Healing Without Medicine: From Pioneers to
Modern Practice
Published
by Quest Book, May 2014.
Q & A – Mind Healing
1. In a few words what
is the book about?
The aim of the book Healing Without Medicine: From Pioneers to Modern Practice is to
elicit the mechanisms of mind healing, faith healing, miraculous healing, spontaneous
remission, inexplicable cures, etc., and I give a scientific explanation to
these occurrences. The main hypothesis of this book is that All methods of mind/spiritual healing are self-healing. Man has an inner capacity to heal himself. It
is said that the effectiveness of
healing with medicine is due to the fact that medicine and other medical
implements remove obstacles to allow the body to regain its recuperative
capacity. Finally, I attempt
to explain why some people do not respond to any kind of treatment whether with
medicine or without it.
2. How “Miracles
Healings” can be explained?
In my sociological studies regarding
“miraculous healings” that occurred in shrines, cathedrals, old temples, and
evangelical crusades (tent revival meetings, healing camps), etc.; the role of
healer actually was circumscribed to activated the inner mechanisms of the sick
person for the healing to take place. In other words is similar to a placebo
effect. The person was healed himself or herself by his/her inner desire to get
well.
The irony is that most people get sick
due to a suggestion given unintentionally and sometimes with “good intention”
by family members, teachers, neighbors, the news and the mass media, and mainly
by publicity. Pharmaceutical companies expend billions of dollars in creating
illness, and inducing to surgeries when it is not needed. Most of people
believe on advertisements which are usually endorsed by medical doctors.
3. How and When Mind
Healing started in America
Everything started with an unschooled
clock inventor of New England named Phineas P. Quimby (1802 – 1866). In in the mid of
nineteenth century, he was diagnosed by the medical profession of the time
having a terminal illness (his kidneys were disintegrating and he was also suffering
from tuberculosis. Disillusioned
of life he abandoned his successful business and retired to his farm waiting to
die. To
make a long story short, in the interim, he healed himself with the help of his
assistant Lucius Burkmar and discovered what is called Mental or Mind healing.
Subsequently, he started curing all kinds of diseases by just changing the
frame of mind of the sick person. Then,
Quimby
came up with bold concept such as:
a)
Man creates his own illness in his mind.
Change the beliefs and you will cure de disease.
b)
Illness is an invention of man and has
no bearing in the spiritual realm.
c)
Illnesses are embraced in our belief,
and so forth.
Quimby thought he rediscovered how Jesus
used to heal and gave his curing technique freely to anyone interested. He is
regarded as the Father of the New Thought Movement.
4. What is New Thought
Movement?
New Thought movement is an
authentic American made “product;” it was originated and flourished in New
England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island). Around
1850’s a layman who responded to the name of Phineas P. Quimby; he was an unschooled clock maker in New England,[1] who after
curing himself without medicine, reached the conclusion that negative beliefs
create most human illnesses.
Thus at the end of the nineteenth
century and beginning of the twentieth century a boom of New Thought churches
with practitioners emerged on this new curing technique spread out to all the United
States of America and abroad. They all devoted to heal without medicine based
on the teachings of Quimby. Nowadays there are hundreds of organizations and
churches such as: Religious Science, Divine Science, Unity, Quimby Memorial
church and others offshoots such as Christian Science and others around the
world, including Japan.
Although, spiritual mind healing as
practiced by New Thought has been defined as the religion of healthy mindedness,
it is much more than that. New Thought advocates believe in the presence a
universal Life-force energy that pervades the whole universe. This Life-force,
which science calls the “Unified Field” or “Universal Consciousness” is a
living force self-aware and intelligent.
5. The Rational of
Healing Without Medicine
Furthermore, in my book I also explain
the psychological rational for most of the healings whether with medicine or
without it. I explain why many people cannot be healed with medicine or without
it. Furthermore, I elaborate on the rationale
behind so-called mind, spiritual, and faith healing, and to explain the effectiveness of this kind of treatment where
conventional medicine had failed. I endeavor to examine the exceptional healing
of the most prominent contemporary religious leaders of the New Thought
movement, who recovered their health by mental and spiritual means from
supposedly “incurable” diseases, and to elicit the mechanism that triggered their healing. Finally, I aim to demonstrate the power of
thought to heal the mind and body.
In
the healing arena, there is another important aspect to consider and it is the
mind-body relationship; to acknowledge the fact that the mind is the charioteer
(the driver) of the body and not the other way around. Many people know that
but when got ill they forget about it and they surrender to the effect of the
illness.
They
are three fundamental concepts for any healing:
1. The
mind is the charioteer of the body.
2. Human
body has the capacity to regain health.
3. Most
of the healing with or without it is due to placebo.
6. Can people be restored to health from
“incurable” diseases without medicine?
My personal investigation on the matter for more than ten years
and based on my own experience, the response is a resounding “Yes.” Man can be
restored to health through the power of his mind. We should also have into
account the tremendous capacity of human body to regain health; this is what
has been called the spontaneous healing or inexplicable remission. Furthermore,
my research which is backed up with modern scientific evidences indicates also
that placebo effect plays an extremely important role in the matter.
This book also analyses most of the alternatives and complementary
medicine in America and provides a coherent explanation for their success and
failure. The beauty of the New Thought philosophy is not only restricted to
heal the mind and the body, but also, it is applicable to achieve success in
relationship, family matter, and financial achievement. Lately
I came across an excellent book entitled Snake
Oil Science: The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Therapy, by R. Barker
Bausell, Ph.D., retired University of Maryland professor, Research Director of
National Institutes of Health-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine
program. The book is endorsed by physics professor and medical doctors. The
author claims that he penned it after he had enough scientific evidence to
permit a rigorous evaluation about complementary
and alternative medicine (CAM). The book concludes that all complementary and
alternative therapies are only placebos. He says, that
“CAM therapies are nothing more
than cleverly packaged placebos.
And that is almost all there is to
say about the science of CAM.”[2]
7. Why People get heal with
different methods?
This
is a very interesting question. The saying
“Different strokes for different folks” encapsulates the idea. There is
another one, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” In the healing realm
works the same principle. A specific therapy that is effective for someone else
is not for another. Among all the healing modalities in the market one of them
will strike the cord to a specific individual and the healing will follow.
Likewise a specific medication benefits someone but could have negative
consequences on another. This is because everybody is unique and has special
idiosyncrasy and predispositions.
The above is also true in the medical
field, diverse medicine work for different kinds of maladies; likewise, varied
kinds of therapy work for different people. Thus, it follows that every human
being has a psychological disposition to respond positively or negatively to
different kinds of healing methods. Some people will feel relief to their
maladies writing journals or poems; other dancing, or been next to nature and
forest; some who are inclined to religious or spiritual practices, engaging in
praying, contemplation, spiritual retreats or read biographies of saints and
spiritual will do the job. Others incline to ascetic practices, fasting and
meditation is good alternative. Some people have got well just being cheerful,
laughing of funny movies or TV shows, reading the cartoons of newspapers, and
so on.
8. What is the main
factor for getting ill?
The main reason is the social
environment that covertly holds the thesis that is natural to get sick, that is
part of being human. This idea is supported and emphasized by the negative
promotion of medication, surgery and other methods throughout the mass media.
Scientific researches in the medical field have showed that one of the main
factors for getting sick is stress. Stress weakens the immune system and
predisposes the body for the intrusion of illnesses. Thus, is some cases, just
getting out of stressful situations, choosing healthy food, practicing
rhythmical breathing, withdrawing to the country side or the forest and living
a peaceful life will facilitate the body’ recuperative capacity.
The way to counteract this social
suggestion (or egregore) is acknowledge that the mind is the charioteer of the
body, that the body has capacity to heal itself; instead poisoning the body
with drugs is better to provide the body with right food, clean water, abundant
solar light and pure and profound rhythmic breathing; getting out of stressful conditions. To
redirect the attention from a negative picture to uplifting and constructive
one. The conclusive statement has been given by Dr. Ingrassi when he said “once
negative mindsets are released, healing takes place automatically.” The placebo effect offers dramatic proof that all healing is essentially self-healing.
9.
Modern Practice of Mind Healing
This phenomenon of healing
without medicine has continued developing today in America through the emerging
practice of what is called Energy Psychology, which includes Thought Field
Therapy and its derivatives such as Emotional Freedom Technique and other
similar modalities. The
New Thought is a new way of understanding the world and the position of man on
this world. It empowers man as creator of his reality and circumstances of
life. The basic postulate of the New Thought is that changing the frame of mind
of an individual can change his reality.
Practitioners of the New Thought have a purpose to teach
this new way of healing and additionally to have a more fulfilling life. Moreover, the application of these
metaphysical principles as inspirational tools has been proved to be of
extraordinary value to achieve success in all areas of life.
10. The Sociological
Implications of a Consumerist Society
As sociologist I find out that in our
modern societies there is a huge conspiracy to keep humans into misery,
illness, and suffering. What we call “conventional wisdom,” in reality is not
“wisdom” but consists of half trues that human take for granted. This
“conventional wisdom” led humans to believe that when we get sick is because
the illness runs in our family, or is because our genes, or because of the
change of seasons, and so on. We have been socially indoctrinated that drugs
and medication are the only solution. Furthermore, the modern healing paradigm
is upside down as it treats the consequences and not the origin of the malady.
We dismiss the body’s innate ability to self-repair and self-heal itself.
To counteract this, the first thing we should do
is to acknowledge the tremendous capacity of the body to regain health by
itself. This has been demonstrated in my
book the Renaissance of Mind Healing in America, published in 2011. A highly
enhanced and improved version of that book will be released on May 13, 2014
under the name, Healing Without Medicine:
From Pioneers to Modern Practice. In this book I analyze and fully document
the healing without medicine of the most prominent leaders of the New Thought
Movement.
11. Why the Subtitle of
the book is:
“How Millions have been
healed by the Power of the Mind Alone?”
Subsequently to that he started healing
with the method of changing the frame of mind of his patients. Some people who were healed by Quimby became
his disciples and began also healing others with this method. Thus millions of
people were healed by this method of treatment. These cures have been
documented and endorse by the medical profession of the time.
One of the conclusions that I
reach in my studies regarding this topic is that the healer, whether a shaman,
medicine man, medical doctor, charlatan, minister, priest, etc., whoever is
acting as healer, gives the patient a suggestion (or placebo) to the sick
person and that is why the healing takes place. They “impress
healing suggestions upon the mind of the individual.” In other words, the
healer brings the sick person from a place of fear to a place of
empowerment.
The
effectiveness of a placebo is to bypasses the conscious mind and still a
positive suggestion. Indeed, the placebo effect is a conclusive proof that the
subconscious mind is the healer of the body.
12. What are the benefits of reading this
book?
In addition of providing the rationale
of faith, mind, spiritual healing, it empowers man as responsible of his health
and happiness. It offers scientific evidence of the power of the mind to heal.
The metaphysical conception is that we
live in an ocean of pure electromagnetic energy called ‘Life-force’ energy or
‘universal consciousness.’ This school held the theory that this Life-force
energy is available for anybody. Indeed we have been using it all our life through
our thoughts and emotions. The problem is man unaware of it misdirecting this energy
to negative thought and feelings such as anger, resentment, hate, envy, etc. and
doing so he built a shield of negative energy around his body that prevents the
free flow of the Life-force thru our body. Thus, the body becomes depleted of
the vital life-force and gets predispose to the invasion of viruses, germs,
microbes from the external world.
The right use of this Life-force is to
get in attunement with feeling of peace and love for ourselves and humankind;
this will activate your inner mechanism and allow the life-force to flow
through your body. The results will be reflected in a balance and harmony with
one’s inner nature and the corporeal body. This requires gaining access to our inner
Self, which has been overshadowed by the influence of the material world and
the demands of the physical senses.
Albert
Amao, PH.D.
www.albertamao.com
http://www.questbooks.net/title.cfm?bookid=11826
Note: For personal services and autographed copies email your request to stgermain777@gmail.com
[1] New England region is one of the earliest English settlements; it is
located in the northeastern part of the USA and consists of six states (Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island). The New
Thought movement is an American made “product” that originated and flourished
in New England and then spread out around the world.
[2] R. Barker Bausell, Snake Oil Science, The Truth about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Oxford/New
York: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 275.
