St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-24
THE MIND-CURE CRAZE.
It Has Struck the Hub Very Hard and
Cultured Bostonese Call it
Science,
While the Clergy Unite in Calling 1t a
Dangerous and Threatening
Innovation.
Disease Defined as an Error of the
Mind, the Result OF
Fear.
Startling Cures Which Cause the Wise
to Ponder and the Foolish to
Believe.
APOpular DelMsiOn.

APOpular DelusiOn.
Correspondence OF the Globe.
Boston, Mass, May 21.-The new sci
ence for mental healing-fOr nothing that
originates in Boston is less than science
or an art-haS gained such multitudes OF
followers within a.few months that its mis-
siOnaries are sure to begin practicing and
teaching the principles outside New Eng
land. The press of the country has found
occasion to make frequent sharp para
graphs about ''BOston'S mind-cure craze, !"
but it is long time since any
as 10 cast slurring illusions upon
the lew pathology. Absurd and idiOtic as
are some of the ideas advanced by the
prophets of the system, the movement has
far OutgrOwn the limits of popular but
temporary craze. Its wonderful cures"
have been so persistently proclaimed that
large proportion of average Bostonians are
willing at least to admit that there is some
thing in it." Hundreds claim to have been
benefited in varying degrees by mind-cure
treatments. Many such become them
selves ''healerS," and thus the
new idea has spread. Just now
the religious features OF the new departure
more prominently engross public attention,
and clergymen of all denominations are serl-
ollsly considering how to deal with what
they regard as the most dangerous innova-
ton that has threatened the Christian
church in this region for many years.
Scores of the most valued church members
are Joining the Christian Scientist branch OF
the metaphysical organization, and it has
thus far been impossible to check the defec-
ton. 1t is movement far-reaching i'll its
influence, and including many thousands
among its SympathiZerS whose ordinary in
telligence entities respect for their judg-
ment. A study, therefore, Of some OF the
details of the novel scheme becomes at once
interesting and soon fascinating.
Here is a familiar Boston parlOr scene:
Two ladies sit little way apart in Quaker
meeting silence for perhaps twenty minutes.
The face OF one is as hotly flushed as if she
had been indulging in violent exercise,
physical instead OF mental. Externally
this is all that constitutes q mind-cure,
treatment to which hundreds hereabOuts
are daily submitting. The fundamental
idea that underlies the whole system is that
there is no such thing as sickness. Dis
ease, they say, is an error of the mind, the
result of fear.
THIS STARTLING HYPOTHESIS
entails some very strange and absurd con-
illusions. The leader of one of the factions,
for there are several in sharp rivalry one
with another, gives these instructions for
healing. ''Reason in your mind that God
made everything good. He is not the au-
thor of disease. Therefore, as disease is
,,atn 81 1,,&s
ly delusion of the mind. the effect of fear.
Fear is faith inverted and perverted. You
arfeto gain the confidence of your patient;
he thinks is his disease.
you see that it is not sickness at all, but an
of healing by dwelling mentally upon the
truth and wisdom Of God, and thus the faith
of the healer meeting the fear of the patient
produces chemical change in the fluids Of
the system, which results in health" Many
invalids are willing to accept this or any
other sophistry in explanation of cures, if
they themselves are physically benefited.
But among the intelligent people in every
day life who have studied the mind-cure
theories and to greater or less extent are
testing them, the ideas of the teaching are
very much modified. Indeed, hardly any
two have just the same conception of the
science" One lady believes that to be a
consistent healer one must bea UniverSalist.
Another insists that the minds of her pa
tents shall be made entirely free from guile,
and accOrdingl y asks for full statement of
their lives. Many persons who study the
system renOunce all religious and all SUPER
stitiOuS ideas in connection with it. but rec
OgniZe the physical phenomena which they
do not attempt to explain, and practice the
art as successfully as any. A lady in Hyde
Park, who takes this position, says she finds
herself possessed of a power over many
serious ills which she hardly knows how to
use. She says she prays earnestly and the
ailment of the sufferer seems to be trans
ferred to herself. Then she is able easily to
throw it off. She does not know whether
to call it mind-cure, faith-cure or magnet
ism. Some operators say they use no will
power, but simply keep in their minds an
image of perfect health and let God or the
truth work through them. Others exert the
will intensely to drag out the disease, us it
were by main force.
TO be consistent the leading mind-cure
theorists have to maintain some very absurd
ideas. POisons they say, would be harm
less if fear of them were removed. Chill
dren, they explain, are affected because of
unconscious hereditary fear. Mrs. Mary
B. &. Eddy, leader of the Christian Scien-
fist division of mental healers, claims that
her husband, who died three or four years
ago, was murdered by an enemy among the
scientists who thought arsenic into him. -
Some of
THESE QUEER ENTHUSIASTS
maintain that mental influence does not
recognize distance and that, therefor, the
presence Of the patient to be treated is not
necessary. a lady in Hyde Park has an in
innate friend in Sacramento, Cal, who a
few months ago was given up by physicians
to die of intlammatory rheumatism. 1t was
arranged by mail that at 3 o'clock, Boston
time, on certain days the invalid should men
tally submit herself to the treatment of her
distant friend. 1t is claimed that the i'm
provement was immediate and that within
month the patient was able to visit San
Francisco with her husband. Another lady
in treating absent patients puts a
doll in chair, upon which to fix
her mind in lieu of the sick per-
son. Most of the mental healers profess
contempt for the laws of hygiene. They
bid their patients eat what they please and
act as they please. Mrs. Eddy, however
makes the proviso that they must be of
strong faith, that what they eat and do will
not hurt them.
So much for means and methods. When
the inquirer attempts to investigate the
actual accomplishments under the new
pathology, he encounters a vast array OF
witnesses and testimony; but after at
tempting to Sift the evidence it is impOSsib,e