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(August 1892)
Publications:
- The Path, vol. VII, no. 5, August 1892, pp. 136-42
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CTD entry in Russian: Кортрайт, Эллис - Несколько заблуждений метафизического лечения
DATA
Title for references: Kortright E - Some Fallacies of Metaphysical Healing
Short description: Reviewing the handbooks and reported practice of "Metaphysical Healing" or "Divine Science" in syste...
136In a previous paper attention was called from the standpoint of Theosophy, and particularly in relation to the teaching of Karma, to what is known as Metaphysical Healing, an analogy having then been drawn between the methods employed in this system and the similar ones used in hypnotic experimentation, to which the Mental Cure so popular in this country is apparently near enough of kin to be accounted cousin-german. From a sense of the urgency of the subject, a danger signal was hoisted for the warning of advocates of the psychopathic theory of treating disease, hinting that extremely hazardous results might accrue from the evocation of the finer natural forces, the manipulation and mastery of which are absolutely unknown to the majority. The view now to be taken is that of any unbiassed student and observer to whose notice has been presented the system of religion and philosophy called Spiritual Healing, first in its aspect of theoretical, and then of practical fallacy, as exhibited in its text-books and in its records of practice.
The first and most glaring fallacy of the whole system of psychopathic treatment is that either a philosophy or a religion is a necessary adjunct to a successful result, which mistaken assumption has 137led to the manufacture of a brand-new worship compounded in unequal portions of an exorbitant estimate of physical perfection, and a passionate, if ignorant, adoration of the power and function of Spirit or Mind, the strange assertions of this novel cultus resembling nothing hitherto known in the domain of either religion or philosophy.
From an exhaustive investigation of the tenets of the new school it is forcibly borne in upon the belief, that its theories are based rather on the instinctual and emotional than on the perceptive and intuitional order, — or, in other words, that its creed is more a matter of strong and passionate feeling as to the promised results, than of clear seeing as to the tendencies of the methods employed, or as to the drift of thought involved.
It is a well authenticated fact in the respective annals of both curers of bodies and of souls, as well as further attested in the provings of psychologists, that to effect a miracle whether of physical or spiritual healing, the application of any special dogma of religion or a particular theory of philosophy is sublimely immaterial, so long as the absolute requisite is present of a state of expectant attention highly sensitive to suggestibility. Who has not heard the story of Sir Humphrey Davy with his thermometer poked down the throat of a paralytic patient, who straightway proclaimed himself greatly benefited thereby, so that the treatment was continued for a fortnight till the lame could walk and leap again? Had the astute scientist discoursed to the invalid on his laborious researches and learned theories without calling in the aid of the little instrument which aroused the patient's curiosity and hope, thereby provoking the expectant state favorable to the reactionary processes of nature, it may well be doubted if so successful a result would have been brought about. A parallel case in the records of moral reformation is recounted of a listener to one of the eloquent Whitfield's open-air sermons, who was converted from a career of great wickedness to one of accredited saintliness, not by the orator's forcible denunciations of vice and exhortations to virtue, but by the magic word Mesopotamia, pronounced several successive times in the melting tones of the preacher, which so stirred the man to the very depths of his being that a complete inward revolution resulted, thus also affording an illustration of the potency of sound, which according to occult science is capable of effecting great changes in the vibratory currents in and around us.
It is therefore maintained that an inculcation of either religion or philosophy is irrelevant to a cure by the psychopathic process, any abracadabra string of illiterate words, or even mere gib138berish, sufficing to centre the attention and call up the requisite conditions for the strongly-applied suggestion to take effect, just as in the frankly avowed forms of Hypnotism the gaze is directed to a glittering piece of metal, a bright light, or even to the tip-end of one's nose, for the similar purpose of inducing entire passivity in the subject.
Metaphysical Healers, however, claim that their system is a Spiritual Science based on an absolutely true philosophy of existence, acceptance of and conformity to which is indispensable to the desired boon of recovered health. Let us, then, consider seriatim some of the postulates of this new creed, which has for opening formula that "the true comprehension of man's relations to the Infinite is the secret of physical health."
It is impossible not to be struck on the very threshold of the inquiry by the disproportion of the means to the end. Here we are met by nothing short of a monopoly of the highest knowledge attainable by man, for what? For the improvement of the sordid conditions of moral degradation and besotted ignorance that baffle the wisdom and lacerate the feelings of the philanthropist? No; for the amelioration of certain ordinary ailments of the individual, which if supported in the right frame of mind would teach the sufferer invaluable lessons in fortitude, resignation, and self-denial, while still perfectly amenable to long-tried and accepted means of cure.
Upon opening the hand books of this Science another shock is in store for us in the announcement that this scheme of health is to be imparted in the scant measure of twelve short chapters, or in a series of Lessons covering at the outside three weeks. For a subject purporting to be no less profound than a "true comprehension of the Infinite" and "a complete knowledge of mental laws leading to right thought-action", it is a startlingly brief term of tuition, when we consider that for a right understanding of such high themes a whole life-time of studious devotion and vigorous asceticism is not deemed superfluous in some Eastern lands, where such subjects have for long ages been the best understood.
The fallacy that next greets our notice in the opening lessons is, that after the positive statement of the "one and only power and principle in the Universe and in man" being Spirit or GOD, i.e., GOOD, called also Infinite Mind, — we are suddenly brought face about and confronted with a second principle, conveniently denominated, in order to fit into the exigencies of stubborn fact, "mortal, finite, or natural mind." This "mortal or natural mind" forthwith serves as explanation of all the undeniable conditions 139which environ us, such as material bodies, sin, sickness, and death; but its entrance upon the scene is rather bewildering immediately after the positive declaration that — "There is only Infinite Mind or GOOD which is All-in-All, therefore there can be no room for anything else." It is not so surprising that this primary statement of only "One Principle GOD, or GOOD, or Spirit" should be succeeded in the teaching of some metaphysicians by the further one that — "there is no matter", since to be thoroughly consistent such would be their only tenable position. Wonder is excited, however, by a certain school postulating the same "one and only Principle", but thereupon declaring that there is matter too; having made which admission they proceed to announce that "matter is dead stuff with no life or force in it", thus ignoring the 140necessary interpenetration of Spirit with matter, in order that the latter should exist at all.
Another very curious fallacy is the denial of all hereditary influences affecting physical conditions, seen in the following exhortation: "Do not believe in hereditary disposition, temperament, or disease; heredity is a falsity, an unreality; we inherit only from Spirit, GOOD" — etc., etc., when all natural history, science, and observation give the lie direct to the assertion. To aid them in their theory, the healers here request us to blindfold our eyes to the patent facts of similarity of family trait and feature, and of racial and national characteristic, in order to suit the rose-pink optimism that so airily brushes aside all inconvenient obstacles to its working power. Taking a pair of instances from historic lines, we especially submit to the consideration and solution of this school of metaphysicians the retreating forehead and heavy jaw of the Bourbon family, and the high, narrow brow and weak chin of the Stuarts, which distinctive eccentricities of feature in each race denoted corresponding defects of mental and moral equilibrium.
A third fallacy may be found in the assumption that fear is the source of all disease, and also that moral states are directly productive of physical ailments, embodied in the following — "Look for causes of every disorder in some form of fear or sin" — etc., etc., whereupon succeeds a list of every imaginable crime, and even peccadillo, possible to erring human nature — more, indeed, than there are diseases to fit into, a point of no moment, however, since diseases are "nothing but unrealities" and "sins" likewise. Indeed we hardly know whether to make merry over or to bemoan the grotesque and superstition-engendering tendency of the following statement: "Jealousy, anger, pride cause rheumatism, neuralgia, etc. Despondency produces malaria and diarrhœa. Egotism, covetousness, and obstinacy cause catarrh, congestions of the lungs and liver, and also constipation." Taking then the hypothesis of fear in the case of a sound and sturdy infant (with no trace of consumptive tendency in its constitution) suffering from an attack of congestion of the lungs, the malady would be due to an abject dread in the mind of the little victim that it would fall a prey thereto, rather than to the more obvious explanation of an undue exposure to a draught or to a March wind. Then again, if sins are such deadly foes to health we should look for a triumphant demonstration of the theory in the criminal classes, where, however, the reverse obtains, since among them healthy conditions, robust constitutions, and stalwart, if coarse, physiques are apt to be found. If Metaphysical Science finds the truth of its statement in this regard restricted to the sins and ailments of the comparatively moral portion of the community only, it should make a more modest claim than it does at present to have a universal interest and application.
To turn now to fallacies as related to practice, that of using food for sustentation of bodily life appears the most salient, when the books say: "Teach them that their bodies are nourished more by Truth than by food", — the logical deduction therefrom being that if the body is wholly responsive to Spirit in disease it should be equally so in health, and that its needful nutriment should be derived from the same source as its vitality, i.e. by thought-action. Nor is this any stretching of the bounds of possibility, for the Yogis of India are said to go for long periods with no nourishment, and at other times subsist only on a few grains of rice.
Another obvious discrepancy between the vaulting theory and the halting practice is the setting of a bar in surgical cases to the thought or mind power, thus: — "Mental Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing that will be the last demonstrated," — there being no more insuperable difficulty discernible in a wound readily reached from the surface, — take, for instance, a dislocated shoulder or a fractured member, than one whose seat is obscure, such as a brain lesion or ruptured blood-vessels, — the latter constituting cases jauntily enough undertaken by the healer, with no abatement of confidence whatever.
Finally we may mention the gross inconsistency, to which is added the sacrilege, of claiming money dues for the good wrought when the power used is ascribed to the loftiest plane of Spirit. After all this excessive idealism, this soaring aloft in the empyrean, it is a rude awakening to find that one form of matter at 141least, that known in the Scriptures, so frequently quoted by these practitioners, as "dross" and "filthy lucre", yet remains substantial in the estimation of the Metaphysical Healer. Were they but wisely willing to base their art upon the mental plane alone, no one would cavil at the healers for demanding a fair price for the time given and the thought concentrated, whether the result were successful or the reverse, since it is known that they are not ardent and disinterested investigators of a science or a philosophy, but simply people anxious to make an honest livelihood; the moment, however, they ambitiously seek to instil a religion, and claim their mission to be one of exalted piety and a Spiritual regeneration, it is inevitable that the reproach should be cast upon them, and not unjustly, of a traffic with holy things. Strictures of this nature are not uncharitable when we consider how mainly personal is the motive of all this kind of work. It is not in the slums of poverty and vice that we meet the advocates of Metaphysical Science, endeavoring to assuage by the subtile diffusion of their right thought the misery they declare to be all a delusion if dealt with aright, or in the wards of the public hospitals ministering by their silent influence to the racking pains and aches of a poor humanity, so sorely deceived as to the reality of disease, — their art being reserved for other needs than these, and instantly responsive to the seduction of the Almighty dollar.
There would seem, in conclusion, to be two exceptions where this system of metaphysical treatment, distinct from its foolish and noxious theories, might be used without detriment, and even with decided benefit. It has been predicted of the future of Hypnotism proper, that its field of usefulness as a curative agent will lie rather in the power to incite self-suggestiveness than to foster suggestibility by an exterior will. Metaphysical healing might here profit from the hint, for there seems no valid objection to the employment of auto-suggestion for the alleviation of certain types of disease, the great danger of its present use, in the subjection of one person's mind to that of another, being thus obviated. We all know weak vessels, whether male or female, who from excessive nervous irritability of temper, or great excitability of mental constitution, are burdens to themselves and to all around them by reason of their overweening regard for their physical infirmities, which, too faintly defined to come under the control of medicine per se, yet are sufficiently serious through their effect on the will and imagination of the sufferer to be extremely disabling to him and distressing to others. To such would Mental Science but make its exclusive appeal, cultivating in these promis142ing subjects the art of self-suggestion tending toward self-cure, it would merit the everlasting gratitude of mankind. But, unfortunately, it is admitted by the healers to be a far more difficult operation to inculcate any such treatment of oneself than it is to impart to the pupil a system of treatment for others. It is just here, however, that Hypnotism as a therapeutic agency may not unlikely overtake and outstrip the Metaphysical Cure, for the most painstaking investigators of the former pronounce self-suggestion to be of easy accomplishment, and most beneficial in its after results to the patient.
The other exception where Metaphysical influence may be usefully called in aid is in mitigation of the last agonies of a death bed, where the calm and soothing atmosphere shed over the scene is far more effective, as physicians themselves have testified, in producing the desired euthanasia, than the administration of stimulants and drugs which tend to excite the brain-action and becloud the last efforts of thought of the flitting mind.
If Metaphysical Healers would but discard their faulty logic, high-flown philosophy, and canting religious professions, and be content to confine their efforts towards improving the fate of a much-enduring race in these two directions alone, the medical profession would not improbably be presently compelled to recognize their usefulness, while the lay majority would infallibly hasten to follow where its doctors lead. But encumbered as the theory and the practice of Metaphysical Healing now are with a mass of extraneous, hurtful, and absurd teaching, the well educated and better balanced element of the community finds it impossible to do otherwise than stand disapprovingly aloof.
Ellice Kortright, F. T. S.