The man who brought psychology out of the lavatory!

David Seabury, as many of you know, is an eminent psychologist, teacher and author. He was the first consulting psychologist in the country, I believe. He tells the story of being announced over the radio, in San Francisco some years ago. The announcer said,

Remember that he who made us knows better our wants than man.

A curiosity to the mother of the sisters Ware, who were healed and worked for Quimby.

Jan. 25th, 1861
To Mrs. Ware:

Mental Healing (I)

The earliest Mental-healer of this period of whom we have authentic record is Phineas Parkhurst Quimby.[1] Born at Lebanon, New Hampshire, on February 16, 1802, he removed with his parents as a young child to Belfast, Maine, where the greater part of his life was spent. Quimby's father was a poor blacksmith, and the boy himself had but little schooling. In his youth he was apprenticed to a clockmaker, and proved himself a successful and ingenious craftsman. He appears to have been a thoughtful and observant man ; an inventor, moreover, and always open to new knowledge. In 1838 he was present at a lecture on Mesmerism by Charles Poyen. He was much struck by what he saw and heard, made the acquaintance of the lecturer, and finally began to experiment in the new science on his own account. He was fortunate enough to find an admirable subject, one Lucius Burkmar, a youth of seventeen, and soon threw up his trade and became a professional Mesmerist, giving popular demonstrations and treating disease by clairvoyance.

CAN DISEASE BE ENTIRELY DESTROYED?

BY EMMA G. WARE
Emma G. Ware was one of the copyists that assisted Dr. P. P. Quimby in his Portland, Maine healing office from 1859 to 1865. This article was originally published in The Spirit of the New Thought, Editor: Horatio W. Dresser, Publisher: Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, N.Y. 1917. Miss Ware was a patient and follower of Dr. Quimby along with her sister Sarah. They were daughters of Judge Ashur Ware, of the U. S. Court. It was these sisters that suggested to him the propriety of putting into writing the body of his thoughts.

PHINEAS PARKHURST QUIMBY By GEORGE A. QUIMBY (Part Two).

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby ~ Biographical Sketch.

[The New England magazine. / Volume 6, Issue 33, March 1888]

{Significant because his son, George Quimby, was privy to his father’s affairs. He describes Quimby’s method of inducing young Lucius Burkmer during the first years of his investigation and describes the latter years when he dealt with patients and the technique employed. He describes how the Misses Ware suggested to Quimby that he make notes. Evidently it was Quimby’s wish that George should continue his work but, alas, George’s interests lay elsewhere.}

PHINEAS PARKHURST QUIMBY By GEORGE A. QUIMBY (Part One).

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby ~ Biographical Sketch.

[The New England magazine. / Volume 6, Issue 33, March 1888]
{Significant because his son, George Quimby, was privy to his father’s affairs. He describes Quimby’s method of inducing young Lucius Burkmer during the first years of his investigation and describes the latter years when he dealt with patients and the technique employed. He describes how the Misses Ware suggested to Quimby that he make notes. Evidently it was Quimby’s wish that George should continue his work but, alas, George’s interests lay elsewhere.}

THE great interest evinced, during the last ten years, in the treatment of disease through the mind, and the growing desire of a large number of students of the science, and others, to know in what manner the late P. P. Quimby was connected with this principle of curing and what was his mode of treatment, has induced the writer to present, in a brief article, a sketch of the man, his life and ideas. It is not the intention to make the article other than a plain statement of facts,
based on personal knowledge.

Biographical Sketch of Dr. Phineas P. Quimby

from the Quimby Manuscripts, Ch. 1, by Horatio Dresser, 1921, (Excerpts).

PPQ

...Quimby's writings were not meant for publication, although their author hoped to revise them for a book, and he had already written experimental introductions.... Time has shown that the original teachings have come to possess a value which might not have been theirs had they been published fifty years ago. Now that the teachings are given to the world, many new estimates will be made. The majority of us are little accustomed to thinking in terms of inner experience, without the embellishments of literary art or the interpretations of sects and schools; and some effort will be required to take up the point of view of a writer who wrote precisely as he thought.