Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick
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overlooks a multitude of sins, it hath no fellowship with
overlooks a multitude of sins, it hath no fellowship with
sin; and if honesty endures patiently and long the
abuses of dishonesty, it hath the prudence at length to
get out of its hands. These are separate qualities of
character, that circumstance or duty compelling to meet
for a time, must part company through a law of being,
and often with a tremendous explosion.
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The exhibitor of mesmerism startles you with his
The exhibitor of mesmerism startles you with his
power, but you are satisfied to conclude it is ridiculous,
and you are not its subject; his experiments, however,
are honorable, being open, and illustrative of the influ-
ence he has through it over the thoughts and actions of
others. But the dishonest mesmerist of which we speak,
is the mal-practitioner, who claims to take a place in
science, but sinks to a secret assassin in society. So
important are the rules of mental scientific healing, that
even repeated they do good, but we gather not grapes
of thorns, the tone of the individual's mind inculcating
them, overshadows them, and if his mind be not in
accordance with them, it imparts its own hue to the
patient; then who shall say which effect is strongest,
the good he says, or the evil behind it that he imparts.
If the mal-practitioner says mentally to the patient, as
he rubs his head, "be healed!" and she recovers, or is
improved morally, influenced in that direction, you
say this is a moral and physical gain, and behold the
proof that he practices very wisely. But suppose he
says to her mentally, as he rubs her head, something
wrong to do, or believe, and designates this wrong,
directing her thought and action in that channel, and
she unconsciously obeys him, feeling this hidden spring
to action as readily as the other. What, then, are your
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conclusions of this practice? that you should be subject
conclusions of this practice? that you should be subject
to evil because you are sometimes subject to good?
Never trust human nature in the dark, if this nature is
so dark it covers its footprints.
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Manipulating the head, we discovered, establishes
Manipulating the head, we discovered, establishes
between patient and practitioner a mental communica-
tion not in the least understood by the patients or the
people. Through this medium the doctor holds more
direct influence over their minds than the united power
of education and public sentiment. Mesmeric power is
stronger for evil, than good, in contradistinction to the
enlargement of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual
being that science imparts to individuals, elevating the
capacity to do good, above others.
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In proportion to the mal-practitioner's power to
In proportion to the mal-practitioner's power to
govern the minds of his patients with his selfish motives,
is his ability in science diminished. Whoso doeth
evil that good might come, incurs the sentence, "his
damnation is just."
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Witnessing this abuse of metaphysics, a friend anx-
Witnessing this abuse of metaphysics, a friend anx-
iously said to us, "You discovered metaphysical heal-
ing, and have also discovered this abuse of it, and
the evil done through mesmerism; now why do you
not forestall this wrong by controlling the minds of
individuals or the community to disbelieve its false-
hoods?" To this we replied, "We have neither divine
authority, nor the power to control minds for any other
than their own benefit, and we are giving the results of
our moral, spiritual, and metaphysical researches to the
world as fast as possible, but the footsteps of falsehood
and error are swift, those of honesty and Truth slow,
and strong. The community must understand the sci-