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CHAPTER XVI MENTAL HEALING

The reader will see by reference to the chapter on Suggestive Healing the effect upon the physical body by incorrect thinking, and it is not deemed necessary to repeat those illustrations or examples here, nor to give additional ones. It is presumed that every reader of this book has some acquaintance with the effect of mental states upon physical functioning, so it is not necessary to take up space with further proofs of the same.

The theory and system of mental healing is based upon this knowledge of the effect of mind upon body, coupled with the idea that as the mind may produce abnormal functioning, so may the process be reversed and used to restore perfect health and correct functioning. "We shall not attempt to recite the special theories of the several schools of mental healing, nor to attempt to explain the many theories regarding the question of "What is Mind?" nor the psycliological theories regarding the process of the cures. The fact is that mental healing is a fact and the thing to do is to tell how to make use of and apply it.

In our chapters on Suggestive Healing we have given information that may well be combined with these teachings regarding mental healing. In fact, suggestion and mental healing are twins each representing one side of the same thing. The principal difference rests in the manner of applying the force behind the treatment. Suggestion depends almost altogether upon verbal suggestions, etc., while Mental Healing depends upon telepathy or thought-transmission. The best healers combine both methods when the patient is in their presence. But mental healing does not require the presence of the patient, the treatments often being given to patients many miles away by what is known as "Absent Treatment," but which is really a form of telepathy.

Telepathy, once laughed at as a superstitious fancy, is now beginning to be recognized by the scientific world, and will soon be adopted as a law. It has been known to occultists in all ages and times, among all people and it is not a "new" thing by any means, although many claim to. have "discovered" it in our 'own times. We give a few examples of its general acceptance among men of intelligence and prominence in our own times.

Edw T. Bennett, late secretary of the Society of Psychic Medical Research, says: -The conclusion seems to be irresistible that the five senses do not exhaust the means by which pledge may enter the mind. In other words the investigator seems to be driven by the conclusion that thought transference or telepathy must now be included amongst scientifically proven facts.".

Prof. John D. Qnackenbos, the eminent New York scientist, says: "The time has indeed come, as Maeterlinck predicted it would when souls may know of each other without the intermediary of the senses."

Clark Bell says: "Telepathy, as it is regravitation which we know exists. But we are as yet unable to comprehend how it acts, or to know its methods"

Prof. Wm. Crookes, the well known English scientist, says: "If we accept the theory that the brain is composed of separate elements nerve cells then we must presume that each of these components, like every other bit of matter, has its movements of vibration, and will, under suitable conditions, be affected; as, for instance, the nerve cells of the retina by vibration in the ether. If another neuron, situated not far away, should acquire the same movement of vibration, there seems to be no good reason why they should not materially affect each otherthrough the ether."

Dr. Sheldon Leavitt says : "There is no disputing the fact that those who have given the subject of telepathy attentive thought and patient investigation have become convinced of its truth and practicability. My own experience has given me unwavering convictions. I know that in some way thought can be transmitted from one conscious mind to another; and I have good reason to believe that it can be transmitted still more forcibly and fully to the unconscious mind of the recipient "

Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer, says: "We sum up, therefore, our preceding observations by the conclusion that one mind can act upon another at a distance without the habitual medium of words, or any other visible means of communication. It appears to us altogether unreasonable to reject this conclusion if we accept the facts. There is nothing unscientific, nothing romantic in admitting that an idea can influence a brain from a distance. The action of one human being upon another, from a distance, is a scientific fact ; it is as certain as the existence of Paris, of Napoleon, of Oxygen, or of Sirius." Again the same authority says:

" There can be no doubt that our psychical force creates a movement of the ether, which transmits itself afar like all movements of ether, and the reaction into an ethereal movement, becomes perceptible to brains in harmony with our own. The transformation of a psychic acverse may be analogous to what takes place on a telephone, where the receptive plate, which is identical with the plate at the other end, reconstructs the sonorous movement transmitted, not by means of sound, but by electricity. But these are only comparisons."

Page after page could be filled with like expressions of belief in thought-transmission, on the part of the thinking public, but the same is not deemed necessary. Those who wish further information on this subject are referred to the published reports of the English Society for Psychical Research, which may be found in the principal libraries of the country. It is by means of this fact of telepathy that the absent healing of the Mental Scientists ; and others are performed when they are not occasioned by direct verbal suggestion, which factor must not be overlooked.

The principle of mental healing lies in the fact that the central mind controls the bodily functions or the mind manifesting through the organs, cells and parts of the body. The latter respond to the mental states of the central mind and anything affecting the latter naturally affects the former. The healer endeavors to establish in the central mind of the patient a normal condition of mental attitude. This normal mental attitude is one in which the individual recognizes his mastery of the body, and of his entire system. This mental attitude when onceacquired will prevent disease and will restore health when disease has once set in. Its healing power depends upon the degree of realization of the supremacy of mind manifested by the person.

Now this realization is imperfect in the average person who has allowed himself to sink gradually down to the lower planes of the mind and has allowed his realization to become impaired from some one or more of various cause. Here is where the healer comes into use and service. He has kept his mind positive and keen and has trained himself in the science of thought-transmission. Therefore when called upon to treat a patient he raises his "vibrations" until they reach the proper stage, when he transmits them to the mind of the patient the resultbeing that the vibrations are reproduced there, and the consequence is that the mind of the patient reacts upon the mind principle animating the parts, organs and cells of the instinctive mind, in fact, and gradually re-establishes normal conditions

The various schools of mental healing have a variety of theories to account for their healing, but we think that the above will be found to cover all the general ideas and theories, and in fact, to account for what happens, irrespective of metaphysical theories, and in spite of some of them.

There ls a natural law underlying all these forms of healing and it is folly to attempt to befog the facts with a mass of metaphysical theorizing, The fact is that all the schools make cures, and perform healing, in spite of their conflicting theories. Does not this prove that they are all using the same force and power, in spite of their theories? "We shall not attempt to take up these various theories in detail, but shall at once proceed to the "proof of the pudding" by giving you in the next chapter a plain system of Practice of Mental Healing, which will enable any of you to" perform the healing work accomplished by the various schools.

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