Article November 4, 1922 Issue

The subject of mental healing has in recent years attracted...

James F. Fairleigh, Committee on Publication for the State of Kentucky,

Paducah News-Democrat

The subject of mental healing has in recent years attracted a great deal of attention. The various forms of mental methods are widely exploited under such titles as "autosuggestion" for the cure of disease, "business psychology" to improve business conditions, and "new thought" as a modern religion. The average person has the impression that these terms and methods are of recent origin, and that the practice of mental manipulation has been discovered by some secret process, which few of us know anything about. However, instead of being something new or startling, all of such methods are as old as the human race. The methods may appear under different titles, or names, and they may attract more attention at one time than another, but that does not affect the truth concerning them. Indeed, from the earliest account of the human race, as found in the first books of the Bible, down to the last book on the subject, we find references to magicians, diviners, necromancers, and wizards. The only difference is that in modern times we have new names for old methods, Properly speaking, it may be said that these false beliefs of mankind arise from fear and ignorance of our true relationship with our Maker; and the mental methods based on these false beliefs are employed as a "short-cut" to blessings which can only result from a strict and honest adherence to Christianity. The attitude of Christianity toward mental manipulation is illustrated in the eighth chapter of Acts, where it is narrated that a sorcerer by the name of Simon asked Peter, the disciple, to teach him how to cure people by spiritual means; and he went so far as to offer to give Peter money for the information; whereupon Peter said, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."

Mental manipulation, by whatever name it may be called, is merely the seeming action of one human mind on another, whereby the latter is caused to register the desired result; or, in the case where a person treats himself, it is done by autosuggestion. The belief is that either another person, or one's self, has the power to accomplish the result. Moreover, it is believed that the discordant condition, whether of sickness or anything else, is a reality, and something which God has ordained as a part of life. Therefore, when through mental manipulation a belief in one thing is changed into a belief in another, nothing permanent is thereby accomplished, although the new belief may appear to be better than the old one. If a person labors under the belief of sickness of some sort, and through mental manipulation acquires a belief of health, nevertheless the belief remains that health is material and depends upon the human body.

Now spiritual, or Christian, healing is exactly the opposite of material methods, and is antagonistic to them. The so-called human mind cannot possibly know God, and, therefore, it cannot understand spiritual values. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 231) by Mary Baker Eddy, the following plain statement is made: "If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or material, creating and governing man through perpetual warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy." The real man is not material but spiritual; and the knowing of the spiritual truth about man in any given case will annul the false belief of the human mind by bringing the law of God to bear upon it, and thus cause it to give way to the spiritual truth, which is the substantial real. The truth, or good, must overcome evil, because that is its divine mission, and it has all the power of God with it. Therefore, in spiritual healing the human mind is not a factor in any sense whatsoever; because, as the Master said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." Men are transformed from sick and unhappy mortals by the renewing of the mind through spiritual influences, so that the understanding is lifted above material methods; and man then realizes that his happiness, health, and life do not depend upon persons, or material things, but originate in God, divine Mind, because "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

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