The Quimby Manuscripts - Chapters 7-8



CHAPTER 7
EARLY WRITINGS

[These articles and letters are taken from a manuscript book containing
copies of "pieces," as they are called, written previous to the first
volume of articles, which was begun in October, 1859. Most of the pieces
were written before 1856. They were copied by Miss Emma Ware from the
originals, and are here printed without any changes whatever.]

THOUGHT, like the blossom of the rose, or tree, contains all the elements
of the tree or rose. Now as the law of vegetation governs the tree or
rose, so the law of mind acts upon the idea or spiritual tree, known by
the name of good or evil. Now although this tree differs from all other
trees in the garden of man, it cannot be detected except by its fruits,
and as the fruits appear pleasant to the eye of the mind, and are supposed
to make men happy, it is cultivated without knowing the peculiar
properties it contains.

Now as this tree grows it sends forth its thought like blossoms, and as it
is looked upon as a fruit much desired to make one well it is received
with joy and cultivated in the garden of our minds. Now in the beginning
of the creation of man this tree was a tree that differed from all others
in man and was very like the tree of life. The fruits of this tree have
been the foundation of all the philosophy of man ever since man was
created.

Now as man's natural body contains the soil for this tree to grow, as the
earth is the soil for the rest of the trees and herbs and creeping things
that have life, it is the duty of man to investigate this tree and see
what its fruits contain. The tree is to be known by its fruits. This tree
is an idea like all other ideas in man, but differing in one peculiarity,
happiness and misery. All the rest of the trees of knowledge contain right
and wrong without any regard to happiness or misery. This is the
difference between the trees.

Now as this tree can bear the fruits of other trees, it is another reason
for its being cultivated, but to understand the tree or idea is to
understand its fruits or thoughts.

I shall now call this tree an idea which contains happiness or misery and
also truth and error. Now as error, like the serpent, is more subtle than
any other idea in man, it acts upon the weaker portion of our thoughts and
ideas, and engrafts them into the idea of happiness and misery. Now as
this idea grows and sends forth its fruit, it is conveyed by error to
other trees or ideas in others, and thus spring up false theories, false
doctrines, etc. Now as this tree or idea sends forth such a variety of
thoughts or fruit, it is like Joseph's coat of many colors, hard to tell
what was the original color or idea. This throws man into darkness and
doubt, and he wanders about, like a sheep without a shepherd, running
after false ideas. Being blind he is not capable of judging for himself,
and suffers himself to be led by the blind.

Now as the tree of knowledge of good and evil was an idea of happiness and
misery, it is easy to detect its fruits. All other ideas are spiritual and
the fruits or thoughts are spiritual, and are not perceived till they come
within our senses. We are very apt to get deceived by them, for they come
like a thief in the night, when man is off his guard. Now as health and
happiness is the greatest blessing that can be bestowed on man, and this
was the original fruit of the tree, it can be very easily detected from
the grafted fruit or ideas. The original fruit is spiritual and cannot be
detected by the eye, for it does not contain even spiritual matter. Its
qualities are sympathy, harmony and peace -- the fruit of the evil
contains matter, and has form and can be seen and felt.

TO THE SICK IN BODY AND MIND

Dr. Q. has been induced by the great number of cases which have come under
his care within the last twelve years, to devote his time to the cure of
diseases. His success in the art of healing without the aid of medicine
has encouraged many persons who have been suffering from sickness of long
standing to call and see him for themselves. This has given him a very
great advantage over the old mode of practice, and has given him a good
chance to see how the mind affects the body. He makes no pretension to any
superior power over ordinary men, nor claims to be a seventh son, nor a
son of the seventh son, but a common everyday man.

He contends there is a principle or inward man that governs the outward
man or body, and when these are at variance or out of tune, disease is the
effect, while by harmonizing them hearth of the body is the result. He
believes this can brought about by sympathy, and all persons who are sick
are in need of this sympathy.

To the well these remarks will not apply, for the well need so
physician.(*) By these remarks 1 mean a well pcrson does not know the
feelings of the sick, but the sick alone are their own judges, and to
every feeling is attached a peculiar state of mind which is peculiar to
it. These states of mind are the person's spiritual identity, and this I
claim to see and feel myself.

(* Dr. Quimby here changes from the third to the first person.)

When there is discord in these two principles, or inward and outward man,
it seems to me that the outward man or body conveys to me the trouble, the
same as one man communicates to his friend any trouble that is weighing
him down. Now allI claim is this, to put myself into communication with
these principles of inward and outward man, and act as a mediator between
these two principles of soul and body; and when I am in communication with
the patient, I feel all his pains and his state of mind, and I find that
by bringing his spirit back to harmonize with the body he feels better.

The great trouble with mankind is this, they are spiritually sick, and the
remedies they apply only serve to make them worse. The invention of
disease, like the invention of fashion, has almost upset the whole
community. If physicians would investigate mind a little more and medicine
a little less, they would be of some service; but this inventing disease
is like inventing laws: instead of helping man, they make him worse.
Diseases are like fashions, and people are apt to take a new disease as
they are to fall in with any new fashion. Now if there was a law made to
punish any person who should through any medical journal communicate to
the people any new disease and its symptoms, it would put a stop to a
great deal of sickness. Seven cases out of ten throughout the whole
community of old chronic cases are the effects of false impressions
produced by medical men, giving to the people the idea they have spinal
disease, or heart or kidney or liver disease, or forty others that I could
name, to say nothing of the number of nervous diseases.

Now all of these ideas thrown into the community are like so many foolish
fashions which the people are humbugged by. I do not dispute but that any
of these diseases may be brought about through the operation of the mind,
but I do say if there was no name given to disease, nor its symptoms,
there would not be one-tenth of the sickness there is at this day. I have
taken people who have been sick with all of the above diseases, as they
thought, and by describing their symptoms and state of mind without their
telling me what the trouble was, they have recovered immediately. A person
sick is like a person in a strange land, without money or friends. Now
there may be someone near by who would be glad to receive such persons,
but they are ignorant of them. The sick are not in communication with
themselves, nor anyone else -- they feel as though no person could tell
them how they feel.(*)

(* Dr. Quimby's reference to "the last twelve years," would indicate that
this "piece" was written between 1852 and 1855. It is his first statement
concerning his spiritual method.)

SPIRITUALISM AND MESMERISM

How does spiritualism differ from mesmerism? The word mesmerism embraces
all the phenomena that ever were claimed by any intelligent spiritualists.
The spiritualists claim that they get knowledge from the dead through
living mediums. Do not mesmerisers do this? Surely. Then what is the
difference? In the ignorance of the people.

I will give some facts which have come under my own observation. When I
first commenced mesmcrising about sixteen years ago, the most of my
experiments were of the following kind: after getting my subject in a
mesmerised state I would try some simple experiment, for instance, imagine
some person or animal which he would describe. I would then put him in
communication with some person of the company, and let that person carry
him to some place which he would describe. In these experiments it would
often happen that he would get intelligence from some person of whom the
company knew nothing. At other times the audience would like to have me
send him after someone's lost friend. This I used to do but tried to make
them understand that it was the reaction of their own thoughts.

In these experiments I had an opportunity to see and hear the different
opinions and beliefs of mankind in regard to whether he really saw the
person that he would describe or not. I found that my own opinion could
have but little effect upon the mind of the audience. Their religious
opinions would govern in most all cases. Sometimes when the experiments
would embrace the friend of an infidel I would confuse him some; but I
found that all persons were inclined to believe just about as their
religious opinions were. I also found that my subject's religious opinions
were just about like the person's opinions that he was in communication
with.

If they professed religion to the world and were a hypocrite at heart, the
subject would find it out, and the same was true of the subject. I had one
subjcct who was very religious when awake, but when asleep was just the
opposite.

I will here relate an experiment when on the Kennebec I had my subject in
the sleep. I then requested any of the company to bring me the name of any
individual dead or alive, and the subject would find him. A name was
accordingly handed me. I passed it to the subject. He took the paper on
which the name was written and read the name aloud. At this time the
subject was blindfolded so that it was impossible for him to see with his
natural eyes. I then I told him to find the person. I will relate his own
story:

He said, "This is a man." "Well" said I, "find him and talk with him." In
a short time he said, "I have found him." I asked, "What does he say?" He
answered, "He was a married man, had a wife and three children, was a
joiner by trade; left his tool chest in a barn, and left between two days,
went to Boston, stopped it time, left for the state of New York, worked
there for three years, and then died; has been dead three years."

I told him to bring him here and describe him. He went on to give a
general description of a man, and I told him that if there was anything
peculiar in his appearance that differed from all others to describe it.
"Well," said he, "there is on thing in which he differs from anyone else
in the room. He has a hair lip." This was the fact.

Now as there was no knowledge among the people of the principle by which
this was done, the people were left to their own judgment. So I left them
arguing, some trying to prove it was the man's spirit, some calling it
humbug and collusion. Others went away and told what they saw and heard.

This kind of experiment I was trying almost every day for over four years.

I then became a medium myself, but not like my subject. I retained my own
consciousness and, at the same time took the feelings of my patient. Thus
I was able to unlock the secret which has been a mystery for ages to
mankind. I found that I had the power of not only feeling their aches and
pains, but the state of their mind. I discovered that ideas took form and
the patient was affected just according to the impression contained in the
idea. For example, if a person lost a friend at sea the shock upon their
nervous system would disturb the fluids of their body and create around
them a vapor, and in that are all their ideas, right or wrong. This vapor
or fluid contains the identity of the person.

Now when I sit down by a diseased person I see the spiritual form, in this
cloud, like a person driven out of his house. They sometimes appear very
much frightened, which is almost always the case with insane persons. I
show no disposition to disturb them, and at the last they approach me
cautiously, and if I can govern my own spirit or mind, I can govern
theirs. At last I commence a conversation with them. They tell me their
trouble and offer to carry me spiritually to the place where their trouble
commenced.

I was sitting by a lady whom I had never seen until she called upon me
with her father to see if I could help her. The lady had all the
appearance of dropsy. I took her by the hand. In a short time it seemed as
though we were going off some distance. At last I saw water. It seemed as
though we were on the ocean. At length I saw a brig in a gale. I also saw
a man on the bowsprit, dressed in an oil-cloth suit. At last he fell
overboard. The vessel hove to and in a short time the man sank. This was a
reality, but it happened five years before. Now to cure the lady was to
bring her from the scene of her troubles. This I did and the lady
recovered.

I often find patients whose disease or trouble was brought on by religious
excitement. I went to see a young lady during the Miller excitement. She
was confined to her bed, would not converse with any person, lay in a sort
of trance with her eyes rolled up in her head, took no notice of any
person; the only thing she would say was that she was confined in a pit,
held there by a large man whose duty it was to hold her there, and she
said to me, "I shall never die, nor never get well." She had been in this
condition for one year, refused all nourishment, and was a mere skeleton
at the time I went to see her. This was her story when I got her so as to
converse. I sat down by the lady, and in about an hour I saw the man she
had created, and described him to her, and told her that I should drive
him away. This seemed to frighten her, far she was afraid for my safety.
But when I assured her that I could drive the man away she kept quiet. In
three hours she walked to the door, and she recovered her health.

I could name hundreds of cases showing the effect of mind upon the body.
Some will say it is spiritualism. Others will say it is not. When asked to
explain where the difference lies, the only answer is, that the mesmeric
state is produced by some other person than the subject, while the
spiritualist is thrown into this state or trance by spirits. Now the fact
is known by thousands of persons that this mesmerising oneself has been
common ever since mesmerism has been known, therefore there is nothing new
in that. So it is with questions put to any spiritualist.

Let us now examine the proof of its being from the dead. A person is
thrown into an unconscious state: while in this state the spirit of some
person purporting to come from the dead enters the body and addresses
itself to the company, telling some story which the company knows nothing
of. When roused from the trance he is asked if he was conscious of what he
had been saying or doing. To this question they nearly all say, "No." The
company is left in the same condition as in the mesmeric experiments. Some
call it mesmerism, some spiritualism.*

*Quimby gives evidence of his increasing clairvoyant and psychometric
power in the above. This power made him more interiorly receptive than
either a "medium" or a "subject," hence he had the clue to both. Moreover,
he could cast out an obsessing idea.

LETTER TO A PATIENT

(BELFAST, Nov. 4th, 1856)

Madam: Yours of the 2nd. inst. was received, and now I sit down to answer
your inquiry in regard to your lameness. It seems to me that the skin on
the skin is thinner and has a more healthy appearance. But you cannot be
made to believe anything that is in plain contradiction to your own
senses, and as your opinions have been formed from the evidence of persons
in whom you have placed confidence, and facts have gone to prove these
opinions correct, it is not strange that you should hold on to your belief
till some kind friend should come to your aid and lead your mind in a
different direction.

Now to remind you of what I tried to make you understand is a very hard
task on my part; for as I said to you, some of my ideas fall on stony
ground, and some on dry ground, and some on good ground. These ideas are
in your mind like the little leaven, and they will work till the whole
mind or lump is changed.

You have asked me many questions which time and space will not permit me
to answer, but I shall write that which seems to be of the most benefit to
you. In regard to your coming to Belfast, use your own judgment. The cure
of your limb depends on your faith. Your faith is what you receive from
me, and what you receive is what you understand. Now if you understand
that the mind is the name of the fluids of which your body is composed,
and your thoughts represent the change of the fluids or mind, you will
then be in a state to act understandingly.

I will try to illustrate it to you so you can apply your thoughts to your
body so as to receive the reward of your labor. As I told you, every
thought contains a substance either good or bad, and it comes in and makes
up a part of your body or mind, and as the thoughts which are in your
system are poisoned, and the poison has come from without, it is necessary
to know how to keep them [the thoughts] out of your system so as not to be
injured by them.

Now suppose you have around you a sort of heat like the light of a candle,
which embraces all your knowledge, you body being the centre and you
having the power to govern and control this heat: you then have a world of
your own. Now in health this globe of which your body is the centre is in
harmony. The heat of this globe is a protection to itself, like a walled
city, to admit none but supposed friends. Now as every person has the same
globe or heat, each person is a world or nation of itself. This is the
state of a person in health.

Now as we wish to change and interchange with other nations, so does our
house like to enjoy the society of other persons, and as we are liberal we
admit strangers to our city or world as friends. When this proclamation
goes out our globe is filled with all sorts of people from all nations,
bringing with them goods, setting up false doctrines, stirring up strife
till the whole population or thoughts are changed, and man becomes a
stranger in his own land and his own household becomes his enemies. This
is the state of a person in disease. Now as there is nothing in your own
system of itself to disturb you, you must look for your enemies from the
strangers whom you have permitted to come into your land.

TO A PATIENT

Mrs. Norcross.
Madam: Yours of the . . . is at hand. But a lack of faith on my part to
describe your case and explain my ideas to you so you could rightly
comprehended my meaning is my only excuse for not writing before. But
thinking you would expect an answer, I now sit down to talk with you a
short time.
After reading your letter I tried to exercise all the power I was master
of to quiet and restore your limb to health. But to give a satisfactory
answer to you or myself was more than I was capable of. I therefore will
disturb your mind or fluids once more, and try to direct them in a more
healthy state by repeating some of my ideas which I repeated to you when
here.
You know I told you that mind was the name of something, and this
something is the fluids of the body. Disease is the name of the
disturbance of these fluids or mind. Now as the fluids are in a scalding
state, they are ready to be directed to any portion of the body. You
remember I told you that every idea contained this fluid, and the
combination varied just according to the knowledge or idea of disease.

I will explain. Two persons are told they are troubled with srofula. One
does not know anything about it, and has never heard of the disease, is as
ignorant as a child. No explanation is given to either. The other is well
posted up in regard to all the bad effects of this disease. Now you can
readily see the effect on the minds of these two persons. On is not
aflected at all till he is made acquainted with the casc, while the other
one's mind or fluids are completely changed and combined, so all that is
necessary is to give direction and locate the disease in any part of the
body.

I think I hear you say that a child can be troubled with scrofula, and
they have no mind; then they have no body or fluids; for the fluids are
the mind, as I said before. Your mother probably changed the fluids of
your body, when an infant or at any early age, and some circumstance
located it in your leg. Now as it is there you want to know how to get rid
of it, and as it was directed there through ignorance you can't get rid of
it without some knowledge.

Now as this disturbance comes like a fright or sensation, it is to be
understood as a fright. Now as disease is looked upon as a thing
independent of the mind, the mind is disturbed by every sensation produced
upon the senses, and the soul stands apart from the disturbed part and
grieves over it, as a person grieves over any trouble independent of the
body. Now to cure you, you must come with me to where the trouble is, and
you will find it to be nothing but a little heated fluid just under the
skin, and it is kept hot and disturbed by your mind being
misrepresented.(*)

(* That is, in bondage to error. The sensation of heat under the skiin has
been misinterpreted.)

Now I believe that I can impart something from my mind that can enter into
that distressed state of the fluids and change the heat and bring about a
healthy state. I shall often try to produce a cooling sensation on your
limb, at other times a perspiration so as to throw off the surplus heat.
If I succeed in helping or relieving you, please let me know. But do not
expect another explanation. . . . If you think you would improve faster by
coming to Belfast, please let me know, and I will get you a private
boarding house, if desired. 1 think I can hear you say by this time that
your limb feels better, if so I shall be satisfied.

MR. QUIMBY'S METHOD

It may be somewhat strange to you to hear something of the mode of curing
disease by a person who does not believe in any disease independent of the
mind.(*) I am acquainted with a person who does not give any medicine at
all, and yet he is in the constant practice of curing persons afflicted
with all diseases flesh is heir to. He not only discards medicine but
disease also, contends that all disease is in the mind, and that the cure
of disease is governed by a principle as much as mathematics, and can be
learned and taught. His ideas are new, not like any person's I ever heard
or read of, and yet when understood by the sick they are as plain and
evident as any truth that can come within a person's senses. His ideas are
compared to that which troubles the sick, not to persons well; for those
who are well need no physicians.

(* Dr. Quimby here speaks of himself in the third person.)

He is not a spiritualist as is commonly understood, believing that he
receives his power from departed spirits. But be believes the power is
general and can be learned if persons would only consent to be taught.(*)
He has no mystery more than in learning music or any science which
requires study and practice. It cannot be learned in a day nor in a month,
yet nevertheless it can be learned. He has spent sixteen years [1840-1856]
learning and yet he has just begun.

(* That is, it is from the infinite Spirit or Wisdom, as Quimby later
called it; not from any "spirit.")

I will here state what has come within my observation. A friend of mine by
the name of Robinson, of N. Vassalboro, had been sick and confined to his
house for four years, and nearly the whole time confined to his bed, not
being able to sit up more than fifteen minutes during the day. Hearing of
Mr. Quimby, for this is his name, he sent for him to visit him. He arrived
at Mr. R's in the evening and sat down, and commenced explaining to Mr. R.
his feelings, telling him his symptoms nearer than Mr. R. could tell them
himself, also telling him the peculiar state of his mind and how his mind
acted upon his body. His explanation was entirely new to Mr. R., and it
required some argument to satisfy Mr. R. that he had no disease; for he
had been doctored for almost all diseases.

His eyes were so swollen that it was impossible for him to see. His head
had been blistered all over, and large black spots came out all over his
body. Therefore to become a convert to his theory was more than Mr. R.
could do. But Q. told him he stood ready to explain all he said, and not
only that but to prove it to his satisfaction; for, said he, the proof is
the cure, and R. was not bound to believe any faster than he could make
him understand, and the cure is in the understanding.

So Mr. Quimby commenced taking up his feelings, one by one, like a lawyer
examining witnesses, analyzing them and showing him that he [had] put
false constructions on all his feelings, showing him that a different
explanation would have produced a different result. In this way Quimby
went on explaining and taking up almost every idea he ever had, and
putting a different construction, till R. thought he did not know anything.

Mr Q's explanation, said R. . . . "was so plain that it was impossible not
to understand it. Not one of his ideas was like any that I ever heard
before from any physician, yet so completely did he change me that I felt
like a man who had been confined in a prison for life, and without the
least knowledge of what was going on out of the prison received a pardon
and was set at liberty. At about ten o'clock I went to bed, had a good
night's rest, and in the morning was up before Q. and felt as well as
ever. Q. and I went to Waterville the next day. I had no desire to take to
my bed, and have felt well ever since" This is R's own story.

[Quimby then goes on as if writing for a third person.]
I was well acquainted with Mr. R. and know those facts to be true. This is
the case with a great many others where I was not acqnainted with the
parties, and I was induced to go to Belfast to see if he [Quimby] could
talk me out of my senses, for I thought I had a disease. At least it
seemed so to me for I had had for the last ten years a disease which
showed itself in almost every joint in my limbs. My hands were drawn all
out of shape. My neck was almost stiff. My legs were drawn up, my joints
swollen and so painful it was impossible to move them without almost
taking my life. I could not take one step nor get up without help. It
would be impossible to give any account of my suffering.

When I arrived at Belfast I sent for Mr. Quimby. He came, and after
telling me some of my feelings said, "I suppose it would be pretty hard to
convince you that you had no disease independent of your mind." I replied
I had heard that he contended all disease was in the mind, and if he could
convince me that the swelling and contraction of the limbs and the pain I
suffered was in my mind, I would be prepared to believe anything.

He then commenced by asking me to move my legs. I replied that I could not
move them. "Why not?" said he. Because I have no power to move them. He
said it was not for the want of physical strength, it was for the want of
knowledge. I said I knew how to move them but I had not strength. As he
wished me to try, I made an effort, but without the slightest effect. He
said I acted against myself.

He then went on to explain to me where I even thought wrong, and showed me
by explaining till I could see how I was acting against myself. In the
course of a short time I could move my legs more than I had for three
years. He continued to visit me and I am gaining as fast as a person can.
I have been under his treatment for two weeks, and I can get up and sit
down very easily. I can see now that my cure depends on my knowledge.
Sometimes he asks me if I want some linament to rub on my cords or
muscles. I can now see the absurdity of using any application to relax the
muscles or to strengthen them. The strength is in the knowledge. This is
something that he has the power to impart. But how it is done is
impossible to understand. Yet I know the knowledge he imparts to me is
strength, and just as I understand so is my cure.(*)

(* This is one of the first endeavors on Quimby's part to take up the
point of view of a patient consulting him by showing how strange the new
method seemed. It will be noticed that in his letters Quimby does not yet
clearly distinguish between the mind, and the nervous activities and
disturbed circulation of the blood. He needs an intermediate term to show
that thought produces actual changes in the substance of the mind, and
then subconsciously in the body. Later he uses the peculiar term
"spiritual matter" to cover the activities which lie between, and says
less about the changes in the "fluids." When he apparently identifies the
mind with the fluids, in one letter he is not then teaching materialism,
but vaguely arguing for mental causation. The form "mind" is always used
in a subordinate sense, with reference to that part of our life which is
nearest the body. Dr. Quimby's higher term is "wisdom." Our wisdom is
wholly distinct from the nervous "fluids" and troublesome mental states.)



CHAPTER 8
CONTEMPORARY TESTIMONY

[Under date of July 8th, 1856, a former patient wrote a brief article
entitled "An Important Discovery in the Healing Art," as if intending it
for publication. The Manuscript. has been preserved, and from it we quote
the following:]

THIS truly wonderful discovery is now practised by Dr, Quimby, of Belfast,
a very respectable gentleman, for intelligence, agreeableness and
integrity. He is able to cure without the use of medicine diseases which
have baffled the skill of most eminent physicians. Of this we have
evidence in his curing those who have been afflicted with sickness and
pain for several years, without once knowing the cause of their
sufferings, and were given up by their physicians as having a complication
of diseases that were incurable. Having therefore to abandon all hope of a
recovery and giving themselves up to die, they heard of Dr. Quimby and his
successful mode of curing disease. Feeling no longer able to swallow the
poisonous draughts administered for their relief, they with faith as a
grain of mustard seed were at last induced to put themselves under his
treatment. By the blessing of God they were in a short time healed of
their infirmities. They also learned something of the nature and cause of
disease, the effects of the mind upon the bodily functions, and how the
mind may become a physician for the body, which is of more real worth than
all the mines of Golcond. For when in possession of this knowledge we
learn to remedy our own ills, and no longer remain a prey to disease.

I now come to speak of myself and will give a short sketch of my own
experience. For almost four years previous to my consulting Dr. Quimby I
had been an invalid. In December, 1851, I contracted a violent cold, which
brought on influenza, attended with a severe cough. Every part of me
seemed wracked with pain, and it was with much difficulty I could move at
all. This continued for some six weeks, when there was a change in my case
which presented no favorable aspect. My physician was a man of
considerable skill and experience, as I had received medical aid at his
hand some two years previous, which produced the desired effect. I felt
the fullest confidence that he would be successful a second time. But all
his efforts proved unavailing, as the medicine I took only afforded me
momentary relief. . . . My suffering at times was such as I shall not
attempt to describe. I continued to take medicine, getting a little better
and then worse until nearly two years of my sickness had elapsed . . .
until August, 1854, when I was no longer able to walk, and obliged to lie
down more than two thirds of the time . . . to the time of my consulting
Dr. Quimby, October, 1855.

I had heard of his effecting wonderful cures in hopeless cases of long
standing. Although I could not readily conceive the manner in which it was
done, I did not doubt the truth of the assertion or think it absurd; but
deemed it impossible for anything in like manner to be wrought in my case.
I therefore listened with indifference to all I heard respecting his
wonderful skill and superior knowledge until a few weeks previous to
putting myself under his treatment. I had used every restorative
recommended for my case, and all without benefit. I was at last compelled
to give up trying, as it was only something simple I could take at all. I
therefore concluded there could be no risk in applying to one who was
represented to cure without the use of medicines, and bearing his mode of
treatment spoken of in the best terms by many of the learned class

I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Quimby at my own home a few weeks before
I was carried to Belfast. He gave me encouragement, said he could help me
and soon enable me to walk again. This I thought was doing too much. I
dared not believe. And yet I was impotent to know the truth . . . that I
could not even fancy to be a reality . . . I set out on my journey with as
much fortitude as could reasonably be expected of one so weak. . . . I
felt glad to lie down and rest myself after so fatiguing a journey. I was
much distressed, but wished to make as little ado as possible, for fear of
alarming those who accompanied me.

Dr. Quimby made me a visit the same day, and expressed an opinion a second
time that he could help me. In one week's time I was able by slight
assistance from Dr. Quimby to walk down stairs. It was learning to walk a
second time in life. I began to think, feel and act like a new being.
Athough I was very defcient in knowledge of the truth which was to set me
free, I had already learned sufficiently to enable me to perform in one
week what I had not done for the past fourteen months. I had never known
what true happiness was before, so thankful did I feel for the pleasure of
walking. Yet so sudden was the change and so speedy the recovery that it
seemed like trying to do something altogether unnatural.

During my stay at Belfast Dr. Quimby had more practice than be could well
attend to, and several whose cases came under my own observation had long
been considered hopeless were in a short time restored to their natural
strength. By the leave of one young lady, Miss C., from Bucksport, I will
narrate her sufferings and the help she received. She had been a sufferer
for more than ten years, and had had fifteen medical attendants that were
considered men of skill in their profession, who were at last obliged to
admit her case as something which surpassed their knowledge of disease.
She learning of my speedy recovery, desired to learn more particularly
concerning it, and consequently came to see for herself. . . . Dr. Quimby
examined her case and bid her be of good cheer, and thought he could help
her. . . . Strange as it may seem, in a little less than three weeks she
was able to leave for home, and could walk two miles with much pleasure.
She lives with a heart full of gratitude to God for the blessed means by
which she was restored.

Ever since my return home my health has been improving although very many
thought my sudden cure was nothing to be relied on, and if I still
persisted in taking exercise I might before long be in as perilous a
situation as when I first applied to Dr. Quimby. But they have become
convinced that it is reality, and think me almost a miracle in the history
of disease. I have been able to attend a singing school during the past
winter without experiencing the slightest injury. Permit me to say to
those like myself when looking for remedy that you have only to go to Dr.
Quimby and "apply thy heart unto understanding, and thy ears to the words
of knowledge. So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul. When thou
hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and thy expectation shall not
be cut off."

I have deferred publishing this statement until the present time that all
might know that I am now well, and suffer from none of my former
difficulties, that I have recently gone to housekeeping and have "nothing
to molest me, or make me afraid" as regards to my former difficulties. I
desire always to bless the Lord, who has so wonderfully dealt with me, and
also to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Quimby, as the means employed
to change my eonditions. . . .

[A writer in the Bangor Times tells of the case of a Mrs. Hodsdon of
Kenduskeag, who had been sick with a complication of diseases for two
years. "Dyspepsia in its worst form, and a difficulty about the head, had
utterly prostrated her, so that, for the two years, she had been unable to
walk a step or to be moved in an upright position without fainting. Dr.
Quimby called upon the sufferer, and in two hours the patient rose from
her bed without assistance, seated herself in a chair and sat up two
hours. She rested well that night, she steadily improved and in due time
gained twenty pounds of flesh. All this came as the result of a single
visit. The writer states that he has heard of other cases of remarkable
relief, and he wonders what power there is behind Dr. Quimby's "gift." The
testimony of others is mentioned regarding the "marvellous power"
following Quimby's efforts. No theory is proposed, but the writer
evidently agrees with one signing himself "Exeter" in the Bangor
Jeffersonian, Feb., 1858, who declares that it is "too late an honr for
the cry of 'humbug' in Mr. Quimby's treatment of disease. . . . People are
beginning to inquire, 'Who and what is Dr. Quimby? By what strange agency
does he cure disease which for years has baffled the skill of our most
eminent physicians?' Another newspaper writer of the period says,]

"We have been told that the 'age of miracles' is passed, but we have
recently heard of several astonishing cures performed by a Dr. P. P.
Quimby, which seem to border on the miraculous. How these cures are
effected, it is impossible to say, as no visible means are employed. The
most obstinate cases of disease have been made to disappear at the mere
will, it would seem, of the Doctor. . . . Having heard of a remarkable
recovery, we called on the patient, an intelligent young lady, who stated
to us her case, and the manner of her cure, the facts of which she
embodied, at our request, in the following letter:"

PORTLAND,ME., AUGUST 29th, 1860.
Dr.Quimby,
Dear Sir:
I have been sick since five years ago last July, having a great deal of
pain in my back and limbs, "caused by blue pills taken two years before,"
physicians said, giving me "spinal disease." Very soon I was unable to
walk, or even stand, and for months I was prostrate upon my bed and
confined to a dark room, having neuralgia in the optic nerve, dyspepsia in
its worst form, making me a great sufferer. After being for two years in
the care of my uncle and brother, they decided medicine would not cure me,
and took me to a Water Cure, at Hill, N. H. At this time I could not stand
and was wheeled about in a wheel chair; my general health improved, and
two years ago this fall I was able to walk about the room for two weeks
only, and with this exception I have not walked in five years. The Water
Cure physician decided there was no help for me there, concluding the
spinal marrow was diseased.
Hearing of you, I set out at once to see you. Arriving at the United
States Hotel in Portland, August 15th, A.M., I was carried up stairs to my
room in my wheel chair, and in fifteen minutes after I saw you, Dr.
Quimby, I was walking. I went down stairs to dinner without any
assistance, and to my room again, and during the P. M., I took long walks
of about forty steps and back again, and when you consider that in the
morning of the same day, I could only stand for an instant, and take two
or three steps with assistance, you will not wonder that I was wild with
delight, or that I was to myself like one risen from the dead. The second
day I walked on the street sixteen rods, and during the sixth day I walked
four miles and a half, and in less than two weeks I walked into Portland
from Falmouth, four miles. My disease is entirely gone, my back is
perfectly well, and I have no fears of a relapse.

Yours with much esteem,
F. C. B.
Residence, Williamstown, Vt.

[To this testimony may be added that of Mr. Julius Dresser, restored to
health by Mr. Quimby three months before and devoting himself to
conversing with patients on "the Truth." Mr. Dresser saw Miss B. in her
invalid condition, then walked and talked with her during some of the
trips above mentioned, learning the facts of the case at first hand, and
seeing that she was perfectly restored to health. The newspaper writer
above quoted continues his account in the Evening Courier, Sept., 1860, as
follows:]

Now, if this were a solitary case, we might ascribe the cure to the
imagination, as it is well known that imagination has worked wonders in
this way. But this is but one of a number of equally remarkable cases
which have occurred here in our midst, and witnesses stand ready to bear
testimony to the facts. One lady who had been severely afflicted with
rheumatism, and for years was bent nearly double, a perfect cripple,
unable to use her hands or feet, was in a short time restored to health,
and is now a living, working evidence of the Doctor's skill. A gentleman,
a friend of ours, had for years been afflicted with a hip complaint. He
had for a long time been confined to his bed, and was brought so low his
physicians had given him up, with the intimation he could live but a few
days. It was purposed to call in Dr. Quimby. This the gentleman objected
strenuously to, being bitterly opposed to anything like humbuggery, and
the Dr. he considered one of the biggest of humbugs. His wife, however,
insisted on calling in Dr. Q. He visited him -- and yesterday we met the
patient on the street, going home to dinner, looking heartier than we have
seen him for a long time. He considers himself entirely cured of the
complaint. We told him people considered all these cures as humbugs. So
did I, was his reply, but here I am, and if humbug can work such wonders,
glory be to humbug, say I: and so say we. We might cite a dozen other
cases, but we refrain. We have no other motive in mentioning these rare
cures than to make our readers acquainted with the remarkable phenomena.
We have but a slight acquaintance with Dr. Quimby, and have no interest in
publishing his astonishing cures to the world. We have mentioned them as
affording matters of curious speculation. We must confess there is
something about them more than our philosophy ever dreamed of.(*)

(* The editor of a Lowell, Mass., paper prints a communication from Miss
B. in which she gives the same facts cited above, and says, "The young
lady who sent us the following . . . has relatives in the city whom she
has recently visited. We have no question of the entire truthfulness of
her statements, which we have heard orally, and with more particularity."
The communication is dated Oct. 22, 1860.)

[The next testimonial first appeared in the Lebanon, N. H., Free Press,
and was then copied by other papers in Maine and New Hampshire.]

LEBANON, Dec. 3, 1860.
Just at the present time there is a good deal said about Dr. Quimby, of
Portland, and it may not be considered amiss to mention the case of a
young lady of this town who has been greatly benefitted by him. For nearly
three years she has been an invalid -- a great part of the time confined
to her bed, and never left her room unless carried out by her friends. A
few weeks since she heard of Dr. Quimby, and resolved to visit him. She
did so, and after remaining under his care four days she returned home
free from all pain and disease, and is now rapidly regaining health and
strength.
The reputation of Dr. Quimby as a man who cures diseases has extended
without the narrow limits of his own state, and the sick from various
parts have learned to avail themselves of his services. The increasing
respect and confidence of the public in his success suggests the day of
miracles, and brings up a question as absurd as that of two thousand pars
ago, "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" Can actual disease be cured by
humbug? Dr. Quimby effects his cures without the aid of medicine or
outward applications, and his practice embraces cases like the above,
where all ordinary treatment has failed to relieve. These facts at first
place him in the rank of the mysteries of a superstitious world, but there
are few of his patients after a second interview who do not think the
mystery is in them and not in him. . . . It is here that Dr. Quimby
stands, his explanation and his cures go hand in hand. While his senses
[intuition] are penetrating the dark mystery of the sick, he is in
complete possession of his consciousness as a man. Not fearing to
investigate the operation of the mind, he penetrated the region [where]
nothing but magicians, sorcerers, witchcraft and spiritualists have
ventured, and going far beyond them in his experiments, he arrived at the
knowledge of the principle regulating happiness.

Therefore his curing disease is perfectly intelligent and is in itself a
new philosophy of life. The foundation of his theory . . . is that disease
is not self-existent, nor created by God, but that it is purely the
invention of man. Yet it is so firmly established in our belief, and
substantiated by so much wisdom that its existence as an independent
entity is never questioned. In his treatment he makes a complete
separation between the sufferer and the sickness; for the latter he has no
respect, and while he is battling or destroying the faith or belief of
which it is made, he respects the intelligence of the patient, which he
leaves free and unchained.

It is impossible in a brief communication to do anything like justice to
Dr. Quimby's system. Enough has been said to separate him from quacks and
imposters. The case cited above is not a solitary instance of his skill in
practising his science, and his increasing popularity with all classes
shows that the confidence of the public is not misplaced.

ONE WHO HAS BEEN RELIEVED.

[Having heard that Quimby had restored a woman who had been dumb, an
interested reader reported the results of investigations he had been
prompted to make concerning this cure, which occurred during the same
year, 1856, the patient being a daughter of Capt. Blodgett, of
Brooksville. The patient had been suddenly deprived of her speech two
years before.]

No cause was known, and the fact excited a melancholy surprise in herself.
. . . She had not been sick . . . nor had any trouble of mind or body been
known to have produced speechlessness. One evening her speech was observed
to be slightly impaared. She retired as usual, and on waking in the
morning she found herself utterly speechless. From that time . . . she had
not uttered an audible word. . . . She is now in full possession of her
former powers of speech. . . . One physician attributed the cause to a
sort of paralysis of the vocal organs. [The best medical aid had been
sought without avail]. . . .

Mr. Q. says he employs no medicine of any kind for any complaint he is
called upon to treat. His theory is . . . that all diseases of the body
are caused by a derangement of thr mind! And that the cure of all diseases
may be effected, theoretically, by a restoration or rectification of the
mind of the invahd, to its natural, proper condition. He has this faith,
and when he succeeds in imparting it to the patient, the disease vanishes
and the whole person is restored to harmonious natural functions. His
formula of faith is confessedly that of the Saviour and the woman who
touched the hem of his garment and became whole. The operation is purely
mental. Mr. Q. discards this scriptural fact as a "miracle," but regards
it as natural, as properly reproductive by those who have the right idea
of diseases and their cure, and who have the faith to attempt to relieve
human suffering. . . . He refrains entirely from any manipulation over the
patients, such as are generally known to be the accompaniments of mesmeric
experiments. He neither puts them to eleep nor biologizes them, but takes
them as he finds them . . . explains the method he proposes for a cure. .
. . This is the way in which be says he restored this young lady to the
power of speech -- with no other application but the power of his speech
upon her mind. . . . We have no reason to doubt the material statements in
this case. . . . Mr. Quimby is not a "spiritualist" in any sense of the
term.

[Interest in this case led to the reporting of another instance by the
same writer, that of a Miss Buker, afflicted with a hip disease, the
conditions being described in much detail. In an utterly hopeless
condition she consulted Mr. Quimby in Belfast, and the account continues
as follows:]

She began immediately to improve, and has grown better every week to a
wonderful degree. The disease has measureably departed from the hip, and
the leg has resumed almost its natural length and strength. She threw
aside her crutches a week or two ago . . . and now she walks with
considerable ease and no pain, with the aid of only a.small cane in one
hand. She lifts her foot with ease, and bears her whole weight upon it
momentarily while walking -- a thing which until within a few weeks she
had not been able to do for fifteen long years. The reader may imagine the
enthusiastic congratulations in which she indulges at the cheering
prospect she now has of being completely restored to health. She is
apparently in the enjoyment of a new life. . . . Dr. Quimby has used no
medicine or material appliances whatever, internally or externally -- he
has not even seen nor touched the part afflicted. All he has done has been
by acts of volition, conversing with his patient daily for about six
weeks, "teaching her," as he says, "the use of her limbs and how to walk."
He feels eonfident that he has obtained the mastery of the disease . . .
he got the mind and most of the body of the patient on the winning side.
He believes that their mutual "faith" will yet make his patient "whole."
He says he is not performing a "miracle" but a "cure," by the exercise, in
a novel way, of those powers of intellect and reason with which the
Creater has endowed him in common with all intelligent beings. [This
eminently fair-minded man appeals to his readers to visit the patient if
so inclined and see for themselves while the actual process of restoration
to health is going on.]

[More convincing to some will be the testimony of F. L. Town, assistant
Surgeon, U.S.A., Louisville, Ky., who, in a communication over his own
signature, March, 1862, wrote to a Portland paper concerning his
observations and knowledge of the experience of a patient under Quimby's
care. The editor, in introducing the letter says, "The Doctor himself came
to the International Hotel . . . an invalid, so feeble that he had to be
assisted in getting into the door, and afterwards to his room on the
second floor. He was so terribly dyspeptic that he could eat no solid
food, nor could he swallow cold water. . . . The Doctor left completely
cured, in about six weeks from his coming to visit Mr. Quimby. . . . About
the facts of the Doctor's remarkable cures there is no doubt; but there
may be question about how they are done." Dr.Town's communication is as
follows:]

Mr. Editor: I believe you have some knowledge of Dr. Quimby of the
International and his peculiar mode of practice. By a chain of unforeseen
circumstances, I have been led to know somethiag of Dr. Q. and the modus
operandi in the treatment of his patients. With a broad faith in the
virtue of men I believe him to be an honest man in his profession, who
practises as he believes, and would not intentionally deceive asyone. His
treatment is peculiar to himself and independent of all systems or forms
of practice whatever. For that pretentious class, who in the guise of
spiritualists, clairvoyants, and all other charlatans who with no previous
study, or knowledge of the power or effect of the medicine they prescribe,
seek to humbug communities . . . he has as little esteem, and holds
himself as sensitively separate from them as the most orthodox
practitioner. He has no sympathy or connection with them. Neither is his
practice more nearly allied to that of the regular practitioner. He gives
no medicine. . . .

The patient will find him unassuming in his manners, and no more ready to
talk of his successes than other men of theirs. . . . He will explnin to
you his way of practice, give you the benefit of his treatment, entertam
you with stereoscopic views of his theory or belief, and end off perhaps
by explaining a few passages of Scripture. However, a mans belief is one
thing, and his success in practice is another; this alone wins a favorable
opinion and wise confidence. There can be no doubt that Dr. Q. has been
the means of doing much good, as many patients from their homes, now in
the enjoyment of health, are willing to testify. In some instances his
treatment has been attended by the most unexpected and happy results,
affording great and immediate relief, when hope almost had failed. These
are not isolated cases, but none the less wonderful.

I will briefly relate the history of the following case, in which the ties
of near consanguinity awakened the liveliest sympathy, and the happy
termination of which was the cause of equal surprise and pleasure. A
member of our family had, while in that transition period between happy
childhood and budding womanhood, gradually lost the power of walking or
standing, and for a number of years (some five or six) was wholly unable
to make any use of her limbs whatever. There was no deformity, nor any
discoverable lesion, but weakness, and all attempts to use them were
attended by such excessive pain that they had to be given up. During this
time she was confined exclusively to the house, as the jar of a carriage
could not be borne; and often the tread of an incautious foot across the
floor was productive of pain. She was visited by some of our most skilful
practitioners, men of acknowledged ability and professors in popular
colleges. They expressed a belief that in time a recovery might be hoped
for.

Several years passed, and time brought no healing on its wings, bat new
causes of suffering. Her disease began to assume a much graver type -- the
eyes became morbidly sensitive to light, which increased to such an extent
that the least degree of light seemed unbearable. The shutters were
closed, curtains were drawn, and heavy blankets followed, tacked closely
over the windows. The digestive powers became much impaired. The stomach,
in failing to perform its office, sympathized with the rest of the svstem.
. . For five months the only nourishment that could be borne . . . was a
few cups of milk and water drank during the twenty-four hours. In
darkness, helpless and unable to take any proper food, she wasted away
till she was but the shadow of her former self. Greatly prostrated and
seemingly emaciated to the last degree, scarcely a hope was left for
recovery.

Through the earnest representation of friends, Dr. Quimby was employed,
certainly with the least expectation of any benefit. We were little
prepared to witness the surprising and gratifying amendment that attended
his visit.

The relief afforded was immediate, entire. All pain and irritation ceased,
and the patient was convalescent. Light again began to shed its cheering
rays through the room, for six months darkened. The digestive powers
increased, and she was able to eat simple food. The use of her limbs
returned; and under a more generous diet, and as new strength gave power
to them, she was able to walk. In a few months her weight more than
doubled. . . . At that time, stopping at a distant city, I soon came home
to witness these happy results. How great was the change! . . . Like a
child, she was again learning to walk. The hue of health was chasing from
the cheek the pallor of sickness, whilst her returning smile and speaking
eye told of the happiness within. Her whole aspect showed that she was
indeed a new being.

Save an occasional drawback, which a visit of a few weeks to Dr. Q. set
all right, she has steadily mended to the present, (nearly two years). The
eyes are still troublesome, but improving; otherwise her health is
appaently confirmed.

Other cases equally remarkable have come to my knowledge, whose history
and symptoms were every way different. It is apparent that his influence
is not confined to one class of diseases, and in no case could one safely
predicate whether or not relief might be expected. However, all may not
hope to be set at once in the broad highway to health. . . . Considering
the means employed, and the diversity of the cases, Dr. Q.'s success is
remarkable -- whether it depends more upon the man, or he acts upon the
first principle of that which, when better understood, shall be recognized
as a new remedial agency . . . time will tell.

These few remarks are made as an act of justice to Dr. Q. . . . Let us
then in the exercise of Christian charity, if plain facts are before us,
and we find an individual who can alleviate the pains of a single
sufferer, strew flowers in his pathway through kife, accept them as a
verity and bid him Godspeed.

[Writing under the head of "The Art of Healing," another interested
observer, signing himself "H.," communicates to the Portland Advertiser,
Feb. 1860, his conclusions in the case of Quimby's practice. He says in
part:]

Every theory admitting evil as an element cannot annihilate it. If disease
is ever driven out of existence, it must be by a theory and practice
entirely at variance with what we now put our trust in. . . . in every age
there have been individuals possessing the power of healing the sick and
foretelling events. . . . Spirit- ualists, mesmerists, and clairvoyants,
making due allowance for imposition, have proved this power is still in
existence. Like this in the vague impression of its character, but
infinitely beyond any demonstration of the same intelligence and skill, is
the practice of a physician who has been among us a year and to whose
treatment some hopeless invalids owe their recovered health.

I refer to Dr. P. P. Quimby. With no reputation except for honesty, which
he carries in his face and the faint rumor of his cures, he has
established himself in our city and by his success merits public
attention. . . . He stands among his patients as reformer, originating an
entirely new theory in regard to disease and practising it with a skill
and ease which only comes from knowledge and experience. His success in
reaching all kinds of diseases, from chronic cases of years' standing to
acute disease, shows that he must practise upon a principle different from
what has ever been taught. His position as an irregular practitioner has
confined him principally to the patronage of the ignorant, the credulous
and the desperate, and the most of his cases have been those which have
not yielded to ordinary treatment.(*)

(* This communiciltion was reprinted in full in "The Philosophy of P. P.
Quimby," p. 25.)

[In introducing the following letter to the Portland Advertiser, the
editor says; "We publish this morning a communication over the name of
'Vermont,' from a very intelligent young lady who, with her mother, was a
boarder at the International Hotel during the most of last winter. The
mother was a lady, we judge, of about fifty years, and the daughter about
twenty. The mother had been treated for scrofula, which her physician
thought was incurable. The daughter was simply afflicted with general
debility. Both left restored to health. The lady, whose voice was
restored, lost it nearly three years since by scarlet fever, and during
that whole time had not spoken."]

One of the most noticeable characteristics of the present time is a
growing distrust in the virtue of medicine, as in itself able to cure
disease; and this state of the public mind -- this demand for some better
mode of treating the sick has either created or finds ready an army of new
school practitioners of every possible kind, some sincerely desirous of
doing good and firmly believing what they profess, while others are only
too willing to impose upon credulity and benefit themselves thereby. Under
such circumstances it would be extremely difficult for a true reformer,
who not only sees the errors of the past and present, but dares to take
entirely different views even of the origin of disease, to acquire for
himself a reputation distinct from the many who also profess to have
advanced far in the new paths they have chosen, though in reality having
started from the same point that all others have in times past, they will
in the end arrive at nearly the same conclusions. Even great success in
the practice of his theory, might for a time be insufficient to establish
public confidence, and prevent his being ranked with all the innovators of
the day.

[This states in an admirable way precisely the difficult: Quimby
encountered, classified as he was with humbugs, spiritualists, magnetic
healers, and the like, although radically different from them. This writer
goes on to say:]

Many people who have lost faith in the ancient school, are at the same
time startled by such reasoning as Dr. Quimby uses with regard to disease.
It is so contrary to the common received opinions, they hardly dare
believe there can be any truth in it. They hear of remarkable success in
his practice, but are then still more incredulous and say, "The age of
miracles has passed away, and this is too much to believe." But "seeing is
believing" . . . and after having opportunity to see some of the
remarkable effects which Dr. Quimby has had upon obstinate cases of long
standing disease, they are compelled to yield, though it may be
reluctantly, that there is living truth in his principIes -- that he has
cast off the shackles of opinion, which would narrowly enclose the limits
of investigation. . . . They came to him suspicious, almost unwilling to
believe what they saw. ignorant of his theory which, even after it was
explained, they found difficult to understand, and therefore had go
through with this process of gradual conviction before they would receive
its truths. So it may be said that he has to contend with those who would
be his friends, as well as with his enemies.

The following outline of his theory was written after having passed
through a similiar change of feeling, and may give some general idea --
though a very imperfect one -- principles which are so effective in
opposing disease.

According to this new theory, disease is the invention of man. It is
caused by a disturbance of the mind -- which is spiritual matter [or
substance] -- and therefore originates there. We can call to mind
instances where disease has been produced instantly by excitement, anger,
fear or joy. Is it not the more rational conclusion that disease is always
caused by influences upon the mind, rather than that it has an identity,
and comes to us and attacks us?

Living in a world full of error in this respect and [educated] to believe
that disease is something we cannot escape, it is not strange that our
fear comes upon us. We take the opinions of men which have no knowledge in
them for truth. So we all agree to arbitrary roles with regard to our mode
of life, and suffer the penalties attached to any disobedience of the
same. These diseases or penalties are real to us though they are the
results of our own belief.

It is reasonable to infer from these statements that the only way to
approach and eradicate disease must be through the mind, to trace the
cause of this misery and hold up to it the light of reason, or disbelief
in the existence of disease independent of the mind. Then the cloud like
shadows vanishes as error always will when overpowered by the light of
truth.

Dr. Quimby proves the truth of this belief by his daily works. The
marvelous cures he is effecting are undeniable evidence of his superior
knowledge and skill in applying it for the benefit of suffering humanity.
He does not use medicine or any material agency, nor call to his aid
mesmerism or any [spiritisticl influences whatever; but works upon
scientific principles, the philosophy of which is perfectly understood by
the patient, therefore [the patient] is not only rid of the present
trouble but also of the liability to disease in the future. . . .

Accepting this new theory, man is placed superior to circumstances, easily
adapting himself to any necessity. Free from all fear, he lives a more
simple, natural and happy life. He is enabled to control the body and make
it subservient to his will, instead of his being a slave, completely at
its mercy, which he will be if he allows that it is subject to disease.

This truth is capable of extensive practical application in all the
exigencies of life, and we learn to make constant use of it as we advance
in knowledge. It helps us to place a just estimate upon everything, the
value of life is enhanced, and as we have more of this true knowledge in
ourselves we shall love and worship God, who is the source of all wisdom,
more sincerely and intelligently.

[The following was inserted as an advertisement in a Portland, Maine,
paper, Feb. 3, 1861, in gratitude for the work Dr. Quimby was doing.]

THE ANNIHILATION OF DISEASE

Disease is the great enemy of life. Even those who are free from it admit
that they are liable to it and are in constant fear of the danger.

It is quite a new idea that disease cannot only be eradicated but
annihilated, and might be questioned were it not daily proved by the
practice of Dr. P. P. Quimby, of Portland, Maine, who has discovered an
entirely new method of curing disease upon scientific principles, without
the use of medicine or any material agency: also, without the use of
mesmerism or any spiritual(*) influence whatever. He is constantly curing
the more desperate cases of disease -- paralysis, consumption, neuralgia
yield to his control, and the deaf, blind and lame are made whole by a
philosophy which is perfectly intelligent to themselves, and is able not
only to rid them of present trouble, but also from the liability to
disease in the future.

(* i.e. spiritistic.)

These statements are made without the knowledge of Dr. Quimby, for the
benefit of any who, suffering from disease have failed to find relief, and
are left without hope of finding assistance, by one who has been in that
condition, but was saved by his cure from despair and death.

Dr. Quimby has, after years of patient investigation, discovered this new
principle in metaphysics, which cannot fail to interest the well, and is
of incalculable importance to the sick. But his superior knowledge and
skill in applying it to the cure of disease is accompanied by such rare
modesty of character that he has never taken any means to make himself
known to the world, and therefore he is only known within the limits of
the influence which his patients may hold in society.

As a token of gratitude to him, as well as for the benefit of any who may
be suffering from disease, he is thus unhesitatingly and publicly
recommended.

[The name of E. Chase, Portland, is appended in ink to the following
testimonial, clipped from the Portland Advertiser, 1860:]

Reader, did you ever see Dr. Quimby? You have heard of him. As a Doctor he
is nondescript. He ignores all material medicines. He does not give the
infinitestimal atoms of Homeopathy or bread pills, He repudiates all
spiritaal medicineship as he does the whole catalogue of pills and liquids
recorded in the M. D.'s Materia Medica. These he asserts are all humbugs,
and the works of darkness.

His patients come from the four winds of heaven . . . no, not from the
South. The Doctor is a strong Union man; and would as soon cure a sick
rattlesnake as a sick rebel. He has patients from all parts of New
England, the Middle States, and the West. And his patients are all from
the wealthier and educated classes. He has a large practice in this city
and neighborhood. Most of his patients get well under his curative
process, which differs from all other modes and theories of medical
practice.(*)

(* The writer puts in his own opinion when he speaks as if Quimby had only
wealthy and educated patients. This was not true. According to his own
statement above, "medical" should be omitted in the last sentence.)

We have been boarding at the International Hotel, in this city during the
last six weeks, and we have witnessed some remarkable cases; as have all
the regular boarders. We express no opinion about the modus operandi;
except to say positively that the Doctor's practice, if it do not cure,
can do no possible harm, as he gives no medicines.

[The Portland Evening Courier also took to reporting instances of Dr.
Quimby's cures and giving space to articles by patients. Some of the
latter were by Mrs. Eddy, then Mrs. Patteraon, and are reprinted in
another chapter. Mrs. Patterson's sonnet, also quoted elsewhere, was
called out by the striking cure of Capt. Deering. Commenting on this cure,
a writer in the Courier says:]

Persons who know but little of the theory or practice of Dr. P. P. Quimby
are constantly misrepresenting both. The Doctor has received hundreds of
testimonials as to the permanency and wonderful nature of his cures. The
following statement from Capt. John W. Deering, of Saco, written by
himself, will have great weight with those who know Mr. Deering, and it is
published as much to refute statements made by some interested persons to
the effect that the Doctor acts as a spirit medium and mesmeriser, as for
the testimony it offers in support of the healing power which the Doctor
claims to exercise, even in cases called chronic, and given over by old-
school physicians.

[The editor also takes pains to say that this wonderful cure, one of many
equally remarkable and astonishing cures which have come to his knowledge,
is evidence of Quimby's theory, as "original and entirely distinct from
spirit mediums and mesmerisers. . . . Below will he found Capt. Deering's
ststement."]

"Early in August, 1862, I was attacked with a slight pain in the small of
my back, and immediately my right leg commenced drawing up, so that in ten
days, while standing on my left foot, I could but just touch my right leg
on the seat of a common chair. All this time I suffered great pain in my
knee pan. I was attended by two of the best physicians in York County, who
applied blisters, leaches, and cappings to my right thigh, with no effect
except to increase the pain.

"I became entirely discouraged, when I heard of Dr. P. P Quimby; and after
many solicitations on the part of my friends I Yielded to their entreaties
and visited him. After an examination, he told me that the cause of my
difficulty was a contraction of the muscles about the right side.
Physicians that I had previously consulted had treated me for disease of
the hip. Almost despairing of a cure, but willing to gratify the wishes of
my friends, I remained in the Doctor's care. Without calling on the
spirits of the departed for aid, without mesmerism and without the use of
medicines of any kind, he succeeded in completely restoring the muscles of
my side and leg to their proper functions, and I am now as well as ever. I
visited Dr. Quimby under the impression that he was some mysterious
personage who had acquired a great reputation for curing diseases, and who
must exercise some kind of mesmeric control over the will and imagination
of his patients. But I am convinced that he is a skilful physician, whose
cures are not the result of accident, but of a thorough knowledge and
application of correct curative principles.(*) (Saco, Jan 8, 1863. JOHN W.
DEERING)

(* What most impressed people who, like Capt. Deering, supposed Quimby
would undertake to exercise some mesmeric control over their wills, was
the fact that after making his intuitive diagnosis of the curative
principle and aid them to help themselves the first moment possible. This
convinced them that he was no charlatan but a genuine friend to the sick.)

[It is interesting, also, to note the zeal with which some took up the
idea of absent treatment as a perfectly intelligible process in contrast
with the difficult explanation offered by spiritists. The following is
from a communication addressed to the editor of the Courier by a writer
who signs himself, C. C. Whitney:]

"As spiritualism seems to be to many the only way of accounting for all
phenomena of the present day, I thought it might be of some interest to
your readers to state a case that came under my own observation, and I
will leave the public to judge of the manner in which it was done.

"Two years ago last March, I sent to Dr. Quimby to visit my wife, then
living in Wayne, in this state, who had been confined to her bed for over
a year, and unable to lie on her left side, or raise herself in bed.

"The Doctor replied that he could not visit her in person, but would try
an experiment, and wished me to keep him informed of his success. His plan
was that on my receiving his letter he would commence to operate on her
[absently,] and continue his visits till the next Sunday, when he would,
between the hours of 11 and 12, make her walk. I received this letter
Wednesday, and that night she was very uneasy and nervous, and the next
day, Thursday, she was more comfortable, and turned over on her left side,
a thing she had slot done for nearly a year. She continued improving, and
[I] sent the Doctor letters informing him of his success. On Sunday, not
expecting her to rise, I attended church, and on my return I found her up
and dressed. Between the hours of 11 and 12 she arose from her bed and
walked across the room, returning to the bed, and then walked out into the
dining room, and the next morning she took breakfast with the family, and
continued to improve."(*)

(* This case shows the clearness with which Quimby discerned a patient's
condition at a distance, also his skill in telling how long his absent
work would take before the patient would be up and about.)

[The letter goes on to say that the patient suffered a partial relapse a
year later, and her husband, being in Portland, called on Quimby for help;
the help was given without informing the wife, and her husband reports
that it was with success according to Quimby's predictions. Evidently,
there had been no opportunity in this case for Quimby to converse with the
patient and give her advice regarding her health. The editor, commenting
on the above instance, thinks it invites explanation from those who would
attribute it to spiritistic influences. The editor was much impressed by
the genuineness of the explanation offered by Quimby in such cases,
namely, that it was intelligent use of therapeutic power, not the agency
of spirits; for he learned from a woman in Lancaster, N. H., that at the
time appointed by Quimby for visiting Mrs. Whitney absently, Quimhy, then
in Lancaster, remarked that he "must go to Wayne to visit a patient."
after retiring to the parlor for an hour, Quimby returned and said he had
"got the lady up from her bed, and that she walked, and three persons were
present in the room who witnessed it. Upon writing Mr. Whitney, it was
found that he and two friends, who had accompanied him home from meeting
were present at that time, and saw her walk." This again shows the clarity
of Quimby's perception at a distance, also the fact that what he gave as
facts could be verified.

A writer in another Portland paper, name and date not given in the scrap-
book, after pointing out the usual misconceptions gathering around
Quimby's name and declaring that Quimby is "always conscious of what he
says and does," adds that "He takes as a starting-point that disease was
never created by God, but has been made by the false opinions which have
been given and believed by man, and he contends that disease can be cured
by simply explaining to the patient wherein he has been deceived. . . . He
says that if he cures at all he knows how he does it, and that all the
power he exerts is simply in what he says to the patient, while sitting
with him. [This of course involved the silent realization known as a
treatment.] . . .The Doctor also contends that if he can cure an
individual case . . . he can produce the same effect by addressing himself
to many at the same time. He has [the intention] of publishing his ideas
at some future time, and also the idea of treating disease publicly, when
he feels that the people are ready.

[It will be noticed that the writers in the above excerpts from the press
uniformly speak of the fact that Dr. Quimby practised according to a "new
principle," not by giving medicine or by making any material applications,
and not by the use of mesmerism or spiritism. These excerpts have not been
selected and published here because they are favorable, but because they
are frank statements of Dr. Quimby's practice as it impressed contemporary
observers. The newspaper excerpt which shows the least understanding of
Quimby's practice is the following from the Bangor Jeffersonian, 1856.
This excerpt was republished in "The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby," 1895.
When the writer quoted below uses the term "animal spirit" he is using his
own term, not Quimby's, for this term was not employed by Dr. Quimby. What
Quimby taught was that the false ideas and mental imagery causing the
disease were directly impressed on the plastic substance of the mind,
which included what we now call the subconscious. Quimby did indeed find
the soul, (not the "animal spirit,") partly disconnected from the body in
certain extreme cases, when the patient lay at the point of death, and he
conversed with the soul, or, as he says in most of his writings, "the
scientific man." The statement quoted below shows that it was difficult
for some observers to understand what Quimby meant.]

A gentleman of Belfast, P. P. Quimby, who was remarkably successful as an
experimenter in mesmerism some sixteen years ago, and has continued his
investigations in psychology, has discovered, and in his daily practice
carries out, a new principle in the treatment of disease. . . . His theory
that the mind gives immediate form to the animal spirit, and that the
animal spirit gives form to the body. His first course in the treatment of
a patient is to sit down beside him and put himself en rapport with him,
which he does without producing the mesmeric sleep. He says that in every
disease the animal spirit or spiritual form is somewhat disconnected from
the body, and that when he comes en rapport with a patient, he sees that
spirit form standing beside the body; that it imparts to him all its
grief, and the cause of it, which may have been mental trouble, or a shock
to the body, or over-fatigue, excessive cold or heat, etc. This impresses
the mind with anxiety, and the mind reacting upon the body, produces
disease. . . . With this spirit form Dr. Quimby converses, and endeavors
to win it away from its grief, and when he has succeeded in doing so, it
disappears, and reunites with the body. In a short time the spirit again
appears, exhibiting some new phase of trouble.

[The following is one of the last newspaper references to Dr. Quimby and
his work in Portland, after he had an announced his intention of retiring
from his practice there, that he might revise his writings for
publication. It was written by a former patient.]

It is with feelings of surprise and regret that many of your readers
receive the announcement, given in your advertising columns, that Dr. P.
P. Quimby has determined to leave Portland. The Doctor has been in this
city for nearly seven years, and by his unobtrusive manners and sincerity
of practice has won the respect of all who know him. To those especially
who have been fortunate enough to recieve benefit at his hands -- and they
are many -- his departure will be viewed as a public loss. That he has
manifested wonderful power in healing the sick among us, no well informed
and unprejudiced person can deny. Indeed, for more than twenty years the
Doctor has devoted himself to this one object, viz., to cure the sick, and
to discover through his practice the origin and nature of disease. By a
method entirely novel, and at first sight quite unintelligible, he has
been slowly developing what he calls the "Science of Health;" that is, as
he defines it, a science founded on principles that can be taught and
practised, like that of mathematics, and not on opinion or experiments of
any kind whatsoever.

Hitherto he has confined his efforts to individual cases only, seeking to
discover in them what disease is, how it arises, and whether it may not,
with the progress of truth, be entirely eradicated The results of his
practice have been such as to convince him that disease, that great enemy
to our happiness, may be destroyed, and that, too, on grounds and by a
method purely rational; and he goes from us not to abandon the cause, we
are rejoiced to learn, but to enter a broader field of usefulness, wherein
he hopes not only to cure, but as far as he can, to prevent disease.

The path he treads is a new one and full of difficulties; but with the
evidence he has already given, in numberless instances, of his
extraordinary ability in detecting the hidden sources of suffering, we are
led to hope he may yet accomplish something for the permanent good of
mankind. An object so pure, and a method so unselfish, must, when
understood, claim the favorable attention of all. We bid him God speed.