Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-06-27
raE M1KD-CURE CRAZE.
Mrs. Eddy's Revelation and the New Faitl
Following IT.

Following IT.
Special Correspondence of the Globe Democrat.
Boston, Mass, May 2O.-The nev
science of mental healing-for nothin
that originates in Boston is less than
science or art-has gained such multi
tudes of followers within q few month
that its missionaries are sure to begil
practicing and teaching the principle
outside New England. The press of tn
country has found occasion to make fire
quent sharp paragraphs about Boston
mind cure craze" but it is q long tim,
since any local paper has been so irdis
Greet as to cast sluring sllusions upon tn,
pathology. Absurd and idiotic as som,
of the ideas advanced by the proph
cts of the system are the move
ment has far outgrown the limits o
q popular but temporary craze. 1T
wonderful cures" have been 80 per
sistently proclaimed that large proper
ton ofaverage Bostonians are willing q
least to admit that "there is something
in it." Hundreds claim to have beeE
benefited in varying degrees by mind
cure treatments. Many such become
themselves "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 arr
seriously considering how to deal with
what they regard as the most dar gerous
innovation that has threatened the
Christian Church in this region
for many years. Scores of the
most valued church members are join.
ing the Christian Scientist branch of the
metaphysical organization and it haf
thus far been impossible to check the
detection. It is movement far-reach'
ing in it's influence and including many
thousands among its sympathizers
whose ordinary intelligence entities
respect for their judgment. A study
therefore, of some of the details of the
novel scheme is at once interesting and
most fascinating.
SCENE IN A BOSTON PARLOR.
Here is familiar Boston parlor scene;
Two ladies sit a little way apart in
Quaker meeting silence for perhaps
twenty minutes. The face of one is as
holly flushed as if she had been indulg.
ing in violent exercise, physical instead
of mental. Externally this is all that
constitutes 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. Disease
they say, is an error of the mind, the re.
suit of fear. This startling hypothesis
entails some very strange and absurd
conclusions. The leader of one of the
(on $~n IN Oh
rivalry one with another, gives these in
structions for healing: "Reason in your
mind that God made everything good
He is not the author of disease. There
fore, as disease is not a creation, ii
does not exist, but is merely a delu.
sion of the mind, the effect of fear.
Fear is faith inverted and per-
verted. You are to gain the confidence
of your patient; make him tell you the
cause of what he thinks is his disease,
but with your clearer mind you see that
it is not sickness at all, but an error in
his mind. You attain the power of
healing by dwelling mentally upon the
truth and wisdom of God, and thus thu
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 naturally
willing to accept this or any other soph-
istry in explanation of cures if they
themselves are physically benefited.
MODIFYING TEACHERS IDEAS.
But among the intelligent people in
everyday life who have studied the
mind-cure theories and to q greater OF
less extent are testing them, the ideas of
the teachers are very much modified.
Indeed, hardly any two have just the
same conception of the "science." One
lady believes that to be consistent
healer one must be Universalist. An
other insists that the minds of her pa
tients shall be made entirely free from
guile, and accordingly asks for full
statement of their lives. Many persons
who study the system renounce all re-
ligious and all superstitious ideas in con-
nection with it, but recognize the physi-
cal phenomena which they do not
attempt to explain, and prac-
tice the art as successfully as
any. A lady in Hyde Park
who takes this position says she finds
herself possessed of 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 transferred to herself. Then she is
able easy to throw it off. She does not
know whether TO call it mind-cure, faith
cure or magnetism. 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, as it
were, by main force.
CURIOUS IDEAS.
To be consistent, the leading mind.
cure theorists have to maintain some
very absurd ideas. Poisons, they say,
would be harmless if fear of them were
removed. Children, they explain, are
affected because of unconcious heredi-
tary fear. Mrs. MARY B. G. Eddy,
leader of the Christian Scientist
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 dis
lance, and that, therefore, the presence
of the patient to he treated is not neces.
sary. A lady in Hyde Park has an init
mate friend in Sacramento, CAL, who, a
few months ago, was given up by physi-