Occult science in medicine

by Franz Hartmann

A physician of this class is the one whose very presence inspires the patient with confidence in recovery. Consciously or unconsciously such a physician acts upon the two great motive powers in the constitution of the patient, namely his will and his imagination. He who can restore tranquillity of the soul by creating confidence, creates the condition required for the cure of the disturbance of the elements producing discord.

All the processes taking place in the physical body originate in the unconscious or conscious action of the will and the imagination, to which must be added the power of memory; for the existence of former impressions either consciously or unconsciously produces certain states in the imagination, which again determine the direction of will. The average physician often employs these powers unknowingly; a physician of the higher class can employ them intelligently. A sudden strong emotion may in a moment cure a paralytic affection of long standing, a sudden danger arouse the unconscious will. Perhaps in the majority of cases it is not that which the patient takes but that which he imagines that it will cure him, which effects the cure, and without this power of the imagination very few medicines would produce any beneficial results.

To this department belong so-called “hypnotism” and “suggestion,” two old things described under new names. Paracelsus says of this action of the spiritual will:

“It is as if one orders another to run and he runs. This takes place by means of the word and through the power of the word; the word being the character.” (“Paramir.,” Prolog. III.)

So-called “hypnotism” is the overcoming of a weak will by a stronger one. The superior will of the physician overcomes the will of the patient and forces it to act in a certain direction. It is an art which is practised continually and constantly by one half of mankind on the other half, from the will power of a general commanding his army down to the unconscious influence unknowingly exercised by one mind over another, without the subject being aware of its source. Evil thoughts originating in one person create corresponding impulses in others, and if the unconscious action of will and the relations which it causes among sympathetic minds were truly known, human freewill and responsibility would perhaps appear in a different light.

Similar to that is what has been called “suggestion,” which Paracelsus calls the virtue of the imagination. It is the imagination of one mind overpowering the mind of another and creating therein a corresponding imagination, which is perfectly real to the patient, because it is in reality his own creation produced unconsciously by himself.

“The visible man has his laboratory (the physical body), and the invisible man is working therein. The sun has his rays, which cannot be grasped with the hands, which are nevertheless strong enough to set houses on fire (if gathered by a lens).

Imagination in man is like a sun, it acts within his world wherever it may shine. Man is that which he thinks. If he thinks fire, he is all on fire; if he thinks war, he is warring; by the power of thought alone the imagination becomes a sun.” (“De virtute imaginativa,” V.)

The imagination becomes strong through the will and the will becomes powerful through imagination. Either of these two is the life of the other, and if they become one and identical, they constitute a living spirit to which nothing inferior offers resistance. In the ignorant and doubtful, in those who do not know their own mind and doubt the result of success, consequently in the majority of experiments carried on for the purpose of gratifying a scientific curiosity or for some other selfish purpose, the will and imagination are not one, but act in two different directions. If we look with one eye to heaven and with the other to the earth, or with one to the restoration of the patient’s health and with the other to the profits knowledge or renown we may receive from it ourselves, there is no unity of motive or purpose, and consequently a lack of the principal condition for success. A physician desirous of employing such means should therefore be of such a nobility of character as to be above all selfish considerations, and only intent upon doing his duty according to the commands of divine love.

Only that which comes from the heart goes to the heart; the power that comes from the brain alone has no magic effects unless it becomes united with that which comes from the heart. It resembles the cold and ineffective moonlight, but it becomes a strong power by its union with the sunshine that radiates from the centre of the heart.