LIBRARY 
 
 University of California. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 .La/a^ 
 
 *?yx.. 
 
 Class 
 
 

 !'/i./."/.. v 
 
THE EVOLUTION 
 
 OF PSYCHIC 
 
 HEALING 
 
 BY 
 
 HARMON H. McQUILKIN 
 
 
 PRESS OF MUIRSON & WRIGHT 
 
 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA 
 
 1909 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/evolutionofpsychOOmcqurich 
 
The Evolution of Psychic 
 Healing. 
 
 'Tjj'TlSTORY is a wise teacher, a true prophet, a 
 TFtj faithful counselor. With all thy reading, there- 
 > fore, read history, for thereby thou shalt become 
 old without becoming infirm ; some sixty centuries 
 through it shall drop the mantle of their wisdom on 
 thee, and of their sowing thou shalt reap ! History 
 repeats itself, sure enough, for it is nothing else 
 than a composite biography of the genus homo, in 
 which all the fundamental qualities and experiences 
 are constant, no matter in what temporal or territorial 
 position they may appear. Life-principles, life-cur- 
 rents, life-experiences move pretty much in undula- 
 tions. So the future will be essentially like the past. 
 The variations will be more or less on the surface. 
 The moon will change, almanacs and calendars will 
 become obsolete, styles in dress and phrase drapery 
 and methods of work and play will move through 
 spiral circles ; but the constitution of man will not be 
 amended by even a majority vote, neither will the 
 forces and principles of the universe be turned back- 
 ward or aside. Very well ; then the things that most 
 deeply concern mankind, the staples of life, know no 
 tenses or moods ; the future is the past that remains 
 to be enacted, and the past is the future we face with 
 our back which is only the converse of us. History 
 has, consequently, an oracular voice in which destiny 
 can be read. 
 
 186989 
 
The student of history discovers a law underlying 
 the undulating motions of human thought which is 
 known as the law of recurrence. In accordance with 
 it, attention, interest, enthusiasm and allegiance tend 
 to swing back and forth like the pendulum of the old 
 hall clock between different and even conflicting in- 
 terpretations and applications of world-facts and 
 world-forces. The tide of individual and race interest 
 ebbs and flows. It has always been so, it will con- 
 tinue to be so ; two psychological facts produce this 
 perpetual motion in mental mechanics — the natural 
 aversion to monotony which familiarity produces, 
 and on the other hand, the increasing tyranny of cus- 
 tom, popular opinion and human authority, growing 
 finally into intolerance and over-pressure, from which 
 wholesale revolt is inevitable sooner or later. 
 
 Now such a fluctuation is illustrated in the regular 
 swing between idealism and materialism, the one 
 reading the literature of being in terms of spirit, the 
 other in terms of matter. The tide of idealistic inter- 
 pretation has come in with such thinkers as Plato, 
 Plotinus, Berkeley, Kant ; and has gone out with the 
 coming of such as Epicurus, Zeno, Spencer, Haeckel. 
 Today there is a widespread and thoroughgoing re- 
 volt against materialism with its " Gospel of Dirt " 
 according to Carlyle. And one of the forms in which 
 this revolt manifests itself is in the strenuous applica- 
 tion of psychical forces for the manipulation and 
 alteration of physical conditions. Mind has gone up 
 a good many points in the intellectual stock exchange, 
 while matter is away down below par and selling 
 slow. Thought-force has suddenly become a popular 
 therapeutic agency. 
 
 But the suddenness has to do only with the popu- 
 larity. The method is not new. Trace its path through 
 the centuries — it is there. Stand on the long white 
 beach of history and watch the tides of psychic su- 
 premacy come and go. On the loom of investigation 
 
 -3- 
 
let us weave the historical context of such movements 
 as " Christian Science/' " Faith Cure," and the " Em- 
 manuel Movement," and we shall see that they are in 
 all essentials hoary with age. 
 
 ^[^t JE are told by historians that the ancient Chin- 
 14 | ese were familiar with the theory and practice 
 of mental healing. The old Egyptian monu- 
 ments bear witness to the same fact for that land. 
 The Hebrews were not unaware of its principles, for 
 one of their poets said a thousand years before Christ, 
 "My bones wax old through my groaning all day 
 
 long," "My moisture is changed as with the 
 
 drought of summer," " My strength is dried 
 
 up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my 
 jaws," saying as plainly as words can do that mental 
 depression had kindled fires of fever in his blood. 
 A Hebrew scientist, philosopher, sage, said, "A merry 
 heart is a good medicine, but a broken spirit drieth 
 up the bones/' Homer sang of Aesculapius, whom 
 the Greeks afterwards elevated to the circle of the 
 gods as the god of healing. Temples for his worship 
 stood outside the chief cities of Greece; and even 
 Pergamum and Rome were not without them. In 
 these temples multitudes of sick and infirm were 
 cured of their diseases by purely psychic means, and 
 as an expression of their gratitude and veneration 
 covered the temple walls with tablets whereon are 
 inscribed the name of the person, the disease, and 
 the cure. Many of these tablets are extant today. 
 
 In the days of Christ, the esoteric sect or fraternity 
 known as the " Essenes " flourished among the Jews, 
 and while much of their history is wrapped in ob- 
 scurity, this much is sure, that they were extreme 
 ascetics, despising things material, and " by the im- 
 position of hands and certain whisperings, they healed 
 
 -4— 
 
the sick.** Yet Christ did not ally himself with them, 
 nor do his recorded utterances contain the slightest 
 reference to them. He simply ignored them. 
 
 In the first century there arose in the very heart of 
 the apostolic church a sect called " Gnostics.** They 
 were cultured and clamorous. It was their proud 
 boast that while the apostles and plain Christians 
 were satisfied with the letter of Scripture, they had 
 gone below the letter and were regaling their souls on 
 the spirit that yielded its message to their superior 
 spiritual illumination. They said the orthodox church 
 followed " blind faith,** whereas they alone had 
 " knowledge,** hence their name. Their interpretation 
 of the Bible was astoundingly allegorical. They first 
 put their own meaning on the words of Scripture, 
 without regard to the laws of language or historical 
 usage, and then proceeded naively to read their mes- 
 sage back. The vicious circle with a vengeance ! 
 And not without modern exemplification ! Like the 
 Essenes, they looked upon matter as evil and sought 
 in every way by denial and repudiation, to be freed 
 from its dominion. According to Iraneus and other 
 ancient Church Fathers, two results followed among 
 the Gnostics — asceticism and sensualism, the first 
 when the flush of victory over matter was upon them; 
 the last when the conquest had to be repeated again 
 and again until the despair of full and final victory by 
 the weapons of denial had throttled hope, so that 
 they gave matter up for a hopeless case and let it take 
 its own course. That kind of history, also, is likely to 
 repeat itself, gentle reader. But the Gnostics practiced 
 psychic healing, and so successful were they that their 
 ranks swelled until they had well nigh swept the 
 whole Christian church, and it took two hundred 
 years for the inadequacy and the viciousness of their 
 philosophy to make themselves clear to the popular 
 mind. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Colossians to 
 refute their errors. John's first epistle was directed 
 
 -5- 
 
against their sophistries, while the message to the 
 Church at Laodicea was for the purpose of saving 
 that congregation from the deadly virus of their pagan 
 teachings. But all seemed to be in vain, and multi- 
 tudes of Christians had to learn in the bitter school of 
 experience, as a lot are now doing. 
 
 AMONG the Jews, there sprang up a cult known 
 as " Cabbalists," who claimed that Moses re- 
 ceived an inner and mystical interpretation of 
 the law which he committed to Joshua, and he in turn 
 to the Seventy Elders, who in their turn passed it on 
 down through a select circle of Jews from generation 
 to generation. Like the Gnostics they arrogated to 
 themselves the exclusive right to be considered the 
 cultured thinkers of their day, and practiced the heal- 
 ing of diseases by incantations. Cornelius Agrippa in 
 the early part of the seventeenth century wrote a 
 treatise on the principles of this cult, entitled, " De 
 Occulta Philosophia," a reprint of which it was my 
 pleasure to see not long since. The story of their 
 career reads like romance for fascination. 
 
 The little town of Lourdes in southern France 
 leaped into world-wide notoriety a half a century ago 
 through the cures wrought there in the waters that 
 flow from a grotto near the place. The fabled visit of 
 the Virgin brought cures which, while they were fully 
 certified as to their occurrence and extraordinary char- 
 acter by France's most acute and learned scientists 
 and physicians, none of whom were glad to make 
 their findings, still filled the world with utter amaze- 
 ment. Time would fail us to tell of St. Patrick's cures, 
 of St. Bernard's, of those wrought by means of Catholic 
 relics, many of which are far from legendary in their 
 character. Suffice it to say that all of them were 
 wrought through psychotherapy. 
 
 -6- 
 
But if the ancient days witnessed the ebb and flow 
 of psychic healing, so likewise have the days of 
 modern times. Amulets and fetiches are used in 
 other parts of the world than Africa, mind you ; nor 
 are they without prophylactic and therapeutic power, 
 for they are strong objective suggestions, whether in 
 the form of a potato carried in the pocket, a little 
 bag of asafetida worn about the neck, or a bit of bone 
 or ivory. 
 
 The Buddhists practice psychotherapy. Their 
 priests are the main operators and follow the general 
 lines of our American " Faith Cure H healers, ac- 
 complishing astonishing results in the healing of many 
 forms of disease. They say to the patient " You must 
 have faith in God," and sometimes they give him a 
 cake to eat after it has been devoted, thus giving a 
 tangible suggestive factor to the whole transaction. 
 
 We Occidentals are mere children in the manipu- 
 lation of psychic healing when brought into com- 
 parison and competition with the Indian theosophists. 
 Their whole framework of thought has been for many 
 centuries immersed in mysticism, until their very words 
 drip with the delicious, dreamy accents of that upper, 
 or under, world ; so that, whereas our western healers 
 are just entering the portals of the preparatory school 
 of psychotherapy, their Indian Yogis are well on in 
 their post-graduate course. In my library I have a 
 handbook on the subject by Yogi Ramacharaka which 
 is a marvel of conciseness and completeness as such. 
 It does not pretend to enter the domain of philosophy 
 but confines itself to a setting forth of the most ap- 
 proved methods of treating various diseases by psy- 
 chic methods. For centuries mental therapeutics has 
 made its home on India's soil, and the methods there 
 in operation are imitated closely by several of our 
 American cults. 
 
 -7- 
 
JN America today there are at least six methods 
 of mental healing in vogue. Each one of the 
 six works cures. Any one of the six methods 
 can exactly duplicate any cure effected by any of the 
 other five. Yet all six are quarreling among them- 
 selves, after the manner of the proverbial Irish family. 
 But if their cures are identical, why should they quar- 
 rel with each other ? Here is the explanation of it. 
 Every axe has two parts — a blade and a head, and 
 these systems of psychic healing are in this regard like 
 an axe, not necessarily like a meat-axe. The blade of 
 the axe in these systems is the psychological principle 
 called suggestion — SUGGESTION, I say, or the rising 
 inflection in the grammar of determination. 'Now, it 
 is the blade of the axe, that does the cutting ; the head 
 serves two purposes, viz : to give the blade momentum 
 and to knock with. The blade of the axe is exactly, 
 precisely, unambiguously, organically, the same in 
 every one of these six systems. Will you please put 
 a pin there ? Suggestion is the axe-blade that does 
 the work of healing every time and it is never done 
 by anything else. And because every one of the six 
 systems has the axe-blade of suggestion they all heal 
 diseases. They may deny it, they may wax indignant 
 over the intimation, they may fulminate in magazines 
 with long articles having big blue pencil marks about 
 them, they may buy space in the daily press to say it 
 isn't so and it is all very wicked to suppose it to be 
 so ; but the fact remains that it is so. The head of the axe 
 is the philosophy that lies behind the therapeutical 
 method. The head is different in every one of the six 
 methods, and that is why they quarrel. But since the 
 head is of no real value in this realm of psychic heal- 
 ing except to drive the blade, and since the blade of 
 suggestion is so keen that it needs little or no head- 
 weight to drive it, we are not in the least concerned 
 with the quarrel. To remember this simple illustration 
 of the axe will be to escape from a good many of the 
 
 ~8— 
 
perplexities caused by the Babel voices that clamor 
 on all sides. 
 
 The first of these six methods we mention is the 
 ' Mind Cure " method. The Indian theosophists call 
 it " Thought Force Healing." The theory back of it is 
 that every cell, nerve, organ, of the body has a mind ; 
 the central mind is the will mind and must control the 
 cell, nerve or organ minds, accomplishing normal 
 functioning of the various parts of the body through 
 them. In some instances, the theory goes no further 
 than to assume that every physical ailment springs 
 from a mental or moral twist which must be corrected, 
 and when it is corrected the consequent physical 
 disturbance will pass away. The " Home of Truth " 
 cult holds substantially to this philosophy. That is the 
 head of the axe. The blade of the axe is the sugges- 
 tion made to the patient that the mental or moral 
 twist has been or is being corrected and the ailment is 
 consequently passing. And it is the blade that cuts. 
 
 The second method is " Spiritualism." Head of 
 the axe — the spirits of the departed exercise their 
 power for the relief of the ailment either directly or 
 through the medium. Blade of the axe — they have 
 exercised this power or are now exercising it and the 
 disease is going, is gone, and health has succeeded. 
 
 Third, we remark " Mesmerism." The Indian theo- 
 sophists call this " Pranic Healing," and use it probably 
 more than any other method. They operate by " Dist- 
 ant Pranic Healing" a great deal and with splendid 
 results. That is, of course, the counterpart of " absent 
 treatment " as we know it in this country. Mesmerism 
 is popularly known as " Magnetic Healing." Its axe- 
 head is the theory that a cosmic fluid pervades the 
 universe in general and the human body in particular, 
 which may be projected by the healer into the body 
 of the diseased person, lifting him on the tide of this 
 vital fluid above the jagged rocks of disease. The 
 axe-blade is the suggestion that the fluid has been 
 
 -9- 
 
duly projected, the tide of vital fluid has risen and 
 that the disease with its symptoms is gone or rapidly 
 going. There is a gentleman of my acquaintance 
 who was cured of inflammatory rheumatism in four 
 days with four of these treatments eight years ago 
 after three physicians said he could not get well, and 
 he has never had the slightest return of the disease. 
 And yet the operator was a rough, swearing, drinking 
 fellow, who laid no claim to either ethical or religious 
 excellence. 
 
 ^TTHR fourth method of psychic healing we mention 
 \fl is " Christian Science," or more properly, " Eddy- 
 ism." The head of the axe here is the philo- 
 sophy that matter is unreal, that only mind exists. 
 The phrases run on without head or tail and remind 
 one of a bushel of beans thrown into a bag. It does 
 not matter where one begins or quits or in which 
 direction one goes, the sense is just the same — all 
 nonsense. This axe-head is not new, much as many 
 of our friends would persuade us that it is. The 
 Buddhists and Essenes and Gnostics, and Theosophists 
 have been swinging it for centuries unnumbered. 
 The Eddyist principle of Biblical interpretation is 
 identical with that of the Gnostics and Cabbalists. 
 They may deny it ever so vociferously but the fact re- 
 mains. But it is not this philosophic axe-head that 
 cures : it is the blade. But what is the blade in Chris- 
 tian Science ? The suggestion persistently dinned into 
 the patient's ears on this wise : " You are not sick. 
 There is no matter : God is All : God is Spirit, Mind : 
 Spirit is All : Deny sin, sickness and death. Your 
 sickness is a delusion of mortal mind. You are well." 
 The same old shining blade of suggestion. The sug- 
 gestive principle of Eddyism is psychologically scien- 
 tific : the philosophy of it is absurd ; the religion of it 
 
 -10- 
 
is pagan. The pagan message has been forced into 
 the Scriptures and then read out, the Master's words 
 have been compelled to bear their own cross to the 
 place of their crucifixion. In a Western city a promi- 
 nent Christian Science healer was accidentally over- 
 heard to say to another Christian Scientist, " God ! 
 God ! — There's no God in it. It's nothing but Mind, and 
 you know it. The notions a lot of these people have 
 when they come to us disgust me ! " The person, who 
 was at that time a follower of Mrs. Eddy, rushed away 
 to a healer in the place and in amazement reported 
 what had been heard. " Did you hear that ? " inquired 
 the healer. "I certainly did," replied the person. "I 
 am very sorry you have advanced so rapidly," was the 
 astounding response from the healer. On the rocks 
 of such incidents, which could be multiplied in- 
 definitely, the claim of Christian Science to anything 
 Christian or even theistic must go to pieces. It has 
 been pointed out by one writer that the word " God " 
 may be marked out of " Science and Health " every- 
 where it occurs without the slightest effect on the mes- 
 sage of that book. Volumes of pious verbiage piled 
 up in meaningless heaps cannot change the foundation 
 facts ; interminable lectures calculated to darken coun- 
 sel cannot make black into white. I have never yet 
 heard a lecture on Christian Science, altho I have 
 heard a good many lectures by Christian Scientists. 
 They always lecture on first century Christianity and 
 then unblushingly tell their audiences that is Christian 
 Science. The whole transaction " demonstrates " nerve 
 power. 
 
 The fifth method is " Faith Cure," which would be 
 more accurately styled " Prayer Cure," for faith is es- 
 sential to every method of psychotherapy. Of course, 
 it makes no particular difference in what the faith is 
 put, whether in God, or a healer, or an abstract pro- 
 position, or an amulet ; but there must be faith, con- 
 fidence, before there be any cure. In passing it may 
 
 —11- 
 
be said that the object of faith determines its quality 
 and results, ethically and religiously, but not physically. 
 This is something that should be remembered. The 
 Indian theosophists call this kind of healing " Spiritual 
 Healing." The Lourdes cures fall at least in part here. 
 Those of the notorious John Alexander Dowie like- 
 wise rank as faith cures, and there were thousands of 
 them — ilthough he was a monster, ethically and re- 
 ligiously. Here fall the cures wrought in a good many 
 Christian missions and in many churches. Strange as 
 it may seem to many, this method of psychotherapy 
 is no different from the other five in that it is an axe 
 with a head and a blade, as any one can easily see 
 by examination. The axe-head is the declaration that 
 disease, as well as sin, was included in Christ's aton- 
 ing sacrifice, and that Christians are bound to claim 
 exemption from disease as from sin, or by their re- 
 fusal to dishonor their Savior. Prayer for the healing 
 of disease must, therefore, have no element of con- 
 tingency in it on the part of the petitioner. It is 
 assumed that it is always God's will to heal the dis- 
 eases of Christians, so the prayer for the healing must 
 be a sort of sight draft which must be paid on pre- 
 sentation without demur. Of course Paul's " thorn in 
 the flesh " is a thorn in the side of this theory, but it 
 isn't the first time facts have had to stand aside for 
 theories. So much for the head of this axe, which, 
 whether it be true or false, whether it manifests faith 
 or presumption, does not do the cutting. The blade 
 that does do the cutting is the same regulation blade 
 of psychic suggestion, which operates on this wise : 
 " You have prayed for healing : you have prayed in 
 faith : God has heard your prayer : it is His sovereign 
 will that you should be well : now you must claim the 
 answer : your prayer has been answered — you are re- 
 covering, recovering — you are well ! " There you have the 
 suggestion of health and that is what does the work 
 every time. 
 
 -12- 
 
^TT HE sixth and last method is what we may call 
 \j]j "Suggestive Hypnotism." There are many 
 shades and grades in this general system. The 
 famous Nancy institution where Bernheim and his 
 colleagues turn out multitudes every year made well 
 of their diseases belongs under this class. Braid was 
 one of the pioneers in its perfecting and application. 
 Prof. Hudson in his " Law of Psychic Phenomena " 
 anticipated practically all we find in any of the latest 
 varieties of this method. Dubois, the illustrious neur- 
 ologist of Berne operates by it with gratifying results. 
 Dr. Schofield, the great English psychologist and phy- 
 sician, is an expert in the use of it and has written 
 many books explaining and commending it to the 
 confidence of the medical profession. Dr. S. Weir 
 Mitchell, the renowned physician of Philadelphia and 
 a life-long friend of Phillips Brooks, uses this method 
 a good deal in his practice. One of the most interest- 
 ing individual operators in this line is a physician in 
 St. Joseph, Mo., by the name of Bell, who is reputed 
 to be able to accomplish marvels in the way of heal- 
 ing by pure suggestion. Last but not least, here the 
 " Emmanuel Movement " takes its rank, although there 
 are elements in its philosophy that come very close to 
 " Faith Cure." Still, its increasing reliance on scien- 
 tific initiative and direction, as well as the general 
 trend of its practice, would seem to point to "Sug- 
 gestive Hypnotism " as its logical dwelling place. The 
 axe-head is the psychological hypothesis that the hu- 
 man body consists of two parts or sections — objective 
 and subjective, conscious and subconscious, conscious 
 and coconscious, supraliminal and subliminal — indeed 
 there are many terms used to distinguish the two. 
 The " sub " or " co " is supposed to be the arbiter of 
 the physical fortunes of the individual. The biography 
 of this mysterious partner runs with as much thrill as 
 the tale of the "Arabian Nights." It does not reason 
 or initiate, but takes the ball from the hands of the 
 
 —13— 
 
" objective " " center rush M as an expert " half back." 
 The difficult thing for the ordinary individual is to 
 get into communication with this part of the mind 
 that is like the part of the ship below the water line. 
 You have to have a written order from the office be- 
 fore you can gain admittance ; but once get in, and 
 you can have almost anything you want for the ask- 
 ing. This mental basement is full of good things — 
 health, happiness, achievement in love and scholarship 
 and business (so the Christian Scientists say, at least) 
 and even sainthood, we are told. It makes one gasp 
 for breath just to hear about it. But the stairway ! 
 That too has been arranged. The "suggestor" will 
 guide you gently down — awake if you are not ob- 
 streperous, in the dreamy state of " mental abstraction" 
 if you are tolerably tractable, in the deep sleep of 
 complete " hypnosis " if necessary — but you can go 
 down if you will follow his directions. Prof. William 
 James of Harvard, who is one of the trusted advisors 
 of Dr. Worcester in the " Emmanuel Movement," tells 
 us that the anaesthetic power of suggestion is so great 
 that legs and breasts may be amputated, children 
 born, teeth extracted, etc., positively without pain with 
 its use alone. Functional diseases, which include 
 those where there is an interruption of the normal 
 workings of an organ without any appreciable change 
 in its structure, especially those of a nervous char- 
 acter, are said to yield in almost every instance to this 
 suggestive treatment. As to the power of suggestion 
 to cure organic diseases, which are those where an 
 organ is broken down structurally, there is a wide 
 difference of opinion. Dr. Weir Mitchell says, " No 
 organic disease was ever cured by it, and its legitimate 
 uses are circumscribed." Dr. Cabot analyzes one 
 hundred alleged Christian Science cures about Boston, 
 and having traced them back in their history, finds 
 them to be composed in nearly every case of purely 
 functional ailments. Prof. Dubois, Dr. Worcester and 
 
 -14- 
 
his colleagues, and nearly the entire medical profes- 
 sion confine its efficiency to the same sphere. On the 
 other hand, Dr. Schofield is inclined strongly to the 
 opposite opinion, and argues that the distinction be- 
 tween functional and organic diseases is after all 
 rather a gratuitous one, as disturbed work in an organ 
 is pretty conclusive evidence that there is a disturb- 
 ance of the tissue composing the organ. In his late 
 work, "The Mental Factor in Medicine/* he quotes 
 liberally from several noted physicians of the regular 
 school in vindication of his position. From Dr. Tuke 
 he gives this list of diseases as having been cured by 
 suggestion without hypnotism: "Toothache, sciatica, 
 painful joints, rheumatism, gout, plurodyma, colic, 
 epilepsy, whooping cough, contracted limbs, para- 
 lyses, headache, neuralgias, constipation, asthma, warts, 
 scurvy, dropsy, intermittent fevers, and often impend- 
 ing death." The Christian Scientists attempt both 
 classes of disease and are now engaged in a contro- 
 versy with the leaders of the Emmanual Movement 
 over the matter. 
 
 Dr. Bell is said to be able to cure exophthalmic 
 goiter in from three to four days with nothing but 
 suggestion. The last word on this point has not been 
 spoken yet. But under and through all the forms and 
 varieties of this sixth system of psychic healing, the 
 axe-blade is the same psychic principle of suggestion. 
 Watch it cut — " There are subliminal reservoirs within 
 you from which you may draw health, if you will but 
 tap them ; these hidden resources are yours to use : 
 they are flowing in on your life now ; they are lifting 
 you ; you are not weary ; you are not sick ; you are 
 getting stronger; you are strong, vigorous, well." Or 
 if the person has been hypnotized the treatment runs 
 something like this: " When you wake up, your dis- 
 ease (whatever it may be) will be gone, your organs 
 will perform all their functions normally ; you will be 
 well and strong. Now mind ! Go asleep ! " It is the 
 
 -15- 
 
very same blade that has done the cutting in all ages 
 in the human manipulation of psychotherapy. 
 
 JN concluding, let me add a few skeleton re- 
 marks. First, psychic healing is here to stay. 
 It is a legitimate method, if legitimately used. 
 But its legitimate use may not be so wide as many are 
 claiming. Suggestion is doubtless beneficial as long 
 as it does not produce a cauterization of the appreci- 
 ative and sympathetic faculties of the mind, but ex- 
 perience would seem to point to such a cauterizing 
 as one of the earliest ethical consequences of an em- 
 phasized use of it. Hypnosis, as an ally in the use of 
 the suggestive principle, is open to the suspicion of 
 undermining the initiative and self-control of the in- 
 dividual who yields himself to it, and may induce a 
 form of slavery to the will of others for which no 
 physical benefit could be an equivalent. Realizing 
 this danger, the leaders of the Emmanuel Movement 
 use hypnotism as a last resort. These and kindred 
 perils which gather themselves about the practice of 
 psychotherapy advise great caution in its exercise. 
 Second, there is no necessary connection between 
 any one of these six modern methods of mental heal- 
 ing, and religion. The Faith Curists, Christian Scien- 
 tists and Emmanuel Movement leaders may drag a 
 religious philosophy into their scheme, but it does not 
 naturally or necessarily belong there, as has, I think, 
 been shown in the progress of this essay. Atheists 
 and Pentecostal Missioners alike heal the same dis- 
 eases. Not one of these systems heals according to 
 the method used by Jesus Christ. His cures were 
 instantaneous and were wrought by his divine man- 
 date which drove suffering and sin and Satan into 
 exile with its overwhelming compulsion. He de- 
 manded faith on the part of the individual only for 
 
 -16- 
 
moral and religious reasons. Let no manipulator of 
 psychic forces lay claim to the Savior's position as a 
 healer of disease. The Great Physician was no hyp- 
 notist or suggestor or "healer." To class him as such 
 is little short of blasphemy. He raised the dead with 
 the utmost ease, so that the " greater works " promised 
 to his disciples could not lie in the physical realm but 
 must refer to those spiritual achievements inaugurated 
 on the day of Pentecost. Dr. Worcester and his 
 assistants have only the highest of motives in their 
 work, I am sure ; nevertheless they have inverted re- 
 ligious values and were their plans to come into 
 popular operation in the churches over the land, it 
 would be a dark day for religion, for it would mean 
 what one writer has called a " massage gospel," 
 whereas it is the souls of men that demand healing 
 more emphatically than their bodies. Time is shorter 
 than eternity ; this earthly tabernacle must give place 
 to the house not made with hands ; this natural body 
 must be superseded by our spiritual body ; and sick- 
 ness is not so alarming as sin. Third, psychic healing 
 should be operated by the physicians and not by the 
 preachers, for the simple reason that the latter have 
 neither the equipment nor the time to bring to its 
 successful operation. It is still false economy for 
 God's ministers to leave prayer and the ministry of 
 the word to serve tables, even if health is served hot 
 from those tables. Preachers must not degenerate 
 into pettifogging physicians, or men shall ask for 
 bread and be given a stone. Dr. Buckley, editor of 
 the " New York Christian Advocate," takes this po- 
 sition emphatically in an article in the February issue 
 of the " Century " on " The Dangers of the Emmanuel 
 Movement." The Congregational Club of Boston, led 
 by the Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon of the Old South 
 Church, has recently placed its veto on the movement, 
 and that noted divine declared that he had told Dr. 
 Worcester, his long-time friend, to his face that he is 
 
 -17- 
 
a " quack/' Indeed a growing chorus of protest is 
 rising from all quarters, and it begins to be apparent 
 that the movement must lay aside its peculiar re- 
 ligious claims and take its place among the other 
 methods of psychic healing, which, of course, means 
 its extinction as a propaganda. Fturth, for a decade 
 I have maintained that the time has come when in 
 every community there should be a sanitarium where 
 honest and skillful operators should use psychotherapy 
 for the relief of disease, and where physicians could 
 send those of their patients who need that sort of 
 treatment ; and that the churches should give at least 
 their moral support to such an institution, not as be- 
 ing in any sense a strictly religious institution, but as 
 being humanitarian in the best sense of the word, and 
 thus meriting the endorsement and help of the church, 
 just as gymnasia, and baths and other ph}'sical ac- 
 cessories to the complete development of men merit 
 encouragement as by-products of Christianity. If the 
 Emmanuel Movement shall help to clear the intel- 
 lectual atmosphere in the zone of psychic healing, 
 and finally crystallize into some such institutional 
 form as I have just outlined, its brief career, which is 
 already nearing its close, will not have been in vain. 
 
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