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New Thought |
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A late 19th century religion which in some of its tenets is akin to Christian Science, or faith-healing. Unlike Christian Science, however, it does not affect entirely to dispense with all material aids, as drugs, the setting of broken bones, and so on. Nor does it give the whole credit for the cure to the imagination of the patient, as does hypnotism. But striking a point midway between the two it gives considerable prominence to the mind in the healing process, while not altogether despising the doctor. The central teaching of New Thought is that thought evolves and unfolds, and our thinking creates our experience of the world. The movement places great emphasis in positive thinking, affirmations, meditation, and prayer. Mind is considered as highly refined
matter, and therefore the " mind " cure is in a measure a
material cure. It is clear that that part of the New
Thought which deals with bodily healing has its roots in
the Animal Magnetism and Mesmerism of bygone times. So
much have they in common that it is needless to trace
mental-healing further back than Dr. Phineas Parkhurst
Quimby (1802-1866) the first to make use of the terms
"mental-healing" and " Christian Science." Dr. Quimby was
the son of a New Hampshire blacksmith, and was himself
apprenticed to a clockmaker, having had but little
education. At the age of thirty-six he attended a lecture
on Mesmerism, and thereafter practised for himself. With
the aid cf a clairvoyant youth he cured diseases, and so
successful was his treatment that he soon adopted magnetic
healing as a profession. At length, however, he got a
glimpse of the true reason for his success—the expectation
of the patient. The diagnoses of his clairvoyant he
attributed to the latter's telepathic reading of the
patient's own thoughts, and he judged that the treatment
prescribed depended for its efficacy on the confidence it
inspired rather than on its intrinsic merits. From this
point he gradually evolved his doctrine that disease was a
mere delusion, a traditional error that had fixed itself
in men's minds, which it behoved them to be rid of as soon
as might be. The way to cure disease, therefore, was to
destroy the error on which it rested. Besides Christian
Science, Quimby called his doctrine the Science of Health,
or the Science of Health and Happiness. He had many
disciples, among whom were Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the
founder of the Christian Science Church. Others whose
influence was felt more in the direction of the New
Thought movement were the Rev. W. F. Evans and Mr. and
Mrs. Julius Dresser, whose son, Horatio W. Dresser,
remains one of the ablest exponents of the New Thought As
has been said, the method of healing practised by this
school is not considered to be entirely immaterial. It is
no longer believed, of course, that a fluid emanates from
the finger-tips of the operator, or that he radiates a
luminous odic force; but Mr. Dresser himself states that
the communication is of a vibratory character, made up of
ethereal undulations directed and concentrated by the
thought of the healer. The power is equally efficacious at
a distance and may be used without the patient's knowledge
or even against his will. This belief in action at a
distance is something of a bug-bear to the New Thinker,
who fears the ascendency of an evil influence as the
superstitious of the Middle Ages feared bewitchment. But
there is a spiritual aspect of the New Thought as well as
a physical one. The health of the soul is as fully
considered as the health of the body. Spiritual sanity,
then, is to be procured by lifting oneself to a higher
plane of existence, by shutting out the things of the
earth and living " in tune with the infinite." We must
realise our own identity with the Infinite Spirit and open
our lives to the Divine inflow. Ralph Waldo Trine, himself
a New Thinker, says in an expressive metaphor, " To
recognise our own divinity and our intimate relation to
the Universal, is to attach the belt of our machinery to
'the power-house of the Universe." In short, we must have
sufficient self-confidence to cast our fears aside and
rise unfettered into the Infinite. Home | Alternative
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