Science and Health (1881)/06 Demonology
SCIENCE AND HEALTH.
CHAPTER VI.
DEMONOLOGY.
The grandest feature of Biblical history is its honesty, but the portraiture of a Judas was no pleasant task for the loving John, although he fulfilled that task as the ambassador of Truth. It is due to the period that introduces metaphysics and establishes the sovereignty of mind, to protect mankind in general from the abuses of a released power hitherto restrained by law, even the capacity of mortal mind to act without being known or seen in propria persona committing the act. The history of the harmless features of mesmerism is yielding to the history of its aggressive forms. The warp and woof of crime hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought are weaving webs so complicated and subtle they ensnare the age into indolence of inquiry, producing the very apathy on this subject that the criminal desires. Mesmerism has its definition to-day in demonology. Some one has said mesmerism is a problem lending not itself to an easy explanation and development; it implies the exercise of despotic control and is much more likely to be abused by its possessor than employed otherwise for the individual or society.
Some years ago, the history of one of our young students, as known to us and many others, diverged into a dark channel of its own, whereby the unwise young man reversed our metaphysical method of healing, and subverted his mental power apparently for the purposes of tyranny peculiar to the individual. A stolid moral sense, great want of spiritual sentiment, restless ambition, and envy, embedded in the soil of this student's nature, metaphysics brought to the surface, and he refused to give them up, choosing darkness rather than light. His motives moved in one groove, the desire to subjugate; a despotic will choked his humanity. Carefully veiling his character, through unsurpassed secretiveness, he wore the mask of innocence and youth. But he was young only in years; a marvellous plotter, dark and designing, he was constantly surprising us, and we half shut our eyes to avoid the pain of discovery, while we struggled with the gigantic evil of his character, but failed to destroy it. His nature is understood only as his acts behind the scenes are revealed. The second year of his practice, when we discovered he was malpractising, and told him so, he avowed his intention to do whatever he chose with his mental power, spurning a Christian life, and exulting in the absence of moral restraint. The sick clung to him when he was doing them no good, and he made friends and followers with surprising rapidity, but retained them only so long as his mesmeric influence was kept up and his true character unseen. The habit of his misapplication of mental power grew on him until it became a secret passion of his to produce a state of mind destructive to health, happiness, or morals. His power to heal failed, because of his sins, and if he succeeded with the power of will to remove one disease, it was succeeded by a more malignant one. His mental malpractice has made him a moral leper that would be shunned as the most prolific cause of sickness and sin did the sick understand the cause of their relapses and protracted treatment, the husband the loss of his wife, and the mother the death of her child, etc.
A young lady whom we had restored from hopeless disease to health, he drew to his office, told her she was not restored, and prevailed on her to visit him and he would remove her remaining difficulties. She was in perfect health, and her mother had said so to us. He treated her three times and pronounced her cured. The change was immediately apparent, she grew rapidly ill. Then, by his mesmeric mental treatment, he made her believe that we had caused her relapse, and when her mother sent for us to visit her daughter she was unwilling to be treated by us. Knowing nothing of what this malpractioner had done, we were astounded at the result, but thought no more of it until we heard of her death. This mesmerist held her with his mind as the serpent holds his victim, until she was dying, and then he stood in a remote part of the room while her friends surrounded her bed, and with her expiring breath she said to them, “Dr. —— did all for me that any one could.” Those were unnatural thoughts for the dying, parting with weeping friends, or looking away from earth to heaven. We had not an enemy in the city where we introduced this young student and built him up a practice. He commenced his malpractice or demonology, and then, among the many patients that we procured and healed for him, not one, to our knowledge, remained our friend after they were subject to his silent influence. One of our best friends said to us, “I hope you will excuse me, but I cannot see you, I suffer so in your presence,” when it was proverbial, and had excited his envy, that the patients were often cured and always benefited by talking with us or being in the atmosphere of our mind. She even said she was always better in our presence until then. We were pained at the change and her altered manner, and insisted on her telling us what was our offence. She replied, “In the many years I have known you I was never cognizant of your doing wrong, but you make me suffer now, and I do not love you as I did.” We parted in mystery, and our lives have ever since floated apart down the river of years. We could not beg the friendship we hoped to deserve, and never knew until long afterwards the silent influence by which that student, whom we were benefiting daily, severed our friendship. A lady of a very sensitive and appreciative nature, whom we healed instantaneously of a distressing chronic spinal affection, and who had endeared herself to us by many acts of kindness, surprised us one day by complaining that she was suffering from her old difficulties. The cases that we cured had never relapsed before, and we were at a loss what to think. Not finding the cause of her sufferings through our ordinary mental diagnosis, we made inquiries of her, and among other things she said that the aforesaid mesmerist was treating her. Everything was upside down in her symptoms, the case that we had before healed so readily. But her doctor told us she was getting well, and that certain habits had caused the relapse, which was false, as we afterwards learned. A rumor at length came that Mrs. L—— was recalling the kind things she had repeated of us, and was even saying “that we had got angry with her and brought back her disease.” We could but smile at so ridiculous a fancy, and gave no credence to the report, looking forward to her calling on us, when all would be explained. That call we never had the pleasure of receiving, and now we understand why, and the influences that were at work to produce the entire result. The effect he has on the minds of people is mysterious until his method and mesmerism is laid bare. It is incredible that he could make Mrs. L—— think or say that we had made her sick when we were deeply interested in her recovery, and she was appreciative of what we did. We even acknowledge to having some pride as well as sympathy in that case, for it had been intricate to other physicians, and of long standing, and were bitterly disappointed on learning of her relapse. Besides we were far less capable of making her sick than she was of making us so, for we did suffer for her in belief when we healed her, but could not have caused her a pain, and are very thankful now that we have gone beyond suffering for the sick. The only difficulty was the one at work to injure our business and social relations who was not found out then by either of us, and his modus operandi discovered. When the aforesaid mesmerist began to attack our students, wrestling in vain against their ironclad armor, he would sometimes turn to their wives, or their husbands, who had not studied metaphysics, and in a few instances succeeded in starting family discords. He ruined a promising student, who was somewhat addicted to intemperance before he learned metaphysics, but when he left our class was thoroughly reformed, and labored in turn to help others abandon their cups. He had totally abstained from strong drinks, and lost his appetite for them, when the aforesaid mesmerist went to board with him. Shortly afterward they had a slight altercation about their teacher, in which the mesmerist was shown up in no favorable light. Subsequently the reformed student called on us, appeared dejected, and not as courageous regarding himself as usual. We questioned him, and he replied, “I have at times an impetuous desire to drink liquor. I cannot account for this, for I detest it, and have no relish for it; still this strange feeling that I must get intoxicated comes over me at stated periods with an overwhelming force.” Being ignorant at that time of the cause of all this, we suggested it might be the chemicalization by which chronic errors sometimes pass off. He replied, “I have treated it for that metaphysically, but without success.” A sudden interruption closed our conversation, and we saw him no more; but in three months from that time we learned that he was a demoralized man and a confirmed sot. He never was that before he studied, and the natural effects of metaphysics are to reform and produce good results on all who do not strive against the right. Since having discovered the facts of the aforesaid mesmerist, and watched his increasing crimes up to this date, we clearly understand, from what that unfortunate student said to us, and the mental symptoms he described, that he was treating him mentally and mesmerically to lure him on to his downfall. The husband of a lady who was the patient of this malpractioner poured out his grief to us and said: “Dr. K—— has destroyed the happiness of my home, ruined my wife, etc.;” and, after that, he finished with a double crime by destroying the health of that wronged husband so that he died. We say that he did these things because we have as much evidence of it as ever we had of the existence of any sin. The symptoms and circumstances of the cases, and the diagnosis of their diseases, proved the unmistakable fact. His career of crime surpasses anything that minds in general can accept at this period. We advised him to marry a young lady whose affections he had won, but he refused; subsequently she was wedded to a nice young man, and then he alienated her affections from her husband. A married lady, and member of the Methodist Church, became his patient, and afterwards went to the South with her husband, whom we had never seen but once before they left the city where we resided. In 1871, after she revisited this city, we had a letter from his wife, in which she wrote, “I do not regret my journey North, you did me so much good with your teachings of virtue and Truth. I gain much spiritually from you.” After three years her husband returned to our city, and it was rumored that he had left his wife. In their absence we had a letter but once from the husband, to ask permission to join our class in metaphysics, but requesting that his wife should not be informed of this application. To this we replied in a letter addressed to his wife. The aforesaid mesmerist had gained such control over his wife that after her husband studied and entered into practice she kept away from her relatives where he was located until this fellow, who had an office in that city, sent for her. We were told by her husband that her only terms for peace with him were that he should vindicate this villain. He refused to do that, and they again separated. He finally sued for a divorce. The night before the trial he said to us his mother's testimony alone was sufficient to give him the case. We were informed that when she entered the court-room she commenced weeping, and her son afterwards described to us her testimony, and said it was the very opposite of what she had told him the day previously. The mesmerist said to an individual, to our certain knowledge, that he had the entire control of that witness. The husband told us that he divulged the latent facts of the case in court, and testified that the aforesaid mesmerist was, according to his opinion, the despoiler of his home. Not content with the sins already committed, this mental malpractioner pursued that husband, until he lost his practice and had to change his place of business. Then he infuriated this man to abuse his benefactors, and finally got him mixed up with thieves in a conspiracy, made him an accomplice, brought him to his feet, caused him to take back his charges, and circulate the report that we had caused the separation between him and his wife, and this after he had sworn to the opposite facts. Instead of favoring the separation we had insisted on the damage it would be to the cause of metaphysics, and our students will testify they heard us warn him against it. From what he informed us relative to the case we were led to say that his evidence might or might not be valid; the point we sustained was this, — that he must comply with the obligations of a husband or show justifiable cause for non-compliance therewith, else we could not endorse him as a Christian scientist.
The rapid changes in morals produced by this mesmerist are incalculable, but not uncommon when the individual is ignorant of their cause; hence our obligations to introduce to public notice this lurking demonology in our very midst. The unfortunate man above referred to was apparently hurled into the maelstrom of mesmerism precipitately. He had obtained the publishing of some of our works, and we had a letter from him in March, 1877, handed to us by our husband, that contained the following: —
“I know you would do nothing which you did not conscientiously think right and pertaining to the greatest good of the greatest number, even if necessary to the sacrifice of your own self-interest. I have not done right by you in not reporting, according to agreement, the sales of your book. Truth may again be buried beneath the accumulating dust of centuries by the stopping of your labors. I want the books sold, and would gladly have any one you might sanction take the same off my hands if you think best, as it undoubtedly is.”
No change took place with us, and we transacted no new business with him, except to require the payment of our royalty, when we received from him another letter, dated May 30, 1877, containing the following: —
“You have proved yourself unworthy to be the standard bearer of Christian Science, and God will remove from you the means of carrying on this work. I propose to carry it on alone.”
We had before noticed those sudden changes come over him, when he would frequently say, “I feel as if I was mesmerized”; but we took no notice of his remark, supposing it was a jest.
The above instance is painful to us and to all who know the cause of it, and we most sincerely hope this individual will regain his normal self-government and the happiness of again being useful, and awake from his false estimate of his best friends.
A young man of some talent, whose father is a Universalist clergyman, entered our class in metaphysics. At its close he expressed perfect satisfaction with our instruction, and remarked, in a very gentlemanly way, “My last lesson is worth all my tuition.” He located in business in one of the Southern States, and went into partnership with a student already there. A report of his success reached the aforesaid mesmerist, who asked us if we had heard of it. Our reply in the affirmative, and the remark that we expected it from him, brought the color to his face, and a look of indescribable envy. His remarks were derogatory to that student, ending with, “I hope he will do well, but I am afraid you will be sorry you ever took W—— for a student of metaphysics.” The aforesaid W—— promised to write often, but we received no letter for three months. When a letter came we opened it with eager expectations, but only to be shocked with a most abusive epistle, filled with sentences like the following: —
“Restored to myself again I shall be more willing to overlook in you the pains I have already suffered in bearing the load you have put upon me. I ask you to refund to me this amount (five hundred dollars), and I will retire from the cause, but still consider that I am not restored to my former position.”
He paid us three hundred dollars for his tuition, practised about six months, and stated in a newspaper article: —
“I have made demonstrations that surprised me by the result, and met with good success in a majority of my cases.”
After he returned North he called on us, and threatened to ruin the cause of metaphysical healing unless we paid him the sum specified. He acted like a madman. A friend who overheard his conversation remarked, “It is dangerous for you to be alone with him.” We took no notice of his threats, and the subtle mesmerist denounced his conduct, but he could not hide the fact that it pleased him. One day we heard them plotting to injure us, and, opening the door suddenly on them, said, “We have overheard the conversation of these conspirators.” They rose, and blandly looking us in the face, one after the other declared we were mistaken, and they entertained the highest respect for us. The case grew complicated. We were constantly taken by surprise, having been deeply interested in their welfare before. The next movement was a series of scurrilous newspaper articles from one of the parties, relative to our system of metaphysical healing. One of the paragraphs was as follows: —
“Now I wish to say to those contemplating the study of this so-called science that it is mesmerism, and nothing else. While I do not deny that mesmerism can be successfully employed many times in curing certain maladies, I do deny the right of any one to teach it clothed with the cloak of moral science.”
The above article was written in the early part of 1872, whereas in 1871 we had a letter from his partner in business, in which she wrote: —
“W—— [the author of that article] says he does not question the morality or Christianity of the science, but doubts its application to heal the sick.”
We received another letter from that young man, whom the aforesaid mesmerist was rapidly demoralizing, of which we have the attested copy, he having requested us to return the letter, and from which we copy the following: —
“It is evident to me that you desire Dr. —— (the malpractioner) to leave the city, and I think, also, it would be for your interest to accomplish this end. The relations between he and I are probably of a different nature from what you suppose, as I owe him a debt on the past which, if driving him from —— will accomplish, it can and shall be done. He thinks that I am your greatest enemy, and favors, if either, his side. Let him continue to think so; it will do me no harm. For my part, I rather a person would come out boldly and fearlessly, as you and I did, facing each other, than to sneak like a snake in the grass, spitting his poison venom into them he would slay. I have said I owe Dr. —— on an old score, and the interview I had with him last evening has increased that debt, so that I am now determined, if it be your object also, as two heads are better than one, to drive him from ——.
“Why should we be enemies, especially if we have one great object in common? Perhaps we can be united on this, and the result may be that this city will finally be rid of one of the greatest humbugs that ever disgraced her fair face. All this can be accomplished; but, as I said before, it is necessary to be very cautious, and not let the fact of our communicating together be known, as a friend in the enemy's camp is an advantage not to be overlooked.”
The following is our reply to the above letter: —
“The conversation against us that we overheard between you and Dr. —— was in accordance with the purposes that you entertain. We will help you always to do right; but with regard to your proposition to send Dr. —— out of ——, we recommend that you leave this to God; his sins will find him out. Let each one of us do our duty. Even though so falsely accused, we shall never swerve from the right. If defrauded, and set at naught, God will one day justify his children. You said Dr. —— (the aforesaid mesmerist) denied his indebtedness to us. We can show you, under his own signature, his agreements with us that he has broken, and a note he has never paid of seven hundred and fifty dollars.”
The above letter ended our correspondence.
A few months thereafter we had a call from the aforementioned young man, whom the mesmerist was urging on, and whose eyes would occasionally open to his villany and then close again as suddenly, when more opportunity was given the mesmerist to fasten his mind upon him. At this call he apologized for the past by saying he could not account for his conduct unless it was chemicalization. He acknowledged that Dr. —— (the mesmerist) promised to pay him for working against us, but had broken his agreement, and paid him only a portion of it, and refused to pay the balance. He then hesitated, wriggled, but finally insinuated that he now wished to work for us. We assured him his services were not needed, adding, “You have told so many falsehoods about us you would not be believed if you should speak the truth, and you know us better than to insinuate that we would hire you.” He acknowledged that he did, and we opened the door and he passed out. We were credibly informed that he went that very night to the office of the mesmerist and scared him into paying the balance of his bribe. Another victim of the aforesaid mesmerist was a young man who was consumptive, and went to him to be doctored. He was bleeding at the lungs, etc., when he joined our class. Being poor, we receipted to him in full for one half our usual tuition. After our instructions he regained perfect health, and professed great gratitude to us. In speaking of him one day the mesmerist remarked, “B—— is a fool, and you will find how you will come out with him.” We replied, “If he is what you say, he is harmless, and with our experience, that is a great consideration.” During a period of about five years the mesmerist evidently nourished his hatred and purpose to destroy that young man, and from no cause apparent but our interest in his welfare. He finally accomplished his purpose, and broke up his business relations with us through the aid of his accomplice, who was interested to obtain his position. Their united mesmerism severed a friendship that might have been profitable to us both. We doctored him gratuitously, and his friends when he requested it, gave him business chances that others coveted, etc. He having seen but about seventeen summers when we first knew him, his business mistakes cost us months of labor. He copied for us, and we offered to pay him, but he always refused, saying he was not doing us the good that we were doing him; and that was true, although he was then a good worker for the cause, and rendering us many small services. For his sake we taught the lady whom he wished to marry gratuitously, and endeavored to realize the obligations of the word mother that he had asked permission to call us. A noticeable change commenced in the young man very unlike the fruits of metaphysics. Our students saw it as well as ourself; they also noticed his neglect of the business that belonged to him, and the losses it caused us. We noticed the change in his disposition, and certain mental symptoms foreign to his constitution, and wholly unlike himself. Had we understood then, as now, the demonology carried on by the aforesaid mesmerist, that young man would have been saved what will be to him the saddest recollection in his whole history. In our will we had bequeathed to him the sum of five thousand dollars, and that will was intact when he sued us and attached our real-estate for more than twenty thousand dollars. In this bill there were charges of fifty cents for carrying up a hod of coal from the cellar, charges for house-hunting, having called on us one evening as we were stepping out to look for a tenement, and begged the favor of accompanying us; charges for his travelling fees and time when he went into Boston on his own business and did some slight errands for us. It was a sad comment on his past.
Think of the element constantly at work in our midst that can drag an upright young man down to dishonesty, and wholly transform sentiments like the following, copied from one of his letters: —
| “ | O mother mine, God grant I ne'er forget, |
| Whatever be my grief or what my joy, | |
| The unmeasured, unextinguishable debt | |
| I owe to thee, but find my sweet employ | |
| Ever through thy remaining days to be | |
| To thee as faithful as thou wast to me.” |
In one of his last letters he wrote, “Since the tie of friendship must be broken, let me thank you for past favors.” The mystery that attends these social earthquakes is that no occasion is given for them. Not a sufficient misunderstanding had ever occurred between us for more than a single ripple on the ocean of events, when the individuals would be hating us and plotting some revenge for imaginary causes. That young man won three hundred and fifty dollars from his false bill, and lost five thousand dollars, besides all else that he sacrificed. Let our young men and our old men remember that honesty is the best policy, and let the arch destroyer of the health and morals of our young men and young women boast not himself because sentence against an evil work be not executed speedily. The aforesaid mesmerist remarked in the court-room, with a malignant sneer, to a Christian scientist, “Now what do you think of your Mr. B——?” and she replied, “I think he is better than you are.”
From the time we dissolved partnership with the aforesaid mesmerist, because of his depravity, he avowed his intention to injure us, and we have the testimony of those who have heard him say that he would follow us to the grave for that purpose.
A young lady from Boston, who was suffering from ill health and a peculiar grief, became our student, and recovered her health and happiness. Our friendship flowed smoothly; nothing ever occurred to interrupt it, but the argus eye of the mesmerist was on her. He inquired her out thoroughly, and learned that we were strongly attached to her; that was enough. One evening she called on us to present us with a beautiful pair of vases. On leaving she startled us with the remark, “I shall probably never come to see you again, but shall always love you the same as now.” We replied, “That will be a poor proof of it, when we reside so near you.” She had no reason for her remark, and claimed none, and we concluded it was merely mirthfulness. We parted with the usual affection, but have never seen her since, and certain unmistakable proofs have convinced us that the aforesaid mesmerist influenced her feelings and action. Another similar case, of a young married lady who had occupied our house with us, whom we had tried to befriend, and who was kind to us; but trifles light as air seemed to part us, and we heard that she claimed we had been making her sick. There is no accounting for such conclusions except on the ground of insanity or the silent arguments or demonology of the aforesaid mesmerist. This lady is not insane, and a kind-hearted woman, that knows too much of the science to conclude in sober earnest that one who has grown to the moral sense of metaphysics is not beyond the possibility of producing disease. There is but one conclusion to be had in the case, and that is the well-acknowledged fact among scientists, that the aforesaid mesmerist is constantly trying to pour this base falsehood and groundless fear into the thoughts of people merely to injure us, disregarding the bad effect his silent arguments have on their health. If these seeds of error that he is sowing take root in their minds they will spring up and bear fruit after their own kind, even the results of error, and make the one sick whose mind he impresses with this falsehood. They must necessarily produce sickness. The entire happiness of the individuals subject to this malpractice and demonology is affected by it if they avail not themselves of the remedy. Nothing but a knowledge of the mesmeric cause producing these abnormal results, and the metaphysical understanding how to meet them and despoil demonology of its reign of terror, renders it safe for the individual or the community at the present period.
But our Heavenly Father is weighing these deeds of darkness in His own scales, and will adjust the balance, and the weight of his own sins must fall on the individual. We have never departed from one cardinal point of metaphysics, namely, never to encroach on the rights of mind, never to think to trespass in metaphysics more than in physics, never to enter another's thoughts more unceremoniously than his dwelling. In proportion to your advancement in metaphysics it becomes impossible for you to produce disease or to injure another with your mind, and you become a law to yourself never to infringe on the privacy of thought, and to read mind only when it appeals to you for help. We should speak audibly all that we would say to one inaudibly, with the single exception of treating disease. These fundamental rules admit of no exception, unless it be in rare cases, and from a motive to benefit the individual.
A gentleman became interested in metaphysics, having been healed of a dangerous disease by it, and when he began to interest others in the subject the aforesaid mesmerist attacked his health. A Christian scientist rescued him, and the mesmerist, finding he could not succeed in that direction, made an effort to destroy the happiness of his home. This gentleman had been a happy husband and father many years, when, all of a sudden, his wife informed him that she did not love him as formerly; she could assign no cause for this, and did not attempt to, but only acknowledged the fact. The husband disregarded it at first, treating it as a jest, until one day he was startled into the awful realization of the fact on learning that his wife had left him, taking her two little children with her. His health broke down, and he communicated his trials to a Christian scientist. At this time his wife was more than ever determined not to live with him, and never to return to her pleasant home. But in one week after the Christian scientist was made acquainted with his shocking crime, he destroyed the effects of the mesmerist on this wife; and when this demonology was crushed out, and her mind free to act from its own impulses, her husband received a letter from her, commencing in the old way, “Dearest Charlie,” and saying how she yearned to go home. He went to his wife, this time to find her ready to go back to the dear relations she had forsaken, and with her children and her husband she returned to her pleasant home, once more to be happy.
We have known instances where the honest metaphysician had a patient whom the mesmerist wished to obtain, else to stop her recovery. Then his attack was made on the husband, exciting his jealousy, without cause, of his wife's physician, which occasioned her such grief it stopped her recovery. Metaphysics promotes affection, virtue, and peace in families, with individuals, and in the community, whereas the aim of the aforesaid mesmerist is to keep this fact from becoming apparent, and, if possible, to forestall those blessed results. Individuals have applied to our students for help whose cases were induced by the aforesaid mesmerist inflaming their passions. Metaphysics meets all these emergencies, and governs and restores the balance of being to its normal standard. We have known this mesmerist try to sour the disposition, excite the passions and appetites, induce disease, bring back old complaints, and scare and torture the minds of people. These effects are inseparable from their cause, and the cause must be removed to remove the effects they are producing even on the mesmerist himself. And these results will be found more readily cured, even on those they would injure, in whom the elements of discord do not exist in such proportions, than on the evil mind producing them.
Abiding by the rules of metaphysics prevents any results from the attacks of the mesmerist, not beneficial even to the individual, that do not lift him higher, enlarging his power, and unfolding his latent capacity to meet and master error. Metaphysics sustains and increases by use the power of Truth. This fulfils the Scripture, “They shall take up serpents.” Our Christian students have seen children thrown into fits by the hidden influences of mental malpractice, covered with virulent humors from the same cause, etc., etc., and, until they destroyed the effects of this mesmerism, those children could not be cured. But for the skill of Christian scientists the slaughter of innocents at this period, and by the aforesaid means, would gain more hideous proportions than it has already done.
The following is a brief sketch of one of the most diabolical conspiracies that ever disgraced the annals of history, and which we have evidence was carried on by the hidden influences employed in the foregoing plots.
The opening of this daring outrage was an article that appeared in the “Boston Herald,” October, 1878, stating that one D. S——, of ——, had disappeared suddenly, and the circumstances indicated that a murder had been committed. Another article followed, in the same paper, stating that his body had been found, and was lying at the morgue in Boston. Then similar articles flashed out from the press, couched in the same covert malice, and showing no special sympathy for Mrs. Eddy and Christian scientists in general when dropping down to state that Dr. Eddy and E. J. Arens had been arrested for conspiring to murder D. S——. But the murdered man was alive and well, hidden away, and making merry with his friends, — a man considered one of the lowest villains in Boston. The leading dailies in the city, the “Boston Journal,” etc., belched forth those damaging articles all over the United States and into Europe before the rebutting testimony could be furnished. Those scurrilous communications were evidently all given to the press at the same time, that they might be issued simultaneously, knowing that any decent moderation would have prevented respectable papers publishing such slander. The plot was laid so adroitly that my husband's counsel advised him to keep silent and give no clew until he had unearthed the diabolical plot. Hence his forbearance to answer those newspaper articles as they deserved.
The individual set up for the pretended victim had been our publisher, and for various and sufficient reasons we had him removed, one of which was that he paid us no royalty on our books as per agreement. This same individual had, a short time previously, sent this threat to us in a letter: “There will be removed from you the means for carrying on your work, and I propose to carry it on alone,” etc. And the aforesaid outrage, and those scurrilous public paragraphs, were just in time to check the circulation of our book, “Science and Health,” the second edition of which had been issued but two weeks. The leaders of this conspiracy, in our opinion, never anticipated carrying their foul scheme to the extent they did. To give publicity to their false charges was their principal object, as we infer from many circumstances, two of which we shall name. Last summer, while we were passing the hot season in New Hampshire, those libellous printed paragraphs were introduced at our boarding-house, evidently through the agency of the concocters of that plot, three years ago. Also we have been told, within a few months, that the would-be murdered man, who appeared at some points on the stage as one of the chief actors, inquired in a car, of a stranger, if she had ever heard of one Mrs. Glover Eddy, and how she had tried to get the aforesaid D. S—— murdered! But when this trickster learned that the lady was on her way to our house, he remarked: “I have heard that story, but never believed it myself.” The purpose of the plotters was evidently to injure the reputation of metaphysical practice, and to embarrass us for money at a time when they hoped to cripple us in the circulation of our book. This is seen in the fact that our name was in any way introduced in the case when we were not implicated by the law and by the gospel. The only money expended in the case my husband paid his and A———'s counsel, Col. Russell Conwell, and it was one thousand dollars for ferretting out the rascality and preparing the case for trial for both defendants, including the sum paid by Mr. Arens to another lawyer to assist at the trial, of about sixty dollars, and my husband, by me, ten dollars. But when the case was at length ready, the real conspirators unmasked, and the evidence of their guilty complicity more than ample, the suit was nol. pros., and Justice never got a hearing in that tragedy.
The case was called in the Municipal Court, 1878. The principal witnesses for the prosecution were convicts and inmates of houses of ill-fame in Boston. The detectives put the defendants into court, mainly relying on the testimony of the notorious S——, whose testimony was elaborate in detail.
The principal point of his statement was that he met Dr. Eddy and Arens on a railroad-track in East Cambridge, on the 17th of August, 1878, at 5.30 P.M., to arrange for putting D. S—— out of the way. He said he was certain of the time, having noted it by a seizure on a rum-shop made at 5.30 on that day. Said he had placed the witness C—— in a freight-car to hear whatever conversation might occur, so that his testimony should confirm his own. He further said he was paid money by E. J. Arens, in Boston, and by Dr. Eddy, at his house, in Lynn.
The following testimony relating to the aforesaid case, from the most respectable and reliable people in the community, is a part of the evidence that my husband had hoped to bring into court: —
“I, Caroline A. Fifield, being a resident of said Salem, do hereby certify that I was present with Mrs. Dunshee, Mrs. Stackpole, and Mrs. Gray, studying metaphysics with Dr. Asa G. Eddy, at 43 Clifford St., Boston Highlands, on the 17th day of August, 1878, from 2½ P.M. to 5¾ P.M.
“(Signed)
“Then the above-named Caroline A. Fifield appeared and made oath to the above-written affidavit.
- “Before me,
“I, Margret Dunshee, do depose and say that I am a
resident of that part of the city of Boston which was formerly
the city of Charlestown, that in August, 1878, I was a
student of Dr. Asa. G. Eddy, and that on Saturday, the 17th
day of said August, I was in attendance at the house of
David Gray, 43 Clifford St., Boston Highlands, and that our
recitation commenced on said day at two o'clock and thirty
minutes and closed at five o'clock and forty-five minutes P.M.,
and that there was present then and there, besides myself,
Mrs. Gray, Mrs. Stackpole, and Mrs. Fifield.
“Commonwealth Of Massachusetts, Suffolk, S. S.
“Then personally appeared the above-named Margret Dunshee and made oath that the above statements by her subscribed is true.
- “Before me,
The ride in the horse-cars from the Highlands to East Cambridge would occupy an hour, and Dr. Eddy reached his house in Lynn about 7.15 P.M., having come from Boston Highlands to the Eastern Depot, and returned to his home on the half-past six train. It takes about three quarters of an hour to ride from the Highlands to the depot where he took the cars for home. The following testimony is from the wife of Mr. Charles Rice, of Lynn: —
“I, Miranda R. Rice, being a resident of said Lynn, do hereby certify that I was at No. 8 Broad St., Lynn, on the 17th day of August, 1878, when Dr. Asa G. Eddy reached his home, about seven o'clock and fifteen minutes P.M., having taken the six thirty train from Boston. I recollect it because I waited for him to return that I might hear particulars from his class in Metaphysics.
“Personally appeared before me the above-named Miranda R. Rice, and acknowledged this to be her free act and deed.
The witness for the prosecution, C——, whom S—— testified was present at the interview in East Cambridge, testified that he did occupy a car as alleged, and heard all that was said, and reaffirmed, in substance, the testimony of S——. A few weeks subsequent to the testimony of the last-named witness for the prosecution, the following letter was received, and is copied verbatim, except the full name; that is not given: —
“To Dr. Asa G. Eddy and E. J. Arens — Feeling that you have been greatly ingured by faulse charges and knowing thair is no truth in my statement that you attempted to hire S—— to kill D. S——, and wishing to retract as far as possible all things I have sed to your ingury I now say that thair is no truth whatever in the statement that I saw you meet S—— at East Cambridge or any other place and pay or offer to pay him any money that I never hurd a conversation betwene you and S—— as testified to by me whethur D. S—— has anything to do with S—— I do not know all I know is that the story I told on the stand is holy faulse and was goten up by S——.
The above letter was afterwards reinforced by the following affidavit, which was made by a justice in Taunton, on the 17th of December, 1878: —
“Bristol, S. S.
“I, George A. Collier, do on oath depose and say of my own free will, and in order to expose the man who has tried to injure Dr. Asa G. Eddy and E. J. Arens, and that S—— did induce me, by great persuasion, to go with him to East Cambridge from Boston, on or about the 7th day of November last, the day of the hearing in the Municipal Court of Boston in the case of Dr. Asa G. Eddy and E. J. Arens for attempting to hire said S—— to kill one D. S——, and that he showed me the place and the cars that he was going to swear to, and told me what to say in court, and made me repeat the story until I knew it well, so that I could tell the same story that he would, and there was not one word of truth in it all. I never heard a conversation in East Cambridge between said Eddy and Arens and S——, or saw them pay, or offer to pay, S—— any money.
- “(Signed)Geo. A. Collier.”
Detective P—— went on to the stand and testified that he followed Dr. Eddy to his house, in Lynn, one day, and saw S—— go toward the door. The only time that ever the villain S—— came to our threshold, to any of our knowledge, was the day that the detective came to arrest Dr. Eddy; and that fellow preceded him a few minutes, and had just been ordered from the door by Dr. Eddy because of his impertinent remarks, when the detective, who had him in attendance, rung at the front door, and himself admitted S—— into the house.
The following affidavit is from one of the old and much-respected citizens of Lynn: —
“Detective P—— stated in court, or before the Grand Jury (I think), that Mr. and Dr. Eddy were with him at No. 8 Broad St. on a certain day, and paid him some money, while I can state that they were both at 71½ Market St., Lynn, all the forenoon of that day, and at the precise time testified to by said P—— that he was with them at No. 8 Broad St. Mr. P—— has said to me that the testimonies of all the parties in that case were perjuries.
- “(Signed)David Austin.”
“Personally appeared before me the above-named David Austin, and acknowledged this to be his free act and deed.
Col. Russell Conwell informed us that this same detective had procured the publishing of a letter of ours in newspapers, and statements relative to us, and that, in his opinion, it was done before the trial to influence the public mind adverse to the facts. The following is copied from that letter addressed to the aforesaid D. S——, relative to his malpractice, and which the detective caused to be published in a Boston paper: —
“Your silent arguments (referring to his mental malpractice) to harm me have done me the greatest possible good. In order to meet the emergency Truth has lifted me above my former self, and enabled me to know who is using the argument. God has shut the mouth of the lions. Think solemnly of the cost to yourself. I want you to be good, and happy in being good, for you never can be happy without it. Have I taught you faithfully the way of happiness, and rebuked sternly all that could turn you aside from this path? If I have, then I was your friend, and risked much to do you good.”
The word risked was changed to a term of opposite meaning.
The editors of the leading newspapers, such as had entertained no motives to injure the cause of Christian healing, made honorable amends for the articles that got into their columns. The following we clipped from the “Boston Evening Transcript,” Feb. 22, 1879: —
“That Conspiracy.
“The case brought by D. S—— last Oct., against Dr. Eddy and E. J. Arens, of Lynn, has been nol. pros'd. The confession, under oath, of one of the real conspirators, that he was employed to testify falsely, is supported by other direct evidence. Dr. Eddy was President of the Association that expelled D. S——. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and bears an excellent character. Mrs. Glover Eddy's most intimate acquaintances say her life and teachings are of the highest character, and believe that the motive of D. S—— was to injure the Christian Scientists, and to impede the sale of her book.”
May the hour be not afar when the kindling rays of divine Love shall lift the long night of ignorance and crime, flooding the world with light, and establishing universal brotherhood, “peace on earth and good will to man”!
The State removed the aforesaid detective, the other two principal witnesses were taken to jails on previous charges; but those individuals evidently most guilty, and who, it is believed by competent judges, instigated the plot, had sheltered themselves behind so many circumstances, and so wrought back of others in all they did, they have not yet been tried by human law, and await their sentence from a higher tribunal.
After the nol. pros., on the very day that our husband's counsel had promised to procure the arrest of D. S——, he was confined to his bed with a severe attack of sickness. We went to see him; a lady, who is a Christian Scientist, accompanied us, and will testify that we used no other means but to destroy the effects upon him of the aforesaid mesmerist and his accomplice; and when this was done he rose from his bed, dressed himself, went into Boston and lectured that evening.
The mental malpractioners managed that entire plot; and if the leading demonologist can exercise the power over mind, and govern the conclusions and acts of people as he has boasted to us that he could do, he had ample motives for the exercise of his demonology from the fact that a civil suit was pending against him for the collection of a note of one thousand dollars, which suit Mr. Arens was jointly interested in. When Mr. Arens's case was called in the lower court, the mesmerist had that civil suit tried in the Superior Court, before a jury; and, owing to the circumstances, and certain proceedings not herein mentioned, he won that suit that he had lost in a previous trial, without even a plea in its behalf, so clear did the able judge consider the case. Exceptions were taken, and the case was granted another trial; when lo! the note, and letter corroborating its value, slipped from the hands of lawyer Clark, of Lynn, and has never since been found. But those letters, containing important evidence that disappeared with that note, are attested, and some of their contents are as follows: —
“We hereby certify that we have seen letters signed by R—— K——, and we heard him swear the signature was his own, containing, among other things, substantially the statements, ‘I know you will do right with regard to the bond. If I am successful in business I shall not stop with the payment of the note, as I feel I can never repay you for what you have done for me. Think not that all your efforts in my behalf have been in vain; each line and precept have helped to destroy some error. If an agreement is to be given let it be one that will be available.’
- “(Signed)Edward J. Arens.”
“Essex, S. S.
Then personally appeared the above-named Edward J. Arens and made oath that the above affidavit by him subscribed is true.
“Before me,
| “Nathan D. A. Clarke, |
| “Justice of the Peace.” |
The author of the letter referred to in the above testimony took down his sign that had on it Dr. —— while he went into court and testified that he was not practising as a doctor, that our instructions to him in metaphysics were of no value, and no one could practise them; but he was here compelled by the court to acknowledge that he had CLAIMED for eight years to be practising them with great pecuniary success. He stated, under oath, that he had paid the full amount of his note in the winter of 1871; but when shown a receipt from us for two hundred and fifty dollars paid on the note in the summer of 1871, he acknowledged that he had paid that at the date of the receipt. After the case was tried he put up his sign again of Dr. ——, and claimed to practise as before. It is painful to instance these terrible derelictions from rectitude, but it becomes a stern duty when we are obliged to unveil error in self-defence. Justice demands that the truth shall occasionally be spoken when falsehood has so long been heard.
On Christmas morning of 1879 Mr. Arens called on us. After a mutual exchange of kind congratulations tears filled his eyes, and he said: “I have been hating you dreadfully, Mrs. Eddy, and am here to confess it, for I now know the cause. When I was feeling so hard towards you it occurred to me it was the aforesaid mesmerist producing this effect, and when I met it as that metaphysically, it destroyed it, my feelings changed at once, and I feel the same friendship for you as before.” We assured him that we should have the same interest in his welfare as ever, so long as he did right, and hoped he would always escape the snare of the spoiler. He has mentioned this circumstance to another student, Mr. James Howard. Our husband was present at the time he said it. We append the following affidavit of a student: —
“I, Edward J. Arens, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and commonwealth of Massachusetts, do hereby depose and say that I am acquainted with Asa G. Eddy and Mary B. G. Eddy, his wife, both of Lynn, in said commonwealth; that I studied with said Asa G. Eddy and Mary B. G. Eddy her metaphysical method of treating disease, of which I understand she is the discoverer; that I know them both to be persons of upright character and strictly moral, and have never known either of them to do anything which was at all contrary to the principles of uprightness and the strictest rectitude. They teach their students that obedience to the ten commandments is the only foundation upon which they can build success, and I have never known either of them to violate any of said commandments, or to counsel a violation of any of them.
- “(Signed)E. J. Arens.”
“Essex, S. S.
“Then personally appeared the above-named Edward J. Arens, and made oath that the above statement by him subscribed is true.
“Before me,
| “Nathan D. A. Clarke, |
| “Justice of the Peace.” |
It has been the aim of the aforesaid mesmerist for twelve years to impress the public sentiment with the exact opposite of almost all the facts relative to our feelings, our motives, and our history. Strange to say, this implacable enemy is one of those for whom we have labored the most unselfishly and gratuitously to qualify him for usefulness. This result has been marked since ever we taught metaphysics and charged ourself with preparing the students, through the salutary effects of Truth, to heal the sick. Realizing the solemn responsibility they assume, and the power they possess to do good or evil through a mental method, we impress our students with the need of the seal of metaphysics, the moral and spiritual qualifications, well knowing it becomes an impossibility to learn the way in the direction that we have walked and to the extent that we have demonstrated, and to be a malpractitioner, pursuing the wrong way, or the very opposite of metaphysics and what enables the student to reach our demonstration.
It is not disputed by those who know us that the advantage of being the discoverer and founder at this period of metaphysical healing gives us a thorough understanding of mental power, and the ability of wielding it, beyond what we can develop in a student with but one to our many years of experience. Hence the folly to urge the falsehood of the malpractitioner, namely, that we are a mesmerist, and yet defeated in injuring them, while they boast of their success in injuring us, with having carried out their evil designs with impunity; and there is but one of them to about a hundred honest and skilful metaphysicians. We have been at work building up the cause while they were busy trying to tear it down, or lining their pockets from our labors instead of doing good and healing the sick.
About sixteen years ago we first introduced metaphysical healing into the State of Massachusetts, and taught the first student. We had no one to help us then in this great undertaking, and the Spiritualists, in general, opposed us because we had something besides mediumship to found our system upon, and a demonstration that included no error when wrought in its science.
Among our very first students was the mesmerist aforesaid, who has followed the cause of metaphysical healing as a hound follows his prey, to hunt down every promising student if he cannot place them in his track and on his pursuit. Never but one of our students was a voluntary malpractitioner; he has made many others. He has worked with as malignant a purpose to injure the students as to wound their teacher and hinder the cause; but he has only injured them who have attempted to compromise with him through fear or a mistaken policy. Those whom he still pursues are rising higher and learning more rapidly because of the more ample field this affords them in which to learn the entire workings of mortal mind and the law of God concerning error; yea, the penalty and the reward lying in the path of this metaphysical problem. This malpractitioner tried his best to break down our health before we learned the cause of our sufferings. It was difficult for us to credit the facts of his malice or to admit they lie within the pale of mortal thought. Because this error was so remote from the border lands of metaphysical science we never fully fathomed its workings until the summer of 1880, and to our Father we owe it that we have found the facts of immortal Mind more than equal to meet the fables of mortal mind, that, like the silly moth, singeing its wings in the light, falls to dust. We rejoice that our experience from the malicious arrows aimed at us through the unseen and subtle agency aforesaid has helped others, enabling them to know how to meet this hidden element without having to learn their way.
In the interests of truth we ought to say that never a lawsuit has entered into our history voluntarily. We have suffered great losses and the direst injustice rather than go to law, for we always considered a lawsuit, of two evils, the greatest. About two years ago the persuasions of a student awakened our convictions that we might be doing wrong in permitting students to break their obligations with us, refuse the payment of their notes, and to deny their consideration when they were filling their pockets by their claims to be practising that for which they refused to pay us. The student who argued this point to us so convincingly offered to take the notes and collect them, without any participation of ours; we trusted him with the whole affair, doing only what he told us, for we were utterly ignorant of legal proceedings.
It was alleged indirectly in the “Newburyport Herald” that we caused a bill to be filed in the Supreme Court to restrain a student of ours from practising mesmerism. That statement was utterly false. It was a student who did that, contrary to our advice and judgment, and we have the affidavit of the reluctant plaintiff certifying to this fact.
Having instanced a few cases of the evil workings of
the hidden agency in our midst, our readers may feel an
interest to learn somewhat of the indications of this
mental malpractice or demonology. It has no outward
signs, such as ordinarily indicate mesmerism, and its
effects are far more subtle because of this. Its tendency
is to sour the disposition, to occasion great fear of
disease, dread, and discouragement, to cause a relapse of
former diseases, to produce new ones, to create dislikes
or indifference to friends, to produce sufferings in the
head, in fine, every evil that demonology includes and
that metaphysics destroys. If it be students of ours
whom he attacks, the malpractioner and aforesaid
mesmerist tries to produce in their minds a hatred towards
us, even as the assassin puts out the light before
committing his deed. He knows this error would injure the
student, impede his progress, and produce the results of
error on health and morals, and he does it as much for
that effect on him as to injure us. With the error of his
own evil nature thrown into the scale, and by reversing
the arguments of Truth, he attempts to make sickness
through a silent mental process, even as the metaphysician
restores health by the opposite mental process. In
his mental argument to frighten an individual and build
up a belief of disease, he includes another one, namely,
to make that individual believe that some one else is
doing this, and he cannot be healed unless he is treated for
the effects that individual is supposed to be producing on
him. This last infirmity of sin is possible only to
mesmerism, and, like all the rest, is impossible in
metaphysics. Mesmerism can make mortals believe a lie, but
metaphysics cannot; it can only make them unbelieve it.
Mesmerism can tell one to perform certain acts at stated
times, or he will suffer, and bring about this infernal
reresult, unless this individual knows his remedy.
To accomplish the double wrong of reducing the honest practitioner's success to a level with his own loss, and prevent the community seeing the difference between the right and wrong practice, as well as to injure our reputation as a teacher, the malpractioner and aforesaid mesmerist exerts his utmost power. And he accomplishes his wicked purposes with those who know not how to meet his subtlety, and destroys health, happiness, and life, where a less evil mind, using his very process, would fail to accomplish it, having less malignancy and error to pour into the result. Sensuality, envy, malice, hatred, and revenge must co-operate in the individual mind that can carry out demonology as aforesaid. “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.”
We have the original copies of all, and much more than is herein given, in evidence of what is stated. We have not exposed one half the wickedness that has been committed unseen, and the purposes achieved by it and the falsehoods uttered of us in order to accomplish those purposes. We wait, before doing this, with the hope that the perpetrators thereof will repent and forsake their sins forever. Some of the individuals before referred to offer indications of this reform, and favor the hope that God is wresting them from the iron control of the hopeless sinner who has instigated and carried out this programme of crimes so far as it has succeeded. May Heaven aid those whom he has lured from positions of usefulness and rectitude of conduct into the gloom of his own night of sin, to return and “enter while there's room”! There are many mansions in the Father's house, many places in infinite Love where reform is ample to furnish the passport into God's presence, the divine Light and Love.
Years ago, when first we discovered the metaphysical science of healing, we gained so clear a sense of its moral obligations it has never left us, but is as abiding and imperative in its claims as our first recognition along with it of the great fact, so far off to other minds, namely, that, in reality there is no disease, and it is a Christian duty to make this appear. Both these glorious recognitions came together, and commenced at once destroying sickness and sin in us; and then we knew our discovery was based on a Divine Principle, and would stand forever. We have too distinct an understanding that sickness is a belief only, and not the reality of existence, to form it with our mind, or to impress upon another mind an image of disease, or to produce disease in any way, and so distinct a sense of the suffering that sin occasions that no motive could be sufficient to induce us to do wrong intentionally and with premeditation. In years past we suffered greatly for the sick when healing them, but even that is all over now, and we cannot suffer for them. But when we did suffer in belief, our joy was so great in removing others sufferings that we bore ours cheerfully and willingly. This self-sacrificing love has never left us, but grows stronger every year of our earth life; and no sense of having been wronged can ever transform the moral sense that has reached this point to ever retreat and go to injuring one's fellow-beings, for it has reached the unselfish state that lays itself willingly on the altar. Our thoughts can benefit the sick, but they can never injure them. Metaphysics can destroy disease, but it cannot create it, whereas mesmerism claims to do both. Even if we should argue against the recovery of the sick, or for the healthy to become sick, after the method of the malpractioner, we could not produce their results. But we can occupy a position impregnable to mesmerism, and the result of metaphysical science is like the two-edged sword guarding the Tree of Life.
The Nero of to-day, regaling himself through a mental method with the tortures of Christians, is repeating history, and will fall upon his own sword, and it shall pierce him through. Let him remember this when, in the dark recesses of thought, he is robbing, committing adultery, and killing; when he is attempting to turn friend away from friend, ruthlessly stabbing the quivering heart; when he is clipping the thread of life, and giving to the grave youth and its rainbow hues; when he is turning back the reviving sufferer to her bed of pain, clouding her first morning after years of night; and the Nemesis of that hour shall point to the tyrant's fate, who falls at length upon the sword of justice.
In warfare with error we attack with intent to kill, and the wounded or cornered beast turns on its assailant. Error bites the heel while we are wounding its head. The Revelator saw this hour, but he also saw wisdom and virtue enthroned, holding converse with men, and she stood in open enmity with the “strange woman,” or the sensuous attractions, for wisdom and purity are the central group of Christianity.
We have found it important to uncover sin in order to destroy it; and if the sinner hates you for this, it is because he is unwilling to reform. When pioneering a reform, the merits of our measures, and the truth we advocate, must be understood before we are understood. The birth of a great idea comes with pain and travail; in its infancy, we have toil and sacrifice; in its advancing stages, envy and rivalry; but when our nursling is menaced we clasp it more tenderly, and when he is a man he speaks for himself and mother.
Nothing save dishonesty in the individual that comprehends in the least metaphysical science could prompt him to practise mesmerism and call it metaphysics.
There is but one possible way of doing evil through a mental method of treating disease, and this is mesmerism, that controls the mind with error instead of Truth. Whoever has witnessed the exhibitions of mesmerism has seen it stiffen a joint, suspend thought, produce pain, and move the individual mind to whatever issues intended, proving beyond a doubt that by mortal mind alone the body can be affected injuriously. It is a law of metaphysics that the truth relating to health and being, when brought to bear upon mortal mind, acts favorably upon the body. The mental malpractioner disregards the stern moral rules of metaphysics, and employs only that portion of our system which relates to the power of mind over the body, and misuses that. Perverting the best method brings out the worst, even its opposite. It is not generally understood how to prevent the bad effects of mesmerism, or known what is producing these effects. If the right mental practice can restore health, as is proven beyond a question, it is self-evident that the malpractice can impair the health of those ignorant of the cause and how to treat it. But whoever attempts this malpractice will destroy his ability in metaphysics.
The physician would be condemned for adulterating his medicine. Remember the medicine of metaphysics is mind, and dishonesty, sensuality, falsehood, and revenge are not the ingredients of mind that heal the sick. The mesmerist employs one belief to destroy another belief; therefore, if he heals the sick according to belief, it is the bigger error healing the lesser, and occupying the ground itself, leaving the case worse than it found it, grasped in the power of the strongest error.
The mesmerizer can help his patient only through the power of his will, and not the power of Truth; therefore a bad effect can only follow his practice. Talking right and acting wrong is not metaphysics whereby Truth heals the sick; such a position is the very opposite of Truth, and will show itself in results on the sick. If they improve at first under such treatment the cases will relapse and be more difficult to cure than at first. To control mind from sinister motives destroys your power to heal from the right motive. If you had the inclination and power to malpractise, the science of metaphysics would destroy them both. A mental malpractioner has never understood metaphysics, and cannot demonstrate it. Physical methods of malice often show themselves and defeat their own purposes; falsehoods uttered aloud can be met with rebutting testimony; but a silent mental process of impregnating into the mind, and thence into the body, suffering, disease, fear, hatred, sensuality, etc., is “Satan let loose,” the sin that “standeth in holy places,” more subtle than all other beasts of the field, a crime at which every one should shudder either to become the victim or the perpetrator. We hope the years that we have labored to help the human race through the curative agent of mind have also furnished the means to stop this trespass on mental healing.
Having traversed faithfully the realm of metaphysics, and found in this field of inquiry the mental cause and its physical effect, we ought to understand, and do, what we are saying. You would not deny the mathematician the right to say what has wrought an example incorrectly, or deny the musician who gives the true tone the ability to detect the discord.
Mortal mind affects the body to good or bad results, and has found a way of reaching other minds, and governing the body, unknown to the individual, as directly, and with more certainty, than the mesmerist who comes honestly before the footlights with his performance.
If one decent deed is done by the mental malpractioner, ten that are terrible are also done; and if one disease is allayed by this mental outlaw, another one, more dangerous is induced. Mesmerism is practised both with and without manipulation; but the evil deed without a sign is also done by the manipulator and mental malpractioner.
Without doubt there are honest individuals practising mesmerism, not knowing their method is unsafe. But those are not the dangerous doctors of whom we speak. It is the malicious mesmerist, the mental malpractitioner, to whom we refer, that avails himself of a secret method on every occasion or on any to influence the mind in the direction that envy, vanity, avarice, sensuality, or revenge dictates. We have little faith in a mental practitioner who does not come under the most solemn restraint in his practice. The real metaphysician alone is safe from the encroachment of this mental power, released to do good, when it is turned to the opposite practice of mesmerism. The exhibitor of this barefaced insolence of mesmerism shocks you with his much ado about nothing, but is satisfied to take his fee and retire. The secret mental assassin stalks abroad, and needs to be branded to be known in what he is doing. Why we take so few students is because of the great danger there is in promiscuously teaching metaphysics, or the power of mind to do good, lest it abuse that trust, forsake metaphysics, and this developed mental power becomes the steam of physics and the extracts and essences of evil. I shudder when I remember that God is just and see a student of metaphysics dare, for the petty consideration of money, teach his slight knowledge, and perhaps his want of it, to all whom he can obtain for hearers, even when he knows the danger of doing this before the community is prepared for self-defence. Since ever we have been in the metaphysical field we have had but a little over two hundred pupils, and but three of these are known malpractioners; and never but one of our students have yet passed the change called death.
The hue of the individual mind is reflected on the patient. The effects of the truth he utters and the error he indulges are both communicated from the practitioner, and their effect on the sick tells which predominates. The sick cannot afford to risk the effects of mesmerism because it has appeared to help them. What is termed material poisons produce present relief, but you admit they are dangerous in the final result. There are certain self-evident facts; this is one of them: that whoever practises the metaphysics we teach, through which the divine Mind pours in upon the age light and healing, cannot malpractise.
As metaphysics is understood, the thoughts that mortal mind embraces envy, malice, hate, etc., will be laid bare, and the evil intent cannot be hidden. We can even now plainly see the individual with the thought or evil intent that he sends forth; he cannot hide from us now when he is trying to produce sickness or work an evil result. Hence the strenuous arguments of the malpractioner to separate us from our students to prevent the benefit of this knowledge being communicated to them; and the more confidence he has in his power to injure them if he succeeds in doing it. If he can keep one ignorant of what he is trying to do, and with his arguments make them believe be is not trying to influence his thoughts and conclusions, the mesmerist is satisfied to work on, having faith in the results.
There is another evil prevailing in our land, to which it is our duty to allude; namely, the ignorant verdict of clairvoyance. We would not be understood as censuring the individual, but the mistake. None should suppose the guessing of this class harmless, or that their descriptions and private verdict, perhaps imperilling the character, the liberty, or life of a fellow-being, has no effect upon the community. The evidence or testimony of clairvoyance is not reliable, being based on the uncertain foundation of mortal beliefs and opinions, and governed by other minds instead of fixed facts.
The evidence was clear that mind alone killed the felon on whom the Oxford students experimented twenty-five years ago. This evidence of the power that mind exercises over the body has accumulated in weight and clearness until it culminates at this period in scientific statement and proof. Our courts recognize the evidence that goes to prove the committal of a crime; then, if it be clear that the mind of one mortal has killed another, is not the mind proved a murderer, and shall not the man be sentenced whose mind, with malice aforethought, kills? His hands, without mind to aid them, could not murder; but it is proven that his mind, without the aid of his hands, has killed. Our courts examine, judge, and sentence mind, not matter. Our legislators enact laws to govern mind, not matter, to restrain evil in the mind of man, to prevent it from deeds of violence, and to punish those deeds. To say, then, that our courts have no jurisdiction over mind contradicts precedents and admits their power limited to matter, and mind an outlaw that defies justice. But, we ask, can matter commit a crime, can matter be punished, and can you separate mind from that over which our courts hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, and not matter, is the criminal in every case, and law defines, and the court sentences, crime according to the motive.
Those words of Judge Parmenter, at the decision of a case in Boston, are destined to become historic. He said: “I see no reason why metaphysics are not as important to medicine as to mechanics or mathematics. The crimes committed mentally are drifting the age towards self-defence; we hope the method it adopts will be more humane than in periods past. The re-establishment of the Christian era, or the mediæval period of metaphysics, will be one of moderation and peace; but the reinauguration of this period will be met with demonology, or the unlicensed cruelty of mortal mind, that will compel mankind to learn metaphysics for a refuge and defence. Then shall be fulfilled the Scripture, ‘The wrath of man shall praise Thee, and the remainder thereof Thou shalt restrain.’ The individual who employs his developed mental powers, like an escaped felon, to commit atrocities according to opportunity, is safe at no period. God hath laid his hand upon him, justice is manacling him. Behold the cloud ‘no bigger than a man's hand,’ rising in the horizon of Truth, to pour down upon his guilty head the hailstones of doom. The millstones of envy and malice are weighing down that mortal mind to the depths of its evil nature, where the cankering chains of sin will hold it until suffering balances the account, loosens their cold clasp, subdues the perverse will, and quenches in agony the fires of remorse. Aggravation of error foretells its doom, repeating the pagan opinion, “Whom the gods destroy they first make mad.”
From physics to metaphysics is full many a league in the line of light, but from the use of inanimate drugs to pass to the misuse of mortal mind, is to drop from the platform of manhood into the mire of folly and iniquity. To reckon against the course of honesty and humility is to push against the current that runs heavenward. Let the age that sits in judgment on the occult science of Mind sanction only such methods as are demonstrable science, and classify with St. Paul, — “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, idolatry, variance, emulations, wrath, WITCHCRAFT.”