enter them and set the prisoners free. These prisons, like the prisons of this
world, can be detected by the atmosphere or description. I have said all diseases
were opinions condensed into an idea of matter that can be seen by the eyes of
wisdom. In like manner, all ideas of the priests can be seen by the eyes of
wisdom; each throws off its shadow or spiritual matter, and each has its particular
sense, so that it can be detected as easily by the eye of wisdom as an apple or
an orange can be detected by the eye of opinion. The wisdom of opinions is
ignorant of any wisdom that cannot be seen by itself, yet phenomena are
admitted by them which cannot be understood.
To be in a state to become a teacher of this unknown God is what never has
been acknowledged by the opinions of man's wisdom. Thousands of persons
have undertaken to penetrate this land of mystery and have returned with the
idea that they have made the discovery and thus have deceived many people,
broken up families, led the weak and timid and stimulated the strong. Till the
people, like the children of Israel, have left their happy land or state of mind to
follow these blind guides, till they have wandered so far from health or home that
they have lost their way and fallen among strangers or doctors, who pretending
to be their friends have robbed them of their happiness and left them like the
prodigal son, sick and disheartened in this land of superstition. Like Moses, I
enter this land and lead them out, and as I pass through the sea of blood or
beliefs of these blind guides, I feed them with the bread of wisdom and smite the
rock of truth and the water or wisdom gushes out and cools their parched
tongues. I go before them in this wilderness, holding up the priest's serpents or
creeds, and all that listen to my explanation are healed from the bite of these
creeds. The people murmur and complain, some call me humbug and quack;
others want to return to their own old ideas of religion, but I stand up and entreat
them, stimulating them to press forward and not to give up till I have restored
them once more to that happy land of health whence they have been decoyed
away. So I am hated by some, laughed at by others, spit upon by the doctors and
sneered at by the priests, but received into the arms of the sick who know me.
The Definition of Words
BU 123:1, LC 7:157
As I may have used some words in my writings which may have conveyed to the
reader a different meaning from that intended, it will not perhaps be out of place
to state some of the words which occur frequently in my writings. For instance,
the word mind might be so construed as to mean the definition given it by man in
general, that is, the intellectual power of man. The world here makes mind the
intelligence while I make it the medium of intelligence. Here we have one point of
difference and this difference runs all though my writings. In no case do I admit
mind to be wisdom, but when the word might be used without misleading the
reader as to its meaning, I may use it, but in the same sense as we say the sun
rises and sets knowing all the time that in reality it is not true, yet it conveys the
idea of night and day.
I believe mind to be a certain combination of matter under the control of wisdom
and error. I make what we call man the medium of two ideas: one of wisdom and
the other of error. The body is like the globe, the earth being the medium of the
seed. Man's body is the globe, his mind the matter acted upon and changed by
wisdom which is struggling in the mind to rid itself of the matter or casket which
holds it, and the action is called by the world the enlightened part of man where
there is no pure wisdom that is clear from error. Wisdom is that which is reduced
to science. If I say I can do a thing and do not do it, or say I can do a thing and
then do it, neither is wisdom. But if I can teach you how to do a thing so you can
do it according to my directions and always have it done right, then that is
science or wisdom reduced to practice. To do a problem and know you do it from
memory and never reduce it to practice or apply a principle to it so that you can
teach it to another is not wisdom but knowledge. So far as the person himself is
concerned, he is rich, but his riches are to himself, but the world is not richer in
wisdom. Wisdom which cannot be reduced to practice is but knowledge to the
world. Here you will see the idea mind introduced into science. Whenever I use
words different from the world, the difference between us is this. While the world
applies words to literal things as life and death, this and the other world, each of
which has two meanings, I never intend to convey the least meaning of the
religious world's ideas of them but merely give them as Jesus applied them to
man's belief and acts. To do wrong was a sin and this sin was death, and to be
converted from the wrong or have the error explained was the forgiving of sin.
The resurrection of truth from death is the receiving of the truth in regard to what
we are dead in. This is what Jesus believed as I understand it. His coming from
and going to his father was coming from truth into a discussion with a person in
regard to the troubles which affect him and abiding with him in sympathy till his
errors were destroyed and the truth or Jesus' kingdom established in the very
place from which the enemy had been driven out. His ideas differed entirely from
those of the religious world in regard to the two worlds, yet both use the same
words. The disciples could not understand for he says they had eyes, ears and
hearts, yet could not understand. Now if their life or salvation hereafter was what
he intended to convey the idea of and he believed as the world did in regard to it,
then every one might have understood.
If Jesus' ideas of death were like those of the religious people, then when a man
died, he was dead as that was the real belief of all sects and parties. The
controversy was whether there was anything after death. The religious people of
his day tried to entrap him as he used the same words as they did, but they
applied them to literal things and he applied the same words to the mind. The
difference in the use of words created the controversy but failed in every way to
entrap Jesus. I will give an instance where Jesus' ideas came in contact with
those of the people.
When he was walking in the temple at Jerusalem, the chief priests, scribes and
elders came to him and asked, "By what authority doest thou these things and
who gave thee this authority to do these things?" And Jesus answered and said
unto them, "I will also ask you one question and answer me, and I will tell you by
what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of
men? Answer me." And they reasoned with themselves saying, if we shall say,
from heaven, he will say, Why did ye not believe, but if we shall say of man, we
fear the people, for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed. And
they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell, and Jesus answered and
said unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority do I these things. Now it
appears that it was his cures that caused the hatred of the chief priests and
elders. They knew that the people believed in Jesus, not because he upheld their
religion but because he could cure better than anyone else. But how he
performed his cures was the question. The priests pretended it was the power of
Beelzebub, but this the mass of the people did not believe. So then the priests
sought to find something against him, but all they could find against him was his
cures.
Now if man's belief had nothing to do with his sickness, why did Jesus condemn
it so? Jesus and Christ are like Saul and Paul, and when the Christ spoke, he did
so of himself as God or Wisdom, while the Jews thought he spoke as a man like
themselves. When the chief priests came to him and inquired, Why do thy
disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, for they wash not their hands
when they eat bread? He asked them, Why do ye also transgress the
commandments of God by your tradition? For God commanded saying, Honor
thy father and mother and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
But ye say whosoever shall say to his father or mother, it is a gift, by whatsoever
thou mightest be profited and honor not his father or mother, he shall be free.
Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you saying, This people draweth nigh
unto me with their mouths but their heart is far from me, but in vain do you
worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And he called the
multitude and said unto them, Hear and understand, not that which goest into the
mouth defileth the man but that which cometh out, this defileth a man. Then
came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were
offended after they heard these sayings? But he answered and said, Every plant
or idea that my heavenly father or wisdom hath not planted shall be rooted up. All
these ideas Jesus had to contend against for they created sickness amongst the
people. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
And Jesus said, Are ye yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that
whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast unto the
draught? But those things that proceed out of the mouth come forth from the
heart and they defile the man, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulterers, fornication, thefts, false worship, blasphemies. These are the things
that defile a man. After this, as Jesus was departing, a woman of Canaan cried
unto him saying, Have mercy on me, Oh Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is
grievously vexed with a devil. Jesus said unto her, Be it unto thee as thou wilt,
and her daughter was made whole from that very hour. Now if the priests had not
taught the existence of a devil, then the woman would not have been vexed with
one. Jesus knew it was her belief and therefore kept silent, but the mother cried
the louder and entreated him to cure her, and when he saw her faith, he cured
her daughter.
Now here was a cure performed where the disease was in the mind, as probably
no one at the present time believes that the woman had a devil vexing her that
could be seen by the natural eye. Perhaps the world's wisdom and knowledge
have not been defined as clearly as they might be. Wisdom is demonstrated by
science, so it cannot be misunderstood. Knowledge may be wisdom undefined,
so it comes under the head of chance and opinions or memory. To know a fact
that you cannot explain is not wisdom but knowledge, while to know a fact that
you can explain on the wisdom of some one else is not wisdom. To know the
globe is round because some one said so is knowledge, but to know it from
mathematical calculation is wisdom. To know that a ball thrown in the air will fall
to the ground again is wisdom, but to know why it returns with the same force is
science. You may admit it, but if you cannot explain it on a scientific principle,
then it is knowledge. When I use the word knowledge, I do not mean science or
wisdom. Science is the medium by which man proves that he has wisdom;
opinions may deceive but science never does. All theories based on science are
proved by their standing, and all theories based on the traditions and opinions of
the world are knowledge and are not to be believed as true.
Religion, politics, the medical science falsely so called are all based on opinions
and will some day fall. All are founded on superstition and ignorance and cannot
stand the test of investigation and, like slavery, they must give way to science. It
is man's religion and God's wisdom, Jesus or Christ. Jesus was the
representative of man, while Christ was the science which took away the errors
or sins of man. Misery and disease are sins, and to get clear of them, man pays
the priests and doctors just according to the law. There are sins unto death, for
instance, the sin of consumption. Now if man sins against the laws of the doctors,
he must pay the penalty of his sin and die according to the law of the priests and
doctors. Thus he gives all he has of life and happiness and becomes poor and
distressed, tormented with a cold, cough, etc., all to gratify the belief and pay the
penalty. After the doctor has robbed him of his health and happiness and a great
share of his worldly gains, finding nothing left of him but a skeleton, he turns that
over to the priest in order that he may torment him. This was the condition of the
people in the days of Jesus and he warned them to beware of the doctrines of
the Scribes and Pharisees, for they bound heavy burdens on the people,
grievous to be borne and would not use the tip of their fingers to remove those
burdens.
Is there anyone who cannot see that man's disease was made by his belief? If
so, I pity their ignorance. Jesus said unto such, Oh Jerusalem! Jerusalem! (or
beliefs), thou that killeth the prophets and stoneth them that are sent unto thee
(which is science), how often would I have gathered thy children together, even
as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings (and taught you the truth) and
ye would not. Behold! Your house (or opinions) are left unto you desolate, for I
say unto you, Ye shall not see me till ye shall say, Blessed is he which cometh in
the name of the Lord. That is, ye shall not see Science or Christ till ye get
wisdom enough to understand, and then ye will say, Blessed is he that cometh in
the Science of Wisdom. Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one
stone (or idea of your belief) upon another that shall not be thrown down.
He gave the disciples the sign of his coming and the end of the world or error by
saying, Now learn the parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender and
putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall
see all these things (that were taking place in the world) know that it is near, even
at the doors. That is, ye may know that man's belief or opinions have come to an
end, that man's corruption had ripened into a harvest ready to be reaped. Then
would come the new theory or heaven. The world at this time is like the harvest,
ripe. Error like the wheat holds up its head, ready to be cut; but when the sickle
of wisdom enters the field of error in the hand of freedom, it will cut down the
crop of error and disease and slavery, and the fire of liberty will run over the field
of aristocracy and burn up the political stubble. Their land or ideas shall be
destroyed and their weapons shall be turned into scientific plowshares or
teachers that shall plow up the errors of the old rule of slavery or disease; and
then shall come a new generation of ideas, free from the old superstition. Then
will the signs of the times be near at hand. Ideas will be warring against each
other, and while they are eating and drinking in false ideas, the truth will come in
the form of science and liberty and sweep away the old men or ideas. And then
the young ideas will go from one sabbath to another and look upon the dead
carcass (or beliefs) of the men that have transgressed against me, for the worm
shall not die; neither shall the fire be quenched, and they shall be an abomination
unto all flesh.
This is always the effect of the evil generation of error. Truth and liberty will
always work itself out of matter or opinions, and woe be the man that opposes it.
It would be better that he should have a millstone about his neck and be cast into
the sea of public opinion, and say he knows nothing about the affairs of the
world, and takes no interest in the progression of events, than to oppose this
truth. Disease is the slavery that Jesus made war against, and as disease is the
shadow of man's belief, his belief is the thing to destroy. The sick are bound by
some belief that it is wrong, and disease is the punishment of believing an error.
A Northern Copperhead is punishing himself, and his punishment will come to
maturity sooner or later, for if a Northern man entertains feelings in unison with
Southern traitors, he must meet a traitor's reward, for his belief is a disease and
contains its own punishment. How often a person will do a wrong act out of spite
merely, and then because they start wrong, rather than acknowledge it, they
keep on the wrong track out of malice.
To let a person lead you with his ideas is as hard as dismounting from a horse
and walking yourself while you let your enemy ride. We punish ourselves in
feeling a desire to punish another. Man is an inventive being and will create and
put in practice all the ideas that can be thought of. This world is that state of mind
where man creates whatever he understands from what he hears and sees.
There is another class that have not this mechanical mind. The idiot has not this
inventive genius; though if he undertakes to imitate, he becomes really an
inventor, for his imitations are so far from the original that they might pass for
new inventions. Disease is one of the inventions of man, and if every man had a
scientific mind, they would make diseases more alike. But some have no
imitation and some no invention, so their ideas are thrown together haphazard
and in that way some of the most awful diseases are created that can be thought
of. They cannot be described and it is well they cannot, for if they could, they
would be more imitated. The true Science of Wisdom is to destroy the disease
and put in its place, science. The true science of wisdom is to destroy error.
Difference between Knowledge and Wisdom
BU 99:18, LC 3:121
[orig. untitled]
How often we hear this remark: I never believe anything till I understand it. There
is more truth than poetry in this remark, for a belief is not wisdom. It may be
knowledge, but if it is, it is of this world and not of science. True science does not
admit a belief as that admits a doubt. Now where does the author of this remark
stand' in regard to wisdom or science? Does the remark show any wisdom
superior to that of the community? Jesus answered this question himself as a
man and showed the people the difference between a belief, or the wisdom of
this world and wisdom of God or Science. When asked a question said, I, that is
Christ, judge no man, for science or wisdom is the standard, but again he said, If
I, the man Jesus, judge, my judgment is not good, for it is of this world. If it is true
or of the scientific world, it is not judgment but wisdom. Therefore, all judgment is
submitted to science, where everyone's opinion receives its reward, whether it be
of good or evil. Therefore, call no one master but one and that is science, and by
this must all things be proved. The wisdom of this world is made up of opinions
and decided by evidence, not by truth. If truth decided, there would be no need of
a judge, for the judge is in the science or truth.
Difference between My Belief and Others'
BU 57:5
Where does Dr. Quimby's mode of practice differ from that of others? In every
particular. Disease is admitted by everyone, though there may be a few
exceptions, as a something independent of the mind. Dr. Quimby denies all this
and asks for the proof.
Disease is a departure from life. Now, how can a man lose his life and know it
after it has taken place and at the same time not know it? For if health is life and
a departure from it is death, how can this change take place independently of the
mind? For if the mind is not that which undergoes the change, how can it suffer
death if it does not know it? And if it is the mind, mind must be matter and matter,
mind. This theory finishes up life by the death of the body by disease. This is
man's theory and they prove it by their works. This has been the belief since the
world began. Religion is founded on this theory and we are called upon to
prepare for this change from life to death or from health to disease, for disease is
a departure from life. Therefore we are called upon by this theory to prepare for
this change from life to death, or from health to disease, and the people
understand it pretty well, for they prove it in a few years to the satisfaction of both
parties.
This was the state of the mind when Christ came to destroy this theory of disease
and death by showing the truth, which was and is life. And no person was in any
danger of hell, except those who were sick, for the well need no physician.
Therefore to keep well was to keep clear of hell and to get into it was to get sick,
for sickness led to death and death led to hell.
Therefore as long as man is well, according to this theory he is safe. Now as
Christ was the sick man's advocate, he warned the people against believing
either of the two advocates of health and disease. He said to the people,
"Beware of the doctrine or beliefs or theories of the scribes and Pharisees, for
they undertake to tell of what they know nothing about and they bind burdens in
the form of disease or opinions and leave them on your shoulders, which are
grievous to be borne and which must lead to death, or the departure from life or
health." To keep in health and keep clear of death was to understand ourselves
so that their opinions cannot harm us. Now, in all the above belief or theory, there
is not the slightest intimation of any knowledge independent of mind. It is true
that some people have a vague idea of something independent of the mind, but
the person who dares express such an opinion is looked upon as a sort of lunatic
or fool. Phenomena are constantly taking place, showing that there is a higher
order of intellect that has not yet been developed in the form of a theory, but
which can unravel the old theory and bring in one that will lead man to health and
happiness and destroy the idea of disease and death. Dr. Quimby's theory, if
understood, also goes to correct this error that is depriving so many of the life
and happiness of mankind. His belief is his practice and his practice gives the lie
to the old belief.
Difference between My Philosophy and That of Others
LC 9:249
The difference between my belief and the rest of those who have written upon
the philosophy of the mind is this: every philosophy aims at happiness as the
greatest object to be attained. So they believe that goodness is one of the means
to obtain this great point. So all their thoughts are aimed at this one object,
happiness, thinking it is somewhere in the future and as though it was something
which by laboring they might obtain. This is the great study of all great
philosophers. Now I pretend to study the philosophy of the mind and have been
for the last twenty years a constant student of this science, and I have come to
the conclusion that happiness is like light and misery is like darkness and man
being in darkness chooses darkness rather than light because of his ignorance.
All philosophy teaches man how to find this light by prescribing certain rules and
regulations as to what one shall eat and drink and wherewithal he shall be
clothed, and they place all sorts of restrictions on man to be observed so that he
may obtain this light. Now all the above leads him into darkness, death, disease
and misery.
I differ from all such philosophy and call light happiness and darkness misery,
and instead of trying to find the light, I labor to destroy the darkness. I will give an
illustration: disease is the effect of darkness or a belief, for a belief has no light or
wisdom; wisdom is light, and opinions are darkness. Now when man is in
opinions he is in darkness and to get out of his opinions is to get into the light.
Therefore I commence to correct the error that troubles him. This trouble is his
darkness, so I convince him of the error and the light springs up and his light is
his happiness. As the Bible says, the people which sat in the darkness saw a
great light and to those which sat in the region and shadow of death the light is
sprung up. Matt. 4:16
Difference between Quimby's Belief and That of Others
BU 124:1, LC 7:45
The difference between my belief and that of others who have written upon the
philosophy of the mind is this. Every philosopher aims at happiness as the
greatest object to be obtained and they believe that goodness is one of the
means by which to secure the prize. All these thoughts are meant to arrive at this
one object, happiness, thinking it is somewhere in the future and that they may,
by hard labor, obtain it. That was the study of the great philosophers. Now I
profess to study the philosophy of the mind and have done so for the last twenty-
five years and I have arrived at the following conclusion: that happiness is the
light and that misery is darkness and man being in darkness chooses darkness
rather than light because of his ignorance. All philosophies teach man how to find
this light by prescribing certain rules and regulations as to what he shall eat,
drink, and wherewith he shall be clothed, imposing all kinds of restrictions on him
which, if he observes, he may at last find the light. Now all such rules and
restrictions lead him into darkness, death, disease or misery. I differ from all such
philosophy and call light happiness and darkness misery and instead of trying to
find the light, I labor to destroy the darkness.
I will give you an illustration of what I mean. Disease is the effect of darkness or a
belief, for a belief has no light or wisdom, for wisdom is light and opinion is
darkness. When man is in opinion, he is in darkness and to get out of his opinion
is to get into the light. Therefore, I commence to correct the error which troubles
him, for his trouble is his darkness. If I convince him of the truth, the light springs
up and his light is his happiness. For the Bible says that the people which sat in
the darkness saw a great light and to them which sat in the region and shadow of
death light is sprung up. (Matt. 4: 16)
The Difficulty of Introducing My Ideas
BU 106:20, LC 9:295
Introducing these ideas to the world is not an easy task, for the world like the sick
cannot understand. For if they could, then there would not be any call for some
other mode of reasoning. But the world, like a sick man, is in trouble and does
not know how to free itself from the fetters that bind it. It is easy to take one
individual case and apply the theory, but to take the world and give the causes
and symptoms is not so easy a task. The world, like the sick, have no idea that
what is said and believed in has anything to do with their sickness, when all our
troubles or nearly so are from our belief, directly or indirectly. Therefore, I have to
take the world as a patient and show that the causes of man's trouble arise from
his beliefs and these make him sick. Now the sickness is not the belief, but the
belief is the cause directly or indirectly. So to cure, I have to destroy the belief
and then the sickness will cease. Then the question will be asked what is a
belief?
Disease
LC 7:1117
[orig. untitled]
Disease is that part of the mind that can be compared to a wilderness; it is full of
erroneous opinions and false ideas of all kinds and opens a field for speculators
to explore. The medical faculty, spiritualism, and all forms of religious beliefs
invite the people to enter under their false ideas. And when I sit by a sick person,
he tells me the story of his travels and his experience of the evils that beset him
in this wilderness, for it forms a part of every person. The scientific character,
which is like the prodigal son, desires to enter this land of mystery to see what it
can gain; therefore, every person with ambition sets out for the prize and alas!
ninety-nine out of a hundred fail and are arrested and cast into prison. This is the
field for scientific investigation, and as health is the thing most desired, to find out
how to keep it, and when lost, how to restore it, is the object of our journey into
this territory.
The question may be asked, What is health? I know of no better answer than
this. It is perfect wisdom, and just as a man is wise just so his wisdom is his
health. But as no man is perfectly wise, no man can have perfect health, for
ignorance is disease, although not necessarily accompanied by pain. Pain is not
disease itself, but is what follows disease. According to this theory, disease is a
belief and pain is what follows our fears in this belief. And where there is no fear,
there can be no pain since pain is not the act but the reaction of something;
therefore that something which creates pain must take place before the reaction.
But says one, I never thought of pain before it came. Now if it came, something
must have started it; therefore it must be an effect whether it came from some
place or from ourselves. I take the ground that it is generated in ourselves and
that it must have a cause.
Everyone knows that a person in his natural state is sensitive to what is called
pain, and if his sensitiveness is destroyed, he shows no signs of pain. But to
suppose his senses are destroyed because he feels no pain is not correct. His
senses may be detached from his body and attached to another idea so that he
is not sensitive to any effect upon the body which in his natural state would give
him pain. This shows that pain is in the mind, like all trouble, though the cause
may be in the belief or the body. For instance, suppose a tumor appears on the
body, the person feeling no sensation or trouble from it. He consults a physician
who after examining it asks if he has shooting pains and hot flashes. The man
says, No, why do you ask the question? The doctor replies that it looks to him
like a cancer and then explains the nature and symptoms of such a disease. In
the ,course of an hour the man feels shooting pains, etc. Now where is the pain,
in the tumor or belief in a cancer? I answer, In the belief and as mind is matter, a
belief is also matter governed by error. Error gives direction to the mind and a
cause is formed just as far as the belief is received by the patient.
If man reasoned from another standard different results would follow. Every
thought is a part of a person's identity and if it contains a belief he must suffer the
penalty of his acts, for to believe is to act. To illustrate, suppose while I am
talking with a person someone comes along and says, The smallpox is now here.
The one who is talking with me never had it. His thought instantly makes his
belief in disease and his liability to take it; therefore he is in danger just as much
as he is exposed by his belief. I stand here. I believe that he is as well as the rest
of mankind who believe in disease. But I know that God did not make the
disease; therefore, it being the invention of man, it cannot live where there is no
belief; therefore I am not affected. To me all disease stands in the same way and
just as I have analyzed them I find that they are the invention of man ` and they
can be dissipated unless the impression is so strong that it is beyond the power
of the operator to explain it. Such a case is like the trial of an innocent man
where all the evidence is against him. It requires a skillful attorney to get such a
case but when the evidence can be sifted so as to be questioned and destroyed
as it can in nine cases out of ten there is no danger of losing it.
Do Words Contain Any Wisdom of Themselves?
BU 34:32, LC 8:203
That depends on who uses them. Jesus said, "The words I say unto you are
eternal life." Now if another person should say the same words, there would be
no life in them. Jesus says, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life." The
disciples could not understand for Peter said, "To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life." Words without meaning are like sounding brass and
tinkling cymbals. What is the life of a word? It is the wisdom it communicates to
the person who receives it. If I never heard the word dog, there is no life in it to
me, for life is wisdom, but if you put life into the word, then the life is the
substance and the dog is in it. If you say orange to a person who does not know
it and apply the word to the thing, then wisdom comes in the odor which is the
substance or life of the orange; but without any application or explanation, it is
like a cloud without rain; it contains no wisdom or life.
Dr. Quimby Explains His Method of Cure
BU 83:1
[orig. untitled]
As I am constantly receiving letters from persons who are sick, asking my opinion
in regard to their disease, it is impossible for me to answer every enquiry;
therefore I take this method to inform them of the mode in which I treat disease,
and as I treat it entirely different from any other person, it is necessary for me to
state what I call disease and how it originates. My theory is that all disease that
flesh is heir to is the effect of sensations produced on the mind, and when I say
all disease I mean so, and I use the same power or reason to cure them all.
I will illustrate what I mean by the power I use. If you send a watch to a
watchmaker to have it repaired, he would say at once that he had the knowledge
and all the necessary tools to repair a watch; therefore it is knowledge of a watch
that enables him to repair the damage. Again, if you are in trouble in regard to a
suit at law, you apply to a lawyer, state your case. He examines the evidence
and gives his opinion accordingly. But to give a correct opinion, he must hear
both sides of the question. Then the case must go to a jury of men in whom you
have no confidence in regard to their opinion of the question in dispute, so that
the whole case depends entirely upon the impression made upon the minds of
the jurors. The difference in these cases is this. The watchmaker does his job
mechanically without regard to outward influences, and the knowledge that
enables him to repair carries with it the conviction that the watch will keep time.
On the other hand the lawyer has two powers acting against him: the arguments
of the opposing counsel and the ignorance of the jury regarding the truth of the
case. From these two cases I will try to illustrate my mode of examining a case.
A person applies to me for help; he says he is sick. I do not ask him to tell me
that he is sick, like the lawyer, but sit down like the watchmaker and examine into
his case. Persons often say to me, as to the watchmaker, such and such things
are out of order. I pay [The article ends abruptly here.]
Establishing a New Science
BU 71:9, LC 1:25
[orig. untitled]
What has a man to contend with who undertakes to establish a new science? He
has the opposition of all the former opinions of the world in regard to it, and all
their influence. He will be misunderstood by fools and misrepresented by knaves,
for his science will tear down their fortress or belief and they will use all their skill
and deception to defeat their enemy. Their weapon is their tongue, and the
tongue of a hypocrite is of all weapons the most deadly to truth: for it can assume
the voice form of an angel while it is sapping your very life's blood from your soul.
Its life and happiness are its own torment. Ever since the world began, science
has had this enemy to contend with, and some very hard battles have been
fought before error would leave the field. And when forced to retreat into
darkness, it would come out when truth was asleep and destroy the happiness of
science. Therefore science must keep awake for its own safety. These two
powers are in every person, and each one's happiness or misery shows where
they are.
If well and happy, it is no proof that they have been through this war of science
and arrived at the truth, but that they from some cause are satisfied to become
the friend of both powers. In this way they are a kind of know-nothing, but their
position is not safe, for their enemy knows their position and only lets them
remain while they will keep still or quiet.
What has the truth accomplished? A great deal. It has planted its standard in this
battlefield. The standard of mathematics waves its banner to the truth-astronomy,
chemistry. These monuments of science, like Solomon's temple, are the place
where truth comes to worship, and the true priests are those who can teach
these sciences understandingly; and the masses are those whose belief is
founded on these teachers' opinions, without knowing the science or truth, but
pin their faith on another's opinion or sleeves. This credulity of the people
prompts men to selfishness, and there arise false teachers whose aim is to
deceive the people and make themselves famous. They throw discredit on their
ideas and render them unpopular so that if the same standard should be adopted
by a true priest, he would have much opposition to meet with in the minds of
those who have been deluded and imposed upon by hypocrites. This places a
man in a very bad place to defend himself, and all the influence he gets is from
those he cures, and they dare not stand up and face the world and sustain their
position, for it is so unpopular that their reputation is at stake. This is the state the
two armies are in when the leader plants his standard of science with this
inscription, The Science of True Religion is Health, Happiness, and Deliverance.
Experiences in Healing, Spiritualism and Mesmerism
BU 98:1
[orig. untitled]
Man, as we see him, is not to be compared to a clock, as he sometimes is for
various reasons. In the arrangement of a clock the motive power is the weight
and all the results are governed by a train of wheels and pinions regulated by a
pendulum, and accordingly as this pendulum is altered, the time must vary. Now,
if there is no motive power in man except that which is the result of an organized
brain, then the comparison would be of some force. But no one supposes that an
eight-day clock is under the influence of any person, after it has been wound up
until it has run down. Is anyone prepared to say the same of man? I think not. All
will admit that man cannot move or breathe without the aid of what is called mind.
Now if this power is not the result of an organized brain, it must be a power that
is not dependent on the brain for its existence.
There is no doubt that the theory of the practice of medicine was founded on the
idea that mind is the result of an organized brain, and therefore that mind and
matter are the same. This is an error that will some day be corrected, for it leads
man to bad results; it keeps him ignorant of himself and also of the power that
governs him. Now let man believe that he (that is, his mind) is not the offspring of
an organized brain and in a short time a different state of society will be seen.
Is the person that plays the pianoforte or harp a part of the instrument? If there is
any tune produced from the instrument, it must be by a power independent of
itself. So it is with man. If man's body never moved till the power to do so was
created within itself, it would never move. I believe the body may be compared to
an instrument, ready to be operated upon by any person who has the power of
applying their mind to other persons than themselves, in the same way as a
person conveys his ideas of music on an instrument. For instance, if an
instrument is out of tune, one would not call on a person to tune it who had no
ear for music, from the fact that he could not tell where the disorder was. If the
instrument was well, or in tune, it would need no physician, or tuner. So it is with
man; when well, he needs no sympathy or physician; but the sick need this
sympathy which is a relief to their mind, of which a well person knows nothing.
The tones of a musical instrument may be compared to the mind. When I speak
of mind, I do not mean ideas. Ideas are the results of the mind, used to convey
any fact to another. Like the strings of a musical instrument, both are matter
acted upon by the mind. It requires a person who has an ear for music to convey
ideas of tunes to another. So it is with the mind; when a person's mind is at rest,
all is well, but if the mind is disturbed through an injury done to the body or by
any other cause, it uses the body to convey the fact to others. These discords
are what are called diseases. This is the state of a person when he is in want of
this sympathy. These discords in a person are as easily detected by some as the
discords in music are by a professional musician, and there are persons who are
as easily affected by the discords of the sick as there are those who are
disturbed by the discords of music.
When I speak of discords in man, I mean disease. These disorders are the
results of a chemical change in the fluids of the system, brought about by the
action of the mind. These discords are sometimes brought about instantly and
may be corrected as suddenly. It may be necessary to give some proof that the
fluids are changed suddenly. Before I bring any proof, I wish it to be distinctly
understood that it is my belief that I can change the fluids of another person in an
instant, from a diseased to a healthy state. I do not mean every person, and I feel
the discords as sensibly as a person feels the discords in music and use the
same means to correct them. To prove the above statement I will take the case
of the woman who was healed by the touch of Christ's garment. The woman
believed that if she could touch the hem of Christ's garment, she should be made
whole. Now to produce a cure it was necessary that a change should be
produced in the system and to produce this change it was necesary to change
the mind to correct the discord. Christ, being very susceptible of this power, felt
the slightest discord in any person and, as quick to correct as to detect, was
always ready to sympathize with the sick. When the woman touched him, he was
disturbed by the discord and being well corrected the discord instantly, without
any thought. When the discord passed off, he said to his disciples, Somebody
hath touched me for I perceive that virtue hath gone out of me (Luke 8:46). Thus
the fluids were changed in an instant and the disease was cured. I introduce this
case to prove that the same power was used to cure disease then as now.
See the cures performed by the seventh son. No one will deny that some cures
have been performed by the touch of the hand; but the idea that there was any
more power in the seventh son than in any other person is all folly. The fact of a
person's being the seventh son may lead him to give his attention to some
particular class of diseases and may acquire the power of correcting the mind in
those diseases, the same as a child may acquire the power of imitating a bird.
Either power may be improved if the attention is devoted to the subject. Some
persons suppose this power is a gift from God and that the one who has it must
be superior to other men. I never heard that a man who was a professional
musician was superior to any other person, but they are generally looked upon
as being rather inferior, as they generally give their attention to the study of
music and entirely neglect all other branches. So it is with the cure of diseases by
sympathy. If a man is entitled to any credit, it is for discovering the principles on
which the mind acts, rather than for the power that is given him.
I shall give some of my own and also others' experiments to show on what l base
my opinion of the fluids changing instantly, so as to produce a derangement of
the system. I have sat down by a person and taken them by the hand, have had
what is called canker come in my mouth almost immediately, and on inquiring if
they had the same, have found it so in every case. I was once operating on a
lady who had a trouble in her head, as she thought, and in a short time I tasted
snuff and also smelt it. I said to the lady, "Have you been taking snuff for your
head?" She replied, "No, I never use snuff." I said, "I certainly taste snuff and you
must have taken it and forgotten it." She was rather surprised at my remarks and
sat for a few moments in silenc