Experiences in Healing, Spiritualism and Mesmerism.

I have been affected by persons to that degree as not to be able to stand it for a short time. I was attending a person who was subject to fits. At the time of one of my visits she was in convulsions. As soon as these ceased I felt a singular sensation in my head and to all intents and purposes was about to have a fit, myself. A lady took me by the arm and sat me in a chair and then sent for my son. He rubbed my head and in short time I felt better. He carried me to my house and for four or five hours I was not able to leave my bed and did not get over the shock for all day. This person after waking from sleep would often have a fit and therefore had been afraid to go to sleep. The shock was such as to change the fluids of my system so as to affect my mind to that extent that I was almost afraid to go to sleep for fear I should have a fit, and I have since declined to attend persons subject to them.

***

I will now proceed to state how I came by this belief and how I was led along to it. In the first of my attempting to mesmerize, I was very skeptical in regard to many things: such as seeing without eyes, tasting without having anything in the mouth, hearing without ears, etc. I had no confidence in any experiment which it was possible for the subject to have any foreknowledge of what was to be done. When I had my subject in a mesmeric sleep, if any person should speak out and ask me to make him move his hand or anything of that description, I would not do so, for it seemed so much like deception on the part of the subject. And as my subject was one who liked to play off his jokes upon people, I was determined that he should not do so at my expense. Although he was with me some four years, I never saw the slightest cause for believing but what he was perfectly ignorant of what he was doing while asleep. Therefore, at the outset, I adopted this resolve, never to let the subject know what I wanted, except mentally. All my experiments were carried on in this way: if I wished him to give me his hand, I would ask him mentally; and by practicing with him I could send him to any part of the room for anything I wished, and he would always get it, without my speaking a word. He got no knowledge from me in any other way than by my own thought. When he walked, and I wished to tell him to stop, I did it mentally. I then began to create things within my own mind, such as snakes, etc., and he would be frightened at them. On telling him that I had imagined them, he could not understand it, for the things created in my mind were as real as life to him. I could drive the things away so he could not see them and bring them back again. This led me to believe that man had the power of creation and that ideas took form. The next question which arose was. What were ideas composed of? They must be something, or else they could not be seen by even spiritual eyes. This led me to inquire if knowledge was ideas. I found that if I thought of principles, he had no way of describing them, for there was nothing to see; but if I thought of anything that had form, I could make him see it. To bring this about required a great deal of labor, I had to think of the thing so long and intently.

***

Is the person that plays the pianoforte or harp a part of the instrument? If there is any tune produced from the instrument, it must be by a power independent of itself. So it is with man. If man's body never moved till the power to do so was created within itself, it would never move. I believe the body may be compared to an instrument, ready to be operated upon by any person who has the power of applying their mind to other persons than themselves, in the same way as a person conveys his ideas of music on an instrument. For instance, if an instrument is out of tune, one would not call on a person to tune it who had no ear for music, from the fact that he could not tell where the disorder was. If the instrument was well, or in tune, it would need no physician, or tuner. So it is with man; when well, he needs no sympathy or physician; but the sick need this sympathy which is a relief to their mind, of which a well person knows nothing. The tones of a musical instrument may be compared to the mind. When I speak of mind, I do not mean ideas. Ideas are the results of the mind, used to convey any fact to another. Like the strings of a musical instrument, both are matter acted upon by the mind. It requires a person who has an ear for music to convey ideas of tunes to another. So it is with the mind; when a person's mind is at rest, all is well, but if the mind is disturbed through an injury done to the body or by any other cause, it uses the body to convey the fact to others. These discords are what are called diseases. This is the state of a person when he is in want of this sympathy. These discords in a person are as easily detected by some as the discords in music are by a professional musician, and there are persons who are as easily affected by the discords of the sick as there are those who are disturbed by the discords of music.

***

I will now give one or two cases to show that my mind or spirit can go to a distant place and there produce an effect on a person without their knowledge. I was requested to try the experiment of putting a lady to sleep without her knowledge. She was about sixty years of age, nervous temperament and resided over two miles from my house.
About eight o'clock in the evening, I lay down on the sofa and commenced operations. In a short time it seemed to me that she had gone to sleep and I told my wife so. I could not keep my mind off the lady and laid still for some time, when my wife said to me, "If you have put Mrs. M. to sleep, it is time for you to wake her up." I seemed to try to do so, but it appeared to me that she did not want to wake up and as she wished it, I concluded to let her sleep all night.
On making inquiries the next day, I ascertained that at the time I commenced putting her to sleep, she was sitting by the fire knitting. All at once she said, "Mr. Quimby is mesmerizing me," and she rose to go to her bed but was so near asleep that her son and daughter had to lift her onto the bed where she slept quietly until breakfast time the next morning. At their usual bed time, the family tried to wake her for the purpose of removing her clothes, but could not do so. At another time, her son-in-law, who was not present at the first experiment, wished me to try it again and I did so with equal success. I have tried experiments similar to the above a great many times, and with nearly the same success.

***

I will give another experiment of seeing the spirit. I was called to attend an old lady who was sick and had been so for a long time. I was shown to her room by her husband, where I found the lady, a pitiful sight, lying on her bed and having more the appearance of a lunatic than a sane person. Her eyes were closed and she would hold no conversation with anyone, nor answer any questions I asked her. I then thought I would see if I could get any information by mental conversation. It soon seemed to me as though she was looking at a person, all the time saying, You are the cause of my trouble. She seemed to tell me that this was her brother and went on to tell me her story, which was this.
When she was young, a young man who was respectable and well off, as regarded worldly dross, paid her attention and they were engaged; but her brother, who did not like the match, reported false stories about her and the man left her. She loved the man and his desertion nearly broke her heart, but having good bodily health and a great deal of pride and ambition, she did not give way to her feelings.
After some thirty years, having lost much of her ambition and high spirits, she married her present husband who was not calculated to make her happy having an entirely dissimilar disposition, although he was very kind to her. After living with him some time, she became sick, worn out and completely run down in spirits. Like Rachel of old, her troubles were greater then she could bear and she would not be comforted. Her husband then entered the room and asked me what I thought of his wife, and whether I could help her. I sat for a few moments in silence, not knowing exactly what to say. I thought that if I should tell him the story which she had appeared to tell me, it might be false; he might get angry and order me out of the house which I did not wish to leave as it was after eleven o'clock at night, very cold, and I was fourteen miles from home.
So I mentaly asked the old lady if what she seemed to tell me was true; she appeared glad to think I had found it out and said it was. I then turned to her husband and said, "I have tried to get your wife to answer my questions, but as she would not, I have gotten a mental account of her troubles and if you will not think hard of me I will relate her story." I then asked him if she had ever had any trouble with her brothers. He told me that some thirty years ago one of her brothers told some false stories about her, but that she had forgotten all about that. I then told him the story related above, and described the man to whom she had been engaged. At this time I was sitting beside the bed on which the old lady laid and while I was describing her old beau she opened her eyes a moment, which was the only time she did so while I was in the house. As her husband had never seen the man, he could not tell whether I was right or not, but so far as he did know, it was correct. I then left the room. After my departure she told her husband all I had said was correct and as for her beau, I had described him exactly.

PPQ

I love reading Quimby. He’s somewhat of an enigma and it takes a while to understand some of what he says. But the fact is without Quimby there’s no Warren Felt Evans, MEB, Christian Science, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Unity, Divine Science and Religious Science.