For self-healing, one can learn to abstract his thoughts from suffering or from the organ affected, so as not to sense the pain. This is somewhat different from opposing the will power, as is usually understood; indeed, it is rather the opposite. By an introversion of thought, a passive condition is secured and maintained. Evans styles this an “impressible conscious state.”
Understanding the conditions, this state can be attained by any one, and while in it pain and disease, real only in thought, can be removed. In this way one thinks himself out of morbid conditions. One then, really is only to think the opposite of his seeming condition steadily, persistently and honestly, to effect a change.
When a student at Olivet College, Michigan, I heard Professor Hosford lecture upon “Health and Disease.” He asserted that sickness could be induced by working upon the imagination or belief.
In support of this statement he related a case of a dose of flour, supposed to be ipecac, producing the ordinary results of that drug. Four of the fun-loving students determined to test this assertion. In one of their rambles they saw a teamster on his way to procure lumber at a place some miles distant. They resolved to experiment upon him. Awaiting his return, they stationed themselves at considerable distances and accosted him in a friendly manner. Each of them, however, added to his cordial greeting words of dismay at seeing him look so ill.
To the first he stoutly denied any indisposition, but to the second admitted slight indigestion; the third found him looking miserable and suffering from colic. He was persuaded to stop walking beside his team and ride on the lumber. The fourth easily induced him to resign the reins, while the teamster, really ill at last, rode home reclining upon his load, unable for the rest of the day to leave his home.
A curious experiment was tried by noted surgeons upon a condemned criminal. He was made to believe that he was to be bled to death. Stretched upon a table, bound and blindfolded, he awaited the operation. The surgeon, with a sharp instrument, pricked his flesh to simulate the opening of an artery. At once a small fountain, from which water at blood-heat flowed, was opened over the supposed incision; the water flowing freely at first, gradually became less and less copious.
The surgeons and attendants spoke among themselves of his failing powers, of his pallor, of his loss of heat and pulse-beats. They questioned him meanwhile as to these symptoms, which questioning he answered in full faith that his life-blood was indeed passing from him. He grew fainter and more faint, gasped for breath, and finally expired.
If a well person can be made to believe he is ill, yes, and really to die of his affection, as in the case above noted, and also as is often noticed in an epidemic, may not a sick person be led to believe he is well? Sometimes a silent suggestion of friend or physician to this end is more potent than the spoken word. In the former case the thought of the patient unconsciously seconds the thought of the friend, while in the latter, argument and discussion rouse an opposing force.
A pregnant woman, by ignoring her ailments, by abstracting from them her thoughts, by occupying her mind entirely, can bring about wonderful results in overcoming undesired conditions. In following the teachings of Tokology, care must be taken that the mind is not directed to watching for and fostering morbid symptoms.
The mind, the real self, controls all the functions pertaining to life, and its supremacy can be directed toward removing morbid tendencies. One can train the mind to this end. It is merely what is usually termed “getting above one’s self,” or “putting sorrow, grief and pain under one’s feet.” It is simply the conquest of self and sin, as taught in different ways in religion and philosophy. Cheerfully, hopefully bring the soul into harmony with the good in the universe. Where there is light there can be no darkness, where health reigns, disease disappears. Learn to subordinate the body. Encourage all indications of health. By a calm trust and a restful faith in the Divine, sins of the body (disease) as well as sins of the soul may be dethroned, and health and happiness reign supreme.