Faith - Healing. Christian Science And Kindred Phenomena | by James Monroe Buckley
The link connecting the subjects treated in this volume is their dependence upon mental states. Should it be thought tlittt Astrology, Divination, Apparitions, and Witchcraft arc based upon objective facts, it is believed that the method of their explanation will show that they are properly classified. The author has adopted certain principles as working hues: namely, that before endeavoring to explain how phenomenaerist, it is necessary to determine precisely what exists : and that so long as it is possible to find a rational explanation of what unquestionably is, there is no reason to suspect, and it is superstition to assume, the operation of supernatural causes.
| Title | Faith - Healing. Christian Science And Kindred Phenomena |
| Author | James Monroe Buckley |
| Publisher | The Century Co |
| Year | 1892 |
| Copyright | 1892, The Century Co |
| Amazon | Faith-Healing, Christian Science and Kindred Phenomena |
I. Faith-Healing- IN 1849 I first saw performances in animal magnetism. A professor, of fluency, fine appearance, and marked self-possession, lectured with illustrations ; feeble men after being magnetized becam...
- The Facts
- The career of Prince Hohenlohe, Roman Catholic Bishop of Sardica, is as well authenticated as any fact in history. Dr. Tuke, in his thoroughly scientific work on the Influence of the Mind upon the Bo...
- Testimony To Particulars
- All honest and rational persons are competent to testify whether they feel sick, and whether they seem better, or believe themselves to have entirely recovered after being prayed for and anointed by B...
- Testimony To Particulars. Continued
- A fact concerning consumption is known to medical men and stated in works on hygiene, but often disbelieved. That fact is that pulmonary consumption, genuine and unmistakable, often terminates spontan...
- Explanation Of The Facts
- Have these facts a common cause ? To solve the problem requires us to ascertain whether the effects are the same, and the limitations of the cause or causes are the same}. Do recoveries under the pray...
- Cases Where The Effect Is Unquestionably Produced By A Natural Mental Cause
- (a) The charming away of warts is well established. Dr. Tuke says of them: They are so apparent that there cannot be much room for mistake as to whether they have or have not disappeared, and in some...
- Cases In Which The Operation Of Occult Causes Is Claimed
- These will be treated here only so far as they reflect light upon faith-cures. (a) That trances and healings occurred under the performances of Mesmer is as well established as any fact depending...
- Cases In Which The Operation Of Occult Causes Is Claimed. Part 2
- 1 Dr. J. M. Buckley. Dear Sir : My recollection of the seance referred to in your letter of the 25th ult. is not as distinct in some points as in others you do not mention. Tho study of psychology i...
- Cases In Which The Operation Of Occult Causes Is Claimed. Part 3
- (b) As for causing the bedridden to rise, and breaking up morbid conditions that had defied medicine while being aggravated by it, these are among the simplest applications of the principle involved. ...
- Inductions
- The inductions from these cases, and from the fact that they are constantly paralleled, are: (1) That subjective mental states, such as concentration of the attention upon a part with or without be...
- The Miracles Of Christ And His Apostles
- We find that in comparison with the Mormons, Spiritualists, Mind-Curers, Roman Catholics, and Mag-netizers, the Protestant Faith-Healers can accomplish as much, but no more; that they have the same li...
- Claims Of "Christian Faith-Healers," Technically So Called, Effectually Discredited
- In examining the healing works both of Christ and the apostles, it appears that there is not a uniform law that the sick should exercise faith, and that it was not necessary that their friends should ...
- The Christian Doctrine Of Answer To Prayer
- Is there then no warrant in the New Testament for the ordinary Christian to pray for the sick, and is there no utility in such prayers? There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we ...
- Defense Of Faith-Healers Examined
- Presentation to the public, through The Century Magazine, of the substance of the foregoing excited much discussion, and led the most conspicuous advocates of faith-healing therein exposed to mak...
- Error In Mental Physiology
- A radical error in mental physiology which most of these persons hold relates to the will. Referring to the theory which explains the cure of many diseases by bringing the person to exercise special w...
- A "Missing Link"
- If there were no other, a fatal stumbling-block in the way of the faith-healers is their failure in surgical cases. But they seize everything that could even point at extrahuman interference with the ...
- Evils Of This Superstition
- Many well-attested cases of irreparable damage to religion, individuals, and to the peace of churches and families have been placed in my hands or ascertained by investigation. From them I select the ...
- Supposed Difficulties
- It has been suggested that if faith-healing can be demonstrated to be subjective, what is called conversion can be accounted for similarly. If by conversion is meant the cataleptic condition which occ...
- II. Astrology, Divination, And Coincidences
- IT is incorrect to suppose that astrology has no votaries at the present time. Zadkiel's Almanac, which has been published for nearly forty consecutive years, sells more than one hundred and twenty th...
- What Is Astrology?
- According to Zadkiel's Grammar of Astrology the science consists of four branches or distinct parts, which are essentially different from each other. These are: Nativities, Mundane Astrology, Atmo...
- Evidence Relied Upon
- To demonstrate the truth of astrology, its votaries appeal to the history of England for the past six hundred years. Aries is the principal sign influencing England. Saturn is a malefic planet, and th...
- Its Problems Mere Puzzles
- Having traced the influence of astrology upon literature, stated the principles of the science, and given an impartial outline of the supposed evidences of its truth which its professors advance, it i...
- Deaths Of President Garfield And Louis Napoleon
- The death of President Garfield, considered in connection with the appearance of comet B in his horoscope and also in the year of his death, is merely a proof that between the appearances of that come...
- Divination
- Astrologers maintain that if the coincidences had not been sufficient in number and character to prove an intimate connection between the stars and the fate of men, it would have been impossible to ma...
- Coincidences
- Suspicion may arise that this theory places a burden upon the possibilities of fortuitous coincidence which it is not able to support. It is therefore necessary to show that coincidences are far more ...
- So Called "Laws Of Chance"
- In the realm of pure chance it is impossible to fix the limits of coincidence. Mr. Proctor's recent work, Chance and Luck, quotes from Steinmetz this fact: In 1813 a Mr. Ogden wagered one thousa...
- The Letter M And The Napoleons
- Marboeuf was the first to recognize the genius of Napoleon at tho Ecole Militaire, Marengo was the greatest battle gained by Bonaparte, and Melas opened to him the way into Italy. Mortier was one of h...
- Interpretation Of Coincidences
- The following principles concerning coincidences will be found reliable as working laws: First As a general proposition, the law of coincidences is that when two phenomena always coincide they a...
- III. Dreams, Nightmare, And Somnambulism
- Acompany of intellectual and cultivated men and women were conversing upon some of the more unusual phases of human nature. Various thrilling incidents had been narrated, when a dream was related of s...
- History And Phenomena Of Dreams
- In this paper, by dreams is meant the visions which occur in natural sleep; by nightmare, a dream unusually intense, involving a terrifying sense of danger and a physical condition to be more fully de...
- Search For Analogies
- Three different views of dreams are possible, and all have been held and strenuously advocated. The first is that the soul is never entirely inactive, and that dream-images proceed all the time throug...
- Search For Analogies. Continued
- The influence of hashish has received much attention, and has been outlined in scientific works and literary compositions. The most striking account of its effects is that of M. Theophile Gautier, ori...
- More Direct Evidence
- Of the truth of this view I will submit further evidence. First There is no proof that babes ever dream. The interpretation of the smile of the infant, which in former times led fond mothers to ...
- Accounting For The Characteristics Of Dreams
- In dreams, time and the limitations of space are apparently annihilated. This is to be explained by the fact that the reports of the senses and tha movements of external bodies by which we measure tim...
- Accounting For The Characteristics Of Dreams. Continued
- When one has wearied himself, and his perceptions have been somewhat obscured, even though nothing had occurred of the nature of unconscious cerebration, it would not be surprising if after refreshing...
- Mysterious Dreams Analyzed
- If the foregoing attempt at explanation covered all the actual phenomena of dreams, there is no reason to doubt that it would be satisfactory to readers of intelligence ; but it is claimed by many tha...
- Mysterious Dreams Analyzed. Part 2
- The Society, as represented in the two bulky volumes entitled Phantasms of the Living, edited by Edmund Gurney, Frederic W. H. Myers, and Frank Podmore, does not claim that the cases which they hav...
- Mysterious Dreams Analyzed. Part 3
- It is natural that a large proportion of dreams of a terrifying nature should relate to deaths, because in death center all grounds of anxiety concerning one's self or one's friends. As death is the k...
- Rational Use Of Dreams
- By some it is maintained that dreams are of great value in the argument for the immortality of the soul; the short method being that they prove the soul immaterial and independent of the body, and if ...
- IV. Presentiments, Visions, And Apparitions
- One question more than others all Of thoughtful minds implores reply: It is, as breathed from star and pall, What fate awaits us when we die f IF these words are true, certainly next in impor...
- What Is A Presentiment!
- A presentiment in the strictly etymological sense is a previous conception, sentiment, opinion, or apprehension; but its secondary meaning, which has almost supplanted the primary, in both the French ...
- Unsuspected Mental Resources
- Self-esteem is common and self-conceit general, yet few persons have an adequate idea of the resources of their own minds. Most fancy that what they recollect is the measure of what they know; whereas...
- Impressions And "Imperative Conceptions"
- Impressions are closely allied to presentiments, and many persons, both devout and undevout, yield to their influence. Baseball pitchers, prize-fighters, soldiers, and politicians are subject to them....
- Analysis Of Typical Presentiments
- Presentiments concerning hours of death have sometimes been defeated by deceiving their subjects. Well-authenticated instances exist of chloroforming those who had made preparation for death, but whos...
- Visions
- Visions are appearances to the mind's eye without a corresponding reality. Of the hallucinations of the insane it is necessary to say but little, as there is no doubt as to their nature and source. Ge...
- Visions. Continued
- Another person, now a minister in New England, was so wrought upon at the moment he felt the sense of guilt and perplexity removed that he mistook the long stove-pipe in the country church for Jacob's...
- Habitual Visions
- Hallucinations may become frequent, and to a certain extent systematic, especially if a belief in their supernatural origin exists; in which case a person may be for a long period of sound and discrim...
- Visions Of The Dying
- The visions which the dying arc supposed to see are regarded by many with reverence bordering upon awe. The explanation given by Dr. Edward H. Clarke, a devout physician of Boston, in his Visions: a...
- Apparitions
- The passage most frequently quoted on the subject of apparitions is that which Dr. Johnson, in Rasselas, puts into the mouth of the sage Imlac: That the dead are seen no more I will not undertak...
- Apparitions. Part 2
- It has frequently been laid down as indisputable that if two see a vision at the same time its objective and authentic character is conclusively demonstrated. This by no means follows; on the contrary...
- Apparitions. Part 3
- In a certain rectory within forty miles of the city of New York stood an old-fashioned candlestick surrounded by prisms of glass which were pendent from the top. On several occasions the family were a...
- V. Witchcraft
- The art is old and new, for verily All ages have been taught the matter. Goethe. ADDISON says that among all the poets who deal with fairies, witches, magicians, demons, and departed spirits, t...
- Definition Of Witchcraft
- From the earliest ages religions, true and false, claimed divine aid, and their production of effects by other than natural causes was considered by all except avowed unbelievers to be lawful. The sup...
- Current Belief
- Witchcraft is at the present time believed in by a majority of the citizens of the United States. The larger number of immigrants from the continent of Europe are more or less in fear of such powers. ...
- Looking Backward
- It is important to notice how late in the Christian era individual belief, popular excitements, and judicial proceedings have been sufficiently conspicuous for permanent record. In Reports of Tri...
- Reversing The Point Of View
- Whence came witchcraft? Writings, pictures, monuments, ruins, and traditions preserve the history of mankind; but man himself, in color, configuration, unconscious gesture, language, rites, customs, a...
- The Israelites And Witchcraft
- The Israelites came from a people surrounded by idolatry, and addicted to sorcery. They appear to have believed for a long time in the reality of the gods of the heathen, considering them inferior, ho...
- Witchcraft And Christianity
- Christianity originated among the Hebrews, who were firm believers in the reality of witchcraft. It was immediately brought into contact with the Romans, of whose empire Syria was a province; and with...
- The Problem
- The history of witchcraft exhibits features common to all forms of mental and moral contagion, and its characteristics are similar everywhere; so that the study of its phenomena in New England, where ...
- Does The Bible Teach The Reality Of Witchcraft?
- Sir Matthew Hale, in his Trial of Witches, 1661, basing the conclusion upon the Scriptures, affirms that there is a real supernatural operation of the devil at the request of a witch. John Wesley, w...
- The Witch Of Exdor
- The account of the Witch of Endor is the only instance in the Bible where a description of the processes and results is given. Whether any one appeared to the witch, and if so who, has caused eudless ...
- Trial Of Cases
- Little aid in the understanding of the trials of witches in New England in Hi!)!' can be derived from courts as now conducted. The Honorable William Sullivan, in an address before the Bar of Suffolk, ...
- Explanation Of Confessions
- Many persons acknowledged themselves witches, both in Europe and America, and gave detailed accounts of their interviews with the devil. This has led various writers to suppose that witchcraft has an ...
- Explanation Of Phenomena
- In the progress of science principles have been established and illustrative facts accumulated whereby the greater part of the authentic phenomena can be fully explained. There was a large amount of f...
- Reaction From The Frenzy
- A deep conviction of the fallibility of spectral evidence arose in the minds of many. The recollection of the characters and good deeds of several who had been executed, of their dying protestations o...
- VI. "Christian Science" And "Mind Cure"
- THIRTY years ago the phrases Christian Science and Mind Cure, in the sense now attached to them, were unknown; to-day in the press, in conversation, in literature, and especially in discussions relati...
- Theory Of Mind Cure
- By a careful examination of the works of those who have written upon this subject, including Evans, Grimke, Stuart, Arens, Taylor, Baldwin, Hazzard, Nichols, Marston, etc., and by conversation with Me...
- Theory. Continued
- That his earlier work consists largely of passages taken from Mrs. Eddy's writings, and that it is as a whole in every respect inferior to them, is the simple statement of a fact. He has, however, acq...
- Practice Of Mind Cure
- The manner in which Christian Science antagonizes dreams of falsity is interesting, whether the theories be accepted or not. First Both the patient and the metaphysical healer must be taught tha...
- Specimen Treatments
- Mental treatment is that which the metaphysical healer is supposed to be giving the patient when she sits silently before him for a period longer or shorter according to her judgment of the necessitie...
- Prayer For A Dyspeptic
- Holy Reality! We BELIEVE in Thee that Thou art EVERYWHERE present. We really believe it. Blessed Reality we do not pretend to believe, think we believe, believe that we believe. WE BELIEVE. Believing ...
- Mind Curers Versus Faith Healers, Mesmerists, Etc
- Mrs. Eddy speaks of Mesmerism in this way: Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensuous belief in matter, is animal magnetism. ... In proportion as you understand Christian Science you lose anima...
- Tests Of The Theory
- First Test If their principles be true, food should not be necessary. Mrs. Eddy affirms this: Gustatory pleasure is a sensuous illusion, an illusion that diminishes as we understand our spiritua...
- Tests Of The Theory. Part 2
- These facts are admitted by the advocates of Christian Science and Mind Cure, and the absolute lunacy of their theories is seen in the manner in which they attempt to account for the effects. If a ...
- Tests Of The Theory. Part 3
- The fear of dissevered bodily members, or a belief in such a possibility, is reflected ou the body, in the shapo of headache, fractured bones, dislocated joints, and so on, as directly as shame is see...
- Tests Of The Theory. Part 4
- Mrs. Eddy meets this matter in the style of Jules Verne: The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a sketch from the history of...
- Explanation Of Their Alleged Success
- In endeavoring to ascertain the causes of recoveries which undoubtedly occur when the patient is under the supervision of Christian Scientists and Mind Curers, it would be a blunder to omit the testim...
- Explanation Of Their Alleged Success. Part 2
- A point of difference between Faith Healers and Mind Curers is worthy of observation. Faith Healers require the patient to have faith; Mind Curers make a boast of the fact that faith is not necessary....
- Explanation Of Their Alleged Success. Part 3
- The case upon which Mrs. Eddy appears to rely is described thus: The day you received my husband's letter I became conscious for the first time in forty-eight hours. What can this prove? What evide...
- Explanation Of Their Alleged Success. Part 4
- Another case was still more remarkable. A woman, ill and bedridden, conceived a high regard for the piety and intelligence of her pastor. He entered her room and in a loud and solemn voice said, I co...
