Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-07-27
Curing by Mental Suggestion.

points out the difference between ready
acceptance of alleged marvellous phe-
nomena and critical examination of
the same. One man swallows with
infinite gullibility as fact everything
that claims to be out of the common,
of the common. Quite as far from
the right is the man who laughs to
scorn everything removed from ordi-
nary experience and calls it trickery
and fraud, just because it is out of
the ordinary. 1t is hard to tell which
is the greater fool, the gull or the big
oted unbeliever. The true way lies here,
as always, exactly between. There was
a time when the marvels of electricity
and of steam were laughed at by the
wise ones as much as some of the strange
things claimed to be facts by the psychic
research people are laughed at today.
DIR. Flower seeks to enlist the attention
of the most learned medical scientists of
the day in the matter of healing by
mental suggestion, as a subject well
worthy their examination.
DR.. Hamilton Osgood is authority for
the facts Of some remarkable surgical
operations and cures performed while
the patient was an9sthetized by hypno-
tism instead of chloroform. In other
cases the patient was thrown into the
hypnotic or mesmeric state, and then
told that on awaking he would find
great improvement in his condition.
The improvement came each time as the
result of the suggestion made to the
patients mind in the hypnotic state. Oc-
casionally the patient was not even hyp-
Noticed, but simply told in the normal
state by the doctor in very positive
manner that there would be improve
ment. Here, too, the cure progressed
favorably. Certainly the plan is very
simple and open to all medical practi-
TONERS, and it is worth their while to
try it if here lies possibility of allevi-
ating human suffering.
One young woman had received a
heavy fall that deprived her of the use
OF her lower limbs. when placed upon
her feet she sank to the floor as if her
legs were mere pulp" said DIR. Osgood.
She had been in this condition two years
when DR.. Osgood took her case, and she
suffered great pain. At the first inter
view she was hypnotized. After she
had been put to sleep the doctor lifted
one of the paralyzed limbs and said to
the girl, you cannot put this leg
down" 1t remained fixed. Her legs
were withered away to skin and bone.
with apparently no muscle at all in
them. Twice week the doctor hypno-
tized the girl and repeated the sugges-
ton until three months had elapsed. At
the end of that time the patient was be-
ginning to walk little. The physician,
after that, did not see her for nine
months. Then he applied hypnotic
suggestion few times as a tonic" The
young woman in short time recovered
completely. DIR. Flower had these facts
not only from DR.. Osgood, but also from
the girl herself and from the matron of
the hospital where she was cared for.
DIR. Flower cites other facts equally
well authenticated, enough certainly to
warrant scientific members of the med
ical profession who are ever ready to
learn something new in trying their
own power of mixing a little mental
suggestion of health along with their
medicine when they administer it. In
all cases, whether the patient is hypno-
tized or not, the physician must power
fully and positively impress on him
mental suggestions Of cure and health.
Without these suggestions from the
brain and will of the physician there
viii be no cure when the patient is
hypnotized, DR.. Flower informs us.
AS to the dangers supposed to follow
hypnotization the writer says:
While, like electricity. steam and other sub
tie but potent forces for good. hypnotism, In
the hands of ignorance orQevil. may become
an engine Of injury and destruction, am sat
isfied, from my conversation with those who.
through careful study and wide practice Of
hypnotlsm. are competent TO safely express
their views. that the public mind has greatly
exaggerated the possibilities Of evil. for am
assured that where persons are thoroughly
acquainted with the possible power Of hypno-
tism, no one can in1ure them through its en-
/ ployment against their VIII In the past
Doubtless many persons have been fascinated
and ruined BY this power, because In each case
the mind Of the victim was ignorant Of the ex-
istenoe Of this subtle influence. When. how
ever. general Information Is diffused. there d
little or nothing 10 be feared from persons
being hypnotized against their will. while The