The Quimby Manuscripts - Chapters 9-11



CHAPTER 9
LETTERS FROM PATIENTS

NORTH VASSALBORO, May, 26th, 1850
Dr. P. P. Quimby,
Dear Sir: I shall address you as the good Samaritan who came along and
took me by the hand and opened my understanding, and took my disease from
me in so remarkable a manner that I can say, Blessed be the name of the
Lord for raising up such servant as you are. It seems to me as though you
took my disease, for it has never returned. But still I have many bad
feelings to contend with, even to wrestling all day to the going down of
the sun. I am still able to come out victorious over all bad feelings, for
my health has been improving ever since you came to our house. I am now
ten times as well as any living man could have supposed. I am able to walk
over a mile a day without much inconvenience. [I have] only to think for a
moment of the good Samaritan taking me by the hand and putting me on the
road to health. . . . Only to think of my being almost four years a bed-
keeper and now so well! Why, it is nothing short of a miracle. You can
imagine how I am enjoying everything, sun, moon, earth, every living
thing, never looked so grand, so beautiful or sublime. . . .

Your fame is still sounding as on the wings of the wind. Many questioners
are asking about you. . . . I am saying it is the only true way whereby
man can be healed. I am daily preaching your doctrines to the children of
men. . . . I hope by strict attention to your rules to remain well. [The
letter concludes with references to sick people in the neighborbood who
need Quimby's treatment. The writer describes the maladies he labored
under for years and the difficulties he encountered in travelling about
and overworking. His statements indicate that he is a man well along in
years, and that he has now taken a new start in life, with the realization
that he is in possession of an intelligible principle to live by.

Quimby early began the practice of treating silently at a distance. The
following extract is with regard to a woman who was clairvoyant enough to
see Quimby in the case of one of his mental visits.]

Last Friday evening, Oct. 3rd, between 7 and 10 o'clock, mother and a
niece of hers, who is here on a visit, were sitting together talking, and
this lady says she saw you standing by mother, about to lay your hand on
her head. Just at that moment mother left the room, before her friend had
told her what she saw, so your visit was interrupted. What was quite
strange was that this lady described some of your characteristics, in
looks and appearance, very accurately, although you have never been
described to her. Mother wishes to know if you were really here in spirit
at that time.

[Fortunately, a letter was preserved in which Quimby, under date of Oct.
3rd, wrote to the patient in question that he would visit her on that day,
the day he was seen by the stranger. This letter was not sent and the
patient did not therefore know that Mr. Quimby expected to visit her in
spirit at that time. But it is evidence that the visit was real on
Quimby's part, and that it coincided with the time his presence was
perceived by the stranger. In a letter written five days later, responding
to the above, Quimby makes another appointment, adding, "If that lady is
still with you, I will try to make myself appear to her eyes next Sunday,
between 7 and 8 o'clock." This was in the days when it was still important
to prove beyond all doubt that a person's presence could actually be
perceived in this way, at an appointed time. Some would regard the
instance in which Quimby was seen by a stranger without prearrangement as
more significant than in the case of his plan to make himself "seen" at an
appointed time.

The impression produced by some of Quimby's more remarkable cures is
indicated by a letter dated, Exeter, Feb. 18, 1858, in which the writer,
David Barker, speaks of the Case of a Mrs. Crane, who is described as
"perfectly happy and free from all pain. and care." The writer goes on to
say that the house is thronged by people anxious to witness a miracle, for
a greater miracle was never performed since Christ raised Lazarus." A few
days later, writing to Dr. Quimby, Mr. Barker says:]

Whether by accident or not, you performed as great a miracle in my
mother's case as in Mrs. Crane's. You will remember stopping there with my
brother two weeks ago tomorrow night and examining her ankle, which was so
badly broken eleven years ago. She has only stepped on her toes since, and
that with the aid of crutches. Her foot was nearly straight on a line with
her ankle. Immediately after you left she found that the contracted cords
in her foot were all relaxed, and that she could put her foot square upon
the floor and walk well without the aid of crutch or cane. She was at my
house today, and although nearly seventy years old she convinced me that
you had given her the use of her foot by dancing a regular "pigeon's
wing." The whole country is crazy to have you visit us again.

[Several letters were written to substantiate the case of Maria Towne, of
Lancaster, N. H. The first is from her father and bears the date of March
18th, 1860:]

My daughter was attacked with lameness and unable to walk, nine years last
December. The physicians called it a disease of the hip, and treated her
for the same. She partially recovered in six months. In ten or twelve
months she appeared to be quite firm. Five years last September she had
another attack in the hips and limbs that has given her severe pain up to
this time, and baffled the skill of our physicians. . . . She has
constantly been under the care of the best medical aid.

Last August she was attacked with a weakness in the eyes, and unable to
see; had been kept in a dark room since the twenty-fifth of August. She
has subsisted for the last six months on the value of from four to two
teacupe full of milk in twenty-four hours. She has not walked any for the
last five and a half years, with the exception of a few steps five years
ago this winter.

Through the solicitation of a friend, we sent for Dr. P. P Quimby of
Portland, who came to her Saturday evening March l7, at 9 o'clock. The
next day at one P. M., she got up from her chair alone and walked ten feet
without assistance. She can now bear some light in the room, and begins to
see quite well. She walked from her room to the dining-room with very
little help this evening, to tea, and ate quite a hearty meal without
causing her any pain.

[The second letter, signed Harriet F. Towne, is apparently from the
mother, and is dated March 21, 1860.]

Dr. Quimby:

Thinking you would like to hear from Maria by this time, I hasten to
inform you that she is in fine spirits, can have a little more light in
the room; but cannot hold her eyes open any longer than when you were
here. . . . She is all courage and walks a little every day, and enjoys
her food very much. Maria wants to hear from you soon. Please write if
that lady in Wayne walked last Monday, and if you come here often. Maria
imagines you do.(*)

(* The "lady in Wayne" was one whom Quimby treated absently while in
Lancaster attending Miss Towne. Such cases were interesting to patients as
well as to onlookers, because they gave evidence of the great healer's
power to make himself felt at a distance, and this was a new phenomenon in
those days.)

[The third letter is from the father, under date of April 1, I860:]

Dr. Quimby,

Dear Sir: Maria gains strength a little every day. She has gained in one
week ending last Thursday two and a half pounds in weight. She walks
across the room six or eight times in a day with a little help. Her
appetite is good. Her eyes grow stronger, she can have considerable light
in the room. . . . There are several here that are anxious for you to see
them. One man that is very much troubled with the phthsic wanted me to ask
if you had any control over that disease. . . .

[Then follows a letter from the patient herself who, after a visit to Dr.
Quimby in Portland, writes concerning the one trouble now remaining, her
eye-trouble, which she says is extremely obstinate. She finds that the
eyes are better only when she is under Quimby's direct influence. Feeling
entirely dependent upon her restorer for health and hsppiness, she is
eager for more help from him. It was Quimby's endeavor to put his patients
in possession of the healing principle so that they would not depend upon
the "influence" they felt while sitting by him or receiving absent help;
but this was a question of time, especially in the case of trouble with
the eyes.

A patient who had been restored to health in a remarkably short time after
years of invalidiem in which she had been unable to walk, writes as
follows after returning from Portland:]

HILL, N. H., Oct. 21, 1860.
Mr dear Doctor:
How I do want to see you. I am well and happy. You can't imagine how the
people stare at me here at the Water Cure. Dr. Vail thinks he will come
and see you. I talk as much of your Science to him as I know how to. I
wish I knew more. I want you to prove to me mind is matter, so I can to
them. . . .(*)

(* That is, prove that mind is susceptible to opinions, leading to changes
in the body, as Quimby explains in his writings.)

I went to see one of the old-school doctors. He is coming to see you and
see if he can learn your way. He . . . greatly rejoices with me. . . . I
can't make the religious part go. I can't understand it. It doesn't seem
to suit me. I go to church, though the preaching does not always suit me,
to prayer meetings, and I pray as I used to. What do you think of me?(*)

(* This is typical of people who tried to return to their old ways after
coming in touch with Quimby and sensing his religious spirit. Quimby's
emphasis was on good works, not on doctrine, and he directed attention to
the Divine presence with all men as guiding Wisdom.)

My uncle and brother, doctors in Lowell, were so anxious and had so many
fears for me that I had to get out on the street soon as I could and go
off on a walk four miles long. I went just as fast as I could, some of the
time running until all the fears were gone. They make my back feel
strangely (the fears), and I can't seem to sit as erect.

I will send all I can to you. I will start some from this vicinity. I am a
great sight to the people. . . . There are many more people ready to
receive this theory than I had supposed. My uncle and brother did not seem
to get any clue to it, and said they did not know what to think of it....

It does seem good to walk, and my heart is full of gratitude to you and
God. I am so glad I went to see you. I can express it.

[Nearly a year later, writing from Wilmington, IL. this patient expresses
the thought that hcr restorer has helped her since she left home, although
she has had little to meet save homesickness. She says in part:]

I wish you would take away that longing for the East, at those times when
I feel I would give all to see Dr. Quimby. I try to think you are not far
away. I like to think of that place by you which is mine. I laugh over the
"sittings" I had with you, don't you? when I think how dreadfully
distressed I was lest you were wanting to cast me out of the way to give
room for new friends. How funny that you should know how I felt all the
while. How you can understand the feelings hidden within others are
entirely ignorant of, appears to me quite mysterious. When I consider what
you have done for me and others, and that you are continually doing
greater and greater cures, I conclude I cannot tell what may not be done,
and that you possess a knowledge far superior to any other person I have
known or heard of. I am glad I ever came to you, almost glad I was sick to
need your assistance, that I might know and feel these things. When one is
raised from a long illness to perfect health, as it were instantly, do you
not realize what a healthy person cannot? Would they want to help feeling
glad, and that the man who did such a splendid thing for them was the
nicest, best man in the world?

It does me good to know the Science is being appreciated, that you are
successful. . . . I want to know if a knowledge of mind acting on mind
will enable one to control an ungovernable child without using any means
of punishment, and what you do in the next world with profane, drunken,
stealing, murdering men -- people commonly sent into eternal punishment?

I wish I could tell you how I feel. But it is the same as when I sat with
you: an undefinable longing for something.

[Another letter of the same year begins by raising a problem:]

I wonder if everything that occurs through life that makes me sad has got
to make me sick. Can't you tell ma something about it, and give me some
good fatherly advice? Something quite unpleasant has occurred since I was
in Chicago that gave me a great deal of trouble night and day, and I find
myself out of fix. . . .

Doctor, I often get your picture and I imagine I have regular sittings
with you. They do me good, I do believe. But the picture is not equal to
the live man. . . . You know the gratitude of my heart better than I can
express it.

[Other letters written from time to time indicate that the cure was
permanent, although there are slight matters requiring her healer's
advice. Writing from her old New England home four years after she was
cured, Miss X. says that everybody remarks how strange it is that she is
so well. She also says:]

I have never lost a moment from sickness since I have been in school,
nearly two years. I walk six and eight miles in a day, very often. . . . I
feel so thankful I am well. If it had not been for you I would have been
in my grave or much worse off long before now. I cannot tell you, Dr.
Quimby, how much I think of you, and love you for what you have done for
me. . . . When I went to school in Chicago my friends said in less than
three months I should be sick. I wrote you and you said you would not let
me, and I have not been. Now I want that knee of mine cured up. . . .(*)

(* These letters indicate that the chief difffculty encountered by former
patients who depended solely on the new Science was in avoiding old fears
and other mental associations readily called up when meeting sceptical
friends.)

[Another series of letters, dating from 1860 to December 25, 1864, begins
with the description of the patient's case a fibrous tumor about to be
operated upon and other conditions as diagnosed by competent physicians,
and traces the result from time to time, as the patient reports her
progress. She, too, experiences difficulty in avoiding the recurrence of
old symptoms, for her case was well known, the doctors are sceptical,
sometimes angry, and she must maintain her faith against opposition. At
times she can hardly call herself well, and so writes to Dr. Quimby to
express her difficulties and receive his advice or help. The following
letter is typical of those written to express gratitude:]

PLYMOUTH, Oct. 17th, 1858.
Dr. Quimby,
MY PRESERVER AND FRIEND: With feelings of gratitude and kind respect, I
will write you, and inform you that I am able to walk as well as ever I
could, a pleasure which I could not have enjoyed had it not been through
your unceasing and untiring care and treatment. Words will not express my
thankfulness to you, kind Dr., for the pleasures I am permitted to enjoy.
When I contemplate my past helplessness, and know that to you I am
indebted for all I do now enjoy, my heart is ready to burst in
gratefulness.

I continue to improve in walking day by day, as you told me [I would], and
now I can run up and down stairs (not as fast as you can, because you are
so spry) but as well as most anyone else. My friends receive me with
wonder depicted upon their countenences, I assure you, to see me walking
all by myself, was a joy to them indescribable, and believe me their whole
tribute of praise is tendered to you.

With all love and respect, I remain, Your young friend, E. C.



CHAPTER 10
LETTERS TO THE PATIENTS

PORTLAND, Feb. 9th, 1860.

To a Patient in Hill, N. H.
Your letter apprised me of your situation and I went to see [absent
healing] if I could affect you. I am still trying to do so, but do not
know as I can without sitting down and talking with you as I am at
present. So I will sit by you a short time and relieve the pain in your
stomach and carry it off. You can sit down, when you receive this letter,
and listen to my story and I think you will feel better. Sit up straight.
I am now rubbing the back part of your head and round the root of your
nose. I do not know as you feel my hand . . . but it will make you feel
better. When you read this, I shall be with you: and do as I write. I am
in this letter, so remember and look at me, and see if I do not mean just
as I say. I will now leave you and attend to some others that are waiting,
so "Good evening." Let me know how you get along. If I do not write, I may
have time to call for that does not require so much time.(*)
P. P. Q.

(* This letter shows what intimate connection Dr. Quimby established
mentally with patients whom he treated absently. The reference to rubbing
the head was to show that the absent help applied directly where needed.
This tended to strengthen faith.)

PORTLAND, Feb. 9th, 1861.
To Mr. S.
Your wife's letter was received, and I was glad to learn you were all so
much better. But your wife says you still cough: this is necessary for
your cure, for you have no other way to get rid of that heat in the head
called catarrh. Now, this heat seems to be a mystery to everyone:
everybody acknowledges it and tries to account for it. Some call it
nervous, but when asked to explain that they fly to some other error.
You know I told you that mind was spiritual matter. In order to illustrate
my meaning so you will understand it, I will make use of an illustration
that Jesus used. He said, when the skies are red, you know it will be fair
weather. Now thought is something and this acts in space. For instance,
the body is nothing but a dense shadow, condensed into what is called
matter, or ignorance of God or Wisdom. God or Wisdom is all light. Your
identity [consciousnessl acts in these two elements, light and darkness,
so that all impressions are [subconsciously] made in this darkness or
ignorance, and as the light springs up the darkness disappears. One of
these elements is governed by Wisdom, the other by error, and as all
belief is in this world of darkness, the truth comes in and explains the
error. This rarifies the darkness and the light takes its place. Now as
this darkness is all the time varying, like the clouds, it is necessary
that man should be posted about it as he would about the weather. For our
happiness in this world depends a great deal on the weather. For the
wisdom of man has got so far from the truth that even the weather is our
enemy, so that we step out as though we were liable to be caught by a
cold, and if we are then comes the penalty. All this error arises from
ignorance. So to keep clear of error is to know who he is, how he gets
hold of us, and how we shall know when he is coming.

To make you understand I must come to you in some way in the form of a
belief. So I will tell you a story of someone who died of bronchitis. You
listen or eat this belief or wisdom as you would eat your meals. It sets
rather hard upon your stomach; this disturbs the error or your body, and a
cloud appears in the sky. You cannot see the storm but you can see it
looks dark. In this cloud or belief you prophesy rain or a storm. So in
your belief you foresee evils. The elements of the body of your belief are
shaken, the earth is lit up by the fire of your error, the heat rises, the
heaven or mind grows dark; the heat moves like the roaring of thunder, the
lightning of hot flashes shoot to all parts of the solar system of your
belief. At last the winds or chills strike the earth or surface of the
body, a cold clammy sensation passes over you. This changes the heat into
a sort of watery substance, which works its way to the channels, and pours
to the head and stomach.

Now listen and you will hear a voice in the clouds of error saying, The
truth hath prevailed to open the pores and let nature rid itself of the
evil I loaded you down with in a belief. This is the way God or Wisdom
takes to get rid of a false belief: the belief is made in the heavens or
you mind, it then becomes more and more condensed till it take the form of
matter. Then Wisdom dissolves it and it passes through the pores, and the
effort of coughing is one of Truth's servants, not error's: error would
try to make you look upon it as an enemy. Remember it is for your good
till the storm is over or the error is destroyed. So hoping that you may
soon rid yourself of all worldly opinions and stand firm in the Truth that
will set you free, I remain your friend and protector till the storm is
over and the water of your belief are still.
P. P. Q.

PORTLAND, Feb. 8th, 1861.
To Miss S., Hill, N. H.
Your letter was received and I was sorry to learn that you thought you
took cold. Perhaps you did, but you know all of my patients have to go
through the fiery furnace to cleanse them of the dross of "this sinful
world," made so by the opinions of the blind guides. Remember that passage
where it says, "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," As Truth is our
friend, it rids us of our errors, and if we know its voice we should not
fear, but receive it with joy. For although it may seem a hard master,
nevertheless it will work out for you a more perfect health and happiness
than this world of error ever could. So listen to it and I will try to set
all things right.

Of course you get very tired, and this would cause the heat to affect the
surface as your head was affected, the heat would affect the fluids, and
when the heat came in contact with the cold it would chill the surface.
This change you call "a cold." But the same would come about in another
way. Every word I said to you is like yeast. This went into your system
like food and came in contact with the food of your old bread or belief.
Mine was like a purgative, and acted like a emetic on your mind, so that
it would keep up a war with your devils [errors], and they will not leave
a person, when they have so good a hold as they have on you, without
making some resistance. But keep up good courage and I will drive them all
out so that you may once more rejoice in that Truth which will free you
from your tormentors or disease.

If you will sit down and read this letter, take a tumbler of water and
think of what I say, and drink and swallow now and then, I will make you
sit up so you will feel better. You must be [silent and receptive] just
about as long as you used to be in Portland. Try this every night about
nine o'clock. This is the time I shall be with Mr. and Mrs. S. You know
that where two or three are gathered together in the name of this Truth,
there it will be in your midst and help you. So try it and see if it does
help you. If you do, let me know.

Hoping this letter will be of some comfort to you and the rest, I remain
your true friend and protector till you are well, if I have the Science to
cure you. So I leave you for the present and attend to others.(*)
P. P. Q.

(* Despite Dr. Quimby's great confidence in the Truth, he ofter wrote and
spoke in this way, never making mere promises or claims. The use of the
tumbler of water was to strengthen faith and aid concentration.)

PORTLAND, Feb. 8th, 1861.
To Mr. S.
In answer to your letter I will try to explain the color you speak of. . .
so that you will forget it. Give me your attention while I explain. You
know I told you about your stooping over: this stooping is caused by
excitement affecting the head. This contracts the stomach, causes an
irritation, sending the heat to the head. This heat excites the glands
about the nose, it runs down the throat and this is all there is about it.
It will affect you sometimes when you are a little excited, and you will
take it for a cold.

Remember how I explained to you about standing straight Just put your
hands on your hips, then bend forward ane back.

This relaxes the muscles around the waist at the pit of the stomach. This
takes away the pressure from the nerves of the stomach and allays the
irritation. Now follow this and sit down and I will work upon your stomach
two or three times in three or four days. It will affect your bowels and
help your color. Tell your wife to sit down and give her attention and I
will affect her in the same way. Please take a little water when you are
sitting, say about 9 o'clock in the evening. . . .(*)
P. P. Q.

(* Although the absent treatment given in such a case included much more
than this letter indicates, Quimby, realizing the importance of expectant
attention, mentioned specific results that might be looked for. He tried
to make a patient self-helpful as soon possible.)

PORTLAND, Feb. 9th, 1860.
To Miss K., Kennebunk, Me.
Your letter of the 5th is received. I am surprised that you do not
remember that all my patients have "a cold" as they call it, when the
belief is [of this character]. For instance, if you are told you have
"consumption," this belief is matter under the direction of error, and as
it is put into practice it changes the mind, so that the idea of
consumption is thrown off from the belief. If you are excited by any other
belief, you throw off all the misery that follows your belief. For
instance, you are made to believe you are not so good as you ought to be:
your belief puts restrictions on your life, and as it is a burden to you
it makes you throw off a shaaow that contains the punishment of your
disobedience. This makes you another character, and you are not the happy
child of Wisdom.

This was your belief when you called on me. As I struck at the roots of
your belief with the axe of Truth, everything having a tendency to make
you unhappy I tried to destroy. So in the destruction there must be a
change. This change must be like its father. So if you had grief, it would
produce grief for the present. Finally the Truth would dry up your tears
and you would rejoice in that Truth that sets you free.

So in regard to the "cold": if you had the idea of "consumption" when I
drove that cnemy of man out of your belief, this must produce a like
cough, but it is all for the best. Remember that every error has its
reaction, but an unravelling of error leads to life and happiness, while
the winding it up leads to disease and misery.

All that is taking place in your case is just what I anticipated. So it is
all right. Keep up good courage and all will come out right. Tell Miss F.
to keep good courage: her cure is certain.(*)
P. P. Q.

(* The regenerative process was often emphatic in the case of Dr. Quimby's
patients because his power was great, its action immediate. In another
letter Dr. Quimby says, "To reverse the action is not a very easy task,
but if you will wait patiently I cannot help thinking it will take place.")

PORTLAND, March 3, 1861.
To Miss T.
Your letter of the first was received. . . . I will now give you a short
sitting and amuse you by my talk. But as you seem to want your head cured
I will rub the top of it, and while doing this I will tell you what makes
it feel so giddy.(*)

(* This shows how little emphasis Dr. Quimby himself put on rubbing the
head: he could do it as well absently: That is, it was merely
"suggestion.")

You know I have told you, you think too much on religion or what is called
religion. This makes you nervous, for it contains a belief, which contains
opinions and they are matter, i.e. they can be changed. If opinions were
not anything, they could not be changed. . . . All [so-called] religion is
of this world and must give way to Science or Truth; for truth is eternal
and cannot be changed. . . . So you see according to the religious world I
must be an infidel. Suppose I am. I know that I am talking to you now:
does the Christian believe in [this talking with the spirit]? No. Here is
where we differ.

Eighteen hundred years ago, there was a man called Jesus who, the
Christian says, came from heaven . . . to tell man that if he could
conform to certain rules and regulations he could go to heaven when he
died; but if he refused to obey them he must go to hell. Now of course the
people could not believe it merely because he said so . . . so it was
necessary to give some proof that he came from God. Now what proof was
required by the religious world? It must be some miracle or something that
the people could not understand. So he cured the lame, made the dumb
speak, etc. The multitude was his judge and they could not account for all
that he did: then he must come from God. Now does it follow? . . . I have
no doubt that he cured. But his cures were no proof that he came from God,
anymore than mine are, not did he believe it. . . . Jesus was endowed with
wisdom from the scientific world or God, not of this world. Nor can he be
explained by the natural man. . . . His God fills all space. His wisdom is
eternal life, with no death about it. He never intended to give any
[theological] construction to his cures; [they] were for the bcnefit and
happiness of man. Men were religious from superstition, their religion was
made of opinions, and as these were the light of the mind the opinion or
light contained an idea: when the idea is lit up, it throws its rays and
our senses [consciousness] being in the rays, they are affected by the
idea. As their ideas affected the people, they were like burdens grievous
to be borne; so the people murmured. . . .

Jesus knew all this. No man was able to break the seal or unlock the
secret of health. . . . Wisdom, seeing the groans of the sick, acted upon
this man Jesus and opened his eyes to Truth. Thus the heavens were opened
to him. He saw this Truth or Science descend, and he understood it. Then
came his temptations: if he would listen to the people and become king
they would all receive him. This he would not do. But to become a teacher
of the poor and sick would be very unpopular. . . . He chose the latter;
and went forth teaching and curing all sorts of diseases in the name of
this Wisdom, and calling on all men everywhere to repent, believe, and be
saved from the priests and doctors who bound burdens on the people. . . .

Hoping this will settle your head and make you easy on the subject of
another world.
P. P. Q.

PORTLAND, March 3, 1861.
To Mrs. D.
In answer to your letter I will say that you know I told you that your
disease was in your mind. Now your mind is your opinion, and your opinion
is that you have scrofulous or cancerous humour. . . . This opinion shows
itself in your system. . . . As I change this something or opinion, it
must change the eflect, . . . and in the change it will produce these
feelings, because it is in the fluids. As this change goes on it must
affect your head and also your side, and it ought to affect your stomach.
This will bring on a phenomenon like a cold . . . this carries off all the
false ideas and relieves your system of that bloat and heat. Keep up your
courage. It is all right.(*)

(* Although Quimby speaks of disease as "in the mind," he speaks of the
error or opinion as "something," and mentions the bodily effects without
denying that such changes are produced in the physical system. But he
turns the thought as quickly as possible to the regenerative changes
presently to come.)

PORTLAND, March 3rd. [1861].
To Mr. R.
When your letter was received I went to your relief, but I cannot say that
I affected you. But now I will sit down and try to affect your stomach so
that you will not want to smoke. I feel . . . that if you were aware of
the evil influence of the enemy that is prowling around you, enticing you
to smoke, you would not harbor him one moment; but hurl him from you as
you would a viper that would sting you to the heart. I know that opinions
are something and they are our friends or our enemies. So the opinion you
have of smoking is a false one and is an enemy to you. It is subtle like
the serpent that coils around you like a boa constrictor till you feel its
grasp around your chest, making your heart palpitate and sending the heat
to your head. Then you will struggle to rid yourself of his grasp, till
overpowered you become paralyzed. He will laugh at your folly when your
fear cometh. Remember that "love casteth out fear," and fear hath torment.
Science is love. Fear is disease: torment is your reward. So watch lest he
enter your house while you are asleep and bind your limbs, and when you
awake find yourself bound hand and foot. So remember what I say to you as
a friend.
P. P. Q.

March 3rd, 1861.
To Miss G.
I will now sit down and put on paper what I did at the time I received
your letter. I went to you [in spirit] at that time and have visited you
at times ever since. I wish now to let you know that I am still with you,
sitting by you while [you are] in your bed, encouraging you to keep up
good spirits and all will go right. If you cough, it is to get rid of the
heat that has gone to your head.
P. P. Q.

March 10th, 1861.
To Miss B.
Owing to a press of business I have not had time to answer your letter
until now, but I often see you [in spirit] and talk to you about your
health.(*) I feel as though I had explained to the spiritual or scientific
man the cause of your trouble, which I may not have made plain in my
letters to the natural man. But it may sometimes come to your senses, or
you may see me: then I can tell you what I cannot put on paper. As for the
cause affecting you now: I feel as though I had removed the cause, and the
effect will soon cease, and you will be happy and enjoy good health. I
wait to hear that my prophecies have fulfilled. But I shall keep a lookout
for your health till I hear you say that you are well.
P. P. Q.

(* Quimby conversed with his patients in the same friendly way in spirit
as during the talks which followed treatments in his office. He addressed
the inner self, speaking what to him was the direct truth, in contrast
with the patient's consciousness in bondage to opinion.)

March 10th, 1861.
To Miss S.
In answering your letter I will say that I have used my best efforts to
help you, and I feel as though I had [succeeded]. Now I will once more
renew my promise not to forsake you in your trouble, but to hold you in
the influence of this great Truth that is like the ocean. While your bark
is tossed by the breeze or storms of error and superstition, while the
skies are dark with error and you are moved by your cable or belief,
feeling as though you may be blown on to the rocks of death, you may look
to that Truth that is now beating against the errors and breaking them in
pieces, scattering them to the winds and even piercing the hardest flinty
hearts, grinding them into pieces. This Truth shall shine like the sun and
burn up all these errors that affect the human race.

So be of good cheer and keep up your courage, and you shall see me coming
on the water of your belief and saying to the waters or pain, "Be still,"
soothing you till the storm is over. Then when the sun or Truth shall
shine, and the pure breeze from heaven spring up, slip your cable and set
sail for the port of health, there to be once more in the bosom of your
friends. Then I will shake hands with you and go exploring for some other
bark that is out in the same gale.
P. P. Quimby.

March I0th, 1861.
To Mrs. W.
I have not been able to answer your letter until now. But I have often...
talked to you. How much you have been aware of it, I cannot say. But I now
see you and your husband sitting looking as easy as possible. I shall
visit you as an angel, not a fallen one, but one of mercy, till you are
able to guide your own bark.

It is true your husband can travel the briny deep, but he has never
entered this ocean of this higher state. . . . Our belief makes our bodies
or barks, the sea is troubled, error is the rocks and quicksands where we
are liable to be driven by the cross-currents while the wind of error is
whistling in our ears. . . . Now keep a good lookout and you will see the
breakers ahead. So brace up and see that your compass is right. Keep all
snug and fast. Remember what I told you . . . not to lose control of
yourself, but stand on deck and give your orders, not in a whining way,
but bold and earnest. Then your crew will obey your orders. You will steer
clear of all danger and land safe in the port of health.(*)
P. P. Quimby.

(* Quimby habitually inculcated the affirmative attitude by employing the
terms familiar to his patients according to their occupation.)

PORTLAND. March 19th, 1861.
To Mr. A.
Your change of mind when you got your religion was the effect of error,
not of Truth. So you worship you know not what. But I worship I know what,
and "whom you ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.". . . This same
Christ, whom you think is Jesus, is the same Christ that stands at the
door of your dwelling or belief, knocking to come in and sit down with the
child of Science that has been led astray by blind guides into the
wilderness of darkness. Now wake from your sleep and see if your wisdom is
not of this world. . . . To be born again is to unlearn your errors and
embrace the truth of Christ: this is the new birth, and it cannot be
learned except by desire for the truth, that Wisdom that can say to the
winds of error and superstition "Be stilll" and they will obey.
It is not a very easy thing to forsake every established opinion and
become a persecuted man for this Truth's sake, for the benefit of the poor
and sick, when you have to listen to all their long stories without
getting discouraged. This cannot be done in a day. I have been twenty
years training myself to this one thing, the relief of the sick. A
constant drain on a person's feelings for the sick alters him, and he
becomes identified with the suffering of his patients: this is the work of
time. Every person must become affected one way or the other, either to
become selfish and mean, so his selfish acts will destroy his wisdom . . .
or his wisdom will become more powerful. . . .

It is not an easy thing to steer the ship of wisdom between the shores of
poverty and the rocks of selfishness. If he is all self, the sick lose
that sympathy which they need at his hand. If he is all sympathy, he ruins
his health and becomes a poor outcast on a charitable world. For the sick
can't help him and the rich won't.(*)

(* The resource, Quimby points out elsewhere, is found through knowledge
that this Wisdom is from God; brings strength, guidance, freedom. Contrast
Quimby's spirit as disclosed in this letter with that of later
therapeutists who lacked his great sympathy.)

[Whenever in his letters to the sick Dr. Quimby speak of spiritism we find
him sceptical concerning alleged messages from the "dead." In one letter
he says, "As my mode of treating disease is entirely new to the world, the
spiritualist claim me as a medium. I deny this, but believe that mind acts
on mind, and that it is the living, and not the dead; so here is where we
differ." He then goes on to tell about a woman who was greatly misled by
an unscrupulous medium. The result was so serious that the woman left her
husband in a fit of jealousy, and when Dr. Quimby was called had tried to
take her own life by cutting her throat. After hearing a sides of the
case, and finding the woman virtually insane, Dr. Quimby sat by her to
restore her, her state being so violent that he had to hold her by main
force. After four or five hours she was brought to her senses and so
quieted that she fell asleep. Then followed Quimby's explanations to both
husband and wife, showing how they had been misled, the explanation was
convincing and a complete reconciliation followed. This instance shows the
thoroughness with which Quimby searched matters out to the end. He
endeavored to give a complete substitute for spiritism by showing how one
mind can mislead another.

[Sometimes Quimby declined to take cases of certain types, inasmuch as he
was working alone and had the force of public opinion against him. What he
says with reference to blindness in a letter to an inquirer in 1861, is
significant. He says, I should not recommend anyone like your description
to come to see me, for I have no faith that I could cure him. If a man is
simply blind I have no chance for a quarrel, for we both agree in that
fact. But if a person has any sickness which he wants cured and is
partially blind besides, then I might affect his blindness, but that is
thrown in. I never undertake to cure the well and if a man is blind and is
satisfied I can't find anything to talk about: if I undertake to tell him
anything he says, Oh! I am all right but my eyes. So he is spiritually
blind and cannot see that his blindness had a beginning . . . I refuse to
take such cases till my popularity is such that my opinion is of some
force to such persons; for opinions of popular quacks are law and gospel
about blindness, and so long as the blind lead the blind they will both
fall in the ditch."

[When asked if he could cure anyone using intoxicating liquors, he
answered by considering all matters involved. Quimby did not undertake to
judge a man simply because he drank. For he wrote, "I judge no man.
Judgment belongs to God or Science, and that judges right, for it contains
no opinion. Giving an opinion is setting up a standard to judge your
neighbor by, and this is not doing as you would be done by." He goes on to
say that if some one under condemnation as a criminal who has taken to
drink comes to him, he pleads his case by tracing every factor to the
foundation. Convincing the man that he has been misled by his enemies and
has taken to drink to "drown his sorrows," Quimhy brings him to his
reason, the victim of persecution abandons his old associates, and is
ready to change his habits. But, says Quimby, "if he likes smoking or
drinking, he is satisfied and wants no physican. If [he is] sick and I
find that liquor it his enemy, then it is my duty to tell him so. If I
convince him, he has no more difficulty." Quimby's caution in indulging in
any opinion of his own is indicated in a letter, dated April 10, 1861, in
which he says:]

An opinion involves more responsibility than I am willing to take.
Moreover, an opinion is of no force . . . and it might do a great deal of
harm. I always feel as though disease was an enemy that might be conquered
if rightly understood. But if you let your enemy know your thoughts, you
give him the advantage. Therefore I never give the sick any idea that
should make them believe that I have any fears. . . . Making health the
fixed object in my mind, I never parley nor compromise. Once when your
sister remarked she never expected to be perfectly well, I replied that I
never compromised with disease, and as she bad been robbed of her health I
should not settle the case except on condition of the return of her health
and happiness. . . . When your sister came to me I found her in a very
nervous state from the fact that she had lost her sister and expected soon
to follow her. This made her very nervous and stimulated her to that
degree that she appeared to be quite strong. As I relieved her fears she
became more quiet. This she took for weakness. But every change has come
just as I told her it would. [Thus Dr. Quimby gradually brought his
patient into the affirmative attitude, so that she could see for herself.]

[Again, Quimby wrote as if conversing with his patient and meeting
objections point by point, while still carrying on the treatment. Thus he
writes to one not yet convinced of the efficacy of absent help:]

I will now sit down by you as I used to, for I see I am with you, and talk
to you a little about your weak back. You forgot to sit upright as I used
to tell you. Perhaps you cannot see how I can be sitting by you in your
house, and at the same time be in Portland. I see you look up and open
your eyes, and I hear you say, "No, I am sure I cannot and I do not
believe you can be in two places at the same time." I hear you think, not
speak. . . . If you [understood], you would not doubt that I am now
talking to you. . . . I have faith to believe that I can make you believe
by my Wisdom. So I shall try to convince you that although I may be absent
in the idea or body, yet I am present with you in the mind. . . . If you
know that I am here, [in the case of present treatment] you attach your
[thought] to the Christ or Truth and if you believe this you are saved
from the uncertainty of seeing me in the body.

[Writing to another patient not quite clear on this point, Dr. Quimby
states that when he receives a letter he always feels as though he were
spiritually with the patient giving advice. Sometimes he seems to be
present with several patients at once, because so many have come to him
and are thinking of him. So, he says:]

I make a sort of general visit, as I used to when you were all in my
office. But if I feel certain of one I make that one a text to preach
from. So I believe if you can make yourself known to me by your faith I
can feel you. Since I commenced writing you have come up before me so that
I now recall you perfectly well, and I will give my attention to you.

[Speaking of his effort to convince a patient of "this great Truth," Dr.
Quimby writes:]

When I say this great Truth I mean this light that lighteth everyone that
understands it. When I first sit by you, my desire to see you lights up my
mind like a lamp. As the light expands, my [spiritual] senses being
attached to the light, each particle of light contains all the elements of
the whole. So when the light is strong enough to see your light in your
darkness or doubts, then I come in harmony with your light, and dissipate
your errors and bring your light out of your darkness. Then I try to
associate you with . . . a substance that is separate and part from your .
. . senses.

[In still another letter on the same subject Quimby says that sometimes he
cannot see a patient when he reads the letter asking for help, because the
"errors" obscure his sight. The spiritual self in a person possesses
spiritual light, independent of matter. But this is so associated with
matter in the average person that it becomes attached to it. In its pure
operation his light sees through matter in its various combinations.
Common education has placed a barrier between people. Superior
intelligence is required to see through this obstacle. To communicate with
the spirit in person is to endeavor to reach that part which interiorly
sees and hears and is independent of time and space. This part of ourself
is not known by the natural man, in his dependence on ordinary sight and
hearing. It is imprisoned by "the error of common belief." This belief is
under the direction of people who are unaware that there is an
intelligence independent of the body. Quimby shows that he wishes to talk
with that part of the self which does not believe in the adverse
suggestions to which one becomes subject through ignorance. If he can make
himself felt apart from common means of communication, this experience
will show that the self really possesses these higher powers. If his
patient hears his inner voice, she should not put a false construction
upon it or become frightened and close the inner door. For he must
convince her that her supposed friends are her enemies, those who tell her
"with long hypocritical faces and whining tones" that she "looks very
feeble," and "not so well." "These are the hypocrites that devour widows'
houses. For your science is your house, and as you are all alone you are a
widow in the Science of Christ or Truth. Now Christ visited the widowed
and fatherless in their distress, and told his disciples to do the same,
and keep them pure and unspotted from the world of opinions. While you
read this I am with you in your belief or prison, till I shall tear it
down and raise you up."

[Again, Quimby admits in writing to a man concerning his wife's case that
he has sometimes judged for the moment by what the sick said about
themselves, and advised them not to come; but on sitting with such
patients he has found their trouble amounted to a "mere nothing." He has
advised others to come, on the basis of their own description, and found
them far worse than he expected. This has led him to give all people
opportunity to take the chance and he will then do the best he can for
them. If certain of curing one whom he has never seen he would at once
advise favorably. But he will not venture to give a mere opinion. If
however the patient herself in this case will write to Quimby, giving an
account of her own case, he will devote an hour to her, and so write that
she may follow her own leadings. In this way Quimby gave inquirers an
opportunity to look beneath all opinions.

[It is noticeable that in these letters, writtcn in 1860 and 1861, Quimby
shows that he has a clear conception of the "Science of Christ," or
"Christian Science," a term which he employed later.

[To a patient who tried to persuade Quimby to promise that he would heal
her, he writes:]

You say in your letter that I told you so and so, and you hold me to what
I said, just as though I might forget it. . . . Now these promises are the
very things I am trying to get rid of. . . . When my patients get me to
make a promise, it seems to them as if that were all, and they never think
they have anything to do for themselves. This is so common among the sick
that I have become very cautions. . . . Now, do not hold me as P. P. Q.
responsible to stop your cough. I must hold you, not Mrs. B. but the sick
idea to its promises. . . . You must remember that Mrs. B. said she would
keep up good courage, and not be afraid if she coughed a little. If I hear
of your complaining about the cough, I shall hold you to your bargain. You
see you are bound to keep the peace, to do all that is right so that
health may come, and that you may once more rejoice. . . .



CHAPTER 11
LETTERS TO PATIENTS AND INQUIRERS

These letters have been somewhat condensed to avoid repetitions:

PORTLAND, Dec. 7th, 1861.

Miss L.
Your letter was safely received, but my engagements have been such that I
have not had time to give my attention to your case until now. Although we
have lived side by side ever since we were children, we were ignorant of
that power or Science that is necessary to smooth our ruffled path as we
travel along the road to Wisdom, whence no child of Science returns to his
former home of ignorance and superstition. You and I have a power called
the inner man by the ignorant, but its true name is Wisdom or progression.
This is the child of God, and although at first almost without an identity
this little wisdom implanted in this earthly man or idea is held in
ignorance till some higher wisdom frees it from its prison.

You remember when your little pupils would stand by your side looking up
to you for wisdom to satisfy their desires. You with your power like Moses
went before them leading them through the sea of ignorance, they following
your light as a pillar of fire, and in the clouds of darkness your light
sprang up. As you traveled along, they murmuring and complaining, you like
Moses fed them with the bread of Science and eternal life. You smote the
rock of wisdom that followed them and they drank of the waters that came
out of your teaching and this rock or Wisdom was Christ. You have a
Teacher as well as I that goes before us teaching us Science. We become
the child of the one we obey. You, like Moses, held up the serpent of
ignorance before your little pupils and all who looked upon your
explanation and understood were healed of their disease or ignorance; but
the murmuring of your pupils would make you nervous and although you, like
Moses on Mount Pisgah, could see the promised land, your heart failed you
and you sank down in despair. In your discontented state of mind you call,
as Job did, but no answer returns from your comforters, your doctors or
spiritual advisers, who being blind guides find you . . . and fall upon
you and rob you of all your wisdom. So here you are a stranger among
thieves, cast into prison by the very ones you have always taken for your
leaders on the road to health; you are bound with bands, sick and with no
hope of ever being set at liberty. Now your belief is like a bark and your
wisdom attached to it, on the water of this world, for water is an emblem
of error, so that the medical wisdom or ocean is where your bark seems to
be moored. Here you are tossed to and fro, sometimes expecting to be lost,
while the winds of spiritualism are whistling in your ear till they shake
the bark to which your wisdom is attached. So the heavens are dark and the
light of wisdom is extinguished in the opinions or waves of medical
science.

As you are lying tossing to and fro you see me coming. When I say "me" I
mean Science in. P. P. Q., not the P. P. Q. that you used to see, but
Wisdom in a body, not of flesh and blood, but a body such as Wisdom gives
it; for Wisdom gives to everyone a body as it pleases and to every science
its own body. Your body or bark is of this world and your wisdom is in it,
and I have come through your wisdom to get you clear of your enemies. So
you may look out of the window of your bark while reading this and you
will see me coming on the water of your life saying to spiritualism and
the waves of the medical faculty. "Be still, and I will come on board of
your bark, [quiet] your fears and return you once more to your own house
whence you have been decoyed by these blind guides."

As disease is in accordance with the laws of man, a penalty is attached to
every act so that everyone found guilty must be punished by the law. As
you are accused of a great many transgressions your punishment is greater
than you can bear. So you sink under your trouble. I appear in your behalf
to have you tried by the laws of your own country, not by the laws of
these barbarians. So I will read over the indictment that stands against
you. Here it is: You are accused of dyspepsia, liver complaint,
nervousness, sleepless nights, weak stomach, palpitation, neuralgia,
rheumstism, pains through your back and hips, lameness and soreness, want
of action in the stomach. What say you to this indictment: are you guilty
or not guilty? You say "guilty." But as I appear in your behalf I deny
that you are guilty of the evils which cause this punishment. I want you
to have a fair trail before the judge of truth, and if you have disobeyed
any law of God or Science you must answer to Science, not to man. I will
call on the hypocrite or doctor who goes around devouring widows' houses,
and for a few dollars has got the people into trouble from which they
cannot get out. He says you have all the above diseases.

On cross-examination when asked how he knows, his answer is [that] you
told him. This is all the proof that he or any other doctor can bring. So
by their false testimony you have been condemned for believing a lie, that
you might be sick. Now as your case is one of a thousand I have, I have
only to say a few words to your wisdom as judge. All disease is only the
effect of our belief. The belief is of man and as Science sees through
man's belief it destroys the belief and sets the soul or wisdom free.

I will now sum up the evidence. You have listened to the opinions of the
doctors, who are blind guides crying peace, peace, till you have embraced
all their wisdom. This has produced a stagnation in your system and what
their ignorance has not done the spiritualists have tried to do. So
between them both you are a prisoner, and in the same state as the people
were in the days of Jesus when he said to them, "Beware of the doctrines
of the Scribes and Pharisees; for they say and do not, they bind burdens
on you that they cannot explain."

This keeps you nervous. So awake from your lethargy and come to the light
of Wisdom, that will teach you that man's happiness is in himself, that
his life is eternal, this life is Wisdom and as Wisdom is progression, its
enemy is ignorance. So seek Wisdom and believe no man's opinion, for these
opinions make you nervous. This causes a heat to go to your head making
your head feel heavy and producing a dullness over your eyes. In fact
[this opinion] causes all your bad feelings.

So if I can lift your wisdom above the error or mind then you will be
free. But now this nervous heat is all through you and comes to the
surface. When the cold strikes you it chills you. This you take for a low
state of the blood. But it is a stagnation of your own self, not able to
explain the phenomena that you are affected by. As you read this it will
excite you to understand it. This is like a little leaven that is put into
your bread or belief. It will work till it affects the lump and causes you
to feel as though you had a very bad cold. Then it will work upon your
system and affect your bowels.

Then you may know that your cure is at hand. So do not despair, only
remember the signs of the times and pray that your flight may not be in
the night nor on the Sabbath day when you are at meeting. So keep on the
lookout and I think you will be better. If so let me know. When you read
this letter I will be with you and you will not think it strange, for it
will produce some strange sensations, sometimes joy and sometimes grief.
But it is all for the best. So keep up good courage and I will lead you
through the dark valley of the shadow of death and land you safe in that
world of Science where disease never comes.

I will stop at this time. But remember as long as you read this and drink
in these words. For this is my [wisdom] and to drink it is to understand.
Do this in remembrance of me, not P. P. Q., but Science, till your health
comes. I will leave you now and come again and lead you till you can go
alone. If you will see fit to show this to Julia H., when you read it we
shall all be together. You know what this Truth says that when two or
three are gathered together in Science, Wisdom will be there and bless and
explain to them.
P. P. Q.

PORTLAND, December 16th, 1861.
Miss B:
Yours of the 7th is received containing $2.00 as a fee for my services on
yourself. As you have shown a spirit of sympathy that I never have
received before, I certainly shall not prove myself one who will not
return to another as would that another should do to me. So I receive your
two dollars sent in hope of a relief and return your money, believing it
came from one who is as ready to give as to receive. I believe if two
persons agree in one thing sincerely, independent of self, it will be
granted.

I will now use my skill as far as I am able to correct your mind in regard
to your trouble. The heat you speak of is not a rush of blood to the head
but it is caused by a sensation on your mind like some trouble. This
causes a weakness at times at the pit of your stomach. The heat in the
second stomach causes a pressure on the aorta which makes the heart beat
very rapidly at times. This you take for palpitation and it causes a flash
or heat, which of course you take for a rush of blood to the head. But it
is not so; it is in the fluids. As the clouds in the skies change when the
wind blows, so the fluids under the skin change at every excitement. The
skin being transparent reveals the color; this annoys you and the false
idea that [the cause] is the blood that keeps up the fire. Now just take
into your mind the [idea of thel spine as a combined lever of three parts,
and you will see how to correct your [thought] so as to ease the pressure.
. . . Now imagine yourself sitting in a chair with the lower lever or
spine at right angles with your limbs. This [will] relieve the stomach,
take the pressure from the aorta and put out the fire so there can be no
heat. This will produce a change in your feelings and the change is the
cure.

If you will sit down on Sunday evening I will try to straighten you up so
as to relieve that feeling. [When] I succeed, if you feel that I am
entitled to anything in the shape of a gift, it will be received if ever
so trifling. Your sincerity towards me interests my sympathy in you, and
if I relieve you I shall be very glad. You have taken the way to make me
try my best. This is true sympathy to sympathize with those who make the
first sacrifice. It is of no consequence if it be one cent or one hundred:
the sacrifice is all. It shows your faith, and according to your faith so
shall your cure be. This being a new experiment, let me know how I succeed
and if I change your mind, the change is the cure. I send you one of my
circulars which will tell you more of my treatment. It is easier to cure
than to explain to a patient at a distance. But I am sure of the principle
and feel confident that I shall cure at a distance. For distance is
nothing but an error that truth will sometime explode. If my faith and
your hope mingle, the cure will be the result, so I will give my attention
to you as far as my faith goes and shall like to hear how I succeed.
P. P. Quimby.

Miss B:
Yours of the 7th is received and I am glad to learn that I have relieved
your mind by "my power," as you call it. But you misunderstand my power.
It is not power but Wisdom. If you knew as much as I do about yourself you
could feel another's feelings; but here is the trouble. What people call
"power" I call Wisdom. Now if my wisdom is more than yours then I can help
you, but this I must prove to you, and if I tell you about yourself what
you cannot tell me, then you must acknowledge that my wisdom is superior
to yours and become a pupil instead of a patient.

I will now sit down by you and tell your feelings. You may give your
attention to me by [mentally] giving me your hand. I will write down the
conversation that I hold with you while sitting by you. You have a sort of
dizzy feeling in your head and a pain in the back part of the neck. This
affects the front part of the head causing a heaviness over the eyes. The
lightness about the head causes it to incline forward, bringing a pressure
on your neck, just below the base of the brain, so that you often find
yourself throwing your head up, to ease that part of the head. This makes
it heavy so it bears on the shoulders, cramps the neck, numbs the chest,
so that you give way at the pit of the stomach and feel as though you
wanted something to hold you up. This cramps the stomach, giving you a
"gone feeling" at the pit of the stomach. Now these symptoms taken of
themselves are nothing. But you have had medical advice, or have got from
someone else an answer to all these feelings. You are nervous. You think
you have the heart complaint. Your blood rushes to the head. . . . [If]
all these symptoms together would not make your face red, what would?

Listen to me and I will give an explanation of all the above feelings. I
must go back to the first cause, say some years ago. I will not undertake
to tell just the cause but I will give you an illustration. Suppose I (the
natural man) were sitting by you, and we were alone. If I should go and
fasten the door, and go towards you and attempt to seize hold of you, and
if you asked me what I intended to do and I should say, "keep still, or I
will blow your brains out," you would see that this would frighten you. I
think your heart would beat as fast as it ever did. This explanation I do
not say is true. For I suppose a case, [but a shock of] start contracts
the stomach, the fright or excitement [generates] heat, [and the pressure]
sets your heart beating, and throws the heat to your head, this heat tries
to escape out of the nose causing a tickling in your nose and you often
rub it because it itches and feels hot. It then tries to escape through
the passage to the ears making your cheeks red and burn and causes a noise
in your ears sometimes. This after a while subsides, the stomach relaxes
and the heat passes down from the stomach into the bowels. . . .

Now follow the directions in the last letter and relieve the pressure on
the aorta. This will check the nervous heat and relieve the excitement and
then the heat will subside. The color is in the surface of the skin and
has nothing to do with any humor or disease: it is nothing but excitement.
As I told you in my last, I will be with you when you read the letters and
you will feel a warm sensation pass over you, like a breath. This will
open the pores of the skin and the heat will escape.

I send back the five dollars till the cure is performed. I don't like to
be outdone in generosity and I am willing to risk as much as anyone in
such a cause as this. If I come off conqueror then it will be time enough
for you to offer up a sacrifice. Till then if I accept a gift it is
witllout an equivalent on my part. I feel as certain of success as you do,
so I feel as though I run no risk. All I look for is the cure. You ask if
I give any medicine. The only mcdicine I ever give is my explanation and
that is the cure. In about a week let me know how the medicine works.
Hoping to hear good news when next I hear from you, I remain,
Your friend, P. P. Quimby.

PORTLAND, ME., Jan. 2nd, 1861.
To Mr. H:
In response to your letter I must say, that it is out of my power to visit
your place in person at this time, from the fact that I have some thirty
or more patients here on my hands, but if there comes a slack time I will
come and let you know beforehand so you can meet me in Bangor.
Now a word or two to your wife. I will try my best while sitting by you
while writing this letter to produce an effect on your stomach. I want you
to take a tumbler of pure water while I write this and now and then take a
little. I am with you now seeing you. Do not be in a hurry when you read
this, but be calm and you will in a short time feel the heat start from
your left side and run down like water; then your head will be relieved
and you will have an inclination to rise. Be slow in your movements so
that your head will not swim round. I will take you by the hand at first
and steady you till you can walk alone. Now remember what I say to you. I
am in this letter and as often as you read this and listen to it you
listen to me. So let me know the effect one week from now. I will be with
you every time you read this. Take about one half hour to devote to
reading and listening to my counsel and I assure you you will be better.
Now do not forget.
Yours, etc., P. P. Q.

PORTLAND, ME., Dec. 30, 1860.
To Mr. J:
As your wife is about leaving for her home, I take this way of expressing
my ideas of the trouble she is laboring under, thinking you would like my
opinion of her case. I think her friends are not aware of her true state.
Hers is one of a very peculiar kind. She is not deaf in the strict sense
of the word, but her condition has been brought about by trouble of long
standing. When I say "trouble" I do not confine it to any neglect on the
part of her friends, but trouble when young which made her nervous. This
caused her to become low spirited till it has changed her system so that
she is not the same person she was twelve years ago. I have given my
attention to her general health, not to her deafness; for I think if she
should come right in her mental or physical condition as she used to be,
she would be well. You can see and judge of her appearance and buoyancy of
mind. . . .
P. P. QUIMBY.

PORTLAND, ME., December 27th, 1860.
To Miss G. F:
Your letter was received, and now I sit down to use my power to affect
you. I will commence by telling you to sit upright and not give way at the
pit of the stomach. If I felt that you saw me as plainly while I am
talking to you as I see you, then there would be no use in writing; for
you are as plain before my eyes as you were when I was talking to the
shadow in Portland. For the shadow came with the substance, and that which
I am talking to now is the substance. If I make an impression on it, it
may throw forth a shadow of a young lady upright without that "gone place"
at the pit of the stomach. Remember that when I see you sitting or
standing in the position I saw you in at Portland I shall just straighten
you up. If you complain of the back, you may lay it to me and I will be a
little more gentle. You may expect me once in a while in the evening. So
keep on the lookout. See that you have your lamp trimmed and burning, so
that when the Truth comes it shall not find you sleeping, but up straight,
ready to receive the bridegroom. It seems that you understand this as I
tell it to you. But for fear you will not explain it to the shadow, or
natural man, I will try to make you understand so it may come to the
senses of the natural man. If I succeed, let my natural man know by a
letter.(*)
Yours, etc., P. P. Q.

(* This letter shows how emphatically Quimby directed attention to "the
scientific man" or real self, the self that already possesses the Truth or
Science implicitly.)

To Mrs. A. C. B:
In answer to your letter I will say that it is impossible to give
anopinion of a case till I know something about it [apart from] my natural
senses. If I myself cannot take another's feelings, my opinion is nothing.
When I sit by a patient their feelings affect me and the sensation I
receive from the mind is independent of the senses, for they [the senses]
do not know that they communicate any intelligence to me. This I feel, and
it contains the cause of the trouble, and my Wisdom explains the trouble,
and the explanation is the cure. You must trust in that Wisdom that is
able to unlock any error.
P. P. Q.

January 11, 1861.
To Miss G.
Your letter to Miss W. was handed to me for perusal to see what course I
thought best to take. So I will sit down by you as I used to do and
commence operations. Excitement contracts the stomach, not from fright but
from being overjoyed at your recovery. . . . The food digests slowly and
it will make you feel a little sluggish at times. But it will soon act
upon your system and relieve you of your trouble, for that is only
nervous, and has nothing to do with the kidneys. . . . I will repeat the
same till you are allright. Remember that I am with you when you read this
and every time you read this you will feel my influence. . . .
P. P. QUIMBY.

PORTLAND, January 25, 1861.
To Mrs. Ware:
By the request of E. and S. I sit down by you to see if I can amuse you by
my explanation of disease. You know I often talk to persons about religion
and you often look as though you would rather have me talk about anything
else. Perhaps it would be better if you knew the cause of every sensation,
but you would not want a physician.

Now you will want me to tell you how you feel, and if you will give me
your attention I will try to explain. This heavy feeling that you have,
accompanicd with a desire to lie down and a sort of indifference how
things go, comes from a quiet state of your system that prevents your food
from digesting as readily as it did. But it will act upon you like an
emetic or cathartic. Either way is right. So give no care to what you
shall eat or drink, for Wisdom will cause all thinge to work for the best.
If you want to eat, consult your own feelings and take no one's opinion.
Remember that He who made us knows our wants better than man. So keep
yourself quiet and I will reverse the action from your head, and you will
feel it passing out of your stomach. Then do not forget to sit up as I
used to tell you and remember not to believe what the blind guides say.
They will come to you, and if your throat is a little sore, they will
merely ask if you think this sore throat is the diptheria, looking as wise
as though they had discovered the philosopher's stone. . . .

Remember what I tell you about this disease. For these hypocrites or blind
guides are working in the minds of the people like the demagogues of the
South. I do not say that you will be troubled by them. But I have kept on
their track for twenty years and have not the slightest confidence in
anything they say.

I hear you now for the first time asking me if I believe in another world.
Yes, but not in the sense of the clergy. I will try to explain my two
worlds. You live in Chicago and I in Portland, and if it will not be
blasphemy to call your place heaven, we will suppose you are in heaven and
I in Portland. Now, if I am here sitting and talking with you I must leave
the earth and matter and come to you. If I am with you, what is it that
has left the body? It cannot be matter in a visible form, yet it is
something. Listen, and I will tell you.

You read that God made all living things that had life out of the earth,
so that dead matter cannot produce living life nor anything else. As all
matter decomposes, the dust or odor that arises from it was the matter
that [the natural man] is formed of. As the child is of living matter, not
wisdom, when it grows to a certain age it is ready to receive the breath
of eternal life. The child was not eternal life. Eternal life is Wisdom as
much above human life as Science is above ignorance. . . . Eternal life is
Christ or Science, this teaches us that matter is a mere shadow of a
substance which the natural man never saw nor can see, for it is never
changed, is the same today and forever. This substance is the essence of
Wisdom and is in every living form. Like a seed in the earth it grows or
develops in matter, and is as much under the control of the mother's
Wisdom as the gold which is dissolved and held in solution is under that
of the chemist. If the mother's Wisdom is of this world, the spiritual
child is not under her earthly care. Nevertheless it is held in the bosom
of its eternal Wisdom that will cherish it till it is developed to receive
the science of Eternal Wisdom. Eternal Wisdom and eternal life are not the
same. Eternal Wisdom cannot change but acts on eternal life, changes its
form and identity. Eternal Wisdom teaches us that all matter is in itself
a shadow and is no barrier. Matter is dense darkness. Spirit is light. If
you are wise your body or wisdom is light, and just as you sink into error
you become dense or dark. Therefore let your light shine, so that when
this wind comes blowing round in the form of an opinion you may know it is
merely the noise of a demagogue. Believe not, and you will live and
flourish. If you can understand this you have the basis of my belief.

For fear I have not made my two worlds clear to your mind, I will say a
few words more. The two worlds may be divided in this way: one opinions,
the other Science. Opinions are matter or the shadow of Science. One is
limited in its sphere, and the other has no limits. One can be seen by the
natural eyes: the other is an endless progression. The one is today, and
tomorrow is not. The other is an endless progression. One is always
changing, the other is always progressing. The natural man never will know
this truth, for he cannot see Wisdom and live; Wisdom is the natural man's
death. So he looks upon it as an enemy, prays to it, pays tribute to it as
though Wisdom were a man. He often uses it as a balance to weigh his
ignorance in but never to weigh the difference of his opinions. He often
quotes it, talking as though it were his intimate friend, while he to
Wisdom is only known as a servant or shadow, all an imitation. Science is
of another character. Science rises above all narrow ideas. He who is
scientific in regard to health and happiness is his own law, and is not
subject to the laws of man except as he is deceived or ignorant. No one
after he knows a scientific fact can ignorantly disobey it. So with
Science the punishment is in the act. With man's laws it is different; the
penalty may follow the act or come after. With Wisdom the laws are
Science. To know Science is to know Wisdom, and how can a man work a
mathematical problem intelligently and at the same time say he is not
aware of the fact?

If we know the true meaning of every word or thought we should know what
will follow. So a person cannot scientifically act amiss. But being misled
by public opinion, we believe a lie and suffer.

I have gone so far that I have reduced certain states to their causes as
certain as ever a chemist saw the effect of a chemical change. For
instance, take consumption. I know the character of every sensation. Its
father or author is a hypocrite and deceiver. I look upon it as the most
vile of all characters. It comes to a person under a most flattering form,
with the kindest words, always very polite, ready to lend its aid in any
way where it can get a hold.

I will illustrate this prince of hypocrites. I will come in the form of a
lady, for it has many faces and characters. I enter as a neighbor with the
customary salutations and you reply that you seem very well. "Oh, I am
very glad, for by what I had heard I was expecting to find you abed. But
you can't tell anything by gossip. You do not seem quite so well as when I
saw you last." "Oh, yes, fully as well," you say. "Well, you know there
are diseases which always flatter the patient. I suppose you have heard of
the death of Mr._____" "No, when did he die?" "He died yesterday but was
sick a long time. Sometimes he thought he was getting better, but I knew
all the time he was running down. But you must not get discouraged because
you are like him, for it is not always certain that a person in the same
condition you are in has consumption."

Here I make you nervous and you are glad when I leave. Knowing I am not
welcome in that form I assume another character. I must now appear as a
doctor. I sit down and count your pulse, look at your tongue, take a stick
and examine the phlegm that you have raised. Then leaning back in the
chair draw a long sigh, and ask if you have a pain in your left side.

The doctor is like a dog that wags his tail while you feed him but when
your back is turned will bite you. If superstition is to be put down by
scientific facts, it is useless to mince matters. If a person is aiding an
enemy, he is as guilty as the thief. I want you to know that every word
that is spoken is either matter or Wisdom. Opinions are condensed into a
belief. So, if I [as a typical doctor] tell you that you have congestion
of the lungs I impart my belief to you by a deposit of matter in the form
of words. As you eat my belief it goes to form disease like its author, my
belief grows, comes forth, and at last takes form as a pressure across the
chest. The doctor comes to get rid of the enemy and by his remedies
creates another disease in the bowels. He begins to talk about
inflammation of the bowels. This frightens you. The fright contracts the
stomach so the heat cannot escape, and causes a flush in the face which
you call a rush of blood to the head. It makes you feel sleepy and weak;
you lie down; then the stomach relases and the heat passes down into the
bowels, this causes pains. You call it "inflammation."

All this is very simple when you know what caused it. This letter is an
essay for you to read, so good-night. Let me know how it works.
P. P. QUIMBY.

IN REPLY TO A YOUNG PHYSICIAN(*)

(* Published in part in "Health and the Inner Life," p 81.)

Dear Sir:
Yours of the 5th is received, and in answer I would say that it is easier
to ask a question than to answer it. But I will answer your question
partly by asking another, and partly by coming at it by a parable. For to
answer any question with regard to my mode of treatment would be like
asking a physician how he knows a patient has the typhoid fever by feeling
the pulse, and requesting the answer direct so that the person asking the
question could sit down and be sure to define the disease from the answer.
My mode of treatment is not decided in that way, and to give a definite
answer to your inquiry would be as much out of place as to ask you to tell
me all you know about medical practice so that I could put it into
practice for the curing of disease, with no further knowledge [apart from
what] I might get from you. You see the absurdity of that request.

If it were in my power to give to the world the benefit of twenty years'
hard study in one short or long letter, it would have been before the
people long before this. The people ask they know not what. You might as
well ask a man to tell you how to talk Greek without studying it, as to
ask me to tell you how I test the true pathology of disease, or how I test
the true diagnosis of disease, etc. All of these questions would be very
easily answered if I assumed a standard, and then tested all disease by
that standard.

The old mode of determining the diagnosis of disease is made up of
opinions of diseased persons, in their right mind and out of it, all mixed
up together, and set down accompanied by a certain state of pulse. In this
dark chaos of error [the doctors] come to certain results like this: If
you see a man going towards the water, he is going in swimming; for people
go in swimming. But if he is running with his hat and coatoff, he is
either going to drown himself, or someone is drowning, and soon. This is
the old way. Mine is this.

If I see a man, I know it, and if I feel the cold I know it.· But to see a
person going towards the water is no sign that I know what he is going to
do. He may be going to bathe, or may be going to drown himself. Now here
is the difference between the physician and myself, and this may give you
some idea of how I define disease.

The regular [physician] and I sit down by a patient. He takes her by the
hand, and so do I. He feels the pulse to ascertain the peculiar vibration
and number of beats in a given time. This to him is knowledge. To me it is
all quackery or ignorance. He looks at the tongue as though it contained
information.

To me this is all folly and ignorance. He then begins to ask questions,
which contain nothing to me, because this questioning is of no force. All
this is shaken up in his head, and comes forth in the form of a disease,
which is all error to me, and I will give you the diagnosis of this error.

The feeling of the pulse is to affect the patient so he will listen to the
doctor. Exnmining the tongue is all for effect. The peculiar cast of the
doctor's head is the same. The questions, accompanied by certain looks and
gestures, are all to get control of the patient's mind so as to produce an
impression. Then he looks very wise, and so on. All the symptoms put
together show no knowledge, but a lack of wisdom, and the general
credulity of mankind rendering [pcople] liable to be humbugged by any
person however ignorant he may be, if he has the reputation of possessing
all medical knowledge.

Now, sir, this is the field you are about to enter, and you will find the
hardest stumbling block from diplomas. Greek and Latin, and the like are
all of no consequence to the sick. It is impossible to give you even a
mere shadow of twenty years' experience. But I may be of some use to you.
I will say a word or two on the old practice, (not taking much time,) that
will answer all your questions on the old school; for the less you know
the better.

Watch the popular physician. See his shrewdness. Watch the sick patient:
nervous and trembling like a person in the hands of a magistrate who has
him in his power, and whose real object is to deceive him. See the two
together, one perfectly honest, and the other, if honest, perfectly
ignorant, [the physician] undertaking blindfolded to lead the patients
through the dark valley of the shadow of death, the patient being born
[mentally] blind. Then you see them going along, and at last they both
fall into the ditch.

Now, like the latter, do not deceive your patients. Try to instruct them,
and correct their errors. Use all the wisdom you have, and expose the
hypocrisy of the profession in any one. Never deceive your patients behind
their backs. Always remember that as you feel about your patients, just so
they feel towards you. If you deceive thcm, they lose confidence in you.
Just as you prove yourself superior to them, they give you credit
mentally. If you pursue this course you cannot help succeeding. Be
charitable to the poor. Kecp the health of your patient in view, and if
money comes, all well; but do not let that get the lead.

With all this advice, I leave you to your fate, trusting that the True
Wisdom will guide you -- not in the path of your predecessors. Shun evil
and learn to do good.

PORTLAND, Sept. 16, 1860. P. P. Q.

A LETTER REGARDING A PATIENT

Dear Sir:
Yours of Aug. 27th was received, after a long journey through the state of
Maine. I will give you all the information that I am aware I possess. If
certain conditions of mind exist, certain effects will surely follow. For
instance, if two persons agree as touching one thing, it will be granted.
But if one agrees and the other knows not the thing desired, then the
thing will not be accomplished.

For example, the lady in question wishes my services to restore her to
health. Now her health is the thing she desires. Her faith is the
substance of her hope. Her hope is her desire, it is founded on public
opinion, and in this is her haven, the anchor to her desire, public
opinion the ocean on which her barque or belief floats. Reports of me are
the wind that either presses her along to the haven of health or down to
despair. The tide of public opinion is either against her or in her favor.
Now, as she lies moored on the sea, with her desire or cable attached to
her anchor of hope, tossed to and fro in the gale of disease, if she can
see me or my power walking on the water, saying to her aches and pains,
"Be still," then I have no doubt that she will get better. The sea will
then be calm, and she will get that which she hoped for: her faith or
cure. For her faith is her cure. . . . This is the commencement of her
cure. I, like Jesus, will stand at her heart and knock. If she hears my
voice or feels my influencc, and opens the door of her belief, I will come
in and talk, and help her out of her trouble.

PORTLAND, Sept. 17th, 1860. P. P. Q.

TO A GENTLEMAN REQUESTING HELP WITHOUT A PERSONAL INTERVIEW

Dear Sir:
In answer to your inquiry, I would say that, owing to the scepticism of
the world I do not feel inclined to assure you of any benefit which you
may receive from my influence while away from you, as your belief would
probably keep me from helping you. But it will not cost me much time nor
expense to make the trial. So if I stand at your door and knock, and you
know my voice or influence and receive me, you may be benefited. If you do
receive any benefit, give it to the Principle, not to me as a man, but to
that Wisdom which is able to break the bonds of the prisoner, set him free
from the errors of the doctors, and restore him to health. This I will try
to do with pleasure. But if this fails and your case is one which requires
my seeing you, then my opinion is of no use. Yours, etc.
PORTLAND, Oct. 20th, 1860. P. P. Q.

TO A CLERGYMAN(*)

(* Printed in part in "Health and the Inner Life," p. 80.)

Oct. 28th, 1860.

Dear Sir:
Your letter of the eighteenth was received, but owing to a press of
business I neglected answering it. I will try to give you the wisdom you
ask. So far as giving an opinion is concerned, it is out of my power as a
physician, though as man I might. But it would be of no service, for it
would contain no wisdom except of this world.
My practice is not of the wisdom of man, so my opinion as a man is of no
value. Jesus said, "If I judge of myself, my judgment is not true: but if
I judge of God, it is right," for that contains no opinion. So if I judge
as a man it is an opinion, and you can get plenty of them anywhere.

You inquire if I have ever cured any cases of chronic rheumatism. I
answer, "Yes." But there are as many crises of chronic rheumatism as there
are of spinal complaint, so that I cannot decide your case by another. You
cannot be saved by pinning your faith on another's sleeve. Everyone must
answer for his own sins or belief. Our beliefs are the cause of our
misery. Our happiness and misery are what follow our belief. So as we
measure out to another, it will be measured to us again.

You ask me if I ascribe my cures to spiritual influence. Not after the
[manner of] Rochester rappings, nor after Dr. Newton's way of curing. I
think I know how he cures, though he does not. I gather by those I have
seen who have been treated by him that he thinks it is through the
imagination of the patient's belief. So he and I have no sympathy. If he
cures disease, that is good for the one cured. But the world is not any
wiser.

You ask if my practice belongs to any known science. My answer is, "No,"
it belongs to Wisdom that is above man as man. The Science that I try to
practice is the Science that was taught eighteen hundred years ago, and
has never had a place in the heart of man since; but is in the world, and
the world knows it not. To narrow it down to man's wisdom, I sit down by
the patient and take his feelings, and as the rest will be a long story I
will send you one of my circulars, so that you may read for yourself.

Hoping this may limber the cords of your neck, I remain, Yours, etc.,

P. P. QUIMBY

[The circular reprinted below is the one referred to in this letter. It
was in circulation for some years before Dr. Quimby began to practise in
Portland, and had blank spaces to be filled in by the name of the town and
the location of Quimby's office.]

TO THE SICK(*)

(* Published in part in "The True History of Mental Science.")

Dr. P. P. QUIMBY would respectfully announce to the citizens of ..........
and vicinity, that he will be at the .......... where he will attend to
those wishing to consult him in regard to their health, and, as his
practice is unlike all other medical practice, it is necessary to say that
he gives no medicines and makes no outward applications, but simply sits
down by the patients, tells them their feelings and what they think is
their disease. If the patients admit that he tells them their feelings,
etc., then his explanation is the cure; and, if he succeeds in correcting
their error, he changes the fluids of the system and establishes the
truth, or health. The Truth is the Cure. This mode of practice applies to
all cases. If no explanation is given, no charge is made, for no effect is
produced. His opinion without an explanation is useless, for it contains
no knowledge, and would be like other medical opinions, worse than none.
This error gives rise to all kinds of quackery, not only among regular
physicians, but those whose aim is to deceive people by pretending to cure
all diseases. The sick are anxious to get well, and they apply to these
persons supposing them to be honest and friendly, whereas they are made to
believe they are very sick and something must be done before it is too
late. Five or ten dollars is then paid, for the cure of some disease they
never had, nor ever would have had but for the wrong inpressions received
from these quacks or robbers, (as they might be called,) for it is the
worst kind of robbery, tho' sanctioned by law. Now, if they will only look
at the true secret of this description, they will find it is for their own
selfish objects -- to sell their medicines. Herein consists their
shrewdness! -- to impress patients with a wrong idea, namely -- that they
have some disease. This makes them nervous and creates in their minds a
disease that otherwise would never have been thought of. Whercfore he says
to such, never consult a quack: you not only lose your money, but your
health.

He gives no opinion, therefore you lose nothing. If patients feel pain
they know it, and if he describes their pain he feels it, and in his
explanation lies the cure. Patients, of course, have some opinion as to
what causes pain -- he has none, therefore the disagreement lies not in
the pain, but in the cause of the pain. He has the advantage of patients,
for it is very easy to convince them that he had no pain before he sat
down by them. After this it becomes his duty to prove to them the cause of
their trouble. This can only be explained to patients, for which
explanation his charge is ..... dollars. If necessary to see them more
than once, ..... dollars. This has been his mode of practice for the last
seventeen years.

There are many who pretend to practice as he does, but when a person while
in "a trance," claims any power from the spirits of the departed, and
recommends any kind of medicine to be taken internally or applied
externally beware! believe them not, "for by their fruits ye shall know
them."