Three Thousand Years of Mental HealingCutten, George Barton
History
Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing
Cutten, George Barton
Mental healing
There have been a number of cases of local healers and I give two
examples: "At the time of the prevalence of cholera in Canada, a man
named Ayers, who came out of the States, and was said to be a graduate
of the University of New Jersey, was given out to be St. Roche, the
principal patron saint of the Canadians, and renowned for his power in
averting pestilential diseases. He was reported to have descended from
heaven to cure his suffering people of the cholera, and many were the
cases in which he appeared to afford relief. Many were thus
dispossessed of their fright in anticipation of the disease, who
might, probably, but for his inspiriting influence, have fallen
victims to their apprehensions. The remedy he employed was an
admixture of maple sugar, charcoal, and lard."[202]
"The _Month_ for June, 1892, published an account, by the late Earl of
Denbigh, of a cure worked by a member of a family named Cancelli of
Lady Denbigh in 1850. She was suffering severely from rheumatism, and
the Pope (Pius IX) mentioned to the Earl that near Foligno there was a
family of peasants who were credited with a miraculous power of curing
rheumatic disorders. Lord Denbigh succeeded in getting one of the
family, an old man, to come, and learned from him the legend of the
cure. The belief was that in the reign of Nero, the Apostles Peter and
Paul took refuge in the hut of an old couple named Cancelli, near
Foligno, and, as a proof of gratitude, gave to the male descendants of
the family living near the spot the power of curing rheumatic
disorders to the end of time. Lord Denbigh described how the old man
made a solemn invocation, using the sign of the cross, and, in fact,
Lady Denbigh did recover at once. In a few days the pains returned,
but she made an act of resignation, and they then left her, and never
returned with any acuteness."[203]
What we may designate "Metaphysical Healing" originated with Phineas
Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866). The movement was important, not so much
on account of what Quimby himself was able to accomplish by it, as
because of the work that has been carried on since by at least three
of his pupils. He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and in early
life was a watch and clock maker. In 1840 he began experimenting with
mesmerism, and accounts of these experiments were published in the
Maine papers of that time. After this he developed a system of mental
healing of his own, practising it in different towns in Maine for some
years. About 1858 he settled as a practitioner in Portland and
remained there until his death. I shall quote brief extracts in his
own words, which portray his system.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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