,STd
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
        Bethesda, Maryland

             Gift of

         Harry Etter, M.D. 
 
 
 
 
THE
     MENTAL-CURE,


             ILLUSTRATING THE



INFLUENCE OF THE  MIND

                ON


        THE BODY,


  BOTH IN HEALTH AND DISEASE,

                AND


THE PSYCHOLOGICAL METHOD OF TREATMENT.



         BY REV. W. F. EVANS,

Author of "The Celestial Dawn," "The Happy Islands,"
      " The New Age and its Messenger,"  &c.


        " Tis the great art of life to manage well
        The restless mind."—abmstronq.


             THIRD EDITION.


             BOSTON:

       COLBY & BICH,
           9 Montgomery Place.

               1874. 
H mi)
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
              WA-RREIT  IF1. JEVAHYS,
In the Clerk's Office of  the District Court of the District of
                    New Hampshire. 
PREFACE.
  The design of the following treatise is to explain the
nature and laws of  the inner life of man, and to contribute
Bome  light on  the  subject of  Mental  Hygiene, which is
beginning to  assume importance in the treatment of disease,
and to attract the  attention of physiologists.   We have
aimed to illustrate the correspondence of the soul and body,
their mutual  action and reaction, and to demonstrate the
causal relation of disordered mental states to diseased phys-
iological action, and the importance and mode of regulating
the intellectual and  affectional nature of the invalid under
any system of medical treatment. We have also endeavored
to demonstrate  the  vilue, as  remedial agencies,  of those
subtle  forces,  both  material   and  spiritual,  which  the
improved science of the age is  beginning to recognize, and
to explain the laws of our interior being which  render tho
so-called  magnetic treatment so  efficient  in the   cure  of
diseased conditions of the organism, and which  bids  fair  to
supplant the current  and longer  established  therapeutic
systems.  We have pointed out the  laws that govern the
action of mind  upon mind, and the transmission of vital
force from  one person to another, and the  potent influence
of our inward states  in  the  generation  of pathological
conditions  of the body, and in its restoration to health.
While it does not profess to be a work on mental philosophy,
some discussion of the nature and  laws of the mind seemed
to be  necessary to a proper understanding of the  genera] 
iv
PREFACE.
Bubject of the  volume.  We have endeavored to prove the
essential spirituality of human nature, to elucidate its hid-
den,  undeveloped  powers,  and its vital  and  sympathetic
relations to an ever-present world of spirits interfused within
this outside circumference of being.   This  latter idea is
beginning to be  looked upon as something more than  a
traditionary theory,  an item in  a creed, by a large and
rapidly increasing number of intelligent persons in all coun-
tries of the world, and is a demonstrated fact that is taking
its proper place in the positive science of  the day.  It is to
be hoped  the volume may prove acceptable and  useful to
all who feel  an interest in the imperfectly explored region
of human knowledge  into which it attempts to penetrate
with the light of philosophy.  It was far from our design to
present to the public an exhaustive treatise on the subjects
discussed, but to give,  with as much brevity as was consist-
ent with  perspicuity,  fruitful hints  and suggestions,  to
stimulate thought and lead to further inquiries.  The author
had but little in works on mental and physiological science to
guide him in his investigations, bat was under the  necessity
of following the  light of his own researches, experiments,
and intuitions.   He claims  no infallibility for his opinions
and conclusions, but submits them to the candid judgment
of all men who love truth for  its own  sake.
  Claeemont, N. H., Feb. 22, 1869. 
CONTENTS.
                CHAPTER  I.

THE  RELATION OF THE HUMAN  MIND  TO GOD.

Importance of a Knowledge of God. — The Central Life.—
  Ubiquity of it. — The whole Idea of God included in Love
  and Wisdom. — He  is the  Primal Cause. — The Divine
  Unity. — Tri-personality impossible. — Man a Divine  In-
  carnation. — God in  Christ. — Humanization of Deity. —
  All men Sons of God. — Teaching of the Oriental Philoso-
  phy. — Evolution of the Divine Element. — Jesus intro-
  duced a Higher Type of Humanity. — The Allness of God.
  — His Personality and what is meant by it. — His Omni-
  presence.— Where to find Him.— Madam Guyon. — The
  two Aspects of Human Nature. — Medical Science Super-
  ficial. — The Root of our Maladies.......19

                CHAPTER  II.
  THE MIND IMMATERIAL, BUT SUBSTANTIAL.
 What is meant by Immaterial Substance. — What by Matter.
  — The Properties of Matter  are reducible to the Idea of
  ForCe. — Mind the Exhibition of a higher  Force. — All
  Force is  Spiritual. — It Originates in God. — Love  and
  Wisdom  the First Substance  and Force.—Immortality.—
  The Ground of  it. — Life a Persistent  Force. — Its recep-
  tive Forms  Evanescent. — The Brotherhood of Man. —
  Universal Fatherhood of God. — Moral Influence of such
  an Idea.................27 
vi
CONTENTS.
               CHAPTER  III.
          ON THE FORM OF THE MIND.
Mind not a mathematical Point nor a Monad.—The Relation
  of Substance and Form.—Perfection of Form belongs only
  to the Realm of Spirit. — The Soul the inner Manhood. —
  Humanity of Angels. — Disembodied Souls in the Human
  Form. — Proved by its being a Necessity of Thought. —
  Formlessness and Nonentity  equivalent. — The Spirit an
  Organization.— Omnipresence of it  in the Body. — Pla-
  tonic Idea of it. — Pythagorean Conception of it.  .  34

               CHAPTER  IV.
THE DIVISION OF THE MIND INTO TWO DEPART-
                      MENTS.
The two primary Faculties. — The Love. — The Intellect.—
  All Love and Truth Divine. — Why they appear our own.
  — The Divine Nucleus of our Being. — Twofold Division
  of the Mind. — The  Will and Love identical. — Motive
  Power and the  Love. — The self-determining Power. —
  The only Life. — What is it  to will a thing? — Practical
  Value of the Doctrine...........39

                CHAPTER  V.
THE  RELATION  OF THE INTELLECT  TO THE
                      LOVE.
Derivation of the  Intellect from the Love. — Importance of
  this Truth in Philosophy. — Swedenborg. — G. H. Lewes.
  — Love the Center of our Being. — The Will and  Under-
  standing are like Substance  and  Form.— Relation  of
  Thought to Affection. — Reaction of the Intellect upon thb
  Love. —Correlative Spiritual  Forces. — Freedom  is Har-
  mony. — Spiritual Health and Disease. — Relation of our
  Mental and Physical States. — Importance  of regulating 
CONTENTS.
vii
  the Loves. — Solifidianism based on a wrong Conception
  of our  Mental Nature...........45

                CHAPTER  VI.

           THE DOCTRINE OF DEGREES.

Three distinct Planes of Mental Being. — Difference between
  this and the Common Trichotomous Division of the Mind.
  —Each Degree a distinct Mental Nature.—The Outermost
  Range.—The Senses.—Animality.—The Psychical man.
  —The Spiritual. — Consciousness.—Second Degree. — The
  Rational Mind. — Emancipation of the Intellect from the
  Dominion of the Senses.— Somnambulism.—Clairvoyance.
  —Cognition of Spiritual  Things.— Progress an Evolution.
  — Education an Educing of what is within. — The  Phe-
  nomena of  the inmost Degree. — Perception or  Intuition.
  — All  truth self-evident to it. — The Divine Internal.—
  The Conjunction of the Divine and Human.  ...   50

                CHAPTER  VII.

  THE SPIRITUAL BODY—ITS NATURE AND USE.

 The mind the real Selfhood. — Intermediate Essences.—The
  Spiritual Body a Mediating Principle. — The Proof of its
  Existence. — Testimony of Paul. — Of Swedenborg. — Nei-
  ther insisted upon. — Objection answered. — Shown to be
  the Seat of  Sensation. — It is the prior seat of all Patholog-
  ical States of the external Organism. — Testimony of Clair-
  voyance. — Of Conscionsness. — The Mental Phenomena
  following Amputations.—Explanation of them. — Proof
  of Immortality from this Source.—A Succession of Organ-
  ized Forms in Man. — The Osseous System. — The Muscu-
  lar. — The Venous and Arterial. — The Cerebro-Nervous.
  — Being is real and vital as it becomes Interior.  .  58 
viii
CONTENTS.
              CHAPTER  VIII.

ON THE EMANATIONS OF MIND, OR SPIRITUAL
                     SPHERES.
Material  Effluvia. — Odorous Particles. — Evaporation. —
  The mental Sphere a Vibrating Force. — Importance of
  the  Doctrine in Mental Science.— The Sphere the outgo-
  ing of the Love. — Mental States Contagious. — What is
  Influence?—What is Divinity?—Sympathy and Antipa-
  thy explained.—Spiritual Remoteness and Propinquity.—
  Pathological States of Mind and Body traced to the Sus-
  ceptibility of the Patient. — Subtle  Forces of  Nature as
  Therapeutic Agencies. — Connection of the Mental Sphere
  with the bodily Emanations. — The Imposition of Hands
  not  a mere  Symbol. — The Breath. — The Source of our
  Mental Disturbances. — How to be Useful.  ...   68

                CHAPTER  IX.

UF  THE DOCTRINE OF  INFLUX,  AND THE RELA-
   TION OF MAN TO  THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.
The Nature of Influx. — The Unity of Life. — The Mind not
  self-moved. — Thought not self-originated. — Teaching of
  Paul. — Of John the Baptist. — Doctrine of Innate Ideas
  overturned  by  Locke. — Truth transmissible. — Man's
  Vital Relation  to  the  other  World. — Quotation from
  Swedenborg. — All Knowledge an Inspiration. — Modern
  Spiritualism. — How the Old Testament Scriptures were
  given.—The Demon of Socrates. — Jesus on the Mount.__
  John in Patmos. — Swedenborg's Intercourse  with  the
  Spiritual World. — Sensational  Philosophy  Unsound.__
  Locke's  Essay.—  Condillac.  — Original  Suggestion.—
  How  Knowledge  is  Communicated. — Propagation of
  Mental States. — Mesmeric State how produced. .  .   76 
CONTENTS.
ix
                 CHAPTER  X.

THE  RELATION OF  SOUL  AND  BODY,  AND  OF
  THE MATERIAL TO THE  SPIRITUAL REALM.

Three Theories respecting the Connection of the Body and
  the  Spirit. — Aristotle. — Cartesian Doctrine. — Leibnitz.
  — Man a Microcosm. — The Body an Effect. — The Face
  and our inward Feelings. — The States of the Mind affect
  the  Body. — Fear and Asthma. — Disease originates in
  abnormal Mental States. — Chemical  Preparations inade-
  quate to  a  Cure. — Quotation from Dr. Taylor. — Mind
  the  organizing Force.— Relation of the Visible to  the
  Invisible World. — Where is the Spiritual Realm?—Mate-
  rial things inclose a Spiritual  Essence. — Pneumatopathy
  or Mental Hygiene............87


                CHAPTER  XI.

  CORRESPONDENCE OF THE  BRAIN AND  THE
                       MIND.
The Brain  the Organ of the external Manifestation of  the
  Mind. — Its Extension into the Body.— Its two Substances
  and their Correspondence. — The  Positive and Negative
  Forces.—The Brain first formed in the Fetus.— Pleurality
  of its Organs. — Sympathetic  Connection  of the Bodily
  Organs with it. — The three Brains. — Their Relation to
  the  Degrees of the Mind. — Their independent Action. —
  The Cerebrum and its Correspondence.—The Cerebellum.
  — Sleep-Waking. — Mental Exaltation. — Freedom from
  the bodily Senses.—The Medulla Oblongata.—State of the
  Mind and Body  in the Trance. — Scientific View of Death.
                                                   99 
X
CONTENTS.
               CHAPTER  XII.
THE HEART AND LUNGS,  AND THEIR RELATION
         TO THE LOVE AND INTELLECT.
Two Universals of the  Mind. — Answering  Organs of the
  Body. — The Extension of the Heart into the System. —
  The Veins and Arteries. — The Heart corresponds to the
  Affectional Nature. — Proof. — Influence of our Emotional
  States upon its Action. — And upon Secretion and Nutri-
  tion. — Subtle Element of the Blood. — The  Diffusion of
  the Pulmonary Substance. — The Lungs derived from the
  Heart. — They Answer to the Intellect. — Effect of the
  States of Thought upon Respiration. —Relation of Respi-
  ration to Voluntary Motion. — To the Sensibility of the
  Nerves. — Influence of Anaesthetic Agents. — How the
  Mind can increase or diminish vital Action. — Sympathetic
  Movement of the  Heart and  Lungs. — How  to regulate
  the Action of the  Heart. — How to change our Emotions.
  — Influence of our Mental States upon the vital Functions.
  —True Method of Study in Natural Science. — The  New
  Age. — Immanence of the Spiritual World.  . .  .  109

              CHAPTER XIII.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE STOMACH AND THE
                       MIND.
The Office of the Stomach. — The Digestive Process. — What
  answers to it in the Mental Economy?— Therapeutic In-
  fluence of new Ideas. — Mental Medicine.—Two Stomachs.
  — Dual Nature of Memory. — Common Forms of Speech
  Recognizing the Relation of the Stomach to the Memory.
  —Mental and Bodily Growth. — Mental Vigor necessary
  to Digestion. — Perpetual Spiritual Adolescence. — What
  is Old Age?—How to be always Young. — Diseases which
  are attended with a Loss of the Power of Attention and
  Memory..............     .  120 
CONTENTS.
xi
               CHAPTER XIV.

  THE  REFLEX INFLUENCE OF THE  STOMACH
                 UPON THE  MIND.
Sensitiveness of the Epigastric Nerves. — Seeress of Prevorst
  — Reading wijth the Pit of the Stomach. — The interior Es-
  sence of things. — Their Influence. — Psychometry. — Ef-
  fect of Medicines held in the Hand. — Philosophy of Amu-
  lets.— Action of the hidden Properties of things upon the
  Reticular Membranes of the Stomach. — Effect of Food
  upon the Mind. — The  Philosophy of Dieting. — Mental
  Stimulus  necessary  to Digestion. — The Condition of the
  Stomach and our Feelings. — Action and Reaction. — The
  Law of Sympathy between us and those in the Interior
  Realms. — Effect of happy Frames of Mind upon the Epi-
  gastric Nerves. — Mental States attending Various Condi-
  tions of the Stomach. — Hunger and its Mental Effects. —
  The States of the Stomach and Crime. — Hygienic Value
  of Cheerfulness and other Affectional States. . .  .  132


               CHAPTER  XV.

  EXCRETIONS OF  THE BOD 7 AND  THE MIND,
              AND THEIR RELATION.
The Excreting  Organs and their Use. — Their  irregular
  Action a fruitful Source of Disease. — Influence of the
  Mind upon them. — The Lower Intestine and the Brain.—
  Influence of certain  Mental States upon it. — Diseases of
  the Rectum and  their Mental Cause. — How Cured.  —
  Office of the Liver. — Chemical Nature of the Bile. — Sym-
  pathy between the  Liver  and Kidneys. — Connection of
  the  Liver with the Brain. — Correspondence with  the
  Mind. — Influence of Conscience upon the Hepatic Func-
  tions. — State of the Mind in Duodenitis. — The Cure. — 
xii
CONTENTS.
  Melancholy and the Liver. — Elimination  of  the eflete
  Products of the Mind. — Mental Influence upon the Renal
  Functions. — Diabetes. — The Connection of the Kidneys
  with the  Brain. — Causality. — Excretory Action of the
  Intellect. — Renewal of the Spirit. — Perpetual Progress.
   ..................   144
              CHAPTER  XVI.

THE  SKIN.  ITS CONNECTION  WITH THE  INTER-
    NAL ORGANS, AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH
    THE, MIND.
Structure and Functions of the Skin. — Amount Secreted by
  it daily. — The Period in which the Body is renewed. —
  The Chemical  Laboratory of the System. — Unrecognized
  Sources of Nutrition. — How prolonged Abstinence  has
  been sustained.— Effect of Medicines applied to the Skin.
  — Psychological Remedies. — Cellular Tissue. — Mucous
  and Serous Membranes.— The Physiological Condition in a
  Common Cold.— The Action of the Mind upon the Skin.—
  A Psychological Sweat. — Effect of Sleep. — State of the
  Mind underlying Consumption. — Control over the Action
  of the Skin by the  Magnetizer. — Mind the only Causal
  Agent. — The Ablutions of the Jewish and Mohammedan
  Laws.—Spiritual Effects of Bathing......161

              CHAPTER  XVII.
THE  SENSES.   THEIR CORRESPONDENCE, AND
      INDEPENDENT OR SPIRITUAL ACTION.

(Sensation a Spiritual Phenomenon. — Vision without the ex-
  ternal Eye. — Somnambulism. — Independent  Clairvoy-
  ance.— The Relation of the Eye to the  Intellect.—Sym-
  pathy of the Eye with other Organs. — The Spiritual Eye
  can discern Material Things. — The Sense of Hearing.__ 
CONTENTS.
XU1
  The Mnntal Act underlying the Sensation of Sound.— Dif-
  ferent Forms of Deafness. — How  to Treat them. — The
  Connection of Voluntary Hearing with the Organ of Cau-
  tiousness. — The seat of Otalgia. -— Clairaudience or Spir-
  itual Hearing. —The Sense of Touch.— Its general Diffu-
  sion. — Its Relation to the Love. — Communication of life
  by the Hand. —The sense of Smell.  — Its Spiritual Action.
  — Taste. — Its Use. —The Spiritual  Senses. — How they
  are opened. — Diseased  Conditions in which  the Inner
  Senses are emancipated..........176

             CHAPTER  XVIII.

      THE MYSTERY OF  LIFE  EXPLAINED.

Theories Concerning the Nature of Life. — Not the Result of
  Organization. — The Mosaic Theory. — Electro-Biology.—
  The Nervous Fluid. — Definition of Life by Bichat.— Cole-
  ridge. — Schelling. — Ds  Blainville. —■ Comte. — Herbert
  Spencer. — Swedenborg. — Its inmost Degree is Love. —
  Organic and Inorganic Forces. — Life a Force. — Correla-
  tion and Equivalence of Mental Forces. — Influence of the
  Emotive Life upon the Intellect. — Relation of Vital Force
  and Animal Heat. — Health is Equilibrium. — Disease an
  Inharmony. — Source of Animal Heat. — Heat a Form of
  Motion. — The Vital Movements. — The Heat of the Sun
  the Living Force of  Nature. —■ God's Love an all-pervad-
  ing Life. — The External  lives from the Internal. — Effect
  of Sensation upon the  Body. — Influence of the Emotions
  and Affections upon the organic Functions. — Secretion.—
  Muscular Contractility.— The Sexual Instinct. —Its Influ-
  ence upon the  Involuntary Physiological Processes.
  Importance of Regulating the Affections. — Impartation of
  Life. — Disease and Selfishness. — The Divine Order of
  Human Existence.....,.......198 
XIV
CONTENTS.
               CHAPTER  XEX.
MENTAL METAMORPHOSIS;  OR HOW TO INDUCE
    UPON OURSELVES ANY DESIRABLE  MENTAL
    STATE.
Relation  of Mental  Disturbance to Disease. — Therapeutic
  Spiritual Forces.— Our Emotions involuntary.— Self-Con-
  version. — A General  Law stated.— Relation of Form to
  Internal Character. — The Lesson taught us by the Stage.
  — Expression of oar Inward States by the Face.— How to
  effect a  Change  in our Feelings. — Hygienic Value of the
  Law. — Inspiration and Respiration.— Soul and Breath.
  —Peculiar Sensation attending Psychological Influence.—■
  Nearness of the Inner Realm.— How to  be Inspired.—
  Breathing of the Soul. — The  Respiration  peculiar to all
  de pressing Mental States. — How to relieve ourselves of
  them.—■ Usefulness of the Swedish Movements.   .  .  222

                CHAPTER  XX.
THE  COMMUNICATION OF  LIFE AND OF SANA-
           TIVE MENTAL INFLUENCE.
The Primal Source of Life. — Man imparts life to  all below
  him.— Vital  Force Communicable. — How Jesus gave his
  Life a Ransom for  Many. — His cures not Miraculous  in
  the Theological Sense. — The royal Touch for Scrofula. —
  Sanative Influence  of the Hand.— Knowledge is Power.__
  Mental  Conditions necessary to a Cure. — Faith a Spiritual
  Force. —Its Therapeutic Influence. — The Cure of a Par-
  alytic by Davy with  a Thermometer.— Effect of Fear.__
  Case of  Hydropobia caused by  it. — Experiment with fom
  Russian Criminals. — The Rose-water Cure. — Vital Force
  and animal  Heat correlative. — How  Heat  is generated
  and transmitted.— Therapeutic  Influence  of Friction.__.
  Compression. —Percussion.— Motion.— Adaptation of the 
CONTENTS.
XV
 Rand as aa  Instrument for Communicating  Life. — Effi-
 ciency of the Duplicated Movements accounted for. — How
 to Induce upon a Patient the proper State of  Mind. — Po-
 larity of our Feelings. — Inverted Action of  the Cerebral
 Organs. — Restoration of the  Equilibrium.— Mental Vi-
 bration. — How Jesus healed the Sick. — Health is Conta-
 gious.— Spiritual Inoculation. — Mental Leaven.   .  237

               CHAPTER  XXI.
   THE  MIND NOT  LIMITED BY SPACE IN THE
      TRANSMISSION  OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND
      SANATIVE INFLUENCES.
Freedom  of  the Mind from Spatial  Restraint.— Spiritual
  Presence.— Mental  Locomotion.— Physiological influence
  of Psychological Impressions. — Transmission of Mental
  Force.—The Model Man and Great Physician.— His Free-
  dom from Material  Limitations.— The Interior State in-
  tensely Positive.—The Prayer-Cure. — The Laws govern-
  ing it.—Love  the Healing Power. — The Mind to be first
  Healed. — The Mystery of the  Cures wrought by Jesus
  explained.—How to Convert  Souls  without  a Miracle.—
  Nature of the Mental Sphere.—Healing at a Distance. —
  The Laws by which it is Effected. — Directions given in
  regard to it.  — Communication  of  abnormal  States by
  Sympathy.—Practical Value of the Law.   ...   259

               CHAPTER  XXII.
APPETITES, INTUITIONS AND IMPRESSIONS, AND
                  THEIR USE.
Essential Spirituality of Man.— The Vis Medicatrix Naturce
  is a Mental Force. — The Fetal Growth.—Incubation.
  — The Nature and Office of  the Appetites.— Their Pre-
  scriptions. — Illustrations. — Nutriment for  the Mind. — 
XVI
CONTENTS.
  Spiritual Starvation. — Gibeonitish Crusts. — Voices with-
  out a Sound. — Spiritual  Impressions. — A deep and calm
  Revealing. — A Law of the Spiritual  Life. — The Com-
  munion of Saints.—Education of our Intuitions. — The
  Inner Language.—The Cogitatio Loquens. — Intuitional
  Prescriptions. — Mental Telegraphing. — Madam  Guyon
  and her Confessor.— Development of our hidden Powers.
  ...................278
              CHAPTER  XXIII.
        THE SANATIVE POWER OF WORDS.
The Words we utter embody our Mental Force. — They are
  the Index of Character. — How our  Mental  States affect
  our Words. — Their Permanence  in the  Memory. — Their
  lasting Influence. — Fact given by Coleridge. — Dr. Rush.
  — The Power of Written Words.— Books have Life.—
  Effect of  it upon  the  Pyschometer. — Prescriptions  of
  Frederica  Hauffe.— Psychical Remedies.—The Creative
  Utterances of Jesus.—Frederic Von Schlegel's Philosophy
  of the Communicated   Word.— Therapeutic  Force  of
  Kind Words. — Testimony of  Baglivi......296

              CHAPTER  XXIV.
THE RELATION OF  MENTAL FORCE  TO  PHYSIC-
  AL STRENGTH AND HOW TO  CURE  GENERAL
     DEBILITY.
The  Amount of Force generated in the System. — Whence
  Produced. — The Abnormal State called  General Debility.
  — What is Strength? — Case   cited  to  show its Mental
  Origin. — The Mental Faculties that influence  the Will-
  Force. — Their   Importance. — The  Cerebral  Organ  of
  Muscular  Motion. — The Relation of respiration to Mus-
  cular Force.—What is Swooning ?—The Force of the Bod-
  ily Movement proportioned to the Mental Energy —The 
CONTENTS.                  xvli
  Effect of Respiration upon the Vital Processes.—Nervous-
  ness a Mental State.— Its cure. — Relaxation of the Ab-
  dominal Muscles. — Misplacement of the Internal Organs.
  — Depressing Mental States the Cause.— How to get rid
  of the Supporter and Body Brace. — Relation of the Mind
  to Diseases of Diminished Vitality. — Dr. Combe.  .  309

              CHAPTER  XXV.
  SLEEP AS A MENTAL  STATE, ITS  HYGIENIC
        VALUE, AND HOW TO INDUCE IT.
Bleep Defined. — Its Influence upon the involuntary Physio-
  logical Processes. — Nutrition. — Circulation. — The Ex-
  creting Organs. — Its Remedial Value. — The  Obstacles
  to it. —Cold  Feet. —Tea  and  Coffee.— The Law  that
  Governs in inducing it upon Ourselves. — Position  of the
  Eye.— Its Effect upon the Cerebrum. — The  Respiration
  in Sleep. —In the Magnetic  Trance. — The moral  Influ-
  ence of Sleep. — The Order in which the Senses  lose their
  Susceptibility to Impression. —> Practical Directions based
  upon this Law..............325

             CHAPTER  XXVI.
    THE  WILL-CURE, ACTIVE AND  PASSIVE.
Connection of the Organs with the Mind. — How to affect
  their Functional Action.— The  Will-Force and the Stom-
  ach and Intestinal Canal. — Cause of Coldness and  Weak-
  ness. — The Cure. — The Passive Will-Cure.— A General
  Law of Health Stated.—Voluntary Movements Fatiguing.
  -— The Involuntary Actions not so. — How to take up thy
  bed and walk. — How to walk a hundred miles a day. —■
  The Interior State. — Its healthful Influences. — Passive
  Knowledge. — Influx of better Emotional States. — The
  Spirit with which  to approach the  Inner World. — Im-
  portance of our Relations to it........  .  335 
icviii
CONTENTS.
             CHAPTER  XXVII.
  THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD
     UPON MENTAL HEALTH AND DISEASE.
A Self-Evident Truth. —The Law of  Sympathy. — How
  Jesus bore Men's Sicknesses.— Obsession. —Its  Influence
  in  causing   Disease. — How   cured. — Experiences  of
  Swedenborg. — What is a Demon ? — Psychological Laws
  stated. — Scriptural  Statements  respecting  destroying
  Angels. — They could save Life as  well. — The Medium
  through which  Mind  acts  upon Matter. — Ponderable
  Bodies moved by Spiritual Forces. — The Release of Peter.
  -^Paul and Silas. — The Rolling away of the Stone at the
  Entrance of  the Sepulcher. — The Availability of such
  unseen Forces. — Their Useful Employment. — The Plates
  of  Copper and  Zinc. — Positive  and Negative  Mental
  Forces. — Angelic Influence in the  Cure of disordered
  Spiritual States. —The Nature of Goodness.—The Angelic
  Ministry.—Vital Connection with  the  other World.—
  Nearness of the unseen Realm. — Longfellow.   .  .  347 
THE  MENTAL-CUKE.
                CHAPTER  I.


THE  RELATION OF THE  HUMAN MIND TO GOD.


Importance of a Knowledge of God. — The  Central Life.—
  Ubiquity of it.— The whole Idea of God included in Lovt
  and  Wisdom. — He is  the Primal Cause. — The Divine
  Unity. — Tri-personality impossible. — Man a Divine In-
  carnation. — God in Christ. — Humanization of Deity. —
  All  men Sons of God. —Teaching of the Oriental Philoso-
  phy. —Evolution of the Divine Element. — Jesus introduced
  a Higher Type of Humanity. — The Allness of God. — His
  Personality and what is meant by it. — His Omnipresence.
  — Where to find Him. — Madam Guyon. — The two As-
  pects of Human Nature. — Medical Science Superficial. —
  The Boot of our Maladies.
                          «

    ALL  TRUE philosophy must begin and end  in
       God, the fountain of all life, and love and truth.
A correct knowledge of the soul involves of necessity
a true conception of the Divine Being.  To  sunder
the human mind from hirn, and then  study its phenom-
ena,  is to discern only effects, without rising to tho 
20               THE MENTAL-CURE.

higher and more satisfying knowledge of things in
their prime causes.   The latter alone constitutes true
science and real philosophy.   God  is the  First and
the Last, the Alpha  and Omega, the Beginning and
the Ending of all finite things,  In him is life.   He
alone has life in himself unoriginated and self-derived.
All else lives from him and in him.  Every thing, from
the insect to the angel exists by virtue of  a life pro-
ceeding from him.  We live  because he lives, our life
being the stream of which he i3 the fountain, or it is
A ray of which he is the central sun.  This central
life is every where and in all,  It is diffused through
all space and  all worlds.  It  is the  inmost  essence of
all created things.   But God's life  is love,  All that
we can think of him is included in the terms Love and
Wisdom.  This bounds and terminates our conception
of Deity.  All other attributes, properties, qualities,
and powers of the Divine Mind must be referred to
one or the other of these, and are  only modifications
or manifestations of thes? universal principles.   His
love is the esse of his being, as the schoolmen would
have called it, or that which lives in and by  itself.
His  Wisdom is the existere thence  derived, the  term
being  used  in philosophy to denote  manifested or
derived being.  The divine intellect goes  forth from
the divine love, as light from fire. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
21
  This conception of God is a first principle in phi-
losophy, of which we must never lose sight.  It is a
fundamental verity,  without which we  can  neither
know ourselves nor him. It is a self-evident truth, that
nothing finite can exist from itself, but from something
prior to itself, and this from something primal, which
brings us as far as our limited powers of thought can
carry us—to the causa causarum, the great first cause,
whom we call God.
  But this divine being is One.   This grand truth was
long ago announced  in the deserts of Arabia, by the
Jewish legislator, and  proclaimed  anew by  Jesus  of
Nazareth.  " Hear, 0 Israel: the Lord our God is one
Lord." (Dent. vi. 4; Markxii. 29.)  Three self-existent
individualities cannot be conceived.  Such a proposi-
tion, as Herbert  Spencer would say, is unthinkable.
Two of them must  derive  their existence from the
first, and that which  has not  being in itself is not
God.  It does not answer our  conception of Deity.
  Man is a finite image of God, or in other words, he
is a  created form recipient of the one only Life.  He
is a manifestation and  in a mitigated sense, an incar-
nation of the Divinity.  This constitutes the  true
dignity of humanity.  The  inmost essence of every
human soul is divine, using the word to express that
which goes forth from God.   Deeply hidden beneath 
22
THE MENTAL-CURE.
all our external and sensuous coverings, and all our
moral and intellectual disorders, is the inextinguish-
able divine spark, sometimes concealed, like a gem in
the ocean abyss.
  God was in Christ.   In him God was manifested in
the flesh, as never before in the history of the race.
The Father was in him and  he  was in the  Father.
This  vivid consciousness of  the  indwelling  divine
principle, was the  marked characteristic of the  man
Jesus.  In him God became man, and the humanity
divine.  He seemed to himself and has so seemed to
others, as the  God-Man and  the  Man-God.  In his
personality there was a humanization of the Divine,
and a deification of the human.   But the Deity was
thus manifested in  Jesus, in order that through him
he might be incarnated in all humanity, so that every
man might walk forth  consciously to himself  as a son
of God and  say, " I and my Father are one."  Then
every  human nature will be viewed as affiliated with
Divinity.   Then  will be  realized  the full import  of
the words of Jesus: "He  came unto  his own, and his
own received him not.   But as many as received him
to them  gave he  power to become  the  sons  of
God." (John i.  11,  12.)   Then will  be  fulfilled
the dream of the  Oriental  Philosophy,  which  has
haunted the  Eastern  mind from  the remotest ages. 
TOE MENTAL-CURE.
23
" The idea of God's becoming man," says Dr. Turn-
bull, " and man becoming God, is the mystic circle in
which all their thoughts revolve.   Nothing is more
familiar to their minds than the possibility of  divine
incarnations, and the consequent possibility of human
transformations.  Somehow, God and man, the infinite
and finite, must become one."
  To evolve and to bring forth to freedom this hidden
divine element in human nature is the true aim of all
philosophy, and should be of theology.   This will add
no new property to the soul, but only bring out to our
consciousness w7hat lies concealed within.  The an-
tagonism between the inmost dirine essence in man,
and the selfhood, or the blinded and disorderly activity
of the mind, either acquired or hereditary, is the secret
spring of all our mental and  physical unhappiness.
When the inner divine life pervades,  appropriates, and
controls, the more external degrees of our nature, man
then returns to  God, as  did the  humanity of  Jesus.
This is the hour of our glorification.   This is the end
of our creation, the appointed destiny of every created
soul.  After the lapse of ages of darkness, the  son of
Mary appeared in Palestine as the type and model of
a new and higher development of humanity.   What
human nature was  in him. it is the  design of the
infinite Love it should be in all, if  not fully, at least
in a degree. 
21              TnE MENTAL-CURE.

  God is all and in  all, but all things are  not God.
All  things, singular and together, are  finite or lim-
ited, and the finite cannot be the  infinite, for this, to
our  intuitive and  rational thought,  is contradictory
and impossible.
  But is  God  personal, or  an  indefinitely diffused
principle ?   In  a  certain sense, he is both one and
the other.   He is love and wisdom.   These are  the
essential properties of personality.  They  are essen-
tially human.  An  impersonal  affection  or intelli-
gence is an impossible conception.  He is an infinite
Man, and we are men by virtue of our derivation and
conception from him.  But his divine life goes forth
everywhere.  TI13 sphere of his love and wisdom ex-
tends beyond the bounds of creation.   The universe
of mind and matter is  but its  ultimation  or visible
manifestation.  The  Divine Being is in all things,
the least and the greatest, but in the human soul  in
the highest degree.   Here we may seek and find him,
as Madam Guyon and the mystics of all ages have
averred.  She declares the source of the disquietude,
the unrest of religious people to  be, that  they seek
him where he is not  to be found.  "Accustom your-
self to seek God in your heart, and you will find him,"
was  her advice to the Franciscan monk, who com-
plained that  he could not attain  a satisfactory con- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.              25
sciousness of God. This pregnant utterance was only
a ray of the inner light and life. May it come to every
man who reads it, with the force of a new revelation.
  W7e can study human nature under two aspects or
points of  view.  1.  As it was designed  to  be, and
such as it is when it exists and acts according to  the
divine order of its creation, and stands forth  an  im-
age and likeness of the Divinity.  Such a  study, alas,
could only create an ideal model, like Plato's perfect
man.   Or we should be obliged to  confine our inves-
tigations to  the character and state of  Jesus of Naz-
areth, of whom men, in all ages, have said in adoring
wonder, " Behold the man."   2. We may view it as
we unfortunately find it generally, in a state of moral,
intellectual,  and physical disorder.. This is one of  the
most  prominent facts of consciousness.   The geolo-
gist, as he surveys the wreck of former generations of
animals, studies  them as they are, in order  to find
what they  were.   By the  science  of Comparative
Anatomy, and  under the light of  his intuitions, he is
able to restore the  imperfect and  decayed  animal
frame-work, and show us what it was when it moved,
a thing of  life, in an age of the  globe  long since
passed, and  which presents  only  broken relics of its
living inhabitants.   It belongs to a true mental  phi-
losophy to discover the source of  our unhappiness, 
26
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 and to point out the way in which we may rise from
 our inharmony of mind and body to that divine and
 celestial order, into which the Divine Love longs to
 introduce us.   All medical science that does not pen-
 etrate with its light to the root of our physical mala-
 dies and sufferings, but applies its remedies only to
 visible effects, and to the removal of temporary symp-
 toms, is  superficial and unphilosophical, and "heals
 the hurt of the daughter of my people but slightly."
 True science is a knowledge of things in their causes,
 and an  intelligent  system of medication aims to re-
 move the source of our suffering.  This  done,  the
 effect ceases of its own accord.   This will be the hon-
 est aim of this necessarily imperfect treatise on Men-
 tal Hygiene.   " Philosophy is a futile, frivolous  pur-
 suit, unworthy of greater respect than a  game  of
 chess, unless it subserve some grand practical aim—
unless its issue be in  some  enlarged  conception of
man's life and destiny."
   As our prescriptions  will be more of a  spiritual
character, than is common in medical science, it will
be needful to enter into some discussion of the general
nature of our inner being,  whose varying states  are
the body's health or malady. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
27
               CHAPTER II.

  THE MIND IMMATERIAL, BUT SUBSTANTIAL.

What is meant by Immaterial Substance. — What by matter.
  — The Properties of Matter are reducible to the Idea oj
  Force. — Mind the Exhibition  of a higher Force. — All
  Force  is Spiritual. — It Originates  in God. — Love and
  Wisdom the First Substa7ice and Force. — Immortality.—
  The Ground  of  it. — Life a Persistent Force. — Its recep-
  tive  Forms  Evanescent. — The  Brotherhood of  Man. —
  Universal Fatherhood of God. — Moral Influence of such
  an Idea.

fT\IIERE ARE two distinct  substances in the uni-
 J_   verse.   One we call  mind  or spirit, the other
matter.  It is difficult for some to conceive of a sub-
stance without attaching to it some material  proper-
ties, for, to most  persons, in consequence of the senses
having a  controlling influence over their conceptions,
that which  is not  material  is as nothing.    Their
thoughts  seldom rise above the range of the external
or sensuous degree  of  the mind's action.  All spirit-
ual realities are in their thoughts  materialized.  The 
28               THE MENTAL-CURE.

common idea of spirit is that of refined, etherialized
matter,—a matter so subtle as to be imponderable,
and almost without  reality.   But  we must learn to
think of spirit and matter as discrete or distinct sub-
stances, that is, as real being, but having no proper-
ties in common.  When we assert that mind is im-
material, we  do not  weaken the conception of the
reality of its  being,  but we simply mean that its
essence is invested  with  properties entirely unlike
those by which  matter is manifested to our senses.
Yet it is the most vitally real thing  in the universe.
Matter is known to us by  a certain combination of
properties, cognizable to our senses; mind by other
and distinct properties or powers, known only to our
consciousness or inner perceptions.  Yet our knowl-
edge of the latter is as certain as that of the other.
  Persons are apt to think  of matter as something
solid and tangible to the senses, but of  spiritual  sub-
stance as an  etherialized, volatile  essence,  destitute
of these  qualities, and consequently of reality.   But
what  we call solidity is only  force.  It is simply
resistance, and is more a sensation in us than a prop-
erty of matter.  Taking this view of it, spirit  may
be as solid a reality as anything in nature.  Anything
that  causes in us the proper sensation of resistance is
as solid to us as  gold, or platinum.   For all that we 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
23
know, or can know of hardness, firmness, compactness,
impenetrability, or gravity, is a force  occasioning  in
us a particular  sensation.   The world of spirit is as
real in itself, and to the sensations of  its inhabitants,
as this outside range of created things.
   All that we know of matter is force, as all its prop-
erties  are  only modifications  of force.   Its inmost
essence  may be spiritual, and what  we call matter
may be  only the outward  clothing, or ultimation, or
external manifestation of some spiritual reality. The
properties  of matter are reduced to the single idea of
force.   Mind  is a higher and diviner force, approach-
ing many degrees nearer the Central  Life. All force,
in its  origin, as well  as  all  causation, is  spiritual.
Mind is a manifestation  of force entirely distinct from
that we call  matter.    Between  color and thought,
there is a broad distinction.  They are not identical.
One belongs to matter, the other to mind.  One  is a
material, the  other a spiritual property or force.
   We have seen  that God is the Central Life, the
first and only life.   All  life in  the universe is a deriva-
tion  from  him, and a manifestation  or  modification
of this primal vital force.   But his life is love.  Hence
his love is the first and  only substance, whence all
 other  substances  emanate.  Every thing,  from the
 atom to the world, from the animalcule to the angel, 
30              THE MENTAL-CURE.

has tne root of its being in him.   He is Love and
Wisdom, two divine forces, like positive and negative.
But love and wisdom, or affection and  intellect, are
the essential properties of personality.   The divine
love is not a mere idea, or an emotion, but a substance
from which,  by creative influx,  has gone forth  all
other being.   If we can accustom ourselves to think
of Love and Wisdom in God, and will and understand-
ing in man, as substance, an important  point will be
gained.   But we  must carefully subtract from our
conception of that substance all the properties  or forces
of matter, such as divisibility, impenetrability, and
weight.   The essential conditions  of  all  material
existence are  time and space.  All  matter exists in
time and fills  space.  Mind or spirit is not  in  time,
and is  not limited  by space.  To raise  the thoughts
above  time and space is to  think spiritually.   Until
we can do this, all our ideas of  God, of the human
soul, and of  spiritual and  heavenly things, will be
material, earthly,  and sensual.
   Whether the soul of man be  destined to endless
existence, is a question that is not affected by its ma-
teriality or immateriality.   The ancient philosophers,
as Plato, and after him, Cicero, endeavored  to  main-
tain the  doctrine, that mind in  its own nature was
indissoluble and indestructible.   But this is not true 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
31
of any finite thing in the universe.   Nothing has life
in itself, but all live from God.   He alone has immor-
tality or life in himself, eternally springing from the
depth of his own being.  Immortality depends upon
the will of God.   The  immutability of that will is the
ground of its certainty.  It is  true  now and always
will be so, that because he  lives, we live also.  We
live by virtue of our being finite receptacles  of the
one and only Life.
   But why is not animal life, which must be referred
to the same primal source, also immortal ?   We do
not hesitate to affirm, that  no life will ever be anni-
hilated.  It is the  conclusion of the improved science
of the day, that all force is perpetual and indestruct-
ible.  What we call life is a force, a vital force. The
quantum of life in the universe will never be dimin-
ished,  but the forms receptive  of it may  change.
Man is the recipient of the divine life in the highest
degree.  The  human soul  exists in three degrees,
 whereas  animals possess only the  lower or external
 degree.  The  life of  animals is indestructible, but
 their individuality is not  equally stable.   The latter
 may cease, while the former  goes forth to animate
 other forms.  The vital  force is persistent, but the
 external shell that contains it, is evanescent.   There
 is no real death anywhere.   The boundless universe 
32
THE MENTAL-CURE.
is life.  But man retains his individual  and personal
existence.  His inner life is not only a persistent and
imperishable  force, springing-perpetually  from  out
the depths of the divine  existence, but his affectional
and intellectual nature ultimate themselves in an out-
ward form that constitutes  his everlasting identity or
individuality.
  If it be true, that all men live from the one and only
Life, and  that the father does not create new  life in
his offspring (for he has no life in  himself), but that
life is imparted to the receptive germ in the womb
from the  Lord alone, then, as Des  Guys  has truly
shown, all men are brethren,  children of a common
Father.   It matters not whether there was only one
created pair,  from whom the  race has  sprung, or a
thousand,  the brotherhood of men, and the fatherhood
of God are established on an unshaken basis.
  And  moreover, all  men, of  every clime and  color,
are  sons of God  and incarnations of the Divinity.
All  conception is an  operation of the central living
Force, whether in the womb of Mary or any of  the
millions of the daughters of Eve.   In  all men  the
Divinity becomes finitely human.   The consciousness
of this grand  verity would  be a living moral force to
elevate the debased populations of the globe.   Self-
respect is  one of the safeguards of virtue.   To think 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
33
meanly of human nature has a depressing moral influ-
ence.  To entertain noble thoughts of the real dignity
of man,  ourselves and  others,  becomes an interior
conalus or endeavor to act worthily of our divine ori
gin, and " to do the works of God." 
34
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
               CHAPTER  III.

          ON THE FORM  OF THE MIND.

Mind not a mathematical Point or a Monad.— The Relation
  of Substance and Form.—Perfection of Form belongs only
  to the  Realm of Spirit.— The Soul  the inner Manhood.—
  Humanity of Angels.—Disembodied Souls in the Human
  Form.—Proved by its being a necessity of thought.—Form-
  lessness and Nonentity equivalent. — The Spirit an Organ-
  ization.— Omnipresence of it in the  Body.—Platonic Idea
  of it.—Pythagorean Conception of it.

   IT HAS been one of the vagaries and fantasies of
     the philosophy of Mind, that  it has sometimes
taught that our interior being which we call the soul
or spirit,  was  without form.   The mind has been
taken to  be a formless, unsubstantial  something of
which  no definite  idea could be conceived.   It has
been reduced in  the conceptions of certain metaphy-
sicians to something like a mathematical point, which
is defined to be position without magnitude.   Such a 
TIIE MENTAL-CURE.              35
thing, if it be not absolutely nothing, is next to non-
entity.  It is at least on  the  dividing line between
entity and nihility.
  We have seen that mind is a real and positive sub-
stance.  That which is not substance is nothing.  For
in order to be a something or a somewhat, it must be
a substance or essence.   And  it is self-evident that a
substance cannot  exist  without a form, nor can a
form be conceived  without substance.  By the con-
stitution  of our minds,  and  the  necessary  laws of
thought,  we  are  compelled to connect the  ideas of
substance and form.  By form we  mean the external
manifestation of a substance, or it  is the boundary of
an essence.  It does  not belong  merely to matter.
Material things have shape, but perfect form does not
exist in the realm of matter.   The geometrical figure
\re call a circle is not found except in the world of
mind.   There is  not a  straight line, nor a perfect
square, nor a cone, nor a cube, in the  material uni-
verse.   These exist only in the world of spirit.  We
may find in nature rude  approaches to  these mathe-
matical forms,  but under a powerful combination of
lenses they are found not to answer the definition of
those geometrical  figures.  They are purely mental
creations,  and can never be  realized  in  the outer
world. 
36
THE MENTAL-CURE.
  The shape of the body is a resemblance, or an ex
ternal  manifestation of the spiritual form,  the inner
man.   Matter  has no definite form or shape of  its
own.   The shape it assumes is always an effect, the
result of the action of some spiritual cause.  In the
case of the  body, its form is  an effect of which the
soul is the cause.
  That the soul or mind of man is in the human form,
we  might  prove from several considerations.  The
divine Being is an infinite Man.   This is an intuitive
truth,  for it is the idea that all men instinctively form
of him.  Love and Wisdom are  the  necessary ele-
ments of personality.   But a  formless personality is
impossible to thought.  As our  bodies receive their
shape  from  the indwelling soul,  so  this receives  its
form from the Divinity within.  Because God is the
Divine Man, and all things have gone forth from him,
they exhibit a conatus to assume  the  human shape.
The higher they rise in  the  scale of life tee more
manifest this tendency becomes.
  We might show that angels are in the human iorm,
and that they are only the spirits of men, wfto have
graduated to the inner world, and  passed into the
heavens.  This is the unmistakable teaching of the
Scriptures, and also commends itself to our intuitive
reason.  But we will not insist upon this. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
37
  That the spirit, which may be properly called the
interior man, as  has been done  by  Plato and Paul
(Rom. vii.  22; 2 Cor. iv. 16; Eph.iii. 16), is in the
human form, is an intuitive  truth, and a necessity of
thought. Our minds are so constructed by the Creator,
that we cannot think otherwise of our departed friends
than as existing still in the human form on the plains
of immortality.  This enters necessarily into our con-
ception of them.  That such is the truth, is a perpet-
ual revelation  from God, as it is not  supposable that
he would so constitute our minds that they must of ne-
cessity conceive a falsity. We always view our friends
after death, or their emancipation from the material
body, as persons, and the human form enters  into our
idea of personality.  Subtract from the conception of
them this  element  of form,  and it is equivalent to
their  annihilation.  If the soul is not in  the human
form, after the dissolution of its mortal covering,  if it
exist  at all, it is dissipated into an  indefinable and
formless  principle, which  cannot   be an  object of
thought.   For of that which has  no form, it is not
possible for the mind to gain  any idea.  That the
spirit  is the inward  man, as Paul and  Swedenborg
denominate it, is a truth constituting the foundation
on which alone rests an intelligent belief of its immor-
tality.  Remove this,  and faith  in our personal exist-
ence hei eafter falls to the ground. 
38
THE MENTAL-CURE.
   The mind being the interior man, is not confined to
the brain, nor, as Descarte supposed, included in the
Pineal gland.   But it  pervades  and  is interfused
through the whole body.  This is a truth of vital impor-
tance in the system of Mental Hygiene.  The body
is not merely an external robe, the  outward shell of
the living soul,  but the  mind interpenetrates every
atom of it.   This was a Platonic form  of speech, and
many, following in  the wake of  the Grecian philoso-
pher, have represented the  body as the  vestment of
the soul.   But it does not  express the  true analogy,
for the spirit is coextensive with the physical organ-
ism.   It thrills  in  every  nerve,  and pervades every
fibre.   The same objection lies against the Pythago-
rean form of speaking of the body as the tent or habit-
ation of the soul.  A man does not fill the house he
lives in, but the spiritual principle pervades the whole
outward organism.   The  latter is but the echo of the
former.  It corresponds or answers to it in every part.
This idea we shall unfold more fully hereafter. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
39
               CHAPTER  IV.

THE DIVISION OF THE MIND INTO TWO DEPART-
                      MENTS.
The two primary Faculties.— The Love.— The Intellect.^.
  All Love and Truth Divine.— Why they appear our own.
  — The Divine Nucleus of our Being.— Twofold Division
  of the Mind.— Tlie Will and Love identical.—Motive Power
  and the  Love.— The  self determining Power.— The only
  Life. — What is it to will a thing f — Practical value of the
  Doctrine.

     MAN  IS  endowed with two primary faculties, or
       powers of reception,  called the Will and Un-
derstanding, or the love and the intellect.   These
together  constitute what we  call the mind.  All the
mental operations  and  phenomena may be classed
under the one or the other of these two general di-
visions. They contain the whole interior life. Either
one of these faculties may predominate  in  its action,
but they cannot be separated, though in thought they
may be viewed as distinct.  The will, which includes 
40              THE  MENTAL-CURE.

our whole  affectional or love-nature, with  all the
desires and emotions, is our  inmost being, and the
understanding or intellect is that through which the
love manifests itself and acts.
  We  have seen that  the whole  divine  nature  is
included in Love and Wisdom.  The will of man is
the created and finite receptacle of the divine Love,
and the understanding,  of the  divine  Wisdom and
the ideas of the uncreated Mind.  All love, in its ori-
gin, is  from this  supreme fountain, for, as John avers,
" Love is of God."   In  its purity, and unperverted,
it is the divinest and most vital thing in the universe.
All the truth that  is contained in our intellectual
nature, or that our powers  can grasp, is a ray from
the abyss of light,  the infinite circle in which the
thoughts of God move.  Love and  truth have no
other origin and paternity, yet it is according to ap-
pearance that they are our own, being self-originated.
Why is this?  That all  the movements of our love-
nature, and all the  knowledge in  our understanding
should sezm our own and self-derived, is owing to the
nature of the  divine Love, which gives birth to every
good.   This  love  is  an infinite and irrepressible
inclination to make  its own good the  possession  of
others  mads  capable  of  receiving it.  Hence  when
admitted to the  human mind, it  carries with it the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.              41
appearance that it is ours, and that it is eliminated or
evolved by the  action of our spiritual powers.  But
its genesis is divine.  It is ours, not in its origin, but
as a divine gift.  But the boundless love of God im-
parts good to us so freely and fully  as to  cause  its
seeming to be ours,—the absolute property of our own
minds.  It is a fundamental principle, of which we
must never lose sight, that all good and truth in the
universe of  created mind are from God alone.   We
cannot become  too fully confirmed in  this great truth.
It is the corner-stone  on which  the  whole temple of
angelic wisdom rests.  Our will is a faculty or  cre-
ated organism, made to be admissive of  the divine
life or love, and the intellect to receive the  light of
the infinite wisdom.  These flow from within outward,
as the nucleus  of every soul is a  germ of the divine
nature.
   In most systems of mental science, we find a three-
fold division of the mind, or what is technically called
Trichotomy, and  all the mental operations are classed
under the  three  general designations of  Intellect,
Sensibility and WTill.  But  a careful examination and
thorough analysis of the  phenomena of  what they
call the  will,  discloses  the fact that they are only
some form of the love.  What a man  loves he inte-
riorly wills, and what he wills  he loves.   Volition is 
42
THE
MENTAL-CURE.
a movement of the affections.  If one does what he
loves not, if he pursues a course of action repugnant
to some love, it is in obedience to some stronger affec-
tion.   Motive, which is  supposed to influence and
sometimes control our volitions, is always some form
of love.  And an act without a motive, or an impulse
leading to it, and lying  behind it, would be like the
motion of machinery without  any mechanical force.
It would  be a self-originated movement.  When we
wish to influence the mind of another to some action
or conduct, or to bring  that mind  to some desired
determination,  we  always appeal  to some  love, and
there is nothing back of that of which we have or can
have the least consciousness, which acts  in the decis-
ion.  We may act from an interior  love contrary to
ail exterior one.  The spiritual degree of the  mind
may and ought to control the mere animal instincts.
But it  is  always the  love that  decides.  It is impor-
tant to define the distinction between the love and
affection.   The  latter is external to the  former, or
what amounts to the same, it is the love passed out-
ward  into  the  region of  the  emotions  or feelings.
There may be love  that influences  and  controls the
whole  outward  activity, that  is  attended,  at least
sometimes, with no conscious  emotion.  We  may
from the love of  our family and friends labor all day 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
43
(solely for their good, without once feeling any excite-
ment of the emotions.  In this case the love is inte-
rior, and beyond the  perception of the external con-
sciousness.  But to assert that there is some principle
behind and  beyond that love, and  further inward, is
an assumption without evidence.   If it exist at all, it
lies beyond the soul's inmost perceptions, and of which
we  can have no possible proof.   The  love is  the life
of man, as it is of God.   If we act from  life, we are
moved by love.  There is no other life  in the universe
of sentient  existence.  This is  the moving force in
soul and body, the hidden spring  that  moves  life's
machinery.   This is  one of the most  important and
far-reaching  principles in the spiritual philosophy of
Swedenborg.  The life  of an animal is some form of
affection,  with the instincts that  arise from it, and
this controls their whole  being and  its activities.
That love is the only life is a fundamental truth, and
ever to be borne in mind.
  Among some of the older metaphysicians, as well
as in the Scriptures, where we find many correct prin-
ciples in  the  philosophy of  mind, the will and the
love are  used as identical.   The term thelo, to will,
always implies an action of the love.   It is  generally
used in the sense of to wish, which implies desire, and
this is only  a  mode  in which love  is manifested. 
44              THE MENTAL-CURE.
When it is used  in  the  sense of arbitrium or deter-
mination, it is only the same love or affectional ten-
dency toward a thing or particular result, heightened
into an endeavor (conatus), or an effort of the love to
ultimate itself in the outward act.
  That the love is the life of man, and that the love
and the will are identical, we shall find to be of much
practical value, in Mental Hygiene, or  the cure of
diseased  conditions of the body through  the mind.
It may become the fountain of health, or the hidden
spring of deranged physiological action. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
45
                CHAPTER V.

  THE RELATION  OF  THE INTELLECT TO  THE
                       LOVE
Derivation of the Intellect from the Love. —Importance of this
  Truth in Philosophy. — Swedenborg. — G. H Lewes —
  Love the Center of our Being.—The  Will and Understand-
  ing are like Substance and  Form. — Relation of Thought
  to Affection. — Reaction  of the Intellect upon the Love. —
  Correlative Spiritual Forces. — Freedom is Harmony. —
  Spiritual  Health  and Disease. — Relation of  our Mental
  and Physical States. — Importance of regulating the Loves.
  Solifidianism based  on a wrong Conception of our Mental
  Nature.

      WE  KNOW of no  principle in the philosophy of
        mind, attended with more far-reaching conse-
quences than  that the intellect is derived from the will
or love, as taught originally by Swedenborg, but now
adopted  by some of the leading thinkers of the age.
One has remarked:  " That the intellectual aspect is
not the noblest aspect  of man, is a  heresy  which I
have long iterated  with a constancy due to a convic-
tion.  There never will be a philosophy  capable of 
-10              THE  MENTAL-CURE.

satisfying the demands of  humanity, until the truth
be recognized that man is moved by his emotions, not
by his ideas:  using his intellect only as an eye to sec
the way.  In  other words, the intellect is the servant,
not the lord of the heart."  ( Comte's Philosophy of
the Sciences,  by G. H. Lewes, p. 5.)
  As in  the  divine Being,  Wisdom  is  evolved from
love, as  light from heat,  so  in  man,  made  after a
divine  type,  the understanding is  derived from the
will, truth from  goodness, thought  from affection,
faith from charity.  It must be acknowledged  that
this is contrary to  the first  appearance arising from a
casual glance at the subject.  The reason why it ap-
pears that thought is not  generated by affection is,
that the former comes more distinctly under the ob-
servation of consciousness than the latter.  The love
is nearer the  center of our being, and is hence more
concealed from our perception. Yet it is easy to con-
ceive, that if our love-nature were annihilated  or sup-
pressed,  all life, all thought, all consciousness would
perish with it.  The will and  the understanding  sus-
tain the relation of substance and form.  Our thoughts
are  the  boundary of our affections,  and give them
coloring or quality.   It is also a matter of conscious-
ness, tha' our thoughts are always busy with  the ob-
jects of our affections.  That which  we love is spon- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
47
taneously and perpetually recurring  to our thoughts.
What we love the most, fills the largest  place in our
thoughts.  If love is not the ruling element of our
life,  why is this  so ?  Our system of truth  or faith
will  always exhibit a tendency  to  adjust  itself in
harmony with the nature of our  ruling love.   If we
are confirmed in the  love  of  what is evil or what
is morally disorderly, the truth we receive is thereby
changed to falsity.
  We do not deny that the intellect may have a cer-
tain reflex influence upon the love.  They may be the
correlative forces of our spiritual organism,  like ac-
tion and reaction, or heat and light, or like the posi-
tive and negative principles in  magnetism. One can-
not exist without the  other.  They should mutually
balance each other.  This is a state of spiritual har-
mony and  freedom.   For  freedom and  harmony are
the same, being  the perfect equilibrium of the two
forces  of will and understanding, or sensibility and
intellect.
  This is also a state of spiritual health.  The funda-
mental idea of mental  disease, is a loss of balance be-
tween the intellectual  and  affectional departments of
the mind.  Such is its origin and nature. Some false
idea is pushed to undue prominence, or  some feeling
becomes inordinate and predominant. To restore the 
48
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
balance, the lost  harmonious equilibrium, is to effect
the cure of the soul.  To restore the lost harmony,
should be the steady aim of him who ministers to a
mind diseased.  To maintain it in ourselves, should
be our constant study.
  Such is the mysterious  relation of the  soul  and
body, that every mental condition records itself in the
bodily organism,—first in the brain, and  then in the
organs that have  sympathetic connection with those
parts of the cerebral system.  The healthy and happy
equipoise in the mental  powers,  can be  effected by
magnetizing  away the false notion, or the disorderly
feeling, by a judicious  and  intelligent treatment of
the part of the  brain where it is recorded.
  If love is the inmost essence of our being, and the
fountain in us of all vitality and  activity,  if it be
" a well of water in us, springing up into everlasting
life," then to regulate our loves  is the great object,
the grand result, we  should study to achieve.   It  also
follows from this  doctrine that every man's  interior
character is shaped by his prevailing affectional states,
for the ruling love is the impelling force in the mental
economy.   It makes the laws for the intellectual pow-
ers to execute.  A genuine faith, instead of producing
love or charity, is genera-ted by it.  This view of the
mind and  its invisible subtle forces,  overturns from 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
49
its foundations the great error of the religious world-
in all ages, that salvation is by  faith alone.  A man
is saved, not by the belief  of a tenet, but by  a pre-
dominant holy love.   His restoration from a state of
moral, intellectual, and bodily  disorder, commences
not so much in the credence given  to a  dogma, as in
the first dawning of a  proper state of the affections.
And when this condition becomes confirmed by  the
law of habit, a soul is saved either  in the church or
out of it.  No faith can save us if it has  not  its vital
root in love.   The doctrine of  this chapter is not an
idle  speculation, without practical  value, but there is
inclosed in it the principle that shall  issue in  the
highest  well-being of  the  race here and hereafter
In  this world  even, our ruling  love is  our  life,  and
a knowledge of it is the key that  may  open  to oui
perception,  our  whole  interior character, and to. a
great extent,  our physical condition. 
50
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
               CHAPTER VI.

          THE DOCTRINE OF DEGREES.

Three distinct Planes of Mental Being. — Difference between
  this and the Common ■ Trichotomous Division of the Mind.
  —Each Degree a distinct Mental Nature. — TJie Outermost
  Range. — The Senses. — Animality. — The Psychical man.
  —The Spiritual. — Consciousness. — Second Degree. — Tht
  Rational Mind. — Emancipation of the Intellect from tht
  Dominion of the Senses. —Somnambulism. — Clairvoyance.
  — Cognition of Spiritual Things. — Progress an Evolution.
  — Education an educing of what is within. — The Phenom-
  ena of the inmost Degree. — Perception or Intuition.—Alt-
  truth self-evident to it.— The Divine  Internal.— TJie Con-
  junction of the Divine and Human.

   IN THIS chapter we approach  an important and
     interesting subject.   The  doctrine  of  the three
listinct degrees or planes of mental being is charac-
teristic of the  philosophy of Swedenborg, who has
thrown more light upon the subject of our inner self,
than any other writer.   The doctrine of degiees, in
the form in which he presents it, is entirely new, not
being  found, nor any thing but a distant approach to. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
51
it, in  any of the older  philosophers.   It is true, we
often  meet with a three-fold  arrangement or classifi-
cation of the mental powers, as into intellect, sensi-
bility, and will.   But this is a widely different concep-
tion from the doctrine  of degrees, as unfolded in the
writings of the Swedish seer, and northern Apocalyp-
tist.  In the prevailing systems of mental science, the
intellect is not  viewed  as a complete mind,  having
all the powers and  faculties of mind, but is  simply
intellect, no more nor less.  The same may be  said of
the sensibility.  It is not conceived to be a complete
mental  organism.   It is only one branch or  depart-
ment of the inner nature.   And so of the will.  But
in the spiritual science  of Swedenborg,  each  degree
of the mind is complete in itself, rounded out  to the
full proportions of an interior manhood, with nothing
wanting tc complete the fullness of a distinct men-
tal existence.  It has will and understanding, affec-
tion and thought, memory, reason, and  imagination.
Each lies within the  other, like concentric  circles,
and the more external is evolved from the internal.
   The lowest or outermost degree is called the exter-
nal or natural man, or what amounts  to the same, the
external or natural mind,  as we  make  no reference
to the material body.   This is the degree of mind we
have  in common with animals,  and might with pro- 
52
THE MENTAL-CURE.
priety be denominated the animal mind,  though it i?
found in man more complete than in the lower orders.
   So far as any one  lives only on this plane of men-
tal life,  he  is only a  higher animal, having the same
desires,  affections, and appetites, as control the lower
orders.   To this degree belong the senses.  This
external mind is well defined to consciousness.   Its
phenomena come  distinctly under  the cognizance.ol
the higher or interior range of the soul's action.  E'acb
interior  degree is endowed with a power of perceiving
what transpires in the next outer circle of existence.
The  animal desires  and appetites, and the external
thoughts stand out with prominence, and are as dis-
tinctly seen by some power lying further inward,
as the material objects around us are by the senses.
What we call  consciousness  is  but the  observation
the inward degrees of mind take of what  transpires
in the plane external to them.
   But is this a distinct and complete degree of the
mind, or, in other words, is it a mind by itself?  A little
reflection will convince us that  it is so.   There are
those in fie world (and they are not an  exceptional
few), in whom no other range of mental life has been
unfolded.   The spiritual mind is still in its chrysalis
state.  They are  sensual and corporeal, mere fleshly
men.  All their thoughts and desires and enjoyments 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
53
are material and sensuous.  They believe in nothing
that is not apprehended by the senses.  The world
of infinite reality lying further inward, is to them a
terra incognita, an unknown land.   The  spiritual, the
supersensuous, is beyond  their mental grasp, and to
them  unreal and intangible.  They are  described by
Paul in the following passage: " The natural man re-
ceiveth not the things of the  Spirit of God: for they
are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned !" (1 Cor. ii. 14.)
This degree of the mind is called in the New Testa-
ment  psychology, the flesh.  The Greek philosophers,
as Plato, denominated it psyche, and those who were
in that degree only,  were called  psychical men, in
opposition to the pneumatikoi or spiritual men, those
in whom the next higher  range of mental existence
had come to be developed.   When one  lives only on
this lower plane, the other degrees are closed, or are
in a state of quiescence.   They are like the unborn
fetus.   These embryonic  powers await  a  birth to a
higher and diviner life.
   The second or interior degree may be characterized
as the rational mind or man.   But  it does not consist
of reason  alone, for on the first plane  of the  mind
reason is developed more or less.   Even animals ex-
hibit  something akin  to it.  The  knowledge of the 
54
THE MENTAL-CUKE.
external mind is sensuous, that of the interior rise*
above the range of the senses, and is a spiritual intel-
ligence.   The intellect becomes  emancipated  from
the bondage of sense, and soars above the limitations
of time and space.  This degree  of the mind comes
into activity in the somnambulic or clairvoyant state.
New powers of sense, that act independently of the
bodily  organs, are opened.   There is vision far-reach-
ing, and penetrating, when the outward eye is closed.
There  is hearing, when the natural ear receives no
impression,  The sounds of the inner world are borne
by a more refined medium than the atmosphere we
breathe, and affect the inward auditory sense.   The
eye is illumined  with a  purer  light than  emanates
from the sun.  Spiritual realities to this degree of the
mind,  become as objectively  real  as  the  outward
scenes  of beauty and grandeur are to our ordinary
vision.  This spiritual mind is at home in the higher
clime, the land of perpetual spring.  Sometimes these
spiritual senses and powers are developed normally
and by a gradual unfolding, and a man exhibits the
phenomena of a  double  consciousness and  existence.
He becomes an inhabitant of  two  worlds at the same
:ime, and is as much at home in one as the other.
Supersensuous things  are not creations of fancy to
him, but vitally real.  In such a state was Swedenborg 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.              55
 for twenty-six years of his life.  The solid realities
 of another and higher sphere of life were as familiar
 to him as the landscapes of his native land.  The ex-
 ternal mind, through the sense  of vision, sees  things
 in the material universe—the sun, the stars, the clouds
 in the atmosphere, also the trees, fruits and flowers.
 The interior mind, the spiritual man, takes cognizance
 of  a diviner creation, and a world that is a blank to
 the outward senses.
   It is to be observed that this degree of the mind is
 complete in itself.   There are loves and affections
 that belong to  it.  In the natural mind  there  is the
 love of food; in the spiritual mind,  the love of  truth.
' These are  entirely  distinct, and perfectly defined to
 the consciousness.
   All genuine progress is an  evolution,  a bringing
 out of what is within  men.  There is in every man
 the unfolded germ of all that is good and true.  Great
 futurities are hidden in the mysterious depths of our
 inner being.  The divine life itself is there. Progress
 is an  education of our powers, using the word in its
 radical sense, of the educing, or drawing forth of what
 is within.   When the highest or inmost degree of the
 mind  has  come  to  conscious  activity and  freedom
 one attains to angelic perception. Higher and diviner
 powers are unfolded.  A 1 knowledge and truth be* 
56
THE MENTAL-CURE.
come self-evident, and  the slow and tardy process of
reasoning is  exchanged for intuition.   The  arcane
powers of nature and hidden properties of things are
brought  distinctly to view.  Such a one has risen
above the control of the selfish animal instincts to a
state of self-forgetting  purity of  love.  He walks in
the mild  radiance of the celestial light,  and  has at-
tained to a fellowship of life with the angelic heavens.
He reads the characters of men by a sort of spiritual-
ized instinct. All deception is impossible in his pres-
ence.  He  gains  knowledge,  not from books, bul
drinks in the living light of heaven, as a flower im-
bibes the light of the sun.   He is conscious of intel-
lectual perceptions,  and states of feeling, beyond ex-
pression in any external language.  He sees and  feels
unutterable things.   He comes to a conscious  knowl-
edge of the Divinity within.  " The Father is in  him,
and  he is in the Father."   He  has  communication
with the  indwelling divine light and life.   He walks
and talks with God, and receives  truth from its  sem-
piternal  source.   For it is this degree of  the mind
that has fellowship  with the Divine.  The Light it-
self is now revealed, and he walks in it.  It may be
difficult to believe there are such men,  but  human
history has been able to  give the world  a few exam-
ples, so as to disclose the undeveloped possibilities of 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
57
our nature.  But these have towered so far above the
sensuous populations, among whom they dwelt, as to
be misunderstood in the  generation  in which  they
lived, but attained  the honors of divine worship  in
subsequent ages.  It is remarked  by one, in whom
these hidden powers were evolved, and who has been
accepted by some as a " man  sent from God," "The
internal of man is  that  principle by virtue of which
man is man, and by which he is distinguished  from
brute animals.   By this internal he lives after death,
and to eternity; and by this  he is capable of being
elevated by the Lord among the angels: it is the very
first form by virtue of which he becomes, and  is, a
man.  By this  internal, the Lord is united to man."
(Arcana Celestia  1999.)   By it,  the Infinite  Life,
comes to finite limitations, and God is manifest in
the flesh.
   The unfoldment of these interior degrees of spirit-
ual life and light, it is devoutly hoped, will not be
infrequent  in  the  New Age, now in the order  of
Providence dawning upon  the world.   We are in the
feeble light of a higher day, the opening morn of the
" o-ood time coming" which kings and prophets waited
for, but died without the sight. 
58
THE MENTAL-CURE.
                CHAPTER  VII.

  THE SPIRITUAL  BODY—ITS  NATURE AND  USE.

 The Mind the real Selfhood. — Intermediate Essences.— The
  Spiritual Body a Mediating Principle. — The Proof of its
  Existence. — Testimony of Paul. — Of Swedenborg. — Nei-
  ther insisted upon. — Objection answered. — Shown to be
  the  Seat of Sensation. — It is the prior seat of all patholog-
  ical states of the external Organism. — Testimony of C'air-
  voyance. — Of Consciousness. — The Mental Phenomena fol-
  lowing Amputations. — Explanation  of  them. — Proof of
  Immortality from this source.—A succession of Organized
  Forms in Man. — The Osseous System. — The Muscular.—
  The Venous and Arterial.—The Ccrcbro-Nervous. — Be-
  ing is real and vital as it  becomes  Interior.

      WE HAVE seen that the mind  or soul  is  the
        real man, and exists in the  human form.  The
external body is not the living  self.  Its curious and
wonderful structure and mechanism only render it a
form  in the lower degree of created things receptive
of an  animating principle from a higher range of being.
It receives its life and moving forces from the indwell-
ing spirit.   But between the  mind and  the  outward 
ME MENTAL-CURE.
59
organism, there is an  intermediate and  substantial
form, called by  Swedenborg and Paul the  spiritual
body.  Between all discrete creations in the universe,
there are such intermediates, through which influx
descends from the higher to the lower, or, what means
the same, from the interior to the external, and by
means of which connection is formed and communi-
cation is effected.  So  between the interior  soul and
the outward material body, there is such an organism.
It spans  the discrete  chasm between mind and matter,
connects the two links in the chain of our being, con-
joins the soul and body into a unity, and through it
they mutually act and react upon  each other.  It is
composed of  a  substance  intermediate between pure
spirit and matter, a sort of tertiam quid, as the school-
men would call it, a third something, through which
the spiritual principle enters into the grosser body.
   But have we any evidence of its existence  in our
complex being ? Is its existence a mere conjecture, an
hypothesis, a bold  assumption, destitute of  any solid
proof? Is it a thing taken for granted, and  incapable
of demonstration ?  I will not dwell upon  the intuitive
reasonableness  of recognizing such an  intermediate
substance coming  between mind and matter.  Nor
 will  I insist upon the plain and  positive  averment
 of Paul  that, " there is a  natural body, and  there is a 
60
THE MENTAL-CURE.
spiritual body." ( 1  Cor. xv. 44.)    Nor  need  we
quote Swedenborg  to  prove it.   The demonstration
does not rest upon the authority of any great name.
No array of authorities, or long line of unbroken tra-
ditions,  no marshalling of opinions or personal beliefs,
ought to make  us give credence to what is not inher-
ently rational, and does not come within the grasp of
our intuitions.   Modern science  does not deal with
hypotheses,—that stage of mental growth has passed,
—but with positive facts.  It is with such solid veri-
ties that its temple is built.
  It has been objected  that the anatomist has never
detected the  existence of any such organism.  Nei-
ther has anatomical science, even when aided by mi-
croscopical investigations, been able to discover the
mind, with its thoughts and affections.  Yet there is
nothing whose existence is more certain or real.  There
is  a t:o.id  reason for  both  these failures.   Where
a thing  is not it cannot be  found.   This is self-evi-
dent.  If a man is not  in his house, he cannot be dis-
cerned  there, though we search  never so  long and
sharply  for him.   The anatomist studies the dead
body, the  cast off and  decaying shell of our  being.
In this  there is no  spiritual body.   Hence none can
there be found.  The living  inhabitant has vacated
his former mansion. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
61
  But may we not discover it in the living body?
Effects reveal the presence and  action of  adequate
causes.   We affirm that it is the seat of all sensation.
If we establish this point, the existence of a spiritual
body is susceptible of positive demonstration.  The
material  body is destitute of feeling.   That it feels is
only an appearance which an examination by the light
of consciousness shows to be not  the real fact.   Sen-
sation belongs somewhere to our  inner nature.  This
is admitted in all systems of mental science.   We oc-
cupy  here undisputed ground.  The eye does not see,
but something sees through the  eye.   The outward
ear does not hear, but it is  only an organ through
which something within is affected  by the vibratory
waves.  Nor is the sensation of feeling located  in the
substance of the brain and nerves.   The brain itself
is destitute of sensibility, and it has been cut and
removed as far down as the  Corpus  Callosum, without
the least pain. The optic nerve, at its  base, has been
shown to be insensible to light.   These are unques-
tioned truths.  But it is equally certain  that pure
mind cannot be affected by the direct contact of mat-
ter.   This is also  admitted.  Fire will not burn it,
nor does it feel the thrust of a sword.  The two sub-
stances are discrete.   They have unlike properties.
So  far is sensation from belonging to the interior 
62
THE MENTAL-CURE.
mind, that the mind perceives it in something exter-
nal to itself.  Consciousness assures us of this.  But
if sensation, as for instance feeling, is not in the mind,
and it is admitted that it is not in the outward body,
where must it be placed ? Most certainly in an inter-
mediate nature or substance coming between the two,
and through which the outward world acts upon our
inner being, and  mind communicates with and affects
external things.   If the anatomist would discover the
spiritual body,  let him apply the dissecting knife to
his own flesh, and the pain he  feels reveals it to his
consciousness.  In this way the scalpel proves the fact
of its existence.  The prick of a needle reveals it.
Puncture the flesh with a lancet,  and where the  pain
is, there it is.   For all  sensation belongs to this re-
gion of our complex being.  This explains the reason
why, after a  limb is  amputated,  the  patient feels a
pain in the part as before the operation.   The un-
pleasant sensation only  continues where it was, that
is, in the answering part of the external  spiritual or-
ganism.   This  is a simple solution of an  otherwise
inexplicable fact.  The external body corresponds or
answers to the interior body.  The one is the living
substance, the other the projected shadow.  The parts
of the outer are pervaded by the corresponding parts
of the inward man,  from the greatest  to  the least. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
63
The outer depends upon the inner for its life, and
when the former drops off, the interior man lives on.
In the chemistry of death, the earthly husk remains
in the retort, while the volatile essence ascends to the
next higher sphere in perfect human form.
   This inner form is the prior seat of all diseased disturb-
ance  in the body.   Any abnormal  mental  states, that
immediately affect this inner principle, and impede
its free circulation through the external organs, so as
to weaken  its  correspondence with  the  parts,  and
loosen its connection with them, is the primary cause
of disease.   When  this correspondence  ceases, the
outward  body  dies.   Magnetic  manipulations act
upon this  department of our  being,  and go to the
root of all diseased action.   Hence  their efficiency
as a therapeutic  agency.  In clairvoyance, somnam-
bulism, and the  trance, there is a temporary and par-
tial loosening of the connection between the external
and  internal man, and the  subject becomes invested,
to a limited degree, with the powers  and  perceptions
of the spirit-life.   He anticipates and antedates the
state of man in the world beyond
   The reality of  the existence of an interior organism
within the outward body, has been brought within the
range of consciousness in another way.   In the  case
of those who have lost a limb  in battle, or otherwise, 
64
THE MENTAL-CURE,
there  remains as vivid  a  perception of  the part as
before the mutilation.   This is the experience and
testimony of all who have lost any part of the out-
ward form, and  can be accounted for satisfactorily
only on the supposition of an inward body that is not
affected by the destruction of the outward organism.
Attempts have been made  to  explain  the  fact, so
familiar to all surgeons, but  they are vague  and in-
comprehensible.   The  solution is more mysterious
than the phenomena to be explained.  It is a darken-
ing of counsel by words without knowledge.  If there
be a spiritual body, or as Kerner calls it, a nerve-pro-
jected form, which is the subject of all sensation, every
thing  in  relation to the above named  fact becomes
plain and simple.  We  may boldly aver, that we have
the same  evidence of its existence as we have of the
material  body.   In  both cases the proof rests upon
the testimony of consciousness, beyond  which there
is no higher evidence, and in which the human mind
always rests.   It is one of the original laws of belief,
and is deemed final in every  argument.   If we deny
its authority, we unsettle the foundation of all  evi-
dence, and we may doubt the existence of anything,
even of ourselves.
  When  any part of the external body is removed by
disease or accident, there remains the  perception of 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
65
the answering  spiritual part, so that after a limb is
amputated under the influence  of ether, or other an-
aesthetic agent, on awakening, as it were, to life again,
the absent member is not missed, and the person comes
slowly to  realize  that it is gone.  But suppose  an-
other limb  is removed, and  still  another.   Convey
them, if you please, to the cemetery.  The  case re-
mains the same.  They are not missed  in the  con-
sciousness.  Go a step further,  and suppose the whole
outward form to be removed from the spirit.  Disrobe
the inner  man entirely of its fleshly envelope, there
remains the same consciousness of a body as before.
The man, the conscious self,  still lives.   Such is the
condition  of the  freed  spirit upon its entrance upon
the  life to come.  It is conscious of  losing  nothing
that  constituted  any essential  element of its being.
It has parted with no life, for the  outward body had
none of its  own.   It has been  deprived of no one oj
the senses, for these belong to  the inner  and not to
the  outer  man, and  when the former passes to the
higher realm, it carries with it  all that belongs to its
nature.
   There is  in our complex structure  a succession of
bodily forms, each  inclosed, as it were, within   the
other.  First we  have the bony frame-work.  Taken
by itself,  it exhibits a rude  approach to the human 
66
THE MENTAL-CURE.
shape.   Next comes  the  motory or muscular system.
Added to the former, it fills out the outline to a nearei
approach  to  completeness.   Then interpenetrating
this rough model or cast of humanity, we  have the
venous and arterial  system, with  their innumerable
minute  branches.  These are  so diffused, that to
puncture the flesh anywhere, even with the  point of a
lancet, we strike one, and the circulating fluid escapes.
[f we could perfectly abstract this system  from the
rest, it would be a comparatively perfect human form.
But  the brain with  its  continuation into the spinal
column, and the nerves ramifying from it, is so inter-
fused through the rest of the system, that by applying
the point of a needle to any part, we  come in contact
with it.  Taken by itself it  would be a nearly  com-
plete human form.   But pervading this, and diffused
through it, is the spiritual body, the nerve-projected
form.    With the nerve  matter, the outward  vision
terminates its range of action.  But before the un
veiled eye of independent clairvoyance, the inner man
is revealed. Then comes the mind with its successive
degrees of inferiority.  Within these, in the living
center of our being, lies concealed the divine germ, a
spark of the  infinite  Life.   As  we progress inward,
our being becomes more real and vital.  The inner,
all the way through, acts upon and into  the outer. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.              67
The external lives and moves by influx from thai
which is interior.   The mind affects first the spiritual
body, then  the  nerves, then the external organism.
Hence all disease being an outward visible effect, we
must search for its  cause in something further inward.
It is a  corollary, or natural inference from the prin-
ciples  already established, that it has its origin in
some disordered states of the inner man.  For there
is a pathology of the mind as well as of the external
body. 
68
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER  VIII.

ON THE EMANATIONS OF MIND,  OR SPIRITUAL
                     SPHERES.

Material  Effluvia. — Odorous   Particles. — Evaporation. —
  The mental Sphere a  Vibrating Force. — Importance oj
  the Doctrine in Mental Science. — The Sphere the outgoing
  of the  Love.—Mental States Contagious.— What  is In-
  fluence*— What is Divinity ?—Sympathy and Antipathy
  explained. — Spiritual Remoteness  and  Propinquity.—
  Pathological States of Mind  and Body, traced to the Sus-
  ceptibility of the Patient.—Subtle Forces  of Nature as
  Therapeutic agencies. — Connection of the  mental Sphere
  with the bodily Emanations. — The Imposition of hands not
  a mere Symbol. — The Breath. — The source of our mental
  Disturbances. — How to be Useful.

   IT IS a truth  recognized  by science, that every ma-
     terial body is surrounded by an atmosphere gener-
ated by a subtle emanation of its own substance. The
air enveloping  the globe we inhabit is charged with
the minute particles proceeding from the various ob-
jects of  nature.   The  atmosphere thus becomes the
general repository of these visible and invisible efflu-
via.  But what  is true of the globe at  large, may be 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
69
affirmed of the smallest thing.   There perpetually ex-
hales  from it an effluvium of its own corpuscles and
atoms, which  surround it  as  the  air  envelops  and
pervades the earth.   These emanations sometimes be-
come visible and manifest to the senses.   The  sensa-
tion of smell is occasioned in us by an emanation of
the minute particles of  the odorous body, which im-
pinge against the delicate membrane of  the nostrils,
as in the case of the rose.  These invisible effluvia are
often  wafted to a great distance.  Sailors detect their
approach to land in this way, before even the  moun-
tains become visible  to the eye.  The acute sense of
smell in animals—as the dog and various beasts of prey
—is affected by them sometimes when they  are miles
away  from the object producing them.  A familiar
illustration of emanation is seen in water, which per-
petually emits vapor into the atmosphere, where, if it
could all be condensed, there would  be enough to
form an ocean.  The human body is surrounded with
a sphere  of the substances that compose it,  which go
forth in the sensible and insensible  perspiration.  The
same is true of all animals, vegetables, and minerals.
  This phenomenon, like all the forces and movements
of the material universe, is an effect of which some-
thing spiritual is  the cause.  At least, there is some-
thing analogous to this in the world of the mind.  The 
70              THE MENTAL-CURE.

mind is a spiritual  substance or essence, and  there
goes forth from it a sphere that surrounds it.  It is a
radiant  force  like  heat and  light.   In fact  love is
spiritual heat,  and truth  is spiritual light.   This
doctrine of spiritual spheres is of great importance in
mental philosophy, but has been almost wholly ignor-
ed.   In the system of Swedenborg, it has been given
that prominence that  belongs to it.   Every angel,
every spirit, every man, is surrounded  by a spiritual
sphere of  affection  and thought, or radiant circles of
an  emanating force, within which he imparts—ofteu
silently  and  unintentionally—his own feelings and
ideas.  Just as a  heated body, for instance a  stove,
imparts its  heat to surrounding objects, and a lamp
its light.
  There are persons who exert a secret but powerful
influence  over  those  who come in contact  with the
sphere of  their inner nature.  This influence is good
or bad,  happy or depressing, elevating or degrading,
according to the confirmed affectional  state or ruling
\ove  of him from whom it proceeds.   For it is to be
borne in mind, that it goes forth primarily from the
love which constitutes the soul's life.   If the mental
state be joy or melancholy, gladness or sorrow, meek-
ness  or anger,  contentment or  impatience, faith or
fear, it affects others with a like feeling, in a degree 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
71
proportioned to their impressibility.  In this way the
mind propagates its own prevailing condition, and all
our mental states are contagious.  This  law of our
being operates to bring all into a similitude of spirit-
ual condition.   In the heavenly realm, there is a com-
munication of all to each, and of each to all,—a univer
sal fellowship of thought and affection.   The sphere
of each intermingles with that of the whole in a divine
community of life and celestial harmony.   The encir-
cling sphere or emanating wave, surrounding every
created spirit is more or less extended and powerful,
according as the angel or man is more or less elevated
in the  moral scale or degrees of life.   There are those
whose  influence  ( from in and fluo, to flow in) extends
to great distances.  And mind acts upon mind, so far
as we know, independently of spatial nearness or re-
moteness.   The sphere  of the Deity is infinite, and is
the inmost life of all things.   We use the term divine,
to express that which goes forth  from the Godhead.
By divinity, we  mean the radios Deitatis  as  Jerome
calls it, the radiations of Deity, that which is not,
when taken by itself,  infinite, but proceeds from God.
All  our light and  love, our good and truth, are an
emanation, or undulation from the eternal Goodness.
It is somewhat of  the Divinity in us,  and  makes him
who receives it, in a mitigated sense, anlmmanuel,an
individuality which is an outgrowth of the Deity. 
72
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
   The doctrine of mental spheres explains many phe-
nomena in the science of mind, and is of much practi-
cal value and comes into constant  application, with
every one who would cure disease by spiritual  reme-
dies.   What we call sympathy and antipathy finds
here its cause and explanation.   When the sphere of
two or more persons is homogeneous and concordant,
their spiritual emanations meet  and mingle  without
repulsion, like  the vibrations occasioned by musical
instruments in tune.  Their life  blends in  harmony,
constituting  nearness,  union,  and sympathy.   The
opposite  of this is antipathy.   All   associations and
conjunctions  in the realm of spirit are thus effected.
All disjunction, separation, and remoteness, which are
there a feeling, rather than distance of space, are the
result of discordant  spheres.   Like joins itself to like,
by a law as invariable in the spirit-world, as that  of
gravitation and chemical affinity in this.
  There are many persons of a negative and passive
nature, who are easily affected  by these subtle influ-
ences.   There seems to  be no reactive force in their
mental organism to  repel them.   They are like a ves-
sel at sea impelled by sails, and at the mercy of every
wind that blows, and not  like the powerful  steamer
driven  by a  force within,  and  pursuing its course
against opposing currents and contrary winds   They 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
73
become impregnated at once by the influence of more
positive minds, w7ith whom they happen to come in
contact.   There  are many disorderly, inharmonious
mental states, that  affect even the body, that are the
result  of this peculiar organism and susceptibility of
the patient, and they only need the influence of some
more positive will, adequate to the casting out of de-
mons, to restore them to mental and moral soundness.
Here is the secret origin of more diseases of mind and
body than the world at large is aware of.   There are
many subtle causes at  work to generate a diseased
condition, which  the science of Pathology does  not
notice.  And I believe with the force of a conviction,
that within  the vast storehouse of nature, there lie
concealed very many undeveloped, and unused force?
and laws, that are  available for the cure  of the  dis-
eases that flesh is heir  to.   Science is beginning to
turn its attention  in that direction and  to  explore
this hitherto unknown  realm of spiritual causation.
The attempt will be fruitful in results.
   It is worthy of observation, before leaving this topic,
to remark, that the spiritual emanations, or those that
proceed from our affectional and  intellectual states,
infuse themselves into the natural sphere  continually
flowing from the body.  This  latter is poured forth
from the palms of the hands more copiously than from 
74
THE MENTAL-CURE.
any other part of  the body, because, as has been de-
monstrated by the microscope, the pores are there
the most numerous.  Hence the imposition of hands
was not once  an  unmeaning ceremony, nor a mere
sign or symbol.  It was  an actual communication
of spiritual life.  Our  affectional states,  which are
our inmost vital force, are ' communicated by  the
touch, which is the sense sacred to the love.  Hence
in blessing others—as  Jacob his sons,  and Christ
little  children—the  hands  were  placed  upon  the
head.    The  mental sphere  also goes  forth  with
the breath.  Hence Jesus, who perfectly understood
these  laws, breathed on his disciples,  and said, "Re-
ceive  ye the  holy spirit" (Jno.  xx.  22), and thus
imparted to them, so far as they were recipient of it,
his own gentle, loving, and tranquil  frame of mind.
Thus we have a silent but  powerful influence, for good
or evil, over those who come within the sphere of our
minds.  Our  touch is morally healthful or poisonous,
and our very  presence is salutary or noxious.   There
goes out with our breath a celestial aura,  or a hellish
miasm.   Our  spiritual states a*e contagious, and it is
a serious and earnest thing to live and move among
our fellows.   Many of our  troublesome thoughts,  and
unhappy feelings, are excited  in us by the sphere  of
those  around  us, and come to us from spirits in the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.              75
flesh, rather than from those who have  passed to the
world beyond, to whom they are often unjustly charg-
ed.   There  is a tendency, through the operation of
this law of our minds, to make all others like ourselves.
This tendency is not  originated, but only intensified,
by the action of our wills.   Even if we are outwardly
good, but interiorly selfish and corrupt, our influence
will be morally unwholesome and deleterious. Through
a beautiful garb of feigned sanctity, the sphere of the
real character will  penetrate  and  spread, as the odor
of  a  decaying  body will make its way through  a
shroud of the finest linen.   The best  way to be use-
ful, is  to be inwardly good  and true.   And it is one
of our highest duties  to  be innocently happy, not
merely for our own sake, but for the general weal. For
our life will mingle itself with the ocean of created
mind, and we should seek so to live, that our tributa-
ry stream be not added to it as a turbid element. 
76               THE MENTAL-CURE.
                CHAPTER IX.

OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFLUX, AND THE RELA-
   TION OF MAN TO  THE  SPIRITUAL WORLD.

The nature of Influx. — The Unity of Life. — The mind not
  self-moved. — Thought  not  self-originated. — Teaching  oj
  Paul —Of  John the Baptist.—Doctrine of Innate Ideas
  overturned by Locke. — Truth transmissible. — Man's Vital
  Relation to the other  World. — Quotation from Sweden-
  borg. —All Knowledge an Inspiration.— Modern Spiritual-
  ism.— How the  Old Testament Scriptures were  given.—
  The Demon of Socrates. — Jesus on  the Mount. — John in
  Patmos. — Swedenborg's Intercourse with the Spiritual
   World. — Sensational  Philosophy   Unsound. — Locke's
  Essay. — Condillac. —  Original Suggestion.— How Knowl-
  edge is communicated. — Propagation of mental States. —
  Mesmeric State how produced.

    THE WORD influx signifies an inflowing, and is
      applied to  all that in us which is not self-origin-
ated, but derived.  The  doctrine of  influx is  closely
related to that  of mental spheres, discussed in the
previous chapter.
   It is a  fundamental truth, that  there is one only
Life, from which all in heaven and  earth receive their 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
77
being, but each in a different degree.  But life in its
last analysis is love.   All the phenomena of our inte-
rior nature are referable to affection and thought, or
to will  and understanding.  The  movements of  the
love and the intellect generate all  the various  states
of the mind.  But are  these self-moved, or  do they
act as they are acted upon by some living force applied
to them?  That  which constitutes  our essential life
is momentarily received  from its  central source, the
Divinity  within,  or descends  to  us through  the
mediation  of angels and  spirits, who receive it in
the same way.   The first is an immediate or direct
influence, and the latter a mediate influx.   There is
nothing that lives from  itself except the  uncreated
One, though we may appear  to ourselves to  posses?
an independent  existence,  because the influx from
above is continual and uninterrupted.  The idea oi
the  unity of life in  all the multifarious  forms of
existence, is a basic verity, and its recognition,  not
as a theory  or an external dogma,  but  as a vital,
conscious truth,  is  essential  to a genuine spiritual
state.   The  more fully we come to realize it,  the
more receptive  we  are  of an influent wisdom  and
love.  It is also to be borne in mind, that the inflow-
ing life from God is the  same in all, but is varied ac-
cording to the state of man and the form or quality 
78
THE MENTAL-CURE.
of the recipient spirit, just as a fluid receives its form
frsm the containing  vessel, and light is modified  by
the substance through which it is transmitted.
  All thought, and consequently all knowledge, des-
cend to us from above.  Paul declares, " that we are
not able of ourselves to think any thing  as  of our-
selves."  (2 Cor. iii.  5.)  And  a greater than  he
affirms, that   " A man can take nothing to him-
self  except it be given him from above." (Jno. iii.
17.)   Our ideas  must originate  somewhere.  They
were not born in us,  but only the faculty to  contain
them, and the power  to be conscious of them.  The
doctrine of innate ideas has long since been exploded.
Since  Locke  assailed it with a keen and  irresistible
logic,  it has  been banished from  mental science,
though he was not equally successful in settling the
question of the real origin of our knowledge.  As our
thoughts are  not  innate, there was a time when we
had them not.  Hence they  must have been imparted
to us.   Truth is the reality of things, it is a substance,
a spiritual something, that can be imparted from one
mind to another, just  as really as a fluid can be made
to pass from one vessel to another on a lower level, or,
to employ a closer analogy, as light can emanate from
one body to another.   It is  a thing, a substance, di-
vinely  real.   God is truth, and all truth is originally 
THE MENTAL-CURE.              79
in and from him.  But whenee does it usually come to
us?   Swedenborg, whom I quote not as an  author-
ity, but as an illuminated  mind, whose opinions are
worthy of respect and  attention, asserts that it flows
in from our living connection with the spiritual realm.
No individual is an isolated existence, but the whole
universe  of created minds  are bound up in the same
bundle of life.  The Swedish philosopher observes,
" It is in consequence  of this communication that a
man  enjoys the faculty of  perception, and the power
of thinking analytically on all  subjects; and if this
connection were sundered, he would be incapable of
any more or other kind of  thought than a beast, and
also if this commerce with spirits should be  taken
away from him, or intercepted entirely, he would in-
stantly die." ( T. C. R. 475.)   For no  one can live
by himself  alone, nor could  he have  affection and
thought, for these are the vital activities of the mind.
All our  ideas, according to him, flow in from above.
There cannot be in us the least excitement of thought,
without  this influent  vital force from the spiritual
realm.   It logically follows from this that all  truth,
all knowledge, all light in  us  is an inspiration, and to
receive light and love  by the  commerce of our spirits
with  the heavens above, is the normal state of the
human mind.  And what is called modern spiritual- 
$0
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
ism is only an instinctive reaction of the general mind
against the  unnatural  condition it has been in for
centuries.   According to Paul, the Old Testament
Scriptures were given through  the mediation of an-
gels.   Many of the greatest and  best  minds of the
world's history lived in communication with the inner
spheres.  Socrates had his demon or good spirit who
attended him and  admonished him by impression.
He respectfully listened to the interior voice.  Jesus,
on the  mount  of  transfiguration, communed  with
Moses and Elijah.  If  this had  been contrary to the
divine  order of our being,  would he  have set  the
world so bad  an example? To his  pure spirit the
heavens were continually  opened, and  his  receptive
soul was held open toward them.  By communication
with an  angelic  human  spirit, John  received  the
Apocalypse.   If such communication is necessarily
wrong  in us, it was in him, and we ought to purge the
Scriptures of the  offensive  document.   Swedenborg
for twenty-six years walked  and talked with spirits
and angels,  and, as he affirmed, in a way perfectly
harmonious with the laws of the mind, and without a
miracle.  It was only a return to the primitive order
of our being.  And why may not a disciple of his phi-
losophy do the same ?  Why may not all, if they come
to the knowledge of those mental laws that govern iu 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
81
this case ? It cannot for a moment be admitted  that
he obtained a monopoly of this high and holy com-
merce  with the  skies.   He may have had a  distinct
use to accomplish in the plan of Providence.   But the
opening of his inner senses was no miracle.  In  the
progress of the  spiritual development of mankind, it
may become  common.   But we are aware of the evil
effects  of  attempting  to enjoy an open  intercourse
with the other world, unless we are normally unfolded
to a degree which shall render it natural.
   It was for many years a favorite theory that  our
knowledge is to be attributed in its origin to the ac-
tion of the senses.   But there must be  interior sight
before  there  can be outward vision.  The senses are
all correspondences, that is they are effects, of which
something in our spiritual nature is the cause.   And
the  action of that superior or interior  power in the
mind,  to which  each of the bodily senses corresponds,
or of  which it  is the outward expression,  must bo
anterior to the action of the sense, for the reason that
a cause is prior to an  effect.   A man  may look to-
 wards a tree, yet if the attention is not  directed to it,
he sees it not.  And how many sounds are  unheard
 when  we are asleep or in ? revery, yet the atmosphe-
 ric vibrations are  received by the ear.  In the sensa-
 tional philosophy of the seventeenth century, it  was 
82
THE MENTAL-CURE.
asserted that all our ideas have their origin in the ac-
tion of the bodily senses.  The celebrated treatise of
Locke (Essay on the Human  Understanding) was
written as a defense of this theory.   It was advocated
in Fiance by Condillac, and became the current doc-
trine of mental science in  Europe.  The prevailing
systems,  at  the present time, attribute only our first
knowledge  to  this source.   But there is a class  of
ideas  that  are supposed  to arise from what  is called
"original suggestion," which, unless our knowledge
is self-created, is  only  another  name  for  intuition.
And this is identical with spiritual  influx. All knowl-
edge is from above and cometh down from the Father
of lights, and  from lesser luminaries enlightened by
him, and reflecting to us the effulgence they receive.
" With him (and them)  are hid all the treasures  of
wisdom and knowledge."   Truth  is not to be class-
ed among created things.  Creation can only be pred-
icated of the forms receptive of  it.  The senses  may
be like the  steel that brings the spark from the flint,
but the fire was there  before the  steel brought it out.
The latter did  not create it.  It only came to mani-
festation through its agency.  So  the  senses do not
originate knowledge, but only mark that degree  of
the mind, which is the first theatre of its manifesta-
tion.  But  its  source is not there. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
83
  Let us suppose a case that lies within the range of
possibility and sometimes of actual fact.  A child is
born whose  outward  senses have never been  called
into action.   In its  birth, its natural life becomes
extinct.  The candle is quenched in its lighting. It
never saw, or heard, or felt, or tasted.   What is to be
the condition of such a mind, for no one would  affirm
that it was  a  soulless  thing ?   Must it  become an
eternal blank ?  Must it remain a created receptacle
doomed to be an eternal vacuity and emptiness? Ac
cording to the  current doctrine, such must be its fate,
or annihilation.  If our  knowledge originates with
the action of the bodily senses,  as  these were  nevei
called  into activity, the mind of such a child must
remain empty of all ideas or be exterminated.   Such
is the  necessary inference from  the'premises.   If we
are shocked at such a conclusion, it is because  of the
absurdity and falsity of the doctrine with  which  we
start.  That thought is self-originated, is an infinite
falsity.   The losing sight of  God and  of our vital re-
lation to the spititual world, has been  the  perpetual
fault of philosophy for ages.   If thought can origin-
ate  in us, why not life as well ?  If the material world
acting upon  our bodily senses, conveys to us the first
ray of knowledge, why may it not originate our life ?
Then outward  nature becomes to us God, and  we 
84
THE MENTAL-CURE.
plurige into  the  starless night of materialism.  The
bodily senses are only organized  matter.  How can
the motion of their fibres create thought ?  Is knowl-
edge a material emanation ?   Matter, in all its forms,
is  in itself dead and passive.  It acts only as it  is
acted upon.   It  moves only as  it is moved.   If the
motion of matter creates thought, it creates the  mind
that thinks, for thought is only a state of mind. The
material universe may then be supposed to be the crea-
tor of the Divine Mind, and God himself  becomes a
creature.  Here, by an easy descent, we fall into blank
atheism.   Thus  philosophy has walked about forages
with its disciples, on the brink  of a precipice.   By a
few short  logical steps they plunge into the  abyss of
a  cheerless  infidelity.  And this descent to Avernus
has been found by many too easy.
   We have spoken of knowledge received by influx,
as an emanation from one mind to another.   But we
have done so only in  the  same w?.y as the chemist
speaks of  light and heat as radiant forces, as if parti-
cles of a luminous fluid darted  off into space.  This
theory is abandoned, and  light is proved to be only a
vibration.   In its  essence it is motion, force.   One
body illuminates another by communicating its mo-
tion to it, and not by pouring into it a luminous fluid.
So one mind imparts its  knowledge  and affectional 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
85
states to another, by causing it to vibrate in harmony
with  it.  The mind is like a  divinely constructed
stringed instrument.  An angel's intellect  may com-
municate its motion to its harp strings, and  a celestial
music is the result.   Thought and affection are  not
something that go forth from the mind that thinks
and feels. They are states, interior movements of the
thinking, feeling substance.   And as one vibrating
string,  will  communicate its motion to another in
tune with it, so one mind imparts its  intellectual life
to another.   The mind is capable  of all knowledge,
when it is subjected to the action of divine and ce-
lestial  forces, j-ust as a musical instrument, properly
constructed, is capable of producing the most raptur-
ous sounds, when the hand of a skillful player imparts
to it the necessary motion.
  In  harmony with this law  of the action of mind
upon mind, we all knowT how readily our mental states
are imparted to others.  A state of fear in some  one
individual, will spread through a whole army in a  few
minutes of time.  One sad person in a company, will
throw a gloom over the entire  assembly.  One cheer-
ful  happy soul  will communicate its  spiritual  sun-
shine to hundreds.   The presence of a genial, loving
heart, is a treasure to a whole community.  A sour,
morose,  misanthropic mind,  in a social  assembly, 
86
THE MENTAL-CURE.
changes the joyful  music of  all hearts  to  a  funeral
dirge.  One ruling mind will convert all in its pres-
ence to its own modes of thought and feeling.  What
is called  the mesmeric state, is  produced by  the ac-
tion of the  same law, only the  effect is intensified.
What are called the magnetic passes are not neces-
sary to its production.  We have thrown many per-
sons into  this  state, some of them miles  away, but
never once made use of the prescribed passes.   It is
the action of mind on mind.   In the same way, those
who revel in the light of a higher day, and  the beams
of a brighter  sun, may impart  to  us their sublimer
thoughts, and their happier affections.  Revelation
from the  inner realm has never ceased, but will be
endlessly  progressive.   The  heavens  will   always
speak to man  on earth.   For it is the established or-
der  of creation,  that life and  light should  descend
from the  higher to the lower, from the  interior to
the  external,  from the inner to the outer circles of
existence. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.               87
                 CHAPTER  X.

THE  RELATION  OF  SOUL  AND  BODY,  AND  OF
  THE  MATERIAL TO THE  SPIRITUAL REALM.

Three Theories respecting the Connection of the Body and the
  Spirit. — Aristotle. — Cartesian Doctrine. — Leibnitz. —
  Man a Microcosm. — The Body an Effect.— The Face and
  our inward Feelings. — The States of the Mind  affect the
  Body. — Fear and Asthma. — Disease originates in abnor-
  mal Mental States. — Chemical Preparations inadequate to
  a Cure. — Quotation from Dr.  Taylor. — Mind the organ-
  izing Force.—Relation of the Visible to the Invisible World.
  — Where is the Spiritual Realm f — Material things inclose
  a Spiritual Essence. — Pneumatopathy or Mental Hygiene.

    THERE  HAVE been three theories respecting the
      relation  of our  outward organism to the inte-
rior spiritual principle.  Two of these recognize in
their  connection the relation of cause and effect, but
differ as to  which  is the one or the  other, which is
prior  and which  is posterior.  The first theory is that
of  physical  influx, or that  matter influences mind.
This  was  taught  by  Aristotle, and  the sensualistic
schools of  philosophy in  all subsequent  ages.   By 
88
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 some, mind has been viewed as the result of a sub-
 limation of matter.  This first theory has appearance
 in  its  favor—an   evidence  always  unreliable and
 often deceptive.
   The  seeond  is, that  matter is influenced and gov-
 erned by spirit, and derives all  its  life from it.   All
 its changes, forms, and phenomena,  are effects  of
 which something spiritual is the cause.   This  idea
 pervades the Cartesian philosophy, and was adopted
 by Swedenborg.
   The  third is that of  pre-established harmony, or
 that neither acts upon the other, but both were made
 to act in concert.    This theory was advocated by
 the celebrated  Leibnitz.   We are not aware that it
 is seriously advocated  by  any  one  at present, and
 may be  left without further notice.   It only  belongs
 to the history of human opinions.   In the other two
 doctrines, we choose between theism and atheism.  If
 there be a God, creation has gone forth from him.
 But God is a Spirit.  Consequently the material uni-
 verse owes its origin and  its  continued existence and
 control,  to  an all-pervading divine force, distinct from
matter,  as  a cause from  an  effect.   But man  is a
microcosm, a world in himself, and his body sustains
the same relation to the soul that the outward  uni-
 verse does to God.  The body without the spirit is 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
89
dead.  Consequently it has no life of its own and in
itself.  Its vital force is derived from the  all-pervad-
ing spirit.  It is  an effect of  which the soul is the
cause.   As some  one has said, " The active plastic
principle  is the soul—the true man,  of  which the
body is but the external expression and instrument."
It is not merely  the outward envelope of  the in-
terior  man, but is  pervaded by it,  as light is dif-
fused through  a  crystal vase  of  water.   Hence it
becomes transparent to all  the  states of the  soul.
Every emotion expresses itself in  the face.   In a
countenance  that has not been taught to dissemble,
all the varying affections and emotions of the mind
are there  visibly  displayed.   Every change  in  our
feelings, produces  a correspondent  arrangement of
the  moving  fibres  of the face.   Here is a visible
effect resulting from a spiritual  cause.   But every
part of the body corresponds to something in the mind
—the hands, the feet, the hair, the brain, the stomach,
the  lungs,  the heart, and  all the  internal organs.
These have no vital action  except as they receive it
by influx from the indwelling soul.   And every organ
in our bodily structure, is only the outward manifes-
tation of a correspondent part and  function of our
spiritual  nature.   Consequently our  mental  states
affect the  condition and action of the various organs 
90
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
—in fact, are the body's health or malady.   They
first influence the intermediate principle, denominated
the spiritual body, then the brain and nerves, and
then the  various organs.   Every abnormal mental
state ultimates itself in a correspondent bodily condi-
tion.  Let us illustrate this  by  the effect of fear or a
sudden fright.  It immediately  quickens, and at  the
same time weakens, the action of the heart.  Its reg-
ular contraction  and  dilatation  are  changed to a
spasmodic flutter.  A  nervous thrill  is  felt  in  the
epigastric region or pit of  the  stomach.  This is in
tho diaphragm, which  loses its  contractility, and  be-
comes relaxed, so that the respiration is impeded and
oppressed.  The blood  retreats from the  surface  in-
ward, and from the extremities  upward.  Such  are
its immediate effects.   If the mental state producing
this order of things should become permanent, in the
form of anxiety, the  corresponding bodily condition
will be chronic.   And a common disease, called asth-
ma, is the result.   But fear  will no  more really affect
the body than any other disorderly mental state. Mel-
ancholy, envy, jealousy, anger, disappointed affection,
produce each its speci6c effect.  All diseases originate
in some abnormal states of the mind, some disturbance
or loss of harmony in the inner man, and  are but the
ultimation, or passing outward to the region of visi- 
♦
                THE MENTAL-CURE.              9l

ble effects in the material organism, of those disorder-
ed mental  conditions.   To ascertain  the nature and
cause of the disturbed  state of mind  underlying the
physical troubles of a patient, is of greater importance
than an examination of the pulse or the tongue.   If
the action of the heart, the diaphragm,  the  lungs, or
the liver, is not healthy, we desire to know what is the
cause of their disordered physiological manifestations.
It is of no avail to apply chemical preparations to a
cause that chemistry cannot reach.   It is of  no use
to administer stimulants and tonics, when the patient
needs only encouragement and sympathy.   Why give
opium and narcotic drugs, when it is only the excited
mind that needs to be quieted, and there needs to be
" plucked  from the heart a rooted sorrow ?"   Why
give physic to a man who only needs instruction and
ideas?  Says Dr. Taylor, "Diseases are perpetuated, if
not  produced,  by  causes over  which mere  chemical
influences cannot  be presumed  to exercise any posi-
tive   control.   This  fact may  be, often is,  tacitly
acknowledged  by  the  physician, but he declines  to
investigate its relations, so as to be able to turn them
to a useful account.  He is unwilling to acknowledge
in practice, although  he  may  admit confidentially,
that the headache, the nervousness, the heart disease,
the dyspeptic qualms which he is called upon to rem- 
92               THE MENTAL-CURE.

edy, are  only indications of a peculiar morbid state of
the mind or of the emotional nature of the sufferer, which
it becomes him to meet directly,  rather than to tor-
ment his patient with an eternal round of palliatives.
In these  cases,  every medical prescription must be
totally irrelevant (though written  in the best Latin),
unless  it recognizes  the  operation of causes existing
in a sphere quite  beyond  the  reach of  the most
potent drug."
  He  further observes, " The jests that used  to be
hurled at the defenceless head of the practitioner who
dared to suggest that the thoughts, and feelings, and
mental habits of the invalid might need rectifying as
well as his bile and blood, are fast losing their point.
We are  all beginning to suspect  that  perhaps, after
all, a disease may not be the less a disease because its
source happens to lie in an  unruly imagination, or in
excessive activity, or wrong modes of thought. And
gradnally—very slowly  to be sure—yet really, we
think  people are waking up to the conviction that
these  intangible causes are not irremediable.  They
are beginning to see and understand that by this close
union  and cooperation of the material and immate-
rial natures, remedial agents may  possibly find access
to either or both these avenues that otherwise could
have no  existence.   We have  faith to believe that 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.              93
the time is near at hand when the mental aspects and
relations of disease will receive  an  amount of atten-
tion equal  to that which  has always been given to
the pulse and the tongue, the temperature of the skin,
and color  and  consistence of  the   excretions."
( Movement Cure, p. 388, 389.)
   The body is an organization of material substances,
by which we mean the arrangement of its particles
so as  to form organs  or instruments adapted to use.
But unless the  particles are self-moved,  which no
one but a disciple of Epicurus would argue, the mind
must be the organizing force.  The body is only the
evolution of the mind, and the means of its external
manifestation.   The whole  material universe is  the
ultimation of the  spiritual world.   The spiritual
realm is the  animus mundi,  the  soul of  the outward
visible creation, and the latter exists from the former.
   If  you ask where we locate the spirit-world ? we
answer, it is where our spirits are. for our inner  na-
ture belongs to it and is a part of  it.   The spiritual
world  is the interior realm, and it  is not separated
from this by spatial distance, but it is as near to this
as our souls are to our bodies.   It is in the center of
the universe and in  its circumference; it is in  the
Milky Way,  and the fixed stars,  and it is here and
now.   The kingdom of heaven is within.   Jesus pro- 
91
THE MENTAL-CURE.
claimed the great truth that it was at hand, so near as
to be within  our grasp.   Spiritual substance is  the
soul of  things, and  the angel-world is  interfused
within this. But things become real, substantial, and
living, in proportion as they are interior.  We  may
gain  some idea of this  by observing that all  sub-
stances that can be perceived  by the  senses, have
other substances more subtle  within them.   Thus
all  solids contain water in their interstices or pores,
even those  that seem the dryest.  Suppose the globe
we inhabit  to be a solid sphere.  It contains  within
and around it water.   It is enveloped with aqueous
vapor, that surrounds and penetrates it.  This is dis-
tinct from the solid contents, but is contained  within
them and around them, and we may conceive it to be
a world by  itself abstracted from the solid earth.   In
fact, nearly three-fourths  of  this  earthy  system  is
water.  And it was taught by Thales  more than two
thousand years ago, that the earth was  formed from
the water.   There may be truth in this.    But water
contains within it  and around it, air enough to sup-
port the life of fishes, whose gills serve them for lungs
where their blood is oxygenated.  The atmosphere ex-
tends upward to the  distance of forty-five miles and
more.   It penetrates the ocean, and may  be viewed as
a  world or sphere, interior to the earthy solids and 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
95
the aqueous element.   But the atmosphere has three
degrees.  Within and around the air is the ether, whose
vibrations,  according to  Euler, produce  light, and
the various  phenomena  of  electricity.  The  ether
contains within it the aura,which is not cognizable by
the senses.   This  may  be identical  with or analo-
gous  to  the  odylic  force discovered by  the Baron
Reichenbach.  It  may  be the  same  as  the animal
spirits of the older physiologists,  the nervous fluid,
the medium through  which  mind  acts  upon matter,
as the will upon muscular fibre.  It constitutes the
boundary line between  the natural and the spiritual
world.  Next to this, but discrete  or distinct from it,
is the spiritual world in its lowest or outermost de-
gree.   Thus in thought we may proceed through the
three  heavens, each within the other, until  we come to
the sun of the spiritual world, which is the first sub-
stance, and the sphere immediately or proximately sur-
rounding the Lord, the central life.  We may conceive
of creation as going forth from him in successive waves,
and the various degrees may be represented to the eye
by so many concentric circles.   He is the living cen-
tre. Around this is what  is called  the sun of heaven.
Further  outward   is  the   celestial   heaven,  then
the   spiritual heaven, then  the  ultimate or lowest
heaven, then the world of spirits or the intermediate 
96
TnE MENTAL-CURE'.
realm,  and  then the  natural world  in its various
degrees.   This is the outside circumference of being,
where the creative wave terminates. It is the furthest
removed from the vital center, not by distance of space,
but in the degrees of life.   It being the  furthest from
the central life, is what we mean by the term ultimate.
The word means the furthest and sometimes the last.
Creation  in its successive degrees has rolled off in dis-
tinct waves of being, like concentric circles,  or rather
spheres within spheres, and here  it terminates.  This
world is the furthest and  last, and is the  basis, the
continent, and the firmament, of  the other degrees.
  But is  it possible for us to comprehend how  natu-
ral substance is the  ultimation of spiritual substance ?
There  are things analogous to  it, which may throw
some  light upon it,  yet they are only remote analo-
gies.   Every visible object, or  every  thing  cogniza-
ble to  the senses, is composed  of invisible  particles
or atoms.   These by themselves are  so minute that
none of our senses  are affected by them.   It  is by
their combination that they become visible and tan-
gible.  Thus what  we call a material object, that is,
one that  is cognizable to the  sight  or   touch, is
composed of a substance that cannot  be detected by
the senses.  A muscular fibre is composed  of  thou-
sands of  fibrils bound together, and each fibril  of 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
97
others still more minute, and these of primary atoms.
Water  is  composed of  two  gases,  hydrogen  and
oxygen.    The  diamond  is  solidified  or crystaliz-
ed carbonic acid gas.  Thus the  diamond  may be
called the  ultimation of  that gas.   All  vegetable
structures  and  tissues are combinations  of  various
gases, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, with
a small  amount of earthy salts.  These gases may,
and  probably do,  owe  their  origin to  more  subtile
substances, and these to others, and  they  to spiritual
substance, which is discrete  from them, but may be
ultimated in the form we call matter.
   There is in  every material object a spiritual es-
sence, which is  as  a soul in  its body.  The external
form which is manifest to our senses, is  the  corres-
pondent and representation of that invisible and pneu-
matical substance.
   To the everywhere-present spiritual world we sus-
tain a vital relation.  All the involuntary functions of
the body, as  the action of the heart and the lungs,
are carried on  by a force received  thence by influx,
though  the action  of all the  organs may be  affected
by the influence of our own minds and wills.
   If the ideas we  have  unfolded in  this chapter  aro
sound, and we  think they cannot be  succesfully con-
troverted,  they constitute a  new  mode  of  medical 
98
THE MENTAL-CURE.
treatment, and may form the basis of a succesful prac-
tice of the healing art.  It is a law, on the operation
of which we may rely, that where a diseased condi-
tion of the body is caused by a disordered and morbid
state of the spiritual life, if we can induce upon our-
selves, either directly or through the medium of oth-
ers, the opposite modes of thought and feeling  as  a
permanent mental state, it will cure the disease. Hun-
dreds of facts could be given to prove the uniformity
of the action of this law.  All that is necessary is the
power intuitively to detect the morbid state of the
mind  underlying the disease, and how to convert the
patient to a more healthful inner life.  All disease is,
in its cause, an insanity, using the term in its radical
or etymological sense, rather than in its common ac-
ceptation.  Its secret spring is some abnormality, un-
soundness  of the mind, some departure  from  that
most happy of all earthly conditions, expressed in the
terse line of Juvenal, sana mens in sano corpore, a sound
mind  in a sound body.  And we think the time is not
far  distant, when  this fundamental truth will be  more
fully recognized and conformed  to  by all medical
practitioners.  The  therapeutic  systems  that ac-
knowledge the influence of the mind upon the body,
are the most succesful in the cure of disease, as  those
of  Hahnemann, Ling, and the practitioners of  what
is called magnetism. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
99
                CHAPTER XI.

  CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BRAIN AND THE
                       MIND.

The Brain the Organ of the external Manifestations  of the
  Mind. — Its extension into the Body. — Its two Substances
  and  their  Correspondence. — The  Positive  and Negative
  Forces. — The Brain first formed in the Fetus. — Pleuralily
  of its Organs. — Sympathetic Connection of  the  Bodily
  Organs  with it. — The three  Brains. — Their  Relation to
  the Degrees of the  Mind. — Their independent Action.—
  The Cerebrum and its Correspondence. — The  Cerebellum.
  — Sleep- Waking. — Mental Exaltation. — Freedom from
  the bodily Senses. —The Medulla Oblongata. — State of the
  Mind and Body in the Trance.— Scientific View of Death.

    THE BRAIN is the  immediate  organ of the spirit
      of  man, or is  a  mediate  substance  through
which  the  mind acts  upon  and into the rest of the
body, and through which mind is externally manifest-
ed in this lower stage of our being.   It corresponds
or answers to the  mind, as  an echo  to the original
sound.   Its sensitive fibres  respond to every change
in the inner life.   It is the veil  drawn over the inte- 
100
THE MENTAL-CURE.
rior man, tremulous and wavy to all its motions. But
the brain  is extended through the whole body, by
means of myriads of white cords or rays proceeding
from the cerebro-spinal center, and interfused through
all the living textures.  So the soul-principle is co-
extensive with it, and  is everywhere  in the  organic
structure.
  All the manifold forms of mental  life  and action
may be  arranged into two grand divisions, and  are
activities either of the love or intellect.   In all  the
endless variety of human character and condition, one
or the other of these two departments is uppermost,
and rules.   What  we call  the  mind is  the union of
these two into a harmonious unity. The  one is posi-
tive and the other negative, for polarity is a universal
property of things.  We have everywhere action  and
reaction in the outward world, answering to love  and
intellect in the realm of  spirit.   All the phenom-
ena of nature  are  generated by two  distinct forces.
A large proportion of mineral or earthy  compounds
are formed by the union of a positive alkali and a nega-
tive  acid,  whose combination  produces  the eftdless
variety of the salts of chemistry.   In the body we
have  the  mucous  and serous membranes, with their
positive and negative secretions, the harmonious rela-
tion ol  which  is necessary to its  healthy functional 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
101
action.   So in the  composition of the cerebral mass,
there are two distinct substances, for the brain is the
echo  of the mind.   There  is a greyish,  cineritious,
or ash-colored  substance, and a white  medullary or
fibrous substance.  The ash of the former exhibits an
alkaline reaction; that of the latter is acid.  The one
is positive; the other negative.  The cineritious por-
tion is relatively external,  and has been  called the
cortical substance,  because  it is as  the bark or rind
of the other.  The  fibrous portion is below it.  The
first has been  pronounced by some the correspondent
of the will  or love.   It is arranged into clusters like
grapes, and the fibres radiate from them as beams of
light from  a luminous  center.  The nerves extend-
ing  from the brain and spinal column, are only  fas-
cicles or  bundles of these two  kinds of cerebral sub-
stance, inclosed in a sheath  called  the neurilemma.
The lower  part of  the brain corresponds to the in-
tellect, and is  the  medium through which  it acts
upon the body.  The brain is first formed in the body
of the fetus, and the rest of  the organism  is  an out-
growth from it.  The life of man is first in the brain,
and derivatively through the  nervous system, in the
rest  of the body.  The brain is the  connecting link
which unites the inner man to the  outer.  As  the
mind consists of a pleurality of faculties combined 
102
THE MENTAL-CURE.
into a harmonious unity, so there is  a correspondent
pleurality of organs in the brain, as was demonstrated
by Dr Call.  For distinct functions require  different
instruments for their performance.   But as all  pleu-
rality  proceeds from a fundamental unity, or from
one as its root, so this does not destroy the  unity of
either the soul or the body.  The most perfect one-
ness is that which is made by the combination of  the
greatest number of various and harmonious parts,
The doctrine of a pleurality of organs in the brain, and
a knowledge of their special functions in the mani-
festations of the mind,  is  the  science of Phrenolo-
gy—a branch of human  knowledge yet in its infancy
and  formative stage.   There  are many  discoveries
not made by Dr. Gall, in relation to the sympathetic
connection of the various  organs of the  body with
particular parts  of  the  brain,  whence they  receive
their  vital stimulus, which  are of great importance
in the system of Mental Hygiene.
   The whole body is  connected with  the brain.   By
means of the grand  systems of ganglionic and sympa-
thetic nerves, every organ is united to every other, as
by a sort of spiritual  telegraph, and the whole with
the mind.  This explains a  mystery.  It is known
from experience,  and  comes  under the cognition  of
consciousness, that  particular mental  states or facul- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
103
ties act into and affect certain organs of  the body.
It was given the most remarkable man of modern
history, " to know this from much experience."   The
influx of certain feelings, which was first into the appro-
priate parts of the brain, was seen to affect the organs
of the body that were in sympathetic connection  with
those portions of the cerebral structure.   Those parts
are like the key  of the telegraph.  Place your finger
upon them, and your influence sends a message which
is at once recorded  in the distant organ. Your mind
in that way acts upon that part of the cerebrum, and
the bodily organ, through the telegraphic nerves, res-
ponds with a vibratory motion in harmony with your
own men-tal  force.   We have  a thousand  times  in
this way affected sensibly to the consciousness of the
patient  the functional activity  of any  part of the
body.  But to do this, requires a  knowledge  of the
anatomical structure not given the  student  in his
usual course of medical study.   The heart, the lungs,
the diaphragm,  the  stomach, the liver,  the  kidneys,
and the intestinal canal, are all bound by sympathy
with  certain parts  of the brain,  and  the  faculties
of the mind to which those parts correspond.  Thus
we are  prepared to see  more clearly still, the truth
of a statement  previously made, that the states  of
the mind are  ultimated, or recorded, in correspond* 
104
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
ing  bodily  conditions, and are the  body's health
or malady.
   The mind is not only to be divided into the two
distinct departments  of the love and the intellect,
but there  are three degrees or planes of mental  life,
like the three stories of a palace, or, more correctly,
like  three concentric  circles or  spheres, each within
the other.   The doctrine of the degrees of the mind
is. imaged in the cerebral system.   There are in real-
ity three  brains.  We have first the  cerebrum, the
large brain, composed of the two kinds of substance
of which we have spoken.  Then we have the cerebel-
lum or little brain, about one eighth part of  the  for-
mer  in size,  and containing both kinds of  cerebral
substance; but what  is peculiar, the cineritious  por-
tion  is internal, and  the fibrous external.   Though
smaller in size, it has far more  vitality.   For these
three  brains are  like  the mysterious books of the
Sybil—as they decrease in quantity, they increase in
value.   Next we have the primitive brain, the medul-
la oblongata.   It is that which is first  formed in the
fetus, and the other portions of the cerebral system
proceed from it in order.  It would weigh but  little
more than the Koinoor, the mountain of light, the
celebrated diamond of queen Victoria, but is far more
valuable.  To  one  whose  inner vision  is  unveiled, 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             105
there dart from it  in every direction millions of rays
of a pure  light into every part of the system.  It is
much smaller than  the  cerebellum, but  a myriad
times more sensitive and vital.   These three distinct
brains, as  we have reason to believe, are correspond-
ences and organs of the three degrees  of the mind.
Either may act by itself, or our mental activity,  our
memory and consciousness, and perceptivity, may  use
either  as  its organ.    In our normal state, and  our
waking hours, we use the cerebrum  as  the  instru-
ment of our thoughts and volitions.  This in sleep
becomes quiescent, as we have had occasion to notice
in cases of fracture of  the skull, where a portion of
the cranium has been removed.  Its pulsations cease,
and all is still as the  tomb.   Its vital  force  has re-
treated backward  and downward  to the cerebellum.
On the dividing line between  sleeping and waking,
the mysterious dream-land, the mental  powers  become
greatly exalted and quickened, so that  the  experi-
ences  and perceptions of hours, and even weeks  and
months,  are crowded  into  moments.   The mind
 breaks loose from its material thraldom,  the limita-
 tions of time, place, and sense,  and asserts  its innate
 freedom.   It sees without the  external eye, and to
 distances almost unlimited.  It perceives distant ob-
 jects,  persons and things, something  as  we  see the 
106
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
image  of  an absent friend in the mind, only with
more objective  clearness, and  they do not appear to
be in the mind, but external  to it, like  the  scenery
around us in our  every-day life.   There are those
who can  enter this state at will.   It  has become, in
fact, their normal condition.  We have experimented
much with it, putting it to severe tests,  a thousand
miles away, and have found it as reliable as our ordi-
nary vision.   The  power of thus suspending  the ac-
tion of the cerebrum, possessed by  a scientific person,
is of great value in the diagnosis of disease.   It is a
condition of the highest  wakefulness, though physi-
ologically it  is a state of  sleep, and has been  denom-
inated  somnambulism.   It  may  exist  when the
external senses are not oblivious to the  objects sur-
rounding  us.   It  is a waking up from their usually
dormant state  of the  undevoloped powers of  our in-
ner life.   Like the apocalyptic  angel, it breaks the
seals of the  closed book of nature, and unrolls the
parchment on  which are written characters that our
usual vision  cannot read, and  the  wonders of an  in-
ner world pass in   panoramic review.   The  veil  of
sense,  ordinarily opaque, becomes transparent, and
through it the interior man looks out  upon the uni-
verse.  It is  a state of illustration, or interior illumin-
ation, which may be permanent, normal,  and attend- 
TUE  MENTAL-CURE.              107
ed with no loss of consciousness as to our  external
surroundings.  It is governed by fixed laws, which
may be the subject of  education, but is none the less
a gift of God for this.    Blessed is the man to whom
it has  been  given, and  who consecrates it, with all
his activities, to the good of universal being.
  In the trance, both the cerebrum  and cerebellum
are quiescent (when it is with  the individual subject
an abnormal state), and their vital force has passed to
the  primitive brain, the medulla oblongata.  The mind
is  awakened to the most intense degree of activity
and  power of  which it is susceptible, in the  present
stage of our existence.   Usually, but not necessarily,
there is a loss of consciousness  of the outward  world.
The pulse sometimes becomes  nearly or quite imper-
ceptible.  The movement of the lungs is  tacit, and
the  spiritual body  only breathes.  But these are not
necessary concomitants of this  interior  state, for all
the degrees of the mind  may be consciously active at
the same time.  Persons may be developed normally
into this  almost angelic range of the soul's  powers
and  activities.  In this  degree of the inner  life the
heavens are opened, the  separating veil is rent if not
removed, the curtain is rolled up, the invisible appears
in sight, and the soul is transported in its vision to the
perception of  the  solid and  enduring realities of a 
108
THE MENTAL-CDRE.
world veiled in darkness to our common sight.   In
this degree of  the unfoldment of the soul's life, man
possesses in a degree the properties and powers of a
spirit, and may act upon others as our guardian angels do,
and seems to be a messenger from another world, to
demonstrate to mortals the  reality of its existence.
Hidden  imponderable  forces, to a  certain  extent,
come under  his control, and he may appear to a sen-
suous world  as a Thaumaturgus,  or wonder-worker,
and like  a partially developed Messiah, he heals  all
manner of sickness and  disease among the  people.
Such a mind has blossomed into angelic proportions.
   The next step beyond, is  what men have called
death.   In every step and degree of progress towards
it, the mental powers become more and more exalted,
and their range of  action extended.   Viewed in this
scientific light, death is seen to be only  transition to
a higher life.  It cannot be a punishment for our sins,
but a necessary step and normal process in human
development.  Having finished the  work committed
to our hands,  and accomplished our  appointed use
here in the  plan of  Providence,  when  our  friends
shall call us dead, we shall have only languished into
life. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
109
                CHAPTER XII.

THE HEART  AND LUNGS, AND  THEIR RELATION
         TO THE LOVE AND INTELLECT.

Two Universals  of  the Mind. — Answering  Organs  of  the
  Body. — The  Extension  of the Heart into  the System. —
  The Veins and Arteries. — The Heart corresponds to  the
  affectional Nature.—Proof. — Influence of  our Emotional
  States upon its Action. — And upon Secretion and  Nutri-
  tion. — Subtle Element of the Blood.  — The Diffusion of the
  Pulmonary Substance. — The Lungs  derived from the Heart.
  — They Answer  to the Intellect. — Effect of the States of
  Thought upon Respiration. — Relation of the Respiration
  to Voluntary  Motion.—To the Sensibility of the Nerves.—
  Influence of Anaesthetic Agents. — How the Mind can in-
  crease or diminish vital  Action. — Sympathetic Movement
  of the Heart and Lungs.— How to  regulate the Action of
  the Heart. — How to change our Emotions. — Influence
  of our Mental States upon  the vital Functions. — True
  Method of Study in Natural science. — The New  Age. —
  Immanence of the Spiritual  World.

     EVERY  THING that can be predicated of  the
      mind has relation either to the love or the  in-
tellect.   The  reasons on which this classification of
the  mental  powers rests, have been given in a pre- 
110
THE MENTAL-CURE.
vious chapter.   The will and the love are identical
and it  is an interesting fact that the two words are
from the same root.  Their radical sense is the same.
The  love and the intellect are the two universals of
the mind, by which we mean something that enters
into the whole and every part of a subject or thing.
Since these are the universal and everywhere-present
principles and elements of our inner organism, and
since the body has correspondence with the mind, and
is only the external or ultimate expression  of it, we
should reasonably expect to find  in it the echo of our
spiritual structure in two universal organs.   Such in
fact are the heart and the lungs.  An advanced state
of anatomical science, the result of  more accurate
microscopio and chemical investigation, we doubt not,
will show that these two organs are in the whole and
every part of the body.  Though located primarily in
the thorax, by derivation and ramification  they are
present in the whole organism. Such is demonstrably
true  of the heart.  The minutest veins and arteries
which permeate every part of the system, all proceed
from it and maintain an unbroken connection with it.
They are continuations of it, and interpenetrate even
the bones, so that the point of the finest needle can-
not enter the flesh without  coming in contact with
fibers and tubes proceeding from this central organ, 
                THE MENTAL-CURE.              HI

and by means of which it maintains an omnipresence
in the  body.  Its action must affect  the condition of
every part.
   The heart corresponds or answers to the affectional
nature of man.  This is recognized in all languages,
and  unconsciously confessed  by all  men.    It is an
intuitive truth.  Everywhere  we  speak of  a man  of
a kind heart,  of a friendly heart, or a  warm heart.
A lack of benevolence and  sympathy is denominated
hard-l.eartedness.   It is a fact also well known  that
the various affections, desires, emotions and passions,
which  are  only forms or states of  the love,  affect
the systolic  and diastolic action  of  the heart, or its
contraction and dilatation.   This is discernible in the
pulsations of  the  arteries and veins, whose motions
are synchronous with the parent  organ from  which
they proceed.   Fear,  anxiety,  anger, grief, melan-
choly, joy, contentment, hope, and all the  affections,
are responded to by the motions of the heart.  There
is no truth of  science capable  of a more satisfactory
demonstration than this.  But as  the blood contains
the elements  of nutrition,  and supplies  the means
of growth and the  particles necessary to repair the
waste  of the various  tissues, so  that they can be
maintained in their integrity,  whatever  affects its ac-
tion must  modify these  physiological  processes. 
112
THE MENTAL-CURE.
The blood contains a subtile vitalizing  element and
stimulus that chemistry is not  adequate to  detect.
It is only the unveiled eye of independent  clairvoy-
ance that can perceive it, yet it is as necessary to the
healthy functional action of  every organ as sunlight
to a flower.  Without it  the organs droop and die,
like plants  smitten  with  an autumnal frost.   It is
the due supply of this subtle element, the soul-prin-
ciple of  the blood, something like the  animal spirits
of the old physiologists, that occasions  the healthy
glow of  warmth in an organ, far more than  what we
call the blood.  Its absence in the feet occasions their
coldness, even where they are crowded  with  blood.
Its accumulation is the hidden cause of inflammations
and congestions.  No organ can  perform its functions
without a due supply and  harmonious distribution of
it, any more than the  body can move  without  the
spirit.  It is  the blood of the spiritual body, answer-
ing the same purpose and accomplishing an  analo-
gous use in the interior form, that the blood  does in
the outward  man.   We  do not call  this principle
electricity, or magnetism, only for the want of a
better  name.  It is  certainly governed  by  different
laws.   It is  the  living aura  of  the  blood, and  may
be identical with the odyle discovered by Reichenbach.
But bv  whatever name we call it,  the states  of the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
113
mind immediately affect it, and mediately through it
the rest of the body.
  As the heart is everywhere present in the body by
its radiation into the venous and arterial systems, so
the same is true of the lungs, though in  the  present
state of anatomical science it is not so clearly discern-
ible.  The heart is first formed in  the fetus, and  the
lungs are  an  outgrowth from it.   The  six millions
of  blood-cells   are  only the  terminations  of  the
branches of the pulmonary  veins  and arteries  pro-
ceeding from  the heart.   The air-cells, so  numerous
as to contain  a surface of one hundred and  forty
square feet, when taken  together,  flow together into
the bronchial tubes, and these unite to  form  the
trachea.   But they are all formed  from  the pericar-
dium, the membrane investing  aud  interpenetrating
the heart, and which surrounds and lines every  vein
and artery.   The heart and lungs, thus connected in
their origin, sympathize in their actions.   The more
rapid the respiration, the faster beats the heart, and
vice versa.
  As the  one corresponds to the love, so  the  other
responds to the action of the intellectual  nature. We
are assured  by our  consciousness that our thoughts
influence  the  movement of the  lungs.   We may be
as certain of this as of our own existence.   The more 
114
THE MENTAL-CURE.
interiorly and intently we think, the less we breathe.
When our thoughts are involuntary and passive, our
respiration is involuntary and tacit.  In certain states
of mental abstraction, the breathing is almost or quite
imperceptible, as in the trance.  When our thoughts
are concentrated upon some vigorous muscular  mo-
tion, as striking or lifting, we  instinctively precede
the effort with a deep inspiration, which is a hint of
great practical importance.   As every state of the
affections influences the movements of the cardiac
system, so every condition of the intellect  affects the
action  of the lungs.   These are primary vital motions
in the  organism, whence, by derivation, all other mo-
tions exist,  the  involuntary from the heart, and the
voluntary from the lungs.  As  involuntary movements
are attended with no fatigue, or  loss of nervous force,
as the heart is  never tired; so our respiration, when
not the result of our volitions, never wearies us, how-
ever long and incessantly it is continued.   But  vol-
untary and artificial breathing is the most exhausting
movement we are  capable of  making.  To rest our-
selves, is to  cease from the latter, and to subside into
the former.   An entire cessation of the contractions
of  the  muscular  tissue of the  heart, suspends the
movements of the involuntary  vital organs, but a sus-
pension of respiration, so that  the breathing becomes 
"»
                THE MENTAL-CURE.              115

tacit, only takes away  the power of voluntary muscu-
lar motion, and many  persons can  do it for hours, as
the Fakirs of India.   It is attended with great intel-
lectual elevation.  In  proportion as the breathing is
diminished or suspended, the body becomes insensible
to pain.  Surgical  operations, in this state, would be
less  painful,  in  fact this suspended respiration and
consequent insensibility, is what is  affected by chloro-
form.   There have been  persons  who  could  induce
upon themselves this state without the use of any an-
aesthetic agent.  To direct  the attention to a part,
increases its vital action, and its sensitiveness.  To
abstract the mind from it, deprives it  of feeling in
proportion to the degree of mental absent-mindedness.
To keep our thoughts from an  inflamed and painful
organ, is antiphlogistic, or  cooling.   The vital  ac-
tion is  lowered.  To  direct the mind and will to a
negative part, as cold  feet, a paralytic limb, or where-
ever there  is a lack of vital force, infuses life into  it.
Thus the mind contains in  itself,  when its  spiritual
forces are intelligently directed  to a given aim, more
potential virtues than can be found in a drug shop.
Et can take away or add to the  vital action of any or-
gan, and what more do the advocates of drug  medi-
cation profess to do, from  their heroic practice, which
borders  on man-slaughter, to  the  homeopathic and 
 116             THE  MENTAL-CURE.

 infinitesimal doses, that are next to nothing, if not
 an absolute nihility.  But all these results in Mental
 Hygiene, are  accomplished by the mind through its
 influence upon the action of the heart and lungs.
   A careful  study  of the  connection between the
 heart and  the lungs,  their  relations to each other,
 their reciprocal  influence, and their correspondence
 with the two general departments of the mind, would
 be fruitful in  results.  The  heart  is a muscle  whose
 contractions and relaxations are not subject directly to
 our control. The action of the lungs is both voluntary
 and involuntary, as they are supplied with both kinds
 of nerves.   Wrhen we  control ■ their movement, they
 receive  the necessary  stimulus from  the  cerebrum,
 which is the organ of our voluntary life. When their
 movements are passive, the nerve-force comes through
 the  cerebellum, the  organ  of our  involuntary life.
 Harmonizing  with this action of the pulmonary sys-
 tem, there  is active and passive thought.  Our affec-
 tions and emotions are not directly under the control
 of our volitions.   We cannot love or hate, be joyful
 or sad,  at  the nod of the will.  We have  emotions
and feelings at times,  from which we would gladly
be delivered, and there are other affectional states we
would fain  possess, but they will not come at our call.
The  affections may be  indirectly  influenced by  the 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.            117
intellect. So the action of the heart may be changed
through the lungs.  There is a sympathetic influence
of the one upon the other.  The heart and lungs do
not  contract and  expand synchronously, but  in the
ratio of three to one,  or the movement of the heart
may be represented by a measure in music composed
of three notes, while that of the lungs is a measure
containing  one  long  note.  But this  does  not  des-
troy the harmony  of the rhythm.   As there is a sym-
pathetic connection between the motions of the two
organs, and as the lungs obey the behest of the will
we are  furnished with the means of indirectly affect-
ing  the action of  the heart.  If the heart beats too
quickly  and feebly, we  have only to breathe more
slowly and  deeply, and the heart will adjust its sys-
tolic and diastolic movements in harmony with the
respiration, so as to preserve the ratio of three to one.
If the pulsations of the cardiac system are too slow,
then breathe faster, and the heart will conform to the
action of the lungs.  They are  like two horses har-
nessed together to draw the chariot of life,  but only
one of  them obeys the rein, yet they feel an impulse
to act in harmony.   If  one starts ahead, the other
 soon fol-lows.  The reins are attached to only one.
 If you wish to  change the  movements of the  other,
 you must  do it  through the one connected  with 
118
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
your hand.   So if we wish to change our emotions and
feelings, we can do it through the intellect.   Change
the direction of our thoughts, and the affections will fol-
low.   How to induce upon ourselves any desired men-
tal state, will be the subject of consideration hereafter.
  In what  has  been said  in  the brief limits of this
chapter we may see more clearly the influence of the
states of the mind over the vital functions and pro-
cesses of the body.   Any system of  medical practice
that  does not recognize this great truth, is fundamen-
tally and radically defective.   Physiology and anato-
my must be unsatisfactory and superficial, while they
ignore the spiritual organism of man. The true meth-
od of study in Natural  Science is to investigate the
phenomena of the outer world in relation to the inner
realm, of matter in its connection with spirit.  When
we rise to the perception of things in their causes, we
can then understand effects.   We believe without a
doubt, and  affirm without hesitation, that there has
been introduced among men a new and better method
of philosophizing, of greater value to the world than
the Organum of Bacon.  It is destined to revolution-
ize the sciences, and lead to a reconstruction of their
systems.  The science of the  correspondence between
the material and the spiritual departments of nature,
stretches in an endless and ever-widening perspective 
THE MENTAL-CURE.              119
into the dim distance of futurity, which is closed to
all but prophetic  intuitions.  We live in  a transi-
tional era.   Old things are passing away, and a New
Age has  come to  the  birth.  But  we now perceive
only the  first feeble rays of  the opening morn, which
ihoot into  the  solid darkness of the past, that  still
settles heavily down upon the mind of the race.  The
chilling fogs will gradually  lift, and show the willing
feet of coming  generations the way to mountain sum-
mits.  The spiritual world is drawing nearer and mix-
ing itself with human  affairs.  The heavens are open-
ing and  their living light is falling upon the sightless
eyeballs  of our hitherto blind guides.   The  door of
the upper realm of being stands ajar,  and the uncreat-
ed light, in  which angelic mind  delights to bathe, is
leaking  through.   It  is a knowledge  of spiritual
things that illustrates nature.  When we understand
the soul of  things, we shall be prepared to compre-
hend more of its outward manifestations. Already has
the angel-world  given us the thread of Ariadne, to
conduct philosophy out of its labyrinth.    A  new
spiritual science  has been born  in  a  manger,  but,
thanks be to  God, cannot  be led to the cross  by a
pharisaic  church  or learned  bigots.  The infant in
his swaddling-cloth has in him a  germ of Divinity,
 and the  feeble pulsations of an immortal life. 
120              THE MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER  XIII.

 CORRESPONDENCE OF THE STOMACH AND THE
                      MIND.

The Office of the Stomach. — The Digestive Process. — What
  answers to it in the Mental Economy f — Therapeutic In-
  fluence of new Ideas. — Mental Medicine.—Two Stomachs.
  — Dual Nature of Memory. — Common Forms of Speech
  recogn izmg the Relation of the Stomach to the Memory. —
  Mental and  Bodily Growth. — Mental  Vigor necessary to
  Digestion. — Perpetual Spiritual  Adolescence. — What is
  Old Age f  — How  to be always Young. — Diseases which
  are attended  with a Loss of the Power of Attention  and
  Memory.

  II VERY PART of the body  has correspondence
  J   with the spiritual nature  of  man, and is the
ultimate expression  of some  mental faculty, from
which it exists and derives its stimulus, or the force
that enables  it to accomplish  its appropriate use in
the animal economy.  The stomach performs an im-
portant function in  the vital machinery, answering
to certain  mental  powers  and processes.  In it, the
food we eat undergoes a chemical change to fit it to be 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
121
appropriated by the various organs, and its nutritive
elements to be assimilated into  the  several tissues.
When it performs its functions faithfully, the body is
kept in a healthful condition, and the proper balance
is maintained.   When in an abnormal state, it affects
every  other organ, and the body becomes  unfitted
for the uses of the  mind.   The process of digestion,
or  the reduction  of  the food to a substance contain-
ing the elements  of the blood, is a triple one.  The
aliment  is first received by the  mouth, where it is
masticated  and mixed  with the secretion  from the
salivary  glands, which seems to be a preparatory pro-
cess  without  which digestion is  imperfect.   The
saliva is slightly alkaline, and  has  the  power of
changing the  amylaceous or starchy elements of the
food  into grape  sugar,  and sugar  into lactic acid.
This is the commencement of  the digestive process.
By the  act of  deglutition or  swallowing, it then
passes into the first  stomach, where it is agitated by
a  vermicular movement of the organ and is subjected
to the action of  a peculiar solvent called the gastric
juice.  Here it is reduced  to a uniform pulpy mass
denominated  chyme.   It  then  passes  through the
pyloric orifice on the right side  into the duodenum
or second  stomach.  Here the  contents of the gall
cist are  emptied  into it, and also the pancreatic juico 
122
THE MENTAL-CURE.
which contains some important vital or  nerve stimu-
lus.  It is now  reduced to a milky  substance  called
chyle, which only awaits the change effected in it by
the lungs to transform it into arterial blood.  After
leaving the duodenum, it enters the intestinal canal,
some  twenty feet in  length, which is  lined by the
mesenteric glands that drink it up and it is conveyed
into the subclavian vein, whence it passes to the heart
and lungs.   It receives the influx of spiritual life by
the action  of the pulmonary organs.  If  these pro-
cesses have been complete, it becomes healthful blood,
from which every organ selects what it needs for  its
nutrition.   Such is a  brief account of "the  important
process of digestion, so needful to the  normal func-
tional activity of the various members  and organs of
the body.
   But we are to bear in mind that everything in  the
external organism  has correspondence with  and  a
vital relation to some part of the spiritual nature, on
which its existence  and power to  act depends.   " The
body without the spirit is dead."  All  its vital pro-
cesses have a mental origin.   The  stomach and its
use in the  animal economy have  a  spiritual  corres-
pondence and significance.   But what is there in  the
mental organism answering to it as cause to an ef-
fect ?  The memory performs an office in the interior 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
123
man analogous to that of the stomach in the outward
bodily structure.   It is the first receptacle  of  all
knowledges—a word we use in the plural  as well as
singular form, after the example of Lord Bacon.  It
is the  only entrance  into the  mind of truths from
without,  and  is as the  courtyard and portico of a
house.  Through it all those truths  which we receive
by  instruction and reading,  and which are our spirit-
ual food and drink, enter into the interior man, where
they are appropriated and serve to nourish the hidden
life.  Thus in its  spiritual  use  the memory answers
to the stomach.  The one  acts  on  a spiritual, and
the other on a material  plane.   Genuine truth is the
proper nutriment of the mind.   Sometimes the recep-
tion and  appropriation  of a new truth by a patient
excites his whole  being,  mental and  physical, to a
higher and healthier activity.   The addition of a few
new ideas have a  hygienic and  therapeutic influence
far beyond that of the most potent  drug.  The gate-
way over  the  entrance  to the famous Alexandrian
library bore the expressive inscription, " Medicine for
the  Mind."  "And  certainly  many books," remarks
Mr. Alger, deserve to be so characterized.  Many a
mind has  found  books  charged with sanative influ-
ences.  Their contents have proved a spell to release
the spirit  from the brood and harassment of its cares, 
124
THE MENTAL-CURE.
to allay its heat, lessen the throbbing  speed of its
emotions, cheer its  depression, counteract its  delu-
sions, distil blessed anodynes into its hurts, and feed
its exhausted energy with restoratives."   But  truths
received by influx from the spiritual realm, and from
angelic mind,  need  not, like those  from books and
tutors,  pass through a process of  mental digestion.
They enter at  once  into our life, like the  infusion
of a  healthy  arterial  blood from one  person into
another.
  We have noticed a fact generally overlooked, that
there are two  stomachs.  Answering to  this, there
are two memories, an external one that receives  and
retains simple facts or the record of things done, and
an internal one which  contains the registry of the
ends, motives, or loves from which  we act.  The one
is the  recollection, or  at least,  the record, of  truths
received, the other of the loves from which all thought
and external activity proceed.   The latter or interior
memory is the mysterious book of our life, for every
thing which a man ever  did, thought, spoke, or felt,
and all  that he has  heard and seen, is indelibly in-
scribed upon this imperishable tablet, and may become
perceptible  to  angelic intuitions.  For  every thing
proceeding from the love is a manifestation of the life
of man, and is  inscribed  upon his  inmost  being, and 
TnE  MENTAL-CURE.
125
must be as lasting as the life itself.   Thus our inward
history is  written in a book more  durable than  the
Ararat or the Andes.   Before a truth can nourish our
spiritual life, and minister to the growth of the mind,
it must not only be intellectually received, but  em-
braced by the affections.  This is as necessary as that
food should undergo the  second part of the digestive
process, before  it is fitted to be appropriated into the
organic structure.  The distinction of memory into
external and internal, is  not common in systems of
mental science, where its dual functions are generally
overlooked, but it is  based upon the nature of the
mind, and imaged and echoed in the bodily organism.
   The correspondence of the stomach and the mem-
ory is  recognized  unconsciously by certain forms of
speech  in common  use.   There lies hidden in  the
words  that men instinctively use much genuine phi-
losophy.  Many intuitive truths are seen here strug-
gling  for utterance and desiring recognition.   The
word digestion comes from  the Latin  dis and gero,
the supine of which is gestum, and  signifies  both to
distribute, to reduce to order, as a digest of statute or
common law, and also to dissolve.  And we are urged
sometimes to mark and inwardly digest certain truths,
as a homily or  discourse.  Truths  received  into the
external memory are digested when they are reduced 
126
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
to order, embraced by  the love, and appropriated by
the mind as principles of life.  Then they contribute
to the nourishment  and real growth of the mind,
just as healthful food, when dissolved in the  stomach
and fitted to be taken up by  the  lacteals, furnishes
the elements necessary to repair the waste of the tis-
sues and to supply the materials of growth.  And we
firmly believe that a  healthy mental nourishment and
consequent  progress, is essential   to  the  vigorous
functional activity of the digestive apparatus.   But
we are to avoid  overeating  and  cramming, in the
mind  as well as the  body.  Intervals must be given
between the introduction of  great truths to afford
time for rumination, which is a spiritual chewing the
cud.  One great and living verity  will afford nutri-
ment for a  week or a month sometimes.   If  there
be a real connection  between a healthy mental  prog-
ress   and a vigorous  digestion, it  may be asked,
why it is that literary men have weak stomachs ? The
shortest  way  to explain this, would be to deny the
fact.   When  it is  demonstrated to be a truth, we
will take the time to show the cause.   We challenge
the world to prove that  there is any  necessary con-
nection between  literary labor and dyspepsia.   One
thing we know, that  the period of life when the mem-
ory is usually the most active and  tenacious of  truth 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
127
is  that  of  youth.   Then  also  the  digestive organs
are the most vigorous.  And we have  had occasion
to observe many times in our dyspeptic  patients, that
there was a loss of power in the memory.  There was
tt the same time a mental and bodily indigestion,
and there  is here the relation of cause and effect,
but which is antecedent and which posterior we leave
every one  to  decide  for himself.  Youth is more  a
mental  state than a condition of the body.   Adoles-
cence, a term used  to denote this stage of human life,
(from the Latin verb adolesco, to grow), may be pred-
icated of the inner man  as well as of the  outward
form.   And youth is  really a state  of mental and
spiritual growth, resulting from  the desire  of know-
ing and becoming  wise,  and  lasts as long as that
progression  continues, and ever ultimates  itself in
the  bodily organism.   For a proper  exercise  and
vigor of the  mental powers is necessary to the most
healthful  state of  the outward man.    It is  only
when a state of spiritual  adolescence ceases, that
we  begin   to  grow old.    But the Creator  mani-
festly designed that the  youthful condition of  the
interior man should never end, in this  world or the
next.   It  is well known  that a tree never  ceases to
grow while its life  continues.   Every  new leaf and
twig it puts forth  furnishes  it with the  means of 
128
THE MENTAL-CURE.
future enlargement.  Thus the Washingtonia Gigan-
tea of California, though it  has continued for more
than twenty centuries, leaves the  record of its year-
ly growth in a new layer of  woody fiber added to its
circumference.   Thus  man  should  grow spiritually
by adding some new truth  every day to the sum of
his knowledge,  and applying it  to  the  practical
uses  and charities of life.  The first few years of our
existence is not the only time to do  this; but  every
age  is the appropriate  period for storing  the mind
with living verities.  However old we are, however
numerous are the days of the  years of our earthly
pilgrimage, we are only in the infancy and formative
stage of our being.   Our earth-life in its whole dura-
tion  is the seed-time.  The future harvests the germs
our hands have   sown.  Life  is  probationary,  and
always  will be so, that is,  our present state is the
chrysalis to be unfolded into our future condition.
Every subsequent state  will be born from the present,
and the morning of every new day will issue from the
womb of the preceding evening.  Thus through the
endless cycles of the eternal  future, life will be a suc-
cession of seed-time and harvest, sowing and reaping,
evening  and morning.    The coming  age, however
far off, has its roots  deep-set in the present.  Every
passing moment contains in  its bosom, if we but fully 
THE MENTAL-CURE.              129
understood its  influence  and import,  an  unerring
prophecy of what the next shall  be.  Perpetual prog-
ress is the law  and normal condition  of  all created
mind.   Without  this perpetual  development of our
mental  powers, there can  be no perfect health of
spirit or body.
  It is  proper to remark that memory is a general
property of the mind, and belongs to all the faculties,
intellectual and affectional.   Each cerebral organ or
instrument retains, and,  under certain conditions, re-
produces the impressions made upon it.   A loss of
this property of  our  spiritual organism,  indicates  a
want  of tone and vigor  in the mind.   And this  tor-
pidity of the mind enfeebles  the action of the organs
concerned in the digestive process.   And there can
be no healthful vigor of the mental powers, without
that  intellectual  progress which we have character-
ized  as perpetual youth.  The  confirmed dyspeptic
is prematurely  old, and  exhibits all  the  signs of se-
nility.  There is no hope for him, until his affectional
and intellectual nature is rejuvenated.  If they  can
be restored  to the normal youthful  state of the inner
man, and his "youth be renewed as the eagles," and
this not as a transient, momentary  mood, but a con-
firmed spiritual condition, we will warrant it to cure
the worst form of indigestion  with  all  its horrors. 
130             THE MENTAL-CURE.
And such a mental metamorphosis  can be effected
upon the patient in harmony with certain laws which
we hope to be  able to  unfold.   Persons  can be made
to feel young at the age of threescore years and ten.
For youth is an affectional and intellectual state that
ought to be perpetual.  It is our normal condition
in earth and heaven.
  In  the remarks made above,  it has been  stated
that there is a correspondence between the  stomach
and the memory, or a sympathetic  connection between
the digestive  organs  and  that  intellectual  faculty
The}T  mutually act and react upon each other.   But
memory depends, to a great extent,  upon the power
of directing the mind  to a fact or object, so as to gain
a distinct and full  perception of it.   It  has long ago
been observed  by physiologists, that all those diseases
which affect the digestive organs, are attended  with
a loss of the power of directing the mind steadily and
for any length of time in a particular direction, and
there  is consequently a weakened state of the memory.
This takes place in the earlier stages of all febrile dis-
eases.   It also occurs  in persons broken down by in-
temperance, and  in the first  approaches of old age.
It is observed  in a remarkable degree  in connection
with all disordered states of the stomach. This shows
the vital relation between the faculty of memory and 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
131
the stomach.   The latter receives from the former the
spiritual stimulus that is necessary to its vigorous and
healthy action.   And an  intelligent  application  of
the principles  of Mental Hygiene will  be found  a
far more efficient agency in the cure of  all forms of
dyspepsia,  than  the administration  of   drugs and
medicines. 
132
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER XIV.

  THE  REFLEX INFLUENCE OF  THE STOMACH
                 UPON THE  MIND.

Sensitiveness of the  Epigastric Nerves. — Seeress of Prevorst.
  — Reading with the Ptt of the Stomach. — The interior Es-
  sence of things. — Their Influence. — Psychometry.— Effect
  of Medicines held in the Hand. — Philosophy of Amulets.
  — Action of the hidden Properties of  things upon'the Re-
  ticular Membranes of the Stomach. — Effect of Food upon
  the Mind. — The  Philosophy of Dieting. — Mental Stimu-
  lus necessary to Digestion.— The Condition of the Stomach
  and our Feelings. — Action and Reaction. — The Law of
  Sympathy between us and  those in the interior Realms.—
  Effect of happy Frames of Mind upon the Epigastric Nerves.
  — Mental States  attending  Various  Conditions of the
  Stomach. — Hanger  and its Mental  Effects.— The  States
  of the Stomach and Crime. — Hygienic value of Cheerful-
  ness and other Affectional States.

    THE  STOMACH, in  consequence  of  its delicate
     net-work of nerves, supplied from  the ganglionic
system,  is one  of   the   most sensitive  and  easily
affected organs of the body.   It may with some show
of  propriety be  denominated  another  brain.   The 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
133
more a  person's  spiritual  nature is  developed,  the
more susceptible it  becomes  of impression from the
semi-spiritual  and  generally unrecognized  proper-
ties of things.  In  the Seeress of Prevorst, the phe-
nomena of  whose life have  been so  accurately  and
scientifically delineated by Dr.  Justinus Kerner, we
have a  striking  instance of the extreme sensitive-
ness of the  nerve-center in the  epigastric region,
and of the reticular membranes of the digestive or-
gans.   She  was able  to read  writing  when  laid
upon  the  pit  of  the  stomach.  In fact she averred
that she  made  no  use  of  her  brain,  but lived
wholly in  the  epigastric region.   And an  old philoso-
pher gravely  and seriously maintained, that the soul
was located in the pit of the stomach.  This is partly
true and  partly false.  The  mind is there, but it is
also in every part  of the body.  In the case  of the
seeress, it  is  undoubtedly true, that  the  cerebrum,
the organ of  our voluntary life, was quiescent.   But
the cerebellum, which affords the peculiar brain-stim-
ulus to all the involuntary vital processes and move-
ments, was  the organ of her  thoughts and feelings.
The nerves of  the stomach, in her  case, were ex-
tremely, and  perhaps morbidly acute and sensitive.
But it was only a larger degree of what really exists
in every human  body.   It was only the  intensity  of 
134
THE MENTAL-CURE.
this property of the  epigastric nerves that was pecu-
liar to her.
  Before speaking of the states  of  the stomach in
their influence upon the manifestations of the mind,
it will be well to observe, that in all material things
there  is a  spiritual  essence.  There is a sort of half
psychical principle in all the objects around us through
which mind acts upon them, and they react upon the
mind.   This interior principle is the  life of the out-
ward objects of nature, as is implied in the term essence
(from the Latin esse, to be), and  external  things are
only its manifestation  to the sensuous degree of the
mind.  In stones,  metals, plants, and  animal sub-
stances, there exist  many  subtle, but  important  and
influential  elements and forces, that elude the grasp
of our ordinary senses, and only become perceptible
to those whose minds are elevated above the sensuous
plane to a  more interior range of action.  These in-
visible forces act with greater power upon some than
others, owing to their peculiarly impressible organ-
ization.  But all human bodies are  like a delicately
constructed Eolian harp, moved  by the  lightest airs
that blow upon it: and our varying moods and frames
of mind, our shifting joys and sorrows, and often even
our volitions, are under the influence of powers to us
altogether imperceptible, but whose  subtle effects we 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
135
cannot escape.   Dr. J. R.  Buchanan made the dis-
covery in 1840, that certain persons possessed so acute
a sensibility to these invisible effluvia and influences,
that they were able to distinguish and name the dif-
ferent metals, and various  substances, as sugar, salt,
pepper, and acids, when inclosed in paper and brought
in contact with them.  Out of a class of one hundred
and thirty students at the  Eclectic Medical College
of Cincinnati, forty-three of thenr signed a statement,
that when various medicines were enveloped in paper,
so as  to  be  wholly unknown to  them, by holding
them, for a length of time,  in their hands, the peculiar
effects were produced upon them that would have fol-
lowed  their administration  in the ordinary way.
When an emetic was the subject of experiment, the
individual was able to avoid vomiting only  by remov-
ing the medicine.   There are those so sensitive that
even the sight of certain drugs affects them. It is on
this principle that amulets have been worn through
the whole history of mankind.   Their effects are not
purely imaginary, but upon susceptible persons vitally
real, though the  law that governs  their influence has
but recently been made  known to science.   There
are numerous individuals, who  would declare, under
oath if necessary, that a horse-chestnut carried in the
pocket, is a preventive of piles.   We know those who 
136
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
assert, that whenever they lose their precious amulet,
they experience a recurrence of their hemorrhoidal dif-
ficulties.  If this is a wild fancy, and only acts upon the
body by the faith of the patient in its potent virtues,
such a remedy is  a medicine not bad to take.  Fred-
erica Hauffe, the  Seeress of Prevorst, whose opened
interior perceptions detected  the hidden  subtle prop-
erties of various substances, and their influence upon
the mind and body, .often prescribed  the wearing of
different  things   as  amulets about the person.  She
made much use of laurel leaves, as  their  effects were
such as to open more fully her inner vision, and this
may account for  their nse in the  temples of Delphi
and of Esculapius.   She also found the hazel-nut tree,
which has long been used among the  people  for pur-
poses of divination, to  produce a  powerful magnetic
effect.   Here is an interesting field for  scientific in-
vestigation.   It is to be hoped that some one adapted
to such inquiries will enter the already opened door,
and take possession of  the long hidden  treasure.   If
any one will  carefully read  the work of the pious and
amiable physician  of Wei.isburg,  together with Den-
ton's ' Soul of Things,' he will gain some light upon
the relation  we sustain  to  external nature, and will
find in many mysterious frames of mind and states of
body, the conscious effects of unseen causes. 
- THE  MENTAL-CURE.
137
  The membranes of the stomach, so highly nervous
in their structure, are extremely susceptible to the in-
fluence of the hidden properties of things. Substances
coming in contact with  its reticular  membranes, af-
fect the mind immediately, and long before they have
been changed by the digestive  process.   Thus mor-
phine is no sooner swallowed, than  the  spiritual es-
sence it contains affects the  mind.  The  same is true
of tea,  coffee, alchohol, and all other narcotics, and
in fine, all  articles of food and drink.  The  eating
of some forbidden fruit by Eve, may be  a myth that
has some scientific meaning after all, and may have
had something  to  do  with her  backsliding and men-
tal   deterioration.    There  are substances,  which
through the stomach, or rather its nerves,  affect the
manifest-a-tion  of the amative, or combative,  or de-
structive propensities.   Some,  as rice, affect the re-
flective powers, others the powers of volition used in
muscular movements, others still are anti-spasmodic
in their effects.  It is said of wine that it  " maketk
glad the heart of man."   But its exhilarating effects
are more mental than physical, or rather,  it  affects
the body through  the mind.  There is no doubt that
the flesh of animals is pervaded to some extent  with
their peculiar spiritual properties.  The Ichthyophagi,
or fish-eaters, were sensual and stupid.   The modern 
138
THE MENTAL-CURE.
Esquimaux are widely different from the rice-eating
Hindoos.   Carnivorous human beings, as well as ani-
mals, are  unlike the  herbivorous and graminivorous
races.   It is our conviction that no one can attain to
a highly spiritual  state  who makes  much  use of a
flesh diet.  The state of the stomach, and what we
place within its sensitive cavity, are not a matter of
indifference.   And yet nothing but the most general
rules can be given as to the diet  of patients.  There are
idiosyncracies, or  peculiarities of mental and bodily
character, that must not be overlooked.  That diet
must be recommended which is  adapted to the pecul-
iarities of the case, and this can  properly be done only
by an intuitive  perception of what the person needs,
and of  the adaptedness of certain  things to meet
the special want.  The presence of food or  medicine
in the stomach excites or reacts upon the mind, and
before those substances can be  anything more than
a lifeless,  putrifying mass, it must receive the influx
of those mental states and be animated by them, and
be prepared to diffuse them  with the  circulation  of
the new particles  through the whole physiological
domain.   Fermentation is not  digestion.  The gas-
tric juice of the dead  subject in the dissecting-room
will digest nothing, because the influx of the spirit-
ual principle has ceased.  The living  mind has much 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
139
more to do with the mysterious chemistry  of diges-
tion, than is generally apprehended.   All  negative
and depressing  mental  states,  fear, grief,  anxiety,
melancholy, interfere with the healthful action of the
digestive organs, while persons of a prevailing mirth-
ful  disposition, are seldom  found  in the number of
dyspeptic patients.
  We sustain a living connection  with the spiritual
world, and  the  men and women  who  have gone to
inhabit it, and certain states of the stomach  render us
peculiarly receptive of influences from  that realm of
being.  They constitute a  plane  into  which influx
naturally descends, and a form or attitude of the out-
ward man that attracts the feelings of which tbey are
the physiological manifestation—a law we shall  more
fully  explain  hereafter.    Every  abnormal state of
mind,  by an invariable law  of  our being, constitutes
a bond of sympathetic and living connection  with
similarly  diseased mind in the interior  world.  A
stomach overloaded, and holding an indigested and
putrifying mass, affects the diaphragm by drawing
away from it its nervous force and thus destroying
its  contractility.  The diaphragm losing its convex-
ity, or falling  down, the lungs  are not emptied in
expiration, and  the chest feels oppressed and heavy
as  well as  the  mind.   But  this is a  physiological 
140              THE MENTAL-CURE.
expression of the sentiment of fear, of which anxiety
and melancholy are  modifications, and consequently
those  feelings flow into this receptive form and aggra-
vate the pathological state that already exists.   For
between the inner and outer man, there operates the
law of  action  and  reaction.  A distinguished  seer
and philosopher has said, "When  anxieties  occupy
the mind, the  region  about the stomach  is tightly
bound and sometimes pain is  perceived there, also
anxieties appear to arise thence; and  hence  also
when a man is no longer solicitous  about the future,
or when all things go well with him, so that he is no
longer afraid of any misfortune, the region  about the
stomach is  free and expanded, and he  experiences
delight."  A  happy  state of m-ind,  as every one
knows,  occasions a  pleasant thrill in  the  epigastric
nerves   Ask any man you meet, where he feels hap-
py, and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred he will
put his  hand over the region of the stomach, suppos-
ing perhaps that he is  putting it on his heart.   Ask
a child the same question, and he will  give the same
answer.  It is,  in fact,  the seat of our pleasant emo-
tions,  or the point  where, more than  in any other,
they ultimate   themselves in the body.  But unless
this region is kept in a  condition to  receive  the influx
of such  feelings,  it   becomes admissive only of the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             141
opposite, which arise  from beneath, like vapors from
the sulphurous waters of an extinct volcano.
  When the mucous surface of the digestive appara-
tus is inflamed and dry, it is attended with an irrita-
ble, impatient, excited, and hurried state of feeling.
This hurry of spirits, so common in most chronic dis-
eases, especially those of a nervous character, has its
seat in the brain in or near the organ of individuality.
And magnetism applied here  affects  the  stomach.
To induce upon ourselves  the opposite state of feel-
ing, as an habitual spiritual condition, will cure the
disease.   The cravings of hunger create a temporary
inflammation of the kind just  mentioned.  And every
one must have observed both in himself and others,
that when feeling the  demands of appetite, he  is
more impatient and irritable.   Animals of prey are
also more fierce when their stomachs are empty, and
they feel the pangs of hunger. It is not unreasonable
to suppose, that many crimes, especially those of vio-
lence and assault, which  constitute a large fraction
 of those before  our police courts, find  here their
 secret spring.   It is a disease of mind and body, and
 the unfortunate beings should  be sent to the hospi-
 tal, rather than to  prison, or rather,  our penitentiaries
 should be turned into hospitals for the souls of men.
 No dynasty in France could stand a week against the 
142
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
furious hunger of  the Parisian  masses.   This  the
reigning powers have  long known, learning the les-
son from Roman history, and have always aimed to
regulate the price of breadstuffs, so as to bring  the
necessaries of  life within the reach of all.  Inflamed
stomachs and violence in the social body go together.
Hunger, by the heat it occasions in the  mucous sur-
face, excites both combativeness and destructiveness—
a hint it would be  well for that  respectable,  imper-
sonal, and collective man we  call society, to heed.
A congested, heated sta-te of the mucous membrane
of the stomach, and impatience, irritability of temper,
an  instinctive  tendency to attack, and  to destroy,
and a headlong hurry  to do  something, no  matter
what, are  not accidental coincidences, but  are  cause
and effect. One is action and the other reaction, one
prior  and the other posterior.    There  is here  the
relation of cause and effect, but an effect  may become
in turn a reactionary cause.   He who adopts  the
principle  as an axiomatic truth,  that all causes  are
spiritual, will not hesitate in deciding which is prior
and which is a sequence.  Of one  thing we  may be
assured, that  the opposite state  of the affections,  one
of  calmness,  patience, loving  gentleness,  cheerful
contentment, and an innocent mirthfulness that leaves
no regret to cast a gloom over  its spiritual sunshine, 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
143
will avail more in the cure of this form of dyspepsia,
than  all the drugs, pills, powders, and potions, that
would be necessary to fill the gulf of Mexico.   We
have  seen  that all  diseased  conditions  connect us
with disordered and unhappy mind in the other world.
To cure disease is to "cast out devils" or to break our
sympathetic  consociation  with undeveloped  spirits.
But the demons that revel in the emanations of a
diseased stomach, like vultures in the odor of a dead
and decaying buffalo, will fly at the approach, or the
return to the patient, of the playful innocence of re-
stored childhood and youth.   He  who is so benevo-
lently happy, that he longs to share his bliss with the
whole realm of created mind, can put them  to  rout
like the sword of Michael in the battle of  the angels,
that  felled squadrons at  a blow.   An  undeveloped
 spirit will fly from the loving joyfulness  of the soul,
 like  a bird  of  night from the light  of  the  sun, or
 will quietly and harmlessly stay to warm himself in
 its heavenly radiance. 
144
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
               CHAPTER  XV.

EXCRETIONS OF  THE BODY AND THE MIND, AND
                 THEIR RELATION.

The  Excreting  Organs  and their  Use. — Their  irregular
  Action a fruitful  Source of  Disease. — Influence  of the
  Mind upon them. — The Lower Intestine and the Brain.—
  Influence of certain Mental States upon it. — Diseases of
  the Rectum and  their Mental Cause. — How  Cured. —
  Office of the Liver. — Chemical Nature of the Bile. — Sym-
  pathy between the Liver and  Kidneys---Its Connection
  with the Brain. — Correspondence with the Mind. — Influ-
  ence of Conscience upon the Hepatic  Functions. — State of
  the Mind  in  Duodenitis. — The Cure. — Melancholy  and
  the Liver. — Elimination of the effete Products of the Mind.
  — Mental  Influence upon the Renal Functions. — Diabetes.
  — The Connection of the Kidneys with the Brain.— Caus-
  ality. — Excretory Action of the Intellect. — Renewal of the
  Spirit. — Perpetual Progress.

    THERE  ARE  several organs whose  physiological
       use is to separate from the blood the worn out,
broken down, and devitalized particles, which can be
of no further use in the system, and whose continuance
there is  positively injurious to  the vital functions. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
145
If left to accumulate, the body becomes so far dead,
as those corpuscles  are no longer  capable of receiv-
ing and retaining the influx of  vital force from the
animating spirit.  Their connection and  correspond-
ence  with   the  soul-principle is already  sundered.
The  healthful state of the  general system requires
that they should be expelled from  it, and their place
snpplied by new particles.   A great  proportion  of
the  diseases,  for  which the medical  profession are
called upon to prescribe, can be traced, in their sec-
ondary  causes, to a want of  proper action in the ex-
cretory organs, whose duty it is  to throw off the effete
and poisonous matter.  A scrofulous diathesis or dis-
position, which  is  the  root  of  numerous acute  and
chronic ailments, is nothing but an imperfect action
of  the excreting organs, which  are five in number,—
the  liver,  the kidneys,  the  lungs, the  perspiratory
glands  of the skin, and  the  large intestine or colon.
If  any one or all these discharge their functions im-
perfectly, disease,  and  finally  death,  is  the result.
The dead and the living atoms cannot mingle in har-
monious fellowship.  One or the other must be pre-
dominant.   The devitalized  particles must be elimin-
ated before the  new and vital corpuscles can take
their place.  There are diseased conditions where the
accumulation of effete matter  gradually  increases, 
146
THE MENTAL-CURE.
and  a person dies,  atom after atom, until all vital
action ceases.
  It is to  be  remembered that every physiological
process is but a correspondence or effect of some psy-
chological action. The latter is prior, and the former
is an established sequence.  And if that mental state
which sustains a causal relation to the healthy tone
of the excreting organs can be discovered, and is ca-
pable  of being induced upon a patient, it  will be of
more value in  the  healing art than all the  drugs and
patent nostrums in the universe. Can we discern the
connection of the spirit's movements with these or-
gans ? It is well known that grief induces an inflamed
condition of the intestinal canal.  A  fit of weeping is
followed by thirst, which is only the system calling
for water to quench the inward fire.   A constipated
condition of the bowels is a universal accompaniment
of insanity and of most  melancholic patients,  while
an over-excitement  of the intellectual   powers pro-
duces the opposite pathological result.   Some of  the
most vigorous thinkers whom we have  known were
invariably attacked with diarrhea after a  lecture or
sermon.  These phenomena are sufficient to establish
a sympathetic connection  between the  states of the
mind and the  physiological action of the lower intes-
tine.   A despairing habit of mind, and  a tendency 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
147
to forebode  evil,  will generate a weakened action of
the bowels, while the opposite mental state will give
to them a healthful vigor  and tone.  The bowels re-
ceive their cerebral stimulus from a part of the brain
situated between  hope and veneration.  And in con-
stipation, when long continued, we have often observ-
ed a congested and inflamed  state of this portion of
the brain.  An abnormal  or  inverted action of hope
is communicated to the part of the cerebrum adjacent
to it, from which the bowels derive their power  to
act.   By magnetic manipulations of this point of the
brain, removing the unnatural heat, and  stimulating
the.organ of hope to a boundless  faith in the "good
time coming," and thus  infusing a healthy mental
stimulus into the  bowels,  will produce all the good
effects,  with none of the  evil reactive results, of ca-
thartic medicines.  Such drugs, through the spiritual
essence they contain, act upon the mind and this part
of the brain.  A very moderate dose of rhubarb will
sometimes lift the mountain of  despair temporarily
from the most gloomy patient. But this can be done
more effectually and permanently by a psychological
influence intelligently applied.  All diseases having
a mental origin, require spiritual remedies.
   There  are certain  affections and painful  derange-
ments of the rectum, that  indicate  the  connection 
148
THE MENTAL-CURE.
between certain abnormal conditions of the body and
their accompanying disordered mental action.  Among
these are hemorrhoids, sometimes  ultimating  in an
ulcerous condition of the rectum.   We have had oc
casion to observe many times, that this  troublesome
and painful affection is attended with great irritability
of temper and impatience, and there is always in this
disease a tendency to that spiritual  state.   Let us
see if we can trace any necessary connection between
such a mental state  and  the disease under considera-
tion.   Is there here  the relation of cause and effect ?
In this disease there is always an abnormal state of
the liver.   Impatience,  irritability,  and fretfulness
exhibit a morbid excitability of what is called  com-
bativeness.  Now the liver receives its nerve-stimulua
from a part of the brain between combativeness and
caution.   There  is often  a severe pain here in the
headache occasioned by a derangement of the hepatic
functions.  The excited state of the so-called  organ
of combativeness  robs  the  point of  the cerebrum,
with which the liver is in sympathetica! connection,
of its vital force.  W7hen  the patient is irritable or
fretful,  opposed to  everything, and  contented with
nothing, the organ in the brain, through which these
feelings are manifested, draws into itself the nerve-
life from the adjacent parts of the brain that supply 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
149
the peculiar force necessary to the healthy action of
the liver.   Thus our pettishness and  peevishness rob
the liver  of its vital power, and  this occasions our
hemorrhoidal troubles.
  To cure this painful complaint, the patient's atten-
tion should be directed to the  spiritual cause.  The
root of the  trouble should  be shown him, and  he
should induce upon himself the opposite mental state.
If one would be his own physician, and cure  himself,
let him lay aside all nostrums—which only aggravate
the trouble in  their final results—and attend to his
feelings.    The cause being removed, the effect  will
cease.  If he has not sufficient  mental control to do
this, he should permit  the magnetic or psychological
healer to induce upon him a calm, gentle, and patient
frame, and to convert  his soul to a meek  and quiet
spirit.
  The office of the hepatic  apparatus is to separate
from the blood a certain portion of the waste, worn out
particles,  which are collected into the gall-cist, from
which they are emptied into the contents of the duode-
num or second stomach.  All  that can be worked over
into healthy blood passes with the chyle into the gen-
eral circulation.  The remainder is  ejected from the
system with the excrementitious matter of the rectum.
The bile is alkaline in its chemical nature, while the 
150
THE MENTAL-CDRE.
urinary  secretion contains an  acid principle.  As
there is  an affinity between an acid and  an alkali, so
there is a sympathetic connection  between the  liver
and kidneys, and both are usually diseased together.
The careful student of human nature will  not fail to
observe,  that the organs are connected in pairs in the
discharge of their functions.   We have already spo-
ken of  the heart and lungs, and  shown the  dual
nature of the brain.  The liver and kidneys act in
concert.   The same  is true of the spleen and pancreas.
As the mind is composed of the two distinct depart-
ments of the love, or affectional nature, and the intel-
lect, so  the organs of  the body receive the influx of
spiritual  life from the one or the other.    The  liver
corresponds to  the  emotions  or  feelings, and the
kidneys are influenced  indirectly by these or through
the intellectual principle.   As every affection  has its
correspondent or harmonious mode of thinking or in-
tellection, so the action of the liver is attended  with
an answering or  echoing movement of the kidneys. If
the one is torpid, the other is inactive.   The mental
states that  influence the  one, act upon the other.
This concordant  movement of the two organs deserves
to be noted, as it is certain that every morbid spirit-
ual  state that occasions  a deranged action of the
hepatic functions will indirectly affect the  renal action. 
THE MENTAL-CCRE.
151
As an evidence that the states of the mind affect the
chemical action of the excreting organs, we have the
demonstrated fact, that  the effete products separated
from the blood by the kidneys vary in character with
the amount of cerebral action.  Excessive activity of
the mind is uniformly accompanied  by the excretion
of an unusual  quantity of the alkaline  phosphates.
All abnormal nervous excitement produces the same
effect, rapidly using  up the  element of phosphoric
acid in the brain.   Every one must  have noticed the
 ' peculiar odor of the insane," implying certain mor-
bid products in the  perspiration, and  showing  the
influence of  unsound mental conditions upon the ac-
tion  of  the  perspiratory glands.   No  organ can,
in a  healthy manner,  perform its appointed  use  in
the human body,  unless it is  preceded by an equally
normal  state of the  part  of  our mental nature to
which  it belongs and  of which  it  is the  external
manifestation.   The office of the  excretory organs
is to throw off  the worn  out material,  preparatory
to the introduction of new particles, so that the body
is actually renewed  many times during our earthly
existence.  But the  mind  should  also be  renewed.
The idea of spiritual  renovation is no modern  dis-
covery.  Paul even speaks of  the inward man being
renewed day by  day, and enjoins upon us the duty 
152            THE MENTAL-CURE.
of putting  off the old man, or our worn out states,
and  of being  renewed  in  the spirit  of  our minds,
or our affectional  nature and its emotions.  There
are faculties of the mind whose office is excretory.
It is the office of what  men call conscience to give
us an instinctive  perception  of what is good and
evil,  and to  influence us to receive the  one and reject
the other.   By good we mean that  which affords  us
delight, and by evil that which is undelightful.  We
have nothing to do with that which bears these names
in the current  theologies.   Every healthy mind pos-
sesses in itself, and as a part of its organism, an intui-
tive perception of what is needed for  its happiness,
and an instinctive  repugnance to wdiat seems unde-
lightful.   Call it by what name  you will,—intuition,
perception, an internal dictate, or conscience,—in the
spiritual nature it  performs an office similar  to the
hepatic functions in the bodily organism.   It  rejects
what  it deems evil, and incites to what seems to us
our good.   That the correspondence of the  liver and
conscience is not imaginary, nor merely the expression
of analogy in  their action and use,  but is vitally and
sympathetically real, is made manifest from.this—that
in certain derangements of the liver we often witness
a similar abnormal state of the faculty of conscience.
It is  sometimes morbidly sensitive, at other times it 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
153
may be torpid and indifferent to good or evil.  Its or-
gan in the brain is also affected with inflammation and
congestion.   The unhappy patient suffers a constant
sense of  self-imposed  condemnation.  He i.nagines
that  the theological scare-crows, hung up  by the pul-
pit, are, in his case at least, living realities, that he is
the  most wicked of  men, has blasphemed the Holy
Ghost, committed the sin unto death, is obnoxious to
the wrath of God, and is guilty of all manner  of  im-
aginary  evil.  Such persons suffer  untold  misery,
6eeming  often to their friends as unnecessary, from
the diseased sensitiveness of  the conscience, and  are
overwhelmed with a sense of guilt, though the outward
life is not disorderly.  We have noticed  this state of
mind to underlie that worst form of dyspepsia  known
as duodenitis, which involves a too sensitive state of
the mucous  surface of the duodenum, and a derange-
ment of  the biliary  secretion.  And we  have  known
the whole disorder of body and mind to be removed, in
an exceedingly brief time, under a judicious magnetic
treatment.    Every  observing  physician  will have
frequent  opportunit}' of witnessing this state of body
and  mind, and  of testing the  correctness of the the-
ory.   And he will find that the shortest way to a cure
of the body, is by relieving the mind of  the  patient
irom this morbid action. The soul must be delivered 
154           THE MENTAL CURE.
from the "body of this death,'' before  any remedial
agents in the form of med cines will be of  any avail.
If this be done by his own psychological influence in
his  office, or at the  anxious seat by the prayers of
those who feel called  to save "immortal and never-
dying  souls," which is only the  influence of  happier
minds  upon  the sufferer, it matters not, if  it only be
well and effectually done.
  An habitually gloomy state of mind, and dejection
of spirits, which is, as  Callen observes, a partial in-
sanity, has  received  the  expressive  name  of melan-
choly,  from two  Greek words,  signifying  black  bile.
Such a state of mind  was  intuitively perceived to be
connected with a  diseased liver.   But what is melan-
c' o'y 1 ut a  clinging to old and  worn out enjoyments,
that now  belong to the  past?   The  melancholic
patient, instead of finding his happiness in the living
present, tries to feed  his hungry affections with the
memory of dead joys.  A state of mind that sees in
the divine arrangements of  the  present  moment, all
that is necessary to constitute  our highest  good, and
turns no longing  look to the past, nor anxious  ga.^e
into the  unknown future, is one that assures a  heal-
thy activity of the liver.   Old enjoyments  and  worn
out delights, that  have subserved their use, should be
cast off, to  make way for  new and more vital pleas- 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.             155
ures.  "Very often," remarks  a  writer in  the Chris-
tian Examiner, "the cause of mental disease is  an
abnormal adhesiveness of  certain states,  an involun-
tary pertinacious  retention  of  the  effete products
of the spirit.   Dreams, superstitions, imaginary con-
ceptions, differentiated and offcast acts, old emotions,
the   clogged-up perspirations  of  sentiment,—the
excrementitious stuff of  the mind—which should be
regularly  deported  by   the  active  excretories  of
thought and feeling, are  sometimes  unduly detained
in consciousness, producing anxiety, fastening  atten-
tion,  and  resulting in the most deadly  disturbances
of mental  equilibrium and health.  In  the  subjects
of  excessive melancholy, how often  old joys,  to be
known now no more, and which should  therefore  be
cheerfully dismissed, with sickly  persistence float back
over the memory in strains of elysian sadness to break
the heart!" It is  precisely this state  of the inner
man  and  the interior life, that lies at the bottom of
most  forms of  liver disease.   And the best medicine
for the patient is  some  new  and living enjoyments.
This  will operate as a specific upon the  biliary secre-
tion,  and  obviate the use  of all  mercurial prepara-
tions. Magnetize the patient into  the supreme bliss of
the present moment, so that he shall feel that he has
found the  summum bonum,  and need no longer to 
156
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
search for it among the decaying relics of the past,
and you have loosened, at once, the grasp of  the
disease.
  The corresponding state of the intellectual princi-
ple, the same ideas being retained in the thoughts,
the brooding  perpetually  over old troubles  and old
delights, occasions a diseased action  of  the kidneys.
In many nervous  derangements, as  they are falsely
called, there is a tendency to frequent urination, the
discharo-e  being  small  in quantity  sometimes and
highly colored, as if the kidneys  were trying to  do
the work  of the liver, but usually the discharge is
limpid as pure water.  This is occasioned by the per-
petual thinking of the  patients.  He sits for  hours
like a marble statue, his mind moving in the same
old channels of thought, and  his breathing  in these
morbid reveries almost imperceptible.  It is the office
of the lungs, as an  excreting organ, to eliminate the
worn  out hydrogen and  carbon of the blood.  It com
bines with the oxygen of the air  and forms the watery
vapor that  goes   forth with  the breath.  This in
twenty-four  hours  amounts  to  no  inconsiderable
quantity, if it could all  be condensed and preserved.
In the patient's state of perpetual thinking, the lungs
perform this office only  to a limited extent, and their
work is thrown upon the  kidneys.    Hence the  in- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
157
creased watery and  saccharine  excretion of  those
organs.  Sugar contains the elements of water, oxy-
gen  and  hydrogen, and also carbon,  combined  in
definite proportions.    This should  pass off from the
body  through the lungs, and not  through the kid-
neys.   To  change the  fixed  habit  of thinking, and
educate the respiration of the  patient, is the most effi-
cient  remedy  for diabetes and other kidney diseases,
which  are  confessedly difficult to manage by the
ordinary systems of medication.
  The  kidneys were supposed by the ancients  to  be
the seat of the intelligence. This arose from a vague
apprehension of  their  correspondence with the intel-
lectual principle.   The heart was thought to be the
seat of  the  affections, and the reins of the reason.
And it is an  interesting fact in this connection, that
the part of the brain  whence they receive their cere-
bral stimulus, is situated on each side of the organ of
causality.  In their diseased  condition, attended also
with  a  morbid state of the liver, there is often  felt
a  severe pain,  commencing here and  apparently
extending through to the opposite pole between com-
bativeness  and caution.   The kidneys correspond in
their  use in the  outer man, to the  judgment or rea-
son in the mental economy.   They  separate from the
blood  the  uric  acid, which  if  allowed to  remain 
158
THE MENTAL-CURE.
would poison and pollute the life of  the body.   This
acid is  an expressive  symbol  of devitalized  truths,
and truth  without  vitality  is  falsity.   Acids  are
usually  generated by certain putrefactive processes
and fermentations.  And the secretion of this waste
and worn out material  by the kidneys, and its  elimi-
nation from the  organism through the  bladder and
ureters, answers to the function of  the judgment or
the reason in the soul-principle.  The Greek word
which is usually translated by the English term judg-
ment, primarily signifies to  separate, and to reject.
The reason is that faculty of mind by which we  dis-
tinguish truth from falsity, a  living verity from a de-
vitalized notion, and separate the latter from the for-
mer, or  cast away the one to make room for the other.
There can be no perfect health of mind, nor genuine
spiritual growth,  without this excretory action of the
intellect.  Defunct ideas should be  laid aside, stereo
typed and fixed modes of thinking exchanged for new
methods of intellection. Monomania, a form of insan-
ity not uncommon, is  only the fixedness of an  idea,
the petrifaction of a thought, and a  calculus or stone
in the mental  bladder.  Old  and worn out dogmas,
when they have accomplished their use and lost their
life, should be rejected, that the intellect may become
receptive of new and  vital truths.   The dead past 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
159
should be decently buried, to make room for a future
and better generation of youthful and living verities.
If the excretory organs eject  from the system vital
particles, disease is the result.  The  new supply does
not balance the waste, and  the bodily tissues are di-
minished, and their substance impaired.  So we should
be careful lest we too hastily put away the truths  of
a former dispensation before they have lost their vi-
tality to us, and ceased to be of any further use, for
fear that spiritual  leanness and  mental emaciation
should result.  But  our greater danger is found  in
the reluctance with which we part with old and worn
out truth, and the pertinacious adherence of the mind
to its fixed modes of thought and feeling.  We cling
to them after  we are  conscious they are dead, and
mourn over their loss, like  Rachel  weeping for  her
children, and refusing to be comforted because they
are not.   Or we are too often like Rizpah, the daugh-
ter of Aiah, who took  the  bodies of her seven sons,
slain in the beginning of  the  barley-harvest, and,
spreading  sackcloth  upon  the  rock, seated  herself
upon it, and guarded them day and  night, lest the
birds of the air, or the beasts of the  field, should con-
sume them.  Thus we cleave to  the defunct and de-
caying truths of a past age and bygone era of human
development, until their  putrid  exhalations corrupt 
160              THE MENTAL-CURE.
the spiritual air we breathe, and poison our intellectual
life.  The prophets and apostles of the New Age are
the best physicians for such a scrofulous diathesis of
the interior man.  It is not  lifeless mineral  or veg-
etable compounds their case requires, but living ideas,
that shall act as alteratives in  the  mental organism,
changing the fixed direction of their thoughts and
feelings  into  other channels,  that they may be  re-
newed in the spirit of their minds. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
161
              CHAPTER  XVI.

THE SKIN.  ITS CONNECTION  WITH THE INTER-
    NAL  ORGANS, AND  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH
    THE MIND.

Structure and Functions of the Skin. — Amount Secreted by
  it daily. — The Period in which the Body is renewed. —
  The  Chemical  Laboratory of the System. — Unrecognized
  Sources of  Nutrition.— How prolonged Abstinence has
  been  sustained. — Effect of Medicines applied to the Skin.
  — Psychological  Remedies. — Cellular   Tissue. — Mucous
  and Serous Membranes. —The Physiological Condition in a
  Common Cold. — The Action of the Mind upon the Skin. —
  A Psychological  Sweat. — Effect of  Sleep. — State of the
  Mind underlying  Consumption. — Control over the Action
  of the Skin by the Magnetizer.— Mind the only Causal
  Agent.— The Ablutions of the Jewish  and Mohammedan
  Laws. — Spiritual Effects of Bathing.

    THERE  IS  no organ of the body more skillfully
      and wonderfully constructed, and whose normal
action is more necessary to our physical well-being,
than the  skin.   The substance of which the various
tissues are made, are being  constantly changed.  It 
162            THE MENTAL-CURE.
 has been stated that once in seven years, the  whole
 bodily structure is renewed.   But there are  satisfac-
 tory reasons for believing that complete renovation is
 effected in a much briefer period, perhaps as often as
 once a year, if not once a month.  The time neces-
 sary for this change in  the organic elements, is that
 which is required for an amount of worn-out material,
 equal to the weight of  the body, to pass off  through
 the appropriate channels, and an equal  amount to be
 received and appropriated.  Every day new  matter is
 supplied from the food, and particles of every tissue
 are dislodged and carried out of  the system by the
 excretory  organs, one of the most prominent of which
 is the skin.  The waste, worn-out particles  pass  off
 from the skin  invisibly, in the form of insensible per-
 spiration,  and visibly, and in  appreciable quantities,
 in sensible perspiration or sweat.  This useless matter
 is eliminated  from the system through  what we call
 the pores  of  the skin, which  are crowded  together
 upon the entire surface of the  body, and are  the ter-
 minations  of millions of minute spiral tubes, proceed-
 ing from the membranous envelopes of the  internal
 organs.   They are not nrcre punctures or holes in the
 cuticular covering, but are the outlets of a grand sys-"
 tem of drainage, and of pipes conveying nutritious el-
ements into the body.   In this way, and by  means of 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
163
 nervous fibers which proceed from the various organs,
 and are spread  out into a  nexus or network in the
 cutis vera, the skin has connection and communication
 with all the  internal  organs, and  is their ultimation
 or  external  boundary.  These  pores  or tubes are
 more numerous in some places than in others.  There
 are more of  them in the palms of the hands than in
 the heel of the foot, there being in the former about
 three thousand five hundred twenty-eight to the square
 inch, and in  the latter two thousand two hundred sixty-
 eight.   The  general  average  has  been estimated in
 Wilson's Anatomy, to be twenty-eight hundred to the
 square inch.   The number of square inches of surface
 in a man  of medium size, is twenty-five  hundred.
 This would give seven millions as the whole  number
 of pores.   These tubes are estimated to  be  only one
 fourth of an  inch in  length, which falls greatly short
 of the truth, but this gives the number  of inches of
 perspiratory tube as one million seven hundred fifty thou-
 sand, or nearly twenty-eight miles.  But  this is some
 six times too small in relation to the length of  each
 tube, and at least five times less than the  real number
of pores to the square inch.  If so,  there would be
eight hundred and forty miles of these minute  draining
pipes terminating in the skin.
  Physiologists  have computed, that through these 
164
THE MENTAL-CURE.
channels there are excreted about  two and  a half
pounds  of  waste matter  every day, or  seventy-five
pounds a month.   A large proportion of this ie mere
watery vapor, but holding in solution minute quanti-
ties of solid  matter, which once composed the mus-
cles, nerves, and other tissues.   If this were  left to
accumulate, it would  aggregate in such  quantities
as to interfere with the healthful and vigorous func-
tional action  of  all the organs, a-nd  fevers and other
morbid  conditions  of the system would  be the inevi-
table result.   This passes off from the body through
the skin, and is lodged in the clothing, or surrounds
us as a sphere or atmosphere of its  own exhalations.
This perspiration  is attended  with  a sensible odor,
different in various persons, and  in  the same  person
at different times.   To keep these pores open  and in
proper action is as necessary to the  health of  the in-
ternal organs as it is to that of the surface.  And to
ascertain what spiritual  states and  influences affect
their action,  is not merely a matter  of curiosity, but
of practical hygienic  value.  We shall endeavor to
show this in  as clear a light as we are able.
   The investing membranes are  the grand chemical
laboratory of the living  system.  The  secretory and
perspiratory  glands, and the absorbents, are the appa-
ratus nature  uses in her chemistry of life.  The one 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
165
throws  off the diseased  and worn-out particles,  the
other imbibes them.   We are satisfied  "that  the
spring of all nourishment  and abundance, whether
of the inner  or outer man,  is not to be found where
we seek it: it lies deep in the spirituality of our na-
ture, there where no external evils can reach, to trou-
ble or dry it  up."  It was the opinion of Paracelsus,
that man is  not  only fed through his  stomach,  but
through all the membranes of the body  by drawing
in nutriment from the elements surrounding us.   We
drink in life  from the viewless air, and from the  un-
seen and all-surrounding spiritual realm.   There are
well-authenticated cases of persons passing long peri-
ods without  food or drink.   But  undoubtedly  the
spiritual  elements or essences, contained in our ordinary
diet, were  received from other sources.  Thus man
may eat  angels' food. Elijah in this way passed forty
days without  other nutriment than the spiritual world
supplied.  Thus Moses  on the mount, and Jesus in
the wilderness of Bethsaida, sustained  life for more
than a month without  material  food.   We imbibe
from the atmosphere much  that is essential to  life
and health, not merely  through the  lungs, but like
the leaves of  plants from the air in contact with us.
Hence the hygienic  value of both  the  air-bath, and
the sun-bath,  in which the whole  surface of the body 
166
THE MENTAL-CURE.
is exposed to the unobstructed action of the atmos-
pheric  elements and  the  influence of  light.    The
parts of the body least covered by the  clothing, are
always in  the healthiest condition.   All the internal
organs may be  affected by an application of medi-
cines and various substances applied  to the surface,
as we have  previously shown.   And  it is better  to
apply medicines  here, than to the stomach and intes-
tinal canal.  The latter is the common sewer of the
body, and is the last place in the world  in which to put
medicinal  compounds.  We have often known a cloth
wet in  a solution of sulphate of magnesia, to cause a
movement of the lower intestine, in a  costive state of
the bowels, and that  without inflaming the whole ali-
mentary  tube,  as when  administered  through  the
stomach.  Any organ may be thus affected, for when
there is in it a lack of any element, it has a hungry
affinity for it, and attracts it to itself, when the sub-
stance  containing  it is applied  to the  skin over  it.
Our experiments with medicines thus  applied have
satisfied us  that they possess efficiency, without the
usual morbid results attending  their administration
in the ordinary way.  An application of common salt
to the lumbar  plexus, will relieve an inflamed state
of the kidneys, indicated by an  excess of saccharine
matter in the urine.   But  an intelligent  application 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
167
of spiritual or mental force,  may produce  all the ef-
fects that can be  produced by medicines.   We  have
thrown persons into a gentle perspiration in five  min-
utes, without touching them, and  sometimes when
they were miles away.  For let it be remembered that a
psychological influence can affect the physiological action
of any organ  in  the body.   But it is in this, as in
everything  else,—knowledge is power.   To know
how to do anything, is to be able to do it.  The laws
that govern  in the production  of  such  results we
hope  to  explain  hereafter.   But what can be  done
by one mind acting upon another mind, and  through
this upon the body, can be effected  in a still higher
degree by angels and  spirits.  If they  can move
ponderable bodies, as a stone at the entrance  of a
sepulcher, or  articles of furniture,  or a man's hand,
and these are e-tablished facts of science, and demon-
strated truths, they can certainly just as  well affect
the physiological activity of any organ in the body,
by  an intelligent employment of spiritual and impon-
 derable forces.   We  have the means of knowing, or
at  least  of believing, that there are associations of
 spirits in the other  world, whose  use and happiness
are found in ministering to  minds diseased.  There
are many Raphaels, or divine physicians there.  And
the laws that govern the production of healing effects 
168
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
by sanative spiritual influences, are  subjects of earn
est investigation.   Hereafter the world will receive
higher light on this important and interesting  sub-
ject, than has ever  dawned  upon us from the  serene
and  lucid  depths of the  angelic heavens.   A calm
clear light  is already  breaking in the east.   It will
be seen  by coming generations, that all the thera-
peutic effects that we aim to  produce by medicines,
but  often fail in our  attempts,  can be  unerringly
caused by  psychological forces.  The spiritual world
contains, and perhaps  is made up  of, the invisible
essences of material things.   All the sanative virtues
of plants and  minerals are to be attributed to the
spiritual  forces of which they  are only the ultimate
expression.   It  has been  established by experiment,
that pure water, in  the hands of a good magnetizer,
can  be made to produce  the specific effects  of  any
medical preparation.  But it is only the action of his
mind upon it, for our inner  being inherits from the
central Life a sort  of  creative force.  The  so-called
miracle, in Cana, where Jesus made water into wine,
was  performed  in  harmony  with this law;  for all
miracles that are historically true, are only the exhibi-
tion of highr laws of nature than those men  usually
avail themselves of.  If  by the  employment of un
recognized spirit forces, such a result was effected in 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
169
an obscure village of Galilee, cannot spiritual beings
impart a sanative principle to any thing we take into
the system, or  that comes in contact with us ?  And
cannot the human mind here learn to do it?  If  the
account  of the  pool of  Bethesda  be  accepted  as
literally  true,  an  angel  imparted   sanative  virtues
to its water, so that whoever stepped in was made
whole of whatsoever disease he had. (Jno. v. 2—9.)
There is nothing  contrary to  the known laws of
nature in this.   Facts go to show that the manipula-
tion  of medicines  by the physician, and his mental
states while compounding them, produce psychomet-
rical effects upon a sensitive patient.
   All chemical  changes  in  the body are effected by
the action of the cellular  tissue, which composes the
membranes that surround  and interpenetrate all  the
organs, and the entire  system.  These membranes
are mucous or serous, positive or negative,  like the
copper and zinc in an electro-magnetic battery.  All
positive substances give off a negative magnetism, and
all negative substances absorb and  throw off a posi-
tive electrical force.   Any influence that stimulates
to excessive action the mucous surfaces of the body,
throws it  into a negative state, and closes the pores
of the skin.   This is the case in a common cold, which
is only an infant fever.  All the mucous membranes 
170
THE MENTAL-CURE.
or tissues exhibit an increased action, and the serous
surfaces are correspondently inactive and dry. There
is a loss of vital  harmony.  Before the pores can be
opened, and the febrile symptoms relieved, the bodily
organs must be rendered more positive by an excite-
ment of the serous membranes.   The dryness of  the
surface is  only what is seen everywhere in the serous
tissue of all the organs.  The  question  now arises:
What spiritual states, or forces, will excite to action
the appropriate membranes, and  increase the serous
secretions, and open the pores of  the skin, and  what
mental states will so act upon the mucous surfaces, as
to close the mouths of the spiral  draining tubes, and
check or suspend  all perspiration ?  It is an interest-
ing fact in this connection, that certain animals never
sweat, however much they may be heated.   This is
true of the dog, the goat, the cat, and all animals of
the feline  species, and the hog.   In the animal races
that  never exhibit  any sensible perspiration,  we find
prominently developed   some  one or more  of  the
selfish propensities  that have their organs in  man in
the base of the brain.  Occasionally a  human being is
found who never exhibit* much, if any, sensible per-
spiration,  while others in the same atmosphere,  the
same  temperature, and the same  employment, may
appear to  have been immersed in  water.  It seems to 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
171
be his normal state, a peculiarity of mental and  phys-
ical organization.  But it will  be found that some
one or all the organs at the base of the brain are pre-
dominantly active.  To lower the  action of  these or-
gans by demagnetizing them, by sending their vital
force down into  corresponding organs of the body,
or up to the region of the intellectual  and spiritual
faculties, is the modus operandi of giving a patient  a
psychological sweat.   The more the mind is elevated
above the animal and sensuous  range of action, the
more active are  the perspiratory glands of the skin.
In sleep this region of the brain is usually quiescent,
and an increased perspiration is the result.  One of
the first symptoms exhibited in  that exalted  state of
the mind's action  characterizing the magnetic coma
or trance, is the unusual  moisture of the hands and
the surface of the body.  In consumption there is in-
variably  exhibited a loss  of  harmony between  the
intellectual and affectional departments of the mind,
the former predominating.   They  are affectionally
cold and  think  more  than they feel. This  predomi-
nance of the intellectual  over the emotional, affects
the amount of the respiratory action, and  also  the
state of the skin.  They often exhibit a morbid ten-
dency to undue perspiration.  And they never can be
relieved of the disease, until the lost harmony of the 
172
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
 mind is restored.   It is well known that  unusual
 muscular exertion induces an  increased perspiration,
 and by  magnetizing the part of the cerebrum which
 is the  organ of all voluntary movements, the same
 effect can be produced upon the perspiratory glands.
 Thus the action of  the skin is under  the  control of
 the  intelligent  magnetic healer.  A certain mental
 force, brought to bear upon some parts of  the brain,
 will send a glow of heat over the  whole surface of
 the  body, producing a  transient febrile state.   By
 another action of his mind  and will, he  can produce
 almost instantly the  opposite physiological condition,
 and  throw the patient  into  a gentle perspiration.
 Are there any drugs that can equal the living force
 of a mind made in the image of God, and  which in-
 closes in its  hidden  depths  a germ of the one and
 only Life ?   We have known fevers, in  their incipient
 stage, to be cured by a  psychological force in less
 than five minutes.   In one case a person connected
 with  the War  Department  in  Washington,  was
 thrown  into  a profuse perspiration, while  the  oper-
 ator was quietly seated in his library in New Hamp-
 shire.   Many facts and testimonials could be given
to confirm the statements we might make in relation
to the wonderful effects produced by the simple force
of the mind.  But they would  not  seem credible to 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
173
those who do not understand the spiritual laws that
govern in such  cases.   We are apt to forget  that
mind is the  only causal agent in the universe, and
that all effects and phenomena in the realm of ma-
terial things owe their origin to the action of spirit-
ual forces.   The sublime movements of  the universe
are all effects of a divine and self-sustaining  force
whose name is the I AM, the Living One, and whom
the  philosophic   Greeks  called Zeus, from  a   verb
meaning to live.   The whole realm of nature is sub-
ordinate  to  spirit, and controlled by it.  All physio-
logical action is only an ultimation of psychological
forces.   All vital  movements are  a display in the
realm  of organized  matter  of spiritual  dynamics.
And sufficient hints and glimpses of  truth have been
afforded us in this chapter to warrant the belief, or
at least, the hope, that the time is  coming when all
cutaneous diseases, and febrile states of the system—
and their name is legion—will be under the  control
of an intelligent  use  of the living powers of the hu-
man spirit.  Jesus  cured Peter's wife's mother  of a
fever by  taking  her by the hands, and we have  seen
a person  thrown  into a healthy perspiration in the
same  way.   The arms  are  the chief instrument of
muscular motion, and  all the  voluntary strength of
the body can be concentrated in them.   They  have 
174
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
sympathetic connection with the point of the brain
where muscular  force has its seat.   And  an  excite-
ment of this part of the  brain acts  upon the  perspi-
ratory glands.
   We have before remarked that  our physiological
and pathological states render us receptive of a corres-
ponding  spiritual  influx   The  various ablutions  of
the Jewish and  Mohammedan laws  have not only a
hygienic  value, but a real spiritual  use.  The wash-
ing of the body not only  purifies the skin, and white-
washes the outside of the sepulcher, but purifies the
internal organs, and the spiritual  man  as well.   It is
a law that the influx of life from the realm of spirit,
is modified by the  quality and condition of the recip-
ient  form.   Hence when the body becomes  foul by
the retention of worn-out  material, which accumulates
on the surface and in the interior of the structure, it
becomes  a cage suitable  only for the dwelling of un-
clean birds, and no others will descend and make their
nest in  it.  It is a vessel fitted to receive only the
lower passions and feelings of human nature.  Such
mental states,  ultimated in a  correspondent bodily
condition, are the spiritual causes of fevers and many
loathsome and unclean cutaneous diseases.   Exter-
nal cleanliness is not only next  to godliness, but may
be viewed as a part of it. Public bathing houses are 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
175
as important a means of grace as our poorly ventila-
ted  churches, and  many an  unhappy soul would  be
brought  nearer to  heaven by a judicious application
of soap and water,  than he could be by listening to a
sermon about things of which he comprehends little
and cares less.   If we  purify the external body, it
prepares a recipient vessel  for the influx of pure  af-
fections and of truths in agreement with them.  To
bring the external  nature into correspondent harmony
with the higher and diviner sentiments and powers,
should  be our steady aim.  For the  soul not only
acts upon the body, but the latter reacts  upon the
former. 
176
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER  XVII.

 THE  SENSES.  THEIR  CORRESPONDENCE, AND
     INDEPENDENT OR SPIRITUAL ACTION.

Sensation a Spiritual Phenomenon. — Vision without the ex-
  ternal Eye. —Somnambulism. —Independent Clairvoyance.
  — The Relation of the Eye to the Intellect. — Sympathy of
  the Eye with other Organs. — The Spiritual Eye can discern
  Material  Things.— The Sense  of Hearing.—The Mental
  Act underlying the Sensation of Sound. — Different Forms
  of Deafness. — How  to  Treat them. — The  Connection of
  Voluntary Hearing with the Organ of Cautiousness. — The
  seat of Otalgia. — Clairaudience or Spiritual Hearing. —
  The sense of Touch. — Its general Diffusion. — Its Relation
  to the Love. — Communication  of life by the  Hand.—The
  sense of  Smell. — Its Spiritual Action. — Taste.—Its  Use.
  —The Spiritual Senses. — How they are opened. — Diseased
  Conditions in which the Inner Senses are emancipated.

  IN MOST systems of mental philosophy, the bodily
     senses are stated to be five in number—seeing,
hearing, smelling,  tasting, and feeling.   Some meta-
physical writers have added others to the  number, as
the muscular sense, the  moral  sense, and  the esthetic 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             177
 sense.   Others  with more reason have reduced them
 to three in number, the sense of smelling and tasting
 being viewed as only modifications of feeling, as they
 are excited by the actual contact of substances with
 their nerve fibers.   In fact  the sense of feeling may
 be considered  as the universal  sense  underlying  the
 action of all the others.   And in certain states, as in
 what is called  psychometry, the whole body becomes
 an organ of perception, and all the senses are reduced
 to a unity—a spiritual state it is difficult to describe.
   The truth previously demonstrated, that sensation
 is not  located  in  the bodily  organism, but in  the
 intermediate spiritual form, is one of great scientific
 value.   All sensation is a  spiritual phenomenon.
 The spiritual senses are  not another set of faculties,
 but  only our  ordinary  senses  acting independently
 of the bodily organs.  It has been  demonstrated that
 there is vision, clear and far-reaching, without the  use
 of the external eye.  In somnambulism this can be
 proved to be the fact.   The pupil of the eye is dilat-
 ed to its utmost capacity, and the  direct rays of the
 sun,  or the  powerful calcium light thrown upon it,
 do' not  cause it to  contract in the least.   The  six
 small muscles that move  the eye seem to be tempo-
rarily paralyzed and motionless.  No degree of  light
can be made to affect the lachrymal glands, but the 
178
THE
MENTAL-CURE.
 eye is  fixed,  vacant, and glassy.   All this goes to
 show that the optic nerve is destitute  of sensibility,
 and the external eye is  of  no more use than it is
 after death.   Yet  there  is the power  to discern  ob-
 jects near or  remote,  with far greater distinctness
 than in the normal state.  There are certain persons
 who seem to have unfolded within them the power
 of  seeing without  the  use of the material organ  of
 vision.   I do not refer to what is usually called clair-
 voyance, which is a much less spiritual state.  The
 persons to whom I refer  are in their  normal state.
 They are not subject  to what passes under  the name
 of  the trance,  a magnetic sleep  either self-induced
 or  imposed  upon them by another.   They are  not
 in a somnambulic state, but  in  perfect consciousness
 and wakefulness.   Yet they see  with more or less
 clearness, either  with the eye open  or shut, in  the
 light or  in the darkness, hundreds  of miles away, so
 that they can describe persons, and even places, with
 great particularity and exactness.   They perceive
 the complexion,  the  form of the countenance, the
 color of the hair,  the temperament, and  read the
 character, the leading traits of which they give with
accuracy, though entire strangers  to them, and  see
the  objects that surround them.   This state  is  far
higher and more spiritual than ordinary  clairvoyance 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
179
Their inner being has arisen above the limitations of
time and space, and the bondage to material things,
and the spiritual man, the  interior life, has  attained
to freedom, such as it usually enjoys only after it has
become divested of the  external body.  The organs
of sense, like  every  thing  else in the human body,
are correspondences,  or are effects of which some-
thing in the spiritual nature is the cause.   The eye
belongs  to  the intellect,  or  is an  organ  through
which the understanding holds communication with
the outward  world.    This is unconsciously recog-
nized in the language of men.  To see a thing and
to know it, are used interchangeably, as when one
says, the whole of a  thing  is greater than any of its
parts,  and  you reply, "I see it is so. "  We at once
see the truth of it.   But seeing is not knowing, but
corresponds to  it, for we may see  an object of which
we know little  or nothing.  We see just to the ex-
tent of our knowledge and no further.   A skillful
botanist sees a thousand times moi e  in a tree than
one who, knows  but little of its morphology  and
physiology.   In a purely  spiritual state and world,
the more the intellect is developed, the clearer is the
vision.  The relation of the understanding and the
eye, and the  sympathetic  connection  between them
may be shown in another way.  The  eye sometimes 
180
THE
MENTAL-CURE.
silently  speaks,  and discloses the interior thought,
which is often quite different from the language of
the lips.   Intelligence  beams from the eye.   An in-
tense  excitement of the intellect gives an unearthly
lustre to the eye.   The eye  is oftentimes  affected
by the diseased  condition of  those organs that have
correspondence with the intellectual  faculties, as the
kidneys and  the lungs.  The condition  of the duo-
denum or  second  stomach,  seems to influence the
external eye.  We have had occasion to notice that
sofe eyes are often  accompanied with an inflamed state
of the mucous surface of the  duodenum.  In all oph-
thalmic inflammations,  there is  found a  tender spot
about half way between the ear and the corner of the
eye.  When the sensitiveness of this part is remov-
ed, and the  congestion  relieved by the magnetism
of the hand, it allays the inflammation of the  eye and
the duodenum at the  same time.
   It  was remarked by Swedenborg that the natural
eye sees only material objects,  but  cannot  discern
spiritual realities.   This is undoubtedly correct.  But
when he avers that the spiritual eye takes cognizance
only of spiritual  things, and  cannot perceive any ob-
jects in the material world,  we  think there  is some
mistake here, either in him or our understanding of
him.   He  himself saw the  fire  that was raging in 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
181
Stockholm, when he was in Gottenburg three hundred
miles from the former place.  He informed his friends
where it commenced, how far it proceeded, and  when
it was extinguished.   All his  statements were con-
firmed two days after by  the arrival of a messenger
at Gottenburg.   It is useless  to say that this was
seen by the  external, or  what  he calls the natural
eye.  It was only the inner sense, acting independ-
ently of the  bodily organ, that  became cognizant of
it.   Here then is a plain  case of  the inner eye per-
ceiving material phenomena. There can be no doubt,
that while  the spiritual world, with its objective real-
ities, is veiled is darkness to our outward  senses,  the
penetrative vision of  spirits and angels may perceive
the  objects and  persons  of this  lower or exterior
range of life. The spiritual may discern the  mate-
rial, the  inner  take  cognizance of the  outer,  the
higher of the lower, because this is the divine  order,
but the converse of this is impossible.
   The sense  of hearing, as a medium of communica-
tion between the mind and the external world, stands
next in importance  to that of vision.  The ear, in its
structure, is  one of the most complicated  and deli-
cately organized  instruments of the  soul.   As the
eye corresponds to the intellect, so the  ear answers
to the affectional nature.   As the eye is  influenced 
182
THE MENTAL-CURE.
by the states of the intellectual faculties, so the ear
is affected by the varying states of the love.  In the
bodily organism it belongs to the vital system, as the
eye does to the pulmonary.  Diseases of the involun-
tary or vital organs affect the ear by sympathy, while
pulmonary disorders, and  an abnormal state of  the
organs having correspondence  with the intellect, af-
fect the  eye.   Hearing, as a voluntary act,  is the re-
sult  of attention  and  hearkening.  They  are  the
causes or prior states of the mind, of  which hearing
is the effect.   In  a  state of  absent-mindedness  or
mental abstraction, the  ear becomes insensible to ex-
ternal sounds.   Ordinary conversation is not noticed.
A person may be addressed, but he hears nothing un-
til his attention is excited.  The mental act of listen-
ing, or hearkening, infuses into the  auditory nerve a
spiritual  and cerebral stimulus,   that  increases its
sensibility and  renders it more  impressible  to  the
undulatory  movements  of the atmosphere and  the
ether  which are necessary to the sensation of hearing.
In all forms of deafness occasioned by a  weakened
condition of the nerve of hearing, the best remedy
will be found in the frequent excitement of  the men-
tal  state  that is a prerequisite to the action of  the
auditory  sense.  Sometimes the very act of  listening
to hear the ticking of a watch, or some distant sound, 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
183
will so affect the organ of hearing that the sensitive-
ness of the nerve will be restored.  In some forms
of deafness, there  seems to  be only a loss of the
power  of attention.   The   cause  of the  defect  in
the hearing is found in a sort of mental abstraction,
and when they are temporarily aroused from this intro-
version of the mind, their power of hearing even ordi-
nary conversation is  restored.  We have had under
our care several  cases of this nature.  The  remark
is often  made of such persons, that they hear with
distinctness  what  you  do not wish them  to  hear.
When  their attention is  excited, even ordinary con-
versation becomes  audible  to  them.  This indicates
with clearness  that the mind is at fault, more than
any diseased condition of the organ of hearing.  The
cause  of this form  of  deafness is spiritual,  and the
remedy must be spiritual also.
   There is a sympathetic  connection between the
ear and what is improperly called  the organ  of cau-
tiousness.   We have reason to suspect that the power
of listening, or of hearkening,  is located in this part
of the  cerebral  structure.  It will be found to  be
true, that  the more fully  this  part of the  brain is
developed, the  more  acute is  the sense of hearing.
This is so both in animals and men.  In  the  hare
the ear, which is of unusual size, is situated in imme- 
184
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
diate connection with the so-called organ of cautious-
ness, and  there  is a remarkable power of attention,
or of  concentrating the mental force upon the  aud-
itory sense, and a most acute perception of sounds.
What is called its timidity, is only this mental trait,
the unusual activity of the  faculty  of attention.  We
have demonstrated by experiment, that by magnetiz-
ing this part  of  the brain,  with an attempt to excite
the attention,  it increases the sensitiveness of  the
ear to sounds.    We  have come to the conclusion
that the sense of hearing,  so far  as  it is a voluntary
act, depends  upon this point of the  cerebrum for its
nerve  stimulus.   But  hearing is also  involuntary,
and as an  involuntary sense, the ear has  sympathetic
connection with  the cerebellum, and  by placing the
hand on a point just below the cerebellum, at the com-
mencement of the occipital portion of the spinal col-
umn, and  imparting a magnetic force to it, the ear
will be affected.  When a person has been deaf of
one ear for any considerable length of  time, there
will  be found a perceptible  depression  here  on one
side.   This we have frequently noticed.
  Deafness is sometimes occasioned by  an inflamed
state of the membrana tympani, a  delicate and sensi-
tive  membrane   stretched  across  the ear passage,
and designed to protect the inner ear from the vio- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
185
lence of the atmospheric vibrations.   The  nerve of
this membrane  may be affected by applying the fin-
ger just behind the zygomatic process of the superior
maxillary bone, and  in  front of the ear.   Beneath
this place the nerve enters the ear.  Here is the seat
of the pain  in  acute  otalgia or  ear-ache.   Deafness
is sometimes only  an  inflamed and congested condi-
tion  of the membrana  tympani.   It becomes positively
charged with vital force, and is too  sensitive, while the
inner ear is coldly negative.  This  occasions a con-
stant roaring or ringing sound, in its earlier stages.
By cooling the nerve, the difficulty is at once  reliev-
ed.    This membrane s^ems to have a sympathetic
connection with the  organs of tune and  time, and
receives its  cerebral stimulus  from a point situated
between them.  The sense of hearing may  act inde-
pendently of the  external organ.  There are those
who not only see without regard to distance of space
and  without  the intervention of ordinary light, but
also  are able to hear  without the vibration of the at-
mosphere.  As light  is produced  by an  undulatory
movement of the  ether, so the sensation  of hearing
may depend for its existence upon the motion  of a
still   more subtle element  denominated  the aura.
Certain  it is, that persons  many  miles  away  are
heard distinctly to speak, and  even their  thoughts 
186
ME MENTAL-CURE.
become audible.   Words, uttered at  a  distance of
many leagues, are heard as clearly as if the person
speaking were in the same room with us.  This may
seem  even more marvelous and incredible than the
interior vision above described.  To this inner aud-
itory  sense  spirits  and angels speak.   The  Jewish
prophets listened to voices wafted  from the interior
realms, and in the  unruffled  stillness of  the soul
received messages  from the  inhabitants of the other
shore.  Some in every age and nation have enjoyed
the same  privilege.  By them the harmonies of the
upper spheres have been heard through the separat-
ing vail.  One peculiarity of these sounds ought not
to pass without notice.  They do not enter  the ear
by an external way, or through  the  auditory canal
(the meatus auditorius externus), but they arise from
within, and  seem to pass up through the Eustachian
tube.  Whether this is real or only a seeming, we are
unable to say.  But the sound is as distinctly heard,
as any produced by a vibration of the atmosphere,
collected and thrown upon the membrane of the tym-
panum.   Persons in whom  the  intellect is  exalted
to a  spiritual plane  of  action, are  endowed with
clear-seeing,  because  the sight  corresponds  to the
understanding.   Those in   whom  the  affectional
nature is elevated  to the same degree, so as to be in 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
187
harmony with the spiritualized intellect, are not only
clairvoyant,  but clairaudient also, because the hear-
ing  corresponds to  the love,  and  is influenced by
the emotions.
   The sense of touch, or feeling, is not confined to a
small portion of the body, but is distributed over its
whole surface.   But there are certain  parts, as the
palms of the hand, and the lips, which  possess this
sense in a higher degree, in consequence of numerous
papilla?, which, in addition to blood-vessels, contain
nervous loops, and also peculiar ovoid bodies called
"axile  corpuscles," possessing  gray ganglionic vesci-
cles or cells.  The  touch or feeling  is the sense be-
longing to  the affectional department of the human
mind.  This is  tacitly recognized  in all languages,
 where we find the word feeling used  to express  emo-
 tions and desires, which are modifications of the  love.
 We  speak  of feelings of joy, of sorrow, of want, of
 contentment.  These are states of the affections. We
 also speak of various  painful  diseased conditions as
 affections, as  a rheumatic, or  a neuralgic  affection.
 This  is  an instinctive acknowledgment, that these
 abnormal physiological conditions  are caused  by a
 disordered  or unharmonious   state  of the  affections.
 The sphere  of our life and the states of  our love, are
 communicable  by the  touch,  especially of the hand 
188
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
This is a truth  of  great  practical importance.  To
those who are peculiarly sensitive to the influence of
others, and  are  highly intuitional, the  touch of an
individual reveals his affectional  states, and even his
bodily condition.  Such persons  are  like a  delicate
electrometer.  Affection and friendship spontaneously
grasp the hand of another.  This is a contact of sens-
itive  and magnetic surfaces  through wdiich there  is
an actual interchange  of  feeling.  When we wish to
express and communicate a more ardent state of the
feelings, we employ, besides the contact of the hands,
the more sensitive surface of the lips, and as Tenny-
son words it," The  spirits rush together at the touch-
ing  of the  lips."  This  is a thing  too sacred to be
deemed  a mere trifle.   The  kiss of a mother  whose
whole soul  goes out in loving benediction upon her
child, is  no empty or unmeaning form. It is an  actual
communication of  life, and the divine  magnetism  of
love.  It is proper to remark, that the lips have a
sympathetic nervous  connection with  the organs in
the back brain that correspond to the  domestic  and
social affections.   The touch, or imposition of the
hand, has the effofct of actually imparting the sphere
of our life, and is the natural and spontaneous expres-
sion of  a desire  to do good to others.  Thus  Jesus
blessed  little children, and a heart overflowing with 
THE  MENTTAL-CCRE.
189
benevolence, has often manifested its wish to commu-
nicate  good to others in the same way.   It has  a
living power, and it is the divine order of our being,
that vital force  is transmissible from one to another
by this  means.   When  the two blind  men, who sat
by the way-side begging, cried to Jesus to have mer-
cy upon them, he touched their eyes, and immediately
they received  sight, and followed  him.   (Matt. xx.
34.)  In this  way he imparted his own  life to dis-
eased humanity, but  without any  permanent loss of
his vital force, for it is a law as invariable  as that of
gravitation, that to  him who gives life, shall life be
given.   He shall receive from the  exhaustless  foun-
tain, more than he imparts.  We  may be  conscious
that " virtue" has gone out of us, but we shall  be
made equally certain of the reception of an equivalent
potential force.  The imposition of the hands always
imparts life to  another,  and  as a therapeutic agency,
we may rely upon it, with unhesitating  confidence
and absolute certainty.   It is a remedy that never
fails when under  the direction of intelligence and
love.
   The  sensation of smell is occasioned by a minute
exhalation of  particles  from  the odorous body.   Its
anatomy is less understood  than that of any of the
other senses.   The  effluvia going  forth  from  all 
190
THE MENTAL-CURE.
material bodies, wafted by the atmosphere, affect the
olfactory nerves of the nostrils.  The design of the
sense seems to be to give us a perception of  what is
agreeable to our life, spiritual  and physical  There
are certain substances that emit to us a disagreeable
odor, because they are not in  harmony with  our na-
ture, yet to certain animals they pour  forth a  deli-
cious fragrance!
  The sense of smell may have  a spiritual range  of
action.  It may become an acute faculty of  percep-
tion, and so intensified as to  be affected not merely
by the  emanations of material bodies, but by the  men-
tal sphere of an individual.   A person whom we love,
and with whom we are in sympathy, gratifies  all our
senses, and emits an agreeable  spiritual odor.  While
one, toward  whom we feel a  deep repugnance, be-
comes  offensive  to  all our senses, and is a mental
stench in our spiritual atmosphere.   It is a law  of
our inner being,  that  whatever  is  out of harmony
with our ruling love, should affect the spiritual  sense
of smell.   When we hear a statement that is repug-
nant to our  feelings, or that we deem absurd,  we
sometimes instinctively expel the air from the nostrils,
as if ridding the nasal cavity of a disagreeable  odor.
The feeling of disgust toward a person, is  expressed
by a peculiar movement  of  the  muscles of the  nose, 
THE  MENTAL-CUKE.
191
as if it were an effort to close the nostrils.  This is
sufficient  to  establish the correspondential  relation
between the  mind and the olfactory sensory.  They
also place in a rational  and philosophical light  the
statement of  a  distinguished seer, and herald of a
New Age, respecting the  spiritual world.   He  dis-
closes the fact that in the realm  above, the  emanat-
ing  sphere of spirits  and  angels  is  perceived as
odorous, and the  sense  of smell  becomes a means of
perceiving character.   When  the sphere of another
is in harmony with our  own  life, it comes as grate-
ful perfume.   When not in agreement with our affec-
tions, it  is perceived as an offensive odor.  This  is
liable to  ridicule  from  shallow  minds  who  do  not
understand the hidden laws of our being.  But the
statement rests  on a scientific  basis  and is not so
unlike what we here experience  as to be destitute of
credibility.   In  what we have said above, we see  that
the same  law operates here, though not so perfectly
as in  the world beyond.   All men know, or may be
assured of it, that the perception of what is disagree-
able to them ultimates itself in a  correspondent move-
ment of  the nostrils.   The  concordant associations,
into which the inhabitants of higher spheres are or-
ganized by the law of affinity or spiritual  attraction,
are like the " smell of a field the Lord has blessed." 
192
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
On the celestial plains, where  pure affections prevail
and  are the spring of all outward activity, odorous
gales sweep over the eternal hills, and fragrant spirit-
ual incense fills the land of everlasting spring as the
fire of  the golden censer perfumed the temple.   The
man who deems this a matter of ridicule, or unworthy
the life above, to be consistent with himself ought to
hold his nose, when with hypocritical sanctimonious-
ness  he walks in a flower garden.  He should  put a
bandage over his nostrils in the presence of the mag-
nolia and  orange-groves of  the South, which fill  the
adjacent regions with their rich perfumes.
   Taste  is used  in  common  language  both  in a
physical  and  spiritual  sense.   It is  employed to
express a  particular sensation excited in us by the
application of certain substances to the tongue, as
the taste of a grape or apple.  Its office in the bodi-
ly economy is to give  us a  perception of pleasure in
the use of the natural aliments which are adapted to
promote  the growth  and the  healthful  functional
action  of all the organs, and to build  up the various
tissues.  It has also for an end to furnish us with a
ready means of  judging what is agreeable to the life
of the body.   In the animal races, in whom it is sel-
dom perveited as  in  man, in  connection with  the
sense of  smell, which is analogous to it, it  subserves 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
193
 this use  with well-nigh  unerring certainty.  It has
 a  correspondence with  a  certain mental  function.
 We have an  intellectual  relish for those things which
 are not obnoxious to our interior life, and we have a
 discernment  or power of perceiving what is promo-
 tive of our spiritual well-being and growth.   Materi-
 al food serves a similar use in the outward organism
 to that which truths and spiritual enjoyments accom-
 plish in  the  interior man.  These latter nourish the
 inward  life  and  contribute  to  the  development of
 the soul.  Hunger and thirst answer,  in the external
 nature, to the desire  of knowing, of understanding
 and of becoming wise.  And taste,  in  its spiritual
 application,  expresses  the power  of discerning  what
 is promotive of such an  end,—especially a judgment
 based on  experience—and  a  mental  relish  for and
 pleasure  in those  things.
   In what has been said above, Ave perceive that all
 the  senses have  correspondence   with  the  spiritual
 nature of man.  Sensation is located  in the  most ex-
 ternal degree of our inner being, in something inter-
 mediate  between pure mind  and matter, and is the
 medium  through which  matter  and  spirit mutually
 act and react upon each other.  This we have denomi-
nated the spiritual body.  It is proper to remark, also,
that, as the sensation of light  and sound is produced 
194
THE MENTAL-CURE.
by an undulatory movement of a subtle element—the
ether and the aura—pervading all space, so the other
senses are affected in an analogous way.   And all the
senses may be excited to action without the interven-
tion of any  tangible material substance.  They are
called into action whenever and wherever the neces-
sary vibratory force acts upon them.  They are thus
capable of a range of activity independent of the
bodily organs.  The spiritual senses are the common
possession of humanity.   The opening of them,  as
it is called,  in  certain persons, or rather their eman-
cipation from their material instruments, is apt to  be
looked upon as an abnormal state, or as an extraor-
dinary, if not miraculous, vouchsafement.  If,  in the
hour of the rending off the external  covering, and the
transition of the inner man to immortality, the spirit-
ual  world is  unveiled before the  freed vision  and ce-
lestial voices and  harmonies float in  upon the enrap-
tured inner ear, it is deemed proper and right, and is
accepted as what ought to be.   It  is a consolation to
surviving friends.   In the funeral oration from the
pulpit, which is now usually deaf, dumb, and  blind to
all spiritual realities, the comforting fact is dwelt upon
with  much solemn  eloquence.   But, if a person be-
comes sufficiently spiritual twenty-five  years  before
his  departure to a higher realm,  to see, hear, and even 
THE MENTAL-CUKE.
195
converse with  those who walk the " velvety soils"  of
the land of perpetual spring, he is looked upon with
suspicion, sometimes treated with neglect and con-
tempt, and his sanity seriously called in question.  So
inconsistent a thing is  human nature.  In this way
the world treated Emmanuel  Swedenborg, the most
illumined mind of modern history.
   We believe, with  the force of a prophetic convic-
tion, that the  time is coming, and draws near, when
men will be educated  into  the  normal use of their
spiritual  senses.   Then the spiritual  world  will  no
longer be like those large blank  spaces on the earlier
maps  of Africa,  marked  " Unexplored  Territory."
The youthful imagination  was  wont to  people this
wondrous unknown region with all  manner of men,
animals,  birds,  and  creeping things.   To see and
converse with those  on  the shining  shore, and  to
pierce  the  hidden  depths of the inner realms, will
be deemed a no more extraordinary occurrence, than
our every day social intercourse with  those who are
in this outside circumference of being.   Such is the
normal state of man,  and may God  and angels help
.us to return to nature and  come into harmony with
it.  Only one thing is  necessary to  the unveiling of
our spiritual senses, and that is  the acquisition of the
power  of retiring  behind the fleshly curtain, so that 
196
THE MENTAL-CURE.
the interior  man  may act independently of the out-
ward body.  The main obstacle to this is the want of
real faith in the actual and substantial existence of
our interior  selfhood—of a living personality within
the material organism.   Attaining this,  the  veil is
rent and soon will be removed.  As long as the out-
ward body is viewed as the chief thing in our exis-
tence, aud  fills the first  place  in our thoughts and
affections, the  inner senses will be in bondage and
the spiritual world  shrouded in darkness.  As soon
as men become assured, that the body  is no necessary
part of  our  manhood, but the spirit is the real man,
they will be able  to live independent of the material
shell,  free themselves from its thraldom,  the  inner
senses will be  opened, and they will  become consci-
ous inhabitants of a higher world.   In the devolop-
ment  of the new age, now opening before man a
higher earthly destiny, this may become  his normal
state.   The soul is sometimes freed, to  a  certain
extent, from its  bondage to the fleshly covering, and
the spiritual senses are  unveiled, by frequent fasting
and ascetic  mortifications;  by an immoderate use of
narcotics, as opium and  hasheesh;  by sickness,  in
which the powers of the body are gradually weaken-
ed; by  loss uf sleep, and  drowning.   These are all
favorable to the emancipation and manifestation of the 
                THE MENTAL-CURE.              197

soul's interior powers.  Whatever weakens  the body
loosens  the  soul's connection with  it, and, in the
same degree, gives  opportunity for the independent
exercise of the senses.   But these are abnormal, and
hence undesirable, modes of development.  No meth-
od of unfolding our inner powers is to be deemed desir-
able which unfits a man for  the duties and uses of
our ordinary life. 
198
THE MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER  XVIII.

       THE MYSTERY OF LIFE EXPLAINED.

Theories Concerning the  Nature of Life. — Not the  Result oj.
  Organization. — The  Mosaic  Theory. — Electro-Biology.
  — The Nervous  Fluid. — Definition  of Life  by Bichat.
  — Coleridge. —  Schelling. —  De Blainville. — Comte. —
  Herbert  Spencer. — Swedenborg. — Its inmost Degree is
  Love. — Organic and Inorganic Forces. — Life a Force. —
  Correlation and Equivalence of Mental Forces. — Influence
  of the Emotive Life upon the Intellect. — Relation of Vital
  Force and Animal Heat. — Health is  Equilibrium. —
  Disease an Inhdrmony. — Source of Animal Heat. — Heat
  a Form of Motion.—  The Vital Movements.— The Heat
  of the Sun the Living  Force of Nature. — Gods Love an
  all-pervading Life. —  The External  lives from the Inter-
  nal. — Effect  of Sensation upon the  Body. — Influence of
  the  Emotions and Affections upon the Organic Functions.
  —Secretion. — Muscular Contractility. — The  Sexual  In-
  stinct. — Its  Influence  upon the Involuntary Physiological
  Processes. — Importance  of Regulating the Affections.—
  Impartation  of Life. — Disease and Selfishness. — The
  Divine order of Human Existence.

    THE QUESTION  » What is life ?" has been  the
      unsolved mystery of ages.  Some have  made it
identical  with sensation;  while others have found  the
" vital spark  of heavenly flame " in  intelligence and 
THE MENTAL-CURE              199
thought.  Some have made it the result of organiza-
tion.   But why is life supposed to result from organ-
ization, rather than organization from the vital force,
whatever  it  may be?   Others  have referred it  to
the  contractility  of  the fibres.   In these  theories
there  is  the error  of  taking effects for  causes.
Some  have supposed it to be a certain  indefinable
principle  superadded to  the  organism, and distinct
from both the soul and  the body,—a sort of divine
Promethean  spark to animate the clay image.  They
called  this indefinable something, life, a  word that has
been used in Psychology and Physiology without any
determinate  signification.  One  mistake, common to
all  these  theories, has  consisted in taking  certain
effects or phenomena of life, for the vital principle itself.
An ancient theory, dating  as far back as the Jewish
legislator, asserts that  the life  of the  body is the
blood, or  is in  the blood.   The  same might be pre-
dicated of all  the animal fluids—the  mucous, the
serum, or the gastric juice.  But who could tell  what
gave animation to the blood itself?   As to the  soul,
if it had  any vitality distinct from  its  own  essence,
who could say what it was?   Some more modern
theorists  have referred  the vital phenomena to elec-
tricity.  If this were true, all that would be  necessa-
ry to add  to  one's vital stock, would be to  insulate 
200
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
him, and charge him from an electro-magnetic  bat-
tery.   A  favorite hypothesis,  adopted by many, is
that the so-called  nervous fluid is  the  vital element
of the body.  But the  existence of such a fluid has
never been  demonstrated.   Whatever life  is,  it is
certain it is not a  fluid.   Bichat gives a definition of
life which has been extensively adopted, viz.  " Life
is the  sum of the  functions by which death is resist-
ed."  Of this definition  Coleridge remarks, that he
can  discover in it no " other meaning  than that life
consists in being able to live."   Coleridge, following
Schelling, makes  life to be  the " tendency to individ-
uation,'1'1 or in other words, the  force which combines
many qualities  into an  individual  existence.   This
is true, but  indefinite and unsatisfactory.   We  still
ask, What is  the  power that does this?  De Blain-
ville gives a definition of the  vital principle, which
was adopted  by Comte, viz.  " Life is the twofold
internal movement of composition and decomposition
at once general  and continuous."   In other words, it
is included in the phenomena of absorption and excre-
tion,  But these physiological processes are the effect
of life, and not the vital principle itself.  Herbert Spen-
cer gives an abstract definition of life in the following
words:  " Divesting the conception of all superfluities
and reducing it to its  most abstract shape, we  see 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
201
that life is definable as the continuous  adjustment of
internal relations to  external  relations."  This may
involve  the  idea  of  the " pre-established  harmony"
of Leibnitz, or it may mean that life is only sensa-
tion.
   The whole  subject  of life, its nature and origin,
has been  involved in  such profound  mystery, that
philosophy has sometimes deemed it the part of wis-
dom not to  meddle with it, but  to pass it by, as
belonging to those inscrutable matters, which, owing
to  the  necessary  limitations of finite thought,  we
must  wait the  light of a higher day to disclose.  This
is a way of  disposing of a subject  we  do not under-
stand, more convenient  than  scientific.  A mystery
is not always that which lies beyond the grasp of the
human understanding, and is incomprehensible in its
nature,  but  is something which has not been explain-
ed.  There are many things, which were once classed
among  the  secret things that belong to the Deity
alone, that are now well understood.   And the awful
circle of mystery, into  which men have been forbid-
den to enter, or  even profanely to  look, has, in  the
growth of  knowledge  during the last century, been
greatly narrowed down.   In the progress of the light
of the New Age, things will  be taken from the class
of the unknown, and what is deemed the unknowable, 
202
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
and placed among things revealed, that  belong to us
and our children
   There  is no  more mystery  about life  than there
is about  anything  else.   More than a century  ago,
one of the profoundest scholars and most illuminated
minds of  Europe,  the  Scandinavian  Apocalyptist,
cast into the darkness the inspired utterance, love is the
life of man.  This  brief sentence is like the creative
fiat, " Let there be light," when light first  flashed
upon  the  solid  darkness of the abyss.   Love  is the
inmost life of the soul.   It is  not only  the  common
life of the body, the  vital spark that animates the
.outward  form, the  spring of  all its  organic  move-
ments, and the force  that impels  the curious and
wonderful machinery, but it is  the vivifying principle
of  all  sensation and thought.   Love is the highest
and divinest  force in the universe, and in the body is
correlated to all the other and lower forces.  Sensibil-
ity and intelligence, and all the psychological actions,
are phenomena to which the term force is applicable.
They  are  forces distinct from those that constitute
the properties of matter, but nevertheless are forces.
And  all  forces are  persistent  and mutually inter-
changeable.   Guided by the recent results of scientific
investigation,  the  organic  forces  are regarded  by
many distinguished physiologists of the present day, 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
203
as correlative of the common forces of the inorganic
world.   These  may produce  contractility, and this,
sensation.  Sensation may excite thought and intelli-
gence,  and the movement of the intellect, as the di-
rection  of the thoughts to an amiable  object, will
excite  the love.  And the action of the  affectional
nature infuses life into all below it.   Thought itself
proceeds  from  love.  This may not be the apparent
truth,  but an examination of the proposition  in the
light of  consciousness, the ultimate tribunal  before
which  all questions in  mental philosophy must be
decided,  will  show it  to be the ra^fact.   One  thing
we know,—that in proportion as our emotional na-
ture is  excited,  the  more  active and  the clearer
become our thoughts.  There are moments of emo-
tional or affectional excitement, when the  flame  of
zeal or  love  burns with  an  intenser heat, and  the
intellect then  emits  a clearer light, and the  man
speaks with an eloquence and power, which, at other
times,  he never attains.   When  we think the clear-
est, if  we turn the eye of consciousness inward, we
shall perceive that the brighter light in  the intelli-
gence is the radiance of a more ardent heat  of the
affections.   For truth proceeds from love, as light
from flame.   The  more vehement the excitement of
the sensibility, the more  luminous are our thoughts, 
204              THE MENTAL-CURE.

just as in nature there  is a dead and cold whiteness,
and a  shining  or living  brightness.  In proportion
as our affections, which  are forms or  manifestations
of the love, grow cold, in the same degree the intel-
lect  loses  its vigor,  and the  senses become torpid.
Our thoughts  instead of being bright scintilations
that glitter and dazzle  in the darkness, fall as black-
ened scales from the cold  iron on the anvil.  Every
thought and sensation, and movement either of the
mind or body, has its birth in  love.   This is the only
divine Promethean spark.   Life is a flame, and the
brighter it burns, the clearer the light it emits.
   The inmost life, the vital force of the soul, is love.
This in passing outward, according to the law of cor-
relation, becomes heat in the outward organism. For
 heat corresponds to  love.   It  answers an analogous
 use in  the realm of matter, to that  which  affection
 accomplishes in  the world of mind.   When  this vital
heat is equally and harmoniously distributed through
the  entire system, there  is a state of health.   Disease
is a loss of the proper balance.   It is an inharmonious
distribution of the vital force, some  parts  or organs
having an undue share,  while others at the same time
are robbed of their rightful proportion.   In  intermit-
tent fevers, when there is too much heat at the surface,
there  is not enough  within, and vice  versa, and  the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
205
 system swings from one state to the other, like the
 motions of a pendulum, until the lost  harmony is re-
 stored, or life extinct.  The heat of the body is from
 no other source than the love.   This is the life of the
 soul, which, ultimated  in  the material organism, be-
 comes vital heat.   It is not a dead caloric, like  that
 radiated from  combustible bodies,  though it may be
 correlated to it.  Ordinary caloric is destitute of the
 spiritual element.  Organic or living  force does not
 act except at  a certain temperature, which  is an in-
 dispensable requisite to it.   In warm blooded  ani-
 mals 100° F. to 102° F. is the normal temperature.
 Greatly below this the  vital movements are weakened
 or suspended.  The development of the germ in the
 uterus cannot take place at a temperature much below
 the normal standard.
   The heat of the body is  not derived  alone from tne
 combination  of the oxygen of the  air with the car-
 bonaceous elements of  the blood.   The best physio-
 logical authorities admit that this hypothesis  is pro-
 foundly insufficient to solve the mystery or explain all
 its phenomena.  The carbon and hydrogen, contained
 in our food, are not sufficient to replace the heat that
is radiated from the body of a man exposed, day after
day, to the cold atmosphere of winter.   It would  re-
quire a considerable fraction of a cord of wood to do 
206
THE MENTAL-CURE.
this.  There must be some cause lying further back.
This much we know—for it is a fact of observation and
consciousness—that when we experience an increased
intensity of the  love or affections, the body responds
with an augmented glow of vital heat, which shows
itself even in the countenance.  In  proportion as we
love, life thrills in every department of our being, and
even warms  the soul's tenement.  How this is done,
we  may be able  to understand in some degree.
  It is  accepted now as a demonstrated truth of
science, that heat is a form of motion.  The hypothe-
sis  of  a  fluid, called  caloric, has been abandoned.
Motion and  heat are correlated or mutually inter-
changeable, the  one  into the  other.  More  than a
century ago, John Locke said,  " Heat is a very  brisk
agitation  of  the insensible  parts of  an object which
produces in us that sensation from which we denom-
inate the object hot, so that what in  our sensation is
heat,  in  the  object is nothing but motion."   This
theory was  maintained  by  Bacon,  Newton, Count
Rumford, Sir Humphrey  Davy and others.   As light
and sound are occasioned by a vibration of a subtle
medium pervading all bodies, so heat is caused by a
similar movement.  Our affectional states, by passing
outward to the bodily organism according to the law
of correspondence, generate  thereiu the peculiar mo- 
                 THE MENTAL-CURK.             2ol

tion  that  constitutes the  essence  of  animal heat
or the vital  force.  Love is the only moving power
in  the  universe.  Do we not tacitly recognize this
in our  language?  Desire  and  affection  are deri-
vations of. the love,  and  these have  received  the
general name  of emotions,  a word which  implies  a
moving of the mind,  an excitement or agitation of
the sensibility.
   But by what motions are  the vital processes carried
on?   There are myriads of them sensible and insensible.
First v\ e have the systole and diastole of the heart, the
contraction of  the veins and  arteries,  and the har-
monious action of the respiratory apparatus, including
the lungs, diaphragm, and  the  muscles that  move
the ribs in breathing.  In the organic vital phenome-
na are included  digestion,  assimilation, absorption,
circulation, nutrition,  secretion,  and  excretion, and
all these are motions among the particles and atoms.
All the muscular fibres  and tissues, by their irrita-
bility or excitability, respond to the movements of the
will or love, and this susceptibility they possess from
this source alone.   Motion is  correlated to life, and
corresponds to it.  Hence the  established  efficiency
of the  Swedish  movements, both  single and dupli-
cated, as a  curative agency.  When the body dies,
it  becomes cold  and  motionless at  the  same time. 
208
THE MENTAL-CURE.
And it is only when  this is the case, that it can be
pronounced with certainty to be void of life.
  To recapitulate what we have said  in this chapter,
life is love,—a truth of far-reaching importance, and
pregnant with  meaning.   But heat  corresponds  to
love, and in the bodily organism is the ultimation of
it, and the essence  of heat is motion.  All the mo-
tions of the material  universe owe their origin chief-
ly to the  heat emanating  from the myriads of suns
that float  in the depths of space.   The fixed stars are
only remoter suns, and, according to Pouillet, we de-
rive almost as much heat from them as from the cen-
ter of our system.   Here is the source of the  motions
that  are  constantly taking place in   the  world  we
inhabit.   Were the influence of the sun's heat to be
withdrawn  from our  earth, there  would be  a sepul-
chral stillness, and a suspension of all motion at once.
The world would  be a motionless and  lifeless mass.
But  wherever there  is motion, there is some  living
love  behind  it as its cause, from the  trembling of a
leaf in the  breeze, to the revolutions  of  a   planet;
from the contraction of a muscular fibre to the victo-
rious march of an army.  In the universe all is motion,
because the Lord's all-animating love and all-pervad-
ing life are in it, and all the movements of creation,
from the fall of a sparrow to the  ceaseless heavings 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
209
of the ocean, and the flight of the viewless winds, are
but  the " stirrings of deep  divinity  within."   All
created things in the countless worlds that float in
space, respond in harmony with the pulsations of the
infinite  heart of God, and motion is coeval with the
divine life.   Heat and light,  like love and truth, are
not to be classed among  things created or creatable.
There never was a time when space was an , infinite
void, and nothing stirred throughout its silent depths,
and Deity dwelt alone in- the  solitude of his own eter-
nity.   Where  He has been  in  time or space, there
has been love, and life, and heat, and where these are,
there must be  motion.  What  has been, always will
be.  Ages, issuing from  the  dim distance of an eter-
nity past, rush to be swallowed up in an eternity to
come.   In this endless procession of centuries and
dispensations, each proclaims as it sweeps by with all
its changes, and  its voice dies  away in silence, like
the hush of winds at the  close of day,—"God is the
one and only Life."   With this sublime and weighty
utterance, the vail is  lifted  from  life's profoundest
mysteries.   All science is drifting the  human mind
towards  the  recognition of  this universal truth.  If
we question things created, and ask them why they
exist, they answer, "Because  God is love, and love is
life and where that life breathes, there must be joy 
210.
THE
MENTAL-CURE.
ous being to share the irrepressible bliss of the Divine
Mind.   For in him we live, and move, and  have our
being."
  It is a truth of great practical value in a system
of Mental Hygiene that every external degree of our
complex being is affected by the state of the internal
degrees.  The external derives its vital activity from
something interior to  it, and the movements of the
external are correspondences of the more internal or
spiritual force,  or, to use the popular scientific lan-
guage  of the day,  they are mutually correlated, and
act and react upon each other.   To illustrate this, let
us begin with the sensuous range of  the mind which
we have shown to be the spiritual body.  Sensation is
not life, for the  external senses may all be  closed, or
their action suspended, and life not be extinct.  This
is the case with man in sleep, in the trance,  in swoon-
ing and synocope, and with hybernating animals, dur-
ing their lorpitude in winter.  All the varieties of sen-
sation  may be reduced to the sense of touch or feeling,
which  is the universal  sense, and belongs to the love.
It is the love, or vital force, acting upon the lowest
or outermost plane of the mind.   The action of the
senses  serves to  open, or excite  to their appropriate
movement, the  minute and invisible organic  vessels
of the external man, so  as to render the  body recep- 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
211
tive  of the  influent life  from  the  internal  mind.
They are an intermediate principle  through  which
life  passes  outward  to the external organism.  It
has  been shown by recent physiological  investiga-
tions, that sensations excite to increased activity the
secreting organs  in a perceptible degree;  also that
they affect  the action  of  both the  involuntary and
voluntary muscles, for the  interior  spiritual  forces
are correlative of  the organic forces,  or transmutable
into them.   Sensations increase the action of the
heart, and in a  degree proportioned to their intensity,
and  recent  physiological  inquiries   imply not only
that contraction of the  heart is excited by every sen-
sation, but also that  the muscular fibers, throughout
the whole vascular system, are  at the  same time more
or less contracted.  The rate of breathing is visibly
augmented  both by pleasurable and  painful impres-
sions on the nerves, when they reach any intensity.  It
has  even been  shown that inspiration becomes more
frequent on transition from darkness into sunshine, and
the sensation of light renders the body more positively
vital.  It is not too much to suppose that the time will
come in the progressive development of the New Age,
when the action of all the organs can be regulated
by  means of sensation, so as either to increase or
lower th'jir vital tone.  Some slight  and  apparently 
212             THE  MENTAL-CURE.
insignificant sensations,  as  an  excitement  of  the
nerves of touch by tickling, are  followed by  almost
incontrollable  movements of the voluntary muscles,
as those of the arms or  legs.   Violent pains cause
violent  struggles and contortions, and great pleasure
is  attended  with  equally  noticeable   movements.
The  effect of  sensation  upon  the muscular  tissue,
is seen in the  sudden start that follows a loud sound,
the wry face produced by the taste of any thing disa-
greeable,  the  jerk  with  which the hand or  foot is
snatched out of hot water, and the instinctive draw-
ing back and turning away from an offensive odor,
All these instances  are illustrations of the transform-
ation  of feeling, which  belongs  to our inner nature,
into  muscular motion.  There is a definite quantita-
tive relation between them, as it is manifest that the
force of the bodily action is proportioned to the quan-
tity of the sensation.  Torpidity of the  senses must
always be attended  with a lowering of the vital force
of the body, and a loosening of the connection of the
mind with it.   There is  a sanative influence in  the
appropriate delights  of each of the  senses.   They
have an important hygienic value.   He who  under-
stands their effect, can sometimes prescribe them as
the best remedial agency.  To ignore their pleasures
and mortify them, under  the influence  of a morbid 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
213
religious asceticism, is  to  enter the gloomy highway
of disease and death.   Their enjoyment, in the high-
est degree, is the normal state of  man in the present
stage of our endless existence.
   If  we take the  emotions,—which are a more  in-
ternal action of  the  love  than  sensation,—we find
their effect  upon   the   bodily  organism  equally
marked.  Emotions of only moderate intensity, gen-
erate little beyond a slight degree of the excitement
of the heart and the vascular system, and this is nec-
essarily attended with increased action of  the gland-
ular organs.  Certain states of the affections or feel-
ings change the character  of the secretions.  A fit of
passion has been known so to affect the  milk  of the
mother as to throw her  child into  convulsions.  The
saliva of the  dog is so altered by his being enraged
as  to render his  bite poisonous.   All  the emotions
and passions affect, by the  law of correspondence or
correlation, all  the secreting organs.  But the emo-
tions  are a spiritual force, and  in passing outward to
the material organism are transmuted  into physio-
logical  movements and muscular  action.    Certain
bodil3r motions are only the  equivalence  of certain
mental states.  Witness the frowns, stampings, strik-
ings,  and threatening attitudes of anger, the  frantic
struggles  of  terror, the  wringing of the  hands and 
214
THE MENTAL-CURE.
swaying  of the body back and  forth  of  grief, the
smiles of satisfaction,  and the dancings of  great de-
light.  To leap for joy is a common  expression, but
the movement of the  body is the effect of the inward
mental  state  and  is only its ultimate expression.
The emotion or excitement of the love, is  the cause.
These effects are only more visible, but no  more real,
than those organic movements which we can not per-
ceive.  Every change of our feelings or our affective
life, is followed by a correspondent  change in the
functional action of all the vital organs.
   There is no emotive or affectional state of more
importance in Mental Hygiene, than the  proper ac-
tion of the sexual instinct.  The cerebral organ  of
its manifestation is in the cerebellum.   This brain is
also the organ of the  involuntary, or, what has been
improperly called, the vegetative life.  Comte includes
all the involuntary  physiological  processes under the
term nutrition,  and locates its organ in the center of
the cerebellum.   It is evident that an  inharmonious
or over-excitement of the sexual emotion must draw
into itself  and  expend too large a share of the vital
force of  the cerebellum, and  consequently lower the
tone of all the involuntary organs.  Here is the spirit-
ual root of more diseases of body and mind than can
be traced to any other one source.  The sexual and 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
215
conjugal love is most intimately connected with the
inmost life of the spirit, and is the fountain of more
happiness or misery than  originates  with any other
affection,  according as it  is properly  controlled,  or
left to a disorderly activity and indulgence. The part
of our mental organism that  imparts  life  to  a new
human being, must be in a high degree vital, and
come near  the  creative force.   The  whole train  of
the diseases of the reproductive organs, constituting
a large proportion of the cases of chronic ailments,
are caused by a want  of  harmony here, and their re-
lief   is only temporary  and deceptive,  until this
department  of  the spiritual  nature  is  restored  to
order:  The superior value of  the magnetic, or, more
properly,  the  psychological   method  of  treatment,
arises from  the perfect  control which  it has over the
mental states, the affective  and emotive  life  of the
patient, and thus extends its  healing  force into the
realm of spiritual causation, and touches' the spring
of the body's vitality.
   If the doctrine of this chapter is accepted as truth
by the intuitive reason, it will show, in a clear light,
the importance of properly regulating the affections
and the whole emotional nature.  A loss of harmony
here is  the  secret spring of most, if not  all,  of the
thirteen hundred diseases described  in  works  on 
216
TnE MENTAL-CURE.
Nosology.   If life is love,  then all the physiological
processes  must be modified by our affectional states.
There are some of the noblest and purest of earth's
inhabitants, both male and female, wdio are slowly
but surely marching to the cemetery, from a blasted,
withered state  of the social affections—dying  from
disappointed and unsatisfied love.  They are num-
bered by legions, and are  found within and without
the  conjugal  relation.   This  pathological  mental
state, lowers the tone of  all  the organic functions.
This atrophy  of  the  soul  enfeebles the vital move-
ments of the whole body, and the body sinks under
disease, like a tender plant smitten with an untimely
frost.  Drugs  are powerless to reach the seat of the
trouble.  The remedy must be spiritual.
  The life of God is love.   His love is  an infinite
desire  to  impart  his  own  good to others.   The lifo
of angels  is a stream from  this  only fountain,  and
partakes of  the  properties  of its  source.   If we
open our  hearts to receive the influx of  the divine
and heavenly  life, it  will be in us a desire and cona-
tus to impart  the good, with  which we are blessed,
to all who are willing to receive it, and are admissive
of it.  Such is the true order of life, the normal state
of every soul.  It is evident we can never attain to
the highest well-being of either  soul  or body, until 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
217
we come into the divine order of our existence, and
employ the  activity with which we are endowed, ac-
cording to the laws  of  the celestial life.  We were
made to impart,  to  be  the media  through  which
God's gifts could be transmitted to  others.  We are
finite receptacles of the divine  good and truth.   We
were not designed to absorb the divine rays,  but to
reflect them as well—to be each a  center of  radia-
tion.   One of the  most  prominent organs  in  the
brain is benevolence.  The mental feeling, of  which
it is  the. outward  instrument, is a desire to impart, to
share our good "with others.    When  this   divine
impulse is perverted in its action, our love terminates
in self, and we become  the center of our universe.
Selfishness is the fruitful  root of more moral and phys-
ical  evil and unhappiness, than any other  cause.  It
is the  perversion of  the  divinest instinct of human
nature, a cessation  of the pulsations  of the central
Life  within  us.  The only true and happy life on
earth, is that of love.  Wisdom is divine.  Truth is
a ray from God.  Science and philosophy are a  spirit-
ual   treasure  and  desirable  possession.   Wealth,
official  station and  power, are good  in themselves.
But  the divinest thing  in  the  universe is love—an
all-absorbing charity.  Blessed is the man in  whose
inner nature  it is the supreme  and governing princi- 
218
THE MENTAL-CURE.
pie, and who has consecrated himself  to  the  good
of universal being.
  Disease is often only a state of supreme selfishness.
It is a law, universal and immutable, that by impart-
ing,  we receive, and  when  we cease to impart,  we
cease  to receive, and the stream of our life begins to
dry up at the fountain.  The candle under a bushel,
soon becomes only a smoking wick.  To  communi-
cate truth to  another,  quickens our own intellectual
life, and renders us receptive of more than we  give.
There are those who are ever learning, but never able to
corne to the knowledge of the truth.  They are like the
dark  substances in  nature, that absorb  all  the  rays,
and never  can become transparent and  luminous.
Give, and it  shall be given,  is a law that governs in
the  whole realm of mind.   It  has its application to
every form of good.
  There are many unsound mental states, which ulti-
mate  themselves, according to the law of spiritual
influx, in various diseased bodily conditions, that have
their  root in  this perversion of the true  order of  our
being.  Such persons  are unhappy, and  consequently
unhealthy, because  in  the unnatural state in which
they are, they think only of themselves—their own com-
fort and enjoyment.   Insanity, especially in the form
of melancholy, is often nothing but selfishness.   The 
THE MENTAL-CUKE.
219
brain is inflamed, and there is a congestion of its mag-
netic life, simply because its magnetism does not flow
forth in showers of blessings upon others. The waste,
worn out nerve-aura accumulates, because it does not
radiate around, making every thing happier and better
by receiving it.   Such unhappy and gloomy souls, we
fondly believe, when they put off the external envelope,
and  wake to consciousness in the spiritual world, will
be cured of  their diseased mental state, and their con-
sequent bodily infirmities.  But the cure will be effect-
ed, not by the breathing of the celestial aura, or rev-
eling in the heavenly aroma wafted by the gales that
sweep over celestial landscapes, but by being instruct-
ed by angels, and guided  by spiritual tutors into the
true order of their life.   If  we  deem ourselves the
most miserable of human kind, and our soul the most
wretched thing in the universe, it is because we have
forgotten others in our insane absorption  into  self.
The remedy is  here and  now.   Make  the heart  of
something outside your own  being to leap for joy.
Attune  your soul in harmony with the Life Divine.
Live to love, and then  you will delight to  live; and
health will glow and thrill in every organic structure.
Find some one  whose condition is unhappy like your
own.  Lift  up  your hand and your heart, and  pull
down a blessing upon his head.  The best prescrip- 
220
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
tion that man or angel can give to relieve your soul-
misery, and the correspondent abnormal physiological
state is, Be, like Jesus, every  one's best friend.  Seek
to make every body  and every thing  happy.   The
good, you intend to others, will come to you in divine
measure, more than you give.   Get well by curing
others.  Impart life, communicate from your own stock
of vital force to  others, and life from God, its sempi-
ternal  source, and from the angel-world, will flow
in to replenish your store.  To love another so as to
long to impart our good and our very life to him,
sends a thrill  of  life  through our whole  being.   It
kindles anew  the vital fire  in  the  decaying body.
This will seem  to the world at large, absorbed  in
their selfish schemes, as an idle dream, a transcenden-
tal revery.  Medical science,  with its antiquated the-
ories, will reject and  scout so spiritual a remedy, and
still cling  to its  senseless  formulas and  deleterious
drugs.   But we  still avsr there  is more  in it, than
the science of to day  is  ready to admit.  And is it
not true, that there  is more in heaven  and earth,
than philosophy ever dreamed of?  Has science gone
to the  utmost boundary of all that is knowable ?   Is
it  not  time for medicine to take an advanced  step ?
Is it  the  province of a true philosophy, like  the
Roman god,  Terminus,  to eternallv watch the  old 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
221
landmarks, lest the boundaries be moved ?  Are the
limits of knowledge forever fixed, or  is  truth  pro-
gressive  in its endless evolutions ?  Is there not in
every human  soul the divine germ of an  infinite
development, a capacity of an everlasting unfolding ?
Is the stunted, dwarfish growth of  the past centuries,
the final  goal of the  mind's race-course, and  the
terminus of the  soul  in  its march  of endless  pro-
gression ? 
222
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER XIX.

MENTAL METAMORPHOSIS; OR HOW TO INDUCE
    UPON OURSELVES ANY DESIRABLE MENTAL
    STATE.

Relation  of Mental  Disturbance to Disease. — Therapeutic
  Spiritual Forces. — Our Emotions involuntary. — Self-Con-
  version.— A  General Law stated. — Relation of Form to
  Internal Character. — The Lesson taught us by the Stage.
  — Expression of our inward States by the Face*. — How to
  effect a Change  in  our Feelings. — Hygienic  value of the
  Law. — Inspiration and Respiration. — Soul and Breath.
  — Peculiar Sensation attending Psychological Influence. —
  Nearness of the Inner Realm. — How to  be  Inspired. —
  Breathing of the Soul. — The Respiration  peculiar to all
  depressing Mental States. —How to relieve ourselves of them.
  — Usefulness of the Swedish Movements.


    THE  DIFFERENT  states of the mind, both in
      the department of thought and feeling., influence
 the physiological  manifestations.  All  psychological
 movements effect  a change in the organic functions.
 Hence the law  according to which our  feelings  may
 be changed and controlled, is one of great hygienic 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
223
value.   Every one who  has ever had much to do  in
the treatment of the various forms of chronic disease,
must have frequently heard the remark made  by in-
valids," that some peculiar mental trouble, some disap-
pointment, or unhappiness, or  abnormal excitement
or derangement of the spiritual nature, was the orig-
inal cause of their ill health.  And in  every case, if
we investigate their mental history, we shall find some
disturbance of  the spiritual  equilibrium to underlie
their  pathological condition.  But  how few, either
among patients or physicians, ever think of finding a
cure in the  removal of the  interior cause of their dis-
ease,  and in the restoration  of the mind  to a sound
and healtliy state.  How few seem to make any prac-
tical  use of those  spiritual  forces, that exercise so po-
tent an influence  over the  external organism, both in
the generation of diseased  conditions, and as a thera-
peutic agency.  Every particular case needs instruc-
tion adapted to its peculiarities, and we can lay down
 only  some general principles, that may serve as hints
in the treatment of  all cases.  We shall not  in  this
 chapter attempt to  show  how one mind may so  act
upon another as to change its  mental  state, but how
 the patient may effect in himself a spiritual metamor-
 phosis, and  induce upon himself any desirable mental
 state.  For it is a  matter of prime importance to teach 
224
THE MENTAL-CUKE.
a chronic invalid to be self-reliant, and to become his
own physician.
  We have seen that our thoughts and affections are
not  self-originated,  but are the result of an  influx
from the world of spirit, which is interfused within
this realm  of  being.   It  might, at first, seem from
this, that the  soul of man was only a passive recipient
of the ideas and feelings of  others, and that we could
have no more  control over our emotional and intellec-
tual states, than over the winds that  blow upon us.
It is true that our thoughts and affections are involun-
tary, in the sense that they cannot be changed by the
direct action of the will.   We often struggle long and
hard against them, and gain no relief from their infest-
ation. A mere command of the volitive power cannot
dispel melancholy, regret, fear, anxiety, guilt, or any
affection or emotion  we do  not wish  to nourish, and
of  which we would gladly rid ourselves.  They cleave
to us like the poisoned shirt of Nessus.   Still the hu-
man soul  is not like a ship on a stormy sea,  driven
before tempests and resistless currents, without rud-
der or compass.   While it is admitted, that neither
thought nor  affection  is self-derived, but both flow
in from our vital connection with the all-surronding,
all-pervading  spiritual world, and we  are under the
law of necessity both to think and feel while we  live, 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
225
yet if unhappy feelings or mental states flow in, why
may not  good ones as well?  We drink in spiritual
life from  another realm  of being; but can  we not
choose at what fountain or stream we will receive ?
Is there not a law of  which we  may avail ourselves,
and by conformity to which, we may render ourselves
receptive of any desirable mental state we may wish
to induce  upon  ourselves, as one of calmness or joy,
of  faith or trust,  of gentleness  and  lovingness ?
There is a way,  easy and practical, by which we may
loosen the hold of any unhappy  feeling upon us, and
cause it to give  place to a better state.   Suppose we
find ourselves, no matter  from what cause, suffering
from certain disordered and depressing mental states,
as anxiety, or sadness, or despair, or hurry of spirits,
or the foreboding of  evil, or  conscious self-imposed
guilt, so that we are filled with inward  disquietude,
and  suffering  the consequent derangement of the
bodily functions.  We desire  to exchange our pres-
ent  mental condition  for a  happy one—to  convert
ourselves,  to " make to ourselves a  new heart and a
new spirit."   We would be rid of the evil and attain
the opposite good.  How can  this be done in harmo-
ny with the  truth, that our feelings are involuntary,
and come  to us from  without, and do not originate
from the depth of our being ?   If  we are at all self 
226
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
reliant, we need send for neither the priest nor the
doctor. They are often like  the blind leading the
blind, and  both fall  into the ditch.  They are a bro-
ken reed, on which if we lean, it will pierce our hand.
To struggle against our feelings, will do us no good,
for action and reaction will here be equal.   Our con-
vulsive  efforts to deliver ourselves from  our mental
sufferings, will only plunge us the deeper, like a man
sinking in the mire.  We are then to cease all useless
smugglings an I vain efforts to free ourselves by our
own strength. Let the soul be calm and passive. Let
it  be  negative  and receptive towards the sphere of
those who  are in the state  you  would induce  upon
yourself, whether they  are  in  this  world  or  that
above.
   We lay down this general law—that influx is always
into forms that are correspondences. ' We will explain
this.  Between  external form and internal character
there is everywhere the relation of cause  and  effect.
Between the outward  configuration of  an  object and
its inward  nature, there is mutual action  and  reac-
tion.   "It is everywhere the indwelling  life, which
determines the  external form of  things.   Through-
out nature, in strict  accordance with  this law, differ-
ences of configuration  are,  in all cases, found to be
commensurate with differences of character  and use. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
227
Things  which  resemble each  other  in  quality and
function  resemble each other in shape; and  where-
ever there is unlikeness in quality and function, there
is  unlikeness in  form;  in  other  words, there is a
determinate relation  between  the  constitution and
appearence of  material objects;  and the reason why
any particular  animal or plant assumes  its own pre-
cise figure rather than any other, need be sought only
in the necessity of adapting  configuration to charac-
ter."  (New Physiognomy, by Samuel R.  Wells, p. 83.)
The relation of the outward form to the interior  es-
sence and character, is a universal one, and in living
beings is a mutual  one  To  put  an animal  into a
form or attitude that  expresses some ruling passion,
will excite it to action.  This  we  have successfully
tried.   So in  man,  when  the external is made to
assume a form  in harmony  with any  spiritual state,
the emotions and thoughts  constituting it flow  in.
It is a law  of  our being, uniform  in its  operation,
that when  we  assume the attitude which  outwardly
expresses  or  manifests any feeling or sentiment, it
spontaneously arises  within  us.    There  are  many
familiar illustrations  of this.   When an  actor on the
stage, by his  countenance, attitudes, and gestures,
outwardly  manifests  the feelings that belong to the
characters  he  personates, they  take  possession of 
228
THE MENTAL-CURE.
him  iii all  their reality,  and sometimes  with over-
powering force.   The power of not only feigning the
emotions and passions that tragic  and  comic acting
are designed to represent, but of actually inducing
them upon  one's  self, is the secret of the  highest
attainments in  the art.   But all this takes place in
harmony with the laws of our  nature, and  is due only
in part to a susceptible  constitution.   The  relation
of body and  soul is that of  correspondence,  and
there is a tendency in each to adjust itself in harmo-
ny with the  other.  The external form  is under the
control of the internal manhood, and obeys  the dic-
tates of its volitions.   By an effort of will, it can  be
made to assume any attitude  we  please, and  when it
comes into the  external  form that manifests or ex-
presses any  feeling, it becomes  as a prepared vessel
to receive it from the spiritual realms.   All our inte-
rior  states  are outwardly expressed by  that  most
wonderfully organized instrument of the mind—the
human face. Its muscles respond spontaneously to
the least  change of  feeling,  and  mold the  counte-
nance into the ultimate image of every varying emo-
tion.    And melancholy  cannot long  reign in  the
mind, when the  face is  made to assume the  form
that expresses mirth fulness.  So of all other depress-
ing  mental states.   The  muscles of  the face will 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
229
 respond to the force  of the  will, and  form an image
 expressive or representative of the opposite feelings,
 and the breath of lives shall be infused into it,  and
 the outward form shall become a living soul.  If one
 is troubled with  a hurry of spirits,  so common in
 chronic diseases of  the so-called nervous  type,  and
 which  quickens all  its movements, the pulsations of
 the heart, and the respiratory  action,  and exhausts
 the nerve force, let  him see to it,  that all his out-
 ward motions are slow and tranquil.  Become exter-
 nally quiet, and  soon a  tranquil feeling  will  steal
 over the mind, as gently  as  the dews of evening de-
 scend upon the flower.   If one is sad or gloomy, or
 fearful, or desponding, or suffers fiom a loss of self-
 respect, or is habitually impatient, let him voluntari-
 ly assume the attitude that  outwardly expresses  the
 opposite state, and the desired  emotion will arise in
 his consciousness.  Here is a principle of great prac-
 tical hygienic importance and  has  its application to
 all  those  abnormal  and  pathological  mental states
 that sustain a causal  relation to the various forms of
 chronic disease.   We can place the external man in
 such an attitude and form, as shall no longer ultimate
the feelings we wish  to remove, but  which shall be
the correspondence of the opposite  emotional state.
Then the  disordered psychological  condition,   of 
230
THE MENTAL-CURE.
which we wish to clear ourselves, having no basis  on
which to rest, comes to an end, like the fall of a tow-
er when the foundation is removed, and the opposite
affectional state flows in from  above into the corres-
pondent and receptive form.   The wind of the spirit
bloweth where it listeth, and if we spread our canvas
aright, we shall catch  celestial  gales.   When the
outward man conies into correspondent harmony with
the affections that prevail in the heavens, the soul
will vibrate  in harmony  with the angels.   Celestial
motion will be  communicated to our  spirit's  harp
strings, and bliss shall pervade our  soul, like festive
lights in  a long deserted mansion.   For the external
atmosphere  will no more  certainly rush in to fill a
vacuum,  than  the  all-surrounding  spirit-world will
flow into  the outward forms  that are the correspond-
ent or ultimate expression of its states.
  To receive  light and love,  thought and affection,
from the  upper or inner world, is to be inspired.   If  we
would be inspired with any particular feeling, as that
of joy, or peace, or  hope, or faith, it  is  important
that   we  attend  to  our  respiration.   Inspiration
means an in-breathing.  And  there  is an  important
connection between  the manner of our  respiration
ard our  states of mind.   When Swedenborg asserts
that in the  primeval age, the paradisiacal state, the 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.              231
golden age of  the poets, when men were in the supe-
rior, or rather  interior condition, their breathing was
tacit, and  not  externally perceptible,  it is what  we
should naturally expect, provided it  be  historically
true that there ever w-as such an age of the world or
race  of men.   The  statement, as to the  mode of
their respiration, rests on  a scientific basis.  They
thought interiorly, abstractly, intensely, and passive-
ly, and their  respiration  corresponded.  The nearer
we approach to the same state of thought, the less
discernible is our breathing.   The  more interiorly we
think, the more tacit  is our respiration,  as  in  the
genuine trance.  And there are  states of rapt ab-
straction from  our  external  surroundings, when the
body seems breathless, and  the spirit only respires.
The. breathing is internal, invisible, and in harmony
with  that  of the spiritual world, and then the intel-
lect is exalted to a higher plane of action.  That
there is an important connection between  our modes
of respiration, and our states of  mind, is a  physiologi-
cal and  psychological   truth,  not  hitherto  suffi-
ciently attended to, but  worthy   of  investigation.
In  all languages,  the air  is made representative of
spirit,  and it is a  fact familiar to the seers of  all
ages, that  influx from the spiritual  world,  is often-
times attended with a sensation as  of a cool air blow- 
232
THE MENTAL-CURE.
ing upon some  part of the person.  Thus  the word
used for soul or spirit is derived from a term mean-
ing air, wind, or breath.   Thus  the  Latin animus
and anima, are  from  the Greek anemcs, wind.   The
old Saxon word  for  spirit, ghost, and  the German
geist, are only another  form  of the term gas, which
is from the same root.   In the  Christian and Jewish
Scriptures, there  is only  one word  used to express
the two ideas of  wind and spirit.   "The wind blow-
eth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice there-
of,  but  canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither
it  goeth.   So it is  with  whatsoever  is  generated
from the  spirit."  The latter word is the same  that
is  rendered wind at the commencement of the pass-
age.  The spiritual  realm is within  and around the
material world.  The sphere  of the one pervades the
atmosphere of the other.   That-sphere  is composed
of  the  emanations,   or  vibrations,   of  the life  of
angels.  Thus  we  inhale  the affectional  states of
those above and around us.   Wkile gently breathing
deep and  full, we may  elevate the soul's aspirations
to  the upper realms.   A desire for a particular state,
if  it be not inordinate, but  calm  and tranquil, is a
reaching forth of  the  mind to grasp it.   Such is the
radical sense of the   word.   It is a negative  and
receptive  state, a consciousness of want,  a sort  of 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
233
mental  vacuum.   It  renders us  admissive  of  the
mental  state  we  wish  to  induce  upon  ourselves.
W7ith the mind thus fixed upon those above, we may
breathe through to the spiritual range of life, and inhale
purity, peace, and bliss from perennial and immortal
fountains—the sphere of angels and of God.   We
hear  people talk  about the soul's  breathing  after
purity and bliss, yet the  expression has lost its mean-
ing,  and has  degenerated  into  a  cant  phrase, of
which no definite  idea is formed.   To aspire to any
spiritual state,  is to breathe after it, (from the Latin
ad towards,  and spiro, to breathe.)  The very  word
spirit  comes  from spiro to  breathe.   So also the
French esprit, the  Italian spirito, the Spanish  espiritu,
and the Latin  spiritus.   The interior man respires,
as well as the  external  body, but its respiration is
tacit to the senses, and is not recognizable as that of
the outward man  is.   "There is a  natural body and
there is a spiritual body," and the  respiration of the
one is synchronous and harmonious with the other.
The one  breathes  an atmosphere surrounding the
globe  we inhabit, and charged with the effluvia of
material objects;  the other an aura enveloping the
spiritual  world, and  pervaded  with the emanating
sphere of its inhabitants.   The air has pneumatical
or spiritual life within its serene depths.   Thus while 
234
THE MENTAL-CURE.
we breathe the "air of immensity," we may inhale the
aura of celestial climes,  impregnated with the joys
and affectional  states of the angels, and the spirits
of the blest, who have been born into an undying
life.  We may be  inspired with a bliss from above,
and with spiritual delights that shall make our life a
perpetual  psalm of praise, and fill  with unuttered
hallelujahs our every day concerns.   But these hints
raid suggestions are given only to  those  " who have
ears to hear"—who believe the spiritual world is the
reality, our earthly life, the dream.
  All depressing, mental states are attended  with a
peculiar respiration, the  top of the lungs only being
called into action, and  not the abdominal muscles. By
directing the mind  to the frontal muscles, and breath-
ing naturally,  and  not too artificially, and with no
other effort of  will  than the fixing  of the thoughts
upon the abdominal coverings,  their  muscular  tissue
is contracted in the respiratory act, and this will  go
far towards relieving the mind  of any morbid state of
the feelings, as anxiety and melancholy, and the whole
class of depressing  emotions.  We have known  this
to effect, in a few moments, a surprising metamorpho-
sis in the mental condition of a patient.  As a reme-
dial agency in a system of Mental Hygiene, it deserves
consideration and a fair  trial. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
235
  The motion of the diaphragm  and the lungs  in
breathing, communicates a peculiar movement to the
cerebral mass, and affects the action of the brain, and
consequently the  manifestations of the mind.  In a
work entitled " The Institutions of Physiology," by
Blumenbach, it is said in speaking of the brain," that
after birth it undergoes a constant and gentle motion
correspondent with respiration, so that when the lungs
shrink in expiration, the brain rises a little, but when
the chest expands, it again subsides."   The discovery
of this concordant movement of  the  lungs and the
brain, has been claimed by  some for Swedenborg, but
Blumenbach ascribes it to Daniel Schlichting  who
described it in 1744.  It shows, in a clear light, the
sympathetic  connection  between the lungs and the
cerebrum, and the effect of  respiration upon the organ
of the  mind, and consequently upon our mental states.
Just in proportion as the respiratory movements are
diminished, external  consciousness and sensibility are
lessened.  When we cease breathing, they are  sus-
pended altogether.  The external manifestations  of
the mind are no longer  possible, when  the movement
of the brain, consequent upon, or synchronous with
respiration, terminates.   It is also  reasonable to sup-
pose, that the several varieties of respiration should be
accompanied with peculiar mental states, as  well  as 
236
THE MENTAL-CURE.
with peculiar movements of the cerebral mass.  This
is confirmed by experience.   To relieve ourselves of
any involuntary  and unhappy state of the mind,  we
have only to change the mode of respiration peculiar
to it,  for  that which  belongs to the  opposite state,
and the desired feeling or emotion will arise within
us.  The  Swedish Movements are  peculiarly adapt-
ed to  effect  the necessary change, both as to degree
and character, of the breathing which characterizes
all depressing and abnormal mental  states.   Hence
their demonstrated efficiency  in the cure  of chronic
diseases, both of the mind and body. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
237
                 CHAPTER  XX.

 THE COMMUNICATION OF LIFE  AND OF SANA-
            TIVE MENTAL INFLUENCE.

The Primal Source of Life.— Man imparls life to all below him.
  — Vital Force Communicable. — How Jesus gave his Life a
  Ransom for M my. — His cures not Miraculous in the  Theo-
  logical Sense. — The royal Touch for Scrofula. — Sanative
  Influence of the Hand. — Knowledge is Power. — Mental
  Conditions  necessary to a Cure. — Faith a Spiritual Force.
  — Its Therapeutic Influence. — The Cure of a  Paralytic by
  Davy with a Thermometer. — Effect of Fear. — Case of Hy-
  drophobia caused by it. — Experiment  with four Russian
  Criminals.— The Rose- Water Cure.— Vital Force and Ani-
  mal Heat correlative. — How Heat is generated and trans-
  mitted.— Therapeutic Influence of Friction. — Compression.
  — Percussion. — Motion. — Adaptation of the Hand as an
  Instrument for Communicating  Life. — Efficiency of  the
  Duplicated Movements  accounted for. — How to  Induce
  upon a  Patient  the proper State of Mind. — Polarity of our
  Feelings. — Inverted Action of the Cerebral Organs. — Res-
  toration of the  Equilibrium.— Mental  Vibration. — How
  Jesut healed the Sick. —Health is Contaaious. — Spiritual
  Inoculation.— Mental Leaven.

    THE INMOST life of all  that exists is  the divine
     Love.  Creation has gone forth from this, and the
life that  thrills in the universe owes its origin  to this 
238
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
 primal  source.    Life  emanates from  this  living
 center,  and is communicated to all, constituting the
 ground of all  finite  existence.   From this  focal
 source,  it goes out iu endless  and perpetual undula-
 tions, and  all live by virtue of life  transmitted from
 him.  It  finds its highest, completest  manifestation
 in  man, in the  human soul  made into the  divine
 image and likeness.   Man is a finite created recepta-
 cle of  the divine love  and  wisdom.   For  as the
 Father  has life  in himself, he  has given  to every
 human  being to have  life in himself,  and  to be a
 reservoir  for  its  distribution.   And man is  vitally
 positive towards all  the  lower  degrees of creation,
 and they exist  from God  through him.   His life, in
 its essence, is love springing eternally from the depth
 of the divine being.  As life  is communicated  from
 God,  so also is  it from  man, but from some more
 than from  others.  We have shown that our affec-
 tional  states are transmissible, from  one person to
 another by the  touch.  Life is  a force, and motion
 and force are communicable from one body to anoth-
 er.  It is a fact that  the world has long recognized,
 that one person may derive vital  force  from another
person.  Thus when the monarch of  Israel was  enfee-
bled by age, they procured for him a  young and
healthy  damsel to impart  vital heat to  his  negative 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
239
organism.  It is a  truth recognized by all physiolo-
gists and schools of medicine, that a young child
occupying the same bed with an  old person, will be
robbed of its vitality,  as  certainly as a heated body
will impart a thermal influence to another near or in
contact with it.  The child will pine away and some-
times die, without  any apparent  organic disease, but
by  a gradual lowering of the vital  tone, while the
older person becomes proportionately more vigorous,
and maintains a  parasitic existence.   When we assert
that life is communicable, that vital force  is trans-
missible from one human being to another, we occupy
undisputed  ground.  It was  in  harmony  with  this
recognized law  of  our being, that  Jesus  cured dis-
eased humanity.  He  laid down his life  for men,—
an expression  that has no reference to his death.   In
the tenth chapter of John's Gospel, he calls  himself
the good shepherd, and  affirms that he lays down
his life for the sheep.  One  definition of  the word
rendered here to lay down, is to  impart, to put into or
within any  one.   In another place  it is so  used in
reference  to the sphere of the divine life,—as " I will
put my spirit upon  or into him."  (Mat. xii. 18).   In
this  sense  he every day  laid down, or imparted his
life to  diseased humanity, and he taught his disciples
or scholars to do  the  same,  "to cure all  manner of 
240
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 sickness and disease among the people," a power that
 ought to  have continued in the church to this  day,
 and would if the charity or love from which it sprang
 had not died  out.   He  gave his life  a ransom for
 many, or  by this impartation of sanative virtue and
 vital force, he  delivered  multitudes  from diseased
 states of mind and  body.  Thus men  were saved by
 him, not by his death, as men have blindly  supposed,
 but as Paul avers, "much more by his life" (Rom. v.
 10.)  He employed, in his benevolent  mission to the
 unhappy and suffering, all the means through  which
 life is transmissible  from  one  person to  another—the
 imposition of hands, the silent sphere of his mind, the
 going  forth of his  love  for them in prayer, and he
 used the spiritual power of words.   There have been
 those, in every age of the world, who have, to a more
 limited extent, done the same.  His cures were none
 of them miracles, in the  theological sense, but were
 effected in harmony with laws  that  are  operative
 to-day.  The word miracle signifies what excites won-
 der, from the Latin  verb miror,  to be astonished.
 And wonder is  the child of  ignorance.  As soon as
any  phenomenon is  understood, and we come  to an
apprehension of the laws that govern it, it ceases to
be a wonder.   Miracles belong only to  a dark age,—
to a wicked and adulterous generation.   They  disap- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
241
pear before the light of science, like birds of night
at the approach of day.
  The Kings of England, for many centuries, employ-
ed the vital magnetism of the hand for the cure of
scrofula, and with a success that seemed to an igno-
rant age  miraculous.  No one  would  now  suppose
that the power to cure a person of a scrofulous diathe-
sis  by  imparting  vital force  to the action  of  the
excreting   organs  through  the  magnetism of  the
hands, was a prerogative confined to royality.  Hun-
dreds of others, both in civilized and savage nations,
have  effected  the  cure of disease  in the same way.
Love is the life of man—the inmost vital force of his
organism.   To apply  the  hands to a diseased part,
or to the nerve-conductor leading to  it, or to  the
point of  the  brain  with  which it  is in sympathetic
connection, with  a benevolent  wish   to effect  the
necessary change, and restore it to  a healthy state, by
either increasing  or  diminishing  its  vital  action,
imparts to it a spiritual force, which affects its phy-
siological  motions, and tends to produce  the desired
result.  This  is effected in proportion  to the purity
and strength of  the love, in which the healing effort
has its birth,  and of which the  kind  wish is only a
modification.  But love acts by  wisdom.  To attain
the highest success in this mode of cure,  a person 
242
THE MENTAL-CURE.
must know what the pathological state of the organs
is in disease,  and  what  change  it  is necessary to
effect in their  action in order to restore the body to
a healthy condition.    He must  have  an accurate
knowledge of  the  anatomy and  physiology  of  the
nervous system, the connection of  the various bodily
organs  with the brain, and of the nature of those
spiritual disturbances and morbid  mental states that
underlie all diseased conditions of the bodily organ-
ism.  It is emphatically true of this system of medi-
cal  treatment,  that  knowledge  is power.   Faith,
both in the operator and  patient,  is desirable.  It is
a  spiritual  force  that has accomplished  wonders.
The power of faith, of which  we  might give numer-
ous  illustrations, drawn from  the recorded  facts of
ancient and modern times, in restoring both mind
and  body to a healthy state, and the law that governs
its action  and  influence,  are but  poorly understood
by the world  at large.  It is a subject worthy of  in-
vestigation by thinking minds.   It is an element of
strength in the  will,—and an essential  ingredient in
a sound and harmonious mental state, aud thus neces-
sary to a restoration to life and health. It is an actual
psychological or spiritual force.   To  believe  that we
can do a thing, especially if that faith is the result of
an  understanding of nature's  laws, empowers us to 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
243
do it.  To believe that we are well, or  that we are
becoming so, excites a spiritual force within us, that
goes far towards making us so.   If  we firmly believe
that a certain remedy will cure us of a diseased con-
dition, though it may  have no chemical  adaptation
to the removal of the disorder, we shall be benefitted
by it.  Disease has often  been cured  by faith  alone
in the patient.   The  familiar  case of  the  woman
mentioned in  the Gospel  history,  who had suffered
for  twelve  years from  a dangeious uterine hemor-
rhage,  baffling  the  skill  of various  physicians,  is
known to all.   She undoubtingly believed that  if she
could touch the hem of  Jesus' garment she would be
restored.   With this assured faith, amounting to  a
certainty in her mind, which comes next to knowledge,
she touched the fringe of his outer robe, and her faith,
and  nothing else, made her whole. This was no mira-
cle, but only the natural triumph of  the mind over the
morbid condition of the body.   The same cause will
produce  the same  effect  now,  for  whatever  takes
place in harmony with the  laws of our being, belongs
to all ages  and all  lands.  The lack  of faith  is the
loss of one of the essential  elements  of a sound mental
state,  which underlies, as a foundation, a healthy
bodily condition.  In the magnetic or psychological
healer, it is a positive mental force; in the patient, a 
244
THE MENTAL-CURE.
receptive  mental  state.    But however  valuable it
may be, knowledge is better.   An undoubting belief is
what w'e call certainty, but it should be  based upon
a positive knowledge of  the  laws by which a desired
result is effected.   God created and still creates the
world by wisdom.    Love can only operate sucess-
fully through the intellect.   There are two things in
a  patient necessary  to  the  reception of a  spiritual
sanative  influence.    One  is a desire to get well.
The other is a faith in the efficiency of  the  remedial
agency.  Without these two, the cure of disease by
any mode of treatment,  is, to say the least, if not im-
possible, exceedingly difficult.  To put to the patient
the questions, Wilt thou  be made  whole ?    and,
Believest thou that I am able  to  do this for thee ?
is of more importance than to feel the  pulse, or ex-
amine the state of the raucous surface of the tongue.
Unless an honest affirmative answer can be given to
both inquiries, the case may be dismissed, or be treat-
ed with pure water drops, or cracker pills, or homeo-
pathic pellets.   The only sure thing about  the  case
will  be the  entry of the  fee upon  the physician's
books, or into his pocket.
   The influence of faith in the cure of disease is well
illustrated by a fact mentioned in Paris's Life of Sir
Humphrey Davy. In the early period of his Scientific 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
245
career, Davy was assisting Dr. Beddoes in his experi-
ments on the inhalation of nitrous oxide.  Dr. Beddoes,
thinking the oxide must be a specific for paralysis, a
patient  was selected for  trial  and placed under the
care of Sir Humphrey.  Before administering the gas,
wishing to  ascertain the  temperature  of the palsied
man's blood, a small thermometer was inserted under
his tongue.  The paralytic,  wholy ignorant of the
process to  which he was to be subjected, but deeply
impressed, by Dr. Beddoes, with the certainty of its suc-
cess, no sooner felt the thermometer between his teeth,
than he concluded that the talismanic influence was at
work, and in a burst of enthusiasm declared he felt its
healing power through his whole body.   Here was an
opportunity to test the influence of the mind in the cure
of palsy that was not to be lost. The gas was not used,
but on  the following day, the thermometer was again
employed with equally marked  effects;  and at the
end of  two weeks  the patient was dismissed cured,
no remedy  of any kind having ever been used except
the thermometer.   His faith  made him whole, not
by accident, nor  by a miracle, but by  an invariable
law of our being.  So important a principle ought
not to be ignored by  medical  science, and left to ig-
norant quacks, who often perform astonishing  cures
by means of it. 
246
THE MENTAL-CURE.
  Fear is the opposite of faith, and produces equally
striking  effects in the  generation of diseased condi-
tions  of  the.body.   Many facts of this kind have
been  collected to illustrate what is falsely called the
influence of the imagination.  Persons have been shot
dead  with blank cartridges.   A familiar fact is that
of the Edinburg  criminal who  died from a supposed
loss of  blood, when it was only warm water that
was made  to trickle over his arm after it was barely
pricked  by the surgeons.   Dr.  Moore mentions the
case  of  a lady who  died with every symptom of hy-
drophobia, under  the mistaken notion that  she  had
been bitten by a rabid dog,  when it  was demonstra-
ble that the animal had only torn her  dress.   One of
the most instructive and satisfactory experiments on
record, showing the influence of the mind in the gen-
eration of fatal diseases, is that tried  upon four Rus-
sian  criminals, who had been condemned to death for
political offences.  It was reported in the London Med-
ical  Times.   The cholera was raging at the time in
Russia, and the criminals, while ignorant of  the fact,
were  made to occupy beds on which persons  had re-
cently died  with the disease.  Although  thus expos-
ed to the contagion, not one of them exhibited the
least symptom of the malady.  After  this they were
told that they must sleep on beds that had been oc- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
247
cupied by persons who had been sick with the cholera.
But in fact, the beds were entirely new, and had never
been used by any one.  Their fear proved to be a more
powerful influence than the contagion, for three out of
the four took the disease  in its most  fatal form,  and
died in four hours after the attack. Such a fact, com-
ing as it does to us well authenticated, speaks volumes
in favor of the doctrine  of the spiritual origin of dis-
ease, and the efficiency  of psychical remedies.   But
the current medical science, while convinced of  the
truth of this, makes no practical use of it as a reme-
dial agency.  Yet it is  an interesting fact, that  the
longer  a man has  been engaged  in the practice of
the healing art, the less confidence he has in medici-
nal compounds, and  the more he  relies upon the vis
medicatrix naturae, and upon the principles of Mental
Hygiene.  An aged  physcian recently informed the
author  of  a remarkable  cure he  had accomplished
upon  a nervous patient by   the  potent virtues of
clear  water, tinged with rosemary,  a few drops of
which  were taken  before each meal.   Her  restora-
tion was complete and apparently permament.  Faith
is so essential  a condition in the cure of disease, that
in Nazareth and the  adjacent region, Jesus could do
but few mighty works, because of  the unbelief of the
people.  (Matt.  xiii. 58.)   The  reason assigned by him 
248
THE MENTAL-CURE.
for the disciples' want of success in curing the lunatic
child, was  their unbelief, showing that faith is an
element of power in him who would heal diseases of
body and mind by the psychological method of treat-
ment.  (Matt. xvii. 14—20.)
   The  life  of the  body, or the force by means of
 which the vital movements are accomplished, is heat,
 —not a mere dead  caloric, but a heat generated by
 the spiritual principle.   The living forces of  the hu-
 man  system and animal heat, are now believed by
 physiologists to be  correlative, or are  mutually trans-
 mutable and interchangeable.  A direct relation cer-
 tainly exists between them. M. Jules, and M. Serres,
 Prof. Faraday, and  other scientists, have demonstrated
 the identity of heat and mechanical force.   They are
 correlative and equivalant to each other.  In the an-
 imal mechanism the same law holds good.   If the liv-
 ing force  of the body is heat—a heat  that is the cor-
 respondent of the love—then all those  means by which
 heat is generated and transmitted from one body  to
 another, become the means of communicating life, and
 are a therapeutical agency.  Among these  may be
 mentioned friction.   If  your hands are cold, you rub
 them till the vital action is restored.   If your child's
 hands are cold,  you use  the same means to warm
 them.  The amount of  heat generated in this way is 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             249
proportioned to the force employed.  If we feel a pain
in any part, our first impulse is to place the hand upon
it.  By this means the  accumulation  of vital heat
in the tissue is soon diminished, being conducted into
the hand, and  conveyed to another part of the system.
The hand of another person would be equally or still
more  efficient.  In this way we have cured a burn, or
allayed the most painful inflammations, in a short time.
To place the hand  upon any part of the  body of  an-
other person, creates a tendency in the vital force of
both toward the point  of contact.  This  is perceived
as an increased glow of  vital heat.  If  the part be
cold and negative it soon becomes warm, and exhibits
an augmented vascular  action.   These  are nature's
remedies, prescribed by  our intuitions and instincts,
and are as efficient  as they are natural.   Compression
produces heat.  A  piece of cold wood  subjected  to a
powerful hydraulic pressure is immediately warmed.
 Percussion generates heat, or the force  expended in
 the act is transmuted into the thermal force. A piece
 of cold  iron  on an anvil, struck  by a hammer, is
 warmed.  This principle seems to have been employ-
 ed in  the  remotest ages  as a curative agency.  We
 have a work published at Frankfort in 1698 entitled
 "Curious  account of how Blows will  often  Cure,
 promptly  and well, all  kinds  of  Chronic Diesases." 
250
THE MENTAL-CURE.
The prophet Elisha manifestly employed this means
in the  cure of disease.   The Syrian general who
came to him to be healed of his leprosy, supposed he
was going to "smite  his hand over the  place" and
thus cure him.   But  why should he have  expected
this treatment unless it was common in that region
of country ?
   Motion is correlated to life.  The  movement of a
part determines  the vital force to the  part moved.
All motions, passive or active, generate  heat.  A
person  riding iu a cold day  is warmer than  he  would
be to  sit still in the open air.  Water  poured from
one vessel to another, or made to revolve in a cylin-
der, is  warmed.  This has.been shown  by  the ther-
mometer.  It has been estimated that the falls of
the l\hine  generate enough heat in one day to melt
twelve thousand metres of ice.   All  the movements
employed in the  system of Ling, especially the so
called  duj Heated movements, or those where the pa-
tient is  passive—the frictions, vibrations,  compres-
sions, percussions— are efficient therapeutic  agencies.
We have employed the system for several years in
the treatment of the various forms of chronic derange-
ments  of the body, and with a success that has some-
times seemed to  those who did not  understand the
laws that govern it,  to  border  on the  miraculous 
THE MENTAL-CURE.            251
But  we have always supposed  that it owed  a  great
part  of its efficiency to an impartation of vital mag-
netism from  the operator to the  patient, an  opinion
entertained by the German practitioners of  the art.
They adopt  Reichenbach's theory of the  odic force,
and assert that an  influence  of this kind is  actually
communicated  to  the  system of the patient.   The
nervous energy of the invalid is thereby exalted, and
the reaction of the  vital powers against disease great-
ly increased.   Dally gives a beautiful drawing of the
human hand  in its minute and  microscopic anatomy,
showing that it is an instrument skillfully adapted to
perform the office, as a part of its physiological func-
tions, of imparting something like vital magnetism to
another person, and argues that an important advan-
tage is derived by  the invalid from this transmission
of life.  We  are convinced of the correctness of this
theory.   It is in perfect harmony with the principles
and laws unfolded  in this work.
   But there is manifestly an agency concerned in the
cure of disease, far more subtle and  potent than the
semi-spiritual odic  force,—a psychological influence.
This acts  upon the mind of the patient, thence upon
the spiritual  body, and  through  this upon the  mate-
rial organism.  The law of its action, is from within
outward.  The living forces of the system are spirit- 
252
THE MENTAL-CURE.
ual.   And there is a direct and potential influence of
mind  upon mind.   This goes to the root of all diseas-
ed conditions, and carries a remedial agency into the
realm of causation.  There  is a variety of  phenom-
ena, passing under the names of Mesmerism,  Psychol-
ogy, Biology, Animal Magnetism, Pathetism, Hypno-
tism, and  even Psychometry,  that are  reducible to
one general  principle,—the influence or action  of
mind  upon mind, and the communication of  spiritual
life from one person to another,  who is negatively
receptive of it.
  If all diseases originate in  some  disturbed or in-
harmonious mental states,  which ultimate themselves
in corresponding  bodily  conditions, it  becomes a
question of primal importance how to induce upon a
patient, as a  permanent possession, the Stat? of mind
which is  the opposite  of  that causing  the disease.
Is there  any law that governs in  effecting  such a
spiritual conversion  or metamorphosis ?   There is a
sort of polarity about  our feelings as well  as  about
the different  organs of  the body.  In fact it is com-
ing to be recognized by  science  that  polarity is a
universal  property of things,  belonging to the  atom
as well as to the world.   Even light  has  polarity,
And by transmitting it through certain substances,
as a bundle of  thin glass plates or certain crystals, a 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
253
change is effected in  the direction of the vibratory
wave, which inverts  its polarity.   Gravitation  may
be only the attraction between the  positive and nega-
tive  forces  of things.   Something analogous to it
belongs to spiritual  essences.  There are what may
with propriety be called positive and negative states
of the mind, and a dual action of the feelings. There
may be a loss of balance here, or  an inverted action
of every  faculty  and of its  organ in the brain—as
faith and  fear.  The one is positive; the other nega-
tive.  The mind employs the same part of  the  cere-
brum in the  outward manifestation of the  two  dis-
tinct  sentiments  or  feelings.  Or  fear and anxiety
are the inverted  action of  faith.   All the  organs
may undergo this transposition of their  forces.  In
some cases  of  insanity, which  we have had under
treatment, the  patients have exhibited an inverted
action of  the social instincts, so that those they  once
loved the most, become correspondingly repugnant
to them.   In the action of conscience, there may be
approval or  condemnation.   There may be  mirthful-
ness or sadness.   But tho same organ in the brain is
used in  the manifestation  of both feelings,  only one
is  a positive and  the  other a negative  action.  The
same may be said of hope  and despondency.  The
predominance of  the  latter  over the former  consti- 
254
THE MENTAL-CURE.
tutes the negative  state of the former, or its invert-
ed action.  In the case of  a magnet, if there should
be this transposition of its forces,  how  could  it be
restored to its normal state ?   Or if there should be
a loss of balance and  equilibrium between the posi-
tive  and negative poles, how could  the harmony be
re-established ?  We have only to bring the negative
pole in contact  with the  positive  pole  of another
magnet, and it attracts into  itself the  appropriate
magnetism, and becomes charged with it.  So of the
other  pole.  In a  similiar way, a  negative  or evil
mental state may be made to give place to a positive
or good one.   The  magnetic  or  spiritual  healer
should approach the patient's mind on the side of its
disturbance,  and if he desires to be relieved, his mind
will attract into itself, with all the force of a hungry
sympathy, the feelings and thoughts of the operator.
The good-will also of the physician,  his  benevolent
wish to impart his own better mental states will assist
and facilitate the process of spiritual induction.
   Nearly every thing in science is now explained by
the theory of vibration,  especially the phenomena of
the imponderable forces—light, heat, color, electricity,
and magnetism.   If two strings of equal length are
set to vibrating, but not in harmony, there will be  a
tendency in them to a perfect sameness and  oneness 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.             255
 of movement   And if they can be made to continue
 their motions, they will soon both vibrate at the same
 distance and in the same time.  Further  still, if two
 strings be stretched parallel  to  each other, and one
 be caused to vibrate, it will instantly  communicate its
 motion to the other.   In  a  way aualogous to this, one
 mind may induce upon another mind  its own emotion?,
 its thoughts and  feelings.   Our  love is our life, and
 the exeitement of the love  is a spiritual motion.   If a
 patient is afflicted with certain abnormal feelings or
 mental states,  whose depressing influence has caused
 his diseased condition, and if he desires to be deliver-
 ed from the spiritual causes of  his physical disorder,
 let him submit himself to the  magnetic  treatment of
 some kind  and sympathetic  friend.   He should be
 passive like the  unmoved  string.  Then the move-
 ments of the operator's mind, his emotions and affec-
 tional  states,  will be  communicated  to  him.   The
 effect  will be permanent also.   One  mind may da-
 guerreotype itself upon  another.   It may make an
 ineffaceable  impression  upon  it, and  effect a lasting
 metamorphosis in it.  Just as certainly as one  harp
 played  upon, will cause  another standing by  it, to
sound  also, so  certainly, and by an  unerring law ot
our spiritual nature, one mind, by a sort of mysteri-
ous vibration, will communicate its mental forces to 
256
THE MENTAL-CURE.
another  mind.   Under  the proper  conditions,  we
need have  no doubt of producing the desired result.
There is no miracle here, no departure from law, any
more  than  in the phenomena  we have mentioned as
illustrations.  Both are  natural, and  we may  be as
certain of the desired result in one case as the other.
   In  this way, Jesus  healed the sick, first  the mind,
then the body.  He removed  the  spiritual cause of
disease, and the physical effect ceased.   He  carried
his sanative  influence into  both departments of  our
being, the  inner and  the outer.   This was done by
the law of  sympathy—a law of the mind that means
more  than the world has ever understood.   By it one
mind  transmits  its states of feeling  and  modes of
thought  to another, and oftentimes without  intend-
ing it.  Jesus thus imparted to the sick and wretched
the calm happiness of  his own  loving and gentle
heart.   His habitual mental condition, when commu-
nicated  to  the afflicted, was the panacea for all their
spiritual abnormality.  His  mind was a perfect har-
mony, everywhere exactly  balanced,  and thus con-
tained in itself all that  any one, however wretched,
needed to restore his soul to soundness  and  health.
Hence his  cures were mostly, if not always, instan-
taneous.
  If we, who make but  a  distant  approach to the 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.             257
perfection of character exhibited  by Jesus,  can not
instantaneously cure every form of mental and bodily
disorder, we can do it  more slowly, but as surely, if
we  are  moved  by  the same  love.   The little  we
impart of mental good and sanative  influence,  will
propagate  and  diffuse itself  like  leaven, until  the
whole  mental nature  of the patient is changed  and
becomes homogeneous with it.  A little contagion,
though it be but an infinitesimal amount, will multi-
ply itself and propagate itself, until the whole system
is assimilated to it.  But a person may be inoculated
with health as well as with disease.  All contagions
operate through the spiritual essence in them.  Some
false notion imbibed, some groundless fear, often lies
at the bottom of chronic  disease.   It predisposes the
outward organism  to  a state  of things  in  harmony
with  it, for  there is a conatus in both the  soul  and
body to adjust themselves to each other, so as to be in
agreement.   One false  notion,  somehow acquired,
will work like leaven,  until the mind of  the recipient
is changed, and his  whole life modified by it.  Thus
Jesus, understanding  this law of mental impregna-
tion, and the tendency of any  thought or feeling to
diffuse  and  propagate  itself, charged his  disciples to
beware of the  leaven  of  the Pharisees, referring to
their false and  pernicious notions.   If the  evil  and 
258
THE MENTAL-CORE.
the false work such changes, why may not the good
and the true produce still greater and diviner results?
"The kingdom of heaven is like leaven (as well as the
false doctrines  of Pharisees)., which a  woman took
and hid in three measures  of meal  until the whole
was leavened."   But the highest heaven is  only the
greatest degree of love, and  the most exalted range
of the  intellect.   If heaven be in us, we may impart
it to others, and it will prove like leaven in the flour
—it will spread until the whole soul  is assimilated  to
it.  We may avail ourselves of these hitherto hidden
laws of our spiritual essence in the cure of mental
and physical  disorders.   As  mankind become  more
elevated in the intellectual  scale, the remedial agen-
cies  employed by them, will  become less  gross and
material, and  more spiritual.  Doctrines  that once
were satisfactory and useful to the mind  of man, can-
not now nourish his  inner  life.  So remedies, that
people  once used without injury, and perhaps with
benefit, in the present advanced stage of the develop-
ment of the race, are  no longer adapted to  the cure
of disease.   The New Age demands not only a bet-
ter theology and philosophy, but a more  spiritual sys-
tem of medication. 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.              259
               CHAPTER  XXI.

  THE MIND NOT LIMITED BY  SPACE IN THE
       TRANSMISSION OF  PSYCHOLOGICAL  AND
       SANATIVE  INFLUENCES.

Freedom of the Mind from Spatial Restraint —Spiritual
  Presence. — Mental  Locomotion. — Physiological  Iufiu-
  ence of Psychological Impressions. — Transmission of Men-
  tal Force.— The  Model Man  and  Great  Physician.—
  His  freedom from Material Limitations. — The Interior
  State intensely Positive. — The Prayer Cure. — The Laws
  governing it.— Love the Healing Power.— The Mind to be
  first Healed. — The Mystery of the Cures wrought by Jesus
  explained. — How   to Convert Souls  without  a Miracle.
  —Nature  of the Mental Sphere. — Healing at  a  Distance.
  — The Laws by  which it is  Effected. — Directions given in
  regard to it. — Communication of abnormal States by Sym-
  pathy. — Practical Value of the Law.

   IT IS one of  the peculiar  properties  of mind, or
     spiritual  essence,  that it is not  subject to the
limitations of time and  space.  These are  the essen-
tial conditions of what we  call matter.   It exists in
time and fills space,  and is limited to the  space it ocu-
pies.   But the  human  spirit is free  from this  confine- 
260
TRf  MENTAL-CURE.
ment and restraint.  In the realm of spirit, time and
space are not objective realities, but subjective states,
or as Kant expresses it, " forms  of  the  intellect."
It can  be present, really and substantially, with those
who are miles away.  It is a common form of expres-
sion, not originated  by Paul, but arising from  an
intuitive recognition  of its  mysterious nature and
powers, that we  are  present in spirit with certain
loved ones, though absent from them in body.   Not
that our souls actually leave their bodies, for the con-
nection between them is never dissolved but once, but
our mental presence and force seem to  go forth to a
distance, and  break loose from all spatial  restraints.
For in another world the spirit moves not so  much
by a passing from  one point of space to  another, as
by a change of state, and a transferrence of its force.
In  this way we may  appear to ourselves to journey
miles away, until  we are  present  with  some distant
person.   Sometimes the intervening objects and scene-
ry pass  in  review, and may be described.  We may
influence the thoughts and feelings of the distant one,
with whom we come into rapport, which is only a
spiritual presence  and  conjunction of two minds, in
the same way, it is to be presumed, that  one  spirit
acts upon and into another spirit in the world above.
We often feel an indefinable sense of the presence of 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             261
persons, both those who are  still living in the flesh,
and those who have passed to the inner sphere of life.
This is something most real, and not the working of
what we call imagination.  It usually occurs in con-
nection  with those with whom wre  are  in  sympathy.
Through the impression made upon the  spirit, the
body, or any of its organs, may be affected.  For all
psychological influences effect a change in the physiological
movements.   In this way life may be infused into any
weakened part, pains may be dispersed, and inflamma-
tions and congestions relieved.  When examining  a
patient  hundreds of  miles away, we have sometimes
been sensibly affected with  their diseased  state both
of mind and body.   Once where the  patient  was
troubled with almost perpetual nausea, it  occasioned
vomiting in us.   Such effects are common in psycho-
metrical examinations.   If a patient can thus affect a
physician, not merely with mental impressions, but in
a moment  modify the functional action of the bodily
organs,  can he  not influence the  patient as well ?
Availing himself of this mental law and force, he can
affect the  physiological  action of any organ in the
body.   We have found many  cases where this mode
of treatment was even more efficient than the ordina-
ry magnetic manipulations.   We  devoted more than
a year to the study of the laws that govern this trans- 
262
THE MENTAL-CURE.
mission of vital force  to a distance, and to experi-
ments with it.  Most of the experiments made in psy-
chology have been of a trivial nature, and of no oth-
er value than the proof they afford of the existence
of a law of action  and reaction between minds at  a
distance.  Our experiments were entered upon,  not so
much with the  desire to  establish the reality of such
an influence of mind upon mind, as to see if it could
not be turned to some  important hygienic use.  This
has  been  satisfactorily  demonstrated,  and it  has
proved itself to be a sanative agency to an extent far
beyond our  expectations.   Many  quite desperate
cases of  chronic disease have been cured in this, to
some incredible way, in a few days.  The rest of this
volume could be filled  with authenticated facts  in re-
lation  to marvelous cures by the use of no other reme-
dial agency.  But we  have deemed it better, at least
it is more in consonance  with our feelings, to imitate
the  great Physician,  and say to the patients thus
healed and  loosed from  their infirmities, "  See thou
tell no man."   Certificates  of wonderful cures  and
advertisements of  miraculous gifts, spring more from
a desire to  make money out of  the sufferings of hu-
manity, than a desire to do good to the souls  and
bodies of men.  They are no reliable  evidence of an
ability to cure " all manner  of  sickness and disease 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
263
among the people," but sometimes indicate a lack of
that pure, unselfish love  which is the only healing
power.  The great forces of nature are silent in their
operation, and make but little show or noise.   It
does not come within the scope of the  present vol-
ume, to make an encyclopedia of facts, but to  unfold
the principles and  the philosophy of all the individual
facts that could be collected under the various  sub-
jects treated  of.   We hold to the heresy  that  princi-
ples come  before  facts in  the true order of mental
growth, and  the knowledge of things in their causes,
is of more worth than a recognition of effects.  This
we  acknowledge is not the Baconian  method of phi-
losophizing.
  Jesus of Nazareth possessed  the power of transfer-
ring his mental  presence  and spiritual force through
any extent of spatial distance, and in a degree never
witnessed before  in  the  world.   It  is the  highest
glory of  a disciple to be like the Master or Teacher.
He speaks of being in heaven even while he dwelt bodi-
ly on the earth.   "No man hath ascended  up to hea-
ven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son
man who is in heaven."   The import of these words
is, that while on earth his soul had  risen  to a truly
spiritual  life.  He inner selfhood was not in bondage
to material  limitations, but was subject to the  laws 
264
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 that govern human nature in the spiritual world, and
 having attained to the exalted privileges of the other
 and inner life, was invested with the powers of a pure
 spirit.  His interior manhood, thus made capable of
 acting  independently of the bodily instrument,  and
 freed from material limitations, read the very thoughts
 of men; told them, as in the case of Nathaniel, secret
 facts  in their past life; and sometimes disclosed the
 future, by- a piercing glance into the realm of causa-
 tion.   In a word, though possessed of a material body,
 the inner man was emancipated  from material thral-
 dom,  and asserted its supremacy.  In  this state, he
 cured  disease,  often  without  touching the  patient.
 His spirit acted directly upon the living spirit of the
 diseased, and thus acted upon the cause of the exter-
 nal pathological  condition.   Just  in proportion as
 any one attains to the state exhibited by him, can he
 cure diseases of mind and body as he did.   We wish
 to steer clear of all theological speculations and con-
 troversies, and shall enter upon no discussion as to the
 nature of Jesus, nor cry,  Ecce  Homo, nor Ecce Dcus,
 nor Ecce Deus-IIomo, though we  cannot well avoid
 the confession of our faith in him, as  God   manifest
in the  flesh,  and  dwelling among us.  One thing all
theories and creeds admit,—and  this is the only truth
wo cave now to deal with—that  he had a complete 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             265
 human nature, which passed through a perfectly hu-
 man  development from its birth to  its glorification
 and ascension.  And what the divine nature did for
 him, it is willing to do for us, in a  degree, and we
 maybe  glorified or  spiritulized with him.  This  is
 certainly the teaching of the New Testament.
   The interior state of which we are speaking is not
 a  negative  one, but is intensely positive toward all
 on a lower plane.  It.is a  state receptive of  spiritual
 influx,  of life and light  from  the  celestial realms,
 but is  positive and communicative towards those who
 are only in the sensuous degree of the mind's action.
 It is a position of great spiritual power.   The lower
 plane of being is always  negatively  passive to  the
 spiritual world.   So persons, elevated or unfolded to
 the state we  have  described,   are positive  towards
 those on a lower and less spiritual plane.
   In harmony with* the laws that govern in the action
 of mind upon mind,  prayer avails for the cure of  dis-
 ease, and would he a more common and efficient reme-
 dial agency, if there was  more faith among  men in
the reality and power of spiritual influences.  Prayer
for another, in  its essence,  is a desire for the good
and happiness of its object.   It is one of the  forms
in  which a  genuine neighborly love or charity is
expressed, and it always affects the mind of him who 
266
THE MENTAL-CURE.
is  the subject of our intercessions.   It is  only an-
other illustration  of the  action of one spirit  upon
another.   Among the early Christians, it was a com-
mon practice  in the cure  of  diseased states of mind
and  body.  (James v. 14,  15.)  And  no good reason
can  be  assigned  why it  should not be as  efficient
to-day as it was eighteen  centuries ago.   We have
known several persons  who  devoted themselves  to
this method of cure, and  with a success  that put to
shame more material, but  less rational and efficacious
methods  of medication.   If  disease  has  a spiritual
origin, and its causes are found in preexisting  disor-
dered mental  states, Proseuchopathy, or  the prayer-
cure, is as well adapted to the removal of the prior
pathological condition of the  inner man, as Allopathy,
or Hydropathy, or Homeopathy.   A return to  the
pure  unselfish love  and   undoubting faith of  the
primitive church,  would restore  to favor again  this
efficient spiritual remedy for  disease.  The Seeress of
Prevorst, characterized for her unassuming piety and
ardent christian love, in this  way cured the Countess
Von Maldeghem of insanity  and bodily disease.
  The power to cure disease by spiritual  forces  is
found in  the divine principle of love.  Just so far as
any one receives into himself the pure unselfish love
of God,—a love that in him  is an irrepressible  desire 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
267
to communicate good,—so far there is in him a power
to impart life and health and peace to others.  There
is lodged within him a fraction of the divine omnipo-
tence.   So far as he is calmly and humbly conscious
of this divine element  within him, has  he power to
do the works of  God.  Love is the  life  of all; it is
the life of God;  it is the  divinest and  most poten-
tial thing in the  universe.   If a man has attained to
the life of love, having risen above all selfish consider-
ations as controlling motives of conduct, and is filled
with an all-absorbing divine longing to impart good
to every human being, and has a faith rooted in love,
his slightest touch  is healing.  His  very  presence is
fraught  with  sanative influences.   His sphere is  a
life-giving emanative energy.   This healthy spiritual
life is communicated by actual material  contact, or
the action of his mind upon  others in the distance.
It is a law of our being, and  we cannot  escape from
its operation, that  every time we th'nk  of an absent
person we  affect them for good or evil.
   In  studying the cures wrought by  Jesus, one ia
struck with  the  apparent  ease with which he over
came every diseased condition.  The secret of this
seems to be, he  healed first the mind, going to  the
secret mental state as the cause, and  on removing
this,  the effect  or correspondent bodily  condition 
268
THE MENTAL-CURE.
ceased at  once.   The suddenness  with  which  this
takes place may be illustrated in this way.  If in a
fracture of the skull a portion of the cranium presses
upon the  brain, the patient is deprived of conscious-
ness.  The external  manifestations of the  mind arc
by  this cause suspended.  But  as  soon as the cere-
brum is  relieved of  this pressure,  consciousness  is
restored.   Just so soon, in most  cases, when the men-
tal state, underlying any diseased condition, is changed
to the normal  one, the  outward pathological  state
ceases.  An effect cannot  exist when its  cause  no
longer acts.   In this way Christ carried his healing
power into the realm of spiritual causes.   He addressed
himself as a spirit to  the spirit of the patient.   If  we
understand all that is implied in this, and can go and
do likewise, diseases  of long  standing will yield at
once  to the potent energy of our love.   This may
be effected at a distance, as  well as  in the presence of
the unhappy sufferer.   The greatest difficulty in the
cure of a  disease, is  in coming  to the perception of
the interior cause, and in finding how to remove  it.
Independent  clairvoyance or intuition is adequate to
the first, and  magnetism, using the term not  merely
for mesmerism, but for the law by  which mind com-
municates  its  spiritual  states  and forces  to another,
is equal to the latter result. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
269
  In our verbal communications with a  patient, we
should forget  that  he has any material body, and
speak  as  a spirit to his spirit.  Here is  a source  of
power  that  is  overlooked.  We  generally speak  to
each other's body, and think of nothing else.   The
reverse of this should be true.  If we approach a pa-
tient as if he were a spirit, abstracting the mind from
the mere perception  of his  outward organism, and
approach him with our interior manhood, the living
soul, as if we were  a spirit, then the better mental
state, which is always  the stronger, will  prevail over
and suppress the other and weaker.  This  is as certain
as in a  combat  of physical  strength between two
gymnasts,  the stronger and more skillful of  the two
will  overcome the other.  In this way the patient is
renewed in mind, the inner man.   He  is spiritually
healed.   The hidden  cause of his  malady being  re-
moved, the  spirit  being  restored to health,  the body
with all its living, moving forces,  soon becomes adjus-
ted to the new order of things  that exists within.
We  must  induce upon  the  patient  a  new mental
state, and  supplant the old  mode  of  feeling and
thought.  We must  give him in  a  proper  sense, a
new spiritual birth, or at least impregnate him with
a better interior life. We must convert him. Such men-
tal changes are sometimes permanent. In the popular 
270
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 revivals, where men's souls are addressed,  and where
 they  almost forget  that  their hearers have  such a
 thing as a physical body, lasting mental changes are
 wrought.  The  convert receives an impulse, an influ-
 ence, an impression,  that changes the  whole current
 of his inner life.  It remains for weeks, for months,
 for years, and often through  the  rest of his earthly
 existence.   There is nothing supernatural or miracu-
 lous  in this,  and we  have nothing to say against it.
 Good may come out  of it.  It is in perfect harmony
 with the spiritual  laws  that  govern us.  The united
 effort of the minister and of  those in sympathy  with
 him, being directed to the production or induction of
 a new mental state  upon the " anxious " or  " peni-
 tent," they generally succeed in effecting the desired
 result, the conversion or change of the soul.   They
 might do it much  easier, if they were good magneti-
 zers, and understood  the  laws that control the action
 of mind upon mind.   The most susceptible and pas-
 sive natures  make the easiest converts,  and the  men
 who  have the most magnetic power, as it is called,
 are the most successful revivalists.   There is no need
 to call to our aid any supernatural iufluences to ac-
count for such spiritual metamorphoses.  The laws of
 our  mental  nature  are  adequate  to  produce  and
explain  all such phenomena.   The minister and the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
271
church  induce  upon the convert  their own mental
state.   They impart  their  own  mental life, their
modes of  thought and affection to him.   There is
nothing more miraculous in this, or out of the usual
order of things in the world of mind, than there is
when a bar of steel, bent in the form of a horse-shoe,
is brought in contact with a powerful electro-magnet,
and  is made thereby permanently magnetic.    All
forms of religion effect such mental  transformations,
both the evangelical and  the heretical.  Mahometans,
Shakers, Adventists, and even Mormons," do so with
their enchantments."   And the law by  which it is
done is available to change the habitual mental state
of a patient, and is legitimately used for such a pur-
pose.  To effect  such  an interior  change should be
the first aim of an intelligent and  benevolent  physi-
cian.  He should be a spiritual midwife to assist  the
inner man to a birth into a higher and happier life.
  We have shown that the sphere which goes forth
from every human spirit is not an emission into  space
of spiritual  particles, but is  analogous to the action
of the  radiant  forces, heat,  light,  and electricity.
These are now explained by the theory of vibration.
When a message is telegraphed from  New  York to
London, no imponderable fluid shoots along the wire,
but there  is only  the transmission of force,  a vibra- 
272
THE MENTAL-CURE.
tory wave in an elastic medium called the ether.  So
when one mind acts upon another mind, and influ-
ences its thoughts and feelings, when the bodies they
animate are  separated by  hundreds of leagues,  the
effect is produced in a similar way.  There is only a
transmission of mental force, and the  action and re-
action  of one  spirit upon  another.   This  vibratory
movement takes  place  in an all-pervading, every-
where present element far  more refined, elastic,  and
subtle, than the ether.  It  is  a  semi-spiritual essence
that  fills all  space,  which  has been denominated
the  aura, the  atmosphere of  the  inner world.   It
is  the  medium   through which  mind acts upon
mind,  and  also  upon matter.   By  means of  it,
mental and vital  force is transmissible to unlimited
distances.   This law of action and reaction, between
mind  and mind, explains the phenomena of  fas-
■ cination or  charming, which  is only the  transmis-
sion of  spiritual  force from one  being to another.
When an animal is thus enchanted by another, their
life becomes so interblemled,  that  an injury inflicted
upon the charmer, is felt by  the other, and the  kill-
ing of the fascinating animal  sometimes proves in-
stant death to the captive.   When one  person, by a
psychological  influence, is magnetized or  entranced
 by another,  any  effect the operator produces  upon 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
273
himself, is communicated to the subject.   Their life
seems  to  be intermingled.   An unseen but  potent
influence takes possession of the mind of the subject,
and  controls its actions.  Here is a power that can
be turned to good account,  or  perverted to evil.  It
can be made an  efficient agency in the system of
mental hygiene, under the direction of good men and
angels, or it can be  perverted to witchcraft  and de-
moniacal  obsessions.  For these invisible forces are
controllable by spirits either in the flesh or disrobed
of their mortal  covering.  They may take  advan-
tage of these natural laws,  and greatly aid in pro-
ducing the desired benevolent result.
   Let us  see how this law may be employed  in  com-
municating a sanative influence, and remedial  force.
To think  of another, interiorly and  abstractly, occa-
sions a spiritual presence, and his image seems to stand
before us.  Where the thought is grounded in love
and  good-will, it causes  an interior conjunction—a
mental  sympathy, a  state of rapport.   By  it  they
come into a living communication, as real as it would
be if they reached through the intervening space and
grasped each  other  by the  hand.   The feelings  of
each are  communicated to  the other.  The mental
state of the one who is the most positive will predomi-
nate, and  take possesion of the other, for the strongei 
274
THE MENTAL-CURE.
   force will prevail over the weaker.  Thus a healthiei
-  mental state will be induced upon the patient.   This
   spirito-magnetic  influence  can be transmitted  inde-
   pendently of spatial distance.  We have experimented
   with it at  a distance of over a  thousand miles, and
   once between New Hampshire and Louisiana.  The
   patient should assume an easy and quiet position, and
   be as passive and undisturbed as  possible.   The time
   may be agreed upon between them.   It is well for
   him to be in a room by himself,  which is to be but
   little lighted.   For darkness, being a negative  state
   of the  surrounding atmosphere, is favorable to  psy-
   chological  influences and impressions, and renders the
   body more passively susceptible.   The room also, in
   which  the patient is, should be only moderately  heat-
'   ed.  When in the state of spiritual presence and con-
   junctive  sympathy, any effect the operator may pro-
   duce upon  himself, or which he receives by influx from
   spiritual presences, will be  telegraphed  instantly to
   the patient.   If he applies  his hand to his fore-brain,
   as if to remove a catarrhal inflammation, it produces
   the same  effect  upon the patient.  Sometimes  such
   manipulations upon the operator's person affect the
   patient a  hundred miles  away, in as  great a  degree
   as they would  were he bodily present,a»rf are sometimes
   as sensibly felt.  They affect the spiritual body, which
   is the  seat of  sensation. 
                THE MENTAL-CURE.             275

  Instead of applying his hands to himself, the oper-
ator may in thought, apply them to  the person he
would affect, and where  and in what way the diseased
condition would require.  This mental act affects the
spiritual organism of the  invalid, and  through this
the physical body.  It acts from within outward.   It
is the transmission of a mental force which produces
physiological  changes.   Its results  are  sometimes
marvelous to those who do not comprehend the  spir-
itual laws that govern us.  The patient will be influ-
enced in a degree  proportioned  to his susceptibility,
and the mental force of the operator.  If the latter
have great strength of  will, manifested in  calmness,
self-reliance, undoubting  faith,  a peaceful desire  to
impart  good,  and confidence in the help of higher
powers, the effect produced on  the mind of the inva-
lid, and the  change wrought in the functional action
of the bodily  organs, will be decided and pe  manent.
Thus the mysterious forces of life can be transmitted
as  far as those of light,  heat, or electricity  can  be
conveyed through space,  and in an analogous  way.
We feel confident that to every ardent lover of truth
the above hints  and suggestions will be found  to
enclose a  germ capable of almost unlimited  unfold-
ment.   We humbly submit them to the consideration
of  all such minds. 
276
THE MENTAL-CURE.
  It is well known that, by the law of sympathy, cer-
tain diseased  states both of mind and body become
contagious.   The convulsions of  hysteria are often
propagated among young women in this  way.  The
same  is true  of chorea,  and of  stammering.   We
insensibly imbibe the tastes, manners, habits, and even
the bodily  condition of others.   Boerhaave  relates
that the  pupils of a squint-eyed schoolmaster near
Leyden, after a while, exhibited  the same  obliquity
of vision.   Those  who have the  care of the  insane
and the sick,  are more or less affected by them.   All
abnormal states of mind or body are, in some degree,
contagious.   But  healthy  states  both of  the inner
and outer man are equally communicable.   The  law
of sympathy, according to which disease is  transmit-
ted from  one  person to anothef, is available for the
propagation of sound states of the spiritual and phys-
ical nature of  man.   The law operates with equal
force  both ways.   A genuine sympathy, arising from
a benevolent disposition,  for a person in suffering,
actually relieves him of his pain.   There is by means
of it an interchange of states.  We enter, as it were,
into his body, and become in some measure the same
persoi with him, anil take  upon  us his feelings  and
impart o us to him.  We  bear a part of his burden,
and in  proportion as we take  upon  ourselves his 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
277
painful  sensations and unhappy mental  states, is he
relieved of them.  Patients feel better the moment a
physician who is in sympathy with them, comes into
the room.   His words bring sunshine into their dark-
ness,  his  presence supplies  the  magnetic  life they
need, his  touch  sends a thrill of pleasure  through
their  whole frame, and his very  look dispels their
mental and bodily  pains.   Thus the doctrine of sym-
pathy is of practical value in the treatment of  the
sick, and can be turned to a useful account, 
278
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
              CHAPTER  XXII.

  APPETITES,  INTUITIONS  AND  IMPRESSIONS,
                 AND THEIR USE.

Essential Spirituality of Man. — The Vis Medicatrix natura
  is a Mental Force. — The Fetal Growth. — Incubation. —■
  The Nature and Office of the Appetite's. — Their Prescrip-
  tions. — Illustrations.— Nutriment for the Mind. — Spirit-
  ual Starvation. — Gibeonitish Crusts. — Voices without a
  sound. — Spiritual Impressions. — A  deep and calm Re-
  vealing.— A Law of the Spiritual Life.— The Communion
  of Saints. — Education of our Intuitions. — The Inner Lan-
  guage. — The Cogitatio  Loquens. — Intuitional Prescrip-
  tions. — Mental Telegraphing. —Madam Guyon and her
  Confessor. — Development of our hidden Powers.

      WE  HAVE  demonstrated the truth,  that the
        only  real thing in the life of the body is the
mind, and that the  organizing  force is the spiritual
principle.   Wheu  the body receives  an  injury,  the
inner man goes to work to repair the damage.   This
was attributed by the earlier  physiologists  to what
they called the vis medicatrix naturae, the healing power
of nature.  But this healing force is evidently spiritual, 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
279
as all negative, depressing mental  states greatly en-
feeble its action, while the positive states of the mind
increase its vigor.  When the system is invaded by
disease, the chances of a speedy recovery depend upon
the condition of the  patient's mind.   If he be free
from anxiety, is cheerful,  full of hope, and has a stub-
born  faith, his restoration will be far more speedy
under any system of  medical treatment.  The  mind
is the hidden force  that  reacts against  disease, and
repairs the damage sustained by any of the tissues by
accident.   To assist the vis  medicatrix  natura, is  the
only office  of the physician.
   In the vital germ  in the womb, the soul-principle,
imparted to  it, sets  itself to work to complete  the
bodily structure.  The germ in the female ovaries, is
a primary  form  receptive of  the influx  of spiritual
life.  It  attracts to itself  the most vital  elements of
the blood, which being robbed of its spiritual essence,
is cast out of the system.  It is  vitalized still  more,
or receives an additional  spiritual principle from the
male semen,  and  thus endowed with a living  force,
attracts to itself  and around  itself  from  the circu-
lation of  the mother  the elements necessary  to the
growth and  completeness  of the  fetal  organism.
The same  process is seen in the egg  of  the fowl.
The germ  of the future  chick is the yolk.  When 
280
THE MENTAL-CURE.
this  receives the  vivifying principle  from the male,
it goes to  work to build  up the  bodily structure.
The  albumen, or white of  the egg, contains in a sol-
uble  form all the elements needful for the purpose.
The  building materials that  enter into the composi-
tion  of the body, are all found in this  nutritious sub-
stance, and ready to be appropriated.  It diminishes
in quantity, as the germ enlarges, until  it is finally
all absorbed.
  There  is something similar to this in the action of
a spiritual organizing force  in  adult  life.    Action
always implies wraste both in  mind and body.  From
the body the devitalized particles are eliminated by
the excreting organs, and a new supply is demanded
to maintain the integrity of the organization.  And
we firmly  believe that the mind, left to itself,  and
unbiased by education  and the influence of others,
will  attract to  itself  what is needful to repair  the
waste resulting from  the  wear of its outward  ma-
chinery.   It goes forth in  special  longings, unerring
appetites, and instinctive cravings, for what the body
needs.  The word appetite ( from ad and peto) means
a seeking after something.   The mind left to its  nat-
ural  instincts  will search,- through the whole  range
of nutritive substances, after that which will supply
the needed elements.   If our appetites were  unvitiat- 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
281
ed, they would give us with undeviating certainty a
safe  guide to  what  the body needs.  If our mental
instincts and  intuitions were properly educated and
trusted, they would prove our best physician, whose
prescriptions we might rely upon  with unhesitating
confidence.  In most, if not all,  diseased conditions,
there is a lack of some particular element, the loss of
which impairs the  healthy functional action of  the
weakened  organ or organs.   To  supply this primi-
tive element, whether  it be phosphorus, iodine, chlo-
rine, the alkaline or acid principle, is the aim of  any
judicious medication,  or  dietetic regulations.   Any
prescription that fails  to  do this, is useless, if  not
positively  injurious.   In  nine cases out of  tcu, the
mind of the patient, in its instinctive cravings, will
be the  safest  guide, and  will give a prescription in
plain  English, without any unintelligible  Latin or
Cabalistic signs.   Where there is  a deficient quanti-
ty of any element  entering  into  the  composition of
the  human frame, the mind  will be moved by a spe-
cial desire and  longing  for  that  very thing, or for
some article of diet containing a large percentage of
it.   Or if there be  an excess of some organic element,
 the soul will  put forth its  feelers  after something to
 neutralize it.   In  a torpidity of the liver,  the  alka-
 line bile accumulates, and the  patient feels a desire 
282
THE
MENTAL-CURE.
for acids to neutralize the excess of alkali.   For the
mind, as  an organizing force  exhibits a perpetual
conatus to keep  the  body in such a state as  to ren-
der it a  suitable instrument for the  performance of
the uses  of the soul  in this lower range of existence.
We have known children to eat salt with greater ap-
parent relish than others would sugar.   This indi-
cates a  want of chloric acid, which that article sup-
plies.  In certain cold and negative states, we have
known others to exhibit a special appetite for, starch,
which  they  would devour  with avidity.  In a large
proportion of diseases there is  a superabundance  of
the alkaline principle.   In such cases the citric acid
of lemons and of most sour fruits, or the lactic acid of
sour milk cheese and buttermilk, become grateful to
the taste. Lehmann, in his Chemical Physiology, has
shown that the essential elements of the gastric juice
are the lactic and chloric acids, in a free state.   They
also assist in the absorption of the  chyle from the  ali-
mentary canal.  In some diseases, as dropsy, there  is a
lack of the  alkaline or an excess of  the  negative or
acid element.   The mind,  through  the  sympathetic
nerves,  would  then  prescribe,  as  a diet, something
abounding in alkali to  neutralize the accumulating
acid, and restore the balance  between the  positive
and negative forces of  the system.   If  we would 
                 THE MENTAL-CURE.             283

learn the language  of our inward oracle,  and heed
reverently its  voice, we  should discover within our-
selves a temple of Esculapius, whose responses to our
questionings would  be  a safe  guide  to health and
longevity.   "But  we stop our ears to its divine rev-
elations, heed  not its suggestions, and  listen  to the
blind and senseless formulas of the drug practitioner,
but  too  often repent our folly when it is too late.
   The mind also needs nutriment to furnish the spir-
itual pabulum  necessary to its endless growth, and
to supply the means of recuperation from the fatigue
resulting from  long continued action in a given direc-
tion.  It needs recreation, or re-creation, wkich  is
only a change  in the mode  of its  activity.   We are
so constituted  that  whatever will heighten our spir-
itual activities, add  to the  growth and vigor  of our
powers, and  increase our happiness, we instinctively
long for, and seize upon with avidity.   Many morbid
mental  states  are only a starved condition  of  the
intellect  or the affections.  There is  an indefinable
longing, an  unsatisfied craving for something  it has
not.   The pathological state  resulting, is that  of
mental weakness  and bodily decrepitude.  If the hu-
man mind was  left more to itself, and to a freer devel-
opment  of its individuality, the world would be bet-
ter and happier.  Every healthy soul is the supreme 
284
THE MENTAL-CURE.
judge of its own needs.   There are many in the pres
ent advanced age of society, who have outgrown the
infantile state that can  draw nutriment from books,
sermons, essays, and the mouldy Gibeonitish crusts
of cant phrases used in the current religious instruc-
tion, so  called.   The mental  stomach loathes the
innutritious and  unsavory cookery  of the  church,
which has only the power to sharpen men's appetites
for something better.  We rise  from its  table with
our inward hunger unsatiated, our thirst unquenched.
We crave the vital  essence of truth  itself,  and not
the external husk.  Such minds turn with instinctive
longing to the opening heavens, and seek,  in commu-
nion with the angel-world, the  living bread.  This
they do  as intuitively as the new-born infant seeks
the maternal breast.   We ask our appointed teachers
for bread, and get a stone; for  fish, and a serpent is
served  up for us; for an egg—for a  living germ of
truth,—and are turned off with a scorpion.  We run
over their ancient bill of fare, worn and defaced, and
find nothing which our  mental instincts crave.  We
go through their  round of outward ceremonies, their
genuflections, washings, prayers,  and  psalm-singing,
rehearse  an unintelligible creed, and like a  hungry
man, dream we are filled, but awake, and  behold, we
are empty. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
285
   In such a state, it is practicable for us to listen to
the  voiceless  instruction  of  the angel-world.   No
miracle, no  departure  from the ordinary laws of the
spirit is  required to  open a living intercourse  with
the heavens.   It is a fact, as well established as any
principle of chemistry, that one mind can impress its
thoughts and feelings upon another, without the inter-
vention of spoken words.   Thousands  of successful
experiments have confirmed its truth and reality.  We
accept it as a settled principle.   Angelic  spirits may
impress  our  delicately sensitive  inner  organism, as
easily as  they are  supposed  to play  upon a  golden
harp, and thus give us an intuitive knowledge of the
truths we need.   A larger proportion of our highest
and best  thoughts owe  their origin to this source, and
come to  us from the upper realms, than  we are aware
of.   We  should  receive vastly more from those in the
inner world who love us, and long to share their ce
lestial treasure with us, if we had not been educated
to fear them, and even  to  believe that intercourse
with them is wicked, notwithstanding Jesus set us the
example  of communion with the ever-present heavens.
Such teachers  take away  the key  of knowledge.
They will neither enter the temple of wisdom them-
selves, nor suffer others,  whom they can prevent, to
do so.  In  consequence of this unnatural education, 
286
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 there is many a one who would be as much afraid of
 the spirit of  his mother, as he ought to be of the me-
 dkeval devil.   But the desire to communicate good
 and  truth to man on earth is as natural  for good
 spirits, as it is for water to descend from a higher to a
 lower level.   It  is the delight of their life.  It  is
 something like  what we observe in  ourselves here.
 If your loved and loving friend is removed from you,
 how he longs to see you and speak to you.  If there
 was anything you needed to make you well and hap-
 py, if it were possible for him to speak to your  inner
 ear, how gladly would he inform you where to find  it.
 This  longing,  this pang  and chasm of  separation,
 which we feel when we  are  absent from loved  ones,
 is but an expression  of the same feeling that leads
 those above  to desire  to communicate their better
 thoughts and feelings to those below. It would be pain-
 ful for us to visit one we loved, and fail in our attempts
 to cause him to recollect us,  and to have him fly from
 us as from one  who  would  do him  injury.   These
 are natural feelings, belonging to the  very essence  of
the soul, and are carried  over with  us to the other
life.   When  we outgrow  our  unnatural fear of our
best  friends, and do not fly  from  their  love as if  it
were infernal hate, and  welcome  their return to us,
and recognize them in their  true  character, converse 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
287
with the upper sphere of being will be more frequent
and elevating.   We have  reason to believe, that in
consequence of this unnatural feeling which we owe
to our  want  of  proper education,  and our  dismal
doubts of their real existence, our friends who have
migrated to the celestial plains, feel  our loss as much
as we do theirs.  It must be unpleasant for a child
who returns home from a journey to a foreign clime,
to the parents he loves, and to whom he  longs to im-
part the rich stores of information he  has gained, to
have them  be frightened at his approach, refuse his
offered treasures, and close the door in his face.
   It is remarked by one who had a larger experience
of an open intercourse with the angel-world, than nny
man in modern history, that in the other world there
is a  universal communication of  thoughts and affec-
tions, owing to the very nature  and  laws of spirit.
The knowledge of an individual  or association  is as
naturally imparted to all who desire it, as for a  heat-
ed body, for instance a gold coin, to transfuse its heat
into another in contact with it.   Only in the spiritual
world this  is  done more  perfectly and  without any
diminution   of light  in  the communicating mind.
In the  Arcana Celestia  we are truly told, " That
there is not only a communication of another's affec-
tions and thoughts, but also  of  his knowledge,' an/ 
288
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 that so completely, as for one to think that he knows
 whatever another does, although before he  had no
 aquaintance with such subjects.  Thus all the attain-
 ments of one  are  communicated to others.   Some
 spirits retain what  they are thus  made acquainted
 with, but others do not."
   The same illumined author further observes, " Souls
 are  surprised on their entrance into another life, to
 find that there  is  such  a communication  of  the
 thoughts of others,  and that they instantly become
 acquainted,  not only with the character  of another's
 mind, but also with that of his knowledge."
   This is only a universal law and property of mind,
 and  we may avail ourselves of it here and now, for we
 are only  spirits  clothed with a material  body.   It is
 as natural for one mind to communicate  its thoughts
 and  feelings to  another, as for  a flower to emit  fra-
 grance.   The inner  world spontaneously flows  into
 the outer.   No  effort is necessary to  this  influx of
 celestial  light,  any  more than  is needful  to cause
 the stars in  a clear firmament to shine into the dark-
ness, but only a receptive mind.   We may come into
 a  conscious  communication  with the light of  the
 spiritual  world, which, in its essence, is  pure truth,
and we maj- do this without intercourse with any in-
dividual  spirit.   We  may imbibe the living light of 
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289
a higher  sun.   The higher  always gravitates to a
lower level, the interior to the external.  This is the
established order of influx.   And we have  it in our
power to commence a course of education, or develop-
ment from within, in place of the bungling instruction
we receive from  without—from books and tutors.  To
put  our  spirits  into harmonious  conjunction  with
the angelic  realms and the living light  of  a higher
sky and diviner  sun, is to come into a position where
we  may learn, in the brief  space  of an hour,  more
than by months  of patient study in the schools. Bless-
ed is the man who has been  inserted into an  angelic
consociation, who  has an  all-satisfying  fellowship
with those who have graduated to  a nearer approach
to the Infinite Mind, and who finds a conscious celes-
tial companionship in the most lonely solitude.
   If we  would educate our  intuitions and impress-
ions, they would become an almost unerring light.
Men are influenced by them now far more than in the
pride of their boasted reason, they are ready to ac-
knowledge.   What we need is the restoration of our
inner life  to freedom.   It was made to rule the out-
ward senses, not to be in bondage to   them.   Most
men are in  an abnormal state, an  inverted position.
Our inner self,  by which we  are  placed in  contact
with the  spiritual world, is overlaid and  suppressed 
290
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
by our sensuous nature.    To our  inner man, the
heavens may speak in a still small voice,—in a calm
and  deep revealing.   Internally we are  always in
speaking  distance with the angels.  They  are  our
nearest neighbors.   Ideas,  which are only the living
images of things,  have their home in the spiritual
realm.  They are an objective creation there.  They
are the primitives  of  all  our mental  conceptions,
the soul of our thoughts, and inmost essence of vo-
cal language.   Angelic and celestial  ideas flow into
our thoughts so far as they are able to contain them,
and  spoken  words  are the outward   expression of
thoughts.    Thought  in the spiritual  world is as dis-
tinctly heard  as words  are  in  our  social  intercourse
here.   For  thought  occasions  a vibration  in  the
spiritual  atmosphere, which is  conveyed to the inner
ear, just as our  vocal  utterances cause  an undulatory
movement of the air, which affects the external organ
of hearing.  But the  one is as audible as the other.
Converse  with those in the interior or spiritual realm
is as easy to those  who understand  the principles
and laws  by  which it  is effected and governed,  and
who have passed through the necessary development,
as it is for us to speak to one another in this exter-
nal plane  of life.   There is  a far more satisfying and
reliable medium of communication  than written or 
                  THE MENTAL-CURE.            291

 oral  language.  We  do not attach  the same mean-
 ing to outward words, hence do not understand each
 other fully.   But our thoughts, if they were commu-
 nicated to each other,  would be clear and intelligible.
 In Dr. Brittan's recent excellent work, " Man  and
 his  Relations," he  says:  " The human mind in its
 progress  employs media  and  methods of communi-
 cation, suited  to  the several  stages  of  its  devel-
 opment.   However serviceable these  instrumental-
 ities  may  be—each  in   its  appropriate  time  and
 place—they may be inadequate to meet the demands
 of more enlightened periods.   We realize the insuf-
 ficiency of written and oral language  to express  the
 highest thoughts and deepest feelings.    There is
 another—it may possibly   become—a  more  perfect
 medium of  communication.  This language, though
 unwritten and unspoken, may be  adequate to a full-
 er expression of all we feel  and know.   It  is  not
 unfrequently the means,—little as it is  practiced and
 understood—of  revealing  thoughts  and impulses to
 which a vocal utterance has been denied."
   In the other world language is a cogitatio loquens, a
 cogitative utterance.    It  is the  communication of
 thought from  one mind to another.   This  is as per-
 ceptible to  the  inner auditory sensory as  words  are
to us.  When an angelic idea  is received by us, the 
292
THE MENTAL-CURE.
degrees of descent  are  these.   Spiritual ideas  flow
into our thoughts,  and these find  utterance, or an
embodiment, in  the words that  are  in our memory.
But our thoughts may not be capacious enough to
hold an angelic  idea, and our words but poorly ex-
press our thoughts.   He whose mind is exalted  to a
spiritual plane of activity, may perceive,  as Paul did,
unutterable things.  The soul, in the calm, loving, and
living light  of a supersensuous realm, may enjoy an
ineffable intellectual and affectional experience.
  In what we have  said, there may be seen the oper-
ation of an arcane principle, a hidden and undeveloped
law of our minds, of which we may avail  ourselves in
holding an  all-satisfying communion  with the angel-
world, and  become receptive  of its  light.   If we
are diseased and unhappy, and  know not where to
turn for relief, we may  be assured that the light we
need is shining on the other.shore.  Our angel guar-
dians know, or may learn,  what we  need and  will
communicate it to us, if we will open the inner ear
to receive it, as gladly  as a mother  would  tell her
child what will relieve  its pains, and we may receive
the needed  truth as naturally  as the opening  flower
drinks in the rays of the sun.  We may rely on such
impressional intelligence,  and intuitive  flashes of  a
higher light, far more  than upon the prescriptions 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
293
of a well-meaning, but imperfectly  enlightened phy-
sician.    In  a calm, passive, and  receptive mental
state, our first impressions, before we have had time
to reason, are  always the safest and surest  guide.
What  we  call reason, is  often  only  a struggle  of
doubt  with truth,  and not unfrequently throws  us
from the pathway of light into the dismal  darkness
on each side of it.
  Sometimes a person attains  to a state, where the
thoughts of men, which  are the vernacular language
of  the spirit, become  distinctly cognizable.  Jesus
perfectly understood this inner language.  There are
those now who  will answer a question put to them  in
thought, as readily as  if it were addressed  to them
by  the external organs  of speech.   We have often
told what a person's thoughts and feelings were, many
miles away.   Madam  Guyon  relates,  in her  Auto-
biography, that she was accustomed to enter into pro-
tracted conversations with her Confessor, without the
use of spoken words,  employing only  the cogitatio
loquens,  the inner language.   At length they could
thus converse when they were at a  distance  of miles
from each other.  This was no miracle.   It was only
the unfoldment of  an  unused power  of our nature.
There is  in every man the  innate faculty of convers-
ing with spirits in the  flesh or those who have put off 
294
THE MENTAL-CURE.
their outward envelope.  Speech  similar to that of
the spiritual world is implanted in every man, but our
sensual educational  systems, do not unfold the hidden
germ, but oftener suppress it.   As soon as any  one
comes into the other life, he finds himself in the same
speech with the inhabitants of  that  hitherto  mys-
terious realm, and  is able to  converse with  them
without instruction.   We could do it  here  and now,
if  we would possess ourselves of a knowledge of the
laws of the human spirit, and take advantage of  them.
In ancient times, and all along the stream of human
history, there have been those who made use of  this
inner language, and  had communication by means of
it with the spiritual  world.  What human nature has
ever done, is practicable to-day.   For  in no epoch of
the world have all the hidden powers and capabilities
of our being been unfolded. But we are not to sup-
pose that this privilege would  be  accorded to  us for
our amusement or  that of others, but only for the
accomplishment of  some important use.   For God
always gives to every man the light he needs for the
performance of the  work assigned him in the plan of
Providence.  Guided by these hints and suggestions,
we may educate ourselves to this high and holy  con-
verse, and in advanced  years as well or easier than in
youth.  There are many persons who  are  dissatisfied 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
295
with the mere shell  of knowledge, the  rind  of the
fruit, the cortex of the tree of life, and long for some-
thing to nourish and allay the cravings of their spirit.
In harmony with the laws of their being, they may
find  what  they  need.  The tree of knowledge  is
beginning  to  be looked upon as no forbidden fruit,
but an enlightened  science is giving us access to it,
and  we may  eat and live.  Our highest conceptions
we do not  get from books, but  they are flashes of a
purer light, undulations  of the  abyss of light that
communicate  a  concordant vibratory  movement to
our  minds, and come  to us  as  the  whisperings
of a still,  small voice within.   Such communicated
thoughts have been appropriately called impressions.
If men were  less sensuous, and their inner life was
adjusted in harmony with the  celestial realms, they
would not be an  unreliable source of  knowledge.
They are  an  effort of the  heavens  to impart to us
their living ideas and share with us their intellectual
and  affectional treasures    For such is the nature of
the divine  and angelic love, that there is in it a per-
petual conatus to impart its own life to all the lower
degrees of existence.   All  that  we need is a spirit
admissive of it, and the light of the higher  realms
will  spontaneously flow in.  The needed receptivity
consists in the love of truth for its own sake, and a
desire and  purpose to apply it to a benevolent use. 
296
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
             CHAPTER  XXIII.

       THE SANATIVE POWER OF WORDS.

The Words we utter embody our  Mental Force. — They are
  the Index of Character. — How our Mental States affect our
  Words. — Their Permanence in the Memory. — Their last-
  ing  Influence. — Fact given by Coleridge. — Dr. Rush.—
  The Power of Written Words. —Books have Life. — Effect
  of it upon the Psychometer. — Prescriptions of Frederica
  Hauffe. — Psychical Remedies. — The Creative  Utterances
  of Jesus. — Frederic Von SchlegeVs Philosophy of the Com-
  municated  Word. — Therapeutic  Force of kind Words. —
  Testimony of Baglivi.

    ONE OF the principal mediums through which
      mind acts upon mind, is that of words, spoken or
written.   Words are the representatives of ideas, the
outward  manifestation of thought, and the  ultima-
tion of a  hidden spiritual power.   They are things
that have  life  in  them,  which is  communicable by
them.  They are  not  mere  empty  sounds,  like  the
sighing of the wind or the noise of a waterfall.   If
this were  the case, they would be of no more conse- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
297
quence than the breath expended in producing them.
The whole  soul is sometimes  in the  words we utter,
especially when,  to use a common  expression, they
come  from the heart, that is, from  the love or  life.
The outward material organism is not the man, and
is  no  necessary part of humanity.  It is  the mind
that makes  the man.   This is composed of the two
departments of the love and  the intellect, and a
more  outward manifestation of these is affection and
thought.   These are ultimated or expressed in  the
words we utter.   Thus they are charged with the very
life of man—the vital force of the soul.  They affect
not only the tympanum, but they sink into the interior
depths of our being.   They are not like the leaves
loosened from  the  trees  by an  autumn wind, and
strewed upon the bosom of a quiet lake to float upon
its surface; but there is in them a spiritual gravity,
which causes them  to sink into the  hidden depths of
the spirit.
   Words are the index of character.  They enclose
within them our thoughts, and the  tone with which
they  are uttered indicates the state  of the  affections.
In another  world, the utterance  of a single  word
reveals  to  the intuitions of angelic spirits  the ruling
love that lurks within it, and with the knowledge of
this is laid open the life and character.  In the effect, 
298
THE MENTAL-CURE.
they perceive the cause.  The heart, that is the  love,
is the fountain;  words are the stream.   If  the foun-
tain is clear as  crystal,  the  issuing rill will be the
water of life.   If the heart be like the bitter well of
Mara,  there will not  be sweetness in  the words.
Even idle  or  aimless words, and  mere fashionable
talk, which are  like the  bubbles or foam floating on
the current of the  stream of life, though  they  may
assume  the most beautiful forms, and steal the tints
of  the  rainbow,  will be  internally like  the heart
whence they proceed.  For bubbles are formed from
the stream, and partake  of its  general  qualities.
Jesus declared a great truth when  he affirmed, that
" Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak-
eth."  The Greek  word here rendered abundance,
signifies a  redundant fullness that overflows.  When
the heart is full of love, it overflows in kind and gen-
tle words.   When a man is full of anger,  he is like
the volcanic wells of Iceland, and boils over in scald-
ing words.   If  there is melancholy in the heart, and
the soul is full  of it, there is a dirge-like strain  in
the tone of the  voice, like the sighing of the mid-
night winds in  the leafless trees of a cemetery  in
winter.  If joy and heavenly  peace  pervade a man's
inner being, the  cheerful music of his voice will mix
and  mingle with the grand chorus of  bliss in the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
299
angelic realms.  We do not mean, that to the blunt-
ed  perceptions  of  most men, a person's words will
always reveal his ruling love and inward character.
They may fall from the lips like spurious coin  from
the mint of the counterfeiter, and the gilded brass
may have the ring of  the genuine  metal,  but our
angelic intuitions will  penetrate the  thin covering.
As men become more intuitional, the  personation of
the good by the evil, in the drama of life, will termi-
nate. -  Evil will  be detected,  even though  it may
throw around it the costume of fair words.
   Words are wonderfully mysterious things.  When
uttered in the presence of mind, they do not waste
themselves  upon the illimitable  and desert  air, but
cleave to the soul of him who hears them like  nails
driven into the walls of the house.   Who  has not
been troubled by  the  involuntary recurrence to his
memory of the vile utterances of evil doers which  he
heard long years ago in his youth.  They light down
like a flock of harpies, to  pollute, it  may be, a heav-
enly feast.  They come unbidden to mingle with our
holiest meditations,  and   perhaps even  with  our
prayers.
    " Lulled in the countless chambers  of the brain,
    Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain ;
    Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise !—
    Each stamps its image as the other flies." 
300
THE MENTAL-CURE.
  Thus it is with the words we heard in our child-
hood, either good  or bad.   In after-life, touch but
one  and  a whole  cloud of them will  arise,  like
aquatic birds from a lake in the mountains.
  There  is a lasting sanative  spiritual influence in
words  of love  and  sympathy.   There are coloring
substances so diffusive that a minute and almost in-
estimable quantity will  tinge a large body of water.
So a few  kind  words will sometimes give coloring to
a person's whole life.   I am  not speaking of that
heartless   sentimentality  which  dismisses the  poor
soul  from its  door with  the  hollow wish, "Be.ye
warmed  and be ye filled,"  and  that  offers  to its
neighbor, who sits   dumb  with  his  overwhelming
grief, its  empty cant phrases committed to memory.
Love is  the animating soul  of kind  words,  and
through their medium we may  communicate our own
mental states,  our  inmost life,  to strengthen, and
invigorate those that need  our help.  But to him
whose  affections are  blasted  and cold  from some
great calamity  that  has crushed through his heart-
strings, we  may say  never  so many times, "Be ye
warmed," but  if our words do  not  spring from  a
heart glowing with genuine  love, there is no heat in
them.    They  impinge  against  the  afflicted spirit
like  the frost crystals of a winter's day.  They may 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.             301
shine and glitter, but they chill the life's blood of him
who  speaks  or hears  them.  In  all  loving words
there is a therapeutic force, and a divine life.  Truth,
when it is the outward envelope  of  a living love  in-
closed as a vitalizing spark within it, when ultimated
in words and deposited in the mind of another, never
fades from his  memory so that it cannot be recalled.
It may for  a season  be forgotten, or  pass from our
present recollection.   It may to appearance  be deep
beneath   the  accumulated  rubbish of  after-years.
But at the quickening  voice of God or of his angels,
it shall start to  life again, come forth  from its sepul-
cher to consciousness, and  assert its divine right  to
reign.  It will be  like characters written with invis-
ible ink.  The paper thus inscribed appears a blank,
yet when held before the fire, line after line, sentence
after sentence  comes  to view, as if  penned  by
an  invisible  hand.    Truth from  love  is  divine.
It is the light of a quenchless flame.   Like Milton's
angels, it  is immortal in every part, and cannot die.
It is one of those  divine and positive  realities that
cannot be annihilated.   The  words that  inclose it
and  through  which it  enters the memory, can never
be  erased  from that imperishable  tablet.   Though
sunk deep beneath the oblivious waves  of after-years,
they will  sometime  rise and float upon  the surface. 
302
THE MENTAL-CURE.
Many  facts are given  to  show  the  tenacity  with
which  the  mind holds  the  memory of words  even
casually spoken.   Among them we may cite the case
mentioned by  Coleridge, of a servant  girl, who, in
the delirium of a  fever, was heard to  repeat  long
sentences in Greek and Rabbinic Hebrew, lauguages
she had never learned, and which she had only heard
vithout attention  by the minister in whose  family,
many years before, she had lived as a domestic.  Yet
those words of a strange language were stereotyped
upon the mental plate.  Dr. Rush also  relates that
the Germans of his day  in Philadelphia,  when dying,
usually  prayed  in  their  native  tongue, though they
had not spoken it for fifty years, and had apparently
forgotten it.  Thus our words of love and kindness
will have a lasting influence.  They will  live in the
minds of some long after the monument, that marks
the resting place of our ashes, shall have  crumbled
back to dust.
   There is a lasting  power also in written words.  A
letter  or  a book may  be charged with the divine
magnetism of  a spiritual life.  There is an underly-
ing truth in the apparently  extravagant assertion of
William Hazlitt, that "words are the only things that
last forever."   And some one has eloquently  said,
"Words convey the mental treasures of one period to 
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303
the generations that follow; and, laden with this their
precious freight, they sail safely across gulfs of time
in which empires   have suffered  shipwreck."  The
wise and  good of  past  ages, the noblest and holiest
spirits that ever lived  and moved among men, the
world's real heroes and benefactors, have  sometimes
gathered up into a  few words the rich harvest of their
knowledge and experience, and  launched them upon
the ocean of human life to carry their celestial treas-
ures to all coming ages.  A book  written by a good
and  wise man  is not to  be classed among things that
are dead.  A living soul seems  to breathe and speak
from its pages.  The   affection and thought of the
author, that never can  be  separated from his  living
mind, still animate  the speaking  sentences.  There
is an intuitive perception  of this in the veneration
with which the sacred books of  the  nations are held.
Mohammed is  still in  the  Koran, and Jesus  in the
Gospels.   The letter fixes  in an  outward form the
still  living thought of an author.   In the cloistered
stillness  of the  library that has gathered up these
spiritual treasures, we seem to move along its silent
halls  among the spirits of the mighty  dead.  We
fain  would believe  that this is not destitute of all real-
ity.  Place a  book in  the hand, or on the forehead,
of a person gifted with the psychometric sense, and 
304
THE MENTAL-CURE.
enough of the spiritual life of the author will be still
in it, to reveal his character.   This hidden  influence
affects  the  delicate  sensibility of the  psychometer.
A letter from a person written even on another conti-
nent, will be so charged with the living magnetism
and spiritual force of the writer of it, as to cause the
mind of the psychometer to vibrate in harmony with
it, and the authors feelings of mind and body will be
reproduced,  and can be accurately described.   Here
is a subtle force which has been turned to a practical
use in the cure of disease.   The psychometer is only
more conscious than others of this influence, in conse-
quence of the peculiar sensitiveness of his organism.
For psychometry  may be defined to be the sympathetic
state,  and the interior sensations, as clairvoyance and
clairaudience, belonging to it.  All  may be affected
in as great a degree.   The Seeress of Prevorst used
this power in delivering persons from the psycholog-
ical influence  of disorderly or  undeveloped spirits,
which  is a  concomitant of many  diseasd conditions.
She employed sentences written  upon paper, which
were to be  carried about the person.  She  perhaps
had little knowledge  of  the  laws governing  their
action,  but  they  were successful  in  relieving the
patient  from his  disordered mental  states, and thus
sundered  the sympathetic  connection between him 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
305
and similarly diseased mind  in  the  inner sphere of
being.  There is a law  here  but imperfectly under-
stood, and  not generally recognized, but which can
be turned to a good account.
  There is a greater power  in  words than men are
aware of.  The  creative power of God is expressed
by the Platonists, and by John in his Gospel, by the
term  Logos or Word.  But this power is  given to
every soul  made in  the image of  God.   Frederic
Von Schlegel makes the distinguishing characteristic
of man, and the  peculiar eminence of human nature,
to consist in this—that to him alone among all other
of earth's creatures the word has been  imparted and
communicated.   "In  the idea of the word,"  he ob-
serves, "considered as  the basis of man's dignity and
peculiar  destination, the  internal light of conscious-
ness and of our  own  understanding  is undoubtedly
to be  included,—this  word is  not a mere faculty of
speech, but the fertile root whence the  stately trunk
of all languages  has sprung.  But the word is not
confined to this only—it next includes a living, work-
ing power—it is  not merely an object and organ of
knowledge—an instrument  of teaching  and  learn-
ing, but the means of  affectionate union, conciliatory
accommodation, efficacious  command, and even crea-
tive productiveness, as our own  experience  and life 
306
THE MENTAL-CURE.
itself manifest  each  of those significations  of the
word; and thus it embraces  the  whole plenitude of
the  excellencies and qualities  which characterize
man."  In proportion as man possesses this divine prin-
ciple implanted in him, he  approaches the divine and
angelic  nature.  But  so far as he loses that word of
life,  which has been communicated and  confided to
him, he  sinks down to a level with nature, and instead
of dominions over nature, becomes her vassal. {Phi-
losophy of History, p. 87.)
   Jesus of Nazareth possessed this divine power in
an eminent degree,  and nature seemed passive under
his hands.   He  comprehended the potential  spiritual
force of words, as  a medium  of communicating  life
and  sanative psychological influence.   He employed
certain formulas or expressive sentences into which he
concentrated and converged  his whole mental force,
and  made them the means of transmitting  spiritual
life to the disordered mind.   Some of these pregnant
utterances, always  used according to the nature of
the case,  were these:  "Go in peace;  Be of good
cheer, thy sins are all  forgiven thee;  Be it unto thee
according to thy faith;  I will,  be thou cleansed;
Peace be unto thee;  Arise and walk."  Into these few
words were  condensed his whole mental  force,  and
they  were made to  communicate  his better  state of
4 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
307
feeling and thought to the sufferer.   Spiritual diseases
demand  psychical remedies.  Thousands there  are
who would be better both in mind and body, if they
only knew there was some  one in the universe  who
loved them.   We should demonstrate to  them  that
God loves them, angels love them, and we love them.
"Go to the poor sufferer, deserted and destitute, dying
of despair;  carry him stores of relief in your hand,
love and pity in your eye and voice; and see how the
sun-burst of joyful surprise  breaks on his brow  only
just tinged with the vanishing skirts of  dread.  In
millions of cases, no recipes of vegetable  or mineral
drugs  can compare  in value  and power  with  such
pharmaceutics as a grain of patience, a pennyweight
of magnanimity, a drop of forgiveness, a  draught of
pure resolve,  a hearty  inhalation  of friendship and
faith.  These and such as these, are—
                             " Antidotes
          Of medicated music, answering for
          Mankind's forlornest uses."
   Oftentimes, a physician accomplishes  more toward
the raising up of a patient, by  his words of sympathy
and encouragement, than by his medical  prescrip-
tions, for the reason that there is more sanative vir-
tue in them, and  they  are better  adapted to the re-
moval of the spiritual disturbances that aggravate, if 
308             THE  MENTAL-CURE.
they  do  not originate, the  disease.   Baglivi was
deeply  impressed with  the truth of this and frankly
acknowledges it.  He says:  "I can scarcely express
how much the  conversation of the  physician  influ-
ences even the life of the patient, and modifies his
complaints.  For a physician powerful  in speech, and
skilled in addressing the feelings of a patient, adds so
much to the power of his remedies, and excites  so
much confidence in his  treatment, as  frequently  to
overcome dangerous diseases with very  feeble reme-
dies, which more learned doctors, languid  and indif-
ferent in speech, could not have cured with the best
remedies that man could produce. ' 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
309
              CHAPTER  XXIV.

THE RELATION  OF  MENTAL  FORCE TO  PHYSI-
   CAL STRENGTH, AND HOW TO CURE  GENERAL
   DEBILITY.

The Amount of Force' generated in the System.— Whence Pro-
  duced. — The Abnormal State Called General Debility. —
  What is Strength?— Case cited to show its Mental Origin.
  — The  Mzntal  Faculties that influence the Will Force.—
  Their Importance. — The Cerebral Organ of Muscular Mo-
  tion — The Relation of Respiration to  Muscular Force. —■
  What is Swooning f—The Force of the Bodily Movement
  proportioned tothe Mental Energy.— The  Effect of Respi-
  ration upon the  Vital  Processes. — Nervousness a Mental
  State.— Its cure — Relaxation of the Abdominal Muscles.—
  Misplacement of the Internal Organs. —• Depressing  Men-
  tal States the Cause — Hnv to get rid of the Supporter and
  Body Brace — Relation of the Mind to  Diseases of Dimin-
  ished Vitality. — Dr. Combe.

   THE  AMOUNT  of mechanical  force  generated
      and expended in the human system in the daily
working of the animal  machinery, is far beyond what
would  be conjectured by one  who had not investiga-
ted the subject.  For the performarce of the functions 
310
THE MENTAL-CURE.
. of respiration and circulation, the amount expended
 every day is not less than several thousands of pounds.
 To this we must  add the amount necessary to the in-
 gestion and  digestion of the food and the expulsion
 of the excretions.  The  aggregate amount  of force
 expended in labor and locomotion, has been estimated
 to be not less than two  millions of pounds a day, or
 one  thousand  tons.  We  have seen  that  heat  and
 mechanical force are correlative.   But the heat neces-
 sary to the  generation  of such an amount of force
 cannot be produced  by  the oxydation or slow com-
 bustion  of  the carbon and hydrogen of the blood.
 This is wholly inadequate to meet so great a demand,
 and  to replace the amount  radiated from  the body.
 We must look to some  other source for  the  genera-
 tion of the muscular power of the system.
   Let us look  at the phenomena exhibited  by that
 pathological  condition called general debility.   These    «
 words are in common use to express a  state of  the
 system  with which  every medical practitioner  fre-
 quently  meets.    A very large  fraction of  chronic
 diseases, at least  three-fourths, come under this gen-
 eral designation.   There seems to be but little, and
 sometimes no organic disease,  but only  a  general
 weakness in the action  of all the organs, a lack of
 vital force everywhere, a negative state of  the body. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.            311
The favorite  prescriptions  for  it include quinine
protoxide of iron, and various tonics and stimulants.
But drugs  have no adaptation  to the cure of  such a
state of things.   A more  subtle  chemistry must be
brought  to the aid of the enfeebled and negative or-
ganism.  Strength is not in the body, the muscles are
not a  force.   These  are  only  the instruments  of a
spiritual force.   We  have seen  a girl,  weak,  pale,
and apparently possessing but little muscular power,
who,  when under the excitement of a certain  form
of  Hysteria, would  exhibit almost gigantic physical
strength, requiring  the force  of two men to hold her.
After  coming out of  these attacks, she did not  seem
greatly exhausted, not more  than ordinarily followed
a  walk of half  a  mile.   This  almost  superhuman
power, this Titanic force, was not in her physical
system.  It was not a property of  the bodily  organ-
ism, it  was purely  a  mental  state, and the augment-
ed  muscular  strength was the resultant of increased
mental force.    What  we improperly call physical
strength is always  in the mind.   The body  has no
force but that of gravity  and cohesion, which  belong
in common to all solids and fluids.
  But what is  that  mental  condition which  makes
one strong?   A consciousness of strength, of  what
we  call physical power, if not synonymous with  health, 
312              THE  MENTAL-CURE.

is closely  allied  to  it,  and  is  correlative  of  it.
Ling based his movement cure upon  the truth, that
perfect health  and physical  power were convertible
terms.   But what goes to make up the spiritual
state that is the  cause of muscular force?  The op-
posite of that which underlies a state of  general
debility.   In this there  is a lack of mental  force—•
of will energy.   Neither the muscular nor the nerv-
ous  tissue is diseased.  In  paralysis there is a  soft-
ening of the nerves of motion, and they become imper-
fect  conductors of the will-force.  Nothing  of this
kind is found in general debility.  The lack of men-
tal force  may be, and often is, the result of discourage-
ment—a  state of mind  made up of a want of faith, an
inactive  or inverted condition  of the organ of hope,
and a negative  action of the sentiment of self-esteem.
It is the  office  of  this latter faculty to  give  us the
sense of  our personal identity, our peculiar individu-
ality, and to cause us to feel a respect for  it, and to
place a  proper value upon  it.   It inspires us  with
the feeling of  self-reliance,  and of  freedom, which is
favourable to  the manifestations of muscular force
and  virtuous activity.  It  gives that  confidence  in
the use of  our  powers  which is necessary to success
in every department of human labor,  and to  the
efficient discharge  of the functions of every office.  Its 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
313
office seems to be to add force to  all our volitions.
It imparts a positive influence to the mind, and gives
the power of controlling  both ourselves and  others.
The lack of this quality causes  a negative condition
of the mind, which by influx into the body, weakens
the tone of all muscular action.  What  we call self-
esteem, for the want of a better name, has much to
do  with  physical  strength.    The  persons  most
remarkable for muscular  power, exhibit a large and
active development of  it.   The  part  of the brain
where all voluntary motions  originate,  is  in close
proximity to it,  being situated at a  middle point
between firmess and  self-esteem.   This part of  the
cerebrum  supplies  the necessary stimulus to the dia-
phragm and all the voluntary muscles.   It is the seat
of the will, the self-determining power  of the mind.
Surrounding  it are  the organs whose office  it is to
give energy to our volitions, as faith, firmness, self-
esteem, and continuity.   When these organs are in
a normal condition, there is seldom found a state of
general debility.    A judicious magnetic  treatment
of this  part  of the brain accomplishes wonders  in
restoring the strength of a patient.  When a person
has the feeling, "I am strong; I can do a great
thing; I can do what man  has ever done," it is an
excitement of  the  sentiment of faith, firmness, and 
314
THE MENTAL-CURE.
self-esteem,  and the increased vital  action  of their
cerebral  organs extends  instantly to the organ of
voluntary motion.   Under  the  stimu'ns  of these
feelings,  the body  spontaneously assumes an erect
attitude,  and the person exhibits the conscious dig-
nity of his  manhood.   The  shoulders are drawn
back, the chest enlarged,  and the breathing is deep
and  full.   Whatever  mental  state  will   increase
the amount of respiratory  action will  increase the
strength.  And  nature has  provided  that when we
are about to exert great muscular force and  feel ade-
quate to it, whether it  be lifting  or striking,  we shall
precede the effort with a deep  inspiration.   Let any
one try the experiment.   The  more one breathes,
other things being  equal, the stronger he is.   The
size of the lungs, indicated by breadth between  the
shoulders, and deepness and fullness of the  chest, is
the measure of a person's muscular  force.   The less
one breathes, the weaker he is.   In swooning, which
is accompanied with a loss of all voluntary  motion,
there is  only a suspended respiration.   On  recover-
ing, or rather the  cause  of the restoration  to con-
sciousness and  muscular power  is, a deep breath is
drawn, and with it comes back the lost physical force.
The best  restoratives  are magnetism  of the part of
the brain  that is the  seat  of the  will, and alternate 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
315
pressure of the  abdominal muscles and the  chest, to
create an artificial breathing,  as is done in cases of
drowning and asphyxia.  This is  often successful in
a few minutes.   We have thus restored a patient in
one  minute.  In  cases of general debility, there is
always  a feeble respiration,  in fact, it is  physiolog-
ically a  partial and  chronic  swooning.  The breath-
ing is short and quick, and the pulse correspondingly
feeble and  rapid.   For nature maintains a rythmic
harmony between the movements of  the heart and
lungs.   All depressing  mental states, as  we have
before shown, are  attended with an imperfect respira-
tion,  the lungs  only being  called  into action, and
no movement being communicated to the abdominal
muscles.   The  muscular membrane, called  the dia-
phragm, separating between the   thoracic  and  ab-
dominal  cavities, whose contraction supplies the res-
piratory  force, loses its nervous power, and its con-
vexity.   It must  be restored to a healthy tone,  and
its contractility increased, for its  action is  prior to
all muscular motions,  and voluntary  exhibitions of
physical  force.   But there is  no medicinal compound
in the endless  list  of  pharmaceutical preparations,
that can effect this change.   There must be  a return
to a  natural respiration, a normal  breathing,  which
must  not be a momentary exercise, but  become  an
habitual  bodily state. 
316             THE MENTAL-CURE.

  We have shown, in  a pre vious chapter, that the
action of the heart and lungs are primary motions on
which all the physiological movements and processes
depend.  The effect of respiration extends beyond the
substance of the lungs  and the thorax.  Motion  is
communicated by it, not only to the abdominal cover-
ings and to all  the organs within the abdominal cav-
ity, but to the smallest blood vessels, and promotes
the circulation of their fluid contents.   There is not
only a rising and falling of the mass of the brain, syn-
chronous with  the contraction and relaxation of the
diaphragm, and the expansion  and shrinking of the
pulmonary substance, but the same movement, though
not  so  perceptible, is communicated to the cerebro-
spinal axis and  all the nerves, which are  only the con-
tinuation or ramification of the  brain into the  body.
Its effects extend to every fiber and minute vessel of
the organism,  and are consequently promotive of all
the vital processes and functions.  Too much impor-
tance cannot be attached to  a  proper respiration, as
being intimately related to a normal  manifestation
of the mind, and a  healthy functional  action of  the
various organs.
   It is evident  that  the stimulus of any  mental
state, that causes a normal action of  the diaphragm,
the lungs, and the abdominal muscles, and  thus in 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
317
creases the breathing force, will  alone  permanently
increase the strength, restore the lost tone of the vi-
tal movements, and cure the prevalent  state of the
system called general debility.  To breathe is to live
and the more we breathe, the more we live. Strength
is not a property of our material organization, but is
more a mental state.  The body moves  with a power
proportioned to the  mental energy.  Motion in the
body is an effect, of which some spiritual force is the
cause.   It does not originate in the body.  There is
a force distinct from all material  organization, which
is the motive power of the machinery.   The power of
the motion is ever proportioned to the degree of the
spiritual force.  To  strengthen the  body, if such a
contradiction were possible, does not demand the use
of tonics  and stimulants, but we must  increase the
mental force.  If we  can by any means arouse the
mind to a vigorous tone, and become '' strong, and of
a good courage," our general debility will  soon dis-
appear.   The patient is always under the influence ot
certain  depressing mental states,  which sustain a
causal relation to the trouble, and the so-called bodi-
ly weakness.  It is of no use to try to  relieve symp-
toms, and doctor effects.   The remedial  agency must
be less superficial.   We must attend to  the  fountain
of bodily  life, and  minister to a mind diseased.   We 
318
THE MENTAL-CURE.
need  not filter  the stream.  We  must purify the
spring.   Remove the spiritual cause, and the  bodily
effect will cease.
  One of the concomitants of the state of general
debility, is what is called nervousness.  But nervous
disorders are wholly mental.  The patient often suf-
fers more than in cases of great organic derangement.
A disease is none the less real because it is mental,
as the soul  is the most real element  of our complex
nature.   Nervousness is nothing else  but a morbid
state  of  the mind, and only spiritual remedies  are
adapted to its cure.  The  sufferings  of  the  patient
arise not so  much from the absolute amount of pain,
for this is usually very trifling, but from the extreme
sensitiveness of the  mind  to  all  uneasy  feelings.
There is  a morbid dj#ad  of disease, a  tendency to
watch their  shifting symptoms, and perhaps an  un-
usual acuteness in their sensations.  When a patient
can be made aware that his disease  is wholly mental,
an important point is  gained in the process of recov-
ery.   For a knowledge of the cause of disease is half
of its cure.   To tell a nervous invalid that his troub-
les are all in his mind, need give no offense, if  we at
the same time exhibit a true sympathy for his suffer-
ings,  and show him that they are not  less important
because  they arise from a  pathological  state of the 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             319
inner man.  To say that a patient's disease is  in the
mind, is quite a different thing from an assertion that
nothing ails him.   These are not equivalent proposi-
tions.  What are called  nervous diseases, are among
the most real of the ills to which man is subject. An
unsound state of the mind is  more to be deprecated
than the fracture of a limb, or dislocation of a joint.
All remedies except those of a generally hygienic na-
ture, are ineffectual.   Relief is soonest  found in the
ministry of mind to mind.   A spiritual magnetism is
a specific for all  the Protean  forms it  assumes.   Its
unutterable horrors, its morbid dread, its sensitiveness
to trifling pains, its melancholy and despair, are made
to give place  to the influx of faith, hope, and peace.
The remarks we  have made above in  relation to the
treatment of general  debility,-are  equally applicable
to the cure of the nervousness attending it.
  In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred,  that come
under the  appropriate  name  of  general  debility,
there is a mechanical misplacement, or falling down-
ward of the internal organs, owing to a relaxation of
the muscles of the abdomen which  constitute  their
natural support.   There is a series of organs located
within the trunk mutually  supporting and influenc-
ing each  other.    Within  the  thorax or chest,  we
have  the  heart and lungs  filling  its entire  cavity 
320
THE MENTAL-CURE.
Then comes  the  diaphragm, a muscular membrane,
separating between the  organs in  the thorax and
abdomen, and curving upward, forming the floor of
the chest, the heart and lungs resting on it.  Its con-
traction  draws  its convex surface downward, form-
ing a partial  vacuum, and the air, by the force of its
pressure, rushes  in and  fills the lungs.   The more
convex  the diaphragm, the  deeper and fuller is the
breathing.  The  lungs are  wholly passive in both
inspiration and expiration, as much so as  a sponge
in absorbing  water and yielding it up when pressed.
In cases of general debility  the diaphragm does not
come back to its  proper convexity, and consequently
the heart and lungs gravitate  downward.    Under-
neath the diaphragm are the liver, the stomach, the
spleen, and the pancreas; below these the duodenum,
and the intestinal canal  in a sort  of spiral  column ■
then the organs in the  pelvic cavity.  As a displace-
ment of these  organs interferes with  their healthy
functional action,  it becomes an important  question,
What holds them in position, and counteracts their
gravitating force?   They evidently cannot rest  on
nothing.   They  are  all held  in  their appropriate
place by the walls of the abdomen which consist  al-
most  entirely of  muscular tissue.  There  is a series
of muscles so arranged as admirably  to adapt them 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
321
to the support of  the  truncal organs.   We  have
first the  transverse muscle, extending across  from
side to side over the abdomen; then the oblique mus-
cles, one of them extending from the hip or fan  bone
and back, obliquely upward, and  inserted into the
lower  ribs,  the  other  extending  from  the lower
edge  of the ribs,  and also from the back,  obliquely
downward  and fastened upon  the pelvic bone and
the white line of  the abdomen; next the pyramidalis
muscle, arising from the projecting  bone  of  the hip
and running up about half way to the navel, where
it terminates in a point; and lastly, though not least
in importance, the rectus  abdominalis muscle.   It
is shaped somewhat like a suspender,  and  performs
a similar office.   It runs up  the  front of the abdo-
men and is inserted into the lower extremity of the
sternum  or breast-bone.  These muscular bands are
so contrived, that when in a healthy condition, and
the body is in a perfectly  erect attitude, they hold  up in
their  proper  place within the trunk  all the internal
viscera.    When  in a relaxed  state, all  the  organs
tend downward toward the pelvis, and by their super-
incumbent  weight crowd  the pelvic  organs down—
the bladder,  the  rectum, and the uterus.   Then the
animal machinery works wrong, like a watch when the
wheels are  moved out of place.   This misplacement 
322
THE MENTAL-CURE.
interferes with their  physiological functions.   The
cure consists in bringing  the organs back into place.
Any artificial  support, as the great variety  of body
braces and supporters, affords only a temporary relief,
but aggravates the trouble in the end.  The duplicat-
ed movements applied to the muscles of the abdomen,
afford a better remedy, and  those gymnastic exer-
cises that call  them into  action are also of use.   But
no relief can be permanent  until the  spiritual cause
of the trouble be removed.    All depressing  mental
states destroy the healthy tone of the abdominal muscles.
This  is so manifestly the case, that mankind have
instinctively recognized  its truth in their common
forms of  speech.    When we speak  of  one  who  is
bowed down with grief,  we express a physiological fact,
and not merely a figure of speech.  It is the natural
attitude of a man in sadness and melancholy,  which
destroys the contractility  Of the  muscular coverings
of the abdomen.   Fear in all its forms, as anxiety,
melancholy, and  a want  of faith,  relaxes  the dia-
phragm.    It  weakens the  epigastric  nerves,  and
deprives  their organs of  their proper cerebral  stim-
ulus.   We speak of depressing mental states, and
a sinking of the spirits,—forms of speech arising nat-
urally from the bodily sensations which they originate.
Depression is  the  act of pressing down,  and  when 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
323
applied to the mind signifies a lowering of its tone
below  the normal  and  healthful standard, and, by
weakening the muscular support of the organs within
the trunk, they  obey the law of gravity and  press
downward.  When a person is bowed down, he feels
as he looks.   It is the natural language, the ultima-
tion, of dejection of spirits.   All that is needed to
restore the abdominal muscles to a healthy state, is
habitually to exercise them.  The appropriate nerve-
stimulus, or rather spiritual  force,  that is infused
into them by  use, will  harden them as certainly as
exercise strengthens the arm of the blacksmith.  They
are always called into action  by the respiration attending
all happy and exhilarating frames of mind.   If a patient
can be recovered from his depressing mental condition.
the  body will become  erect,  without any   other
mechanical support than nature supplies.  His weak-
ness, his lassitude, his  languor and fatigue will dis-
appear.    On  the  influence  of  depressing  mental
states,  Dr. Andrew Combe justly  observes:  "The
tendency of grief, despondency and sorrow is to pro-
duce meditative inaction.   These emotions require no
exertion of the bodily powers, and no unusual expend-
iture of vital  energy : but  rather the reverse.   This
is a  condition incompatible with a quick supply of
blood,  or a high degree of respiration; for if these were 
324
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
conjoined,  they would  only  give  rise to an  amount
of bodily activity at variance with the absorbed and
inactive  state of the mind.   The nature of the ex-
citing passions  is to impel us vigorously to  action;
but action  cannot be sustained without a full supply
of highly  oxygenated  blood,  and hence  a manifest
reason for  the quick respiration and accelerated cir-
culation  which  attend  mental excitement.    Great
depression  of mind thus leads naturally to imperfect
respiration, a more  sluggish flow of blood,  and the
various diseases of diminished vitality; while exces-
sive  excitement induces  full respiration, quickened
circulation, and  the  various diseases of exalted vitali-
ty.    These principles  show  the  paramount impor-
tance, in the  treatment of disease, of carefully regu-
lating  the  mental state of the patient, according  to
the object we have in view." 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.              325
              CHAPTER  XXV.

  SLEEP AS A MENTAL  STATE, ITS HYGIENIC
         VALUE, AND  HOW TO INDUCE IT.

Sleep Defined. — Its Influence upon the involuntary Physio-
  logical Processes. — Nutrition. — Circulation. — The Excre-
  ting  Organs. — Its Remedial Value. — The Obstacles to it.
   — Cold Feet. — Tea and Coffee. —  The Law that governs
  in Inducing it upon Ourselves. — Position of the Eye. —
  Its Effect upon the Cerebrum. — The Respiration  in Sleep.
   — In the Magnetic Trance. — The moral Influence of Sleep.
   — The Order in which the Senses lose their Susceptibility to
  Impression.— Practical Directions based upon this Law.—

    SLEEP  MAY be characterized as an involuntary
      and passive state of  the mind.   The cerebrum,
as we have shown above, is the organ of our volun-
tary life;  the cerebellum of  the involuntary  vital
movements and passive states  of  thought and affec-
tion.   In a state of  sleep  the cerebrum is quiescent,
and the cerebellum is the  organ  through  which the
physiological processes are carried on.  Sleep is one
of the  most important remedial  agencies in  nature, 
326
THE MENTAL-CURE.
and a knowledge of the laws that govern it, and by
which we may induce  it upon  ourselves, is of suffi-
cient practical value to justify us  in  devoting this
chapter to its consideration.  It being a passive state
of the muscles of voluntary motion, the no inconsid-
erable amount of vital force thus expended can be
employed to increase the  action of the  involuntary
processes.   In the period of childhood we  spend much
more  time  in sleep than  in after-years,  in  old age
much less than in the middle of our existence.   This
is  one reason why the  functions of  the entire  nutri-
tive  system are  carried on with so much more vigor
in the morning of our  existence than-  in subsequent
years.  The state of somnolence facilitates the circu-
lation of the blood and all the  fluids of the system.
This is owing to  the withdrawal of the forces expend-
ed in our voluntary activities, and their employment
in increasing  the vigor of all the involuntary func-
tions, and also to the  usual position of  the body in
sleep,  tn wakefulness  and  in the upright position,
the circulation of the nutritive  fluids  is opposed by
their gravity, which tends to retard their flow.   The
horizontal position being that which diminishes their
gravitating  force the most, is one which  is the most
favorable to their circulation.  The diminished  action
of the ganglionic nerves of motion and of sensation, 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
327
 affords an increased  supply of cerebral stimulus  to
 the excretory organs, and the waste worn out particles
 are thrown off from the system in greater profusion
 than during our waking hours.  These  fill the atmos-
 phere  of the bedroom, so as to be more recognizable
 to our senses than they would be if we  were confined
 for the  same length  of  time in the  same  apartment
 while awake.   Sleep  is consequently peculiarly adapt-
 ed  to  the relief of a dry  and feverish state of the
 skin, and to all  diseases whose secondary  causes are
 found  in a defective action of the excretory functions.
 There is much of physiological truth in the  reply of
 the disciples to the statement of Jesus that his friend
 Lazarus was asleep:  "Lord, if he sleep, he shall do
 well."  The  rabbins regarded sleep as one of  the
 most  important of the "six good  symptoms" of dis-
 ease.   We feel convinced  that in a  great  variety of
 pathological conditions, especially most  cases of nerv-
 ous debility, it will  be found among the  best  of
 nature's  remedies.  In  the early stage  of  all febrile
 disorders, if the patient could  induce upon himself a
 sound  and normal  sleep,  it  would prove  the most effi-
 cient means of cure.  But  the sleep  must be  natural
and not that resulting from the  stupifying influence
of narcotic drugs.  There   are those who have the
power  of commanding sleep at any time;  and such 
328
THE MENTAL-CURE.
are seldom diseased.  It is their only resort  in  sick-
ness.   They  sleep for any length of time, and when
and where they please.
  But is sleep under the control  of our  volitions ?
Not directly, but  only  indirectly  so.  It cannot  be
induced by the active  or positive  state of the  will,
but only by  the passive or  negative  position of the
volitive power.   The more a nervous patient tries to
sleep  the less he feels of  the somnolent influence.
The effort to sleep is a voluntary state of the mind,
while sleep is an involuntary and passive condition of
both the brain and the  soul.  Any active volition is
wakefulness.  If  we remove all obstacles to sleep, it
becomes spontaneous,  and steals over  the  excited
mind and wearied powers, like  the cooling breath of a
summer evening,  and we enter the pure and  tranquil
dream-land as softly as flowers close  at set of sun.
There is a powerful magnetic  sympathy  between the
feet and the brain.   If the feet are cold and negative,
the head is pressed with an accumulation of the nerv-
ous and vital forces.  Restore the circulation to the
extremities, by immersing them in water below the
temperature of  the blood, rubbing them dry with the
hand, and smiting  them until they glow with  vital
heat.   This relieves the brain  of its congested condi-
tion and throws it into a state favorable to repose, 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
329
Rub the back-brain with the left hand, also the back
of the neck, so as to attract the cerebral force towards
the cerebellum.  Use your own hand or that of a
sympathetic  friend.   Avoid  the intemperate use of
tea and coffee.   The former,  by the  semi-spiritual
essence it contains,  stimulates  the fore-brain to ac-
tion, which is  the organ of voluntary thought, and
sleep  becomes  difficult,  and  sometimes impossible
under its influence.   The latter acts upon  the cere-
bral organ  of voluntary  motion, and  its effects are
equally unfavorable  to sleep.   Every  article of food
or drink tending  to  throw the mind or body  into a
positive  state,  should  be avoided for the  evening
meal.   Removing  these  hindrances, the induction
upon  ourselves of  the  state of  somnolency, with its
quieting, invigorating and restorative influences, will
be easy.  We will now proceed to unfold  the laws
by conformity to which, sleep may be  self-induced at
any time.
  We shall have to avail  ourselves of a principle pre-
viously stated and illustrated, that when the body is
made to assume the attitude and condition that exter-
nally  manifests  any  mental  state, it spontaneously
arises within us.   This is the key to  the whole mys-
tery of  going to sleep.   Let the  patient assume  a
reclining position, with the head but slightly elevated 
330
THE MENTAL-CURE.
so as to bring it only a little above a level with the
shoulders.   Then elevate the ball  of the eye, rolling
it up as it is called, as if attempting  to  look toward
the back-brain.  This inversion of  the eye is its nat-
ural and fixed position in sleep, as  is  easy to prove
by an  examination  of any person, who has  passed
from the realm of external consciousness to the dream-
land.  This upward  and backward  movement of the
eye, which must  not be too strained  or  artificial, in-
verts the action of the cerebrum, and suspends all ac-
tive thought, terminates the voluntary states of the
mind, which passes  from the active to  the  passive
state.  The vital force of the cerebrum flows back to
the cerebellum, and this, physiologically, is a state of
sleep.  The patient may not instantly become uncon-
scious, and the mind  may not immediately be  with-
drawn  from the bodily senses, but he will soon sweet-
ly lose himself  to  all external  perceptions  and sur-
roundings, and be in the care of the angels, who, in a
less sensuous age of the church, when it was animated
by a higher spiritual life, and a more childlike faith,
were supposed to guard our  defenceless  slumbers
when the "Lord gave his beloved sleep."  The great
obstacle to sleep is a  want of ability to suspend active
thought. The best way of doing this is to  put the brain
ii.to the inverted and  quiescent state it exhibits in 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
331
the passive mental condition that constitutes  somno-
lence.  Various methods have been employed to effect
the necessary suspension of thought, such as counting,
but they only change the direction of the thoughts.
This  may have its use in facilitating  the process of
going to sleep, but  is not so much in  harmony with
nature as the course we have recommended above.
   It is proper also  to remark, before  we leave  this
subject, that the respiration in sleep is different from
that which accompanies intense and active thinking.
In sound and healthy sleep the breathing is deep and
full, calling into action the muscular coverings of the
abdomen, while in abstract voluntary thinking, only
the upper portion of the lungs is slightly moved.  We
have  frequently had occasion to observe also, that
when a person in passing into the magnetic coma or
trance, he precedes  his loss of external consciousness
with a few deep inspirations.  In inducing upon our-
selves the mental state that constitutes the essential
thing in sleep, we do well  to imitate  nature  in this
respect.  We have  known some who  have resorted
to nothing  else but  this, when they wished to coun-
teract the  tendency to  prolonged  wakefulness,  and
with  them  it  was found uniformly sucessful.    But
this form of respiration need not be too artificial, but
only such as is naturally produced  by simply  direct- 
332
THE MENTAL-CURE.
ing the thoughts to the frontal muscles.   One object
to be aimed at is the  cessation from all active voli-
tions.   For sleep is only a natural, healthful,  and
temporary  suspension  of  the functions  of the  two
hemispheres of  the  cerebrum, which is  the organ of
the voluntary life of the mind and body.  It is the nat-
ural rest or repose instituted  by the Author of our
being to restore the exhausted energies  of both the
inner and outer  man.  In this state of  passivity and
abstraction from the bodily senses, we become inhab-
itants, in a  degree, of a better world, and recipients of
elevating and purifying influences.  So that sleep has
its moral as well as hygienic  uses.  It  is a mental
state, that  belongs to another  world as well  as this.
It is one of the established means of mental progress,
both here and hereafter.
   The withdrawal of the  mind from the bodily senses
in sleep, takes place progressively, and  may exist in
different degrees.  In its first stage it is called  drowsi-
ness.   When  this is habitual it is denominated leth-
argy.  The senses  become  oblivious to impression
from  external things  in a fixed order or succession.
The sight ceases to receive  impressions first.   The
sense of taste is  the next to lose its susceptibility, and
then the sense of smell.   The hearing is the  next in
order, and  last of all the  sense  of touch or  feeling. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             333
In drowsiness, which is  an incipient sleep, the eye
becomes dull and heavy, and involuntarily closes.   To
prevent the further  progress of somnolence, persons
are seen instinctively to  rub the eyes, to take some-
thing into the mouth of a strong taste, and to smell
of something  pungent, and if circumstances permit,
to call into action the muscles of voluntary motion.
For drowsiness  or lethargy affects only the  three
senses mentioned above, together with the part of the
cerebrum which the mind  uses in voluntary motion.
These three senses are the most external, and are at
the outpost as sentinels.   They are the most voluntary
of the senses, and if sleep passes  them, the others
will soon surrender.  In inducing upon ourselves a
state of sleep, let the eye be closed, and turned away
from the  light,  as  light  will affect the  eye  even
through the eye-lids.  If inclined to wakefulness, the
face  should not  be  turned toward a window of the
sleeping apartment.  The mouth must be free  from
every thing which can excite the  sense of taste, and
the  atmosphere of  the  room must be  free from  all
perfumes and the effluvia of medicine, and from any-
thing that can affect the sense pf  smell.   The invalid
must be removed from all unpleasant noise or sounds
that  can  excite the  sensation of hearing.  Though
listening   to  certain  agreeable  and   monotonous 
334
THE MENTAL-CURE.
sounds, as the roaring of the wind in a forest, or the
sound of distant music, facilitates the induction  of
sleep.  It draws away the activity of the three senses,
which are affected by drowsiness, and serves to induce
that state.   And lastly the body must be  in an easy
position,  with  as  little weight of clothing as  will
serve to prevent the sensation of cold, and not enough
to excite a sensation of heat.   Observing  these  sim-
ple directions, in connection with those  before  given,
there are few cases where natural and healthful sleep
may not be self-induced.
   It is proper to remark, that in awaking from sleep,
the senses come to conscious activity in the inverted
order in which they lose their susceptibility to impres-
sion.  The  sense of touch first awakes, and that  of
sight last.   Sometimes a slight  touch  will arouse a
person, when our voice is unheeded by him. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
335
            CHAPTER XXVI.

     THE WILL-CURE, ACTIVE AND  PASSIVE.

 Connection  of  the Organs with the Mind. — How to affect
  their Functional Action.— The Will-Force and the Stomach
  and Intestinal Canal.— Cause of Coldness and  Weakness.
  — The Cure. — The Passive Will- Cure. — A general law of
  Health Stated. — Voluntary Movements Fatiguing. — The
  Involuntary  Actions not so. — How to  take  up thy bed
  and walk. — How to walk a hundred miles a day. — The
  Interior Stale. — Its healthful Influences.—Passive Knowl-
  edge. — Influx  of  better Emotional States. — The  Spirit
  with which to approach  the Inner World. — Importance oj
  our Relations to it

    THROUGH THE grand system of ganglionic and
      sympathetic  nerves, each  organ  in the  body is
connected with every other, and the whole  with  the
mind.   There is no part or function which cannot be
affected  just  as  certainly, though perhaps not  as
sensibly, by the will-force, as the muscles of the arm.
To  do this  requires  no straining,  no struggle, as if
we  were going to lift a mountain from  our  condition, 
330
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
any  more than  it does to move one finger without
the  others.   The  pneumogastric  nerve,  which  is
distributed to all the organs within the cavity of the
trunk, is the appointed conductor through which the
mental force is communicated  to them, and  influ-
ences their functional action.  This important nerve
seems to be  in  sympathetic connection with the or-
gan of  vitativeness,  which,  when  fully developed
and normally active, renders one tenacious of life,
and affords a healthful  cerebral stimulus  to the vital
organs.   We have  only  to  concentrate the mind's
force upon any of the  internal organs, as the  stom-
ach,  liver,  or  intestinal  canal,  and  through the
pneumogastric  nerve,  its  vital  movements  will be
influenced.   It  is the divine  order of our existence,
that  the  mind  should  be  the  body's  sovereign.
Spirit  is superior to matter;  it is a'higher and divin-
er force.  The one is positive; the other negative ; one
is an active  principle; the other a passive recipient.
The will and the love we have shown to be identical,
and love is the life of man.  To direct the will, there-
fore, to an organ, determines  the vital force  to it,
and  increases  its sensibility.    It is  a truth de-
monstrated by our  experience, that  the more our
thoughts can be  diverted from  a  part that is the seat
of a painful sensation, the less we feel of it.   On the 
                THE MENTAL-CURE.              337

other hana, vhe  continual  concentration of the mind
upon any portion of the system in a state of  inflam-
mation,  increases the  sensibility  and adds  to  our
Bufferings.   The  successful practice of the will-cure
must be  based upon a sufficient degree of the knowl-
edge of our pathological state, to enable  us to judge
when it is desirable  to concentrate the  mind's action
upon a diseased part, or when to divert the spiritual
force from it.   If the stomach has become exhausted
of its nervous force,  so that its vermicular movements
have ceased,  and  the food in it is  a motionless and
fermenting mass, it  can be made to obey the  behests
of the sovereign mind.  Concentrating the mind upon
it, converging our spiritual force to a focus, we may
calmly and powerfully will it to  proceed  to business
and  attend to its proper work, and it will obey  us as
readily  and as promptly as a good  servant yields to
the orders of  his employer.  The same effect  may be
produced upon the action of the  intestinal canal.  If
the blood and vital heat do not circulate  through the
extremities,  which  feel a deadly  coldness, it is be-
cause the spiritual life does not permeate the  tissues.
We may send the  spiritual principle there,  by the
will-force,  to  distribute to the negative parts  their
share of the vital flame.   For it is ever  to be borne
in mind, that the negative,  weakened state of  an 
338             THE MENTAL-CURE.

organ is  not  caused so much  by a want of blood in
it, as  it is by the absence from it of a more subtle
element.  The spiritual  principle  does not circulate
freely through it.  The active will-cure is peculiarly
adapted  to all negative,  devitalized  states of the or-
ganism.  But the  mind should never  be  directed to
any organ of the body while  under  the dominion of
depressing emotions and  feelings, as  those of fear,
anxiety,  or melancholy, but we should convey to a
diseased  part only the healthy life-giving  current of
our positive and normal mental states.   A  little prac-
tice  will render the will-cure  easy and natural, and
we can  become our own physician.   Blessed is the
man,  who, in sickness or trouble, has a skillful and
sympathetic  physician for soul and  body, in  whom
he may  trust.    But  he has attained a  far higher
blessedness, who, by his knowledge of the laws that
govern the action  of the mind upon the body both in
the generation  of health and disease, is  able  to do
without  both physician and medicine.
   There is a less active state  of the will-power which
we have often found equally efficient,  and  even more
so, in the removal of diseased conditions, especially
with  those whose  nervous energies are much exhaust-
ed.   Many patients exhibit a morbid inclination to
watch their symptoms and  sensations. The general 
                  THE MENTAL-CURE.              339

 law of health requires  that the thoughts  should be
 abstracted as much as possible from  the action of all
 the organs which perform their appropriate  functions
 involuntarily.   They should  be left  to  act in  their
 own way without any interference  with their  move-
 ments.  In all forms of dyspepsia attended by a too
 sensitive condition  of the reticular  membranes  and
 mucous surface, the mind should not be directed to
 the stomach.   The  attention  should be diverted from
 any uneasy sensations in that region.  The reason of
 this we will explain.  In addition to a principle pre-
 viously stated, that  to concentrate the  mental force
 upon an inflamed part  intensifies its sensibility, we
 may observe that all involuntary movements and pro-
 cesses are attended with no fatigue, or loss of nervous
 energy.   Illustrations of this  may be seen in the res-
 piratory movements, and  the systolic and diastolic
 motions of the heart. When we breathe involuntarily
 and without directing the  mind to the act, the move-
 ment, though continued  day and night, occasions no
 weariness, for then the  spiritual force, which impels
 the respiratory apparatus, is received  by influx from
the all-surrounding spiritual world,  with which we are
in vital sympathy.   But when we direct the attention
to our breathing, and it becomes artificial and volun-
tary, it is fatiguing.   It  is less wearisome to ride in 
340
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 a coach, than it is to draw it ourselves.  The same
 law operates in regard to the stomach and all the in-
 voluntary organs.   When we direct the attention to
 an involuntary organ, it exhausts its force and makes
 the discharge of its functional action all the same as
 a voluntary movement.  Persons can walk a great
 distance in a day if they are not thinking of their
 movements.   They then walk spontaneously and in-
 voluntarily, and the more they approach an involun-
 tary action of the muscles concerned in their  march,
 the further they can go without fatigue.  This is the
 main secret in walking  a hundred miles a day, a  feat
-some  have accomplished  with less  weariness  than
 others experience  in going the same number of rods.
 Availing ourselves  of  this law, we have sometimes
 walked many miles  with invalids, and  they have re-
 turned from their seemingly miraculous feat of pedes-
 trianism  more invigorated than when they  started.
 By constantly diverting the attention of the patient,
 so that he takes no notice of his movements, nor the
 distance gone over, he  can be made  to  go for miles,
 when  before he has not thought himself able to leave
 the confined limits of the court-yard of his dwelling.
    There is a passive cure of diseased conditions of the
 body and  inharmonies   of  mind.  We  may become
 quiescent, assuming an easy position, perhaps reclin- 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
341
ing with the head to the north, to bring the body in-
to an attitude agreeing with the magnetic poles of the
earth.   Then we may transfer our mental life to the
organ of the involuntary thoughts and affections, as
we have directed in inducing sleep.  This is the mid-
dle state between sleeping  and waking.   In it  the
senses  become  unusually acute,  especially  that  of
touch or feeling, and become in a degree independent
of their  bodily  organs.   It  is referred to by Paul,
(2 Cor. xiii. 3),  and he  describes his experience while
in it.  In this state we become receptive of the bet-
ter spiritual life  of a higher sphere, which  flows first
into  the interior organism and through this into the
body.  By inverting and suspending the action of the
cerebrum, we are brought to that mysterious border-
land  situated  between  the two  realms  of  beino;.
                                                o
Taking position on the mystic boundary-line between
the material and spiritual worlds, the soul suspends
active thought, and becomes the recipient of passive
knowledge or intuition.  This is a thousand times more
accurate than that which is the result of active thought
and  reasoning.   Knowledge becomes a spiritual in-
stinct —an influx from the superior range of life.  A
bee will construct a cell with perfect mathematical ex-
actness, so as to contain the greatest quantity in the
smallest compass. Yet it knows nothing of geome- 
342
THE MENTAL-CURE.
try.   Its knowledge is an instinct, or a passive intel-
ligence, received from  the spiritual world.  We  can
become the  recipients  of  passive knowledge.  Then
we gain truth not by the  slow and  laborious process
of reason, but as the diamond imbibes the light of the
sun.   In this state, the mind becomes perceptive of
the  spiritual causes of our diseases, and  of the laws
of life and health—a return  to which  is a necessary
prerequisite  to a permanent cure under any method of
treatment.  This condition  of the brain  and mind
has  been denominated by some the " superior  condi-
tion," but we choose to call it the interior state.  The
Swedish seer  speaks  of it  as  the "self-evidencing
reason of love."   It is eminently a spiritual and hap-
py state.  Anxieties,  griefs,  regrets,  fears,  doubts,
self-condemnation,  and all  disturbances  that have
their seat in the external degree of the mind, are left
behind, as the soul retires inward upon itself.   For
what  men call evil, never  invades the  interior de-
grees of the mind.   All unhappiness exists on the
lowest plane of our  spiritual nature.    It  becomes
admissive not only of the light of the celestial climes
but  also  of the affectional states  of  the angels.
Their sphere  of  peace, purity and love, their calm
and  tranquil bliss, the soul imbibes, and  is made to
vibrate in concord with heavenly harmonies.   In the 
                 THE MENTAL-CURE.              343

 interior state, the spirit retains its consciousness, and
 its memory, and on its return to the external condi-
 tion  it  brings  down its higher knowledge, and the
 recollection  of   its  exalted perceptions,  and comes
 back laden with celestial spoils, as the spies returned
 to  the desert   encampment of  Israel bearing  with
 them the rich clusters of the grapes of the promised
 land.  The tranquil soul drinks in life from perennial
 fountains.   Oftentimes in the interior state, which is
 so  sensitive  to  psychological  impressions from  the
 land  of the  blest, the lost harmony in  the distribu-
 tion of the vital forces, which constitute our patholo-
 gical condition,  is in a few minutes  restored, and all
 morbid affections of  mind and body  are dispersed by
 the influx  of a healthier spiritual life.   Before  thus
 approaching the boundaries of  the other realm of
 being, it is important that we be in  charity, the love
 of  use, and in purity of intention.  For like attracts
 its  like in the  spiritual world.   Approaching  that
 realm in any other moral  attitude,  we  shall expose
 the susceptible inward man to the peril of imbibing
 the miasm of  the Stygian pool, and  the poisonous
 effluvia of disorderly spirits.   The foul  emanations
 o( their surrounding  sphere will  serve to make  our
 condition worse, mentally  and physically.  But no
evil spirits, in this world or the next, can do us harm, 
344
THE MENTAL-CURE.
if we approach them in the moral attitude of charity,
and with a desire to do them good.  Jesus went and
preached to spirits in prison, or to those who were in
bondage to  disorderly  and unharraonized  passions,
and the purity of his soul received no stain.   And a
good man might explore that mythic region, called
an orthodox  hell,  and remain as uncontaminated as
a sunbeam in an  infected hospital.  When we  ap-
proach the higher realm of being, where all is calm,
and pure,  and loving, and the outward scenery seems
pervaded with the  life of its inhabitants,  and to be
only the chrystalization of their thoughts  and affec-
tions, carrying  with us an immortal desire to bless
all mankind,  and a  consecration  of  all our activities
to the  good of universal being, our individual soul
mingles its spark of vital force with the abyss of life
in the  heavens, and we  receive back more than we
contribute  to the common stock.  We come into vi-
tal sympathy with  all that.is pure, and healthful, and
living, in the land  where sickness and  sorrow, pain
and  death are unknown.  The  interior state  is one
in which, like  healthful sleep,  the  spiritual  world
comes  consciously near, and angelic influences  are
thrown around us, and  we return to  our usual exter-
nal condition better in  mind  and body.   Men  are
only just  beginning to entertain some feeble concep- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             345
 tions of the value and importance of our relations to
 the  inner  world, both in the generation  of  disease
 and its cure.  In the  interior state, when  the mind
 retires inward upon itself, and becomes abstracted
 from all sensuous images and impressions, it  rises to
 a higher plane of activity.   Its intuitions are quick-
 ened,  and nobler thoughts are  evolved.  The pro-
 foundest problems are solved by  an intuitive  flash of
 a higher  light, and the deepest mysteries are  un-
 veiled.   It  feels a more vivid  consciousness of its
 relations to the inner world, and of  our vital connec-
 tion with its immortal intelligences.   It is rendered
 more  sensitive  to  psychological  impressions  and
 influences from the supersensuous  realms. It becomes
 receptive of  the  intellectual  and  affectional states of
 the  angels.  It is temporarily  an inhabitant of the
 spiritual world,  and so  appears to  those  who dwell
 above.  The spirit  thus abstracted is actually  seen
 by the angels, as if it had come among them by the
 normal process of death, which is only a complete and
 permanent state of introversion.   This appearance of
 the soul among the  angels, when in  a state  of  ab-
straction, takes place in harmony with the same laws
by which men have  appeared  visibly to  their  friends
at a distance, in this world.  Many well  authenticat-
ed facts of this kind are  on record.  This temporary 
 346             THE  MENTAL-CURE.
       #
 insertion of our partially freed spirit into the society
 of the celestial plains,  must be productive of the hap-
 piest results, and an efficient remedy for those mental
 inharmonies, and spiritual disturbances, that are the
 cause  of our bodily diseases.    And  many persons,
 while in a complete trance, have been cured by the
 reception of  the  angelic sphere of life,  when  their
 fl-iends have deemed them dead.   WTith the  inner
 nature  harmonized  and  renewed,  and its  spiritual
 forces augmented, it has come back to consciousness
 in the body,  which soon  receives the influx of life
 from  the  restored spirit, and many years of health
 and usefulness have been added to their earthly exist-
 ence.  The spiritual world  is real and living.   Its
 objects and  inhabitants  are not like the fantastic
 creations of a dream, unsubstantial and transient. It
is not the abode of shadows and  phantoms.   It is the
home of life,  the seat of  causation,  the habitation
of reality.   To approach that healthful  shore, is to
inhale the atmosphere  of immortality. 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
347
              CHAPTER  XXVII.

 .HE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  SPIRITUAL  WORLD
     UPON  MENTAL HEALTH AND  DISEASE

 A Self-Evident  Truth.— The  Law  of  Sympathy.— How
   Jesus bore Men's Sicknesses. — Obsession. — Its Influence
   in causing Disease. — How cured. — Experiences of Sweden-
   borg. — What is a Demon ? — Psychological Laws stated.—
   Scriptural Statements respecting Destroying Angels. —They
   could Save Life as well.— The Medium through which Mind
   acts upon  Matter.— Ponderable Bodies moved by Spiritual
   Forces.— The Release of  Peter. — Paul and Silas.— The
   rolling away of the Stone at the Entrance of the Sepulcher.
   — The Availability of such unseen Forces. — Their  Useful
   Employment. — The Plates of Copper and Zinc. — Posidve
   and Negative  Mental Forces. — Angelic Influence in the
   Cure of disordered Spiritual States. — The Nature of Good-
   ness. — TJie Angelic Ministry. — Vital  Connection with the
   other World. — Nearness  of the Unseen Realm. — Long-
  fellow.

    THE  SUBJECT introduced  into the  preceding
       chapter leads us naturally, and  by an easy gra-
dation, to the consideration of the laws that  govern in
the transmission of sanative spiritual  influences, and 
348
THE MENTAL-CURE.
 psychological  forces,  from  the  inhabitants of the
 inner world, for the cure of pathological states of the
 body and mind.   We take it to be self-evident, that
 all the effects that can be produced by one mind act-
 ing upon another  in this world, can be produced, in a
 still higher  degree, in accordance with the same laws,
 by the intelligences who have graduated to the supe-
 rior range of life.   But the question  may be asked,
 Is it allowable and in agreement with the divine order,
 for good  spirits  to  use the powers they manifestly
 possess  for  the relief of the sufferings of men?  It
 is  an  axiomatic truth,  that a  good deed,  an  act of
 benevolence, being in harmony with the ruling prin-
 ciple of the  divine nature, is  always  in order.  An
 opinion is  current among  religious people, that it
 would greatly mar the happiness of those in the heav-
 enly world to have  any knowledge of the affairs of
 this world, and to feel any sympathy with the ills and
 the pains of those they have left below.  Supposing
it had that effect,  what then?  We have a thousand
times, by the. law of sympathy,  taken upon ourself the
 diseased feelings of a patient, both those of  his body
and mind, and thought it a  far happier, as it certainly
was a more  useful life, than singing psalms, or self-
ishly seeking the enjoyment that arises from the activ-
ity of the devotional  sentiments of our nature.  Jesus 
                 THE  MENTAL-CURE.             349

 sometimes even cured disease by taking it upon him-
 self.   "Himself took  our  infirmities,  and  bore  our
 sicknesses."  (Matt. viii. 17; Isa. liii. 4.)  This did not
 destroy  the  calm happiness of his nature,  although
 for doing it  an ignorant world afterwards "esteemed
 him smitten  of God and afflicted."  From  this sym-
 pathetic bearing of human griefs and carrying  the
 sorrows  and  pains of men in his own person,  sprang
 up in a subsequent age the great theological error of
 a vicarious atonement for sin.   He was the physician
 of soul  and  body, and used  nature's most efficient
 remedies, but never administered medicines, not even
 so much as  herb drinks nor homeopathic pills.  He
 sometimes relieved the sufferers by sympathetically
 taking upon  himself  their diseased condition, and
 assured all his followers who were  willing to  do the
 same, that if they should "drink any deadly thing,"
 or imbibe any  morbid influence, "it should  not hurt
 them."   The effect upon the magnetic healer is sym-
 pathetic  and  transient; but the benefit to the invalid
 is permanent.  Whatever Jesus did, a Christian man
 might reasonably believe was proper for us and even
 angels to do.   If Jesus is viewed as  the  highest rev-
 elation of the Godhead to  the world,  and was God
 manifest  in   the flesh, and  in  this  character  went
about doing  good to  the souls and bodies of men, 
350
THE MENTAL-CURE.
"healing all manner of sickness and disease among
the people," the highest angel  ought not to deem it
beneath his dignity or out of order to follow his
example.  All those who worship Jesus as a God, as
an incarnation  of  the  Divinity, as the  Word made
flesh and dwelling among us, ought to deem it the
highest moral attainment of a worshiper to be  like
the Being he  adores.   He spent  much more of his
time in healing the sick, and  ministering to minds
diseased, than  in the  devotional exercise of singing
hymns and saying prayers.  He did both these, but it
was  evidently a secondary matter,  to be attended to
when no higher use was to be accomplished.   And it
ought not to be  improper for redeemed spirits to lay
aside the golden harp, on which they are supposed to
play so  skillfully,  and exchange  the  pleasures of
music and devotion, for the higher  and diviner enjoy-
ment of relieving the ills  that  their earthly friends
are subject to.   To do the works of Jesus, cannot be
deemed an impossibility by  any one who has faith,
though like a grain of mustard, in his plain  promise
and  declaration, "The works that  I do, shall ye do
also, and greater works than these shall ye do, because
I go to my Father."
  Wre  take  it to be a  maxim, that no man should
ever undertake by magnetic treatment to cure disease 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
351
alone, and  by his own unaided strength.  He should
be humbly, trustingly, and passively negative toward
the  higher realm of  life  to  receive,  and intensely
positive  toward the  patient to impart.  He should
be in a state of vital sympathy with Jesus,  and the
angel-world.    Without  divine and angelic aid he
will  be as  inefficient  in imparting sanative influence
and  vital force, as was the staff of the  prophet, in
the  hands  of his  servant, to bring the  apparently
dead child  of the Shunamite woman  to life.
  At the commencement of the Christian era, spirit-
ual obsessions, or  as they have been called,  demoni-
acal  possessions, were of frequent occurrence in Judea
and  in other  parts of the world.  By psychological
influences  disorderly  spirits gained  control over  the
subject,  and  so conjoined  themselves  to  him, as to
use his body as the instrument of their own will, and
for the expression and manifestation of their thoughts
and  feelings.   They spake through his vocal organs,
and  acted  through his members.  This  originated,
or at least aggravated,  the diseased  tendencies  of
the  unfortunate sufferer.   Many  of  the  diseases,
healed by Jesus, were thus caused, and the cure was
effected by releasing  the  patient from the chains of
this disorderly psychological influence.   Similar phe-
nomena have  been exhibited  in every age   One of 
352
THE MENTAL-CURE.
the most illustrious instances is found in the so-called
Salem  witchcraft.   In fact  all morbid conditions of
mind  and body, by  the great law  of sympathy  by
which we are more or less controlled, connect us with
disordered mind in  the other world,  and the cure
of disease is  a casting out of devils.
   In  the Arcana  Celestia  (5711—5727),  the  au-
thor affirms  that  all diseases have correspondence
with the spiritual world, and he  gives  an interesting
account  of  his  experience of  the  effects  of  the
sphere  of   certain  spirits  upon  his own  system.
Those whose conscience was over-scrupulous affected
" the part of the abdomen  beneath the diaphragm,"
that is the duodenum.  Adulterous spirits occasioned
pain in  the  periostea, or  membranes  investing  the
bones, and  also in  the loins  or small of the  back.
Some  induced a sense of oppression in the stomach,
and numbness  in  the members and joints.  Others
caused  an extreme  weakness of the muscles.   The
sphere of some  spirits  acted  upon the excrementi-
tious matter of the brain, aggravating its deleterious
nature.    Hypocritical  spirits affected him  with a
pain in  the   teeth and jaws.   This  is  what mio-ht
reasonably be expected.  The teeth and jaws receive
their  cerebral stimulus from the organ of secretive-
ness or from a part of  the brain in immediate con- 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.             353
nection with it.  In the animal races, which are char-
acterized by the largest development of it, we find the
greatest strength in the teeth and jaws, as the lion,
and the feline species generally.  Hypocrisy  uses the
organ  of secretiveness  for its  manifestation, and  it
is easy to  believe  that the sphere  of such  spirits
would  affect the teeth.  The whole chapter is sug-
gestive to  one who  would investigate the connec-
tion of disorderd mental  states with  disease.   This
diseased spiritual influx was found to affect the  bodily
tissues, not directly,  but  indirectly.   Its  first  effect
was  upon  " the  smallest  and altogether  invisible
vessels which are continued  to a man's  interiors."
This vitiation of the  spiritual  organism,  when con-
tinued, occasions disease and death.
  We  would put the question to every man's intui-
tive  reason, that if Providence has deemed it proper
to allow  such unhappy psychological  influences,  as
must, from  the vital relation subsisting between the
mind and  body, either generate or intensify a diseased
condition, if it would not be  far more allowable  to
permit angelic spirits to influence men, in as great a
degree, in the  direction of a sound mind  in a sound
body ?   For a truthful  solution of this  query, we
would  send every man, for the answer, where Jesus
himself directs him to go — to the oracular  response 
354             THE MENTAL-CURE.
of the divine light within   " Why judge ye not from
yourselves what is right?"  Would  it not be  as
much in harmony with every attribute  of God, and as
consistent with the  principles of the divine proceed-
ure, to permit and  empower  good spirits  to employ
a psychological force to heal both mind and body ?
It is worthy of remark that the  term improperly ren-
dered devils by  king  James' translators,  is from  a
Greek word meaning  happy or  prosperous, and pri-
marily signifies good and happy spirits. In the cruci-
ble of a false  theology many  good things have been
transmuted to evil.  A demon, which  originally was
a  term expressive of an angelic human spirit, has
been transformed into a devil,  with  all the mythic
attributes of  such  a being.    In the  superstitions
alchemy of the church, the finest gold has often been
basely alloyed, or even changed to a valueless lump
of earth.  The first definition of the word daimon or
demon,  in your  Greek  lexicon, will be found to be
the Divinity,  the Godhead,  and  the next, a guardian
spirit.   To be influenced by a  demon is necessarily
no bad thing. Socrates had a demon,  but was very
far from being  possessed  of the devil.   Angels  or
demons came and ministered to  Jesus, and may they
not to our humanity as well?  If not,  why?
   There are several ways, in harmony with the  laws 
                  THE MENTAL-CURE.             35ft

 that govern psychological influences, in  which they
 may greatly aid in  the  cure of disease.   In experi-
 ments in magnetism, and in inducing upon a subject
 the mesmeric sleep,  it is found that when several per-
 sons direct their mental force to the  operator, with a
 wish to aid the process of  induction, it facilitates
 and increases the effect of his manipulations.   This
 is  among  the things proved.  May not angels do as
 much  in increasing and intensifying the transmis-
 sion of sanative influence and vital force to an inva-
 lid under treatment by a magnetic healer ?   Where
 is  the  impossibility of  this?  Who can  assign  a
 reason  why they either  cannot  or would  not do it ?
 The benevolent  end aimed at in the  cure of disease
 would  justify the employment of all their powers,
 and it  is characteristic of them  that they " excel in
 strength."   It is recorded in  the  Jewish Scriptures,
 that an angel, in one night, smote, with the blast of
 death,  one hundred eighty-five thousand  men in the
 camp of Sennacherib king of Assyria.  Also in the
 reign of David, a destroying angel was let loose upon
 the Jewish  population, and  by three clays of pesti-
 lence caused the death  of seventy thousand people
 from Dan to Beersheba.   If  credit is given to these
 statements as historical facts by any one, he ought to
find no difficulty in believing  that celestial intelli- 
356
THE MENTAL-CURE.
gences and the principalities and powers of heaven
were  adequate to cure here and  there a patient of a
fever  or a consumption. And would it not be more in
harmony with  the known character of Him who takes"
more  delight in saving men's lives than in destroying
them, to  permit  them to do so ?  We.present these
statements in the Jewish annals, in order to use them
as an  argumentum ad hominem, rather  than as either
crediting or justifying them ourselves.   Such angels,
surely, ought  not to run at large in the  universe, if
it be true there are  any such in it.
  There  is  a  hidden  semi-spiritual  principle that
operates  within  the body of nature, which is  the
cause  of all its visible phenomena.   What we call
causation is always unseen, at least it cannot be cog-
nized  by  our senses only so far as it is ultimated in
effects.   The  visible world is the region of effects;
the unseen world is  the realm of causes.   The subtle
essence to which  we refer,  is everywhere present and
pervades all things, as the  soul the body, and  is the
life of nature.   It is the animus mundi, the soul  of
the universe.  It is the  intermediate essence through
which mind acts  upon matter.  It is manifestly un-
der the control of spiritual intelligences, and may  be
so concentrated upon ponderable bodies,  as to enable
them  to move  them by their will-force.   Or it may be 
THE MENTAL-CURE.             357
detached from the living organism of certain persons,
as it was from the Seeress of Prevorst, and by means
of it enable them to move  solid bodies, as articles of
furniture.  A multitude of well attested phenomena
of  the  kind find  here a  rational  explanation,  as
those occurring  in the Wesley family.  In the early
history  of  the church, it is recorded  that, while the
apostle  Peter and the rest of the twelve were en-
gaged in healing great  numbers of the sick  in Jeru-
salem, ther were  arrested by the Jewish authorities
and put in prison.  But  at night (for  darkness has
been proved to facilitate the action of psychological
force) an  angel opened  the doors of the prison, took
off the  chains from the  apostles, and  brought  them
forth from their confinement.   In a  similar  way and
by  a like  instrumentality, Paul and  Silas, while in
prison at Philippi, with their feet  in the  stocks, were
released at midnight.  The foundations of the prison
were shaken,  and the doors were opened.   Angels
also are said  to have rolled away the  stone from the
mouth of the sepulcher in  which Jesus  was  placed.
We have  no hesitation in  crediting these things as
veritable facts of history, and many others chronicled
by ancient annalists, for the law by which they could
be done has been  discovered, and taken them out of
the class of miracles.  But the idea which we are most 
358
THE MENTAL-CURE.
desirous of impressing upon the reader's mind is this:
Here is an exhibition of a spiritual  force that could
be made available for some higher use.  A force ade-
quate to remove a ponderous  stone from the entrance
of a sepulcher, might just as  easily reduce a dislocat-
ed joint.   If an angel can open a prison  door, and
take a man's feet  from the  stocks,  and release him
from chains, why is not the same power equal to the
restoration of  the  lost equilibrium of the  organic
forces in disease?  To take off a man's handcuffs is
not a more-benevolent work,  nor more in accordance
with the  angelic nature,  than to loose a man from
his bodily  infirmities and mental unhappiness.   A
being who is supposed  able  to do the one,  ought to
be believed  adequate to the  other.  The subtle, im-
ponderable force of which we  have spoken, is available
to spirits,  and even to the truly spiritual man, for the
cure of mental and physical disorders.   The organism
that is animated by  an enlightened  mind and loving
heart, and vigorous will, may become receptive of it,
the organ of its diffusion, the reservoir of its distri-
bution, and the  radiating center of its communication.
It can be controlled  by angelic  spirits, as well as we
can direct  the flow of water, or cause  light and heat
to be  reflected  from polished surfaces.  It can  be
directed to the inuer  and outer organism of a diseased 
THE  MENTAL-CURE.
359
person, just as well, and far easier, than we can turn
a  rivulet  into the  parched ground of a garden to
revive  its withered vegetation,  or  admit  a ray of
sunshine through an opening into the dampness  and
darkness of a dungeon.   All the imponderable forces,
which are  now  deemed correlative of  the organic
forces of the human   body, may  be controlled by
spiritual agencies.
   It  is practicable  for us to call to our aid invisible
powers, and the intelligent living forces of the spirit-
ual world, in the cure of disease, or, more properly, we
can co-operate instrumentally with  them, in the relief
of suffering humanity.  Let  us illustrate this by  tan-
gible representations.   If you conceal in the  earth a
plate of copper, which is  electrically positive, and a
hundred miles away, another of zinc, which is a nega-
tive substance, and  then connect the two  by a wire,
there will  pass from the one to the other  a constant
current of magnetic or galvanic influence, which  will
operate as long  as the conjunction of the two  sub-
stances continues.  A vibratory circuit is thus formed
between the  positive and negative poles. To multiply
the number of the plates, thus connected, increases the
effect.  So between the operator and patient a  con-
junction may be formed analogous to this.   The oper-
ator is  represented by the  positive plate; the patient 
360             THE MENTAL-CURE.
by the negative.  Both may be passive, or exert no
mental  force  except to direct the thoughts to each
other.   They may be'miles away or in the same room.
Along the invisible cord, the odylic bond  of connec-
tion, a spiritual  therapeutic  influence and  force may
pass from angelic beings.  A  circuit  of the  living
forces of the spiritual world may be formed.  And he
whose inner vision is purged, so that to him " the in-
visible appears in  sight," this vibratory current may
be seen passing  from one to the other, resembling a
mild light.   It  is an essential property of spirit to
communicate itself,  its  life, to others, and  of good
spirits to transmit their good to all who are admissive
of it.   The  positive and negative  distinction  exists
among them as well  as among the inhabitants of this
world.    This is not merely a  difference of sex, but
there are those in whom the love-principle predomi-
nates and controls their activities, and others in whom
the intellect is the governing force.   If those who are
vitally positive should conjoin themselves to the oper-
ator, and those who are negative with the person at
the other end  or pole of the odylic line, the psycho-
logical influence would be greatly intensified and the
effect increased.   And  it  must  never  be  forgotten
that all psychical forces directed to any part of the
organism, cause  a change in its physiological  move- 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
861
 ments.  Under the direction of intelligence  any de-
 sired result can, in this way, be effected in the action
 of the vital forces.
   But would good angels and  spirits  do this?  It
 is implied that they  would in the fact  that they are
 good, for  goodness is  only a  desire to impart  hap-
 piness and promote the  well-being of  others.    It
 is benevolence, that is, as the word signifies, good-
 witting, or wishing well to the neighbor.   This point
 being settled,  we have  only  further  to ask, "  Is it
 possible ?" He who has but an imperfect  knowledge
 of the arcane  forces of nature, both in the realm of
 matter and of mind, and believes in the Scriptural and
 rational doctrine of their  subjection to angelic pow-
 ers, and their passiveness under their hands, will not
 hesitate  for  an answer.   But whatever is possible,
 such is their  benevolent nature, they  will do for the
 benefit  of mankind,  whom  they love  and  serve.
 They are  all ministering spirits,  who  have passed
 through  the  discipline  of this  first stage of human
 development, and  have graduated to the higher  life.
 We need have no  more doubt  of their aid i:i  curing
disease, than  in  the  accepted  account of the New
Testament of their ministrations to us in general.
In the writings of Swedenborg, it  is  affirmed that
every man  is  attended by at least two spirits and  two 
362
THE MENTAL-CURE.
angels.   These correspond to the two departments of
the mind, the  intellectual and affectional.  Our con-
nection  with them was viewed by him as a vital one.
If they were withdrawn from us, consciousness would
be suspended,  and even life become extinct.  A man
is allowed to believe the doctrine of the angelic min-
istry or  service to men, always taught by the  church,
and found in all religious systems, Pagan and Chris-
tian, without subjecting himself to  the odious charge
of heresy, provided he does not consider it too real a
thing, but accepts it by faith as an undemonstrated
proposition, or an unimportant item of a creed.   The
heresy consists in the demonstration of  the truthful-
ness of the creed.    For  men  are supposed  to be
saved much  easier by faith, than  by  knowledge.
Suppose it was asserted for  the first time in  the his-
tory of the world, that infancy  and childhood were
accompanied by an angel guard.  We  might ask, " Is
it consistent to suppose that an angel  would lay aside
his  golden harp, and  permit his   endless round  of
devotional exercises to be suspended, to guard the
cradle of a sleeping infant ?" Ask the love of a fond
mother, and she will answer.  Jesus also responds to
the question.   " See to it, that ye  undervalue not
one of these little ones, for  I say unto you, that their
angels in the  heavens do always behold the face of 
THE MENTAL-CURE.
363
my Father in  the heavens."  (Matt, xviii. 10.)  W7e
give the  correct translation of the  passage, which
implies two things,—that little children will be un-
folded into angels, and  that angels watch over them.
To wipe a tear from an infant's eye is not a work be-
neath  the dignity of the loving nature  of  the most
exalted finite   intelligence, nor even of the Deity.
There is  no room to doubt,  that what  is possible,
they will  do to heal our  mental and bodily maladies,
relieve our  sufferings, and add to the sum  total of
our happiness.   They are human spirits, not disem-
bodied souls,  for we have shown  that souls are never
destitute of a  substantial body.   They feel an  inter-
est in  all  that concerns  the welfare of humanity.
And we may more certainly and unhesitatingly rely
upon   their  aid  in any work  of  love  and  mercy,"'
than upon the feebler assistance of  good men and
women in this  world.  We may place the same con-
fidence in them that  we do in the  forces of nature
in any mechanical  operation.   It  is no more natural
for water by its  gravitating force  to run down hill
and carry the  mechanic's wheel, or  for steam to ex-
pand and  do the  same, than it is for a pure  unselfish
love to impart all possible good to others, and save
them from all  possible  evil.  In  calling to  oui aid
the laws of nature, we have no misgiving, no doubt, 
364
THE MENTAL-CURE.
no unbelief.   Why not have the same  confidence in

spiritual aid?  In the one case as in the other, knowl-

edge is power.    To  know  how  a thing is done in

harmony with nature's laws,  is  to  be able to do it.

And to all  who are sick and in trouble, in body  and

mind,  may Jesus,  according to  his promise, " come

to  you in the glory of the Father, and  with his holy

angels."    It is one  of the principles of the  divine

government, that God imparts good to men through

the  mediation of angelic human  spirits.   The spirit-

ual  world is not far off in the unsympathetic distance

of the milky-way, nor separated from this by distance

of space.

        "Some men there are, I have known such, who think
        That the two worlds—the seen and the unseen,
        The world of matter and the world of spirit—
        Are like the hemispheres upon our maps,
        And touch each other one at a point.
        But these two worlds were not divided thus,
        Save for the purposes of common speech.
        They form ore globe, in which the parted seas
        All flow together and ar« intermingled,
        While the great continents remain distinct."

                    -----"The spiritual world
        Lies nil about us, and its avenues
        Are open to the unseen feet of phantoms
        That come and go, and we perceive them not
        Save by their influence, or when at times
        A most mysterious Providence permits them
        To manifest themselves to mortal eyes." 
"MENTAL   CURE."
Additional Testimonials.
  " The power of mind over matter is discussed in a manner both interesting
and suggestive.   We commend  it as presenting many  truths worthy of at-
tention."— }foman's Journal.
  "Persons of a metaphysical turn of mind will find it interesting to study." —
South Boston Inquirer.
  H. A. Burbank writes of it thus : " The reader will find himself in the pro-
found depths of the science of human nature, and wondering at the great
simplicity, yet far-reaching relations, of the mysteries of life, mind, and spirit,
when set forth  by a mind fitted  to  discern spiritual things, and intuitively
endued with the logical method to set them forth to another in a complete and
rational system, and in the beautiful language of demonstrable truth."
  A. E. Newton says, " It includes  a knowledge of spiritual laws and forces
which are intimately related to the welfare, the daily needs, physical and spirit-
ual, of humanity in this life, as well as in that which is to  come."
  H. K. Hunt,  M.D., after a practice  of thirty years, says that "it should
take the same  place that ' Combe's  Constitution of Man' did in its day, and
become a standard work,  and be sold by the ten thousands."
  L. W. Abell,  M.D., after twelve years' practice, speaks thus, "It  is an in-
valuable book, and should be in every family."
  Dr. A. Johnson, New York, says, " I have no  hesitation in saying that it
contains more sound philosophy in regard to the laws of life and health than all
the medical works in the library."
  "The Western Star," "Journal of Health," and "Phrenological Journal,"
speak in high appreciation of its  merits; also Emma Hardinge-Britten, Lizzie
Doten, A. J. Davis, Thomas Gales Forster, Giles B. Stebbins, authors and lec-
turers, commend it as being alive to the needs of this age. 
  VITAL   MAGNETIC  CURE.
       AN EXPOSITION OF VITAL MAGNETISM;
AND ITS  APPLICATION TO  THE TREATMENT OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL
                           DISEASE.
              BY A MAGNETIC  PHYSICIAN.
  " A more useful book for the student  or family can not well bo
found.   It is selling well, and gives satisfaction.  It is a work that
will not lose its interest in an age." — Banner of Light.
  " There can be no doubt of the general and eager interest every-
where  manifest in  the  infant  science of vital  magnetism.  No
skepticism opposes the facts slowly brought foward  concerning  it.
Gratifying as the book is in  both manner and  matter, its glimpseg
and hints do scarcely more than whet the spirit of inquiry to know
more." — Woman's  Journal.
  " I am much pleased with it; consider it a very useful book, and
one that the public need." — Mrs. Caroline Cobb.
  " This book deals with a subject that  will grow strongly in favor
when  rightly  presented,  since the tendency is  to  the  disuse  of
medicines, so far as  can be, in  the  treatment of disease." — South
Boston Inquirer.
  " This is an interesting book, and contains useful hints in regard
to health and sickness, so far as  they refer  to  human beings and
human agencies." — Boston Investigator.
  " It contains much valuable  information for the general reader."
— Am. Spiritualist.
  " Its high moral tone must be an additional recommendation  of
the work.  That the human  magnetic force, when properly un-
derstood and applied, is  a powerful curative agent, especially in
all nervous complaints, is now  too well  established  to be denied;
and the writer of ' Vital Magnetic Cure,' by an  array of facts  in
his experience and that of others, has greatly helped to strengthen,
if not to settle, the fact of its utility both tor the preservation of
health  and the removal of disease." — Daoid Plumb.
  " A very valuable work, entitled as above, which deserves to  be
widely read, if not for the stand taken by the author in  favor of a
somewhat questionable  remedial  agent, certainly,  however,  for
the many suggestions he throws out  respecting  the preservation
of health.  The time will come when it  will be better known ; and
we therefore commend just  such  books as the  one now spoken
of, because they will at  least  familiarize people with that  thing
which will some day be better  understood." — Milford Journal.
  "1 have read during the last ten years nearly  every tiling pub-
lished on the application of magnetism to the cure of disease; and
I deem this work an important addition to the  literature  of the
subject, and of great practical value to  every one who would learn
how to successfully use this most efficient sanitive agency." — W.
F. Evans, M.D., Author of  Mental Cure.
        First edition exhausted in a few weeks.
For sale by WJI. WHITE & CO. Price $1,50. Postage  20 cts. 
CONTENTS.
 INTRODUCTORY.....,  ,........7
 THE GIFT OF HEALING............15
    The author's experience—Mechanical operations—An-
    imal and spirit magnetism—Best condition for a mag-
    netizer—Chemical, vital, magnetic and electric forces-
    Variety of healing power—Habits of magnetizers—Lay-
    ing on of hands—Animal magnetism in the Courts—Con-
    nection of mind with electric and magnetic influence.
 MORAL INTEGRITY OF HEALERS.........31
    Devices of pretenders.
 UNCONSCIOUS MAGNETISM..........35.
    Sleep—The marriage relation—Effects of persons sleep-
    ing together—Position in sleep—Emanations—Od force
    —Incompatibility; the remedy.

DETRIMENTAL INFLUENCE; INSANITY; OBSESSION. 43
    Negative persons—Nurses—Overtaxing the brain—Dis-
    appointment—Hereditary insanity—Climate—Cases &c.
HEALING PRACTISED IN ALL AGES—CONDITIONS
FOR HEALING—FITNESS FOR THE  WORK  .... 62
    Permanency of effects—Prudence—Withdrawal of gift—
    Duty of physicians—Adaptation of magnetism—Impos-
    ture—Confidence—Fear—Discouraging opinions to be
    avoided—Qualifications of nurses—Irritability—Visits of
    friends to the  sick.

HEALERS' PECULIAR MODES OF TREATMENT-POS- 
6
CONTENTS.
ITIVE AND NEGATIVE MAGNETISM—QUANTITY .  . 75
   Rule not uniform—Position of hands—Compression—
   Contact—Our method-Swedish movement-The battery-
   Increase of vital magnetic power with use—Effects of
   magnetism—Prevention of disease—Time of treatment;
   Rules after treatment.

DISEASES REMEDIABLE BY MAGNETISM.....87
   Inflammation—Rheumatism—Fevers—Lethargy — Dis-
   eases of kidneys, heart—Dyspepsia—Constipation—Tu-
   mors—Female diseases—Scrofula—Insanity and others.
NATURE THE SOURCE OF CURE.......-  . 98
   Law of harmony, physical and spiritual.
CLAIRVOYANCE...............104
   Conditions—Prophecy—Detection of  disease—Cases—
   Zschokke—Clairvoyants consulted—Benefits.
THE  MATERIAL  AND SPIRITUAL BODIES — THE
CHANGE CALLED DEATH..........-119
   Unhealthy children—Duties of parents &c.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA........123
   Different forms—Theodore  Parker—Practical hints-
   Imagination—Unbelief—Confidence—Will—Changes of
   opinion—Singular case—Mr. Home—Case in Fitchburg.
CONTRAST BETWEEN MEDICINE AND MAGNETISM  145
   Opinions of physicians.
HYGIENIC SUGGESTIONS...........151
   Habits—Food—Bathing—Drinks-Secret habit.
AN TMAL MAGNETISM.............159
   History—Antiquity—Symbols—Mesmer—Report of the
   French Commission—Dr. Elliotson's labors. &c.

BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF VITAL MAGNETISM .  . ..188
   Religious  rites—Jewish mode—Mahommedanisni—In-
   dians— Mormons—Romish church—Protestant church-
   Methodists—Second Adventists-Elijah-Elisha—Philos-
   ophy of laying on of hands—Old and New Testament
   cases cited; identity in character with modern cures.
CONCLUSION.                                      215 
       "Nature's  Laws in  Human  Life."
                                Notices.
  " It is  an exhaustive summary of the best  things, best persons, and best
sayings, that have appeared in the great spiritual movement."— Western Star.
  " Its real purpose is to place before the reader the facts and phenomena of what
Is called Spiritualism, and, in doing so, gives a pretty impartial statement of the
different views respecting the asserted spiritual manifestations.  He quotes from
those who treat the  whole matter as a deception, the mediums as jugglers,
and their doings as a  new phase of legerdemain. lie gives the views of those
like Elder Knapp, who admit  the phenomena  as of spiritual origin, hut attri-
bute them all to, the  cunning and power  of the Devil.  He quotes from  those
who occupy the scientific  standpoint, and refer the phenomena to some not yet
understood laws of mind and matter, to the exclusion of the spirit theory.
  " On the affirmative side, — that spirits work the results, — the author thinks he
finds much proof in the Bible and in the strange experience of Swedenborg
The book is, of course, for the most part, made up of the wonderful things done
through the mediums, which he claims there is no accounting for in reason, ex-
cept as being by spirit agency.   The favorable opinion of great names is  given
to corroborate that view; and the reader is left to judge for himself, and decide
as the proof may seem to demand.
  '•There is so much in this question of Spiritualism that cannot be scouted, but
demands honest and earnest inquiry, that a book so full and so impartial on the
subject as the one under consideration is entitled to be  cordially received  and
widely read." — David Plumb.
  " This  work is principally a compilation of facts both for and against the phi-
losophy of Spiritualism;'and such has been  the  author's regard for  the whole
unvarnished truth, that we find nothing distorted or misrepresented on either
side, but an array of facts, so detailed as to form a very readable and attractive
book, such as all hesitating minds might peruse with profit." — American Spir-
itualist.
                    New  Publications.
  " We are at a loss to say which is the more interesting, — the testimony ad-
duced by the author pro and  con, or his  own  comments  and discussions." —
Banner of Light.

      "Nature's  Laws  in  Human  Life."

  " The work is written in  a spirit of candor which commends itself to the reader.
The author evidently has a sincere faith in the truth of Spiritualism.  The opin-
ions of its opponents  are fairly stated, with no attempt to  soften them down, and
are answered by a record of facts drawn from the writer's large experience and
extensive observation, and the principles fairly deducible from those facts.  It is
written in a clear and compact style, and is free  from all offensive attacks upon
other forms of religious belief.   To the myriads of people in our land who long
to know something about the reality of another life, and of communication with
the unseen realm, and of the laws that govern it, this will be found a useful
volume."—W. F. Evans, author of " Mental Cure."
  " The R. P. Journal," " Utica Herald," and  many of the  local papers, give
long reviews of the book;  and there is yet to be any thing said which would
convey the idea that prejudicewas shown on either side of the subject; but a candid
statements of facts is shown, and the reader can decide the question.  The book
should interest the entire human family. 
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION...............9

                    PART I.

TESTIMONY AGALNST SPIRITUALISM......20
   General, assertions..............21
   Tract by Professor Austin Phelps D. D.......22
   Opinions of Wiiliam T. Dwight D. D........29
             Elder Knapp...........34
   Comments of the Boston Traveller and Boston Herald  . "50
   Statements of Dr. W. A. Hammond.......52
   Church opposition ....  -.........53
   Father Hecker...............54
   J. D. Fulton D. D., Rev. Mr. Morgan, P. T. Barnum  . 55
   Scientific men and organized institutions......56

                    PART II.

CONSERVATISM  .  .  •............57
   Opinion of Rev. H. W. Beecher.........58
              ..  Theodore Tilton   ........ 62
              ..  W. H. H. Murray........63

                   PART  III-

TESTLMONY LN FAVOR OF SPIRITUALISM  .... 65
   The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.........
   Mediumship of Mrs. J. H. Conant........69
   Invocation...............   70 
vi.
CONTENTS.
TESTIMONY IN FAVOR OF SPIRITUALISM continued . 65
    The Seance..................71
    Communication from Rev. Ezra S. Gannett D. D. .  .  . 72
                      William Wesselhoefit M. D. .  .  . 74
    Reliability of Spirit Communications........77
    Psychic Force   .................82
OUR EXPERIENCE  .          .    .......'  .  . 86
MEDIUMSHIP..................100
    Additional facts—Rev. Dr. Phelps sen........141
    Spirit Likenesses   ...............150
    Spiritualism at Methodist tamp Meetings .  .  .  .  .  . 153
PRESENTIMENT—DREAMING—PROPHECY   .  .  .  .157
    Detection of Crime................1G7
    Verification of Dreams..............170
SPIRITUALISM IN COURT.............176
WHAT GOOD HAS SPIRITUALISM  DONE?.....194
    Medical cases—Injury of the knee-joint.......195
    A lady who had been pronounced hopeless, restored   . 197
    Insanity....................198
    Rheumatism and Cancer—Hon. Neal Dow ...... 200
    Injury from a fall................203
    Alleged cupidity of healers............204
DUPLEX CHARACTER OF OPPOSING TESTIMONY  207
             Elder Knapp—Letter from California.....
    Rev. J. D. Fulton D. D..............212
    Dr. W. A. Hammond.............. 213
    Bly, Von Vleck, Barnum, Thomas L. Harris and others 214
    Rev. G. II. Hepworth..........'.  ... 218
SEANCES—CONDITIONS AND  RULES.......219
MISCELLANEOUS FACTS IN SPIRITUAL EXPERI-
    ENCE    ....................228
    Professor J. H. Von Fichte   ...........240
    The Double..................241
    President Lincoln..................
    The Darwinian theory..............243
    The doctrine of Re-incarnation...........244
    Obsession...................247
    The Dread Future......•........251
    The co-relation of spiritual and psychological phenomena254
    Planchette and Gates Ajar  ,...........256
    Organization...............257 
                     CONTENTS.                    Vii

CIVIL AND SOCIAL RIGHTS.........260
   Equal Rights and Woman Suffrage.........
   Free Love..............-.262
   Marriage................2G9
   Divorce.................274
   Communism...............277

                   PART IV.

RELIGIOUS ASPECTS AND RELATIONS OF SPIRIT-
   UALISM  ................2S3
   Comments on Religious Organizations........
   Spiritualism in the Bible...........299
CONCLUSION
307 
 
 
 
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