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IDEOLOGY:

MENTAL AN/1:STHESIA SELF-INDUCED,

MIRACULOUS CURES

SELF-MADE,

INVOLUTION AND EVOLUTION

IN THE

HUMAN MIND

AS IN

THE WHOLE OF THINGS.

By Dr. LaRoy Sunderland,

u

FOUNDATION FELLOW OF THH SOCIETY OF SCIENCE, LITF.KATUKE AND ART, LONDON.

VOLUiVIE I.

PUBLISHED BY J. P. MENDUM, BOSTON, MASS.

1885.

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Copyright, 1885.

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PREFACE.

Accepting mental science as the definition of Ideology that Webster and other lexicographers have given us of this term, it covers all the facts connected with "revivals" and Christianity; all connected with a state of trance, so far as they come within the range of human knowledge. Yet an M. D. in Lancaster (Pa.) sneers at Ideology, and, to avoid the use of my term, thirty years after I had announced this discovery, he dubbed my idea of Involution and Evolution with the cabalistic term of " Statuvolence," in order to claim it as his own invention ! Just as if this same Dr. F. had not in 1842 carried on a series of experiments, in the use of my terms, which he published in my scientific monthly, the N. Y. " Magnet" ! He was then just emerging from the fogs of *' mesmerism," and to this day his eye- teeth have never appeared on the subject of scientific investigation. Nor does Dr. F.'s pam- phlet on what he calls " Statuvolence," published in 1875, contain any idea in pyschology that Dr. F. himself did endorse under the term of Pathe-

111

IV PREFACE.

tism in 1842. Indeed, some of the parties in New Orleans, and others in Pennsylvania, who had become dissatisfied with " Statuvolence," have written me for information.

The " Magnet" was issued for the purpose of establishing my claim of discoveries I had made six years before 1842^ as Mr. Horace Greeley had said, of "substantiating my discoveries in Pyschol- ogy and Hygiene." To that " Magnet" Dr. W. B. Fahnestock was a subscriber, and from its pages he got his idea of Pathetism; and for its pages he wrote a series of articles in support of my theory of selfhood and the law of self-healing and self-induction.

I have sometimes tried hard to imagine my shoulders broad enough to bear any amount of misrepresentation and fraud. Ideas may be stolen as well, and far more easily, than gold, when the thief imagines that their appropriation as his own original invention will gratify his am- bition ! And I have sometimes almost wished that my fraternal heart were good enough to suffer long any amount of injustice, and still be kind. But I am sure you will scarcely dissent from me when I say that there may be a true idea of property in the invention of new ideas. It is certainly upon this consideration that our patent laws are founded. Ideas not new or im- portant, are never pilfered. There is no tempta-

PREFACE. V

tion to claim originality when the invention is worthless ; and, surely, what I now term Ideology has been adopted and claimed during forty years past, under so many new-fangled and worthless terms that I could not enumerate them here!

A man who calls himself J. B. Campbell, M. D., visited me when engaged in business in Boston in 1857, to whom I freely explained my method of cure by pure Nutrition. The next I heard of him he had hitched a Greek and Latin term into V\\.2i-Palky, and had a college established in Cin- cinnati (O.) for turning out Vita-F^thic doctors! He is a fanatic ; nor should I deem him worthy of a moment s notice but for the fact that he has sent me his tracts, in which he has falsely stated that I had approved of /its vagaries, by which he is to obviate death and render those who swal- low his nostrums immortal !

And so of " The mind Cure," the " Faith Cure," the " Divine Cure," the " Metaphysical Cure," and the " cure of seven hundred cases of hydropho- bia," as reported in the " Chicago Tribune." Fur- ther, the " Christian Science Cure " managers in Boston, who issue a monthly paper, have a "metaphysical college" in that city for the manu- facture of mesmeric doctors ! These all succeed, more or less, in cures ; but no one of the clique has been able to rival the "madstone" at the West, I think.

VI PREFACE.

Were Ideology, or the laws of Involution and Evolution, to be appreciated and generally ad- opted, it would annihilate Christianity from the face of the earth. Moreover, were it adopted by the medical profession, it would increase the suc- cess of that profession very much indeed; and this it would do, not, indeed, by inducing a state of trance. This I never did nor attempted, only in my public demonstrations by surgical opera- tions in my lectures.

Only a very small percentage of minds can be entranced; and "statuvolence " is, on this account, misleading. My theory of self-induction, that has been adopted under so many different terms, is proved by various classes of phenomena, as you will perceive in reading this volume.

QuiNCY (Mass.), March 14, 1885.

CONTENTS.

I. — Selfhood. II. — Experimental.

III. — Mental An/ESthesia.

IV. — Miraculous Cures. V. — Ideology.

VI. — The Highest Laws. VII. —No "Royal Road." VIII. — Mentality.

IX. — Idiocrasy. X. — "Christian" Science.

XI. — The Bible Idea of "Inspiration.'* XII. — The Bible Idea of its God. XIII. — The Bible Idea of Witchcraft. XIV. — The Bible Idea of Mediums.

XV. — Bloody Ideas, All Besmeared with Blood. XVI. — Barbarian Lies. XVII. — Humanity Forever.

VII

CHAPTER I.

HUMAN SELFHOOD. SELF-GROWTH, SELF-CONTROL, SELF-HEALING.

Webster, in his large American Dictionary, has given more than two hundred applications of this term ** Self,'' showing the range of this idea of selfhood, in the use of different terms, in the whole of language. A cor- rect estimate as to the meaning of this selfhood will suggest the reasons for its adoption, when treating on the laws supreme of selfhood and self-control in the whole of things, as it must be in the human mind. We see this illustrated when a sensational idea results in instant death. It is a noteworthy fact, that all classes of people, more or less controlled by ideas of mystical phenomena, admit the idea of their own selfhood ; and thus, by implication, they admit the supremacy of these laws of self-control ! And they do this while their "faith" in mysticism ignores it in self-induction, and the evolution of those nervous and mental changes they are always ready to attribute to some nondescript invisibility, above or below, outside of themselves ! There is no proof that there is ever any love or fear or hope or joy not self induced ; always, however, these emotions may be suggested to the mind. If these laws of selfhood be true in one mind, it is so in all minds.

(1)

2 IDEOLOGY.

All of US admit these laws in the solar system ; and so also they are admitted in the human instincts, — in vitality, nutrition, nourishment and (growth, physical and mental. The wound is self-healed in the body ; why not, also, in the mind ? From these dominant laws we are conscious of selfhood, freedom in volition, or the power of choice. It is manifest in the spontaneity of all the instincts, all the emotions ; as Goldsmith sung long ago,—

" Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, The soul adopts, and owns their first-born sway."

Thus we have sleeping, laughing, weeping, sneezing. Even when certain emotions are excited, as in " reviyal " epidemics, by sympatJietic imitation, the phenomena are self-induced, and are spontaneities. In the sequel I will describe the mental laws of selfhood by which the Christian is impelled to ignore these supreme laws in his own case. Hence, when we come to the Christian *' experience," he assures us that certain phenomena in his case were n5t ///duced at all, but they were /reduced in his mind by the volition of some nonde- script invisibility outside of himself! Hence the ''me- dium " declares that it is not he himself that is speak- ing, but it is "Dr. Franklin," or some one that died a thousand years ago ! The entranced, by the ''mesmeric " processes, think that state was not ^V^duced, but it was /reduced by the mere volition of the " mesmeriser ! "

The author's discovery of these inherent mental and physical laws was before the announcement of the "correlation of all forms of force." They were at first announced in "Zion's Watchman," New York, in August, 1840, and afterwards in the " New York Magnet," a monthly I issued devoted to this subject.

HUMAN SELFIIUUD. 3

Theologians have boasted that the " creed " is true, nay, ** tremendously true." But what if science i'Rove '\\. false ? Then it is tremendously false, — none the less false when it ignores science and imposes upon human ignorance and credulity.

With the ancient ''ism'' the author's acquaintance began more than sixty years ago. His personal expe- rience as a "minister" may be inferred from his truth- ful description, in the following pages, of the method of ** getting up" "revival epidemics." I invite any one to attend any camp-meeting at a place where sensational efforts are made, and compare what he will hear and see done with my account of "revivals," and it will be found, I am sure, as I have here stated. No theologian will tell me that I am not familiar with " the means of grace," and sufficiently to qualify me for uttering in this volume the literal truth. The author knows what Christianity is ! Were it even possible to misrepresent it, he has no motive in that direction. He has far more charity for Christians than it is possible for them to exercise either towards him or towards each other. There can be no motive in any candid, honest mind familiar with the Bible for misrepresenting it. Can infinite luratJi be misrepresented } Can " God's back parts " be described } Can a myth or nondescript be caricatured .? Can the torments of an eternal hell be too highly colored .-*

The victims of this old ism, both laymen and the clergy, may here be reminded that the author's theory of SELF-INDUCTION, which provcs the fraud, is admitted in the sum total of valid knowledge by the scientific world. Every sensational sermon preached, and every "sinner converted," are and will be referred to as posi-

4 IDEOLOGY.

tive proofs of the truth of Ideology. And here is a brief resume of the proofs, as it was presented to my own mind forty years ago, and which has been deeper and stronger grown every day since, —

" As streams their channels deeper wear."

I had had an experience as a "revival " minister for twenty years, in the constant observation of nervous and mental phenomena, — all induced *' by fait J i " in my dogmatism, or in me as a preacher. Thus, by a pro- tracted and varied experience, I found these changes in the ^^ trances ^'^ spasms y and ^^ visions'' of my auditors confirmed the New Testament teachings of Jesus, who admitted that he had no power over those cured by his "will," except that power by which he had been invested by the "faith" and confidence of those in whom his miracles had been wrought. (Matt. ix. 28 ; xiii. 58 : com- pare Mark i. 41 ; Luke v. 13.)

This faith, I was taught, was not only an act of trust exercised by the human mind, but it was a sine qua non in Christianity ; and without it we are doomed to the torments of an unending hell ! That it is only by this ■ "faith" that we know there is any God, (Heb. xi. 6), or any Holy Ghost, (Acts xix. 2).

Having previously made the experimental discovery in psychology referred to, I now had no use for Chris- tian ideas or terms. Then it was I left the pulpit for the public platform, and gave experimental lectures throughout these United States, demonstrating the truth of this theory of self-induction. During this time my audiences, in comparison with Methodism, were in- creased a hundred-fold, and the "conversions" by the miracles of power in my audiences were increased in their marvellous characteristics a thousand-fold. Nor

IlL'MAX SELFHOOD. 5

were they performed merely by my own volition, as I constantly informed my audiences. And while the "Boston Chronotype " (I'21izur Wright, editor) declared that I had performed far greater wonders on my public platform, and without any visible means, than any other lecturer ever did in the use of ''means;" still, as I ignored the notion of Jesus and of Mesmcr in regard to the human "will," the wonder of the multitude was increased the more on this account.

Here, perhaps, it may be well to lay before the reader some of the views expressed by editors, doctors, clergy- men, and others, when the announcement of this dis- covery was first made in the city of New York, where I then resided. The first I remember was by Horace Greeley, who had witnessed some of my "miraculous cures " in New York, and he requested me to write out for the Tribune of Feb. 23, 1842, an account of them. In publishing them, he said that the new discoveries in hygiene and psychology that Dr. Sunderland had j^ro- posed to unfold were indeed of the most astonishing character, and, substantiated, would place his theory of ideology among the most important of the positive sciences. Thus it was editors, bishops, the highest officials in church and state, witnessed and bore testi- mony to the genuineness of the phenomena they saw on my platform.

There were always present more or less of the clergy and the medical profession, and also scientific gentle- men well known to the public, who endorsed what they saw done, that it could be accounted for only by the power of faith in ideas. These phenomena exceeded in the marvellous all that were ever seen in any " relig- ious revival," so called, ancient or modern.

O IDEOLOGY.

No "miracles " by the " Holy Ghost " ever equalled the "wonders of faith" evolved on my platform, and that so excited and astonished the crowds that always thronged the halls where I lectured. The scientific "revivals" I got up in all the cities and towns ex- ceeded everything of the marvellous ever heard of under the preaching of Wesley or any of his followers. And in Boston, where my lectures in the old Masonic Tem- ple were continued for sixty-four nights in succession, (1849), ^o "revivals" of the Methodist stamp could ever be got up there for twenty-five years afterwards, until a new generation had grown up for Superstition to prey upon.

The following testimony, as will be seen, contains the names of doctors of the highest distinction in the city of New York, besides clergymen ; for a bishop (Brownell), and clergymen of all denominations, en- dorsed the genui7tencss of the phenomena in my public lectures, by which I proved the truth of my theory of faith and self-induction : —

" The subscribers have witnessed numerous psychological experiments by Dr. LaRoy Sunderland, by which the mental exercises of the patient, a blind lady, were brought on and removed in a few seconds of time ; such as laugJwig^ si?igi7tg, and the states of the mind resembling madness, ??tono7?iafiia, and insanity.

DANIEL M. PEIXETTO, M. D.,

Pres. of the New York Medical Society. DR. HENRY H. SHERWOOD. O. S. FOWLER, Phrenologist. PROF. ELIZUR WRIGHT. REV. J. H. MARTIN. REV. ISAAC COVERT.

New York, March 2, 1842."

HUMAN SICLl'llOtn). 7

It was common for full reports to be made of my lectures, and a synopsis of such reports will be found in my last work on '* The Trance." It was common, also, for my audiences to organize, and pass resolutions of approval, of which the following are specimens. I quote first from the "Philadelphia Sun" of March lo,

1847:-

" At the close of Dr. LaRoy Sunderland's lectures in Odd Fellows' Hall, last evening, the audience was organized by the appointment of John Evans, Chairma?i, and G. W. Dun- can, Secretary, when the following resolutions were unani- mously adopted : —

" Resolved^ That we, citizens of Philadelphia, have been highly amused, and, we hope, benefited morally, and intel- lectually improved, by attending Dr. Sunderland's experi- mental lectures on mental science ; and we do hereby express our gratitude for the intellectual entertainment they have afforded us.

"That, in parting with Dr. Sunderland, we feel the loss of one who has endeared himself to us, not only as a most cour- teous and gentlemanly lecturer, but as one having the most profound knowledge of the human mind of any or all that have appeared amongst us ; and his method of self-induction in his audiences precludes the possibility of collusion, as the subjects evincing the phenomena being our friends, acquaint- ances, and relations, is to us, and it should be to all, a suffi- cient guarantee for the truth of his theory, and the most wonderful mental phenomena they illustrate.

"That the common courtesy due to a stranger who has given to us such satisfactory proof as to the law of self-induc- tion in his numerous lectures to the dentists, the surgeons, the editors, and all scientific gentlemen who have been freely and especially invited upon his platform for that purpose, demands from them something more than a mere silent acqui- escence ; and that our press has been remiss in not reporting more fully the wonders of his performances.

" That Dr. Sunderland, in leaving us, does it not for the want of sufficient interest being manifested in the subject by Philadelphians, who from night to night have crowded his exhibitions, and would still do so if he were to continue with

8 IDEOLOGY.

US, until no hall within our city limits would hold them ; and Dr. Sunderland will always find attentive audiences, open hands, and warm hearts to welcome him whenever he can make it convenient to visit us again."

From year to year resolutions of approval were adopted by my audiences in Boston, of which I quote the following from *'The Washingtonian," of Jan. 8, 1848. Resolutions adopted after the close of a lec- ture given for the benefit of the Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society : —

" Whereas, Having attended Dr. LaRoy Sunderland's lec- tures on his new theory of self-induction, and having wit- nessed his fearless and open manner of calling for the strictest scrutiny of the most intelligent minds to a series of interesting, and to us satisfactory, experiments, by which the truth of his new theory of the mind has been demonstrated, therefore —

'■'■ Resolved, As the sense of this meeting, that the high intellectual pleasures which our attending Dr. Sunderland's lectures has afforded us, together with the permanent good which we believe has resulted from them, entitle him to the confidence and the gratitude of the multitude who have been benefited by his arduous labors."

And I quote next and last from the ** Concord (N. H.) Democrat and Freeman," of Feb. 22, 1849: —

" At the close of Dr. Sunderland's lectures, Dr. Henry O. Stone made some commendatory remarks, and offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : —

^^ Resolved, That the trance and other phenomena we have seen evolved in many of our fellow-citizens of undoubted honesty, uprightness, and morality, have demonstrated to every candid mind the truth of Dr. Sunderland's theory of self-induction and evolution.

" That we have been entertained, instructed, and improved by Dr. Sunderland's lectures, so successfully illustrated in the persons of individuals in whom we fully confide.

" That we appreciate the gentlemanly conduct of Dr. Sun- derland under the embarrassing circumstances he has encoun- tered here, and that our good wishes will hereafter attend him wherever he may go."

IIUMA.N 6EL1-11UUD. 9

At the period of 1842, when these demonstrations first be<^an to attract public attention, as bearing upon all previous notions of mental science, that great dis- covery in physical science, which Faraday declared to be the greatest which the mind of man could make, had not been announced.

And if man be admitted as the crown of all that has gone before ; if man himself be the greatest miracle, and if the human mind must be supposed greater than any or all the discoveries it can make in physical science, — then of how much more importance must it be for this same human mind to discover those highest laws of involution and evolution by which the mind, and all in the whole of things, are controlled ? For these two laws control throughout Nature's order, and they domi- nate all \.\\^ forces of which it is possible for us to have any knowledge.

Indeed, these laws of selfhood are seen in the solar system. Keeping in view the \di\N oi polarity diwd gravi- tation from the relation between bodies, it is plainly manifest in the self-control of our planet and of all organized and living organisms, — vegetable, animal, and MENTAL. We instinctively pronounce that human being "green in youth" who is not conscious of his own selfhood and self-control. It is this inherent right to selfhood that is invaded, and as far as possible anni- hilated, by ancient mediumism. The selfhood of the medium as priesthood is yielded up and lost !

Selfhood culminates from the nutritive economy, and this accounts for it that so often when sensational ap- peals are made to credulity the vital system is ruptured, and the victim falls instantly dead, merely by an im- pression made upon the mind. A power which knocks

10 IDEOLOGY.

the life out of a man so suddenly is sufficient for induc- ing all the emotions of grief and joy in any '' Christian experience " ! It is to this power and nothing else that all formal prayers are made, (aspiration is common to all). That this power controls human life, we know ; and any greater power, purely mental, we do not know. Believe as you please. A volume might be filled with cases in support of this theory ; cases where from a sensational iinpressioii made upon the mind black hair has been suddenly changed to white ; cases called '^ mi- raculous cures ; " large numbers of these are reported every year. That such cures do occur, I know. Nor would it be difficult to explain, on this theory of self- induction, how they occur.

Also cases of surgery withont pain, such as I have had performed upon my public platform in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Bangor, Cincinnati, Norfolk, Va., and the other principal cities throughout these United States. Jesus never rendered a man insensible to pain for an hour, while his thigh was being amputated. These surgical operations without pain, in a state of trance self-induced ''by faith" in me, or in the law of self- induction, exceed all the so-called miracles of past ages.

Thus I have removed tumors, and seen the molars of many a timid lady drawn, without pain. No such mira- cles as these are recorded among the marvels wrought by Jesus, or by any one of his followers to this day.

These same laws of selfhood are the key that unlocks a class of mystical phenomena that are constantly occurring in our midst. While writing these pages I have seen numerous events described in the papers of the so-called "miraculous cures," and instances of sud- den death, which are accounted for by these laws. A

HUMAN SELl'llOUl). I I

woman, whose husband was very sick, was asked into his room ; when, on entering, she perceived that he was dying, whereupon she fell instantly dead upon his couch ! A mother, seeing her son had been run away with upon a frightened horse, fell suddenly dead at the sight ! A little girl in Maryland was frightened to death by her mates at play. And I see a report in the "Chicago Tribune" of seven hundred ''miraculous cures," — all of them wrought by a small pebble, such as we may pick up in the streets. This account is written by a "reporter" of that paper, who assures us that he himself witnessed a number of those seven hun- dred cases of hydrophobia "cured" by that pebble, which for this reason is called a " madstone ; " and such is the "faith " exercised in its potency that the patients using it said, it "moves about from place to place " on their bodies !

Such cases prove that the pozver that cures — the power that excites hope and joy and fear — is inside, not outside as many suppose ; and the difference in the degrees by which different persons are affected by sen- sational ideas is determined by the temperament, and surrounding circumstances at the time.

This law of selfhood accounts for it that religious sects differ so much in their creeds, yet each is spell- bound^ and held fast to his own notions of things, from youth down to old age. The instinct for selfhood holds alike to truth or error. Conscience keeps the victim to his creed, and wdth a tenacity that endures perse- cution, torture, and even death itself.

Moreover, it is in this law of selfhood that we find \\i^ power hy which Christians and modern mediums become so wild and bamboozled by their faith, when

12 IDEOLOGY.

they invest so much in mystical phenomena, or what is believed to be mystical. For whatever is really believed becomes a reality to that mind. For by the ''faith " in the ridge-pole the ''prayer is answered" all the same. No formal prayer ever rises higher than the brains in which the thought is evolved, — a fact that those who pray the most will be the last, however, to find out. When once completely victimized by "faith " in mysticism, we do not take to the study of mental science.

. And now as to that state of things in regard to the human mind which opens the door to error; for I suppose it would be near the truth if I were to affirm that to this day ignorance has been the most dominant in the control of mankind. This fact is easily accounted for when we consider that this human selfhood, when error is once admitted, closes the door, so that error is not suspected ; and hence we hear Christians boasting that "if they are in error in regard to their 'faith,' that they do not wish to find it out ;" whereas, to an intelligent, candid mind, this very declaration of Christians is evi- dence that they are deceived.

The human will is nothing more nor less than the power of choice. It is the expression of selfhood ; and in the sense that selfhood is free and independent of all danger of annihilation, so is each will independent of all control by the mere volition of any other will. It is noticeable that the only sense in which the human will can be truly said to be free, is in that sense that it is ignored and denied by Christianity and modern me- diumship. Ignoring this true idea of the human will was the^^r;;^ of witchcraft when the Christian "faith " invested the idea of " the devil " with power to medium- ize people against their own choice.

HUMAN SELFHOOD. 1$

Moreover, Christianity erroneously teaches that '' sin- ners " are ** converted" by the mere volition of Omni- science ; and yet Christianity cannot show it is possible for infinite Intelligence to have any "choice," .which implies i<2^norance in the use of means. Modern mysti- cism is based upon the false idea that its mediums lose their own selfhood ''under spirit control."

And we know of no other ideas but the human. No other forms of thought have been, or ever can be, evolved by the human brain. This is the true func- tion of brains, — the evolution of human ideas.

There could scarcely have been perhaps a greater blunder by a scientific man than that committed by Max Miiller, who affirms that the monotheistic idea was supcrnatiirally injected into the mind of Abraham, the Jew, spoken of in the Bible.

It is true, that in respect to vitality^ instincty nutri- tion, nourishment, and growth, man is an animal as really as the dog is an animal. But in selfhood, in inner- vation, in sensation, in consciousness and the power of tJiought, and the evolution of ideas, he is more than animal, but never more than human.

It is a great error to imagine that ideas are, or can be, transferred out of one mind into another mind, as you cram the corn down the neck of the goose. There may be an occult sense called intuition, or clairvoyance, like that evinced by Mr. J. R. Brown, the " mind- reader," so-called ; but this is rarely evinced, and gen- erally in cases of disease and insanity, — but some- times manifested it may be in phenomena that have thus been erroneously attributed to mere volition in the "mesmeriser."

As the human will is free in its choice and unlimited

14 IDEOLOGY.

in this regard, its evolution of ideas is free, and each mind for itself forms its own ideals of all things. The mental capacity depends upon the temperament, educa- tion, and growth ; and the taste may be determined much in the same way. The formation of ideals — one's own conception of tJie higJiest and best — com- mences with the maturity that evolves ideas. And we may see any time, where there are small children, how plainly sexhood distinguishes in the juvenile ideals as to whether it shall be a knife, a hammer, or a rag-baby. This tendency is in human nature, and is never out- grown. And yet how common it is for the mass to live and die without even a consciousness of such a ten- dency in the mind, nor the slightest suspicion that, from first to last, all our ideals are nothing more or less than imaginary I Our aspirations, our hopes, and our faith are modified by our purely imaginary ideals.

The child's first ideals of goodness, of authority, of wisdom, are inspired by the parental relation ; nor does he ever after find any real "royal road" for thought. But he can imagine a thousand ideas of a '* royal road," and of things that are not true. Hence the mind is hindered in its growth by creeds of the unknown ; and thus we see how it is that people have always differed so much in their notions of Christianity ; as each mind forms its ideals according to its capacity, education, and facilities for conceiving of such things, of which he knows nothing, but of which he imagines the "priest " may know, because the medium himself says so !

The social relations are the source and the highest authority for virtue, — goodness, right dealing, and truthfulness. So of polarity and the relation between all physical bodies. Whence comes the law of gravi-

HUMAN SKLl-llUUD. I 5

tation, the tendency of particles to a general centre ? So that this same law dominates in all mineral bodies, as it does in the vegetable, the animal, and the mental worlds. It is in the normal relations of persons and things that we find justice, freedom, equality, the fra- ternal, and the highest good ; but in numerous artificial relations, discord and evil. And when we consider human instincts, appetites, temperaments, and oppor- tunities, and with these the margin open to the human imagiiiatiou^ it need not surprise us that a comparatively small number of the human race have become duped by their own conceptions of relations purely imaginary. As we are held by physical gravitation to the centre, so is the mind held to centres wholly imaginary. Chris- tianity is based upon the assumption that man has the power of *' faith," which creates all "the evidence" he can have as to its claims or its promises.

Nor is there, nor can there be, any ''evidence " of a personal God except that "faith" which creates "the evidence " for itself (Heb. xi. 6). And here bear in mind, that as it is "faith" that invests the miracle- worker with power, so it is "faith" that invests its ideal with power ! It creates an imaginary relation between the mind and its ideal, such as the filial re- poses in the parental. Thus, in sickness we trust in our ideal method of cure, or as near it as we can ap- proach. Christianity creates a fear of an imaginary danger, and then cures the wound which itself has made. The frightened mind finds itself in a suffering condition, and petitions its ideal of power for "salva- tion." Such, we know, are the instinctive tendencies of the human mind, from infancy down to the grave. Hence came all ideals of goodness, of justice, of power,

l6 IDEOLOGY.

wisdom, and truthfulness, and our ideals also of evil. And what has been always overlooked by theology, is the fact that as the human mind certainly forms its own ideals of things purely iinagiiiary^ so does the mind form ideal relations between itself and its imaginary idols or myths. The child gets its first idea of ''influence" or power from the relations of life.

The earth and all things are controlled by this law of polarity or relation. It is in this condition of things that error creeps in. Each mind forms for itself imag- inary myths and imaginary relations between itself and them. " Saving faith " invests the idea of a myth with power that induces all the phenomena in ''religious revivals " and in the Christian experience, and all those emotions that the Christian attributes to his ideal "Holy Ghost."

No human mind has any capacity whatever for cog- nizing its own processes of thought. We know nothing of what is constantly going on in our own organisms, — of digestion, nutrition, growth, or decay. We do not know how our ideas or our ideals are formed. We are conscious of our emotions while we know how they may have been suggested to our mind, or what events may have been the occasion of our grief or joy ; but we do not know what the vital, the nervous, or the mental processes were from which our consciousness of the joy or grief has come. How, then, can it be possible for the minds of those victimized by error to see the door through which error may have come in .-*

It is a fatal mistake in Christianity in supposing faith, or any other human emotion, ever had, or can have, any independent action outside of the mind in which it is exercised. The power that "faith," or

HUMAN SELFIIOUU. I7

that any idea, true or false, has over the nervous sys- tem, I have demonstrated far beyond any proof given by Christianity. "No answers to prayer," as they are called ; no "miraculous cures," no "miracles" by Jesus, could equal my siirg-ical ofcraiiojis without pain. When the Christian closes his eyes and talks to his own idi-al of a nondescript, personal myth, he imagines '* some- body " outside of himself will answer. Whereas, " faith " is not a power outside of the mind, while it may indeed have the power of life and death over the nervous system of the one in whom fear has been sensationally excited, as it may have been in the case of Ananias and his wife (Acts v.), and as it certainly has had in other cases.

Now, put all these conditions together, and imagine them as more or less characteristic of all Sunday-school children, and of the hundreds of thousands who attend "revival" scenes and "camp-meetings" from year to year. All are profoundly ignorant of ideology, alike the preachers and the "maddened crowds" excited by their sensational appeals. In such a state of things, it is easy to see what must happen. The crowd is bewil- dered, deceived, and victimized with mental epidemics. Thus, around these imaginary centres the Christians of every name love to gravitate, and while they think themselves very wise, they doom their neighbors, who are as sincere and as honest as they can be, to eternal perdition. To this state of things we should add the idea of an elongated arm that ''faith" gives to those who trust in a Jew — that did not die upon the cross two thousand years ago, — an arm long enough to reach the north star. Or, if he did die upon the cross, then he died in despair, supposing himself utterly forsaken of God.

1 8 IDEOLOGY.

In this way it is that good people become hood- winked with mysticism. Thus the human mind dis- covers its "royal road" to knowledge, and becomes warped under the control of superstition. It grows upon what it feeds, as the body and the brain grow, from which the mental functions are evolved. In this condition it is incapacitated for duly appreciating sci- ence, or indeed its own attributes and selfhood.

When I speak of having experimented upon the human mind, we must remember that the mind is not to be measured by the carpenter's rule. It cannot be weighed by the apothecary. It is not to be subjected to any chemical analysis. And, in view of the ample opportunities afforded me when a '* revival minister " for studying psychology, I have never regretted my ''experience" in that regard. During that time I was familiar with some of the foremost ministers, who agreed with me when I expressed my doubts as to how much "the Holy Ghost" had to do in producing the spasms often witnessed at the camp-meetings. I could not fail in noticing that all the marvellous phenomena always corresponded with the sensational ideas and appeals from the pulpit. When I experimented upon my "converts," I found that ignoring Christianity and using my own ideas the same phenomena appeared ; and never since have I for one moment doubted that the human mind is always controlled by ideas, — true ox false y it is the same. Each mind prefers ideas that agree with its ideals, real or purely imaginary. Nor is there any way to hinder people from talking to their own ideas, as if they had a personal identity. Ignorant as we all are of our own cerebral and nervous processes, I do not now so much marvel when I hear Christians

HUMAN SELKIKXJU. I9

vociferating their griefs iind views to their own ideals in the clouds.

The human race we know have always been opposed to all isms of the unknown. Humanity has never been so earnest and outspoken in its protests ai^ainst Chris- tian dogmatism as it is this day. Its dominant instincts for the evolution of selfhood were never so manifest as at the present time ; and from the beginning, some of the wisest and the best of men and women have urged numerous unanswerable arguments against Christianity.

A writer, himself victimized by " modern medium- ism," has made a labored effort against the "God idea in history." But there is no such idea in history, ex- cept what has come from the germ of mediumship, which is the dominant idea throughout the Bible. Hence, Moses (Deut. v. 5) says, "I was a medium be- tween the Lord and you." This medium was as neces- sary for the ififorniation of "the Lord" as it was for the information of the Jews.

Two thousand years ago, so intensified had this human idea of inedimnship become in Palestine that credulity and ignorance invented a "royal road," after Jesus had died, for exalting his mediumship ; and so they concocted the idea that he had been " begotten by the Holy Ghost." This emulation is characteristic of the old " isms. " Each boasts of the highest and the best.

Still, the human family has always conducted itself precisely as if it had no idea of any omniscient person- ality ; and whatever kind of a personal God there may be, it is of no consequence, as he, she, or it is dependent upon human brains for all it knows of us, and has al- ways to be reminded by " prayer " of anything it can do for us.

CHAPTER 11.

EXPERIMENTAL.

An experiment is an operation' performed for discov- ering some truth or the nature and laws of some sub- stance, or to illustrate the principles of science. Prof. E. L. Youmans has truly stated, that the most impor- tant event in physical science was in advancing from the theoretical, speculative methods of past ages to the experiinental period. The ancients were prevented by a false intellectual procedure from creating science. They believed they could solve all the problems of the universe by thought alone. But the moderns have found that for this purpose meditation is futile, unless accompanied by observation and experiment. Modern science, therefore, took its rise in a change of method^ and the adoption of the principle that the dis- covery of physical truth consists not in its mere logical but in its experimental establishment. — Cons, and Cor. of Forces, p. i6.

This is true. And, if true in regard to chemistry and physical science, how much more may it not be applicable to Psychology and the ideas by which the human mind is controlled } Yet who of all the writers on the human mind can be named that ever thought of an experiment purely mental } In Watts on '* The Mind," in Locke on the "Human Understanding

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EX TEKI MENTAL. 21

and in Mason on " Self-Knowledge," there is not a syllable of any experiment performed by ideas upon the human mind ever thought of. Who of the clergy (till the author himself, then a clergyman, in 1836), from the days of Jesus to the present time, — who and what was the name of that theologian who ever performed upon the human mind an experiment /?^r^:/;/ mental — an experiment with ideas, for testing the power that faitJi in a myth has over the human mind ? What Christian, of all the ages past, ever experimented upon the human soul with ideas, for the purpose of finding out as to whether the proximate power with which Jesus is said to have cured the disease mentioned in Matt. ix. 2, was in the ''will" of Jesus or in the sick man's " faith, " and the law of self-induction and self- healing which inheres alike in every human mind .'* What D. D., or what "revival " propagandist, could you name, who, before drilling the organs of credulity and fear with his dogmatism of the unknown, experimented with ideas by which he could find out if there was any difference in the faith which holds still the nerves under the surgeon's knife (as I have often done) and faith in a myth }

A scientific experiment takes in all the factors, all the forces, that evolve the phenomena. Nothing is taken for granted ; no element is omitted. As science is a classification of ideas, not merely of all that is known but of all tJiere is to be known, it is easy to see how inconsistent and absurd it is to apply the term Christian to science ! Christianity has always ignored science and human reason, as '' faith " always does ; as " saving faith " is the substitute for science, human reason, and knowledge.

22 IDEOLOGY.

During my scientific lectures, a large number of Christians ''filled with the Holy Ghost," and clergy- men of all the grades in the different sects and churches, became entranced and insensible to pain during surgical operations performed upon them ; and I am sure that each one of these *' converted " and Christian people at those times invested me with far more power than they ever did any idea that it was possible for them to form of a mytJi above the sky. They certainly had more faith in a man they could see than they could have in "the unseen" ! Moreover, no "holy priest " can refer to any case of surgery to be compared with the hundreds that were witnessed upon my public platform ! It is said that " seeing is believ- ing;" and, although perhaps this may not always be true, yet when you see something has been said to a nervous, timid lady that induces her to shut her eyes and sit perfectly still, without the movement of a muscle, while the surgeon's scalpel is thrust into her nervous system, I am sure that you behold a greater "wonder" than anything truly done by Jesus or his priests.

Now it will be readily seen by these experiments how all the so-called " miraculous cures " came about, and that one cure is as really " miraculous " as another ; as evolution and self-induction include and combine both the instinctive, animal, nutritive system, and this self- controlling the human mind by ideas, these two factors are united in manhood, and reciprocal in their action. Thus it is that man, in his personality, partakes of this characteristic duality in his nature, which I have else- where shown to be in the whole of things. Hence it is he has to exist a series of years before he is conscious

EXPERIMENTAL.

23

of ideas or a living body, and still longer before he dis- covers that he has a mind and the power of thought, and longer still before he finds out the living nutritive functions, whence his existence is derived. Nor is it difficult to suppose that by far the larger part of the race now alive, and of all, indeed, that have lived and died, had no just estimate of what is stated below.

FACTORS IN SELFHOOD.

The Body. — The Nutri- tive Economy, limited by the animal instincts. It is the primary source of growth, health, and happiness. Its interruption is sin, disease, pain, and death. The heal- ing, curative power is in the arterial blood and perfect nutrition. Assisted by ap- propriate ideas in the habits of living, both the mind and the body are healed and cured.

The Mind. — Self-control- ling and unlimited in its evo- lution of ideas, true or false. Always controlled by its own ideas. By sensational ideas it is diverted from the sense of pain, entranced, or med- iumised. In evolution and self-induction is the greatest power we know. By ideas disease is caused or cured. This law is supreme in each mind alike ; and, unduly ex- cited, sudden death follows.

Here I repeat, what I have elsewhere stated, that the human mind never takes cognizance of its own pro- cesses. It never has knowledge of its own selfhood in any of its emotions, such as fear, JLope^joy, faitJi, or de- spair; and this accounts for the fact that it is so com- mon for people to attribute the changes of which they are conscious to a viytJi, or, as in ''Mesmerism," to the mere ''will" of another; and, worse yet, in modern mediumism, to the "will" of one now dead! Whereas,

24 IDEOLOGY.

the power of choice in the human mind can have no influence merely by volition, or anything outside of the. brain in which that choice is made. If there be any exception to this, it may be found, perhaps, in the re- sults reported of the adepts in India, and what are called the '' occult forces ; " and these, I suppose, to be brought about (supposing that they really occur) by the conjugation of ideas. Humanity itself comes from the conjugation of ideas. Nor do I entertain any doubt but that, when the " conditions are favorable," ideas may be so conjugated in the minds of two parties that are far apart that they may control physical bodies. It is certain that an idea in the maternal mind disinte- grates, creates, and materializes eolors and forms in the foetus ; and I have witnessed cases where these '* moth- ers' marks " have been removed — that is, they certainly disappeared — after the father had passed his hand over them a few times for this purpose.

In the foregoing account, we have what perhaps we may call the Anatomy of Selfhood and the theory of Ideology. This term seems to me the most appropriate for designating the experiments by which its truthful- ness has been demonstrated. My experiments, while they were psychological, were physical, nutritive, and surgical. During my experimental lectures for business purposes, I adopted *' Pathetism " as a term for desig- nating them. This was suggested to me by the late Rev. Prof. George Bush, of New York, where I then resided, as he was deeply interested in my investiga- tions, and was himself one of the very first persons upon whom my experiments were performed. It was, perhaps, for the reason that I had for twenty years previously been recognized as a clergyman, that in all

EXPKRIMKXTAL. 25

my scientific lectures throughout the country I found ministers of the gospel and Christians of all classes ready to yield me assistance. And now —

" Good master doctor, And you dear doctor, and the third sweet doctor, And precious master apothecary, I do pray ye,"

what real difference can it make if the ''prayer "be heard and the disease cured ? No matter what you call it ! and if I do not offend the lancet or the pill-box in finding the wound healed by nutrition, why should Christians object to my finding the greatest power of which it is possible for the mind to have any knowledge at all in ideas and the laws of self-induction and evolu- tion ? Why should a Jew, a Hindoo, a Mohammedan, a Christian, a Mormon, a Spiritualist, take umbrage if I find by experiment the law of self-induction inherent in mind, — the Supreme Power, and the greatest force in ideas the mind is ever conscious of, and by which all petitions to the outside, the unknown, are answered, if answered at all ? I know what the "power of faith " is by which the disease is cured, and the prayer is heard ; and I know, equally well, how very slow the race have been in arriving at the conviction that fast- ened itself upon my mind fifty years ago, — that Nature's order is constant. There is no such thing as chance. All is the sequence of cause and effect in a chain, no link of which has or ever will be broken.

CHAPTER III.

MENTAL ANESTHESIA SELF-INDUCED.

One case of the utter jtnconscioitsness of pain, self-in- duced by IDEAS in the patient's own mind, — and what then ? Why, tJien, it follows that a dual 'law of invohi- tion and evolution inheres in each human mind, no matter by what terms it may be called, — whether "Mesmerism," *' Spiritualism," ''Christianity," '' Mor- monism," " God," "■ Jesus," the '' Devil," or the "■ Holy Ghost." It is manifested in instinctive phenomena in selfhood, in self-growth, the self-healing of wounds, and in all vital and mental phenomena, as in life and death ; and it is a noteworthy fact how very nearly death ensues when a certain balance is destroyed between involution and evolution. Thus, how common it has always been to find cases reported of persons instantly killed \iy fear, faith, snidjoj/

A recent No. of the "Medical Press" contains the case of a man suddenly killed hy falsely supposing that he had been bitten by a snake ! The patient, awakened in his sleep by something creeping over his naked legs, immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was a cobra, went into a collapse and died, though it was dis- covered, even before death, that the supposed cobra was a harmless lizard.

(2G)

ANAESTHESIA. 2^

Hall's "Journal of Health" truly affirms that ''the idea of a disease will often produce that disease. This we see effected when the mind is intensely concen- trated upon the disease of another. It is found in the hospital that surgeons and physicians who make a specialty of a certain disease are liable to die of it themselves, and the mental power is so great that sometimes people die of diseases which they have only in imagination. We have seen a person sea-sick in an- ticipation of a voyage before reaching the vessel.

I have myself witnessed cases of sea-sickness in par- ties before they went on shipboard, when bound to the camp-meeting picnics on Cape Cod ! — thus presenting the fact that the same power to which their prayers were to be offered at the camp-meeting had made them sea-sick before they had started for the meeting ! Dr. Hall declares that he has known a person to die of supposed cancer in the stomach when he had no cancer or any other mortal disease. A blindfolded man, slightly pricked in the arm, has fainted and died from believing that he was bleeding to death. Therefore well persons, to remain well, should be cheerful and happy, and sick persons should have their attention drawn as much as possible from themselves. It is by their faith men are saved, and it is by their faith men die. If one wills not to die, he can often live in spite of disease ; and if he has little or no attachment for life, he will slip away as easily as a child will fall asleep.

We should constantly bear in mind that the "■ will " and ''faith" have no power outside of the brains in which the ideas are evolved ; and it is to the his-hest and the best hygienic purposes when we can concen- trate our " faith " and our volitions upon ourselves, for

28 IDEOLOGY.

our own cure. I know whereof I affirm, having pro- tracted my own life, I may say, forty years at least, — at any rate, until all my family and former friends are in their graves. The problem is proved by one suc- cessful experiment ; and one case (given in my '' Theory of Nutrition") is so remarkable that I refer to it here; showing, as it does beyond all doubt, that the Nutri- tive Economy chooses often its own methods of cure. It was the very wonderful case of Mr. Cunningham, who took not a mouthful of food, though his stomach and body were fed and nourished for three months ex- clusively through his pores. During all this time there was no movement of the bowels, while the patient ac- tually gained thirteen pounds in weight, and his fistula in ano was healed. Certainly such facts as these prove the function of nutrition in the animal economy, and that it is not only carried on through the stomach and lungs, but also through the external surfaces, or the skin, even when food is withheld entirely from passing into the stoniacJi and bowels I This idea of feeding through the pores exclusively is certainly not very common among invalids. Why, poor sufferers, they hear a suggestion about any ''restrictions" imposed upon the habits of living with a sigh ; but what will be said when told that in some cases the patient is re- quired to give up eating entirely^ while being dieted through the skin^ and that while he does so Jie may be increased in weigJit f His sores are healed, and he is completely cured. But now I ask attention to the fol- lowing cases, demonstrating this dual law in selfhood of involution and evolution. Yet here I have to pause ; for, were I to undertake to give one in a hundred of the cases at my command under this head, they would fill a

ANM<:STI1ESIA. 2()

volume. Nor would it be possible for me to notice in detail my own cases of surgical operations without pain, to say nothing of the similar cases that have occurred since my theory of self-induction was announced, in England, Germany, Italy, and France. Dr. l^sdale has reported many cases in India among the Hindoos. While I do not assume that this assistaiicc of complete self-induction is equally available in all cases, I do affirm that these cases demonstrate the truthfulness of my theory of nutrition, and they are without a parallel in the history of anaesthetics and surgery.

1. In the following cases there were no accidents, nor ill-effects even, to the persons on whom the gases were used.

2. They were performed on a public platform, and witnessed by gentlemen of the press, the medical pro- fession, and the clergy, freely, — for all such were always invited upon my platform ; and they were witnessed also by uncounted thousands of people in the large cities all over these United States for a series of years. Hence it would not be possible to give here all my cases of painless surgical operations ; and I must beg to refer the reader to my book on "The Trance," and here name only a few as examples.

3. These cases cannot but be admitted as unparal- leled, when it is considered that self-induction, sug- gested by the lecturer, occurred in a large crowd of people, from one to fifty or a hundred cases, in one course of lectures. Moreover, entrancement in some cases came on by proxy, so that, by the laws of syvipa- tJietic imitation, one entranced person entranced an- other and another, until a score or a hundred have become *' influenced " and entranced in the same way.

30 IDEOLOGY.

4. Again : My painless surgical operations were per- formed in public, where nervous people do not like to be criticised ; and, under such circumstances, the real- ity and depth of the trance is more fully shown, as, whatever dissimulations might be practised by an indi- vidual in private, — in public a large number of women and timid men would not be very likely to feign that indifference to pain which multitudes of people have so often evinced in my public lectures.

At my suggestion merely, surgeons have become en- tranced, as were the patients on whom they operated. Nor am I aware that history gives any account of either the phenomena of ''revivals," or the results of chloro- form, or the wonders of modern mediumship, that equal the cases here stated. Who ever heard of a surgeon having himself taken the chloroform with the patient at the same moment when the surgical operation was to be performed } But ideology has administered the *' human chloroform " both to the surgeon and the patient at one and the same time ; so that both were ''under the influence," and in a real state of trance, when the former applied his lance and his forceps suc- cessfully in the extraction of the teeth of the latter. Nor is this all, for —

Ideology controls the nerves of women and timid men, while having their teeth extracted, in the pres- ence of thousands of people, and does this to such a marvellous extent as to enable these fearful persons, during the whole operation, to hold lighted candles in each hand, by which the surgeon sees to draw their teeth ; and, during the operation, there is no motion whatever of the candles, from which it becomes suffi- ciently manifest that there was in the entranced patient no fear, no consciousness of pain.

AN/ESTllESIA. 3 1

Case i. — Tumor removed without pain, Mrs. Anne F. Mann, Milford, Mass., August 2, 11842. It was 5i^ inches in length, and 5 inches broad. It was cut from her shoulder, in a trance, without pain, by Dr. I^^isk, assisted by L. N. Prowler, the Phrenologist. Reported in the author's '* Magnet," vol. i. p. 73.

Case 2. — A wen removed by the scalpel, without pain, in a state of trance ; Miss Hannah Eyres, eighteen years of age, Alton, 111., August 14, 1843. Cut from her left cheek, in contact with the ear, by Dr. B. F. Edwards. It was i^ inches one way, and i inch and f the other. Had been growing since she was two years old. — Magnet, vol. ii. p. 181.

Case 3. — The thigh amputated, in a state of trance, without any sense of pain ; Luther Cary, a sailor, aged forty, Bangor, Me., P^ebruary 24, 1884. Three surgeons were present, one of whom held his pulse, and declared that there had been no change in it. The operation was by Dr. H. Rich, assisted by Dr. Denn. — Magnet^ vol. ii. p. 233.

I will also here narrate a circumstance that followed one year after this amputation, as it confirms the theory advocated in these pages, — that persons entranced and in a state of anaesthesia are controlled by their own ideas ; and what, for the time, they do not wish to feel or remember they forget. The mind is diverted from a sense of pain. One year after this amputation I gave another course of lectures on Idealogy, in Ban- gor, Me. ; and one evening this same Mr. Cary came hobbling along upon his wooden leg. I did not know that he was in my hall until he had got upon my plat- form. At the close, I suggested to Mr. Cary that he should give my audience an account of that amputa-

32 IDEOLOGY.

tion. Whereupon he arose, and, stamping his artificial leg upon the floor, he gave a consecutive and accurate account of all that had been said and done at that sur- gical operation a year before, and from the pain of which he still declared that his mind had been so strangely diverted in some way that he could not ex- plain. To this I may add that among the more than five hundred patients I have had in a state of mental anaesthesia, self-induced, I never found one that did not give me a similar account to that of Mr. Gary's.

Case 4. — A molar drawn without pain. In 1853, in Boston, Mrs. H. Ryan engaged me to meet her at the office of Dr. Rogers, for the purpose of entrancing her, when her tooth was to be drawn. On my way thither I got a paper to read, and, on entering the den- tist's office, I noticed that Mrs. R. had seated herself in the operating-chair, and so I went behind it and continued reading the paper, until I saw that she had passed into the state of anaesthesia, when her tooth was drawn. Dr. R. told me he had recently been called to a sick man to draw one of his molars. He took his inhaler with him, and when he came to apply it he found that he had no gas. Nevertheless, the man was rendered insensible, and his tooth was drawn without pain, and he pronounced the gas first-rate !

Case 5. — " On Thursday evening last Mr. Sunderland (by some mysterious power of his own) rendered a 3'oung lady (Miss Eliza Gerry) insensible while Dr. Dillingham extracted one of her molars, without the least symptom of pain I She after- wards affirmed herself that she did not know when the tooth was drawn." — Essex Co. Whig, Feb. 3, 1844.

Case 6. — '' Capt. Luce declared that his sufferings here- tofore had been excruciating in the extreme whenever he had had a tooth drawn ; but this one, under Mr. Sunderland's

ANyKSTIIKSlA. 33

new process, had proclucecl no pain . the operation seemed to him Hke a pleasant dream." — New Jh'd/oni Jive}ii?ix Bul- letin^ Nov. 23, 1844.

Case 7. — " Mr. Sunderland produced a most astonishing result upon a lady in this town last Thursday evening; and the testimony of the doctors present, Messrs. Ruggles and West, was that Mr. Sunderland wielded an influe7ice over the nervous system, compared to which the strongest opiates were powerless. While the doctor was extracting one of her molar teeth, the lady was as stiff and unconscious as a CORPSE." — Nantucket Telegraph., April 5, 1845.

Case 8. — " Mr. Sunderland put his * speir upon the lady, while Dr. Payne took out her tooth. There was not the slightest contraction of a muscle, and to all appearance there was certainly no consciousness of pain." — Iroy {N. K) Post^ Sept. 12, 1845.

Case 9. — " Mr. Sunderland did something to the lady (what it was we do not know), for while her tooth was drawn, there was not the slightest manifestation of consciousness, although Mrs. Carr is known to be one of the most timid in her natural state, so much so as to be thrown into spasms whenever the attempt has been made heretofore to extract one of her teeth." — Troy {N. Y.) Budget, Sept. 23, 1845.

Case 10. — "A lady of this town, member in good stand- ing in the Episcopal Church, was, on Thursday evening last, rendered inse?isible to pain by Mr. Sunderland, while Dr. Per- kins drew one of her teeth. During the whole operation of cutting the gums and drawing the tooth not a muscle of the patient moved, nor was the slightest alteration of the pulse perceptible." — Springfield {Alas s^ States7nan, Nov. 22, 1845.

Case i i. — "I have drawn twelve teeth in this town (Chi- copee) from patients whom Mr. Sunderland had rendered insensible to pain during the operation ; and I am informed by a dentist in Springfield that a much larger number have been extracted from persons in that place, and uniformly with the same results, under Mr. Sunderland's process." — Dr. J. W. Smith. Springfield {Mass.) Post, Nov. 22, 1845.

Case 12. — " The lady said she felt as if she had been asleep, and had had a pleasant dream of having a tooth drawn by Mr. Sunderland, which did not pai?i her at all.^^ — Northampto?i Democrat, Dec. 23, 1845.

34 IDEOLOGY.

Case 13. — " On Friday evening two young ladies, under Mr. Sunderland's new process, had each a tooth extracted, without any se?ise of pain ; and, as Dr. Sylvester Graham, who was present, expressed it, ' They sat like a corpse, and never moved a muscle.'" — Z>^;«^(rr^/, Northampton, Mass., Dec. 23, 1845.

Case 14. — "Dr. John Burdell, the well-known dentist of this city, lanced the gum and extracted the lady's tooth while under the spell that Mr. Sunderland had put upon her ; she gave no evidence of pain, as was manifest to the physicians, editors, and clergymen who were present and witnessed the opera- tion."— N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Nov. 6, 1846.

Case 15. — "Mr. Sunderland is truly a wonderful man. We saw him entrance a timid young lady, while Dr. Josiah Curtis tore out the nail from her great toe with his forceps. She never moved a muscle, and declared she was not hurt at all." — Lowell Niagara, June 3, 1840.

Case 16. — "Mr. Sunderland selected a lady from the audience, upon whom he proposed to demonstrate his new theory in respect to pain ; and, sure enough, during the whole operation, which continued for three minutes, in extracting her tooth, there was no sign of pain, and a corpse could not have been more passive in the hands of a dissector." — Portsmouth ( Va.) New Era, Jan. 4, 1847.

Case 17. — " Mr. Sunderland suspended the young lady's sense of pain ; and, on the first trial, the forceps slipped, but not a muscle moved. A second trial was successful, and the large tooth was extracted without the least consciousness of pain,'''' — Philadelphia Daily Sun, Feb. i, 1847.

Case 18. — "Dr. Mansfield stated that, out of the im- mense number of teeth he had drawn, he had scarcely, if ever, found it necessary to exert so much strength as in this case ; but the young lady declared that she had really felt ?to pain at all, and knew of nothing that had been done except the feeling of Mr. Sunderland's hand upon her face." — Pitts bu rg Post, April 19, 1848.

Case 19. — " Mr. Sunderland then took hold of Dr. Payne (who was still under his spell) and led him to the somnambulist seated in the chair. And noiv occurred a sight upon which, probably, mortal eyes never gazed before. It was to see the somJiambulic doctor in the process of extracting that tooth, while both he and the patie?it were in a state of trance, and ?ieither of them able to open their eyes or move a muscle without the consent

MENTAL AX.ESTllESIA. 35

of the lecturer. In a few minutes after the doctor himself was seated in the front chair, the spell still upon ///;;/, and another physicia!! present (Dr. Lyman) proceeded (o perform a sim- ilar operation upon him ! This experiment was intensely interesting, and highly satisfactory to the audience, as we suppose it the iirst and only one of the kind ever performed since old Adam was put into the ' deep sleep ' for the purpose of havinij the rib taken froni his side.

" What Mr. Sunderland has accomplished during his visit to this city has abundantly confirmed the newspaper reports we have seen of his wonderful performances in other places, which, in the production of psychological phenomena, place him far above all other men of whom history has given any account." — IVoy Budget^ Sept. 23, 1845.

To the foregoing I will add two cases showing that anaesthesia may be self-induced without the trance when the patient is in a normal, waking state.

Case 20. — When giving lectures in Salem, Mass., (of witchcraft fame), I had nimierous surgical opera- tions performed on patients in my audience that were witnessed by all the editors in the city. I had gone into the dentist's office to engage him to ojDerate for me the next night ; and, as I was leaving, one of the editors came in, and as he proceeded to seat himself in the operating chair he looked around and cast a woeful look at me, saying : —

" Oh ! Dr. Sunderland, I do wish you would assist me now as you did that patient on your platform last night."

To which I instantly replied, " I will, Sir; " and as I placed my hand on his head, the dentist took out his molar. The patient declared that he did not notice when it was done, as he did not move at all.

Case 21. — The case of my own daughter. When a child she had her first tooth drawn under circumstances

36 IDEOLOGY.

which had set her mind terribly against tooth-drawing and the sight of blood. She was then, in 1847, in her eighteenth year, and with me while giving lectures in Philadelphia. I had discovered that one of her molars ought to be taken out, and I fixed on this plan, which proved successful : I went to Dr. Johnson, the den- tist, and explained my plan to him how to proceed. So one day, as I and my daughter were walking by the doctor's office, I asked her to go in and allow the doctor to see what the state of the tooth was, assuring her that it should not be drawn without her consent. As we went in, she seated herself in the chair, and allowed the doctor to examine, when I whispered in her ear : —

*' Now, daughter, if you will consent for Dr. J

to take out that molar, I will give you a benefit to-night, and in addition you shall have a gold watch ! "

Upon this whisper her mouth suddenly opened ; and the doctor iiistanter had her molar on his table. She never moved a muscle, nor noticed it in any way, and remained perfectly quiet for a minute, when she per- ceived something in her mouth, and, on spitting it out, she saw it was blood. Then she instantly sprang from the chair, with a shout of affright, and covered her face, in a paroxysm of excitement, upon the sofa. Nor did she ever admit that she was conscious of any pain when that tooth was drawn.

Precisely such cases of aiicestJiesia occur in every severe conflict upon the field of battle. I have seen many a soldier fatally wounded who assured me that he did not know when he was hurt.

In the " Boston jMedical World," 1856, page 133, is an account of two horses thus killed ; one in Evansville, Jefferson County, N. Y. A gentleman had a high-

MENTAL AX F.ST TIF. SI. \. 3/

spirited, four-year-old horse that he drove down to the railroad station, in order to get him accustomed to the railroad whistle, which is indeed the most horrible scream that ever pierced a human ear, except perhaps one other. As the train approached, at the first screech of the whistle the horse fell instantly dead, the victim of self-induction, as many a human being has been !

Another horse, belonging to a caravan and tied to a stake, in the village, happened to see an elephant, as he suddenly came in sight around a corner near where the horse stood ; the horse trembled, and fell instantly dead in his harness.

Not long since I saw the case of a monkey that sud- denly died from fright in the same way ; and the cases of fascination, now and then reported, of birds by the snake may be accounted for in the same manner. We can easily see that fear, in an animal, certainly ap- proaches an idea in the human mind. Nor fright alone, but there are other manifestations in the animals that are analocrous to what we see in human life.

Perhaps it would be impossible for me to refer to any other member of the medical profession more highly esteemed, both as a surgeon and a physician, than Dr. Brown-Sequard is at the present time, not only in Europe but in America. Certainly, no medical man stands higher in the rank of his profession in Paris, London, and in these United States. In 1874 he de- livered a course of lectures at the Lowell Institute, in Boston, on the " Nervous Force," that were reported in the New York " Tribune," and from which I now^ quote ; and from this distinguished authority in human physi- ology, pathology, neurology, and physical science, we shall see that while he admits all the essential facts of

38 IDEOLOGY.

what has been called ''animal magnetism" or ''mes- merism," he utterly repudiates the tJieory advocated, under these terms, as to the "control" of one "will" by mere volition over the nervous system of another.

No mere choice or volition has any force outside of the nervous system in which it is exercised ; and, as we shall see, Dr. Brovvn-Sequard distinctly recognizes and affirms the fact of self-induction as supreme in the human mind, and he details numerous facts that are not to be accounted for satisfactorily in any other way than by the theory of selfhood and the law of self- induction and evolution advocated in these pages.

Dr Brown-Sequard says : —

" There are two elements in the nervous system which are united together, but distinct one from the other. One con- sists in the nerve cell, which is nearly round. That cell has, starting from it, a number of filaments. In the spinal cord and in the brain those cells generally have one element en- tirely different from the others, and that element is fibrous^ and similar to the other elements we find in the nervous system. There are, therefore, two kinds of elements in the nervous system, — the fibrous and the cells, with their pro- longations. But the remarkable point which you ought to keep in mind is, that the fibres of the nervous system are united with those cells. Within the nervous centre — that is, the brain and the spinal cord — there is but one of these fibres with cells. In other parts of the body there are cells that have two real fibres starting from them, besides the rami- fications.

" Now, the nervous force is produced in those elements of the nervous system. The nervous force is manifested in nervous action, and it belongs only to those elements I have described. There are animals, and circumstances in man, where the nervous system is so transformed that it may be scarcely recognizable, and yet nervous force is manifested. But the great question is as to whether the boundaries of the nervous system are also the boundaries of health and of that nervous force. But there are no facts to prove that any

MENTAL ANiliSTlIESlA. 39

nervous force can be made to spring out of the nervous sys- tem so as lo produce action in other bodies. And you can easily understand that, if this is true, it is a death-blow to the theory of what is called ' animal magnetism.' "

Dr. Brown-Sequard has given a vast amount of path- ological facts, all tending to confirm the supremacy of what I have denominated the law of self-induc- tion and evolution ; and among them he enumerates many under the term of "Phenomena of arrest'' of this nervous force, and including the nervous pheno- mena known under what is called ** mesmerism," and Christian excitements and ideas, while indeed he does not seem to recognize the psychological law of sympa- thetic imitation^ or the law of association or relatioiiy which dominates in the human mind. Again, he says : —

" Power of the Nerves over Nutrition. — Nutrition goes on in plant life without a nervous system ; and, while it assists nutrition in man, the nervous force has a great power in dis- turbing it under certain conditions. And I now approach a broad subject, about which, unfortunately, I shall not have time to say as much as I could wish. In fact, it would take a large number of lectures to develop it completely. It is the power of the mind over the body, through nervous force. That power of the mind over the body is much greater than most of us imagine. Indeed, I do not think that any one among you, however exalted his or her idea of the strength and variety of their power, has an adequate conception of its magnitude within the bounds that I will mention. You all know what 'mesmerists' have tried to establish, and the power attributed to Perkins's tractors. All these views have some ground in Nature, while the theories are not true ; and I may say that there is hardly any folly believed by mankind but has some ground, some facts, upon which it rests.

'' But, although there may be some ground for it, the theory does not cover all the facts, and therefore cannot be true. The power of the mind over its own body is immense,

40 IDEOLOGY.

as is seen in a state called ' mesmerism,' and the nmnerous other cases I have mentioned. John Hunter long ago de- monstrated how false the 'mesmeric' theory is. In the same way this power induces pain, as is shown in the case related by Prof. Bennett, of Edinburgh, who states the case of a butcher who was trying to hang a piece of meat on a hook ; when he found, suddenly, that he had suspended himself instead of the meat upon the hook ! His agony of pain was terrible ; but the examination showed that the hook had passed through his sleeve and had merely scratched the skin.

" I could give a good many facts to show that, in good health, persons of this imagination can thus be made to suf- fer a great deal of pain when there is no organic cause for it ; and I could show that in the same way the sensation of pain may be suspended, as is shown in the cases of the Christian convulsionaries of St. Medard. And as this power has been extended to anaesthesia, it seems to me unfortunate that the discovery of ether was made just when it was, in 1847, as the ether has prevented attention to the discovery made before, — that anaesthesia resulted from a state of somnambulism, in which surgical operations have been performed that were painless. But this process by somnambulism was long and tedious, and surgeons, in a hurry, gave it up. This I regret very much, as there has never been a case of death from somnambulism, while you well know that a great many deaths have been produced by other methods."

And just now, June 25, 1882, I notice a report in the papers of the case of Major Savary, chairman of a naval and military club, London, who recently fell sud- denly dead from joy, on being informed that he had won a prize of ;£500.

The following notice (by a New York editor) of my labors in 1843 seems appropriate, and worthy to be repeated here : —

" We have received another number of Dr. Sunderland's ' Magnet.' It is well known that this interesting monthly treats of the laws of mind that act upon and control the body; the primordial source of life, vegetable, animal, and

MENTAL ANi*:STnESIA. 4I

mental ; the cause of disease and decay. This is surely a subject worthy of our most serious study. Shall we, then, any longer be deterred from openly espousinj^ ideology, and applying ourselves to its study, by the sneers of those who having eyes to see, and ears to hear, the truth, will neither see nor hear, because it transcends their attainments, or contradicts their adopted theories .'' Let those who will hug their ignorance and choose darkness rather than light, we hope to see, at no distant day, the science of ideology everywhere received and cherished, its claims acknowledged, and its wonderful teachings understood and appreciated. We hope to see societies formed for this purpose, here and elsewhere, to concentrate efforts, collect facts, procure books and other means of information so as to regulate the course of public instruction. — SkancatelesiX. K) Democrat.

CHAPTER IV.

" MIRACULOUS CURES."

''Revival" spasms are called " miraculous, " and so certain forms of disease are alleged to have been "cured, in answer to faith and prayer," by ''superna- tural power from on high." And if any case of disease was ever radically cured, except from within, by the nutritive economy, it is within our scope and design to ascertain how it was done. Diseases are said to have been " cured " by a variety of nondescripts from another world ! But is it so ? Cures follow different methods of medication, and drugs by various names are still re- lied upon in attempts to relieve human suffering.

There is but one way to be born, and one way only by which we can be nourished and grow to the stature of manhood. There is but one way for any wounds, mental or physical, to be healed ; and that same nutri- tive economy which unites the divided parts of a broken bone, cures all forms of disease that are cured.

This term "miracle " is used in the mystical writings of the ancients to signify a sign, a prodigy, something wonderful (John iv. 48) ; and by modern Christians it is used to signify mental and nervous phenomena that are not to be accounted for by any laws that ifthei'e in the human organism, but by "supernatural power," of which we are ignorant; and hence it is "miraculous,"

(42)

MIRACULOUS CURES. 43

or wonderful. According to this definition, the greatest ijrnorance " wonders " the most. That which ignorance cannot account for is a miracle;" hence a true defini- tion of this term is still needed, and here it is : —

A miracle is produced by forms of force regarding which mankind are utterly in the dark and uninformed.

Vitality, instinctive phenomena, the temperament, and nutrition are not miraculous, albeit each is "won- derful." Their forms of force are known, and in those cases called *' miraculous" all the factors are apparent. Moreover, it is only in the smallest number — not one in a hundred million of the race — of whofn any thing mi- raculous has ever been alleged ! Only a few are saved (Matt. vii. 14). Only seventy-four of all the vast mil- lions of the human race, during the past six thousand years, ever supposed their eyes big enough to see the face and the feet of Omnipotence (Ex. xxiv. lo,) ; and, com- pared with the mass of humanity now living, there has been only here and there one of such a ''make up" as to assume medium ship between humanity and all the dead of the ages past ! When we consider how exceed- ingly small the number is that are ever "converted," or ever think themselves really "cured" by a nondescript in the sky, it suggests to us how numerous the Jninian elements are that enter into these "miraculous cures " ! Moreover, it is not assumed that any of these "cures " ever occur without the preceding "faith " and "prayer," which are human, and fully accounted for and explained by psychology. Now, if upon examination we find the human forms of force that are sufficient for self-in- ducing these so-called miraculous cures, shall we still believe them produced by supernatural power .-*

In Nature's order we have instinct, nutrition, nervous

LIBRARY

8ALTfW0R£ COLLEGE O^

OFNTAL SU?^0!^ov

44 IDEOLOGY.

centres, sensation, consciousness, thought and ideas. A thought may be suggested by any one of a thousand causes, remote or intimate. An idea is evolved from within, and it becomes the image seen in the mind, true or false, or a combination of both falsehood and truth. The function of the brain is the evolution of ideas, which are expressed by signs or words, but are never, as zdeas, transferred by mere volition out of one intellect into another.

All matured minds are controlled by their own ideas, and by what they suppose to be the ideas of others. The idea of the trance brings on that state. An idea invests a myth with power, and in this way disease is in the same way cured. At other times a sensational idea arrests the vital movements, and induces instant death, as if the person were smitten by a bolt from the skies ; and such a power, purely mental, is sufficient to perform any cure ever supposed to be miraculous.

Since the sensational death of Ananias and his wife was reported (Acts v.), any number, and, I may say, thousands of similar cases of sudden death have oc- curred— not, indeed, under the auspices of dogmatic theology, but from sensational appeals to their faith and fear, which resulted in sudden death ; and it would fill a volume to give an account of such deaths of which any record has been published. Such cases are fre- quently reported in the papers as the following : —

"Leavenworth, (Kan.), March 5, 1881. — On yesterday morning a young lady named Mary Kittel, who, seven years ago, was converted to the Roman CathoUc faith, was sud- denly cured while at the commimion-table in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. She fell down a flight of stairs October, and became paralyzed in her left leg. She began the nine prayers before Lent nine days ago, and on going to

I\TIKACULUUb CUKES. 45

the communion-table Iiad lo use crutches. After the usual prayers she says she implored the Virgin Mary to intercede for her. When she started to go away she forgot hef crutches, and went away without them, apparently as well as ever. She was interviewed to-day, and says the cure is un- doubtedly a miracle. She is a very respectable young lady."

In this case wc sec the excitement of "faith," which calls into action the law of self-induction, and this is done by the sensational peculiar to the Popish Church.

A mother in New Hampshire was recently struck instantly dead. Seeing her son run away with upon a frightened horse he had just mounted, she imme- diately fell dead near her own door.

We have also an account of a Grecian father, who, on seeing his two sons return as victors from the Olympic games, was so excited with joy that he fell suddenly dead as they approached him. The wife of David Prentiss, Esq., of Lexington, (Ky.), on reading a letter that informed her of her husband's death, sank instantly dead, with the letter in her hand. A case is just now reported in the public papers of a lady in good health who was invited into the room where her husband had been confined by sickness, and, on perceiving that he was dying, she instantly fell dead upon his bed, when he breathed, after the life-current had stopped in the heart of his wife.

Nor is it in the power of any well person, this day, to say how any sudden shock of joy or fear might in- terfere with his nutritive system ; and those who pride themselves in view of what they call ** saving faith" should bear in mind that this mental trust, called faith, has KILLED more than it ever saved. Thus it killed the prisoner who was made falsely to believe he was actually bleeding to death, when not a drop of his

46 IDEOLOGY.

~ ' ^' ?n shed. Further, in the authors work on

_ . .i Nutrition will be found an extended ac-

"'s own cases of cure, far more wonderful than

c^.j v/c: alleged to have occurred by supernatural

power, in answer to prayer. To these are also added

::^rLr?? - - -Vii/ ^^/»/ri^/i^ performed on patients

T : r, self-induced by faith in this l?.^y A

■ '^ ^^

cr-

-— 'o-

:ated, are rr e ^!- fpJse, as faith :. !t :? !r. fp/sciivca as when it is : . iDZAL .vhich is common to r> ^.\va3^s, and never real It is :'-r .:-':" scions choice agreed upon by the taste and ihe : The margin for the exercise of this choice

is ^- SI... -^ as ima<rip-?-^: r'P- can render it, of beauty, goodness, truthfulrr-- :e, harmony, and perfec-

tion, heaven, or wb^icvc. ._ect we think of the most and the most desire. The^e never was a thinking mind without an id e This .^ :..e object in all aspiration, and when it is :: :he unknowable, faith invests it vdxh that power that cu^e^ a wound ths: :: r ?:^me "faith" itself had made. I: i:: v.jrshipped in v^._ ,5 forms, and to this ideal sincere DT-ayers are offered.

In this conditio: : ::ngs, faith and fear exciting this power of seh'--r.___::jn, certain cures are made, called, for this reason, "miraculous," and thanks are ofiEered to this ideal of the power. Thus it comes to pass, when false ideas are adopted and entertained for a time and associated with the conscience (or that judgment which the mind forms by its own sense of that which ought or ought not to be done), that error becomes installed in the control of that mind ; and to realize with what pertinacity this control is manifested

KTRACCXOrS CUKZS- 47

from adolescence through a long life co^r. : ,M i. we have only to look around, an I ro: r :':c ^ Christians who adopt opposing \-iew5 of r. Both

opposing : es cannot he tnie ; yet bo:h are held

with equal tenacity t- . and both are t

trusted as . _ . . r.s li:. r. in the solemn hour of

death.

Here follows another of those s^msa/itnui/ csLses^ such as we are constantly seeing both in the Christian and in the secular papers : —

**Mr. Murray, of Atchison C?"^n:T, Mo.. ------ '-r- — "— .^^

litde daughter the following siz.^— ir circL

by the Atchison Count}" * MaiL" is well known by rr-

siding LQ and about St. Joseph, pamcu" ■"

agricultural and honiculniral p---^ ■'-

daughter oi ->£r. Murray was sick -

ago, and to all appearances died. She r- ; d in - 1

condition seyeral hours, and then becsjne per .

She then explained that she hz ~ ' - tot.

ceeded to describe in a roost bez _ ... . . _Dd w . :u .

what she had seen. Indeed, it seen^ed that she . . . -

gifeed with supemarural powers of description : for tne ian- gaage she used f)ortr: . " 1 idea of the grandeiu of th- 1

beyond ' ^r*-r' "'-^- ' -- ....-crienced by i~ '■^- ""^ ' -'--'-

~*Her ti was yeiy sici v. .

disease when 5 . : rovered consciousness. ^: diat 5-" -. " ' dber were both going to Oic -

■^"- - * ^ _ - : ; and such "sras ibe casr - ■

h:^::'?. A number of -'-

i they all unite in p' _ :

.A t':' Tr>ssess *" polarity" when

: : - 7 -• . _ . - .e tends to it and the "^t- zt

::. A ?::-e thrown up into the air ^

-/. rer^ms to the earth. Thus, each £::n:

: . - . its centre, or pile, from which we infer the ill-

- z r." _ _.ns: law of irr2'-it3.t:on. Hence the duml law that

48 IDEOLOGY.

holds each planet in the solar system to the central sun, and by which each planet is carried around in space in its orbit forever. As the human is the cul- mination of the highest forms of one eternal force, man is himself the highest, truly so called. He is the per- fection of all centres, and his sphere or polarity deter- mines his physical and psychological '^ make-up." He never lives beyond a certain period ; he never weighs beyond a certain number of pounds, and his mental and his physical capacities never exceed a certain pole. Hence we can see a correspondence between mental and physical phenomena.

Each mind has its own physical sphere, as each physical body has. But the moral elevates the human above all else in the order of Nature, as is shown in the social loves or relations. The human mind is unlimited in range of thought, and it evolves ideas true or false of things it knows, and ideals purely imaginary of things known and unknown. One of the first things done as the mind approaches maturity by its taste and fancy is the formation of ideals of whatever most occu- pies its thoughts, and for the time being it is the centre or pole around which it gravitates. For its centre, its ideal, the mind aspires, and of it dreams both day and night from early childhood down to old age and the grave. Who has not noticed, in an extended social experience, how impossible it always is to convince another of error, and in respect to theories of what no one can know ? As we find ourselves controlled by the loves in the social relations, so are we unconsciously controlled by the imaginary relations with our ideals of perfection and beauty.

It is a common observation amons: thinking men,

MIRACULOUS CURES. 49

that intelligent people should know better than to be- come \ictiniizecl by error. But an acquaintance with psychology shows us how it is that all minds are liable to be thus victimized, and when once the victim of error, the mind having no consciousness of the processes of its own nervous machinery, the laws and associations hold it in that direction that hold us to the truth in any case. No lid is large enough to cover itself. No mind — Christian, Turk, or Jew — is strong enough in "saving faith " to lift its own body by merely pulling at its own shoe-strings. No miracle can render you conscious of your own ignorance.

We are never conscious of our own digestion, nutri- tion, or growth. We know nothing whatever of our own mental processes, or by what nervous movements we become conscious of love or hate, fear or joy, faith or doubt. The nutritive economy within that ''cures," chooses (within a limited sphere) its own time and methods, and thus it performs its ''wonders" while we sleep. What else gives shape and form and features, ere ever the light breaks upon our eyes, or we can know how we became possessed of our disposition, or the name to which we answer ? No mind has, or can have, any cognizance of the nervous movements that evolve its own consciousness of faith, fear, hope, or joy. Of these emotions, when once excited, we are indeed conscious, and if we do not know enough of psychology to know any better, we may attribute them to the ridgepole, or to a nondescript near the north star ; or, on finding a wound healed, we may call it "miraculous," and rejoice that our invisible and imagi- nary IDEAL of power has performed the "miracle."

Psychology, ignored by theology and most despised

50 IDEOLOGY.

by superstition and fanaticism, explains all the ** mi- racles " ever performed in or upon the human body ; and it should be borne in mind that the author, forty years ago, adopted the scientific method of exact ex- periment before announcing the theory of self-induction and the other mental laws described in these pages. The science of pathology does not owe its existence to self-examination. The human body has to be minutely dissected and all its parts carefully inspected by the physician ere its morbid conditions can be detected and the appropriate remedy determined upon. But in psychology the practice of theologians and others has been to take all things for granted ; and, as the mind has no capacity for cognizing its own elementary ma- chinery, it plods along in the same antiquated errors ; and, victimized by its own ignorance of psychology, it instinctively repels any offers of information from sources not under the auspices of the ism, as thus : —

First, instinctive, nervous centres ; secondly, sensa- tion ; thirdly, consciousness, intelligence ; fourthly, thinking ; and last, ideas, ideals^ and invejition of methods ; and so vast another field for experimental in- vestigation could not be opened before us.

Laws purely psychological are involved in every thought and in each word we utter, from the first to the last one. They are in all forms of speech, in all our emotions, all our sensations of joy or pain. Without these mental factors, incredulity, faith, and fear, the pulpit would be powerless. The psychological laws here described generate all the "power" there is in the idea of Omniscience, or the Holy Ghost. But for these mental laws there would be no oratory, no music, no charm in poetry, and no joy in the social relations of

MIRACUl-OUS CUKES. 51

life ; and the fact should here be noted that, of the three learned professions, so called, the clergy, which certainly are the most dependent upon psychology, are by far the most deficient in their knowledge of this science. The mass of this profession are constantly drilling the human mind with their sensational appeals to credulity, faith, and fear. There is not a scholarly medical man to be named who does not know that, since a similar appeal was followed by the sudden death of Ananias and his wife, thousands of others have been killed in the same way by the supreme power of this law of self-induction, by which all the miraculous cures, so called, are wrought.

From the drift of what has been explained in the pre- ceding pages, it will have occurred to the intelligent reader that no one can have any power to cure a disease in the person of another by mere volition, as was claimed by Mesmer and Jesus. Indeed, Jesus himself admits that he had no power in his "will " except that with which he had been invested by the confidence and faith of those whom he is reported to have healed (Matt. ix. 28). Nor does it seem necessary here to at- tempt to show that the same is true of the clergy, — that they have no control over the minds of the people, only just so far as they are esteemed and trusted by the people with whom they are associated.

CHAPTER V

IDEOLOGY.

" The spring whence order flows, that all directs,

And knits the cause with the effects." " On every thorn delightful wisdom grows,

In every stream a sweet instruction flows."

Both Webster and Worcester agree in the definition of this term, "Ideology," that it signifies "The science of the mind, the history and the evolution of human ideas." Hence when Faraday said, "The discovery of the correlation and the conservation of all forms of force is the highest that the human mind has the capacity of making in physical science," he left the door open in behalf of mental science, or ideology. The mind must be greater than any of its discoveries ; for are not all discoveries made both in physical and mental science by the human mind 1 By the mind we know that no atom of matter is inert. All of its laws and forces are alive ! A living energy is an affection of all matter. In the whole of things there is a potency^ unoriginated, progressive, and eternal. Humanity's success is assured ! And, knowing that Force is eter- nally progressive, they ask us, "Whence is Hfe .^ " "Whence came the human mind.?" And here is the answer : Life and human destiny came from eternal evolution : of eternal progression there is no first nor

52

lUEOLOGY. 53

last, no beginning nor end ! M:in is himself by far the greatest miracle! And in his make-up, ho[)e of future good, as a brilliant star, shines in the darkest night of sorrow.

histiuct is evinced in the whole of things ! It is that law within that evolves the phenomena. In the so- lar system, in all worlds, the same ! It is the pozuer witJiin that evolves all forms, till they appear in vege- table, animal, and mental life. As in one drop of water, so it is of the ocean ! Life is in every particle of good air ; and for the want of it all must sooner or later die. And how long should we live if there were no life in the food we eat "t Perfect food makes perfect blood ; and the arterial blood heals all wounds, both of the body and the mind, no matter what the process of cure !

Nor, since 1836, when I made this discovery, have I ever had any use for the pill-box. I have now in my office a box of pills, " given me to take," fifty years ago, by the Rev. Billy Hibbard, a Methodist preacher, well known in this day. He was a Dutchman, and, to assure me as to the efficacy of his ''pills," he told me that a Methodist sister, who had swallowed a box of them, told him that " she really believed that there had been a Methodist prayer in each one of them " !

Animals have no conseciLtive ideas, nor any reason above instinct ; but it has often seemed to me that many animals, in their movements, seem \.o foreshadow human ideas and reason. Yet there are numerous con- siderations which evince the infinite distance between the highest in the animal kingdom and the lowest in the human race, — a distance, no doubt, much extended since the juvenile period of humanity. Two of these

54 IDEOLOGY.

considerations I will refer to here : the human mind evolves consecutive ideas. The mind grows and pro- gresses after the body, at twenty years, has ceased its growth. But how long the mind may continue to for- get, and learn anew, is not known.

As instinct, I think, may be seen in the whole of things, it seems to me that I can see humanity the highest shadowed forth in all the movements of the solar system, down through the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms. And the evolution of human ideas places man at the head of the list.

One substance and pervaded by one living force, the forms, the spJiere, and the 7ise of phenomena dif- fer. But as to matter and force, there is never less or more, — no first sustaining a numerical relation to the last. This is Nature's programme. It is supreme; a living, eternal, progressive Economy. No atom can be truly pronounced inert ; so that progression persists^ and it has no limits so far as we know.

May we not suppose that our own humanity may be truly said to have been born when forms of life had gone before, and human brains (two brains in each cranium) began by the dual laws of invohttion (in- stinctive ingestion, nutrition, nourishment) and evo- hition (growth, and the phenomena that we behold on every hand) .'' Thus we have innervation, sensation, con- scionsness, memory, thinking, and consecutive ideas ; also, a consciousness of selfhood, and the self-healing of all forms of curable diseases, similarly as all wounds and sores are healed by the instinctive forces.

No matter what your phenomena may be — Christian, Mormon, the "haunted house," in Spiritualism, Moham- medan, or Pagan — in which you trnst, when they are

IDEOLOGY. 55

produced by forms of force of which nothing is known, we are deceived ! Hence, what is called " saving faith " produces changes in our own minds, while it has no power outside of the nervous system in which it is ex- ercised. And when I say that the same is true of any other human citiotion^ I explain to you the forces and the laws by which all our mental j^henomena must be accounted for.

The vital, the mental potency is in the whole of things ; and man is at the head, because he is the cul- mination of all the forms of force that had gone before. All these forces and laws are alive. There is no such existence as what has been called dead matter ! The life is in the air that we breathe and in the food that we eat. And Nature's providence is such that it de- posits the food with the seed upon which the plant's first start into life is to feed. And, higher still, it pro- vides for us our food before we are born ! And that must be true of humanity that is true as to the whole of things Is there any vegetable that is not self- feeding and self-growing .'' Do you know of an animal that was not born, and that is not self-feeding and self- growing .■* This principle of selfhood we see in the central sun, and in all the solar system. How can it be less true of humanity } And why should we sup- pose man to differ so much from Nature's programme } Admitting that his mind results from the instinctive forces and laws in the whole of things, humanity must be admitted a complete and a final success that can never fail if the forces and the laws above never fail. And it is from Nature's order that we know the tre- mendous mistake of Christianity.

How much Christians have always made of what

56 IDEOLOGY.

they call "saving faith" (Heb. xii. i), which is simply an act of the human mind ! Without this self-created " evidence," hell is our doom ! Nor is there any Jewish "god" without this faith (Heb. xii. 6). It should be called '^ killing i-dilYvy' for it has killed more than it has ever saved ! The number has been estimated at mil- lions that Christians have put to death upon the gallows and at the stake upon a bare suspicion of witchcraft ! And how can it save one from any danger to which he is never exposed }

Having myself been so deceived by dogmatism of the unknown, it is not so difficult for me to feel a charity and forbearance for Christians whose faith in ideas have become crystallized so that they cannot realize how it is that " saving faith " is really an act of the mind, as hope or love or hatred are ! The laws of the human mind that hold it to the truth, hold it to error all the same. It is best that each should do his own thinking.

CHAPTER VI.

THE HIGHER LAWS.

How immensely important must those principles be to which we owe our existence, physical and mental ! One from the paternal, one from the maternal ; and these united make a third ; for while partaking of a combination of elements from each parent, yet the off- spring differs from both of them, as in its individuality it is unlike all else in the universe of being. One great design in our instincts is maternity and conjugality for the perpetuity of the race. In this way Nature repeats herself ; and, progressing in her forms, parents may see themselves living their lives over again in their chil- dren, improved in body and mind. Hence the sacred- ness of the relation out of which we are born. The foiLiidation elements of healthy character^ and Jiappiness are laid in conjugality; and our responsibility will appear if we take into view the terrible evils that fol- low any and all our excesses.

It is a well-known psychological fact, that nothing tends so much to augment the desire as the habitual direction of the mind towards the objects of its grati- fication. Hence it is manifest what habits of thought should be cultivated by those who suffer from peculiar nervous weaknesses ; and these natural laws explain

57

58 IDEOLOGY.

how and why it is that so much injury results from pro- miscuous or from solitary indulgences. In such cases the mind runs into extremes for the want of those higher sources of social happiness that are supplied only in conjugal life, where are found all those beauti- ful forms of love and sympathy that attract, and, more than any others, satisfy the noblest attributes of man- hood.

Each function needs rest as really as the eyes, the stomach, or the muscles do, and hence the necessity of the regular bath ; and, when this is omitted, cold water may be applied locally with benefit, daily. The best rule for all, both married and single, is to sleep alone. Both hygienic and psychological reasons require sepa- rate beds for the sexes.

Happy are all those who recognize "the higher law " in the whole of things ! They seek the universal good from that innate love of goodness more or less of which dominates in every human mind. They love justice for the sake of right dealing. They have eyes to see that adamantine justice that keeps each planet in its place throughout the solar system. They must love truthfulness for the truth's sake; because they know that nothing but the false and the wrong can fail. Hu- manity was not wrong in its beginning. It is and always will be a success. Sooiier or later error must fail from its inherent element of falsehood. Wrong in the past has always failed, as it ought to fail.

I never ask what a man believes, because humanity is upon a dead level in matters of belief. Each one believes what he thinks is truth ; and when two per- sons entertain different ideas as to which nothing can be known, surely there is no reason why they should dispute, especially if each is honest and sincere.

'riii'. iii(iiii:i< LAWS. 59

This sense of what is called ''the liighcr law" is innate ; and, in the heart of each, like humanity's liope of future good, yet shines in the darkest night. We do well to take heed to this law, as a light that shines in the darkness of depravity and ignorance. It does not depend upon books or creeds, nor upon trances like that of St. Paul, who imagined he had " visions and rev- elations from the Lord." Nor, as Max Miiller has stated, did it originate in the entrancement of Abraham when that "great horror of darkness fell upon him." It is in Nature's programme that the human mind shall outgrow its imperfections else we should never ad- vance from infancy to manhood.

The forms of that one self-controlling, self-repelling *' force" that evolves the human mind are the highest of which we have any knowledge. They are higher than light, higher than those that control the suns and the worlds above and below. Man is the sublimation of all that has gone before, and Nature's "providence" is infinitely above the provisions it has made for hu- manity. It provides our food for us before we are born, and for a year after, till our teeth are grown. So it has provided in us this eternal sense of right, and the suffering that follows the elements that do the wrong. Nor is it difficult to perceive the obscurity that Chris- tianity throws over the minds of its victims, when we hear them telling their little ones that, if they utter a lie (a falsehood, know^n to be such, told with an inten- tion to deceive), and they retire and on their knees "pray" to the ridge-pole, they will be forgiven and never punished for their sin ! It has been this Chris- tian idea of separating between the sin and the future punishment that has sent many a culprit to the State's prison.

6o • IDEOLOGY.

But there can be no escape from punishment for sin, when we know that the elements that do the wrong remain in the temperament. We are responsible, and suffer all the same, whether we know it or not. Nat- ure's order and laws are supreme. Humanity is the resultant phenomena of the natural laws and forces. Of our birth, nor of our death, are we consulted. But we can perceive how it is and why it is that our high- est joy is in the obedience to Nature's highest laws.

The potency of Nature's forces are found in every particle of matter ; yet, how common it is to speak of matter as inert and dead, when, in fact, we contradict it every breath we breathe and every mouthful of food we eat ! How long do you imagine you would live if there were no vital elements in the air you are con- stantly inhaling ? Or, if there were no vitality in the food you are so constantly eating ? In the w^hole of things, matter and its quality, force, are eternally the same ; never increased nor diminished the breadth of a hair. Hence is the foundation of humanity's hope.

Surely there is nothing for us to fear,

Nothing in the future to dread ! The same laws govern other worlds as here.

Both of the living and the dead.

Science, which is classified ideas of all the factors, determines the ground on which it is safe to stand. Nor could I ask of any investigator a more fatal admission of his error than when he puts his theory in opposition to science ?

*' Statuvolence z's. Psychology," says Dr. W. B. Fahnstock, of Lancaster, Pa. ; and that will do, my friend ! Whatever is in opposition to psychology is false. The theory of the human mind that is opposed to psychol-

TJIK IIIGIUCK LAWS. 6l

ogy is not true ; and tlic ni:in who makes this fatal admission need not ask me why I use the term "Ide- ology," while it is not in his power to show that any of his patients were ever entranced by his method who had no previous idea of that state.

The fatal objection to Christianity is that it ignores the well-known psychological laws by which all its phenomena are self-induced. How could a ** religious revival" be *'got up" without any previous drilling with sensational ideas ? There are miraculous trances reported of Popish nuns, and the so-called miraculous cures reported in the Bible ; yet I have seen many a case of self-healing that exceeded in the marvellous any ever reported of Jesus, or made " in answer to prayer."

If it would be of any use, I would challenge the Chris- tian church and the Pope, priest, and clergy, all of them, to state any case of a "miraculous cure" they ever knew more miraculous than the self-cure of a cancer tumor given in my Theory of Nutrition. It exceeds in the marvellous anything ever done by God, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost.

If, now, you can appreciate the importance of Na- ture's Higher Laws, you shall find in keeping them a reward that is sweet indeed ; obedience not to a part only, but to all, — all that appertain to your Diet, Exer- cise, and all the Habits of Life. These laws you will find explained in the author's " Manual of Self-Heal- ing." They are easily observed ; and, relied upon, they cannot fail of securing for you a better state of health, and all that happiness which comes within the sphere of your constitution.

CHAPTER VII.

NO ROYAL ROAD.

Humanity had long ago supposed

That Science had no " royal road " proposed,

As by some still believed ; Knowledge assumed, in despite of all thought, Is " glory " by all the mystics sought ;

Hence they are still deceived.

This "royal road" is the "narrow way" of the Bible. It is travelled by all the priests, ancient and modern. Emanuel Swedenborg, A. J. Davis, and all who act as mediums between us and man's condition after death, travel a " royal road." But claims so extraordinary as to "visions and revelations" have never been admitted by the human race ; and only a few pages will be nec- essary for doing justice to this feature of our subject.

The case of Swedenborg may be admitted as extraor- dinary, chiefly because he exceeded nearly all others, since the trances of St. Paul, in his claims as to his nearness to "God," and his having received his ''reve- lations" directly from the lips of Omniscience. I do not suppose that he was "deranged," in the sense this term is generally used, nor was he " inspired," as he and his disciples have imagined. Here is his own esti- mate of himself : —

62

NO KUVAL KUAD. 63

" By being in the spirit is meant a state of mind separate from the bod}\ and, because in that state the prophets saw such things as exist in the i//>7///'<)'/ 7tv-'/'/^/, therefore that is called the I'isiofi of God. 'I'heir state, tiien, was such as that of spirits themselves, and angels, in that world. In that state, the spirit of man, like his mind, as to sight, may be trans- ported from place to place, the body remaining in its own. jyiis is the state in which /have 7iow been for twenty-six years, with this difference, — that I Jiave been in the spirit, and at the same time in the body, and only several times out of the body." — 7 rue Ch. ReL, 157.

^'''YKxs niafiifestation of the Lord, and intromission into the spiritual world, is f?iore excellent than ail miracles ; but it has not been granted to any one since the creation of the world, as it has been to me. To me it has been granted to be in both spiritual and natural light at the sanie time ; and hereby I have been privileged to see the wonderful things of heaven, to be in company with angels just as I am with men, and, at the same time, to pursue truths, in the light of truth, and thus to perceive and be gifted with them, — consequently, to be led by the Lord. — LLobarfs Life of Swed., p. 42.

In many other portions of his writings he makes the same representations, affirming that he was instructed, or taught, by the " Lord alone," and in such a sense that he did not or could not have erred {"■ Sp. Diary," 1647) ; and in this sentiment the receivers of his writ- ings fully concur. (" Davis Revelations," Revealed by Professor Bush and Mr. Barrett, pp. 14, 15). Hence it is obvious that Swedenborg uses the term " miracle " in its common acceptation ; and, if so, then he repre- sents his ''Revelations" as above Nature^ above and beyond the natural developments of mind ; as some- thing for which the laws of the human mind are not sufficient to account, or results which do not come within the reach of those laws which develop, disturb^ ox control \.\\Qi human mind. In this respect, it is cer- tain that Swedenborg misapprehended the nature of his own case.

64 IDEOLOGY.

t

There was nothing really supernatural or "■ more ex- cellent," or above the ''miraculous," in the visions of Swedenborg. That his organs of Marvellousness and Causality were developed in a most extraordinary de- gree, his writings abundantly prove ; and this fact, of itself, proves that his mind was not always in a per- fectly healthy state : —

" I was once seized, suddenly, with a disease that seemed to threaten my life ; my whole head was oppressed with pain, a pestilential '• smoke " was let in from the great city called Sodom (Apoc. xi. 8) ; half dead with severe anguish, I ex- pected every moment to be my last : thus I lay in bed for the space of three days and a half. My spirit was reduced to this state, and consequently my body. Then I heard about me the voices of persons saying," ^o,.— Brief Exp. Doc. N. Ch., p. 73- . '

" Immediately on this, I was made sensible of a remarkable change in the brai?i, and of a powerful operation thence pro- ceeding.— Earths in the Uni.^ p. 30.

Now, to me the marvel is, not that Swedenborg does complain of disturbances in his cerebral system like the above, but, in view of his incessant mental labors, con- tinued for so many years, the wonder is that he did not suffer and complain far more than he seems to have done. But the facts, so explicitly stated by himself, that he was at times sick^ that his nervous system was disturbed, prove that his mental states were disturbed ; and, this proved, we are under no necessity of attempt- ing to show, in detail, the errors into which he evidently fell with regard to the nature of the mind ; nor is it necessary to show that he was deceived when he attrib- uted his toothache to "evil spirits" (Hobart's ''Life," p. 216), as he may have been at various other times when he thought himself in communication with the

NU KOVAL K(JAU. O5

spiritual world. For \vc have only to admit that the toothache is produced by the Devil, or supernatural agency, and it must follow, of course, that every other result, every other state, emotion, sensation, or volition peculiar to man, is likewise induced in the same way.

"The Poughkeepsie Seer." — Such is the title with which Mr. Andrew Jackson Davis dubbed himself, forty years ago, on commencing his '' clairroyaut career." Then it was that Mr. Davis inscribed '' clairuiativcncss " on the banner he spread to the breeze, as the term for the theory he was to inculcate, and when he approved and taught the truthfulness of Christianity, and assumed for himself /ivy^r/ knoivlcdgc of the past and the future. {See liis Leetures on Clairmativeness, or Human Magiiet- isvi. New York : printed by Searing and Pratt, 1845.)

It would scarcely be considered necessary to drink a barrel of wine in order to ascertain whether it were sour or not ! And although Mr. Davis is the author of a number of volumes containing many excellencies in which, no doubt, we should all agree, yet nevertheless, in estimating the relation that he really sustains to humanity, we must not ignore what he has affirmed of himself, and especially as to his sources of knowledge. Mr. Davis commenced his public career as a clairvoyant^ as having "■ perfect knowledge of the past and the fu- ture " ! Hence he has always claimed, on his own behalf, to be a ''royal road" to knowledge. Nor is it marvellous that those who admit this claim should become his disciples ; and here it may be sufificient if I quote from one of his volumes in support of what is here stated. In 1847 I published a volume on my theory of Ideology (" Pathetism "), in which I reviewed Mr. Davis's utterances at length. On meeting Mr.

66 IDEOLOGY.

Davis soon after at Mr. Robinson's, then warden of the Massachusetts State's Prison, I presented him with a copy of my book, when I made to him the remark that " I had criticised him in that volume, but I entertained the hope that he would progress so much by the time I should publish a second edition of that work that I should feel justified in leaving out all my criticisms of A. J. Davis."

ISTv. Davis took my book and held it between both his hands, and said to me : " When I want to know the nature, the scope, and design of any book, I do not have to read it ; but I hold it in my hands, as you see, and thus I obtain all I need to know of it."

A few years after, Mr. Davis published a number of volumes entitled *' The Great Harmonia," and I have now before me the third volume, *' The Seer, concern- ing the Seven Mental States. New York : J. S. Redfield, Fowler and Wells, 1852." In this volume, page 210, Mr. Davis makes a s/^02V of a " confession " of his ad- mitting the justice, in my criticisms, in having claimed for himself perfect knowledge. He says : —

"In this connection I am impressed, in order to perfect our investigation, to bring before you the professions which the speaker once made to perfect knowledge. This claim I put forth while very young, in the commencement of my mag- netic field, in consequence of two mental conditions : First, vay ignorafice ; second, the far-reaching vision which I had of the broad territories of this earth, that I, in the year 1844, in a brief lecture [on Clairmativeness] made the following decla- ration to infallible and perfect knowledge : —

" ^ I possess the power of extending my vision throughout all space ; can see things past, present, and to come. I have now arrived at the highest degree of knowledge which the human mind is capable of acquiring. I am master of the general sciences, can speak all languages, impart instruction upon all those deep, hidden things in Nature which the world

NO ROYAL KG A I). 6/

has not been able to solve, &c.' Now, I confess this decla- ration, as Professor G. Bush would say, certainly has the air of bcini; uttered by an honest man, — yes, honest, Init yet at the same lime profoundly ignorant."'

And in readin<;* this so-called " confession, " we must bear in mind that Mr. Davis is speaking of his ** clair- voyance " when he began his clairvoyant career. Then, six years after, when in t//e same state of clair- voya7tcCy\\^ pronounces his " clairvoyance of 1844" a state of "profound ignorance." But he need not refer to Professor Bush, as this is not a question as to the honesty or the sincerity of any one ; and it is sufficient for me to show that clairvoyance, neither in his case nor in any other, is a *' royal road " to knowledge. There are no degrees in "clairvoyance." It is vision ivithout the external eyes, or nothing ! Nor is this all in i\Ir. Davis's case. Now, turn to this same volume, page 265, and you will find what this " confession " amounts to. Mr. Davis says he was profoundly ignoj-ant when he had assumed by his clairvoyance to " look tJirongJiont all space ; and yet, on the page above named, you wqll find that by his clairvoyance in 1852 his claims exceed those of 1844, for he says : —

" In spontaneous clairvoyance, which is identified with the state which is induced by the magnetic processes, the eyes of the mind, the internal pozuers of vision, are 7von(le?fnlly strengthened and e?ilargcd ; and there are no boundaries of time or space which can circumscribe their penetration.'''

Thus it seems in 1844, ]\Ir. Davis's clairvoyance saw the bounds of space, as he could look " throughout all space." But that claim he repudiated in 1852, and then in the same volume, and in the exercise of the same "clairvoyance," he claims now to have "clair-

68 IDEOLOGY.

voyant eyes " big enough to see beyond all the bounds of "time and space" This is the "royal road" to knowledge that " Andrew J. Davis, the Poughkeepsie Seer," has continuously travelled since he bent over upon one side, in a state of trance, in 1844. And upon that same side he continued to bend over when en- tranced, and uttered the "recitations" that he calls "Divine," which he has published in a large 8mo. vol- ume of eight hundred pages.

I say nothing of that "clairvoyance" that can en- dorse the notions of Mesmer in respect to " magnet- ism." But I may refer to the fact that in this volume, containing this "confession," Mr. Davis has made eight quotations from my work on " Pathetism " that I gave him when he was in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1847, — 2.n incident not of much importance, nor should I have alluded to it but for the fact that ]\Ir. Davis failed in giving me the usual credit for the mat- ter that, on pages 92, 93, 96, 10 1, 102, 136, and 159, he has quoted from my volume.

Subjective Visions. — That such states are reliable as sources of information, it would be difficult to show. It cannot be proved that the " wild beasts and creeping things" seen by Peter when entranced were objective. No medium who has the vision can demonstrate, from first to last, that there is any object actually seen out- side the medium's own brains. " Visions " we have in abundance, as nothing is more common than drcavis. Now, while it cannot be shown that these visions are of any thing outside of the medium's own mind, it seems to me the defect is fatal to the claims so often set up in respect to their origin.

These views, when tested by the evidence which the

NO KUVAL KOAIJ. 69

visions tlicmselves afford, arc found to be unreliable and contradictory. Thus : —

(i.) Take any one vision as a specimen, and it will be found to l)e intangible, inaudible, invisible, and un- real, in such a sense that no principle of science or philosophy can make anything" more of it than a mere dream.

(2.) Different visions, by different media, of one and the same thing, do not agree. They do not agree when speaking of matters not cognizable to our external senses, and hence they cannot be relied upon any more than we can rely upon ordinary dreaming.

(3). It is a suspicious circumstance, that these visions are never of tangible matters, that can be tested by a third party. They are always of fanciful and imaginary scenes, of which nothing can be deter- mined by the ordinary rules of evidence. An ignis fatmts is an interesting object for philosophical inquiry as to its elements and causes ; but it is not to be fol- lowed and relied upon as a guide in the journey of life. And thus of visions : they have their pathology, and, as a matter of science, it may be interesting to study their causes. And while I neither deny nor affirm as to what "spirits" can do, I am nevertheless bound to declare, that, as far as any thing satisfactory to philos- ophy has been determined in respect to their origin, they have never, as yet, been traced beyond the func- tions of the human brain. To dream is precisely what the brains were made for doing in sleep, and to have visions is the abnormal work of those physical organs when in certain conditions of morbid activity.

(4.) All persons, without any exception, who can be entranced, or who can be more or less "impressed"

70 IDEOLOGY.

by artificial processes, may be made to '' see visions." This I know from an experience of many years. And, what is worthy of remark here is, that, among the numerous mediums who assume to have "spiritual visions," I have never found one whom I could en- trance that could discriminate between the visions which I produced and those which they imagined to be induced by departed spirits. I have tested a large number of media in this way, and have always found that they could never distinguish the visions which I induced by hallucination from those which they were sure must be induced by *' spirits."

I have elsewhere remarked upon the inability of this class of persons to judge as to the rationale of the "in- fluences " which were exerted over them. Even those who call themselves "inspirational" are inspired by ideas, so that they really believe the "influence" to have come from Dr. Franklin, Galen, Lord Bacon, or some other imaginary "spirits." I have caused speeches and sermons to be delivered, also music, vocal and in- strumental, and prayers to be offered, by entranced persons, which the mediums at the time have attributed to some "guardian spirit," or some "Matthew Byles," "Lorenzo Dow," or " Cotton Mather."

Thus Perkins with his tractors, Mesmer with his "magnetized water," Greatrakes with his "passes" upon the lame, and the mediums of the present day with their "hands on the sick," have all attracted at- tention by the cures they have performed. The multi- tude look on and wonder "by what authority " or "by what power " these things are done. Thus it was in witnessing the demonstrations in my public lectures. The question was ever put to me as to how these

NO ROVAL ROAD. 7 1

things wore done. And my answer wiis always the same, frankly and candidly given, — that the "won- ders " they saw were self-induced in all cases, and by the nervous forces, controlled by the law of selfhood, inherent alike in each mind. The results vary as our temperaments vary ; and when I have affirmed that precisely one and the same '* influence" entranced the people which brought them to my lecture, I have found now and then a few who could understand and believe what I said. I invite the people to come to my lectures, and they come. I tell them that I will entrance them, and the trance follows as the result of what I say. Yet after all these explanations, so freely and fully given, it has been a common occurrence for persons in my audiences to attribute the ''influence," "the electrical currents," to my handkerchief, to my watch-key, and to the head of my cane, on which I requested them to look, while proceeding with my remarks.

A volume miiiht be filled with cases of '' visions " as real as those of Davis or the Swedish Seer, and occur- ring in parties who did not attribute them to any power outside of their own brains ; and to one well-known and remarkable case I will here allude. It is fully reported in Jung Stilling's "Theory of Pneumatology." The Italian philosopher Nicoli gives a minute account of the numerous " ajDparitions " and "ghosts" he saw, and which he accounts for by the " operations " of his own brains. He did not recognize them, as the modern mediums do, as " departed " spirits ; and if we were to admit that wdiat the medium sees is really objective, it is here, and therefore cannot be said to be a spirit "departed." If they have departed, they have no busi- ness here, as they belong to another world.

72 IDEOLOGY.

Certainly, no real ghost ever " materialized " more definitely to a modern medium than Nicoli's *' spec- tres" appeared to him ; and, if sights such as these con- stitute visions, all persons must be more or less likely to have them, inasmuch as all are liable to derange- ments of the cerebral functions. Those of a certain temperament always experience more or less of them, and others " see visions" only when artificially wrought upon and the mental functions are abnormally excited. The late Theodore Parker gave me the following ac- count of his own experience : When in college, as he was one day passing over the bridge to Cambridge, he saw, a few yards before him, what appeared to be a stalwart negro walking in the same direction. Occa- sionally the spectre turned around and laughed, and finally it bestrode the fence and disappeared. The form was transparent, and while Mr. Parker was en- gaged in its examination he noticed that he could see through it distinctly objects beyond. He believed these "appearances " to have been caused by the severe draughts he had been making upon his nervous system in the prosecution of his studies.

Volumes mio^ht be filled with similar accounts of

o

"ghosts " made to appear subjectively in a similar man- ner, and from which we learn how liable we are to nervous disturbances which our ignorance and credulity are always ready to attribute to "God," "ghosts," or the "Devil,"that are never seen except when on a "royal road."

CHAPTER vrn.

MENTALITY.

Sanity, or soundness of mind, is that state in which there is a knowledge of the right and the wrong in human conduct. It is a consciousness of the Hfe rela- tions, the source and the authority for virtue. Religion is that innate sense of obligation which binds us to the fulfilment of these relations. It gives us that moral sense of what ought, and what ought not, to be done. The reasoning faculties are perfected in this conscious- ness of obligation, and it is because we find this moral sense of duty, this ** higher law," in these relations we sustain to each other, that humanity is so shocked at their violation, when it may be truly said, " Nothing to damnation canst thou add greater than that."

The age at which children arrive at this conscious- ness varies, of course ; but it should not prove difficult to determine this question in any given case. In the infantile mind, as it hangs upon the mother's breast, the first dawn of this consciousness is in filial love, whence comes all we know of aspiration, faith, and hope. In this love the child grows into a consciousness of the fraternal, whence comes our sense of obligations to equality, freedom, justice, goodness, truthfulness. This growth continued, and we become conscious of the wisdom, the power, and the authority of the parental,

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74 IDEOLOGY.

from which there can be no appeal. Thus, the first consciousness evolved in the human mind is of obli- gation to duty, of what ought or ought not to be done. Obedience to these duties is virtue and happiness ; their violation is vice, crime, and misery.

Insanity is a deterioration from this sound state of the mind. It is a disease, a want of proportion in the physical and mental forces, which destroys the con- sciousness as to the right and wrong of things. This term is sometimes improperly used to signify any tem- porary delirium produced by fever or accident. But in medical jurisprudence it signifies an unsoundness in the reasoning faculties which has annihilated all con- sciousness of duty in the conduct of life. Insanity, therefore, is a state of mental deterioration, and an abnormal condition to which the mind becomes reduced by disease.

Now, let us look at the case of a lad fourteen years of age, at the present time, before the legal authorities for adjudication, and before the whole world for horror and deeds such as may be well said to '' make heaven weep." This boy has confessed himself guilty of hor- rible cruelties persisted in from year to year, and finally two children murdered in cold blood, and each of his victims younger than himself. In those oft-repeated crimes he manifested strategy, secretiveness, and the control of a murderous disposition. There is not a particle of proof that Jesse H. Pomeroy's mind had be- come deteriorated from a previously sounder state when he committed those cruelties and murders, — not a par- ticle. Yet his counsel set up the plea of insanity, and they found a number of the medical profession who testified as experts that the boy was or may have been insane.

MENTALITY. 75

That pica was a strategic movement. Not familiar with the anatomy of crime, there was no other way to account for such strange conduct ; whereas, the con- fessions which this boy has, from the first, given of himself, show plainly enough that he was not insane. He was no more insane in those murders than he was insane in all else that he had ever said or done. The state of mind in which he performed those deeds was normal, as really so as when he sold papers and obeyed his mother in chores about the house. He was never insane in any other acts ; and he himself tells us that he was impelled to that conduct by his love of it, and nothing else. Why, then, set up a plea of insanity ?

In a large proportion of these pleas they do not seem to have been based upon a sound knowledge of the pathology of mental disease ; and here are some of the first principles which require attention before a plea of insanity should be attempted : —

I. As a general rule, insanity is confined to a cer- tain class of temperaments ; hence its tendency is often transmitted, similarly as other forms of disease are transmitted, from one generation to another. The remedy for this tendency is in a knowledge of this fact, which may enable the patient to use effectual methods for avoiding it. If we suppose two elements inherited, one from the father and the other from the mother, these two united in the offspring make a third, differing from the parental, and differing also from all the ances- tral tendencies of preceding generations. While, there- fore, admitting, as we must, how much the inherited idiosyncrasy has to do in the formation of each char- acter, yet here is the solid ground of aspiration, faith, and hope, which is open to all temperaments, and to all

^6 ' IDEOLOGY.

grades of human character. You are under no neces- sity of stumbling in the precise spot where you see that another has fallen, and who erred, it might have been, for the want of the knowledge that you yourself now possess. "Knowledge is power."

II. The temperament that disposes to somnam- bulism, the trance, and visions, is more liable to insan- ity. There is a diathesis for dreaming when the patient is unable to distinguish between dreaming and the normal waking thoughts. Psychometry, spirit-mediums, and clairvoyants have their rankest growth in this kind of soil.

III. In this class of temperaments insanity is often superinduced by the persistent intensity of thought upon any given idea, true or false, and the contempla- tion of which gratifies the love of gain, the love of secretiveness, or the love of the cruel and murderous. If the Pomeroy lad was made insane by the intense love he felt for murder, does this free him from guilt t It seems to me that this is a dangerous doctrine to be taught in our courts of justice. Yet cases have occurred where in trials for murder a verdict of acquittal has been rendered on the ground of insanity, and when all that the evidence went to prove was simply this, namely, that if there was any insanity it had been superinduced by contemplating and encompassing the very crime that had been committed.

In 1842, P. Spencer, or Spence, a mesmeric lecturer in New Jersey, shot his wife dead, and he was acquitted on the plea of insanity. But it was not shown when or how his mind had deteriorated ; and if he was insane when he fired that fatal shot, he was always insane, and has remained so to this day.

MENTALITY. ^7

A few years since a case of murder was tried in Albany, I think, where the prisoner was acquitted on the ground of insanity, when the aforesaid insanity was only apparent at the moment of firing the deadly shot. The murderer was admitted to have been always sane before and after that identical moment. So that when a Ku-Klux or blackleg determines upon the "taking-off" of a neighbor to gratify his own love of murder and money, he has only to contemplate the bloody deed with sufficient earnestness, and, if detected after its perpetration, he may be acquitted on the ground of insanity !

There are other similar occasions where medical testimony is required in courts of law, such as cases where attempts are made on the ground of alleged insanity for invalidating a marriage contract ; cases in which attempts are made on this ground to invalidate the legal operation of testamentary dispositions of prop- erty ; cases of insanity alleged as a reason for the legal deprivation of one's liberty under the pretence of preventing him from mischief, or putting him under medical treatment ; and also in commissions issued by legal authority de huiatico inqiiirciido, with a view of 'ascertaining whether or no the party is of sound mind, and fully competent for attending to his own business.

The question in all these cases certainly comes within the purview of psychology and ideology ; as while the former gives us the laws that inhere in the human soul, the latter explains the philosophy of sclf-indiictiou, and shows how it is that artificial excitements and changes are made in the nervous system which may result in insanity. A knowledge of psychology enables us to trace disturbances in the healthy condition of the

y8 IDEOLOGY.

human mind to suggested ideas, to the laws of associa- tion and the laws of sympathetic imitation, and all resulting in self-induction. Insanity in certain tem- peraments occurs from "revival" excitements, or any one of many causes. But shall it be affirmed as an ex- cuse for crime in cases where no previous deterioration of the mind can be shown to have been manifested .'*

What has always been the leading disposition and the proclivities of the human mind cannot be known until they have been tested by opportunities. How else can it be known what the mind can or will do, how much strain it can bear in any given case ?

The opportunity makes the thief. The opportunity is the temptation to crime. It is the power that nerves the arm which strikes the fatal blow. But it is only on such and such temperaments that opportunities can be felt as temptations.

Burke has truly said that "• no species of property can be safe when it becomes an object large enough to tempt the cupidity of avaricious power." The opportu- nity for avarice is a power. But knowing beforehand what the temperament or the disposition is, we may know whether an opportunity for crime would prove a temptation in that case. These differences in tem- peraments are radical, and they were fully recognized by the divine poet, — that poet for all future time, from whose living words I have already quoted. And here

agam

" Lust, though to a radiant angel linked,

Will satiate itself in a celestial bed, and prey on garbage ;

But virtue never will be moved

Though lewdness court it in the garb of heaven."

As the integral elements are proportioned before and

MENTALITY. 79

after birth, so the temperament and the character are formed. Hence it so often has attracted attention when the first traits of disposition manifested by a child partake so much of the false, the thievish, and, now and then, of the murderous. The remedy against these tendencies is in education — appropriate, persistent education.

As high medical authority, perhaps, as could be quoted on this subject, Dr. Forbes Winslow, formerly President of the Medical Society of London, says : —

'* When asvlums for the insane are entrusted exclusively to physicians acquainted with the a?iat07ny of the human inind^ or, in other words, with the science of medical psychology, they will then realize the conception of the great Esquirol, and become instruments of cure, and in the hands of the skilful physician most powerful therapeutics against mental maladies." — Lettsomian Lectures on Insanity^ page 17.

And, if this knowlege be of the highest importance to physicians, so it is also for the legal profession, and most of all to parents and all who may become such. All should understand something of the primordial laws of human existence, the conditions and associations which make the temperaments ; and, especially, with what /r^/'<?r//6';/j- the mental faculties should be balanced in each case ; what is deficient, what in excess, and what constitutes a healthy, harmonious state of the mind. Or, if it have been disturbed, what has /;'<?duced or //educed that disturbance t Has it been caused by friction in the mental apparatus, self-induced, or is it from some association or idea suggested from outside t When and how has it occurred ? Has the normal state of the mind been interfered with so as to deteriorate the reasoning faculties from a healthy condition ?

80 IDEOLOGY.

On no subject, perhaps, connected with mental science has so great an error prevailed among Chris- tians as that in respect to the human zuilL This fallacy has been based upon the assumption of the con- vertibility, or, I should say, the destructibility, of the human will. The human will is but another word for human love, or desire, choice, disposition. Are we for one moment to admit the possibility of annihilation .'' Then, it is not true that the elementary principle can be destroyed which evolves love, desire, disposition, and choice. The executive ability in each mind or in each physical system is not the will. One may exist without the other. When the two unite in one person, as in the case of Dr. Winship of Boston, they generate di force sufficient to lift two thousand pounds or more. This same error has prevailed, also, under the auspices of ''mesmerism" and "modern mediumism ; " whereas the will is free in this sense that one will cannot be controlled by another will.

One individual cannot annihilate another personality. It seems not to have occurred to the advocates of this false idea about the "control" of the human will, that this very idea was the germ of witchcraft, — that gigantic combination of fanaticism and folly which numbered its murders of men, women, and children by uncounted thousands, and its votaries by millions. And these delusions and murders would be generated at the present day by these same silly notions about the human will, were it not for the general information that everywhere prevails, and which renders witchcraft, with its untold horrors, impossible.

A force that could control the human will for an instant of time would be a power sufficient to anni-

MENTALITV. 8 1

hilatc personal identity forever ; and I venture, respect- fully, to suggest to our Christian friends whether it might not be considered in better taste, and certainly more in accord with the Christian theory of prayer, if, instead of referring us to apocryphal cases as proof of the "power of prayer," they should try that power upon Jesse H. Pomeroy? Certainly this is the most marvel- lous case of the kind that has ever occurred, and it is sincerely to be hoped that the like of it may never occur again.

Mental Anatomy. — There is no human being but of whom more or less good may be spoken. The notion as to total depravity, when afifirmed of manhood, is not true. In one function, or in a series of actions that spring from avarice, the depravity in that behalf may indeed be total. Cupidity may so predominate in a given course of conduct as totally to annihilate mag- nanimity and kindness in that case.

That violated pledge of which I complain, I do most deeply deplore, and far beyond any grief I ever felt for the loss of property. What is a man profited if he gain a fortune by an act of meanness ? The condition of the mind which can be tempted and controlled by an o/>- portnnity to do wrong is the ''evil " most to be deplored. For diseases in the body, various and contradictory medicines are offered by the doctors ; and ministers of religion tell us t\\Rl faith in the blood of one who died nearly two thousand years ago is the cure for all dis- eases of the soul.

In the practice of medicine we find the necessity of an acquaintance with anatomy, physiology, pathology, and hygiene. So, in treating of human conduct, we need a thorough knowledge of mental anatomy and

82 IDEOLOGY.

spiritual ethology. Any default in the integrity of character is a disaster for which no pecuniary consider- ation could compensate. What is hoarded wealth in exchange for a breach of trust ? What is a fortune when acquired by a mean action ? What is the whole world when it comes as the price of dishonesty ? What is gained when a man loses his integrity of character by filling his purse with gold ? We need not ignore the good traits there may be in the disposition of one who has done us wrong, albeit goodness of character cannot be urged as a consideration for the mitigation of damages. The pain is more severe when the blow comes from the hand of one you loved. We never trust those whom we know to be bad men ; we rely only upon those whom we believe to be good. Those who disappoint us most are our own relations and such as we have most loved.

Opportunities make us known to ourselves and others. All men are good, truthful, and honest until a conven- ient opportunity is offered for them to be otherwise. Good men themselves do not know how much tempta- tion they can resist until they have the trial ; and it is the opportunity that gives force to temptation, — hence the remark of Burke, before quoted. The first idea of a crime is often suggested by the opportunity for com- mitting it. The opportunity for a breach of trust be- comes a force that overpowers the sense of right.

What a good man may do, therefore, cannot be determined beforehand from his conscientiousness alone : we must take into the account his love of money and the opportunities afforded him for embezzle- ment. It is the wrong-doer who knozus the higher law that is to be ** beaten with many stripes." No one

MENTALITY. S^

can know what he may be tempted to do until he has felt the power which a ^i;ood ()i)portunity presents to him. The power to do wron*; generates the cupidity, and when the crime is committed the mind is in a fitting condition for self-justification. Self-defence is the first law of nature.

It is said if our foresight were as good as our after- sight we should not so often err. That indeed ! But there is neither foresight nor aftersight by which we may be secured against the possibilities of temptation. We cannot foresee what would prove to be a temptation, because no human foresight can determine the variety and the nature of future contingencies, nor how they will operate upon the mind in any given case. One I trusted had it in his power to do me a greater wrong than any other human being could do. When I com- mitted that trust to him he was honest, and so he re- mained trustworthy until the opportunity came, and to its poivcr he yielded. The opportunity could not have been foreseen. Has he done me a grievous wrong } He has done himself -d. greater wxowg. The wrong to me is not to be estimated in greenbacks. Unflinching fidelity is worth more to me than silver or gold.

Did you say that his conduct may have been hasty and without due consideration as to its moral turpitude.-* Yes, but the conduct which shades the color of my ^r/^ extends over the space of years, — a period long enough, surely, for me to learn how much he considered my friendship worth. Hence, that uneasy feeling of suspense which his conduct has produced, — a sense of uncertainty and insecurity like what one may be sup- posed to feel when he finds the earth moving from beneath his feet But all this has come upon me not

84 IDEOLOGY.

through any fault of my own ; nor can the advantage taken of that opportunity be justified by the indigence of the one who did it.

He is in good business, has a vigorous constitution, and his arm is strong. No feeling of insecurity dis- turbs his repose. His daily bread and the comforts of his "second manhood" are provided for. This is one of the cases from which we may learn how great that power is which an opportunity exerts over the human mind, a force which ignores all the love relations ; it annihilates friendship and sympathy, filial affection, respect for the infirmities of age, and the love of justice. Nay, it generates meanness, — a moral taint for which science has discovered no remedy. Nor does it avail to be told that generosity is a cure for breach of trust, while we are continually confronted with the fact that generosity, as a medicine, no power on earth can com- pel any man to take.

Do you marvel that I should now see a cloud of thick darkness settling down upon my humble abode ? Like the pall of death the shades fall upon the path my weary feet are now compelled to travel. The staff on which from my youth up I had become so accustomed to lean, when toil-worn and full of care, has by one fell stroke been smitten from my hand. In this distress I call aloud, but no one answers, and I hear nothing but the echoes of my own notes of sorrow. Pitfalls and thorns beset me on every side, and I raise my fading eyes to heaven in vain for one ray of light. Alas ! that fate should at last have reached to these thirsty lips a cup so very, very bitter as this !

CHAPTKR IX.

IDIOCRASY.

" The subscribers hereby certify that we have witnessed numerous electrical and magnetic experiments made by Dr. LaRoy Sunderland on a patient totally blind, in some of which the effects of a distant electrical machine and a steel magnet over the human body, in a very remarkable degree, were shown. We carefully examined these experiments, and firmly believe, from the mode in which they were conducted by Dr. Sunderland, that these results were as evidently un- expected by the operator as any one present.

REV. THOMAS STRONG. JAMES E. DUBOIS, M.D. T. F. KING, M.D. REV WILLIAM BARLOW, JOHN B. ZABRISKIE, M.D.

Flatbush, N.Y., May 14, 1S41."

To the above I add the following, as it contains names, both of the clerical and the medical profession, sufficient to settle the question, not only as to the ex- periments, but also as to the disturbance which both these forms of force produce in the nervous system ; and ignorant those are who apply them indiscriminately in the treatment of diseases : —

*' We, the subscribers, have witnessed numerous magnetic and electrical experiments performed by Dr. LaRoy Sunder- land, in which the states of mind resembling monomania,

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86 IDEOLOGY.

insanity, and madness were brought on and removed in a few moments of time.

HENRY H. SHERWOOD, M.D. REV. ISAAC CAVERT. REV. J. MARTIN. O. S. FOWI.Ei<, Phrenolo0st. PROF. ELIZUR WRIGHT. DANIEL L. M. PEIXETTO,

Pres. of the New York Medical Society.

New York, March 2, 1842."

Certain I am that no invalid who should have wit- nessed the experiments here alluded to would ever think of wearing any thing called " magnetic or " elec- trical " for the cure of disease. That blind lady on whom those experiments were performed was twenty- eight years of age and healthy. She could not be approached with a magnet ; and when I brought a large magnetized disk within twenty feet of her she became convulsed from her head to her feet, and fell insensible upon the floor. There was a large electrical machine in the story below, a distance of forty feet from where she sat. At any time, to turn that machine ever so slightly disturbed her, and if turned rapidly she fell from her chair in convulsions. Two or three times she was so much affected in this way that we became frightened, fearing that she was dead. Indeed, the physicians present objected to have the experiments repeated lest she might never recover. Now, bear in mind, —

1. That a piece of fresh meat through which a mag- netic current has been passed decays the sooner on this account.

2. The neurilemma in which the nerves are sheathed is a non-conductor of electricity.

IDIOCKASV. 87

3. No appreciable amount of these forces is ever generated by magnetic garments in the way supposed.

4. The vital forces are not magnetic nor electrical. The iiistinctivc movements may evince phenomena re- sembling the magnetic ; but there is no identity in these forces, and these experiments are sufficient to show the fallacy in Dr. H. H. Sherwood's theory, entitled, "The Motive-Power of Organic Life ; " also of the larger work of Dr. John Ashburner, on *' The Dynamics of Mag- netism, Electricity, Heat, Light, Crystallization, and Chemism, in their Relations to Vital Force," is mislead- ing in a multitude of its statements.

The nervous system is an apparatus upon which any tune can be played, and on its phenomena any theory of the unknown can be built up. Nor is there any limits to human invention. But I have said enough, I hope, to suggest the reason for the remark that *' only a few are saved." Only a few are ever converted in any church or in any revival ; only a few are priests ; only a few are ever entranced ; only a few are ever insane ; only a few assume mediumship between hu- manity and all the dead of the ages past.

As a rule, it will generally be found that all the so- called " miraculous cures," and all who happen to be the first who became victimized in a *' religious revival," and indeed all intelligent persons upon whose minds artificial impressions are made, are quite similar in their idiosyncrasies. Nor does our language seem to contain terms enough for designating all the varying phases of the nervous and the mental phenomena ex hibited in such cases. Hence the temperament has the most control in determining the impression that is made. Whatever the idea may be of what is suggested,

88 IDEOLOGY.

it must depend upon the inherent disposition as well as the education and the surrounding circumstances at the time.

The love of the mysterious, the desire for some benefit or notoriety, are often factors ; and then when the excitement has once been felt and witnessed, others are drawn into it by sympathetic imitation. But for these forces, no revival nor any mental epidemic could ever be got up. When the heat, the enthusiasm, is intense enough, the hardest granite is melted ! Im- agine, if you can, what must be the idiocrasy of the Popish nuns (the nuns always, for no men are thus entranced in that church) and their sensatio7ial sur- roundings, when they become cataleptic, and upon their own hands, faces, and feet they scratch the '^stigmata'' upon themselves to please their confessors and their priests ! Similar sensational surroundings impress all said to have been " miraculously cured " !

It is the love of the mysterious that excites the hope of benefit from drugs, and especially from magnetism and electricity ; whereas there is no proof that these forms of force are identical with vitality, or that they have any effect when applied to the sick, except it may be to excite the circulation. But there can be no arti- ficial excitements of this kind equal to those which the organism is enabled by exercise to generate for itself ; and here, perhaps, it may be in place to show how egregiously those are deceived who wear what they call magnetic clothing for the cure of disease.

CHAPTER X.

"CHRISTIAN" SCIENCE.

Science is classified ideas of all the factors, and in opposition to Christianity, which is a theory merely of what no one can know. Science adds, by experiment, to the sum total of valid knowledge. It takes nothing for granted ; it builds no theories of the unknown upon phenomena produced by forms of force to us unknown.

Rev. Henry W. Beecher calls himself a "■ CJiristiait Evolutionist." He does not believe in the Bible ac- count of the Jewish idea of God, nor in its account of the "fall of man." He accepts the scientific idea of evolution, and still calls himself a Christian. And similarly so of W. H. H. Murray, formerly of Park Street Church, Boston, but now of Canada. When he was an Orthodox minister in the "Athens of America," a few years ago, I noticed now and then progressive ideas advanced by Mr. Murray that encouraged my hope of him in the future. Hence I could not feel surprised in reading the reports I have seen of one or more of the lectures recently given by this gentleman in the city of New York. These lectures show us how far Mr. Murray has advanced in the right direction to emerge entirely from all the fogs of mysticism. His recent lectures show the relief Mr. Murray feels in casting all blame upon theology, and giving up the Old

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Testament Scriptures. In doing this, he thinks that ''progressive thought" and Christianity will ''come together in peace." Science and the "vision" of Paul, when obfuscated in a dreamy state of trance, " will join hands."

The Christianity that Mr. Murray now relies upon is founded upon falsehood. Does W. H. H. Murray believe in the New Testament account of the way Jesus was begotten .'' Was Mary a virgin after the child Jesus was born ? Does Mr. Murray believe that Peter, when entranced, really saw an "opening in heaven" and " beasts and creeping things " coming out of heaven .-* Does he believe the writers of the New Testament were inspired by the Holy Ghost ? That John actually saw the monsters he describes, with their eyes behind where their tails should be.'* And that God mediumized them, inspired them, without the organ of speech, to shout his praise " both day and night," — and if God has not changed, those monsters are shouting still ?

Really, it does seem strange, indeed, that a man of Mr. Murray's intelligence could entertain a hope that science will ever join hands with these vagaries. But it 'is harder still to account for the fact that Mr. Murray should have made the statement that " No scientific man has ever made an attack upon the char- acter and teachings of Jesus, and sceptic and teacher alike have admired him and them." Whereas, scarce one "scientific man" out of the many that have written against the Christianity of Jesus, but who has im- peached the teaching of Jesus, — such as teaching his disciples to /late their nearest and dearest relatives, or be sent to hell ! He taught the idea of a personal

ClIRLSTIAN SCIENCE. QI

Devil. lie showed his i<;norancc of psychology in assuming the power was in his ** will " by which he cured disease, and he contradicted that idea when he declared "according to your faith be it unto you." He also shows how ignorant he was of Ideology and the human mind, when he told Peter that an idea he had expressed was not evolved by his own brains. No idea was ever produced by human lips that was not evolved by the brains that controlled those lips in uttering it — a fact, this, which will never be ignored by progressive thought, or the scientific world. Therefore the Chris- tianity of the New Testament is founded upon a fraud.

Jesus was not begotten by the Holy Ghost, nor did he actually expire upon the cross. Admitting the general truthfulness of the New Testament account, it is manifest that he swooned upon the cross, — or, if you say he died on the cross, then he died in fitter de- spair, believing himself forsaken of God, as indeed he was forsaken. Hence Christianity was j"/r<^;/_^/<:Y/ in its birth, and the hope is vain that the time will come when progressive thought and science will join hands with any form of mysticism, ancient or modern.

In this field of labor for the relief of human sufferino: I have been engaged now for more than sixty years ! I began before I had ever heard of Christianity, and much less of " Christian Science," as the Christians with whom I got up religious revivals ignored science and human reason. But during my preaching for twenty years I found among my ''converts " numerous cases of sickness, and almost all who had ''faith" enough to believe they were " born again " had faith enough to believe in me to be healed, whenever I told them what to do, and they did it to be cured.

92 , IDEOLOGY.

A class in Boston (Mass.) calling themselves '' Chris- tian Scientists " have adapted the mesmeric method of operating ! They have a college where they send out annually a number of mesmerizers, and whenever a cure occurs they attribute it to the Holy Ghost ! Hence to a person of a given temperament (of the "few duped"), if you sit in one corner of a large room and the invalid in the farther corner, and you gaze at him intently, telling him that will cure his complaint, he may be cured, as Sir Humphrey Davy's patient was electrified and cured when he put a thermometer under his tongue !

It was during my twenty years in Methodist revivals that I became convinced of what all will find true by and by, and it was this, viz., that no God, no Jesus, no Holy Ghost, no miracle-worker, ancient or modern, has or can have any power over the sick, save and excepting that power by which the miracle-worker is invested by the faith and confidence of the patient (Matt. ix. 21, 22).

Jesus, like Mesmer, claimed this power was in his will, and yet he unwittingly confessed that he and God could do nothing without faith ! But Christians of the present day, not even those who call themselves " scien- tists," have yet found out what I discovered fifty years ago, when in the Christian pulpit, that faith in a myth is of equal power in the cure of disease with a certain class of minds. Thus it is with a certain class that revival epidemics are got up.

When I was a Christian I had no knowledge of those psychological laws and forces by which converts were multiplied to hundreds and their diseases often cured. The theory taught to the students in this college is mesmeric, and false I know, and the methods of treat-

CHRISTIAN SCIKNCK. 93

ing disease are mesmeric. As, no matter what tlie method or the theory may be, when an idea of the cure and faith are wanting, in any case cures may occur, as they i\o in despite of quack medicines.

Both Jesus and Mesmer an error taught

In regard to the human will, As to the subjection of human thought.

And so it is taught by many still.

In their paper I notice some thirty cards of those new mesmeric doctors, who dub themselves C, S. (Christian Scientist), instead of an M. D., or Mesmeric Doctor. One of the patients treated by them, without benefit, and long enough to get ;^200 out of her, called on me not long ago, and she told me their method was mesmeric. The editor of this paper has also published an octavo volume on '' Science and Health." Its motto is : " For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong- holds."

" Mighty through a myth in the sky!" This mes- meric book is endorsed by M. L. Holbrook, editor of the '^ Herald of Health;" by A. B. Alcott, Concord, Massachusetts ; and by a number of Christian M. D.'s.

They sent me a copy of their monthly paper called the "Christian Scientist;" and, to reciprocate the compliment, I sent the editor a respectful letter, which she had not the courage to publish ! In this letter I told her how numerous cures of disease occurred when I was a revival minister, and without any of her mes- meric methods, and when also Christianity ignored both science and human reason, — as indeed it has done to this day, and it always will do !

94 IDEOLOGY.

Certainly the New Testament tells us what this "saving faith" is, when it declares, ''Faith is the evi- dence of things not seen." Now, the evidence here referred to is fabricated in each mind by that same supreme law of selfhood that heals the wound and cures the disease whenever any cure is made.

The forces and the laws of involution and evolution are in each mind the same ; and, moreover, we should bear in mind that the Christian's "saving faith" never heals a wound that " saving faith " had not previously made ! In the temperament and education we may differ, but not in the vital or elementary forces that excite faith, hope, love, or fear ; and these forces are controlled by involution and evolution, and the results may be attributed to any one of a dozen imaginary causes. Yet when they are fanciful it need not make much difference whether it be a myth in the sky, or a man that died two thousand years ago.

But probably many generations of Christians will yet be born and die, and spell-bound by this supreme law of self-induction they will never know of the position now everywhere outside of the church maintained by the scientific world, that all the problems of humanity are not to be solved by mere thought alone ; and that these laws, demonstrated by actual experiment, must and will be admitted in the sum total of valid knowledge.

I am aware it is a characteristic of Christian people that whenever one of their number happens to be detected in crime, they are apt to exclaim : " Oh ! he was not a Christian ! " Or, " If he ever had been con- verted, he backslid." But this excuse does not cover all the facts in such cases as are constantly occurring in all parts of Christendom, — cases where priests.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. 95

bishops, and other officials of the churches are impli- cated with infamous crimes, precisely like other bad men ! The inference to be drawn from this fact is, that Christianity has done nothing for its victims but deception ! But surely we can have enough of that without the Bible or the Holy Ghost.

The whole Christian world prayers made,

And failed, for Garfield when he died ; Thus in "saving faith " all the churches prayed,

And now they know some one has lied.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BIBLE IDEA OF "INSPIRATION."

Christianity teaches that the trance is a state of "the highest inspiration" and produced by the "Holy Ghost." Hence Dr. Adam Clarke affirms, in his "Com- mentary," on St. Paul's entrancement, that it " evinces the highest degree of inspiration," and that what Paul learned in that trance " formed the basis of all his doctrines." In that state Qhristianity teaches that Peter and Paul had " the nearest intimacy with God, and the highest revelation of his will," as Dr. Adam Clarke affirms. The Bible assures us that the very first human being that its God had "created " he entranced in order to create him a wife, else there could have been no humanity, nor any serpent with a human tongue and speech. From that same state of trance Christianity has come, with its "visions and revelations from the Lord." The Bible was written by barbarians, who thought a state of entrancement the best for hear- ing God's voice and for being "caught up to paradise." Similarly, the modern form of mysticism is founded upon this state of trance, from which messages are made from the dead.

The printers have a good maxim, to " follow copy if it leads out of the window," and shall not science fol- low " plenary inspiration " in defining The trance, "that

96

Tiir: mr.LE idi:a uf jnsimkatiu.n. 97

state of the human mind whence Christianity has come" ? Is not the Bible an ** inspired," infalHble wit- ness as to those states of the human mind whence its "visions and revelations " were derived ? Moreover, what if we find that both the Bible and classic lore are perfectly agreed in their definitions of the ** trance " or ecstasy ?

In the Hebrew it is thus defined : —

Tar-dai-mah. — Sleep, heaviness, sluggishness, from the root Ra-davi — He sank down ; was overwhelmed, as in water ; was asleep ; overcome with sleep.

It is found in Gen. ii. 21 ; xv. 12; Num. xxiv. 4-6; and Dan. x. 9.

In the Greek it is :

Existemi or Existao. — I remove out of my place or state ; am out of my wits ; am beside myself ; am transported be- yond myself ; am astonished ; amazed ; astounded.

And this terms occurs in Acts x. 10; xi. 15; xxii. 17 ; 2 Cor. xii. 1-4.

I need not quote the passages here referred to, where both these terms occur ; but will notice two cases — one of Abraham and the other of St. Paul — as an illus- tration of the Bible idea of ''plenary inspiration,"

Abraham is considered ** the father of the faithful," and the *' faith of Abraham " is considered a " mirac- ulous " acquisition. Charles F. Freeman had the ''Abrahamic faith " when he and his wife killed their infant child ; and the assassin Guiteau had this faith when he fired those fatal shots into the body of Presi- dent Garfield. Evidently, Abraham had no idea of monotheism until he got it in his dream}^ trance.

98 IDEOLOGY.

" And when the sun was gone down [tar-dai-mah], deep sleep fell upon Abraham ; and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him " (Gen. xv. 12).

What a state is this for "inspiration " ! Yet such is that state of the human mind believed to be in a "superior condition" for "messages from the dead" and "revelations from the sky." And does the reader marvel that for more than half a century the writer has persisted in his charge of a gigantic fraud against Christianity .'' But some have doubtless thought this was too severe, admitting, as he does, that Christians are good people, as I did not give the scientific grounds upon which my indictment was predicted.

Theodore Parker once said to me that he himself would have considered it a great advantage, in this regard, if he could have had similar opportunities to mine for witnessing the progress of revival phenomena. My experience in the M. E. Church for many years, in witnessing the trances that always occurred in all the revivals I got up, gave me ample opportunities for es- timating this state correctly and for acquainting myself with a class of nervous and mental phenomena that I never could have witnessed anywhere else, and they prepared me for the discovery of the psychological laws by which I can now prove, beyond all successful contradiction, how all those phenomena, and all that is induced in "Christian experience," are brought about. It was certainly a vast advantage to me to have, in the beginning of my psychological investigations, so large a number of Christian people who had been "con- verted" and "sanctified" under my preaching. These "converts" I always found in all the cities where I afterward gave scientific lectures. They were always

THE BIliLE IDKA OF INSPIKATIUN. 99

friendly, and T was ^rreatly assisted by them, and I may as well state the reason here. As a general rule, all persons who are the first to be ** converted" are the most easily entranced. It is only the few that are saved, — only thc/izu that are miraculously cured. In comparison with the mass, only Tifcw are insane. Only a few have the right temperament for catalejDsy and somnambulism, so as to become entranced in that sensational movement known as modern mediumship. As a general rule, I believe it will be found that each of these states, called by various terms, such as "born again," ''sanctified," ** entranced," ** inspired," ''be- witched," and "mediumized," are synonymous^ and they are characteristic of one class of temperaments. After I had lectured in Boston, for twelve years, on Ideology, the mass had become so familiarized with these physio- logical conditions and laws by which all revival and mental epidemics are got up that for thirty years after no " revivals " occurred in that city. So when it was assaulted by Moody and Sankey, recently, they only victimized a few young people that had been born one age since my lectures were concluded.

My theory of selfhood covers all the facts in the "miraculous cures" in "revival scares," and all the nervous phenomena attributed to supernatural causes, and the sudden deaths that have occurred from the sensational excitement of faith, fear, .hope, and joy. Moreover, it accounts for mental contagion, mental epidemics, " mothers' marks," and other correlative phenomena that have never been explained, either by medicine or theology.

Observe, it was not till Abraham was entranced that he could hear what his idea of God said unto him ; and,

100 IDEOLOGY.

but for this insane state of trance, there never could have been any humanity but Adam. Therefore, since he got his wife from his entrancement, and the race has increased, we are indebted to this same state of trance for all ** inspired " writings and our ideas of personality in gods. Hence this trance is pronounced by Dr. Adam Clarke the ''highest degree of inspiration," and it is the Christian's " royal road " to heaven !

St. Paul was the chief apostle, and he had two spells of entrancement. Rev. Ed. Robinson, in his edition of Calmet's Dictionary, says of Paul's entrancement, that " in the year a. d. 44 Paul was enraptured into the third heavens, where he saw ineffable things." Thus he contradicts Paul's account of himself, as he does not tell us of what he saw in the third heaven, but of what he heard there ! Now, here is Paul's account of his own obfuscation : —

'' I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell ; or whether out of the body, God knoweth) ; such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth ;) How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." (2 Cor. xii. 1-4.)

Any full-grown man or woman, not a Christian, to hear such a statement as this, would instantly pronounce it a case of insanity. Nor could a better illustration be given of the definition of the trance than I have quoted. A man whose mind is in a state that does not allow him to be conscious of his own selfhood and self- control, or to know whether he is dead or alive, is insane. He may tell us what ''God knoweth," and of words that he never heard spoken, and also of " visions

THE I5115LE IDl-.A OF I XSl'I KATIO.N. lOI

and revelations from the Lord ; " but ''such a man " is "beside himself and out of his wits." He, himself, cannot know. That persons entranced arc sometimes "enraptured," I "very well know. And among the Christians and the ministers I have seen entranced in my lectures, I have had numerous cases where they were so "filled with joy" and enraptured with delight that they have declared it was " far above any prayer- meeting or camp-meeting," which they never would have said in their normal state.

But this chapter would hardly answer my purpose, if I did not also give some account of the trance idea that prevails in the Popish church. In this church it occurs among the nuns, and where everything is made of it by the priests as "a miracle, produced by the power of Almighty God."

I have now before me a Popish pamphlet by " the Earl of Shrewsbury," entitled " The Virgins of the Tyrol," — two Austrian girls, who, for eight years, had been in the habit (when receiving the sensational com- communion) of falling into this state. This tract I have reviewed at length in my work on " The Trance " (now out of print). It contains pictures of each of these nuns, showing the bleeding scratches tJuy Jiad made on their faceSy feet, and hands, as similar to what was believed to have been done to Jesus when he was crucified and swooned on the cross. Two facts in regard to these Popish cases may be mentioned here : —

That females only fall into the trance in the Popish church, and it so happens that it is only the nuns who have ever had these scratcJies which they call " the real stigmata," by which they signify their faith that those marks on their feet, hands, and temples are made " by

102 IDEOLOGY.

the miraculous power of God ; " whereas, these stigmata are made by each nun when entranced (and it may, in some cases, be that they do not remember it), each one for herself. Entranced persons often act from strange or insane motives, and the nuns, controlled by the Popish ideas of Jesus, produce these scratches to gratify their ''confessors."

This I prove both by the history of these Popish cases and by similar cases that have occurred, among Papists and Protestant Christians, entranced under my own personal observation.

A nun, entranced in San Francisco in 1872, was de- tected in scratching her own hands and feet for the stigmata. F. Giard, a Popish priest, was tried in France in 1733 for the liberties he had taken in kissing the ''stigmata" which a nun had shown upon her person. The account of this case represents that this nun charged the priest with having bewitched her, as (from the laws of association) she invariably fell into the trance whenever he visited her, as he often did. No doubt the bewitchment was reciprocal.

I utter what I know when I affirm that the best Christians that can be found in the Popish church, or in Christendom, when entranced, will deceive and falsify for the purpose of gratifying their priests or those they think the most of in their normal state.

CHAPTER XII.

THE BIBLE IDEA OF ITS GOD.

Max Muller says, Abraham's idea of the Bible God was not originated in his own brain ; whereas there are no other ideas. There are two instincts all- pervading and supreme in humanity ; they have only to be referred to, to be recognized by every thoughtful mind. Instincts may be perverted, but when under- stood and co-operated with by our intelligence they become the source of our highest joy. They are mani- fested in the supreme selfhood, self-control, self-growth, self-healing of wounds, and the self-cure of disease.

1. In the self-care for selfhood, in eating, sleeping, working, and in all that is done for one's own comfort and happiness.

2. In those harmonies that perpetuate the race. Thus human selfhood is repeated and increased from age to age by its own ideas. Man is infinitely above any infallible faith, infallible priest, or infallible church ; and he is made a man by his ideas.

Here is what Max Muller says : —

" It was through Abraham's special faith that God made a special revelation of his individuality ; and this revelation was not made through Abraham's instincts, nor through his abstract meditation, nor through his ecstatic vision." — Semitic Monothcis77i : Chips from a Genna?i Workshop, p. 367, by Max Muller. ■'

103

104 IDEOLOGY.

Such is the tribute paid by one scholar to the bar- barian idea of a personal myth in the sky. Nor is this the first of the kind, nor will it be last, which scholarly men will, perhaps, yield to ancient mediumistic ideas. When science and Nature's order are ignored, forms of "special faith " are relied upon for a knowledge of what the human mind has no capacity for knowing. And here is another chip from the same " WorksJwp : " —

"■ There is no subject more absorbing than to trace the origin and the first growth of human thought. The growth of language is continuous, and by continuing our researches backward from the most modern to the most ancient strata, the very elements and roots of human speech have been reached, and with them the elements and roots of human

thought."

THE FIRST HUMAN SPEECH.

I. The first verse in the Bible affirms 2i plurality of Gods : Gen. i. i. Hence the first special revelation is not monotheistic. It is E-lo-Jiim Gods, two or two thousand as to the number, and as to this number MuUer's special faith must determine. But admitting this question to be determined by the Christian idea of saving faith, there may be a million, more or less. "According to your faith," said Jesus, "it shall be unto you." And Dr. Adam Clarke pleads for Muller's special faith, in his comment on this term E-lo-him in the first of Genesis. He says : —

" It is certainly plural, and has long been believed by the most learned and eminently pious men to imply a plurality of persons in the divine nature."

Observe how very convenient this special faith is, for both the ignorant and the learned and eminently

THK niHLE IDEA UF ITS GOU. IO5

pious men. Their eye of saving faith is so big they can see the unseen and know the unknown ; and thus, if you begin to multiply Gods by faith, where will you stop ?

2. Again : This special revelation of the God idea affirms before Eve had uttered a word, and even Adam had only a few words to say, hence the human speech among the very first was uttered by a vicdi- iiviizcd snake : Gen. iii. 3. It is the Bible idea that man and all the prophets, Jesus and his apostles, were all viediunis between this God idea and the race of mankind, — as indeed all popes, bishops, priests, and theologians are of the present day. But in the. function of mcdiitmship between the invisibles and mankind the serpent was the first. The snake was nearly the first in the use of human speech ; and so according to the "Chip from a German Workshop," if we trace human speech up to that most ancient strata, we find the root of the God and the Devil idea.

3. The progress of language follows the evolution of ideas. Why, then, does this philologist leave the science of this day and go backward to the infancy of the race for an idea of God, which no human mind can know }

4. Had Max Muller been as well posted in psychol- ogy as he is in philology, he never could have made so flat a contradiction, either of himself or the Bible. We shall see that barbarian book expressly affirms that Abraham did obtain his idea of monotheism in a state of (Hebrew, tar-dai-mah) ecstatic vision or trance.

But Max Muller is not the only scholar that has been in ages past obfuscated by mysticism. All the priests, especially of the Roman church, are far more

I06 IDEOLOGY.

ignorant still, not only of psychology, but as to the nstis loqueiidi of their Bible, in respect to the trance as a state of mspiration. Connecting theology with the ages past, it is easily shown that these terms are syn- onymous ; namely, CJiristianity^ witchcraft, inspired, entranced, mediiiniized, converted, or born again.

A Popish priest, Mgr. Capel, is now lecturing about this country, and attempting to drill Americans into the belief of his infallible church, in which nuns are entranced and mediumized by the Holy Ghost, as Mary was of old. Witchcraft is commerce with God and the invisible world. Christians are converted, and all mediums . have commerce with the invisible world. The apostles when entranced were inspired : 2d Cor. xii. 1-4.

The first idea of the Bible God \'& plnral, also in other passages it is in the plural ; and now to prove that Abraham got his idea from what MuUer calls ecstatic vision, I quote from the inspired word, from the Chris- tian God's special revelation, which no Christian can deny. It is indeed infallible proof against Popery and the theory of Christendom in regard to inspiration.

" And when the sun was gone done, a (tar-dai-mah) deep sleep fell upon Abraham. And lo ! an horror of great dark- ness fell upon him ! And the Lord said unto him, ' Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a strange land.' " — Genesis xv. 12.

How many centuries after this account was written is unknown. But it settles the question as to the Bible account of the state of trance in which Abraham got his idea of God. The horrible darkness that fell upon Abraham overshadows the priesthood that have in- herited his faith, and who now undertake to tell us

THE DlliLE IDEA OF ITS GOD. 10/

what God's design must have been iii causing an horror of great darkness to fall ui)()n Abraham. Abraham knew nothing of what God said to him until he was obfuscated in a state of trance ; and so of other inspired writers of the Bible, like Balaam, Daniel, Peter, Pauh and John the revelator. But for the entrancement of Adam he never could have had any wife or any child ; and in that case there would have been no serpent with a human tongue, and by which a snake was the first of all mediums, ancient and modern. Nay, there would have been no cajoling and overshadowing of Mary ; no Jesus born of her ; nor, indeed, any humanity to be saved or damned ; no Gods nor ghosts, no inspi- ration, and no infallible church ; no witchcraft, and for which Christians have put millions of their number to death upon the gallows and at the stake. And that would have been an horror of great darkness upon this planet, when no one who was entranced enough to see it.

Who but the Devil entranced Jesus the Christ, and hauled the second person of the Christian Godhead up through the air from the Temple to the mountain } For you know that all, when entranced, travel through the heavens ; and I call on some priest to tell us by what power Jesus was hoisted up to that giddy height } Which person in the Christian Godhead was it that fnediitmised and inspired both Balaam and the beast on which he rode, when by a special revelation this God announced himself an ass .'* — Num. xxii.

Who was it that mediumized and inspired two thou- sand hogs, all at once, and, thus converted, they were made Baptists by immersion in the sea ? And what was the size of that man out of whose carcase a legion of devils were cast .-* And was not each of those devils

I08 IDEOLOGY.

inspired? Which person in the Christian Godhead actually created four monsters in heaven, near his throne ; and with eyes where their tails should be, and then inspired them to shout his glory both day and night, forever ?

The Bible revelations, from a state of trance, narrate numerous disappointments, failures, and catastrophes, that befell its God in the beginning of the race when humanity was young. But had there been no Trinity, no destruction by a flood, and no Christianity or witch- craft, the millions of Christians falsely charged with witchcraft never could have been hanged upon a Christian gallows, or burned at a stake by fires set by Christian hands. All this would have been prevented ; nor would hell have been lit up with fire and brimstone for the eternal torment of the majority of the race who enter there through the broad way, while only a few are saved.

But for such a trance we should never have had any idea of such a Bible, or any such special revelations from such a horrible God. And now for the proof of what I tell you : Just turn to that old barbarian book and read the special revelation as to the trance and you cannot fail to see whence this idea of the Jewish or Christian God came: Gen. ii. 21 ; xv. 12; Num. xxii. 30; xxiv. 46; Dan. x. 9; Acts x. 10, 11, 15 ; xxii. 17; 2d Cor. xii. 1-6; Rev. iv. i-ii. The entire books of Daniel and Revelations are written from a state of trance, and so we might say of the entire Bible. It is the work of special faith, without which there are for humanity no special revelations, nor Gods, nor ghosts.

Ideals are of the future, and are ideals because un-

THE BIHLE IDEA OF ITS GOD. lOQ

known, while ideas are known, and we are equally held and controlled by them, whether true or false. There are no limits (except in the human brain) to human thought and the evolution of ideas. Hence we have as many ideas of Gods as there are brains to think them. Ideas do not float in the air, as one medium told me that he supposed they did ; nor are ideas as such transferred out of one brain into another, as Mesmer taught, nor was any human brain ever controlled merely by the volition of any other brain. The human will or choice is free and independent of every other will, as the person and individuality is free. No faith, no God, or ghost. Hence that special revelation, which says : —

"Without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that Cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re- warder of them that diligently seek him." — Heb. xi. 6.

It was by Abraham's special faith, says Muller, Of course it was, for you can create a God in no other way, — only by an idea. Devils and Gods are from human ideas., and these make witchcraft, and then the victims of these false ideas hang and burn one another. Now, notice how Muller utterly ajtniJiilates his own idea of monotheism by affirming his individuality a special revelation. There is no specialty with omniscience, omnipresence, or omnipotence. How can an individ- uality fill space that has no limit.-* And what nonsense to talk of an infallible church, of such a myth !

And it will be noticed where the Popish idea of infallibility comes from by the faith of Abraham, as when the horror of great darkness fell upon him in his trance ; then his idea of God assured him, and he was

no IDEOLOGY.

infallible as Guiteau declared of himself when he fired that fatal shot.

A BLOOD-THIRSTY GOD.

I should have to quote a very large proportion of the Bible to show fully how this bloody characteristic in its God's character is set forth and insisted upon. Hence I can only refer to a few passages as examples.

THE BIBLE GOD.

The Bible affirms its God to be a man of war and bloodshed. And its God says : —

" Put every man his sword by his side, and slay every man his brother, his companion and neighbor." — Ex. xxii. 27.

" Spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling." — i Sam. xv. 3.

" Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little chil- dren."— EzEK. ix. 6.

" Cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood ! ' — Jer. xlviii. 10.

It is easy to see that the God idea in the Bible came from a state of trance, and the trance is not only a state of hallucination, but it is always a spontaneity, similarly as sleep, fits, and dreaming are considered. The trance occurred before it had any name, and as it occurred then, so it occurs now, however it may be suggested to the mind for that purpose ; and in those cases where it becomes a habit, and the victim is under the control of superstition, it is considered miraculous !

My principal experiments were in the cases of per- sons who had surgical operations performed on tJiein without pain, in a state of self-induced ''trance." Timid women held lighted candles in each hand while

THE BIBLE IDEA OF 1Tb GUD. I I 1

their molars were drawn, when there was no change in their pulse, nor any movement of a muscle ; and this was done when the surgeon also was entranced, and his eyes blindfolded, while surrounded by numerous other surgeons, editors, clergymen, and men of science. Thus of persons self-entranced who had tumors cut out, and one had his thigh amputated ! Not one of these marvellous states were superinduced by my "will." My method was confined wholly to ideas, and it ignored mesmerism and theology.

Webster, in the quarto edition of his American dictionary, in defining the term "Pathetism," has ren- dered me liable to be understood as indorsing the notions of Mesmer ; whereas I never believed in that theory, nor did I ever use that term for designating the phenomena by which I demonstrated its falsehood. The psychological experiments I performed throughout the country were purely scientific. I never meddled with the nervous system of a human mind solely for the purpose of amusing an audience ; and I am sure, if psychology were sufficiently understood, no one would ever consent to be drilled by false ideas into a state of mental hallucination merely to cause a laugh by the fantastic capers he cut up in that state.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE BIBLE IDEA OF WITCHCRAFT

" Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

Witchcraft is practical mysticism. The idea is a suspicion as to an imaginary attempt to pick the lock for which Nature's order and laws have provided no key. In the Bible it is ** commerce with God or the invisible world." It is only ideas of the unknown God, devils, or ghosts, that culminate in witchcraft. The light of science is from things known, and, like the central sun, it shines for all ; while theories built upon phenomena believed to be mystical cast their dark shadows on the ** few that are saved." All are fasci- nated by music, oratory, poetry, art, and beauty ; but under the control of false ideas in Christianity we have witchcraft, and hundreds of thousands have been put to death under this suspicion. False ideas, crystallized into an ism, culminate in bigotry, cruelty, proscription, persecution, slavery, witchcraft, suicide, and murder.

How terrible Christianity has been in this regard will be apparent when we consider the millions it has put to death of its own victims, who were its own "kith and kin." It has actually slain millions of those whom Christianity itself had made witches and wizards. Well-informed writers have estimated the number of

IT2

THE BIDLE IDEA OF W IICI ICK A I' T. II3

men, women, and children at nine millions who have been by Christianity put to death on the gallows and at the stake. Yet Christianity, the witchcraft that perpetrated these bloody deeds, is in full blast among us to this day ! The theory of two hundred or three thousand years ago is preached to-day, in spite of science, in spite of the ten thousand facilities that are everywhere accessible for better views of manhood and humanity.

None but a mind bewitched with mysticism could read any Liberal paper for a month without being con- vinced that Christianity is a fraud. Any one of the Freethought volumes advertised from week to week contains moral dynamite enough to blow that mystical balloon to atoms in the sky. No one not bewitched by some phase of mysticism could ever imagine himself invested "by faith " with a capacity for seeing 2i person- age big enough to fill illimitable space.

It was in full view of this condition of things that our humanity stretched forth its right arm of justice and wiped out chattel slavery from all the churches and this nation, only a few years ago. This is what humanity did, at an immense cost of its treasure and blood, — and, moreover, despite of Christianity and its God. Had this God and his own chosen people been allowed control in these United States, this nation would have to-day been engaged in slave-breeding and slave-holding, with its auction-blocks for the sale of human flesh ; and in Washington the chains of the slave would now be heard, with the orator's eloquence for liberty and equal rights in our Christian republic.

Witchcraft is a tremendous lie, — a lie six thousand years long ; a lie repeated in so many pulpits, and for so

114 IDEOLOGY.

long a time, that no rule nor scale known to geometry or the scientific world can measure it. But thoughtful and scientific people began to have some idea of a huge lie when all the prayers of Christendom failed in the death of Garfield. That hideous lie was significant. That was an experiment that the praying priests and churches had never anticipated. They scouted the idea of such an experiment when, a few years ago, it was proposed by Prof. Tyndall. But it is the scientific method, and it has proved how that old myth in the sky has always lied and failed.

The Christian Devil is the father of lies. Is there among all the nations of this planet any idea of a devil or hell-fire like that of Christianity ? any idea like the three gods in one, and each of them big enough to fill unbounded space .'' Is there elsewhere any idea of anger and wrath like that of the Christian God.'*'

^^ Commerce with God.'' — As we shall see, this is Christianity and witchcraft ; and it is an encouraging consideration that so vast a majority of the human race have always and forever been opposed to Chris- tianity. Humanity is a success. It is no failure, and never has been in need of any form of mysticism. The number victimized by theoretical and practical witch- craft may be said to be few, when compared with the entire race, and still they are becoming less and less. Or, if you say that the ''suspicion " of witchcraft upon which the victims were put to death was well founded, I now invite you to the proof from the Bible that Chris- tianity is itself witchcraft, — nothing more nor less.

Do not all Christians have '' commerce with God " "^ Do not all Mormons and modern Spiritualists *' have commerce with the invisible world " .? This is witch-

THE IHHLE IDEV OF WITCHCRAFT. II5

craft, and so determined by Christianity itself. It has no proof outside of its own self-created faith (Hcb. xi. i) — no proof of its doi^mas, no proof of its creed, and none of any crime in those hun^ for witchcraft. Hence its dogmatism and drilling of human ignorance and credulity.

The proof I now present against Christianity is stronger and more conclusive than anything in the Bible in its favor. Christianity is the theory of which witchcraft is the practice. And here I refer you to that old barbarian book : Deut. xiii. lo ; i Sam. XV. 22 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6 ; 2 Kings ix. 22 ; Mich. v. 12 ; Nah. iii. 4 ; Gal. v. 20. Now, all commentators on the Bible are agreed that the witchcraft here threatened with death by the Christian God is nothing more nor less than " commerce with God and with the invisible world,"