TALKS ON HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20104, 24 March 1928, Page 16 (Supplement)

TALKS ON HEALTH

BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.

FAITH-HEALING. If anyone asks you if you believe in faith-healing, you must not say “Aes,and you certainly must not answer “No.Lt is like asking you it you believe in books, or men, or education. You will, of course, wish to know what kin t d of books and what sort of men are referred to. You believe in goal: men and helpful books; you abhor wicked men and bad boons. And so it is with fait.h-liealing; it is a mixture of nonsense and sound sense, and you exercise your brains, you pick out what is good and believe in that, anrl you decide what part of it. is ba:l- and avoid it. Weak-Willed Creatures. What brings faith-healing into .Jusrepute is that the subjeects of it nre too often nervous, weak-willed, needless creatures, who can be persuaded in any direction by anyone. They have no brains of their own. ami I.hi\y let others think for them. Suppose a man declares that he has a. very bad pain in his head, and he goes to a faith-healer, who says that he is mistaken, that he has not got a pain at all. and it is all his imagination. If he turns round a nr! says, ‘Oh, no. L have not a pain in my head. I am quite cured now. Good morning. Thank you.” what an insufferable noodle he must be. Why could not he cure himself by the exercise of a little sclf-cont rol. Imaginary Pains. You know there are sonic self-styled healers who undertake to cure people by absent prayer. They say, ‘‘You go home, and this afternoon, at half-past three, I shall offer up a prayer for you, and all your pain will suddenly disappear.’’ Away goes the patient, and < agerly watches the clock, saying to himself, “How lovely it will be to feel well again. 1 know I shall feel well. I would trust that dear healer with my life; her prayers will save me.” And, sure enough, when the clock strikes the half-hour. hey. presto! the pain goes. If a man’s pain is due to imagination. anyone cun cure him if he will subject his will to outside influence. If the pain is due to a sharp stone, the size of a hen's egg, in his kidney, the pain will not go. But the healer does not know how to tell whether the pain is due to imagination or to a stone in the kidney; she trusts to luck that she will make enougn silly people give up thinking about their imaginary pains to keep going. People who have been cured by suggestion only always lay themselves open to liie criticism that they are easily influenced. The next persun they meet will persuade them to put all their money into a scheme fot- extracting silver from moonbeams. They will fall an easy victim 1o any schemer who wishes to feather his nest. Do It Yourself. If you want to cross th“ road, Uh 1 best way to do it is to use your legs and walk across yourself. You can. if you like, lie down and wait until someom (-oiiics along and carries you across in his arms; but when you exclaim with great fervour that you emdd not possibly have got across the roa » unless lhe dear faith-healer had carried you. no one would believe you; and you would not arouse any syne pat.hy when you coniplainci I. that, when you asked a doctor to "arry you across, lhe cruel and selfish man of medicine sai<». “get up and walk across yourself.” It is a mistake Io look for someone else to do the job for you. If you an' the victim of nn erroneous idea, you must expel that idea by your own efforts, and you will be all the stronger for it. If you retuse, and prefer to allow' the idea, tn remain rn vour sluggish brain until a faithhealer tells you to throw it out. you are acting foolishly. A Case nf Mind- Healing. I niv'se’if am a mind* healer, or faitih’maler. or whatevj r name you like to call me. I have wover yet mot a doctor who wasn’t. »< r have I heard of one or read of one in a hook. A doctor who did not know tnat the mind needs ministering to as well as the body could not, in my opinion exisr. Yon could not stagger a doctor by saying to him. “I say. .doctor, have you ever heard that a man has a mind It’s a marvellous now discovery!” M’hen ai girl falls down in a hysterical fit, the cook holds her head, the policeman hangs on io her legs, the fireman

struggles with her arms, and they, one and all. good souls, direct their attention to the girl’s body. But what docs the physician do? Does he struggle with tlip girl's limbs? Xot ho' Ho tolls the cook, the policeman. an ( l t«o fireman to stand, asi.be. and then he

says. “Come, my girl, it is not very nice to kick about like this; you must stop it nt once.” And, by thus appealing to her mind, ho completely cures the fit. and the girl sits up and ha.- a