SCIENTIFIC MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALING

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 5008, 4 July 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

SCIENTIFIC MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALING

(By Professor Bickerton.) IB THE BRAIN AND NERVES. It will bo easily understood that if tho telegraphic arrangements connected with the working oi a railway wero astray, tho trains would not run very satisfactorily. The nerves are the telegraphic communicators cf tho body. Situated in many parts of tho body, but chiefly in the braiu, are grey masses corresponding to the telegraphic batteries ; and corresponding to the Hues are thousands upon thousands or minute threads called nerves. Tho nerves are at one end connected with the battery, and, at the other end, some are connected with tho different organs 'of sense, and some with other parts of the body. Those connected with tho organs cf sense send their message to tho grey matter, and those connected with tho muscles and other organs receive their messages from tho grey matter. Thus, suppose wo inadvertently take hold of a piece of hot iron. Heat is rapid motion of particles, and this ran id motion communicates itself to tho surface of tho skin whore lie tho nerves of touch. Those nerves feel tho violent, agitation, and a message at once passes to tho brain, when a reply is-sent to tho muscles to relax their hold, and the iron fails to the ground. Tho nervous system needs greater care than tho organic system, for the coils of most parts of tho body are constantly renewing themselves as they are destroyed by injury or ordinary wear and tear. This is not believed to bo tho case with tho nervo-cells. These cells, when once destroyed, do not seem to bo replaced, and other existing cells have to take up their function, or if they are renewed at all it is at a very slow rate. Hence, tho recovery from nerve injury is usually an exceedingly lengthy business. Tho unfortunate part of this is that tho tremendous rush and tho excessive worry of modern life arc especially injurious. to tho nerves, so that, amongst men and women of tho world, it is comparatively rare to find anyone whose nervous system is in a thoroughly healthy and satisfactory state. Although there is no renewal of the nerve-cells, and nerve cures aro very slow in being brought about—sometimes taking as much as a decade or even a score of years—yet it is upon derangements of tho nervous system that mental healing, combined with the adoption of a proper mode of life, is so much more efficacious than any system dependent on drugs. When one'thinks that tho mode of cure is tho taking up of tho duties of one set of nerves by another set, it is' manifest how very little advantage can be_ obtained from more drugs, and how much more efficacious is a condition of mind that is the result of the action of those very cells themselves. Many diseases are duo to derangements of tho nervous system. Thus, for instance, tho nervous forco that should go,to tho nerves of the digestive system may. bo deflected to other nerves in attempting to overcome some trouble that is worrying the patient; arid this may go on until the nervous forco does not act satisfactorily upon these nerves of the digestive system,' and all fonns of dyspepsia and different liver and kidney complaints may arise. And so with the nervous; system generally. Now, if the nerves to a certain part 01 the body were entirely destroyed, the functions of that portion would cease, the ordinary cells of the body as they were used up would fail to be replaced, and -a dreadful sore would result; but nerve diseases aro not generally of this drastic character. In most cases the functions of ono set of nerves, as it wore, can be successfully carried on by another set ■ if necessary; and thus the establishment of more or less satisfactory’ nerve replacement, may be brought about hy a joyous, easy life, in which there is no overtax of any portion of the body. The overtax in mind seems to be most detrimental to nerve in nerve disorders is frequently very efficacious, but again and again the sufferer' may ho thrown back by ulidue exertion. Innumerable records of sudden nerve cure by suggestion aro recorded; but the probabilities are that the whole of these cures are simply apparent, and not real. Tho nerve patient has had relapse alter relapso, until'at length the placid condition of rest sots in that lasts year after year, and the patient is too frightened to again risk tho chance of a relapse. - Then the faith healer comes upon the scene, not usually comprehending the nature of the cure he effects, and tells the apparent cripple to arise and. walk,, which the cripple, believing in tho possibility of tire cure, docs. If the nerves have recovered themselves, an apparently permanent euro is effected, but in a number of cases patients unduly exert themselves, and’ after a few days of triumph, relapse to tho old condition. The religious uncertainty and philosophic pessimism of. the present has much to do with nerve degeneracy or neurosis, and the concurrent revival of Neo-Buddhism —tho belief in re-incarnation and Eastern mysticism—has been the,, means of satisfying tho minds of many.. But theosophy, with its doctrine of re-incar-nation, does not, as a rule, continue to satisfy the .longings of tho human soul. To tho logical mind, the want of the continuity of conscious identity takes away from re-incarnation its efficacy as an element of hope in the future. Again, tho superstitious and unscientific basis of so many creeds, renders them in this ago of science utterly valueless to most intellectual people, whilst the doctrine of the dissipation of energy—tho doctrine that everything on this beautiful earth, everything in the solar system and in the whole celestial vault, is hurrying to an endless death—has fostered the idea that the glorious system of which wo aro a part is imperfect, and the illness a sufferer feels ir. looked upon as part of this general imperfection. When, however, it is realised that the cosmos is immortal; that, in addition to the force of gravitation acting on the hcavv of matter, and tending to collect these in certain portions of space, there is another tendency that causes tho lighter elements to fly away to . any portion of space that gravitation has drained of its matter; when it is remembered that traces of the very elements that are needed for laying the foundations of new universes have recently been discovered in the atmosphere ; then it is seen that there h everv reason to believe that, although worlds and solar isvstems, and even the vast masses of stars that constitute mm universe, will cease to exist in the form that they aro in now. yet there will he continuous rejuvenescence, worlds a”d gTstems will he bom again, for th° mighty .cosmos as a wholo is infinite and eternal. When the immortality of the cosmos is understood, or implicitly believed, hv mankind, an optimistic trust must replace the despairing mistrust of the present. Tho perfection of structure and function of matter is so marvellous

that, when once comprehended, no roon for mistrust remains. The miracles ot adaptation that are to bo found in th/ minutest part icic of organic matter arso surprising that when the pcrfectioi of the action is realised, there is no tiling loft but a religion of implicit trust. Wo may know nothing of tin future, but wo know that, whatever tin future may bo, it will be for the best for a maximum of joy to all created beings. Yet, as wo look abroad at tin apparent chaos, tho evil that runs in tin world, tho injustice, tho sin, tho pail and the disease, it Is at rimes hard tn believe in this perfection. But studg shows that not an iota of pain or misery is suffered without its boiug a warnini that wo are acting wrongly, cither ai individuals or as a community. When this is realised, there will be but ono groal study and pursuit for tho human race, the study and pursuit of right action; so that instead of suffering acute anguish and continuous worry, as at present, our lives will bo serene, and make up of a continuity of joyous experiences, with just so much pain as shall tell us when wo aro beginning to stray into tho wrong path. Acting for self or in a narrow circle of extended solfisluiess is, doubtless, tho error of the present, but as time rolls on it is probable that selfishness, in its individual form, family selfishness, the selfishness of class and caste, of syndicate and group, and tho still wider and more mischievous national selfishness that will not permit people to look with tbo calm, clear oyo of justice upon the merits and claims of other countries than their own, will gradually disappear. When tho perfection of tho cosmos is realised; when it is known that a maximum of joy is tho object of life, when it is known that misery and disease in every form are but tho Creator’s kindly but painful warning word that wo are acting wrongly—when tno human mind realises this, and makes such changes of life as this realisation involves, health and happiness will prevail, and tho mental satisfaction this belief must produce will bo in itself the most healing of medicines. And in the place of tho vague and mystic dogmas that fail in tho present to satisfy the well-balanced minds ot the race, Wo shall learn tho groat principles of Nature upon which tho perfection of the immortal cosmos depends, and most efficacious as a healing agent is tho knowledge of this tremendous possibility.