Prof. Elmer Gates says: “The system makes an effort to eliminate the metabolic products of tissue-waste, and it is therefore not surprising that during acute grief tears are copiously excreted; that during sudden fear the bowels and the kidneys are caused to act, that during prolonged fear, the body is covered with a cold perspiration; and, that during anger, the mouth tastes bitter, due largely to the increased elimination of sulpho-cyanates. The perspiration during fear is chemically different, and even smells different from that which exudes during a happy mood.... Now if it can be shown in many ways that the elimination of waste products is retarded by sad and painful emotions; nay, worse than that, these depressing emotions directly augment the amount of these poisons. Conversely, the pleasurable and happy emotions, during the time they are active, inhibit the poisonous effects of the depressing moods, and cause the bodily cells to create and store up vital energy and nutritive tissue products.”
In an issue of “The American Practitioner and News,” is reported a discussion before the Lexington (Ky.) Medical and Surgical Society, in which a member, Dr. Guest, related the following experience: “I have a brother-in-law who suffers every summer with hay-fever. He has a relative who believes in Christian Science. She told him that she felt positive that she could direct him to a woman, a Christian Scientist, who would cure him. He at first objected, because he hated to go to a woman physician. He arranged, however, to communicate with her daily by letter. When his hay-fever broke out he suffered with it all that day and night, and the next morning wrote her a note telling her to put him on treatment immediately. When he returned that night he was improved and slept better. He wrote a second note the next morning and was much encouraged. The third day he repeated his letter writing and stated that the symptoms had almost ceased. And he was guying me about being cured by Christian Science when regular physicians could do nothing for him. The night of the third day, when he came home to supper, he found a note from the Christian Scientist, stating that she has been in the country and would put him under treatment the next day. Realizing that all his treatment had been only in his imagination, the symptoms reappeared with the same intensity as before.”
Dr. A. J. Parks of New York, says: “The absolute and complete control that the sympathetic nervous system exercises over the physical organization is so perfectly clear and well-known to every observer that the recital of the phenomena in the vast and countless series of manifestations is unnecessary. We are all aware of the fact that digestion is promptly arrested upon the receipt of bad news. The appetite at once disappears. It ceases, and the whole system feels the effect of the depressing impulse—the mental and spiritual wave which lowers the vital thermometer. Fear not only suspends the digestive function but arrests the formation of the secretions upon which digestion depends. A sudden fright frequently paralyzes the heart beyond recovery, whereas a pleasant and pleasing message soothes and gently excites the whole granular system, increases the secretions, aids digestion and sends a thrill of joy to the sensorium, which diffuses the glad tidings to every nerve fibril in the complex organization.”
Dr. T. A. Borton, in an address before the Indiana State Medical Society, said: “The subject which I desire to present to you to-day has to do with the influence of the mind over the functions of the body. Its silent, unobserved force results in producing pathological conditions, and those, by reflex action, excite morbid sensibilities of the mind and thus derange the nerve centres, resulting in a changed condition or over-excitability of the nerve energies, which becomes a secondary diseased condition in the form of different types of neurasthenia. I have been interested in this subject for many years, and in my practice have had extended opportunities for making observations as to the potency of the mental and suggestive pathology bearing on this subject. I would especially refer to the healing of the body through these mental forces, changing healthy, normal conditions into unhealthy or diseased conditions and vice versa. These changes are not miraculous, but proceed from natural causes in the operation of the mind, as a therapeutic agency, operating through the functions of the body, sometimes as a tonic or stimulant, warding off diseases under the most exposed conditions, defending and holding the system in a state of health, while those void of these mental assurances become victims to the ravages of disease through contagion or infection. This protective mental force of the mind has been demonstrated many times in hospitals and other places where contagious diseases were prevailing. The mental force possesses a protective power when rightly exercised beyond what is usually conceded, not only in the way of defense; but also in correcting disease when in existence. I believe these to be much greater than has been generally admitted or understood.... We all know how difficult it is to get good results from medication in which our patients have no confidence, and it is an established fact that we get better results from drugs which are given with the patient’s knowledge of their intended effect. I have often produced desired results from means entirely inert, stating the desired and expected effect of its administration. I have frequently quieted the severest pain by injecting pure water into the arm of the patient.”
Dr. G. R. Patton, in an address before the Wabasha County (Minn.) Medical Society, said: “As Bacon said, ‘Faith, confidence, belief and hope are the working forces that make the cure—that work the miracle.’ The mind as a dynamic force exerted over the functions of the body has been, doubtless, operatively manifest from the cradle of our existence. By the phrase, ‘the mind as a dynamic force,’ I refer to the various forms of suggestion as well as to various affective faculties of the mind, or those states caused by the sympathetic action of the brain, such as faith, confidence, belief, imagination, emotions, hope and the like. Any or all of them may become active over the bodily functions.... As instance of the mental impression acting upon observable functions revealed through the capillary circulation as revealed to the sight, I will mention blushing or pallor of the face, depending upon the theme presented to the thought; the mouth watering on the sight or thought of tempting food; the flow of tears from words or thoughts that excite grief; nausea or vomiting from a sickening spectacle; sexual excitement from obscene thought or lascivious sights. Instances might be multiplied. And is it not a fair inference, indeed, that through the vasomoter nerves, the internal viscera may be subject to like effects through mental impressions, and that thus acute as well as chronic congestive ailments thereof may be favorably influenced or even cured thereby?... It is my conviction that recognition of the power and usefulness of mental dynamics, including all forms of suggestion over physiological and pathological processes in combating diseases, is unquestionably the most impressive advance in modern medicine. Mental influence alone may diminish or increase the activities of the physiological processes to the extent of removing the pathological effects of disease.... A celebrated medical teacher, after an exhaustive dissertation over a case was leaving the bedside without prescribing any treatment when the house physician asked what should be given the patient. ‘Oh,’ said the professor, ‘a hopeful prognosis and anything else you please.’ To this he added, ‘the doleful doctor will be a failure, while the hopeful one will prove a winner from start to finish.’ It is reasonably assured that ultimately the physician will become not so much the man behind the pill as the judicious advisor, the wise counsellor, gently leading the sick ‘into green pastures, beside still waters,’ through paths that lead onward to recovery, assisting nature at times, if needs be, with a big bread pill.”
Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, the well-known authority on suggestive therapeutics, says: “Certain results will follow certain thoughts, and in every instance that it is possible to get the patient to think the thoughts we desire, we secure the results we desire. It is the work of the suggestionist to place these thoughts in the mind of the patient so that he is bound to think them, and this can be done to some degree, if not perfectly, in every case. It is well to have faith, but faith is not absolutely necessary at the outset. It is time enough for the patient to have faith in the treatment when he can perceive the benefit he is receiving. Understanding the mental and physical changes which follow a certain thought, the suggestionist is able to bring about those mental or physical changes, by using direct suggestion in such a way that his patient is bound to think the thoughts which will produce the results. A man may not have faith in the statement that the thought of lemon juice will stimulate the flow of saliva, but if he will imagine for a moment that he is squeezing the juice of a lemon into his mouth the saliva will immediately flow more freely than usual, regardless of his faith. Similarly, many, if not all of the organs of the body, can be affected by impulses following certain lines of thought, and these impulses will follow the thought and stimulate the organs regardless of faith. It is simply necessary to get a patient to think the proper thoughts, and it is in the thought directing that the work of the suggestionist lies.”
CHAPTER VII
THE POWER OF THE IMAGINATION