MENTAL HEALING.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10214, 9 December 1898, Page 5

MENTAL HEALING.

_0 THE EMTOR. OT __TB _"K_SS.

Sir,—"Mental Healing," "Telepathy," and Christian Science have of late occupied considerable space in your columns. It would be rash to draw inferences as to the editorial attitude on these questions; for while a few weeks ago you dealt in a serious, judicial and even. appreciative way with Sir William Crook's l-esearches in telepathy, this morning you pour tho scorn* of scorns upon the Christian Scientists and their "absent treatment." But I conclude that you' deem the subject of sufficient interest for publio discussion, and in tikis belief venture to offer some opinions, based'not indeed upon a full knowledge of the subject, but suggested, as it seems to mc, Dy plain sense, Helped out by some amount ot personal experience. As te the Christian Scientists, I am not concerned to defend them. The materialist would reduce thought to brain-secretion and soul to protoplasm. The christian Scientistrepresent a reaction from an absurd position., '"-here is only matter" dogmatises the materialist, "There is only mind"," a_serta the Christian Scientist in an indiguant nejjative. Probably neither is. right; but your ridicule of the Christina Scientist is no more conclusive an answer- than Dr. Joh-tson's rather stupid remark when he kicked' against a stone and hurt -dmseif, "That's my reply to Bishop Berkley." But 1 do believe that mentals healing is scientific, and that when it receives rocogmtron as a as it surely will, it will be potent —I nod almost said orniupotent — in xJio alleviation of human suffering. It is a thought that offends by its novelty before , it conciliates by its truth. And yet, when we come to'reflect, there is nothing new about it except our express re<»g__t_on of it, The most antiquated Tory of a village doctor has practised healing by suggestion all his life. .The "marvellous cures" effected .by the wonderful compounds sold as potent! medicines aro nearly all due to suggo-tion. It is the label on the bottle, not the stuft made, that affects the cure. Do your re_ders remember a clever Canadian woman, whe some years ago extracted teeth and carved out tumours to the tunea of a brass bandl Her operations were, I have little doubt, as painless us she claimed; the beatific smiles on the faces oi her patients proved that tha music, the crowd, tea noise, helped out the suggestion; they felt no pain because they believed they felt none. There needs no argument to show the maleficent physical effects oi certain mental conditions, yet we am curiously sceptical about the beneficent l effects of others. Wo know how completely ' mind controls matter under the influence'of fear. Intense fear makes each particular -hair I t<i standi on. end, . "Like quills upon the fretful poSßupine..'--,o_ t«i quote the* Ancient Mariner, ' "Fear at my heart as at a cup The life-blood seemed to sup." The material effects produced by grief ar* as well known to all of us! "Care killed a cat," says the proverb. A woman loses her child, and the doctor finds it necessary ta administer strong, emetics. Griei has cv* organised her digestion. Mind, in a word, is paramount over matter. And as fear contracts our bodily frame, so trust expands it 1 '; as griei chills so joy warms the, blood. Why then should it seem so preposterous to. assert teat provided you can ma__ta__ a mental attitude of trust and gladness, and belieHn your own wholeness, matte* will yield to mind and become whole 1 If V* are not all' oi us prepared to> believe all the Christian Scientists would tell us—and I am not—-we need not be supposed to abdicate our common-sense, because we believe the every day fact that mind can control matter. Thought may not be able to set a broken limb, but it will help the splints wonderfully. H a .Maori can lie down in his whare and turn his face to tho wall, and will that he shall die, andi die, (accordingly, -ia ils bo diflicult to believe that we can will to be well? There is ho such opposition as some doc-. tors imagine between mental healing and the practice Of medicine. Ji would face this problem.in'a.-progressive spirit, would rely less on the pha-macopasia and , more on suggestion, they would not drive so many of their patients out of their consultingrooms. And the public would probably be very much surprised did they* know hjow many of our younger medical men. are tacitly using suggestion instead of drugs. They "do good by stealth" for fear of the bogey' of medical etiquette. One thing more in conclusion. I venture to say that the .worst ills flesh is heir to. in these strenuous times are not—despite* the prevalence 01. cancer and phthisis—organic' diseases, but nervous disorders, and these V even: _ tho Materialist physician tacitly attoits'cannot he controlled by drugs, but only.by mind. We are-sick of "the, disease of thought,"' and thought; alone, I believe, can cure' us.—Yours, &c.», Healed. ,

TO THE EDITOR 07 THE PRESS.

Sir, —I don't know what the ''Christian Science" healing is supposed to be, but I did try mental neaUrig, which was successful. Mr Hoare would have done,a kindness;, to r many if he had explained ,'the-. difference ';' between $xc two, and so taught -"ignorance," ".,' I and'done away with "prejudice" -by the .understanding effected. * I think we" all under* stand mental healing, so far that every ". woTker, in whatever position—and it=is our ." pride that we are .all workers in come—has applied it personally. .Who does:not know the feeling x>l illness,' whicJb must be 'pat aside because of the work, mental or bodily, which must be done during that, day? Who of does not sometimes look Back at the deathly sickness; overcome, of -the -.. 1 violent pain also, overcome by- an> effort , of the mind, and' say at the dose of the day, "I. never thought ~J. could have, r \ Yet the ilhiess is no worse, perhaps alto- , gether gone, and yre have been able to do out ; duty.' 'This is a simple, because common, case of mental healing. < So all of us must believe in healing by the mind,- becauW twt ', constantly practice it, with, benefit texfr- , selves and our work/ "I think- cortonon sense dictated the resort to treat,ment;" just that! .The common sense, of [ everyday life' and necessity, no if.-we study it, it can claim that it is extensively used*, though often unconsciously tinder that n&me. ' —Yeurs,- &c, - - ■■ *-. •. -■■■:■ '• &a