The Text - Section 5
Portland, Apr. 10th, 1861
To Mrs. Strong:
In answering your inquiry, I am not inclined to give a decided opinion in any case,
for an opinion involves more responsibility than I am willing to take. Moreover an
opinion is of no force as far as knowledge goes and it might do a great deal of
harm and mislead you to put a false construction on what I might say. I always
feel as though disease was an enemy that might be conquered if rightly
understood, but if you let your enemy know your thoughts, you give him the
advantage. Therefore I never give the sick any idea that should make them
believe that I have any fears, nor will I reason with myself, for my reason is my
guide. Making health the fixed object of my mind, I never parley or compromise.
Once when your sister remarked that she never expected to be perfectly well, I
replied that I never compromised with disease. And as she had been robbed of
her health, I should not settle the case except on condition of the return of her
health and happiness. Here she stands.
I will now say a word or two so you can see how I feel; when I really believe that I
cannot destroy a disease, I always take the easiest possible way to induce the
patient to return home of their own accord with the idea that they will do just as
well as if they stayed longer. This is my mode of dismissing my patients and as I
send away patients who I know will recover, the sick cannot see any partiality
and they all leave in good spirits. When I feel as though a patient might get well
but for circumstances which they cannot control which bear on their mind, if I
think by lessening their burdens and anxieties I can effect the cure, that I do in
this way. When your sister came to me I found her in a very nervous state, from
the fact that she had lost her sister and expected soon to follow her. This made
her very nervous and stimulated her to that degree that she appeared to be quite
strong. As I relieved her fears, she became more quiet; this she took for
weakness, but every change has come just as I told her it would. Like all who are
sick, she looks at the expense, and as I felt very anxious to help her, I was willing
to take the responsibility upon myself of telling her that I would like to have her
remain and I would make no charge for my services but would wait till the cure
was performed. This would relieve her of calling on her friends for funds to pay
me and I find she feels happier and easier. You will see that I have no interest in
keeping your sister here, and as long as she remains, I shall take as good care of
her as though she were my own child.
P.P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland, Apr. 11, 1861
To Miss L.H. Mead:
I will now sit down by you as I used to, for I see I am with you, and talk to you a
little about your weak back. You forget to sit upright as I used to tell you.
Perhaps you cannot see how I can be sitting by you in your house and at the
same time be in Portland. I see you look up, open your eyes and hear you say,
No, I am sure I cannot, and I do not believe you can be in two places at the same
time. Now listen and I will try to convince you that I can be here with you and at
the same time be in Portland.
You remember when Jesus was journeying one day, he said to his disciples, our
friend Lazarus is sick. We must go to him. How did Jesus know that Lazarus was
sick? You need not ask me if I compare myself to Jesus; that is not answering
the question. The question is simply this. Do you believe that Jesus knew the fact
or did he guess at it? I hear you think, not speak, "I cannot say." No, you cannot
say intelligently, for if you could, you would not doubt that I am now talking to
you. But your faith is like that of Lazarus; it, needs more faith and Jesus knew it,
or he would not have gone to the idea or body. Neither was Mary's or Martha's
faith enough to raise him, so he had to go or do what was the same, for they
could not believe in what they could not see; therefore he had to attach his
senses to what they could see, Jesus; then they could see that Jesus could raise
Lazarus. Now if your faith is no stronger in P.P.Q.'s truth or Christ than Lazarus'
and his sisters' was in Jesus' Wisdom or Christ, then I fear your back will remain
unrelieved, for I am too busy to go in bodily form. But I have faith to believe that I
can make you believe by my wisdom, so I shall try to convince you that although
I may be absent in the idea or body, yet I am present with you in the mind.
Suppose I am in Portland and you feel and know that I am here with you, where
do you and the people in Portland differ in opinion? You say I cannot tell. I will tell
you. The people, attaching their senses to P.P.Q. think wisdom is in him, but if
you know that I am here, you attach your senses to the Christ or truth. And if you
believe this, you are saved from the uncertainty of seeing me in the body, that I
may tell you what I am now saying. While I have been sitting and talking, I have
been trying to affect you and I feel as though you would be better. Hoping this will
be so, I leave.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland, Apr. 24, 1861
To Mrs. Bosworth:
Owing to my business I have delayed writing until now. I generally seem to see a
patient when I read a letter, but sometimes I do not. This I account for on the
principle that the errors obscure my sight. Light is something outside and
independent of matter, which is so associated with matter that it has become
attached to it. But in its pure operation, it sees through matter in its various
combinations. Common education has placed a barrier between two persons; for
instance, you and myself. This barrier is matter and can be seen through by
intelligence superior to it. I will try to communicate with you, that is that part of
you which sees and hears, etc., and is really independent of time and space but
which is not known by that part of us that depends on the eye to see or the ear to
hear or through those organs to be affected and realize a sensation or fact. This I
call your wisdom or senses and they are imprisoned by the errors of common
belief. This belief is yourself and acts upon your matter or body. It is under the
direction of ideas or opinions of persons who never knew there was an
intelligence independent of your body. You, being under their influence and
finding no friend to lead you away from them, fall into the snares of their make
and almost wholly believe in everything they say. Now I wish to talk with that part
that does not believe in what these friends say, be this part ever so small or well
concealed.
This disinclination to receive the opinions of your friends is founded on a truth,
that is, that there is not a word of truth in what they say; it is all based on
guesswork. All this is mere assertion on my part and of course needs proof to
substantiate it. So if I can make myself felt by you without the common medium
through which we know each other, that will show that we can act independently
of that medium. I therefore will now try to dissolve the error, misbelief, and see if I
cannot make myself felt by you. So if you hear my voice and are a little nervous,
do not put a false construction on it by being frightened and closing the door of
your belief so that I cannot enter and talk with you a little upon the idea that the
world has established and imprisoned your wisdom in. If I can convince you that
your friends are your enemies, then you will know how to treat them.
It is an old saying, deliver us from our friends. These friends, Christ pictured out
better than I can do, so I will use his own illustration for he warned his disciples
against them. He says beware of the Scribes and Pharisees, that is the priests
and doctors' opinions, whether they come through a physician, minister or your
friend. For if any person tells you anything and gives you an opinion, which if
believed makes you worse, then beware of such whitened sepulchres or blind
guides. They are wolves in sheep clothing, clouds without rain, hypocrites
prowling around to devour. You remember what Jesus told his disciples about
such a class. So when they come with long hypocritical faces and in whining
tones and say, "You look very feeble, you are not so well," etc., turn from them.
These are the hypocrites that devour widows' houses, for your science is your
house, and as you are all alone, you are a widow in the Science of Christ or
Truth. Now Christ visited the widow and fatherless in their distress and told his
disciples to do the same and keep them pure and unspotted from the world or
opinions. While you read this, I am with you working in your belief or prison till I
shall tear it down and raise you up.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland, May 3, 1861
Mrs. Wingate:
You seem by your letter to be surprised by the course taken by the lady who
answered your first letter, but I wish you to understand that I was apprised of the
answer and it was written just according to my views, and if you could not
understand it, the fault is in you and not in her. She knows the difficulty I have to
encounter from persons who know me; also that all I say to the well is Greek, and
although they may have respect for me as a man, they have none whatever in
my opinions as a physician. This places me in a very unpleasant position.
When I first called on the lady, she was very feeble and unable to walk, had been
attended by the very best physicians and believed in all the opinions of disease.
Now to have all her wisdom upset by me was more than she could stand, and
had it not been that I was a stranger and she dared not set up an opinion in
opposition to me, I could not have cured her; but her strong desire to get well
made her listen and keep still till she began to take an interest in my theory. If it
had been my daughter, Augusta, I could not have cured her, from the fact that
she could not have had the confidence in me that she would have had in a
stranger. All of this she knew, and when I told her that your mother and myself
were brought up together and that she knew me as a jeweller till I commenced
this business, she could see that your mother's confidence in the medical
opinions must be complete, and to have it all upset by one for whose medical
knowledge she had no respect, although she might respect me as a man, would
render it a hard case to cure. All the above is in answer to your misunderstanding
her letter.
As regards your mother's case. I cannot tell anything about her till I could see
her. According to your description, it must take a long time to cure her, if I could,
at all. You see how little you understand of my mode of treatment, since you
have said that it was all foolishness or the same thing, and if you fail to see any
sense in what the lady wrote, how do you think your mother can, when she never
has even been consulted in the case at all? So as I have said before, my opinion
is worth just as much as your question-that is nothing at all. If I should sit by your
mother and take her feelings, then when I undertake to tell her how she has been
humbugged by the doctors, I should see how my ideas set on her stomach, for
she could not embrace my ideas just because I said so. But I must labor long and
hard to convince her so as to change her mind and effect the cure. Therefore, if I
was a stranger whom she had just heard of, it would make a difference. She will
know nothing of what I have to contend with, but I do, and so does the lady who
wrote the letter to you. If you can find out anything by this I shall be glad.
Should I be in Bangor at any time, I would be happy to call and see your mother,
or if she would be in Belfast when I go home, I would see her with pleasure. But I
could not go to Bangor, leaving my business here, without charging twenty
dollars and all my expenses. But if I happen to visit your city I will call with
pleasure, if she wishes me to, not otherwise. I cannot cure a person on another's
recommendation. If you wish me to see your mother, I must see her at her own
request and not on your account. I will let her know when I shall be in Belfast if
she wishes. I go Friday and return Monday, and that would give me ample time
to see what I can do. I will now close, wishing you a quiet state of mind while you
read this letter. It may be of service to you in the day of trouble. So wishing you
good-bye,
I remain,
P.P.Q.
_______________________
Portland, May 9th, 1861
To Mr. ______
I will say in answer to your letter that it is impossible to give any correct opinion in
regard to your wife's case, nor do I wish to give any encouragement that I may
afterwards regret. I know the sick, like a drowning man, are ready to catch at a
straw and this places them and their friends in the hands of all kinds of quackery.
They are not the judges of their own case from the fact that health is all they want
and money to them is nothing in comparison to it. This I know from experience
and when they compare their cases with others the comparison will not hold
good. I have been deceived by the sick, not knowing anything about their case
except from their own account. I have advised some not to come; from the
description of their cases and on sitting with them, I have found their trouble
amounted to a mere nothing. I have advised others to come and found them far
worse than I expected, then felt concerned for advising them to come. So I have
concluded to let people take their chance and I do the best I can.
Now in regard to my going to Chicago, I am not in a situation to leave here at
present as I have as many patients as I can attend to, and my expenses here
amount to not less than $5.00 a day, which goes on, whether I am in town or not,
and my business varies from twelve to twenty a day; therefore I cannot live on
uncertainties. If I were certain of curing your wife and others, that would alter the
case, but the uncertainty I do not wish to risk, nor can you, lest I should fail. I do
not wish your wife to come here unless you feel as though there was a fair
chance for her recovery. Mrs. Ware might be of some service to you; she, having
some ideas of my cures, might be a better judge than you or your wife, but if you
feel inclined to come this way, then I would do the very best I could. If your wife
would write me the facts of her case, I will devote one hour to her and send her
an account of her case. Then she may feel better satisfied what course to
pursue.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland, May 10th, 1861
To Mrs. Ferrell:
Yours of the 9th was received and I will sit down and try my best to relieve your
right side and hope I shall be able to affect it. Be assured I shall not forget you,
but shall have a dutiful care over you and encourage you through your trouble till
you can see out of it and feel that your health is out of danger. Your cough is the
effect of your health, throwing off the morbid state of your system and of course it
makes you feel very bad. I am very sorry that I can't stop your cough at once, but
so it is, and I will do my best to stop it. You see how my patients hold me to my
promises.
You say in your letter that I told you so and so, and you hold me to my promise
just as though I would forget you, if I had not promised that you would get well.
Now these promises are the very thing I am trying to get rid of, for when you
promise a child anything on condition, they never think of the obligation to their
parent, but claim the reward. So it is with all my patients. It sometimes makes me
smile to see how artful they will be to get me to make a promise and when I do it,
it seems as that was all, and they never think that they have anything to do for
themselves. This is so common among the sick that I have become very cautious
how I promise, for if I do not fulfill my promises, they are sure to remind me of it.
It often makes me feel as though they thought me to blame for not fulfilling my
promise. And I really feel guilty myself, for I believe that our minds are under
some wisdom, for a love the natural man is unaware, and when I mentally agree
unconditionally to do a thing, it annoys me much if I fail to do it.
Now I know you as Mrs. Ferrell; do not hold me as P. P. Quimby responsible to
stop your cough. But this sick idea does hold me to my promise, so I will try my
best to fulfill it. In doing so, I must hold you, not Mrs. F but the sick idea, to its
promise. And for fear you may forget, I will just remind Mrs. F what the sick idea
promised on her part. It was that she would keep up good courage and not
believe in what anyone said and not be afraid if she coughed a little but keep
calm and cheerful. Now, if I hear about you complaining about your cough and
getting low spirited, I shall tell you of it, and hold you to your bargain. You see
you are bound to keep the peace and to do all that is right, so that your health
may come, and you may once more rejoice. Now I think I have sat with you some
time, and this contract, I want you to read now and then, and I will sit and listen
when you are reading it, and I think we will get along first rate.
So good night.
Yours etc.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland, Aug. 9, 1861
To Mrs. L. Emerson:
In your letter you have saved me the trouble of finding out your case myself by
stating your feelings; so as I have your symptoms before me, I will try to affect
you as much as I am able to.
I will say that it is hard labor on my part to sit and take a person's symptoms at a
distance, and as my time is so much occupied, I cannot absent myself from my
business to do so. But since, by sending your symptoms, you have saved me
that labor, I will say a word to you while I am trying to affect you.
You say that if you were not able to reward me, you have no doubt that the Lord
will in the world to come. So far as your honesty goes, I have no doubt but that
you think so. I would rather trust to that than to any Lord of any world to come
that I know of. I have no confidence in this God of man's invention. He asks too
much of man and never pays. He is too much like a man; in fact he is the
embodiment of man's opinions. Just look at the absurdity of what you say, and it
is what we all often say, and yet it contains no wisdom at all.
You say that if I should help you, you cannot pay me; God will reward me in the
world to come. Suppose there is another world and I should not go there for
twenty years. You don't suppose the Lord will look me up when he has credited
me for curing you? And of course, I should not put in a claim myself, so I rather
think it will all be forgotten. I have lost all confidence in the God of such opinions.
I will give you a description of the God I worship. He has respect for persons. He
is a God of love and truth. He feels our misery and administers to our wants. He
never keeps any accounts but pays me my wages as soon as they are earned.
So if I help you, my God is your God, and to do good to myself is to do good to
you as far as lies in my power. So my God is in me, and His rewards are with
Him. If I do a good act He pays me down, for He does not need to have any
account with man. He has enough to pay all His debts, and if I neglect to fulfill my
part, after I know and acknowledge it, I shall surely get my punishment. All this is
the other world, not the world of opinions, for that world must be destroyed. God,
and all the world of progression and science can never be destroyed, for it never
had a beginning and therefore cannot end.
This is the world I believe in. If I help you, my God rewards me, for the reward is
in the act. It is as much my gain as yours. To make you happy makes me so, and
if I help you and make you happy, you of course share your happiness with me.
I will stop till I learn if you get any better and which God you think the most of.
P.P.Q.
_______________________
Portland, Sept. 12, 1861
To Mr. Capen:
Your letter was received, and in it you say your wife was affected somewhat as I
said she would be, and now you ask me if I think she should come to Portland,
that I could help her knees. Now sir, my cures depend a great deal on the
confidence of my patients, and if they think I have a power, then of course I do
not know any more about it than they do. If it is from God or the Devil, I am but
an instrument in their hands and give them the credit if they cure through me,
and if they fail, lay the blame also on them.
I, as a man, cannot give an opinion of what the Lord or the Devil does through
me towards curing disease. This is one of the absurdities of the world. They
admit that I do not know anything about this power, as they call it, and then next
ask me to give an opinion of what I can do, thus depriving me of any wisdom and
then expecting me to give an opinion that makes me responsible for the Devil's or
God's acts. Now Sir, I will place your wife's case before you in a sensible manner
so that you shall not be deceived and let you decide about her coming by your
own and her judgment.
She has been here and I tried to affect her after the manner that I do everyone,
that is, appealing to her common sense. I do not assume any wisdom from God
or from the Devil or from Spirits, but I try to show that disease is one of the
phenomena of our belief, and to correct the belief, I change the mind of the
patient. Their wisdom is then attached to my ideas of truth and this is the cure.
Now to get a person to come to me by holding out some inducement or promise
in one hand and taking money in the other is selfish and hypocritical. If the
patients have confidence in me they would not wish me to coax them. Jesus
said, if the sheep knew the voice of the Shepherd, they would follow him. So I
say, if the sick knew me, they would not want me to hold out inducements to cure
them, but they would coax me instead of my coaxing them. This puts me in a
position I do not like, and your wife is also in a bad position. Just let me make an
illustration that will show how we both stand.
Suppose I am in a prison, and your wife has the name of getting people out. Now
I know this, and I know that if I make my case known to her, she will do the best
she can to get me out; and should she fail, it would not be from any neglect of
hers. Now I send her a letter saying that if she thinks she can get me out, I
should like to have her try. Do you think she would be induced to make much
effort? You can answer. Suppose I believe that if I could only get her interested in
my case she would get me clear. Then I should not put any restrictions on her
but throw myself into her power and trust to luck. In this way when she had me in
her power, if she had any sympathy, she would exert it for my happiness.
I told your wife that if she thought she received any benefit, she might get better;
but if I had to make one single condition in the way of compromising to bring her
here, by which she would not come unless I did, I should not have any faith at all.
Therefore, I say if she comes, I shall use all my wisdom to restore her to health
and happiness.
P.P.Q.
_______________________
LETTER TO A LADY IN VERMONT
Portland, 1861
Madam:
I received your letter and I will now give you another sitting although I sat with
you yesterday; but perhaps you were not aware of it, so I will now try again.
I cannot help thinking but what I can help your nose, for I believe it to be a
curable case and I shall make an effort to have this visit operate on your bowels
and change the current of the fluids in that direction. And I will now work on your
stomach and shall keep up my visits till I produce an effect like a diarrhea and
that I think will change the nature of the trouble which is in the fluids. Please let
me know how I succeed. As I wrote you yesterday I will stop now till I hear from
you. Good night, 7:01 o'clock and just going to my tea.
Perhaps it may seem strange that I not seen at the exact time of writing but this
is the fact. I have to produce a change in your system so that out of the matter or
mind of yourself the body is made and I in it, thus it will take longer sometimes
than it does others. If that lady is still with you I will try and make myself appear
to her eyes next Sunday between 7 and 8 o'clock.
P. P. Quimby
[Extract from a letter from the above lady in Vermont to Dr. Quimby]
Last Friday evening, Oct. 3rd, between 7 and 10 o'clock, mother and a niece of
hers, who is here on a visit, were sitting together talking, and this lady says she
saw you standing by mother, about to lay your hand on her head. Just at that
moment mother left the room before her friend had told her what she saw, so
your visit was interrupted. What was quite strange was that this lady described
some of your characteristics in looks and appearance very accurately, although
you have never been described to her. Mother wishes to know if you were really
here in spirit at that time.
_______________________
Portland, Dec. 7, 1861
Miss Longfellow:
Your letter was received, but my engagements have been such that I have not
had time to give my attention to your case until now. Although we have lived side
by side ever since we were children, we have been ignorant of that power or
science that is necessary to smooth our ruffled path as we travel along the road
to wisdom, whence no child of science ever returns to his former home of
ignorance and superstition. You and I have a power called the inner man by the
ignorant, but its true name is wisdom or progression. This is the child of God, and
although at first it is almost without an identity, this little wisdom implanted in this
earthly man or idea is held in ignorance till some higher wisdom frees it from its
prison.
You remember when your little pupils would stand by your side looking up to you
for wisdom to satisfy their desires. You with your power like Moses went before
them leading them through the sea of ignorance, they following your light as a
pillar of fire, and in the clouds of darkness your light sprang up. As you traveled
along, they murmuring and complaining, you like Moses fed them with the bread
of science and eternal life. You smote the rock of wisdom that followed them and
they drank of the waters that came out of your teaching and this rock or wisdom
was Christ. You have a teacher as well as I that goes before us teaching us
Science, and we become the child of the one we obey. You, like Moses, held up
the serpent of ignorance before your little pupils and all who looked upon your
explanation and understood were healed of their disease or ignorance; but the
murmuring of your pupils would make you nervous and although you, like Moses
on Mount Pisgah, could see the promised land, your heart failed you and you
sank down in despair. In your discontented state of mind you call on your
comforter, as Job did, but no answer returned from your doctors or spiritual
advisers, who being blind guides find you like the man going down to Jericho and
fall upon you and rob you of all your wisdom. So here you are a stranger among
thieves, cast into prison by the very ones you have always taken for your leaders
on the road to health; you are bound with bands, sick and with no hope of ever
being set at liberty.
Now your belief is like a bark and your wisdom attached to it, on the water of this
world, for water is an emblem of error so that the medical wisdom or ocean is
where your bark seems to be moored. Here you are tossed to and fro,
sometimes expecting to be lost, while the winds of spiritualism are whistling in
your ear till it shakes the bark to which your wisdom is attached, and the heavens
are dark and the light of wisdom extinguished in the opinions or waves of the
medical science.
As you are tossing to and fro you see me coming. When I say "me," I mean
Science in P.P.Q., not the P.P.Q. that you used to see but the wisdom in a body,
not of flesh and blood but a body as it pleases and to every science its own body.
Your body or bark is of this world and your wisdom is in it, and I have to come
through your wisdom to get you clear of your enemies. So you may look out of
the window of your bark while reading this and you will see me coming on the
water of your belief saying to spiritualism and the waves of the medical faculty,
"Be still, and I will come on board of your bark and still your fears and return you
once more to your own house whence you have been decoyed by these blind
guides."
As disease is in accordance with the laws of man, a penalty is attached to every
act so that every one found guilty must be punished by the law. As you are
accused of a great many transgressions, your punishment is greater than you
can bear, so you sink under your trouble. I appear in your behalf to have you
tried by the laws of your own country, not by the laws of these barbarians. So I
will read over the indictment that stands against you. Here it is: you are accused
of dyspepsia, liver complaint, nervousness, sleepless nights, weak stomach,
palpitation, neuralgia, rheumatism, pains through your back and hips, lameness
and soreness, want of action in the stomach, etc. What say you to this
indictment? Are you guilty or not guilty? You say, "guilty." But as I appear on your
behalf, I deny that you are guilty of the evils which cause this punishment. I want
you to have a fair trial before the judge of truth and disease, and if you have
disobeyed any law of God or Science, you must answer to Science, not to man. I
will call on the hypocrite or doctor who goes around devouring widows' houses
and for a few dollars has got the people into trouble from which they cannot get
out. He says you have all the above diseases.
On cross-examination when asked how he knows, he says, you told him. This is
all the proof that he or any other doctor can bring. So by their false testimony you
have been condemned for believing a lie, that you might be sick. Now as your
case is one of a thousand, I have only to say a few words to your wisdom as
judge. All disease is only the effect of our belief. The belief is of man, and as
Science sees through man's belief, it destroys the belief and sets the soul or
wisdom free.
I will now sum up the evidence. You have listened to the opinions of the doctors,
who are blind guides crying peace, peace, till you have embraced all their
wisdom. This has produced a stagnation in your system and what their ignorance
has not done, the spiritualists have tried to do. So between them both you are a
prisoner and in the same state as the people were in the days of Jesus when he
said to them, "Beware of the doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees, for they say
and do not; they bind burdens on you that they cannot explain."
This keeps you nervous. So awake from your lethargy and come to the light of
wisdom that will teach you that man's happiness is in himself, his life is eternal;
this life is wisdom and as wisdom is progression, its enemy is ignorance. So seek
wisdom and believe no man's opinion, for these opinions make you nervous. This
causes a heat to go to your head making your head feel heavy and producing a
dullness over your eyes, in fact, causes all your bad feelings, not that you have
any disease independent of your mind, but your mind is matter, not wisdom.
So if I can lift your wisdom above the error or mind, then you will be free. But now
this nervous heat is all through you and comes to the surface. When the cold
strikes you, it chills you. This you take for a low state of the blood. But it is like a
stagnation of your own self, not being able to explain the phenomena that you
are affected by. As you read this it will excite you to understand it. This is like a
little leaven that is put into your bread or belief, and it will work till it affects the
lump and causes you to feel as though you had a very bad cold. It will work upon
your system and affect your bowels, causing a diarrhea and also affecting the
water.
Then you may know that your cure is at hand. So do not despair, only remember
the signs of the times and pray that your flight may not be in the night nor on the
Sabbath day when you are at meeting. So keep on the lookout and I think you
will be better. If so, let me know. When you read this letter I am with you and you
will think strange, for it will produce some strange sensations on your mind,
sometimes joy and sometimes grief. But it is all for the best. So keep up good
courage and I will lead you along through the dark valley of the shadow of death
and land you safe in that land of Science where disease never comes.
I will stop now, but remember that as long as you read this and drink in these
words, you do it in remembrance of me, not P.P.Q., but Science, till your health
comes. I will leave you now and come again and lead you till you can go alone. If
you will see fit to show this to Julia H. when you read it, we shall all be together,
and you know what the truth says: that when two or three are gathered together
in Science, Truth or Wisdom will be there and bless and explain to them.
P.P.Q.
_______________________
Portland, Dec. 16, 1861
Miss B.:
Yours of the 7th is received containing $2.00 as a fee for my services on
yourself. As you have shown a spirit of sympathy that I never have received
before, I certainly shall not prove myself one who will not return to another as I
would that another should do to me. So I receive your two dollars sent in hope of
a relief and return your money, believing it came from one who is as ready to
give as to receive. I believe if two persons agree in one thing sincerely,
independent of self, it will be granted.
I will now use my skill as far as I am able to correct your mind in regard to your
trouble. The heat you speak of is not a rush of blood to the head but is caused by
a sensation on your mind like some trouble. This causes a weakness at times at
the pit of your stomach. The heat in the second stomach causes a pressure on
the aorta which makes the heart beat very rapidly at times. This you take for
palpitation and it causes a flash or heat, which of course you take for a rush of
blood to the head. But it is not so; it is the fluids. As the clouds in the skies
change when the wind blows, so the fluids under the skin change at every
excitement. The skin being transparent reveals the color; this annoys you and the
false idea that is in the blood keeps up the fire. Now just take in your mind the
spine as a combined lever of three parts, and you will see how to correct your
form so as to ease the pressure on the aorta. Now imagine yourself sitting in a
chair with the lower level or spine at right angles with your limbs. This relieve the
stomach, take the pressure from the aorta and put out the fire so there can be no
heat. This will produce a change in your feelings and the change is the cure.
If you will sit down on Sunday evening, I will try to straighten you up so as to
relieve that feeling. I will try to exert my power on you and if you feel that I am
entitled to anything in the shape of a gift, it will be received, if ever so trifling.
Your sincerity towards me interests my sympathy in you, and if I relieve you, I
shall be very glad. You have taken the way to make me try my best. This is true
sympathy to sympathize with those who make the first sacrifice. It is of no
consequence if it be one cent or one hundred. The sacrifice is all. It shows your
faith, and according to your faith, so shall your cure be. This being a new
experiment, let me know how I succeed and if I change your mind, the change is
the cure. I send you one of my circulars which will tell you more of my mode of
treatment. It is easier to cure than to explain to a patient at a distance. But I am
sure of the principle and feel confident that I shall sometimes cure at a distance.
For distance is nothing but an error that truth will sometime explode. If my faith
and your hope mingle, the cure is the result, so I will give my attention to you as
far as my faith goes and shall like to hear how I succeed.
P.P. Quimby
_______________________
PORTLAND ADVERTISER
International House, Feb. 13, 1862
Mr. Editor:
As you have given me the privilege of answering an article in your paper of the I
Ith inst., where you classed me with spiritualists, mesmerizers, clairvoyants, etc.,
I take this occasion to state where I differ from all classes of doctors, from the
allopathic physician to the healing medium.
All these admit disease as an independent enemy of mankind, but the mode of
getting rid of it divides them in their practice. The old school admit that medicines
contain certain properties and that certain medicines will produce certain effects.
This is their honest belief. The homeopathic physicians believe their infinitesimals
produce certain effects. This is also honest. But I believe all their medicine is of
infinitely less importance than the opinions that accompany it.
I never make war with medicine, but opinions. I never try to convince a patient
that his trouble arises from calomel or any other poison but the poison of the
doctor's opinion in admitting a disease.
But another class, under cover of spiritualism and mesmerism, claim power from
another world, and to these my remarks are addressed. I was one of the first
mesmerizers in the state who gave public experiments and had a subject who
was considered the best then known. He examined and prescribed for diseases
just as this class do now. And I know just how much reliance can be placed on a
medium; for, when in this state, they are governed by the superstition and beliefs
of the person they are in communication with and read their thoughts and
feelings in regard to their disease, whether the patient is aware of them or not.
The capacity of thought-reading is the common extent of mesmerism.
Clairvoyance is very rare and can be easily tested by blindfolding the subject and
giving him a book to read. If he can read without seeing, that is conclusive
evidence that he has independent sight. This state is of very short duration. They
then come into that state where they are governed by surrounding minds. All the
mediums of this day reason about medicine as much as the regular physician.
They believe in disease and recommend medicine.
When I mesmerized my subject, he would prescribe some little simple herb that
would do no harm or good of itself. In some cases this would cure the patient. I
also found that any medicine would cure certain cases if he ordered it. This led
me to investigate the matter and arrive at the stand I now take: that the cure is
not in the medicine but in the confidence of the doctor or medium. A clairvoyant
never reasons nor alters his opinion; but, if in the first state of thought-reading he
prescribes medicine, he must be posted by some mind interested in it, and also
must derive his knowledge from the same source the doctors do.
The subject I had left me and was employed by _________, who employed him in
examining diseases in the mesmeric sleep and taught him to recommend such
medicines as he got up himself in Latin; and as the boy did not know Latin, it
looked very mysterious. Soon afterwards he was at home again, and I put him to
sleep to examine a lady, expecting that he would go on in his old way; but
instead of what, he wrote a long prescription in Latin. I awoke him that he might
read it; but he could not. So I took it to the apothecary's who said he had the
articles and that they would cost twenty dollars. This was impossible for the lady
to pay. So I returned and put him asleep again, and he gave his usual
prescription of some little herb, and she got well.
This, with the fact that all the mediums admit disease and derive their knowledge
from the common allopathic belief, convinces me that if it were not for the
superstition of the people, believing that these subjects, merely because they
have their eyes shut, know more than the apothecaries, they could make few
cures. Let any medium open his eyes, and let the patient describe his disease;
then the medicine would do about as much good as brown bread pills. But let the
eyes be shut; then comes the mystery. It is true they will tell the feelings, but that
is all the difference.
Now, I deny disease as a truth but admit it as a deception, started like all other
stories without any foundation and handed down from generation to generation
till the people believe it, and it has become a part of their lives. So they live a lie,
and their senses are in it.
To illustrate this: suppose I tell a person he has the diphtheria and he is perfectly
ignorant of what I mean. So I describe the feelings and tell the danger of the
disease and how fatal it is in many places. This makes the person nervous, and I
finally convince him of the disease. I have now made one; and he attaches
himself to it and really understands it, and he is in it soul and body. Now he goes
to work to make it, and in a short time it makes its appearance.
My way of curing convinces him that he has been deceived, and, if I succeed, the
patient is cured. As it is necessary that he should feel that I know more than he
does, I tell his feelings. This he cannot do to me, for I have no fear of diphtheria.
My mode is entirely original. I know what I say and they do not, if their word is to
be taken. Just so long as this humbug of inventing disease continues, just so
long the people will be sick and be deceived by the above-named crafts.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland, Feb. 22nd, 1862
Mr. Carter
Dear Sir:
I was very glad to receive your letter of Dec. 1st but since then have been too
busy to answer it until now. And now I scarcely know how to commence, knowing
that I am about to tread on holy ground, and feel like Moses who viewed the
promised land lying before him but could not enter with all his errors, so he saw
for others what he was not permitted to enjoy in the natural man.
This truth that I practice is as plain to me as mathematics, but the developing of
that science depends upon the progression of all other improvements, for if the
world was ignorant like the savages, that wisdom called mathematics would still
exist but their darkness could not see it. So as the light of God or wisdom springs
up, man learns the truth and applies it to the phenomena of his day so it can be
understood. This we call mathematics or God's wisdom revealed to man. I think
that all controversies in the world are in matter, and man has attached himself to
the idea of matter and lives and dies in it till the light of wisdom opens his eyes to
the truth that his life is in this great light that sees matter as nothing but shadows.
I will try to illustrate my ideas by a parable. You know what the phenomenon
called mesmerism is. Clairvoyance is perfect light. Matter is annihilated except as
it is admitted. Thought-reading is another state in matter, like darkness, so that
thought-readers see or feel by the light of another, while clairvoyance sees by its
own light. Our senses are in one or the other of these states of light and
darkness. The separation of these states has always been the great problem.
They who were sitting in darkness saw this light spring up, but as the prince of
darkness had sway, they crucified the light. Now, the world attaches their senses
to the thing they can feel and see, but Jesus attached his to the light, so that his
light was in their error and they saw it not.
By this time I hear you say, Show me this light or truth and it will satisfy me. I
answer, Have I not sat by you and told you how you suffered and yet you cannot
see me? The light of the body or wisdom is the eye, and if your wisdom is all
light, your light is all wisdom, but if your light is darkness or thought-reading, it is
darkness to wisdom. Such is this to those who cannot understand, but I feel as
though you said, "I understand that." How do I show to the world my light? For a
light under a bushel gives no light to those outside. So to let your light shine, you
must make some physical demonstration of it.
When I sit down by a patient, their thought is their wisdom or opinions and to me
there is no light in them. My light or wisdom sees through their darkness or belief
and I, knowing that their sufferings are the effect of this world's wisdom, take
them by the hand and guide them by my light till I raise them from the dead or
error into the light of science or heaven. This is my heaven. My hell is where I
was and where all others are till they come to a knowledge of this great truth, that
man is outside of matter. When he knows this, he cuts himself clear and floats in
the ocean of light where matter is to him a shadow, moved around by a wisdom
attached to it, and their ignorance knows not that they are not of the matter but
outside. I will illustrate.
Suppose I create a dog in my mind and mesmerize a person till I make him see it
and finally I succeed. Now his senses or light is in my idea-the dog-he sees it but
does not see the creator. And seeing the dog with life, he of course thinks the life
is in the dog. If he never comes out of that state, then the dog follows him; and if I
present it to him, then to himself he has a dog, but to his neighbors he is insane. .
. . All the while I know I am the author. Suppose I call the great God of all:
Clairvoyant. All matter to him is nothing.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER
Portland, Feb., 1862
To Mrs. Woodward:
I will class all people who believe in another world in this way. They all believe
that mind is one thing and spirit is the highest wisdom known to the Christian
world. As mind is, then man's spirit is that part that lives after the mind is dead or
gone.
Mind, matter and spirit are all one and the same, like the lamp, the oil and the
light. The lamp is the body, the oil is the mind, and the light is the spirit. So when
the oil is out, the spirit is dead, and this is the end of the religious world.
Now this is the way I divide man. The lamp is matter, the oil is mind, and the light
is the wisdom or spirit of the oil. The wisdom that carries the lamp is God, and
you will see that it is separate and apart from the other combinations of the lamp
so that when we see the lamp, the wisdom that directs it is out of sight. This
wisdom is what guides the sick. It trims your lamp and furnishes it with the oil or
truth so that when the cry of the bridegroom or truth comes, your lamp may be
filled and trimmed; and you will not be gone to borrow oil lest he comes when you
are after oil, and he passes along and the door is shut. So do not get into your
lamp but keep outside. Do not put your light under a bushel but on top. The light
of truth or wisdom is like the sun; that of error, like the moon in the firmament of
mind.
P.P.Q.
_______________________
Portland, Apr. 27th, 1862
To Mrs. Marsh:
Your daughter's letter was received and it gave me much joy to hear that he was
still going ahead. For you, I cannot say that the news was so gratifying, but I
must say I think it is all for the best. We know that God sometimes uses rather
strong means to accomplish his end; this is according to the Christian belief but I
don't believe that my God ever uses any means. He is the end to obtain, and the
means of obtaining to this end everyone tried to find. Man is the inventor of his
own misery. Man's happiness is not an element but is the reaction of his own
belief or acts. If you throw up a stone into the air it must come down, so the
reaction returns with the same power that it receives. So if I do you an evil, the
evil will return on me, but God is not in the good or evil. He is in that wisdom that
measures out to every one just according to his acts.
God can't be seen by the natural eye, but He is seen by the sympathy of our
acts. When man acts, he either acts according to happiness or misery for the
reward is in the act, and the knowledge of this is God. So God is in us and we
are in our acts. And God won't censure man's acts unless man censures them
himself. We too often mistake our lives for some other person in this way. If I tell
you not to eat or drink this or that and you believe me, when you really believe
you are me and not yourself, and you attach your senses to this belief and all the
misery follows for the superstitious man, for God is not in an opinion. So when
the Minister tells you that this is wrong and this is right, he deceives himself and
makes the word of God of no effect, for God can't give an opinion. And the
minister can't give any proof that he ever got the truth from God but man. Now all
such foolish beliefs make one nervous, for you are bound, yet you were not born
a slave, for God does not enslave anyone. But man is a slave to his own beliefs
and forges his own fetters.
So take heed that none of these blind guides shall deceive you by their smooth
words. But keep your light shining so when they come and commence to give an
opinion, ask for proof and they will leave you. Then I will come to you and greet
you and try to explain to you this truth that will set you free from this
nervousness, for it is the fruits of your old errors. I told you that your body was
like a picture which was given to you by a friend, but it has been covered up by
opinions of the priests till you have lost all interest in it. They have made you
believe that it is of no value, and as you set a great value on it, you grew
nervous. Now I want to show you that the value is in the picture and then you will
respect the donor who is the Father of all gifts. But the blind guides or devils want
to destroy your happiness and get the picture. So remember what I tell you and
read this and I will be with you and make you quiet till your health comes.
Yours, etc.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
EXCERPT FROM AN UNDATED LETTER TO A PATIENT
What is your true position in regard to the truth or spirit world, or the errors of this
world or that feeling that keeps you in a quandary all the time? It seems as
though there were two powers acting upon you at the same time and it seems as
though I must put a false construction on the one that you fear the most. The one
you fear is from itself. The fear of the construction that arose from some
sensation that contained no knowledge nor harm but was a shock that disturbed
your mind. This brought your mind like the earth in a fit state to receive direction
from the power of this world of flesh and blood or the direction of the truth, and as
the natural man or the knowledge of the world has governed your thoughts, you
have been kept ignorant of your true position which is to destroy the enemy of
the higher man or put it into subjection to the spiritual man or truth. This is the
state of your mind at this time.
When you think of going anywhere, you feel that if I could go with you all would
go well; but if you go alone, you take no interest in the amusements, for it is
under the direction of this world and you have arrived at this state where you can
foresee a higher state of mind than this world enjoys. But you cannot separate
the one from the other yet. You will soon. I saw the two states last night in the
hall and you might have noticed it in those girls. My patients all feel a sort of
attachment to me and I could see the same feeling drawing to you. My patients
feel my influence in you and like the children of Israel they want a leader which
they will find in you. Those two influences are acting upon you all the time.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
To Mrs. A.C.B.:
In answer to your letter I will say that it is impossible to give an opinion of a case
till I know something about it independent of my natural senses. I, of myself,
cannot take another's feelings. Therefore my opinion is nothing.
When I sit by a patient, their feelings affect me and the sensation I receive from
their mind is independent of their senses, for they do not know that they
communicate any intelligence to me. This I feel, and it contains the cause of the
trouble, and my Wisdom explains their trouble; and my Wisdom explaining the
trouble, the explanation is the cure. You must trust in that Wisdom that is able to
unlock any error that your wisdom can lock, so search into the error and you will
find that your key can unlock the mystery and loose your bands. I will assist you
all in my power.
P.P.Q.
_______________________
Portland
To Mr. A. A. Atwood:
In reply to your questions I will say to you that I am unwilling to take charge of a
person afflicted with fits, from the effect upon my own system. In regard to the
blind, I should not recommend anyone like your description to come to see me
for I have no faith that I could cure him. If a man is simply blind, I have no chance
for a quarrel, for we both agree in that fact. But if a person has any sickness
which he wants cured and is partially blind besides, then I might affect his
blindness, but that is thrown in. I never undertake to cure the well and if a man is
blind and satisfied, I can't find anything to talk about. For if I undertake to tell him
anything, he says, Oh! I am all right, but my eyes, so he is spiritually blind and
cannot see that his blindness ever had a beginning. So it is hard work to get up a
controversy and therefore I refuse to take such cases till my popularity is such
that my opinion is of some force to such persons.
For opinions of popular quacks are law and gospel about blindness, and so long
as the blind lead the blind, they will both be in the ditch. Thirdly, you ask me if I
can cure anyone from using intoxicating liquors. This is a hard question to
answer, for it involves considerable. If you drink it is not my business; neither is it
yours if I drink, for neither can set up a standard to judge the other by. I judge no
man. Judgment belongs to God or Science and that judges right, for it contains
no opinion. Giving an opinion is setting up a standard to judge your neighbor by,
and this is not doing as you would be done by. The true science judges in this
way. If you are sick and come to me, if I tell you how you feel, this is doing as you
would like to be done by; there is no discord. Now you come to me, a criminal or
debtor, accused of disobeying some opinion of man which you will not accept
and worship. You are accused, condemned, and cast into prison; your
punishment is your feelings. Now science, being a higher court than man's
opinions, man appeals to that court. So he is brought before me and upon
examination, I find that he has committed no offense against science and is not
liable to their standard. I plead his case and show that all his acts were
committed in self defense. His drinking is the effect of something he is accused
of, and he takes to the cup to drown his sorrow. When I convince him how he has
been deceived by his tormentors and explain the truth, he comes to his reason
and abandons his old associates who have been the means of all this trouble. If
he likes smoking and drinking, he is satisfied and wants no physician. But if sick,
and I find that liquor is his enemy, then it is my duty to tell him so. And if I
convince him, he has no more difficulty in cutting his acquaintance than he would
an old friend whom he discovered plotted against his life; one case must be
proved.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland
To Mrs. Doland:
I will try to drive these devils away that trouble you, but I must say, they
originated in this world or matter. They are not the work of God, but they are the
invention of man. God is not sin or error. We often hear persons say, while we
are looking at nature, that we see God in everything. This to me is all folly.
If you should see an orange and had not the sense of smell, nor had intelligence;
but smelling the orange and knowing it contained a peculiar odor, you worship
the orange for what it contains. So it is with God. We see fields, streams and
flowers, and all nature seems delighted to spring from its cold prison. We are not
aware of any wisdom in the flowers nor grass, nor in anything that hath life; yet
they all have their peculiar ways of expressing their feelings to the great wisdom
of all, not by language, but in their own way. Their life is the father of all life, and
when the cold breezes of November come, they leave the icy tenement of the
world of matter and live again in a sphere far superior to this world of matter. Not
losing their identity, they return in the spring and appear as though nothing had
happened.
To the observer, the flowers seen in June are not the flowers of the next June,
but yet they are. So man, like the plant, with one exception, is the higher element
of God's wisdom. He partakes of the mathematical in man that plans and directs
all. He is introduced into this world with the highest order of God's wisdom, not
being perfect, for some cause not known to himself. He is left to work out his
problems for his own happiness. So he becomes an inventive being, and as he
becomes ambitious, he sets up standards of right and wrong and wants everyone
to obey his peculiar notions. This makes war between truth and error. Error is
arbitrary and wants to bind truth. Truth is gentle and never binds at all but, like a
shepherd, leads his flock.
Error is always lying about the truth and trying to confine it. Every idea has an
atmosphere around it, and in it the truth is confined.
Disease is the invention of man, and like all inventions of man, according to our
belief, liable to perish. So decomposition is always taking place in every variety of
matter. The destruction of anything we have an interest in affects us, just
according to our belief.
Your body being matter is liable to the same destruction that any other matter is.
To you it is a vineyard and you enjoy the fruits of your own vines. Now to be a
good husbandman is to keep all the trees or ideas in good health so that no
crooked branches should shoot out to injure the growth of the rest. The idea of
rheumatism is the fruit of a tree called trouble that grows in the most barren part
of the soil . . .
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
TO A PATIENT
Mrs. Norcross
Madam:
Yours of the ... is at hand. But a lack of faith on my part to describe your case
and explain my ideas to you so you could rightly comprehend my meaning is my
only excuse for not writing before. But thinking you would expect an answer, I
now sit down to talk with you a short time.
After reading your letter I tried to exercise all the power I was master of to quiet
and restore your limb to health. But to give a satisfactory answer to you or myself
was more than I was capable of. I therefore will disturb your mind or fluids once
more and try to direct them in a more healthy state by repeating some of my
ideas which I repeated to you when here.
You know I told you that mind was the name of something, and this something is
the fluids of the body. Disease is the name of the disturbance of these fluids or
mind. Now as the fluids are in a scalding state, they are ready to be directed to
any portion of the body. You remember I told you that every idea contained this
fluid, and the combination varied just according to the knowledge or idea of
disease.
I will explain. Two persons are told they are troubled with scrofula. One does not
know anything about it and has never heard of the disease, is as ignorant as a
child. No explanation is given to either. The other is well posted up in regard to all
the bad effects of this disease. Now you can readily see the effect on the minds
of these two persons. One is not affected at all till he is made acquainted with the
case, while the other one's mind or fluids are completely changed and combined,
so all that is necessary is to give direction and locate the disease in any part of
the body.
I think I hear you say that a child can be troubled with scrofula, and they have no
mind, as I said before. Your mother probably changed the fluids of your body
when an infant or at any early age, and some circumstances located it in your
leg. Now as it is there, you want to know how to get rid of it; and as it was
directed there through ignorance, you can't get rid of it without some knowledge.
Now as this disturbance comes like a fright or sensation, it is to be understood as
a fright. Now as disease is looked upon as a thing independent of the mind, the
mind is disturbed by every sensation produced upon the senses, and the soul
stands apart from the disturbed part and grieves over it as a person grieves over
any trouble independent of the body. Now to cure you, you must come with me to
where the trouble is, and you will find it to be nothing but a little heated fluid just
under the skin, and it is kept hot and disturbed by your mind being
misrepresented.
Now I believe that I can impart something from my mind that can enter into that
distressed state of the fluids and change the heat and bring about a healthy
state. I shall often try to produce a cooling sensation on your limb, at other times
a perspiration so as to throw off the surplus heat. If I succeed in helping or
relieving you, please let me know. But do not expect another explanation, for this
has made me half insane. If you think you would improve faster by coming to
Belfast, please let me know, and I will get you a private boarding house if
desired. I think I can hear you say by this time that your limb feels better; if so, I
shall be satisfied. I will close my long epistle by wishing you a long life and a well
leg.
_______________________
Miss B.:
Yours of the 7th is received and I am glad to learn that I have relieved your mind
by "my power," as you call it. But you misunderstand my power. It is not power
but Wisdom. If you knew as much as I do about yourself, you could feel another's
feelings, but here is the trouble. What people call "power" I call Wisdom. Now if
my wisdom is more than yours, then I can help you, but this I must prove to you.
And if I tell you about yourself what you cannot tell me, then you must
acknowledge that my wisdom is superior to yours and become a pupil instead of
a patient.
I will now sit down by you and tell your feelings. You may give your attention to
me by giving me your hand, be still, and look me in the eye. I will write down the
conversation that I hold with you while sitting by you.
You have a sort of dizzy feeling in your head and a pain in the back part of the
neck. This affects the front part of the head causing a heaviness over the eyes.
The lightness about the head causes it to incline forward, bringing the pressure
on your neck just below the base of the brain, so that you often find yourself
throwing your head up to ease that part of the head. This makes it heavy, so it
bears on the shoulders, cramps the neck, numbs the chest so that you give way
at the pit of the stomach and feel as though you wanted something to hold you
up. This cramps the stomach, giving you a "gone feeling" at the pit of the
stomach. This contraction presses on the bowels and causes a full feeling at
times and a heaviness about your hips and a loggy feeling when you walk. Now
all these symptoms taken of themselves are nothing. But you have had medical
advice or have got from some one else an answer to all these feelings. You are
nervous. You have the heart complaint. Your blood rushes to the head, and you
are liable to female weaknesses. Now take all these symptoms together and if
they would not make your face red, what would?
Listen to me and I will give an explanation of all the above feelings. I must go
back to the first cause, say some years ago. I will not undertake to tell just the
cause but I will give you an illustration. Suppose I (the natural man) were sitting
by you and we were alone, and I should go and fasten the door and go towards
you and attempt to seize hold of you. And if you asked me what I intended to do
and I should say, "Keep still, or I will blow your brains out," you would see this
would frighten you. I think your heart would beat as fast as it ever did. This
explanation I do not say is true. For I suppose a case, start contracts the
stomach, the fright or excitement heat, sets your heart beating, and throws the
heat to your head; this heat tries to escape out of the nose causing a tickling in
your nose and you often rub it because it itches and feels hot. It then tries to
escape through the passage to the ears making your cheeks red and burn and
causes a noise in your ears sometimes. This after a while subsides, the stomach
relaxes and the heat passes down from the stomach into the bowels. . . .
Now follow the directions in the last letter and relieve the pressure on the aorta.
This will check the nervous heat and relieve the excitement and then the heat will
subside. The color is in the surface of the skin and has nothing to do with any
humor or disease; it is nothing but excitement. As I told you in my last, I will be
with you when you read the letters and you will feel a warm sensation pass over
you, like a breath. This will open the pores of the skin and the heat will escape.
I send back the five dollars till the cure is performed. I don't like to be outdone in
generosity and I am willing to risk as much as any one in such a cause as this. If
I come off conqueror, then it will be time enough for you to offer up a sacrifice.
Till then, if I accept a gift, it is without an equivalent on my part. I feel as certain of
success as you do, so I feel as though I run no risk. All I look for is the cure. You
ask if I give any medicine. The only medicine I ever give is my explanation and
that is the cure. In about a week let me know how the medicine works. Hoping to
hear good news when next I hear from you, I remain, Your friend,
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland
To Mrs. Robinson
Madam:
Pardon me for addressing you on a subject in which as a stranger I have no
personal interest. Mrs. Green, your mother, having been under my charge as an
invalid, has frequently spoken of you and your husband connected with some
trouble which I never asked her to explain. But from what little I gathered from
some spiritual communications she had from a lady, if she may be so called, I felt
as though there must be something wrong. This medium was one, if I understood
her right, whom she consulted for her health. In the interview the idea of the dead
would come up, and as is usual in this mode of practice, her husband came
forward to give some ideas that might be of some benefit to the medium, not to
Mrs. G, for all these communications are to settle some difficulty that neighbors
get up.
In the communication her husband recommended me, saying I was a medium.
This led her to call on me for advice. As my mode of treating disease is entirely
new to the world, the spiritualists claim me as a medium. I deny this, but believe
that mind acts upon mind and that it is the living and not the dead; so here is
where we differ. When Mrs. G called on me I think Mrs. Otis was present and I
told her of some things which I did not know before, and this gave her confidence
in me. Then she wished me to read some communications from her husband and
something connected with you and your husband, and it seems to me that they
were interested to make trouble, and I told her so, but she thought not.
I will here say that whatever you may think of your mother she is sincere in her
motives but is, I think, misled by some spirits that have flesh and blood who have
some motive for acting. She thinks your husband has a power over you to make
you do just as he chooses. This is her honest belief and that contemptible
woman holds out the idea that she can, through the spirits, bring everything
straight. As she has confidence in me, she wishes me to influence you not to be
controlled by your husband. And I told her that I felt as there must be some
misunderstaning and advised her to go to your place and have a fair explanation
of all this trouble. For I believe the medium knew what she wrote as well as I do,
and advised her to have no more to do with it.
But there is a combination of circumstances, showing to me that she is under
some influence that is not for her happiness. So I told her I would try to bring
things right and I thought she would have a letter making everything plain. This
was three months ago, and Friday last she called and said she had not received
a letter. I noticed she felt very badly and asked what she should do. I told her I
would write to you myself and then I could tell more about the case, for I believe
it was all a piece of deception on the part of the medium, either instigated by her
enemies or that she had been deceived or misled by pretended friends and that
the medium read her thoughts. This is my reason for addressing you on a subject
in which I have no interest; it is to ferret out traitors who are busy in making
trouble. I have had some experience in troubles of this kind where the spirits of
the dead are called up, and I know that this horrid belief has been the cause of
breaking up families, separating man and wife and setting mother against
daughter and every possible evil.
I am perfectly ignorant of the charges against each other; I never asked her, I felt
as though it was none of my business. But from her honest conviction of being
right, I have no doubt that there have been persons who have got from stories,
which if the real truth could be known, do not contain a single word of truth. Yet
they are as true to her as the very Bible she reads and takes for truth. To show
you the mind can be misled by these blind guides and deceived by these
communications and their bad effects, I will relate one instance out of a dozen
that I might give.
I was called to see a lady who had cut her throat and after the deed was done,
she was considered insane. Her mother and husband were with her at the time I
visited her, although he had been away from her for three months, from the fact
that there was trouble between them. She had become jealous of him and their
children staying among the neighbors, so he left. All this was done under the full
belief that it was true, and when I entered the room her mother pointed to the
husband saying, "He is the cause of all this trouble." Then his wife commenced
abusing him violently. After hearing these stories, I said, I see no reason for all
this trouble; the woman was insane and must have been so for some time, and
now they were all insane. I then commenced restoring the lady to her reason and
my effect upon her was such that I was obliged to hold her. Then she clung to
her husband, but in the course of four or five hours I brought her to her senses
and she fell asleep. After she awoke she enquired for her husband. I told her he
had gone out. She wished to know why she could not live with him. I said I knew
of no reason. She said she had nothing against him, that he had always treated
her well, etc. It may all be explained like this: she had become interested in
spiritualism and here was the result. My explanation of the phenomena
reconciled them and now they live happily together.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Mr. J. Watts Esq.:
In the letter I wrote to you about my coming to your place, I said nothing about
my pay from the fact that I knew you would know the person who wishes to see
me, neither did I want to give any idea in the papers, for if I should, it would bring
on such hard cases that it might upset my plans.
My plan is this, to make some cure that would give me a position in your place
that can't be put down by one or two failures. But if I open the door to all, I might
fail.
Again, the first impression lasts the longest and I don't want to enter your service
as one of Maine's politicians entering Governor Fairfield's room to solicit an office
just as he entered, he stumped his toe and in he went headlong, saying, your
fearless hire lays before you. I don't want to stumble against such ones at
present. My object is to make my profession have character and to do this it must
be respected, and if I don't respect it, I can't expect others will.
Here is the difference between myself as a man and my practice. My character
speaks for itself and I am judged according to my acts, like all others. But you
know that a profession has two identities: one is attached to the profession and
the other to the man. Now reverse the tables. Take Dr. Wood of this place, say
nothing about either character, give me his professional character and attach it to
my practice, and give him my art or gift, as he would call it, and attach it to his
practice and then you can see popularity is in his profession and not in his
wisdom. But my wisdom has no character but is a sort of power or gift. Here is
where I stand; the people will give me all the power but they won't the wisdom.
You know, to establish a standard like the one I am trying requires more wisdom
than Jeff Davis; one is based on one man's opinion and the other is based on the
fact that his opinion is faith.
The medical faculty's opinion is based on the opinion of what they see of effect,
they know not the cause; mine is based on what I know of the cause, like action
and reaction. You know if you throw a ball in the air it will return with just as much
force as it received, so the answer was in the action. So it is with all my practice.
The medical practice admits the ball comes down but can't say but what it was in
the air from the beginning. Here is the difference: the medical profession sees an
eruption on the skin, here is the reaction. Now to account for it is the point in
dispute.
I feel the causes and effect in my own person and the doctors don't feel either,
but the effect on the sufferers they see with their eyes to account for it in various
ways, but all admit that is nothing very marvelous, but it is still a mystery. So their
version reminds me of a story I will relate here. In a town called Berklay in
Massachusetts, a sea captain knew that the inhabitants were very superstitious,
so he went to the barn and found an egg and took his pencil and wrote, "Woe
unto you Berklay folks." The egg was found by a child and a church meeting was
called; so the parson opened the case by expressing his opinion, and the deacon
was called to give his version on the phenomenon. He took the egg and
examined it very minutely, looked very wise and made this remark, that he had
no doubt it was the Lord's doing but that he had observed one very important fact
which was this: the Lord did not spell Berklay right!
The doctors are making just such observations all the time, never accounting for
any phenomena, but giving their opinion like the deacon, and there is just about
as much wisdom in one as the other.
Now all I do is to show the sick the absurdity of both; this explains the cause and
the effect being in the cause, the wisdom regulates both.
P. P. Quimby
_______________________
Portland
To Mr. W. S. Atkins:
I will now sit down to answer your letter and will straighten you up as I used to.
Remember the illustrations I used to make to you and I will stir up your ideas by
referring to my theory. You want to know if I was in earnest in regard to your
learning. I was, but you nor anyone else can learn of yourself, any more than a
person can get religion of himself. It must be the effect of a change of mind. This
you cannot understand, for your change of mind when you got religion was the
effect of error, not of truth. So you worship you know not what. But V worship I
know what, and, "Whom you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." This
same Christ, whom you think is Jesus, is the same Christ that stands at the door
of your dwelling or belief, knocking to come in and sit down with the child of
science that has been led astray by blind guides into the wilderness of darkness.
Now wake from your sleep and see if your wisdom is not of this world. To be born
again is to unlearn your errors and embrace the truth of Christ; this is the new
birth, and it cannot be learned except by desire for the truth of that Wisdom that
can say to the winds of error and superstition "Be still!" and they obey.
It is not a very easy thing to forsake every established opinion and become a
persecuted man for this Truth's sake, for the benefit of the poor and sick, when
you have to listen to all their long stories without getting discouraged. This cannot
be done in a day. I have been twenty years training myself to this one thing, the
relief of the sick. A constant drain on a person's feelings for the sick alters him,
and he becomes identified with the suffering of his patients; this is the work of
time. Every person must become affected one way or the other, either to become
selfish and mean so that his selfish acts will destroy his wisdom or keep it under
and let his error reign, or his wisdom will become more powerful till it will run
away with his obligation to himself and family.
It is not an easy thing to steer the ship of wisdom between the shores of poverty
and the rocks of selfishness. If he is all self, the sick lose that sympathy which
they need at his hand. If he is all sympathy, he ruins his health and becomes a
poor outcast on a cold uncharitable world. For the sick can't help him and the rich
won't. It is difficult to steer clear and keep your health.
P. P. Quimby