A REMARKABLE BOOK.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 88

A REMARKABLE BOOK.

"Body and Soul." By P-ercy Dearmer, MA. London : Sir Isaa.o Pitman and Sons. (Cloth, 65.) This striking book is the work of a clergyman of the Church of England, and its iull title, ''An inquiry .into the effects of xelig.'on upon health, with a description of Christian Works of Healing from the New Testament to the present day," indicates the scope and nature of its contents. It is closely packed with information, and no cursory glance can do it jusrioe. It deals with-tha- whole question of mental healing-, spiritual healing, and Christian science healing from the religious point cf view, and covers the enormous subject of the influence of the mind oa the body in one comprehensive sketch, bristling with facts and references to some of the greatest authorities in the scientific and medical world. The book is divided into three parts. The first deals with the "Gcirsral Effect of Mind on Body," and the reason why. The second treats of the New Testament teaching and practice in relation to haaling. And the third part spsaiks of mind-healing and faith-sealing from the second century to the present day; w.hile a. valuable appendix g-i-res eraracts from the lives of sunts and others, showing the details of the practice of such hsalinf, also ( -Tables of Cases Treated by Mindcure at {he present day, including suggestion, hypnotism, mental ssisnee, and faithheahng. The records cf Christian science-he-ahn-g- are not available, as these healers i / ' n » fc allow s p lon * ifi o evidence to be collected.". The consideration of the powers and influence of the human. rair/J is of.^wincreasing interest. New light is continually t>3ing thrown on the subject, and ancierfc prejudices are "being gradually ren:ovod, Therefore we pip-pose— with the editor's kind permission— ;o give an extra long notice to the latest religious, and tciairtlfio pronouncement on the subject of •'Alindcause and Mind-cure." Mr Peter Doarmsr begins his book with the pregnant sojir tsnee:— "There are. signs cf revival in Umsteixlom. Th.s revival has about it a " a ' r of spontaneity that is very remarkable. It has not sprung from the clergy, no has it originated in the universities'. Rather it seem as if the average man. who, as often p.s not, 'has not belonged to any religious body, is finding bia way by himself because of some voice within him. . . He has no quarrel with orthodox Christianity, for the era of negations and protestations has rasscd away. -But neither -ha-, he any allegiance. He is a littla impatient of dogma . . which .moans a disputation about words, and the waving about- of ph'wi&es. . . Religion has been beaten rather- thin. _. . Religious teaching has been, further reduced ■to a line, which geometry tells us is length without breadth. " This revival of religion comes from, -the. needs of man's heart, and has resulted in two enthusiasms, "Tne belief in universal brotherhood" and an "Innei health movement," which recognises the .claims cf "the body as well as the soul, and results in "Health for the "soul and health for the body— harmony, balanco happiness, i»eace;." 'What Professor W. James ir his book, "Varieties of Religious Experience," calls "The Religion of Bealfchy-mindedness," Mr Dearmer" calls "The Inner Health Cure." Both of these men find the • base of this movement in "the realisation of the fact ihat spirit has taken the place of matter as the supreme ?nd ultimate reality." Yet this .discovery of the unity of the whole is not new,, but was tihe original teaching of the Master,' who "reconciled the .material with the spiritual by that revelation wherein God ' is made manifest in man," -which' in reJLigidn k known a 9 "the sac.ra.ms.ntal principle," and is shown in every wayside flower : "Raise th< stone, ajid there shalt fchoufind Me. Cleave the wood and thers am I." Mr Dearmer gives somes of the most modern theories in regard to the. imtsermanence o e matter and the universality of life. "Matter is itself but the holding together of never-resting force, its mass "depending solely on the velocity or negative electrons," and therefore" it is nothing more than "the outward and visible sign of an intense and inconceivably potent activity." A mode of creation much easipi to understand than the ancient '"analogy of the Potter and His. clay." Matter is but "the apparel of power" and che evidence of spirit. Starting from this premise it is of little importance which comes first, mind or bedy, 6ir.ee bath are identically manifested forme of spiritual energy. He then proceeds to speak of the nerves, their action and' reaction and to point out that they are ' "collections of living things," none of which are independent, and yet all of which show "mind in so.i-.c form or another." The nerves "are the link between matter and spirit." ' L ~S\ c do uot 'know, wo cannot imagina how a ■thought can ba registered in a speck of protoplasm, or how a sensation tan travel along a fibre. How can matter think? - Or ho»v can a. syl!og- - sm store itself in a c-->ll? . . . \Y e could understand a ghost thinking, p&rhaj.s, because thought, is a spiritual oro&es?, but how . can a combination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygan, and nitrogen think .or fesl. or aspire, or l>-> eorvy': . . . We look at the grey matter of the braiit and we ask, ''How can millions of memories be impressed on its millions of cells? . . ."All eiHi questions resolve themselves into the ons rmstery—snirh; Mrcarnato' in matter. Even' neurai is it-ci: sn inenrrcts word.' " Every ceil of whicj every nvrvs?, etc., is corr.;x)£cd possesses mind, ;;r..;1 "miixl U the. diorctor not only of the cor.--ciou3 acts of tha bc-dy, but of th> unconscious a!<x>."' This unconscious,, cubconscious, or subliminal part ot ihs, mind takos charjs of all the life function^ — circulation, respiration, nutrition, etc., — ar.d is .-oally the frreat health age'r.l.' It is alvays" ur<j' r •the control of thoughf. This is s-hown at pome length by a cai-cfnl analysis of blushing, one of the eommoiicil physical actions known, and— ?3 the r.?ult cf coiic^ntratod thought — of..th.o.=s kno-.vo .as "stigm-ata," by which '"a bjijla:, a brn.i.= i, or a wound is <»aiK2cK.to appqac on tb«> skin." Ir.creaeo t,he force- of the mental agent, and you will have increased physical results. \Va "rsgarxl the extreme, cases as strajigc,, because the^ are uncdiTimon ; -but" they are only dn'conimpn 'because such codcentration of thought ie ur.coxnicon. ' ■ In' each case ''tho thbugftt in' tlfe higher conscious oentr-es ■ ! nas lii son>2h'ow fst- vfbhiteh itself- -on- 'to tbc^artsrial mu^cles^".justas ..ft'hen we telfiobon-s to -a friend -the ex-

change connects us on to his house or office. . . . Now, supposing it to be j>ossibl© to cure a man, say, of mdigiestion 1 , by thought. Th© process .would be the same. The thought would 1 bs passed on" through the sympathetic nerves to these or.gans which are manufacturing the wrong digestive chemicals. Whether such' cure be possible or not, there is nothing the least impossible about the process, wliioh is common enough." The mind works on three levels, and the action and — eo-ot.3xat.ion' of these is clearly shown:- Intelligence is a factor of all, and so is their innate unity. They are not different in essence, only in degree, and in the different kind of work' which they do. It is by means of these levels that th© Higher Mind controls the lower, and in intense thoughtrconcentration "the three unite in one common effort. This is shown in daily work and play,, even when "kicking a football." "Every disease is a disease of the cells." So we next consider , the cells, and find a life principle and an, j intelligent mind in each, these being further co-ordinated into colonies, with a ■ higher intelligence controlling 'them, and so | on, and so on. Our author here ma'k-es some cogent remarks about health' as something "positive and fundamental," the result of Hirect vital power acting on the colls through the subconscious imind, show- ■ ing that .health is th-© will of God for ail. He compares the body to a, motor cai\ in a long and excellent passage, which we would very gladly quote, and which puts the case clearly in' the form of a familiar parable widen the simplest person could understand. By this time tho reader has quite accepted ths theory of '"the normality [ of mind-cure," and the writer than proceeds - to dw-ed'l on such qusstiona as "suggestion* ' and "hypnotism." Xor doss he omit to cpea> of the' "limitations of mind-cure"" ] and of the great debt that the. world owes \ io medic?.! scienca and modern surgery : i br.t he holds that the highest i powers lie in spirit (religion) Vnd mind. •"T'.ie relative success or fa-lure of such powers is a- matter of degree. Few medical authorities now doubt that they will hold an ever-eniarging- place in fche therapeutics i of the', future. Strengthen the spiritual powers of man, and we shall have more control over his physical organs. Rcd>uoa it,and we shall have less. . . When we ars> more truly scientific, and rccognis-a better the unity- of man, we shall also be mo.re truly religious. . All things are not possible to the average man in an .<g-& when his mind is set on the vulgar ' ambitions of material desires, hi 6 inward vision distorted by a fa,!se perspective, and the very foundations of his being' thus weakened for the high mastery of spiritual 'response. But even now rnoro is possible to the strong than to the weak, more to the wise than the unbalaroad, more to 'the man of joy and -peace than to the fearful and unbelieving., more — much more — to the saint than to the sinner." How this works we shall hope to show more fully next week, when we aball endeavour to -follow our author in his remark? on* spiritual power, its growth and application in ancient and modern times.

(To b2 cori'fciniued.)