Psychic
Healing
CHAPTER XII.
SUGGESTIVE HEALING.
Suggestive
Healing
is
based
upon
the
effect
of Mental Influence upon the Instinctive Mind.
It holds that just
as the adverse
suggestion of another, or of one 's self, may
produce abnormal conditions of the body
through the Instinctive Mind, so may the
good suggestions of another, or one's self
restore normal conditions.
The effect of the mental
states upon the body is well known to those
who have examined into the matter, as well among physical scientists as
among occultists. We cite or quote a few
instances here, in order to call your
attention to the facts
underlying Suggestive Healing.
Prof. James, the eminent
psychologist, has said: "The fact is that
there is no sort of consciousness whatever,
it sensation, feeling or
idea, which does not directly and of itself
tend to discharge into some motor effect.
The motor effect need
not always be an outer stroke of behavior. It
may be only an alteration of the heartbeats
or breathing, or a
modification in the distribution of the blood,
such as blushing or turning pale; or what not.
But in any case, it is
there in some shape when any consciousness is
there; and a belief as fundamental as
any in modern
psychology, is the belief at last attained,
that conscious processes of any sort,
conscious
processes merely as
such, must pass over into motion open or
concealed."
Bain says: "There have
occurred many instances of death, or mental
derangement, from a shock of grief, pain, or calamity; this is in accordance
with the general law.
Darwin says: "In
protracted grief the circulation becomes
languid ; the face pale ; the muscles flaccid
; the
eyelids droop ; the head
hangs on the contracted chest; the lips,
cheeks, and lower jaw all sink downward from
their own weight. The
whole expression of a man in good spirits is
exactly opposite of the one suffering from
sorrow."
Olston says : "If the
general law of the body be that of cheer,
hope, joy, love, and desire for health and
happiness give growth to
tissue, strong and normal action to the organs
of the body, and thereby health in
general ; while fear,
melancholy, malice, hatred, dejection, loss of
confidence and all other morbid states of
mind tend to the
lassitude of the functions and the depletion
of the organs I feel that too much enthusiasm
cannot be raised in the
reader's mind upon these all important facts."
Flammarion says : "An
idea, an impression, a mental commotion, while
entirely internal, can produce in another
direction physiological
effects more or less intense, and is even
capable of causing death. Examples are not
wanting of persons dying
suddenly in consequence of emotion. The power
which imagination is capable of
exercising over life has
long been established. The experiment
performed in the last century of a man
condemned to death, who was made the
subject of a study by medical men, is well
known. The subject of the experiment was fastened securely to a table
with strong straps, his eyes were bandaged,
and he was then told that he was to be bled from the neck until every
drop of his blood had been drained. After this
an insignificant puncture was made in his skin with the point of a
needle, and a syphon arranged near his head in
such a manner as to allow a stream of water to flow over
his neck and fall with a slight sound to a
basin placed on the floor. At the end of six minutes the condemned man,
believing that he had lost at least seven or
eight quarts of blood, died in terror."
Maudsley says: "Emotion
may undoubtedly favor, hinder, or pervert
nutrition, and increase, lessen, or alter a
secretion; in doing
which there is reason to think that it acts,
not only by dilating or contracting the
vessels
through the vaso-motor
system, as we witness in the blush of shame
and the pallor of fear, but also directly
on the organic elements
of the parts through the nerves, which, as the
latest researches seem to show, end in
them sometimes by
continuity of substance. To me it seems not
unreasonable to suppose that the mind may
stamp its tone, if not its very
features, on the individual elements of the
body, inspiring them, with hope and energy,or inflicting them with despair
and feebleness."
Darwin has told of the
effect of grief upon the physical functioning,
particularly upon the circulation.
Homesickness is
mentioned as apt to derange the proper
functioning of the body. Good news will
promote
digestion; bad news will
retard it. A disgusting sight will cause
nausea.
Sir Samuel Baker says:
"Any severe grief or anger is almost certain
to be succeeded by fever in certain parts of
Africa."
SUGGESTIVE HEALING
Sir B. W. Richardson
says: "Diabetes from sudden mental shock is a
true, pure type of a physical malady of mentalorigin. ".
Sir George Paget says:
"In many cases I have seen reasons for
believing that cancer has its origin in
prolonged
anxiety. "
Murchison says : "I have
been surprised how often patients with primary
cancer of the liver have traced the causeof this illness to protracted
grief or anxiety. The cases have been far too
numerous to be accounted for as mere coincidences."
Numerous medical
authorities report that cases of cancer
especially of uterine cancer or cancer of the
breast
have their origin in
mental anxiety. And other report cases of
jaundice arising from the same cause. Other
attribute anaemia to
mental shock and worry.
Sir B. W. Richardson
says: "Eruptions on the skin will follow
excessive mental strain. In all of these and
in
cancer epilepsy and
mania from mental causes there is a
predisposition. It is remarkable how little
the question
of physical disease from
mental influences has been studied. "
Prof. Elmer Gates says:
"My experiments show that irascible malevolent
and depressing emotions generate in the system injurious compounds some
of which, are extremely poisonous, also that
agreeable happy emotions generate chemical compounds of
nutritious value, which stimulate the cells to
manufacture energy."
Prof. 'Tuke, in his
book, "The Influence of the Mind upon the
Body," cites numerous cases of disease caused
by
fear, worry or fright,
the principal ones being as follows :
insanity, idiocy, paralysis of various muscles
and
organs, pro- fuse
perspiration, cholera, jaundice, turning the
hair grey, baldness, decay of the teeth,
nervous shock followed
by fatal anaemia, uterine troubles, skin
diseases, erysipelas, eczema, etc. The same
authority remarks upon
the effect of fear in the spread of diseases,
particularly contagious diseases. Cholera
epidemics are believed
to have been largely due to the fear of the
people in former times.
Prof. Mosso claims that
fear causes St. Vitus' dance, scurvy,
epilepsy, etc. Many writers have gone so far
as to
claim that Fear, in some
form or degree was at the bottom of all
physical complaints or diseases, directly or
indirectly, and making
allowance for over-claim, it looks as if there
was much truth in the statement.
SUGGESTIVE HEALING
In view of the
preceding, it would appear that any method of
relieving or driving away Fear, would have a
great
effect in the curing of
disease. And such is the case. Nearly all
forms of Psychic Healing create a new mental
atmosphere and condition
in the patient. Fear is replaced by
Confidence, Courage, Fearlessness, Hope, and
the
physical results follow.
The axiom of Suggestive Therapeutics is
"Thought takes form in Action" and "As a Man
thinketh in his heart,
so is he."
But not only may the
entire system be benefited by general
suggestion, but particular organs may be
strengthened,and caused to again function
properly, by well directed Suggestions. The
Instinctive Mind takes up the suggestions passed on to it,
and they "take form in action." The very cells
of the body respond to Suggestion through the Instinctive Mind.
And every part, organ, nerve, and cell may be
strengthened and stimulated into proper action in this way.
The practice of
Suggestive Therapeutics has proven quite
popular among physicians of late years, and is
destined under one form or another to
rapidly increase in popular favor in the
future. Many physicians give what are called "masked suggestions" by
which is meant Suggestions given in connection
with some material remedy, the patient being told positively
that the drag or treatment will do "thus and
so," and the suggestion being repeated in different forms,
until the mind of the patient confidently
expects the stated results, and the
"Thought takes form in
action. " No matter how the Suggestion is
given it is still Suggestion.
In the succeeding
chapters we shall give special directions
regarding this form of treatment, which will
give
one a better working
knowledge than a bookfull of mere general
remarks. Study them carefully.
Next
Human
Spirit
