Murphy on Quimby
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHINEAS PARKHURST QUIMBY once called on a woman who was aged, lame, bound down, and on crutches. He states that her ailment was due to the fact that she was imprisoned by a creed so small and contracted that she could not stand upright or move ahead. She was living in a tomb of fear and ignorance; furthermore, she was taking the Bible literally, and it frightened her. In this tomb, Quimby said, the presence of God was trying to burst the bars, break through the bands, and rise from the dead. When the woman would ask other people for an explanation of some passage of the Bible, the answer would be as a stone, and she would hunger for the bread of life. Dr. Quimby diagnosed her case as a mind cloudy and stagnated due to excitation and fear, caused by inability to see clearly the meaning of the scriptural passages she had been reading. This condition showed itself in her body by a heavy and sluggish feeling, which would terminate in paralysis.
Quimby asked the woman what was meant by, "Yet a little while I am with you, and then I go unto him that sent me." She replied that it meant that Jesus went to heaven. Quimby made plain what the passage really meant by interpreting that being with her "a little while" meant his explanation of her symptoms, feelings, and their cause—that is, he had compassion and sympathy for her momentarily, but he could not remain in that mental state; the next step was to go to "him that sent me," which is the presence of God in all men.
Quimby immediately traveled in his mind and contemplated perfect health, which is a part of God. He said to the woman, "Therefore, where I go, you cannot come, for you are in Calvin's belief, and I am in health." This explanation produced an instantaneous sensation in the woman, and a change came over her mind. She walked without her crutches. She had been, as it were, dead in error, and to bring her to life or truth was to raise her from the dead. "I quoted the resurrection of Christ and applied it to her own Christ or health; it produced a powerful effect on her." (The Quimby Manuscripts.)
Apply this principle of healing in your own life. Suppose, for instance, that your son were sick. Go within to him who sent you. God, or Life, sent all of us into the world. God is all bliss, harmony, peace, beauty, wisdom, and perfection. Turn within in thought, and quietly realize that the wisdom and infinite intelligence of God are right within you. The living intelligence and power of God sent you into this world, and fashioned all your organs from its own invisible pattern. You are now turning to the maker of your body. You are relaxed, at peace, poised, calm. You are full of confidence that the Creator of your body and mind can create and refashion your body according to his own divine pattern.
You have seen your son sick and in pain, but now in your meditation you are talking to the God-presence, calling forth the healing power. Think of your son, and immediately dwell on the peace, health, and harmony of God. You know that these qualities, potencies, and aspects of God are now being reflected in your boy. You are now getting into the mental atmosphere of health. As did Quimby, you are contemplating the Divine Ideal, which is perfection, wholeness, and harmony for your son. Do this frequently, three or four times daily, until you believe in the idea of perfect health. When you have mentally accepted the idea that the healing power of God is working for your son, that is a treatment.
"Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me," means that others may wonder what you are doing and be unable to follow you in understanding or belief. "And where I am, thither ye cannot come." Other members of your family, or the patient himself, may be unable to rise in consciousness and enter into the feeling of perfect health, because they are wrapped up in worldly beliefs. Quimby said that man's false belief is the sepulcher in which the wisdom of God is confined, and that the truth is the angel which rolls away the stone of superstition and ignorance, healing the mind and body.
The word "treatment" used in New Thought circles means the harmonious interaction and direction of the conscious and subconscious powers for a definite, specific purpose. In treating others or ourselves, we never identify with the disease. We have compassion for the person momentarily—"Yet a little while I am with you"; then we go to God and heaven, realizing the ideal perfection of the patient. The pharisaical beliefs (fear and doubt) cannot enter where confidence in God's power is. In prayer we are one with God, the only presence and power.
Here is an instance of how a woman applied this technique in the treatment of her child. Her child was very ill, and hope of saving his life had been given up by all except the mother. She sat by the child's hospital bed and prayed as follows: "God is the life of my child, and His healing power is flowing through every atom of his being. The peace of God floods his mind and body, and through His power my child is made whole." She silently repeated this simple prayer over and over again, trying to lift up the idea of health in her mind. She knew intuitively and instinctively as she continued praying that she would reach the point of inner peace about her boy. After a few hours, the child began to cry for food. The doctor examined the child and said he had passed the crisis. She had realized the truth which set her child free.
Our reason and senses may question, ridicule, scoff, and laugh, but if we will only go within, knowing that when we feel something as true, Omnipotence moves in our behalf—then, though the whole world would deny it, we would demonstrate our desire, because we are sealed in faith. "According to your faith be it unto you."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Joseph Murphy, Step this Way for Healing
