MENTAL SCIENCE AND HEALING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 59

MENTAL SCIENCE AND HEALING.

By A Student.

THE DWELLER IN THE TEMPLE.

To anyone who has followed us thus far, it ■will be evident that the claim of tho mental scientist is, from his own point of view at least, strictly scientific. He claims that his cures, whether bodily or mental, aro obtained by acting on the line of least resistance, by acting with the law and -not against it. Thero is nothing abnormal or supernatural in his pretences. He invokes no Angelic or demoniac agency. He is not a wizard or a miracle v/orker. He simply postulates and endeavours to actualise the divine spark that is in every man. And he tells you that what he does you can do if you take the trouble.

But no mental healer undertakes to cure every case that is brought before him. He will tell you that every case can be cured, and that he himself will do his best. Neither will he give a fixed time, saying " In a week or a month you will be well,'* though the patient's first queatior is genorally, " How long will it take to cure mo?" The patient knows — none better — that the ordinary practitioner will not thus hamper himself as to time, but he seems to fancy that when lgb material remedie* are given tho process can bo hurried lill it partakes of tho nature of a charm. His new doctor gives him no directions concerning draughts or diet, raiment or occupation, but simply warns him against indulgence ix> morbid, bitter, selfish, and apprehensive thoughts ; and especially thoughts about disease and his own ailments generally. He grows impatient under this treatment, aud demands an immediate and radical cure — failing to understand that from the metaphysician's point of view his disease, though purely mental in its origin, may owe its existence to r complication of causes extending back foi many years, several of which may have to be removed before a complete cure* can bo effected ; and, again, though tho cause may bo simple and easily removed, tho metaphysiciar may not be able to discover it immediately. Many who are thus sceptical concerning the efficacy of mental cures falsely suppose that the mental healer works blindly and without means, that because no material aids are used nothing ia done. Not so. "Far more intimately than any medical man must the metaphysician know his patient. He cares very little by what name the disorder has been called. Symptoms — which ho, in common with the orthodox practitioner, knows to be most deceptive and often the blindest possible guides — furnish him with little in the way of data. But either the general or special mental habit ot the man, his fears and hopes, his beliefs or theories. his ideas, his susceptibility to his mental environment, the grand crisis of his life, the periods of anxiety, depression, remorse, or forebodincr through which he has passed, his anticipation for the future, and in general the whole trend of his mental and spiritual nature — these are gathered by degrees, and give this skilful healer of men his ground of treatment. Can any intelligent being say that these mental state 3 have no bearing or influence on tho patient's health? Does any pane person suppose that a drug can remedy these or similar condition?? The healer prescribes no remedies save prohibition against morbid or despondent thoughts, but his mind is active in establishing the causes which have led to certain conditions and in making direct application of theory to practice through his own thought-action, thus producing and applying mental remedies of the most potent kind."

When his mental diagnosis of tha case has thus been made, the healer bends all his energies to the task in hand, and because of his profound knowledge of the inner working of the man's nature he understands just how to apply the right corrective influences and to obtain the desired cure. His means are differtut from those in general use, but they are means all the same, and are the results of much thought, study, and intuition.

Wo all live in a state of the moat extraordinary self-deception. Could a man stand aside from his own life and see it from the standpoint of anothoi ; or, as Burns aptly putE it — ■

Could some power the giftie gi' us To see oursel's as ithers see us, how startling would be the revelation ! This is what the mental healer does, or tries to do. He sees the man as he really is— tho dweller in temple. • The Temple is patent to all men. It is more or leas tall and well proportioned, more or less beautiful and well finished, attractive or the leverse, but it is of no real importance except as it is related to tlv dweller within — the real ego. The temple may be ever so simple and homely, without any outward adornmont, but if the dweller within be well, nono of these outward conditions can affect him : outwardly poor, inwardly nch, with tho nohes H\.\i neither moth nor rust can corrupt, he dwell j Bereno. Realigns, that the external walls can be fashioned to his requirement?, hut that they are of irinot importance. Who it this dweller in the t«si«p!e? It is the immortal man, the true Ego — mtwle ia. Uie

image of God. and partaking of the divine nature and substance. "Ye are the temples of the Holy Spirit," for the Spirit dwells within you, and this indwelling spirit is the true ego — the divine, persistent man. Do we recognise ourselves in this description? If not, why not? It is to this dweller within that the mental healer applies himself, and it is with him that he strives to establish relationships. If the dweller understands his responsibilities and duties, the tomplo will bo always 6wept and garnished, " a house of prayer aud not a den ol thieves," if ho doe.s not the contrary will be the case. It ie just here that the office of the metaphysician comes in, for it is his duty to put the dweller at - one with his environment, and beforr ho can do this he must have a pretty v/ide knowledge of man as he appears to be, as well as of man as ho really is.

If yom would discern which is the real man, contrast body and spirit. The body taken by itself ia a iiiost interesting study in its adaptation of parts a.nd provision for emergencies. But the bite of an insect, a stroke of lightning, a drop of poison, a bullet, a knife may in a moment close its connection with the spirit, and leave it a lifeless, unthinking, insensajte mass. Flame may devour it and le.ue it a handful of aphes ; water may engulf it and nevor give up its prey. To-day it is honoured, respected, cared for. Tomorrow we are thankful to consign it, " earth to earth."

Your hand is not you, noi any part of your real self. It is a valued servant that may at any moment cease from its long service, but the real ego will live on, here or elsewhere. The flam* is not born ' that can extinguish its existence nor the lightning bolt forged that can etay its life. "_What man or company of men, what conditions of life, what calamity, disaster, misfortune, shock, or violence of any kind can ever touch for in--jury that vital spark?- Years of lime may go on and lose themselves in eons of eternity ; but the spirit of man, Mike the Spirit of God, will know no ace. no blight, no decay, no diminution of power."

Is it wonderful that to the healer, who clearly peroehes this, the dweller in the temple should be a very high and a very noble being, far removed from the " miserable sinner "' that we have been accustomed to in-

A man's ideal is the utmost point tc which his evolution will permit him to aspire, whether he bo a ploughboy, anxious to " swing on a goto and chaw fat bacon," an Alexander sighing for " fresh fields, to conquer," or a prophet who desires " to see of the travail of his soul and to be satisfied. The ideal of each is but what each desires, or rathei what each is capable of desiring. The healer knows this, he recognises the undeveloped human bpiiip; :i? (he gardener recognises the undeveloped fruit, and knows that the immaturity is not sin, but ignorance. It would be as illogical to reproach an orchard tree in spring because it bears only flowers as to reproach the immature human being because he is not already a God. But as truly as the gardener see? the fruit in tha flower, and to every flower its own fruit, po the metaphysician sees in the most diseased and sorrowful human being the divine creature made in the imago of its Creator. And that he may actualise this vision, ne appeala to the best in the man, and affirms. " You are well. You nre strong. You are divine." Instead of, "You are a. good-for-nothing scoundrel. A cumberer of the ground. You deserve damnation here and hereafter, and you will most certainly get it."

Which of these methods is the more scientific and the more likely- to bring about the desired result? Nay, which is the truer? For remember that in this world " things are not always what they seem."