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Topic: Quimby Manuscripts Section: Chapter 14 - Christ or Science, part 4 of 5 Table of Contents to this Topic |
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HOW I HOLD MY PATIENTS The question is often asked, how I hold my patients, when I give no medicine, and make no applications. I answer, it is through my knowledge. Then you may ask me where I differ from; others. In everything so far as disease and what produces it is concerned. All persons believe in disease and their belief is in the thing believed. For instance, take consumption. People are not aware that consumption has an identity, as much as a serpent or canker worm, that it has life or a sort of knowledge. (1) It is liable to get hold of us, and if it does we cannot shake it off, as Paul did the viper, from his hand. All diseases have an identity and the well are likely to be deceived. But these diseases are in the mind as much as ghosts, witchcraft, or evil spirits, and the fruits of this belief are seen in almost every person. These beliefs show what the people are afraid of, and what they have to contend with, and make it necessary for them to have help in driving off their enemies. For if a person cannot conquer his enemy or disease himself, he must have help. (1) That is through the life or reality which we attribute to it. Now the people involved admit the existence and superiority of their enemy or disease, and commence making war with him by first firing calomel, and if that does not start him, the next is blistering, or burning. This only enrages the enemy, and a regular battle commences. Finally a council of physicians is called, a suspension of arms takes place, a compromise is made, health yields up all claims to happiness and enjoyment, and the victim has the privilege of going about a cripple and an outcast the balance of his natural life, knowing all the time that he is liable to be caught by any of his enemies, at any time, either asleep or awake. This keeps him in a nervous state of mind, not fit for any business, like a man who is in prison, under sentence of death. This is the state of this world. Now, is it strange that a person is known by this character, and is afraid of this state of mind or disease? And when one who has the power of restoring health and destroying these enemies comes up to another who is tormented by these devils, is it strange that he likes him and feels safe in his presence, until he himself is perfectly free? This feeling is not always known by the sick, but it is felt. It cannot be understood, for its language is its feelings, and it cannot talk till it learns to speak through the senses. It knows and feels its friend, and clings to him as a child does to its parent before it can walk; it is led by sympathy till it can go alone and can understand that it has power over its enemy. Then its knowledge is its cure. Till then it feels the want of some one who can protect it from its enemy. Now my wisdom is their protector and my explanation is their cure. My wisdom is accompanied by sympathy for their troubles, and like a shepherd who leads his sheep I lead the sick home to health and deliver them to their friends. Then I leave them happy, and feel that they appreciate the benefit I have been to them. This money cannot buy. This is what holds my patients. It is what none but the sick can appreciate. The well know nothing of the feelings of the sick, therefore to them it is a stumbling block, and to the doctors foolishness. -March, 1860. HOW I CURE THE SICK I will illustrate to you the way in which I cure, or correct the sick. You know I talk parables. To the well this is of no consequence, for they cannot see any sense in my talk. So it is in every science with those who are ignorant of the meaning the person wishes to convey. This was the trouble Jesus had to contend with. All His knowledge must be explained by parables, for the people's belief was in the thing believed. To reduce their belief to a science was a very hard task, for it had to be done by parables of things that each person could understand. When He talked to the multitude it was about the Science or principle that was intended to be applied to each person's individual case. The parable of the sower illustrated the principle like an illustration regarding some science. It was not intended to be applied to any individual case, therefore when the disciples heard the parable, they did not understand it, and wanted an explanation. Now His explanation to them is as much of a parable to the rest of the world as His parable to the multi?tude was to His disciples. So a parable of mine is of no use to the well, for it is not intended for them, and must be varied to suit the case that calls it out. Like a lawyer's argument, it depends upon the case to be tried. So it is with the sick, each must have his case explained to himself. The Science can be explained to the well, but not by the same parables that are necessary to be applied to the sick. I will illustrate. A lady called on me whose feelings were as follows: She felt so weak that she could not keep from stooping over, it was with difficulty that she could sit up. This feeling I could feel but the woman who was with her could not detect it. To cure her and make her sit up, the work must be done by an explanation she could understand, by a parable, because the patient's identity was in her belief. Her body had an identity apart from the earthly body, and this sick (spiritual) body is the one that tells the trouble. This body seemed to be holding up the natural body, till it was so weak it could barely sit up. This spiritual body is what flows from, or comes from the natural body, and contains all the feelings complained of. It speaks through the natural body, and like the heat from a fire has its bounds, is inclosed by walls or partitions as much as a prison. But the confinement is in our belief, its odor is its identity; its knowledge is in its odor; its misery arises from, false ideas, and its ideas are in itself, connected with its natural body. This is all matter, and has an identity. The trouble, like sound, has no locality of itself, but can be directed to any place. Now as this intelligence is around the body, it locates its trouble in the natural body, calls it "pain" or by some other name. Now the sick person is in this prison, with the body, which body feels as though it contained life. But the life is in the spiritual body, which being ignorant of itself places its own identity in the flesh and blood. This is because the heat which arises from the body contains the identity, and the soul puts such a construction upon the pain as has been taught, and thinks its trouble is in and part of the natural body. This is the prison which Christ, not Jesus, entered, and broke the walls by His word or power and set the captive free. At this door He stands and knocks, and if we will let Him in He will explain away the error or forgive the sin, and save the soul. He will deliver us from our earthly hell made by the wisdom of the world?March, 1860. DO PEOPLE REALLY BELIEVE WHAT THEY THINK? To some this may seem a strange question but it involves more of our knowledge than we think it does. Our belief involves all our religious opinions. Our opinions are the foundation of our misery, while our happiness is in the knowledge that follows the solving of the problem or error. To illustrate, when solving a problem you have an opinion, and are in trouble about it. But when the answer comes the happiness accompanies it. Then there is no more death, or ignorance, sorrow or excitement. Error and ignorance have passed away, all has become new, and we are as though we never had been. We have all the happiness we want; the misery is gone, and the spirit returns to the Great Spirit, ready to solve another problem. Now the problem I wish to solve is what I first named. Do we really believe in what we think we do? I answer, "No," and shall show that we deny what we profess to believe in almost all we say and do, thereby proving ourselves either hypocritical or ignorant. We profess to believe in Christ, that He is God, that He knows all things, and is capable of hearing and answering our prayers. We also believe that man is a free agent, that he is capable of judging between right and wrong, and believe that if man does not do right he will be punished. When asked for proof of all this, we are referred to the Bible. When we ask an explanation how Christ cured, we are told it was by miracle. If we ask if Christ did not know all things, the answer is, "Yes." Then did He not know what He was about, what He did, and how He did it? "Yes." Then if you ask how He knew, the answer is, "It is a miracle," or "The ways of God are past finding out," ?and thus you are left in the dark. Now those who reason this way will not accept any fact based upon any other way of reasoning. You must bring the strongest proof to convince them of a fact produce in the same way, otherwise they will not believe. The fact is they don't reason or compare at all, and admit what they have not the slightest proof of, except the explanation of some person of doubful existence. Now, when I show that I can produce a phenomenon that to all appearance is just like some produced by Christ, and in the living, who speak for themselves, I should like to know by what authority anyone dares to say that it is not done in the same way that Christ did His works. If they cannot tell how I do it, or how He did it, how do they know but that it is done in the same way? Their only objection can be that it happens to be contrary to their own opinion, which is not worth anything, and they admit it; for they will say it is a miracle to them. This makes them what Jesus said of such guides. He called them blind guides leading the blind, and warned the people against them. He called them whited sepulchres, and all kinds of names, and the world has been led by such guides every since. Jesus told the people how they should know them. He said, "Not all who say Lord! Lord! shall enter into this theory or kingdom, but he that doeth the will of the Father that sent him." Now what do they do that Jesus did? Nothing. You cannot point to one act that Jesus did that these guides do. All who do good ac?cording to Scripture imitate the Pharisees in every respect. He called them the children of the devil, and He said their father (or error) was a liar from the beginning. Jesus judged them by their works, and told the people to do the same; for He said, "by their fruits ye shall know them."-March, 1860. JESUS AND CHRIST When Jesus asked Peter, "Whom do the people say that I am?" Peter and the disciples said, "Some say, John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Now all of these were dead, therefore they did not mean to confound the man Jesus with them. But they believed the spirits of these men came back and entered the living, and talked to the people. Jesus knew that this was their belief, and they knew it. When Jesus asked His disciples the question, He never intended to convey the idea that He wanted to know who He, Jesus, was, but who this power was. They thought it must be the spirit of some person who had been on earth, and when Peter said it was the Christ or God: Truth or Science, this was a new idea, and Jesus an?swered, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed this explanation to you," and upon this explanation He, Jesus, would build His Christ or Church, or Truth, and the gates of error could not prevail against it. He, that is, Jesus, would give Peter the keys or explanation so that he could understand and practise it for the benefit of mankind. This knowledge would give him power to loose those who were bound in heaven or in the mind, and loose those bound in the earthly body. The idea that the man Jesus was anything but a man, was never thought of. Jesus never had the least idea of such an explanation. The prophets had foretold a Messiah that should come, and when the child Jesus was born, the people believed that David's spirit had come and taken possession of his body, so they called Jesus the son of David. But they meant to be understood that it was David's spirit speaking through Him, Jesus, and some called Him the Son of Man. Now, every one admitted the power that Jesus bad, but there was a difference of opinion in regard to it. All men have a power, but to have a power superior to the natural man, has been a question ever since the world began. Upon this question the people split. To believe it is to believe in a power the natural man cannot explain. If Jesus had a power, we must admit a knowledge superior to it, that governs and directs it, and if we do admit it where does it come from? All will answer, from God. All will admit that there is another power that affects man for evil. There must then be a sort of bad knowledge, or false Christ that governs it. How are we to know the good from the bad? Only by the fruits or direction. If we must take an opinion we have no standard; for every one has a right to his own opinion, and by doing so we throw away Christ's teaching when He says by their fruits men are to be judged. We judge them by their works. What are the works? I suppose Jesus knew what He meant, and He meant to give His disciples the true idea when He called them together and gave them power to heal all sorts of diseases, and cast out devils. Did He mean to give power without any knowledge how to apply it, or did He give the knowledge with the power? If He gave the knowledge so that it could be applied, are not the ones who apply it better acquainted with the power than those who are ignorant of the power and the knowledge? I will try to illustrate what Jesus meant by these powers, when He was accused of curing by ignorance. You may have seen in the paper an account of a young lady being cured by the prayers of a Mormon preacher. I have no doubt that he raised her up through his prayers, and the belief in Mormon?ism would naturally be established in the young lady's mind. This cure, as far as it goes, is to establish Mormonism. Now if the Mormons established all their belief and that is right, why do not all people who believe in prayer embrace Mormonism and all the Mormons preach? When the disciples said to Jesus, We saw men casting out devils in Thy name and forbade them, He said, "Forbid them not, for they that are with us are not against us, and they that are not with us scattereth abroad." Here Jesus showed the difference between His knowledge and theirs in using this power. The others cured, but the world was no wiser for their cures, so they scattered abroad. The cure was right, but it was done through ignorance. This is the way with prayer. Prayer contains no knowledge and only leaves men in ignorance and superstition. Seeing this account in print, and knowing how it was done, I thought I would try the same experiment on a lady, myself, according to my way of curing disease. I have no creed or belief. What I know I can put into practice, and when I put it into practice I am conscious of it, and know what will be its effect. I sent to the lady (the subject of my experiment) who lived out of town, a letter, telling her I would try my power on her from the time I commenced the letter which was Sunday, and visit her at different times till the next Sabbath, and on the next Sabbath I would come between the hours of eleven and twelve, and make her rise from her bed, where she had. been confined by sickness, unable to walk for nine months. At the time appointed I went and used my power to restore her to the use of her limbs and to health. On the Wednesday following my letter, her husband wrote me that on Monday night she was very restless, but was better the next day. On the Monday following that, I received a letter saying that at the time I appointed for her to rise from her bed, she arose from the bed, walked into the dining room, and returned, and laid down a short time. She then arose again, dined, and also took tea with the family, rested well that night, and continued to do well. Now I suppose all of this transaction would be accounted for by the religious community by the power of the imagination of the patient. Suppose you do give it that explanation. How was the lady cured by prayer? On the same principle, I suppose. If so, how was it with the centurion who came to Jesus, saying that he had a servant lying sick with the palsy, grievously tormented? Jesus said unto him, "I will come and heal him." The centurion said, "Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed." Then Jesus told him to go his way and the servant was healed in that self-same hour. Now who cured the servant? Jesus, or the centurion, or the servant's own imagination? Settle this question among yourselves. Another case: When Jesus came into Peter's house, He saw the mother of Peter's wife lying sick with a fever. He touched her and she arose and administered unto them. Now if you cannot tell how this was done, and yet admit it, you must admit a power that you cannot explain or understand, and if you cannot understand it, it is an unknown power. To attribute to any individual this power from which you hope to derive benefit is to worship an unknown God or principle. This principle which you ignorantly worship, this I declare unto you by explaining it.-March, 1860. WRONG USE OF WORDS We often use words, putting upon them a wrong construction, and think that a person is bound to believe what we say because we say it. For instance, you often hear a scientific person make this assertion, that there is no such thing as weight, that weight is attraction, that its true scientific explanation is attraction. Now this is easy to say, but hard to prove. You cannot convince a man of ;what does not come within his senses, and he will not believe it because some one says so. Neither party is right, and both are nearly right. If you place the two weights in an exhausted receiver they will both fall at the same time. This proves attraction. Take them into the open air, and then the iron weight will fall the faster. Now is it attraction, or must you introduce another word? Why do they not fall in the same time as in the receiver? Because they have to fall through a medium called atmosphere or air. This medium is more dense near the earth, but as it recedes from the earth it becomes less dense, and bodies are weighed or measured in this medium. So attraction is of no use except to show that all things have a tendency towards the earth. To suppose that the attraction is in the thing attracted is wrong, and so is the idea that the weight is in the matter attracted. The word weight is the name of matter in motion, for when there is no motion it is called pressure. Weight in motion makes mechanical power, and as velocity increases weight diminishes until weight is lost in velocity, then the whole is under the law of attraction. Now as the human body is matter and mind is weight, the natural man knows no law of attraction, any more than the metal knows of the attraction that governs it. The law or science that governs man is as much in the dark to the natural man as attraction is to weight. Attraction knows weight is ignorance. As the mind is like the weight, and the soul or truth is like the attraction, as we gain in knowledge we lose in mind or ignorance. So as perfect velocity casts out weight, perfect knowledge casts out mind or ignorance, and truth reigns in all. God is the attraction of both. Ignorance, like the brute, sees no higher law than itself, therefore the ignorant act in accordance with their belief. Man, who is a little above the brute, has discovered that there is a law of attraction, and that same knowledge sees in man a higher and more intelligent law of knowledge that the natural man knows nothing of. This teaches man that as he loses in ignorance by embracing the truth he leaves this world of error, and as he learns Science he disregards error till all error is swallowed up in truth. Then one shall not say to another, "Know you the truth?" but all shall know it from the least to the greatest. Then disease shall be destroyed and truth shall reign all in all.-March, 1860. |
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