PHINEAS P. QUIMBY: THE MODERN WORLD’S FIRST TRUE PSYCHOANALYST

PHINEAS P. QUIMBYThe Modern World's First True

Psychoanalyst

Presented by

Dr Ian Ellis-JonesWellness Instructor and PractitionerLegal Practitioner, Educator and Trainer

Minister of Religion, Consultant and Author

The basis and technique of all metaphysical healing and spiritual mind

treatment …

‘You shall decree a thing, and it shall beestablished for you.’ Job 22:28.

‘He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.’ Psalms 107:20.

‘It is true unto me according to the Word of God.’ Psalms 119:25.

‘Death and life are in the power of the tongue.’ Proverbs 18:21.

‘He calls those things which are notas though they were.’ Romans 4:17.

William James on New Thought …

… the American people’s ‘only

decidedly original contribution to the

systematic philosophy

of life.’– Professor William James.

William James on New Thought …

'the religion of healthy-

mindedness'- William James,

The Varietiesof Religious Experience.

William James on New Thought

The greatest discovery of my generation is

that man can alter his life simply by altering his attitude of mind.- William James.

New Thought …

New Thought made its

appearance in New England USA

about 1800-1825 in the form of a

revival of Neoplatonism

New Thought …

Neoplatonism a religious philosophy a form of idealistic

monism … everything exists in or to

minds ... or as 'Mind' all reality is of the same

substance---mental the physical world is

produced by the mind we experience the

physical world through the medium of ideas … and not directly

New Thought …

‘The one most important realization of all is that there is One Mind of God, and that the human mind conscious and subjective, is the gift of Divine Mind for use in a personal way. In truth the individual mind is like a wave on the surface of the ocean, one of millions of similar waves. Each wave is an individual in itself, but one with every other wave in the deeps of the ocean. The water of the wave is the water of the ocean. …

… cont’d

New Thought …

… cont’d

‘The creative power of mind in man is the same as the creative power of God. He projects universes in Divine imagining; we project our limited creativeness in the tiny self and our civilization, but we use the same power.’

- Bro Mandus (1907 - 1988)Crusader, October 1960.

Bro Mandus was the founder

of the World Healing Crusade.

New Thought …

Neoplatonism

… the Universe is the Infinite Utterance of one of an infinite number of Infinite Thoughts, which

cannot but emanate from an Infinite and Thinking Source.

New Thought …

Neoplatonism the primeval Source of Being is the One and the Infinite … the source of all life absolute causality the only real existence.

New Thought …

Neoplatonism the high origin of the human soul …

its departure from its first estate

the way by which the soul may again return to the Eternal and Supreme … the Infinite One.

New Thought …

For this is the dream divine that has dawned: Man, as a part Of the unified Whole, A throb in the heart Of the Cosmical Soul,In the All-Life, shall life beyond.

- from In the Gardens of God (1904)by James Arthur Edgerton.

New Thought …

Numerous people … despite their individual differences … were:

in rebellion against the then current Calvinism … which had for so long ruled New

England religious thought in reaction against the religious

skepticism of the previous century(the 'American Enlightenment')

interested in Eastern religions, mysticism and ‘alternative healing’

New Thought …

A new interest in esoteric Christology also emergedin the 19th century …

New Thought …

‘Spirits in rebellion’ … the spokespeople of this

movement ‘were and are actually in rebellion, even

though they regard themselves as

the true proponents oforiginal Christianity’

(Martin A Larson,New Thought Religion)

New Thought …

The name New Thought – aka Metaphysics and

the Metaphysical Movement –

was taken in the 1890s … generally replacing such names as ‘Mind

Cure’and ‘Mental Science’.

New Thought …

‘New Thought … is not so much an organization as it is a point of view.’ – C S Braden, These Also Believe (New York: Macmillan, 1949), p 143.

New Thought …

New Thoughtis essentially a diverse

and non-creedal mind-healing spiritual and

metaphysical philosophy and

movement … as well as a way of life …

Ralph Waldo Emerson …

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) …Unitarian ministerTranscendentalistphilosopher, poet,

essayist the 'Sage of Concord' the spiritual father of

New Thought

Ralph Waldo Emerson …

'God is one and omnipotent. Man is the noblest work of God.''As a plant upon the earth, so a man rests upon the bosom of God; he is nourished by unfailing fountains, and draws, at his need, inexhaustible power. Who can set bounds to the possibilities of man? Once inhale the upper air, being admitted to behold the absolute natures of justice and truth, and we learn that man has access to the entire mind of the Creator, is himself the creator in the finite. …'

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

'… the thought is always prior to the fact.'

'A man is what he thinks about all day long.'

'They conquer who believe they can.'

‘Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.’

‘Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.’

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Theodore Parker

Theodore Parker (1810-1860) …American Unitarian minister and

Transcendentalistgreat social reformer and abolitionist

… his words and sayings had a great influence

on Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr

referred to God as ‘our Father and our Mother’ and in terms such as …

‘Perpetual Presence’ and ‘Infinite Presence who lives and moves and has Your being in all that is above us and around us and underneath us … [and] it is in You that we also live and move and have our being …’

Phineas P. Quimby

‘Phineas P. Quimby was one of those adventurers, more common perhaps in

the New World than the Old, who navigating the sea of knowledge without the charts and compass of education, end

alwaysby discovering to their own intimate

satisfaction results which have eluded the wisdom of the ages.’ – H. A. Fischer.

Phineas P. Quimby

Phineas P Quimby (1802-1866) …

'Father of New Thought'

The first true psychoanalyst

Phineas P. Quimby

‘the modern world's first true psychoanalyst’

(Dr Ervin Seale)

Alternative healing

Quimby's system of‘alternative’ healing

…a metaphysical form

ofinsight-oriented psychotherapy(together with

autosuggestion) …

The new psychology

… the beginningof the ‘New Psychology’and ‘Mental

Therapeutics’ …

Psychosomatic medicine

In addition,Quimby pavedthe way for …

the whole field of modern

psychosomaticmedicine …

Depth psychology

New Thought understood the

nature of functional illness long before depth psychology.

‘Park’

Phineas P Quimby …

Park to his friendsand neighbours

born Feb. 16, 1802, in Lebanon, New Hampshire

Maine clockmaker and inventor … little formal education

father, blacksmith

A healer in waiting …

Quimby developed tuberculosis … became disillusioned with the method of treatment

prescribed by his physician gave up hope of recovery.

A friend suggested that he take up a physical outdoor activity, such as horseback riding, to improve his condition.

His severe physical ailments prevented him from trying this suggestion … He tried the next best thing and embarked on carriage trips.

This produced remarkable results.His recovery prompted much thought on the matter.

The travelling hypnotist …

Phineas P Quimby attended a performance by

travelling French physician and mesmerist (Dr Robert Collyer), in Belfast ME, 1838

then decided that he too had a talent for inducing trances … began travelling with his partner

and prop, Lucius Burkmar … who would obediently fall into a

stupor during performances …

The travelling hypnotist

Under Quimby's control, Lucius Burkmar was supposedly able to … traverse time and space read minds diagnose illnesses among members of the audience prescribe herbal cures.Quimby saw the mental and placebo effect of the mind over the body … when medicines prescribed by Burkmar, with no physical value, cured patients of diseases.

Quimby the mesmerist …

Between 1843 and 1857 Quimby worked as a mesmerist … travelling with Lucius Burkmar through the

small towns of Maine and New Brunswick … lecturing giving exhibitions of mesmerism …

incl. as a sideshow attraction at county fairsinspired by the French mesmerist Charles Poyen (‘Professor of Animal Magnetism’) … who brought mesmerism to the USA

‘Life energy’

Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) attributed the effects produced to a supposed 'life energy' or 'fluid' or ethereal medium … believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings (i.e., those who breathe) he chose the word animal to

distinguish his supposed vital magnetic force from those referred to at that time as ‘mineral magnetism’, ‘cosmic magnetism’ and ‘planetary magnetism’.

The power of creation

‘Lucius [Burkmar] became the foil or mirror through which Quimby could observe the workings of mind---his own and that of others. He saw his ideas take form and concluded that the individual had the power of creation. Therefore oneself is the cause of one’s experience. There is no god to punish one. One’s reward and one’s punishment are in oneself.’ – Dr Ervin Seale, Mingling Minds: Phineas Parkhurst Quimby’s Science of Health and Happiness (DeVorss, 1986) pp 11-12.

Performing miracles …

‘Quimby has been doing miracles. He has cured a man that couldn’t walk nor speak.’ – Lucius Burkmar, writing in his daily journal.

Performing miracles …

‘Quimby, the great American healer, knew that when he thought of his patient he was in command

of the other person’s mind and body; then he contemplated his

divine perfection.He duplicated many of the miracles

recorded in the Bible. Quimby’s inner conviction that what was true of God was true of his patient was the word that he sent. He sent his

word and healed them [Ps 107:20].’– Dr Joseph Murphy,

How to Use Your Healing Power.

Opposition

Early in his career Quimby was occasionally made to feel unwelcome or even threatened with mobs as many observers felt

that his work bore too stark a resemblance to witchcraft.


‘One of my first objects was to ascertain what mind is; for if the mind dies with the body, then all the fuss and trouble of living and using our minds to be of importance, hereafter, would be of no value. So I made it my first object of inquiry. … When I first commenced operating on the mind I put persons into a mesmeric sleep … At last I found I could make my subjects read my thoughts and here was a new discovery.’


‘My first experiment was made before I knew what I wanted to prove. For when I put my subject [Lucius Burkmar] to sleep, after trying a few experiments, I thought I would leave; instantly the boy jumped up, went to the table and brought my hat. This was unexpected, but it was just what I wanted to know, if he could read my thoughts. … cont’d

Quimby the mesmerist

‘… At first I was all aback, but after recovering myself, I said to myself, If you will replace my hat on the table, I will stop a little longer. Without saying a word, he sprang up, took my hat and returned it to the table. Here was another fact I had gotten, not an opinion but a truth.’

Quimby the magnetist

Worked also as a ‘magnetist’ … but gradually began to doubt the theory of animal magnetism

changed his practice to mental healing through visualization

The magnetic doctor …

‘the magnetic “doctor” Quimby, the parent mental

healer of America, who after various experiments

believed that hehad discovered, in mental

control, the secret ofChrist’s healing power’– Georgine Milmine.

The magnetic doctor

Quimby would place his hands on the sick patient’s head and abdomen … and

encourage ‘magnetic healing forces’ to flow

through them.

Animal magnetism

Animal magnetism … a term proposed by Franz

Mesmer in the 18th century …

the term 'magnetism' was adopted by analogy … referring to some interpersonal and general effects of reciprocal influence and/or entanglement Mesmer observed.

Magnetic force

The theory became the basis of treatment in Europe and the USA that was based on non-verbal elements such as …gazepasses (movements of the hands near the

body accompanied by intention of the operator)

mental elements (e.g. will and intention) and sometimes also the ‘laying on of

hands’.

Impact of magnetic healing

Magnetic healing was very popularinto the 19th century … a strong cultural impact.

From some of the practices of animal magnetism branched out …

Hypnotism Spiritualism New Thought, so-called ‘magnetic healing’ parapsychological research.

The ‘secret’ Quimby discovered …

‘… one thing Quimby had discovered was that people are

often healedby a little dose of psychology

and a big does of mesmerism.’– John H. Gerstner,

The Theology of the Major Cults(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1960).

The ‘secret’ Quimby discovered

‘[Quimby] had drawn certain conclusions about illness from his

experience with hypnotism, gradually moving into the field of curing the sick through reasoning

with them about the causesof their diseases.’

– Jewel Spangler Smaus,Mary Baker Eddy: The Golden Days (1966), p 136.

The founding father of New Thought

Quimby’s fame and alleged success as a healer grew …

He came to be seen as a respected medical clairvoyant … he disliked being referred to as a clairvoyant, faith healer,

mesmerizer, or spiritualist … although he maintained a lifelong interest in hypnosis

he preferred instead to be called a ‘healing physician’ or ‘mind healer’ … many Spiritualists consulted him … but he had no formal or

informal connection with Spiritualism.

He is now considered a---if not the---founding father of the ‘New Thought’ movement.

‘Quimbyism’

He opened a ‘Quimbyism’ practice in Salisbury MA many thousands of people sought his

services billed himself as ‘Dr. Phineas P. Quimby’

even though his education ended at grade school

and his only training was in clock repair. His methodology was, he said, based on

metaphysical and/or Christian precepts … taught that religious beliefs were at the

root of many physical illnesses.

Metaphysical healer

Phineas P Quimby … also influenced by ideas of

Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

became a metaphysical healer and lyceum circuit lecturer …little formal education

… but very widely read …

Religion and Christianity

Phineas P Quimby … not religious by orthodox

standards … suspicious of both orthodox medicine and established churches … yet often referred to Christianity in his teachings …

Jesus and ‘the Christ’

Phineas P Quimby … in the 1860s he distinguished, as the Egyptian Gnostic Cerinthus (c100 CE) had done, between Jesus and ‘the Christ’:

‘Jesus embodied . . . an intelligence called Christ, embracing all the attributes of man, and being a revelation of a higher wisdom than had before appeared on the earth.’ Phineas P. Quimby, essay, ‘The Body of Jesus and the Body of

Christ,’ Quimby Resource Center, 1863.

Mental healing and New Thought

Phineas P Quimby … his experiences and practices

of mental healing … in the field of (what has been called, somewhat disparagingly) ‘suggestive therapeutics’ … the real beginnings of and

foundation for New Thought …

Marvelous cures

‘Numerous tales of Quimby’s marvelous cures were circulated

among his patients, and his extreme confidence that

everyone could be cured was reassuring.’


Immense conviction

‘Quimby had immense conviction founded on his own experience of

success in changing bodily symptoms through cleansing a person’s mind. … [I]n a telling phrase, he said of himself

in an advertising circular:'in his explanation lies the cure.'’


Metaphysical healer …

Phineas P Quimby …well-known as a metaphysical (spiritual) healer in Portland, Maine … treated over 12,000 people in the last 8 years of his life …


Phineas P Quimby …first experimented with various physical remedies … the result was just the same regardless of the particular remedy …

thus, the healing lay NOT in the medicine but in the mind!


Phineas P Quimby …taught 'the explanation is the cure' …

One mind upon another

‘What [Mary Baker Eddy] did not realize at the time was the powerful role which mental suggestion was playing in [Quimby’s] cures. Quimby did not consider himself a mesmerist, but the influence of one mind upon another which he had learned so well in the hypnotic exhibitions remained the major factor in his method. The force of the clockmaker-hypnotist’s personality was felt by most who met him.’

– Jewel Spangler Smaus,Mary Baker Eddy: The Golden Days

(1966), p 137.


Phineas P Quimby …demonstrated that the human body … moves … as it is moved upon by the mind …


… that is, the body … acts as it is acted upon, and

becomes, in effect, a mirror of one's mind – a most important discovery!

The power of the imagination

‘I tell you a lie and you believe it, immediately your inventive power or imagination commences to create that which I have said. I explain the operation of a machine to you and your inventive power immediately creates it according as you understand it. This is the power of imagination. … I never use the word as others do. When people think they have a disease which I know they have not, I do not ascribe it to their imagination, but to the fact that they have been deceived.’ (P. P. Quimby)

The way of health and happiness

Wisdom (or the way of health and happiness) is the result of the proper and sensible use of one’s creative power

If you think on whatsoever things are true, beautiful, noble, exalted, and Godlike … one’s creative mind will respond accordingly … action and reaction

If one’s thoughts are wise, one’s actions will be wise.

‘What we believe, that we create’

Phineas P Quimby … ‘Man acts as he is acted

upon.’ ‘Man is belief expressed.’ ‘To believe is to act.’ ‘What we believe, that we

create.’ ‘To believe a thing is to

make it.’ ‘We create the enemy which

disturbs us.’


Phineas P Quimby … ‘Disease is the misery of our belief.

Happiness is the health of our wisdom.’ ‘A disease and an opinion are one and

the same.’ ‘Every thought contains a substance

either good or bad.’ ‘God never made any intelligent pain or

ache.’


Phineas P Quimby …God or Wisdom has never made

anything to torment mankind.’ ‘To know that you exist is nothing, but

to know what disturbs you is of great value to everyone.’

‘Man believes in heaven and hell as independent of himself [i.e. as distant localities], so he lives in hell all his life trying to get to heaven.’

Ideas, beliefs and opinions

in other words … our ideas, beliefs and opinions activate our mind and condition us

mind is simply a medium for ideas and impressions …both a receiver and a transmitter of impressions

we become an expression of our beliefs.

Ideas take form

‘I discovered that ideastook form and the

patient was affected just according to the

impression containedin the idea.’

Rigid and obsessional thinking

Impressions → assumptions and presumptions

Assumptions and presumptions → beliefs

Beliefs harden into obsessions and other rigid, even fixed, states of mind

All such thinking is … a process of fixation … ‘attaching one’s senses to an idea’ (Quimby).

The mischief of belief …

‘The question is often asked why I talk about religion and quote Scripture while I cure the sick. My answer is that sickness being what follows a belief the belief contains the evil which I must correct. As I do this a chemical change takes place. Disease is an error the only remedy for which is the truth. The fear of what will come after death is the beginning of man's troubles, for he tries to get evidence that he will be happy, and the fear that he will never arrive at happiness makes him miserable. … cont’d

The mischief of belief

‘The facts prove that what we believe may follow. We really believe in disease, hence it is the result of our belief. People never seem to have thought that they are responsible for their belief. To analyze their beliefs is to know themselves, which is the greatest study of man. All theories for the happiness of man contain more misery than happiness, either directly or indirectly. To destroy the beliefs of man is to leave him where God left him: to work out happiness by His own wisdom. One half of the diseases arise from a false belief in the Bible. It may seem strange that the belief in the Bible affects us, yet every belief affects us more or less, directly or indirectly.’

‘Mind over matter’

NOT a teaching of Quimby, but a ‘derived teaching’ … cf Mrs Julius [Annetta] Dresser,

author of The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby

Quimby did NOT divide mind from matter … but called mind ‘spiritual matter’

‘Mingling minds’

Phineas P Quimby … ‘Our minds mingle

like atmospheres, and each person has his identity in that atmosphere.’

‘Our atmospheres mingle’

‘Mind on mind’

Moods, feelings and beliefs

We are all immersed in a great pool of mind.

The moods, feelings, beliefs, etc, of others are impressed upon us …

The ‘race mind’ and ‘mass hypnosis’

Our mind is a great reservoir containing the mental experiences and reactions of the ages

BUT we can rise above …• the ‘race mind’• ‘mass hypnosis’.

‘My explanation is the cure’

‘My practice is unlike all medical practice. I give no medicine, and make no outward applications. I tell the patient his troubles, and what he thinks is his disease: and my explanation is the cure. …

‘The truth is the cure’

… If I succeed in correcting his errors, I change the fluids of the system and establish the truth, or health. The truth is the cure. This mode of practice applies to all cases.’

- Phineas P Quimby.

The higher power

‘There is no intelligence in anything that can be seen by the eye; one can

only see the working of intelligence in matter.’

‘There is no intelligence in the bodyor in the mind but only in the

higher power that governs them.’

Quimby’s ideas …

Horatio W. Dresser explained Quimby's ideas in a seven element list:1. The omnipresent Wisdom, the warm, loving Father of us all, Creator of all the universe, whose works are good, whose substance is an invisible reality.2. The real man, whose life is eternal in the invisible kingdom of God, whose senses are spiritual and function independently of matter.3. The visible world, which Dr Quimby once characterized as 'the shadow of Wisdom's amusements'; that is, nature is only the outward projection or manifestation of an inward activity far more real and enduring. … cont’d

Quimby’s ideas …

4. Spiritual matter, or fine interpenetrating substance, directly responsive to thought and subconsciously embodying in the flesh the fears, beliefs, hopes, errors, and joys of the mind. 5. Disease is due to false reasoning in regard to sensations, which man unwittingly develops by impressing wrong thoughts and mental pictures upon the subconscious spiritual matter.6. As disease is due to false reasoning, so health is due to knowledge of the truth. To remove disease permanently, it is necessary to know the cause, the error which led to it. 'The explanation is the cure.'7. To know the truth about life is therefore the sovereign remedy for all ills. This truth Jesus came to declare. Jesus knew how he cured and Dr Quimby, without taking any credit to himself as a discoverer, believed that he understood and practiced the same great truth or science.

Exposition of Quimby's method of healing …

‘A patient comes to see Dr. Quimby. He renders himself absent from everything but the impression of their feelings. These are quickly daguerreotyped on him. They contain no intelligence but shadow forth a reflection of themselves which he looks at. This contains the disease as it appears to the patient. Being confident that it is a shadow of a false idea, he is not afraid of it but laughs at it. Then his feelings in regard to the disease which are health and strength are daguerreotyped on the receptive plate of the patient which also throws forth a shadow. The patient seeing this shadow of the disease in a new light gains confidence. This change of feeling is daguerreotyped on the doctor again, which also throws forth a shadow and he sees the change and continues to treat it in the same way. So the patient's feelings sympathize with him. The shadow changes and grows dim and finally the light takes its place and there is nothing left of the disease.’ (P. P. Quimby)

Exposition of Quimby's method of healing

‘The nearest [Quimby] comes to a description of the process is in the following illustration …… 'Then [Quimby’s] feelings in regard

to the disease, which are health and strength, are daguerreotyped on the receptive-plate of the patient.'’

– Horatio Dresser, in The Quimby Manuscripts.

‘I tell them it is in their mind’

‘When I tell them how they feel, I tell them it is in their mind. This of course they do not believe. … [A] great many people think that I believe all disease is of the imagination but this is wrong. I always admit disease for it is what I feel and that is real.’ (P. P. Quimby)

What is ‘disease’? …

‘This deception I call the disease and the

effect that follows they [i.e. the medical doctors] call the

disease.’ (P. P. Quimby)

What is ‘disease’? …

Disease is ‘in the mind’ …in the sense that the symptoms in the flesh

(e.g. physical pain, bodily dysfunction) are the result and effect of a deception in the mind … ‘the shadow of a false idea’ (Quimby)

in the sense that what one is thinking may be making one, e.g., nervous, anxious, fearful, angry … THESE STATES OF MIND ARE ‘DIS-EASE’---THEY

PRODUCE DISEASE!but NOT in the sense that one is (necessarily)

thinking sickness per se

What is ‘disease’?

•Disease is ‘error’ …• only health is ‘truth’• The ‘disease’ isthe disturbed mind …• it is part of the person’s knowing.

• What is seen is always the result of something unseen.

What is ‘disease’?

‘Disease is what follows an opinion.It is made up of mind directed

by error and truth is thedestruction of an opinion.’‘A truth to a person who

cannot understand it is a belief.’‘Our misery comes from our belief,

not the thing believed.’

Is there a place for medicine? …

‘I believe that there is virtue in medicine, which, when taken by the patient, conveys impressions to the mind and these impressions often

result in theentire restoration of health.’

‘The true design of all medicine is tolead the mind to certain results and

then it, the mind, will restore the body.’

Is there a place for medicine? …

‘By the action of my mind upon my patient in his waking state, I can

produce the same results which flow from the taking of medicine. I can produce an emetic or cathartic, a

dizziness or pain in the head, relieve pain in any part of the systemand restore patients by acting

directly upon their minds.’

Is there a place for medicine?

‘I never make war

with medicinebut [with] opinions.’

Disease is not independent of the person …

‘What we see [body, form, function, action, etc] has as much to do with the man as the engine of a steamboat

lying at a wharf in Portland with the intelligence of the

maker in New York.’

Disease is not independent of the person …

‘Did you ever see the liver complaint

walking aroundby itself?’

Disease is not independent of the person

‘So when I say the disease is in the

mind, I mean that it does not exist anywhere else.’

Distinction between ‘beliefs’ and the ‘Truth’

•Beliefs and opinions manifest and express

themselves automatically …

without ourconscious thought.


•Because we don’t detect the cause

within ourselves, we therefore suppose it

to be outside.


•Disease is never entirely, if at all, independentof the person.

His early experiments with Burkmar

‘What we believe, that we create.’

‘I found that not only my thoughts but also my beliefs

affected my subject. If I really believed a thing, the effect would

follow whetherI was thinking of it or not.’

The ‘white tablet’

The dominant mental atmosphere of the parents during the creative act …determines the type of

child that comes forth.A child is like a white

tablet on which anyone who

came along could write something …

An ‘old fiddle’

Quimby also said that children are like an old fiddle …Anyone can come along and strike a tune of them.

The conscious and subconscious minds

Quimby can be said to have ‘discovered’ the subconscious (unconscious) mind!

He understood that there were … two separate functions of the mind …

conscious and subconscious … a remarkable discovery at

that time!‘Thoughts’ = the conscious function of mind‘Beliefs’ and ‘Opinions’ = the subconscious

function of mind

The subconscious mind

‘… man has an unconscious power that

is not admitted [i.e. known or realized] which

governs his acts.’- Phineas P. Quimby.

Two minds

There are two minds (or two ‘levels’ of mind) …the mesmerized state---aka the ‘excited’ state (or ‘subconscious’ or ‘subjective’ mind)

our ordinary waking mind---aka the ‘standard’ state (or ‘conscious’ or ‘objective’ mind).

The ‘argumentative method’ …

The Quimby ‘argumentative

method’ of healing(as described by Quimby’s son

George):

‘to change the mind of a patient and disabuse it of its error and establish truth in its place, which, if done, was the cure.’


The Quimby ‘argumentative method’ of healing

‘Can a theory be found capable of practice which can separate Truth from error? I undertake to say there is a method of reasoning which, being understood, can separate one from the other. Man is made up of truth and belief and if he is deceived into a belief that he has or is liable to have a disease, the belief is catching and the effect follows it.’ - Phineas P Quimby.


The Quimby ‘argumentative

method’ of healing …spiritual reasoning …

you convince the patient and yourself that the sickness is due to: false beliefs groundless fears negative patterns in the

subconscious mind …

The ‘argumentative method’

The Quimby ‘argumentativemethod’ of healing …

spiritual reasoning … you explain that the basis of all healing is

… a change of belief you ‘build up’ evidence for the healing

power within you render a verdict in the ‘courthouse’ of

the mind … in favour of yourself and the patient.

The use of water

As Quimby worked with a patient, he often: dipped his hands in a bowl of water, and rubbed the person’s head,

or asked the patient to drink a glass of water.

Sometimes he simply talked with the patient .. firmly explaining his views of the way the

mind worked on the body … producing heat and cold, pain in this place or

that.

The method

Referring to himself characteristically in the third person, Quimby once wrote:‘In this way, Quimby went on taking up and explaining almost every idea [the patient] ever had and putting a different construction, till R. thought he did not know anything.’

The ‘absolute method’ …

The Quimby ‘absolute method’ of healing …

used by Quimby in the latter years of his healing career …you mention the name of the patient …

The ‘absolute method’ …

The Quimby ‘absolutemethod’ of healing …

you contemplate the qualities and attributes of God … you silently think of God as …

Infinite IntelligenceBoundless Lovethe Source and Restorer of Perfect Health, etc …

The ‘absolute method’

The Quimby ‘absolutemethod’ of healing …

you feel and envision … the Power and Love of God …

being focused on the patient.

The Quimby ‘psychoanalytic’ method

Quimby did not ask the patient questions.He did not encourage the patient to

‘babble’ about his complaints.He told the patient how he felt and why.He ‘read’ the patient’s mental and psychic

state.He used his imagination constructively

… and taught others how to do the same.

God and Jesus

'Everyman is a part of God, just so far as he is wisdom.''Jesus was the man who brought the true light or Christ to light. Christ was His religion, the God in Him. … What truth did Jesus come to bring to the world? One simple fact that man is a progressive being, that his happiness and misery are of his own make … .'

- Phineas P Quimby.

The power of suggestion

‘The suggestion you give to

another, youare giving to

yourself.’– Phineas P Quimby.

The power of suggestion

‘The cure depends on your faith. Your faith

is what you receive

from me.’– Phineas P Quimby.

Quimby on prayer …

It’s like a defence lawyer pleading the

case before the judge … showing their client to be a victim of lies

andfalse beliefs …

Quimby on prayer …

SO, AFFIRM THE TRUTH …DENY THE FALSE.

YOU ARE THE JUDGE.YOU RENDER

YOUR OWN VERDICT!

Quimby in action …

from The Quimby Manuscripts

Quimby once called on a woman who was: aged lame bound down on crutches …


The cause of the ailment …The woman was imprisoned by a creed so small and contracted that … she could not …

stand upright or move ahead …


The cause of the ailment …She was living in a tomb of fear and ignorance … She took the Bible literally …and it frightened her!


In this tomb, the presence of God was trying to …burst the barsbreak through the bands

rise from the dead!


Quimby diagnosed her case as …a mind cloudy and stagnated due to excitation and fear …


… caused by her inability to see

clearly the meaning of the

scriptural passages she had been

reading.


This condition showed itself in her body by …a heavy and sluggish feeling … which would terminate in paralysis.


Quimby asked the woman what was meant by this Bible verse …‘Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.’ (Jn 7:33)


She replied: ‘It means that Jesus went to heaven’ …


Quimby made plain what the passage really meant by interpreting that being with her ‘a little while’ meant his explanation of her symptoms, feelings, and their cause … that is, he had compassion and sympathy for

her momentarily … but he could not remain in that mental state

…


The next step? …to go to ‘him that sent me’ … which is the presence of God in all persons …


Quimby then travelled in his mind and …contemplated perfect health … which is a part of God …


He said to the woman:‘Therefore, where I

go, you cannot come, for you are in

Calvin's* belief, and I am in health.’

* Calvinists, for the most part, considered the New Testament healings the evidence of ‘miraculous powers’ of ‘temporary duration’.


This explanation produced …an instantaneous sensation in the woman … a change came over her mind …


The sign of demonstration (or answer to prayer)

occurs as ‘a feeling of rest from striving, a feeling that after all you no longer want

it, since subjectively it is done. There is a let down

because the creative act has been accomplished. It is

finished.’ (Dr Joseph Murphy)


The old woman walked …without her crutches!


She had been, as it were, dead in error …

To bring her to life or truth was … to raise her from the dead.


Quimby:

‘I quoted the resurrection of Christ and applied it to her own Christ or health;

it produced a powerful effect on

her.’

The power of the indwelling healing Christ

‘Quimby quoted the resurrection of Christ and applied it to her own Christ or health; this produced a powerful effect on her. He also

explained to her that the truth which she accepted was the angel or idea which rolled away the stone

of fear, ignorance, and superstition, thereby, releasing the healing power of God

which made her whole.’- Dr Joseph Murphy,

The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.

His exalted mood

‘Quimby took on all the challenges, sickness, and lacks of all kinds. He was able to stop in its tracks the thing which his quaking patients feared would come upon them. He introduced in the field of consciousness man operating from an exalted, Godlike state of consciousness. He was full of grace (wisdom and love) and understanding. His exalted mood brought about an electronic introduction of grace and confidence in his patients who reported blessings, healings, and gifts divine from the One Source. The vibrations of fear could not and did not persist in the mental atmosphere of such a worker.’ – Dr Joseph Murphy.

‘Christian Science’ …

Phineas P Quimby used the phrase ‘Christian Science’ as early as 1863 …

He also referred to his method of healing as … the ‘Science of Christ’, ‘Christ Science’ and

‘The Quimby System’

‘Christian Science’

Presbyterian minister William Adams had previously used the term 'Christian Science' before Quimby …in his book The Elements of Christian Science (1st ed, 1850; later ed, 1857).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:William_Adams_(minister).jpg

Quimby the author

Phineas P. QuimbyAuthor of the books …Questions and Answers (1862).The Quimby Manuscripts (1921, posthumous).Immanuel (1960, posthumous).The Complete Writings of P. P. Quimby (1988, posthumous).

See also Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: The Complete Writings, 3 vols (DeVorss), ed. by Ervin Seale.

His last hour on earth

An hour before he breathed his last, Quimby said to his son:

‘I am more than ever convinced of the truth of my theory. I am perfectly willing for the change myself, but I know you all will feel badly, and think I am dead; but I know that I shall be right here with you, just as I always have been. I do not dread the change any more than if I were going on a trip to Philadelphia.’

His mission

‘It is to the sick and not

to the well, that this is written; to open their eyes, so that they can

see how they havebeen deceived.’

~ Phineas P. Quimby.

Transmission of the teachings

Phineas P Quimby transmitted his ideas and methods to a number of his patients, among them:Warren Felt EvansMary Baker Eddy … then Mary Morse Patterson

Julius A and Annetta (Seabury) Dresser

Warren Felt Evans …

Warren Felt Evans (1817-1889) … Methodist, later Swedenborgian,

minister of religion ... had been healed by Quimby

'the first real philosopher of New Thought' … and the first person to give literary form to New Thought

‘the recording angel of metaphysics’ (Vahle)

pioneer writer of New Thought wrote 2 books on 'Quimbyism' before

Mary Baker Eddy published her Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in 1875

Warren Felt Evans …

Warren Felt Evans (1817-1889) …'Disease being in its root a wrong belief. Change that belief and we cure the disease. By faith we were thus made whole … .' - The Mental Cure.'Everything exists for us in thought. That of which we do not think has for us no existence.' - Esoteric Christianity, 1886.

Warren Felt Evans

The ‘key’ to all spiritual healing … according to Dr Evans

‘My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being

unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as

yet there was none of them.’ Ps 139:15-16.___________________________________________

The Living Intelligence ... the Creator of the body …has ‘a pattern and prototype’ (Dr Joseph Murphy)

of all organs, cells, tissues, etc … and can therefore remakeand re-create anything damaged in the body.

Mary Baker Eddy …

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) …

treated by Quimby in 1862 … made attempts to help others through

Quimby’s method … once even gave a public lecture on the

subject author of Science and Health with Key

to the Scriptures (1st ed, 1875) founder of the Church of Christ,

Scientist (Christian Science), 1879 founder of the independent, non-

denominational daily newspaper The Christian Science Monitor …

'Stand porter at the door of thought.'

Quimby treats Mrs Eddy (then Mrs Patterson)

‘… So he rubbed Mrs Patterson’s head after putting his hands in water, and then put her to sleep. When she awoke, all sickness was gone.’

– John H. Gerstner,The Theology of the Major Cults

(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1960).

Quimby treats Mrs Eddy (then Mrs Patterson)

‘Encouraged by Mr Quimby to expect a healing, Mrs Eddy did at first obtain temporary help, but she soon suffered a relapse, and later realized that whatever benefit she received was due more to her own faith in God than in Mr Quimby’s forceful assurances and head manipulations. As a matter of fact, the basis of Eddy’s lifelong researches had been along spiritual lines and while willing to concede only the highest motives to Mr Quimby, she came to understand how essentially foreign to his doctrine were the things that she held sacred. …’

- Irving C. TomlinsonTwelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy:

Recollections and Experiences(Boston: The Christian SciencePublishing Society, 1945), p 34.

Eddy on Quimby …

‘P. P. Quimby stands upon the plane of wisdom with his truth. Christ healed the sick, but not by jugglery or with drugs. As the former speaks as never man before spake, and heals as never man healed since. Christ, is he not identified with truth, and is not this the Christ which is in him? We know that in wisdom is life, “and the life was the light of man.” P. P. Quimby rolls away the stone from the sepulchre of error, and health is the resurrection. But we also know that “light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.”’ – Mary Baker Eddy (then Mary M. Patterson), in a letter to the Portland Courier, c1862, quoted in The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science, by Willa Cather and Georgine Milmine, p 60.

Eddy on Quimby

‘[Quimby] was a humanitarian … He was somewhat of a remarkable healer, and at the time we knew him he was known as a mesmerist. We were one of his patients. He manipulated his patients, but possibly back of his practice he had a theory in advance of his method and, as we now understand it, and have since discovered, he mingled that theory with mesmerism. …’ – Mary Baker Eddy, quoted in Mary Baker Eddy: A Biography (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1963), by Norman Beasley, on p 101.

The Dressers …

Julius A Dresser(1838-1893)

Annetta (Seabury) Dresser(1843-1935)

The Dressers …

Julius A Dresser Dresser and Annetta (Seabury) Dressercontinued more directly in the tradition of Quimby himself

the first to formally organize what was to become known in time as the 'New Thought Movement'

competed with Mary Baker Eddy

The Dressers …

'To realize that our real life is spiritual was to

overcome the illusions of sense-experience with its

manifold bondages.'- Julius A Dresser.

The Dressers …

• Son Horatio W Dresser(1866-1954) continued his parents’ work the first 'historian of the

New Thought Movement' published many books on

New Thought as well as editing The Quimby Manuscripts (1921)

The Dressers …

Warren Felt Evans and Julius A Dresser gave systematic form to Quimby’s ideas the intellectual founders of New Thought and its allied movements

the most influential figures in the actual organization of the movement which came to be known as New Thought.

Eddy and Quimby …

Both Christian Science and New Thought in all of its various forms have their origins in Quimby’s ideas …

Mary Baker Eddy … developed her own highly

individualistic, even idiosyncratic, version of Quimby’s ideas and methods …

would later claim to have been the 'discoverer' and 'founder' of those ideas and methods … … disparagingly referring to the late P.

P. Quimby as an ‘unlearned man’.

Eddy and Quimby …

Mary Baker Eddyclaimed to have 'discovered' Christian Science in 1866 … … less than a month after

the death of P. P. Quimby on Jan. 16, 1866

The matter went to the courts in 1883 …

Eddy and Quimby …

Suit was won by Mary Baker Eddy … but only because …

Quimby’s son George A. Quimby would not permit the 'Quimby Manuscripts' to be taken to court.

The other party to the proceedings (a former student of Eddy’s) was impecunious.

Eddy and Quimby …

‘The religion which [Mrs Eddy] teaches certainly is hers, for which I cannot be too thankful; for I should be loath to go down to my grave feeling that my father was in any way connected with “Christian Science”.’ – George A. Quimby, quoted in Mary Baker Eddy: A Biography (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1963), by Norman Beasley, on p 103.

Eddy and Quimby …

The Quimby Manuscripts published in 1921

Horatio W Dresser (ed)

Mary Baker Eddy got most of her

essential ideas from Quimby

guilty of plagiarism

Eddy and Quimby …

Mrs Eddy also copied extensively from the writings of the German idealist philosopher Hegel … 1875 edition of Eddy's Science

and Health … 33 pages verbatim and 100 pages in substance … from Dr Francis Leiber’s manuscript ‘The Metaphysical Religion of Hegel’ … to which Mrs Eddy had access.

Christian Science … on New Thought

‘[New Thought affirms] the false belief that there is a supposititious opposite of the one Mind, existing independently instead of as simply the negation of the one Mind.’

‘NEW THOUGHT is the belief that one mind, through its thinking, can control and benefit another mind. ‘If, for the moment, the control seems to be good, that does not in any way change the evil of it. If you have one mind controlling another, you have two minds, and such a premise denies the allness of God as the one and only Mind. …


…‘The acceptance of more than one Mind embraces the full measure of evil, for if God is not all, then evil is something. ‘New Thought is the negation of the First Commandment, “I am the Lord thy God . . . . Thou shalt have no other gods before me” [Ex 20: 2, 3] - no other mind beside the one Ego, the one I, the one Mind.’ – Herbert W. Eustace, CSB, in Christian Science: Its ‘Clear, Correct Teaching’ and Complete Writings.


According to Christian Science, Quimby’s theory and method is based on:• the power of suggestion … • mind over matter (but not God over suppositional ‘matter’)• one human mind transferring its thoughts to another human mind,

thereby affecting the body in some way• mental cause and effect• the ‘human mind sense of government’*• and also the ‘manipulation of the head’**

Christian Science theory and method is said to be based on:• ‘spiritual understanding based on the One Mind’s omnipotence’*• Divine Mind (the Mind which was in Christ Jesus), not human mind or

human will, does the healing• spiritual cause and effect, not based on any aspect of physicality

* Irving C. Tomlinson, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy: Recollections and Experiences (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1945), p 34.** Norman Beasley, Mary Baker Eddy: A Biography (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1963), p 35.

Eddy and Quimby

Mary Baker Eddy died on 3 December 1910.

There's no truth to the persistent rumour that a telephone was installed in her tomb in case she returned to life.

The story arose from a phone line that was installed temporarily for watchmen at the site.

Eddy and Hopkins

However, there is avery real connection between Mary Baker

Eddy and the New Thought Movement …

Much of New Thought filtered down through

Eddy by means of one of her former pupils …

Emma Curtis Hopkins

Emma Curtis Hopkins

Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849-1925)

known as the 'Teacher of Teachers' inspired by the medieval mystic

Joachim of Fiore broke from Mary Baker Eddy …

'When we are spiritual, we do not try to bring great things to pass, yet they come to pass. The most wonderful achievements of mankind have been brought to pass by confidence in some wonder-working unseen power.‘ (Emma Curtis Hopkins)

Emma Curtis Hopkins

Emma Curtis Hopkins(1849-1925) …

brought together and focused the national New Thought movement in 1886-88 with the base in Chicago

then transmitted her ideas and methods to a number of students who would later become the founders of all of the major New Thought denominations, centres and schools, including …

The transmission of the teachings… ever onwards and upwards

Malinda E Cramer (c1846-1906) and Nona L Brooks (1861-1945) … who founded Divine Science

Charles (1854-1948) and Myrtle (1845-1931) Fillmore … who founded Unity (formerly known as the Unity School of

Christianity) Ernest Holmes (1887-1960) …

who founded the Centers for Spiritual Living (formerly known as the United Church of Religious Science)

H. Emilie Cady (1848-1941) … who wrote Lessons in Truth and other seminal New Thought texts

Annie Rix Militz (1856-1924) … who founded The Home of Truth

W. John Murray (1865-1925) … who founded The Church of the Healing Christ in NYC in 1906 …

the largest New Thought church in that city for some time. (Note. Emmet Fox was the pastor of that church from 1932 to 1951.)

The End

Copyright © 2013

Ian Ellis-JonesAll Rights Reserved.

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PHINEAS P. QUIMBY: THE MODERN WORLD’S FIRST TRUE PSYCHOANALYST

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