PhineasParkhurst Quimby

BIOGRAPHY

PhineasParkhurst Quimby  wasborn in the town of Lebanon, NewHampshire, February 16, 1802. When about two years of age, hisparents emigrated to Maine and settled in the town of Belfast. Hisfather was a blacksmith, and the subject of this sketch was one of afamily of seven children.

Owingto his father's scanty means, and to the meagre chances forschooling, his opportunity for acquiring an education was limited.During his boyhood he attended the town school a part of the time,and acquired a brief knowledge of the rudimentary branches; but hischief education was gained in after life, from reading andobservation. He always regretted his want of education, which was hismisfortune, rather than any fault of his.

Whenhe became old enough to go to work, he learned the trade of watch andclock making, and for many years after engaged in that pursuit.Later, before photography was known, he for several years made abusiness of taking a style of portrait picture known asdaguerreotype. He had a very inventive mind, and was alwaysinterested in mechanics, philosophy, and scientific subjects. Duringhis middle life, he invented several devices on which he obtainedletters patent. 

He was veryargumentative, and always wanted proof ofanything, rather than an accepted opinion. Anything which could bedemonstrated he was ready to accept; but he would combat what couldnot be proved with all his energy, rather than admit it as a truth.

Witha mind of this combination, it is not strange that, when a gentlemanvisited Belfast, about the year 1838, and gave lectures andexperiments in mesmerism, Mr. Quimby should feel deeply interested inthe subject. Here was a new, to him at least, phenomenon; and he atonce began to investigate the subject; and on every occasion when hecould find a person who would allow him to try, he would endeavor toput him into a mesmeric sleep. He met with many failures, butoccasionally would find a person whom he could influence.

Atthat time Mr. Quimby was of medium height, small in stature, hisweight being about one hundred and twenty-five pounds; quick motionedand nervous, with piercing black eyes, black hair and whiskers; awell-shaped, well-balanced head; high, broad forehead, and a ratherprominent nose, and a mouth indicating strength and firmness of will;persistent in what he undertook, and not easily defeated ordiscouraged.

Inthe course of his trials with subjects, he met with a young man namedLucius Burkmar, over whom he had the most wonderful influence; and itis not stating it too strongly to assert that with him he made someof the most astonishing exhibitions of mesmerism and clairvoyancethat have been given in modern times.

Atthe beginning of these experiments, Mr. Quimby firmly believed thatthe phenomenon was the result of animal magnetism, and thatelectricity had more or less to do with it. Holding to this, he wasnever able to perform his experiments with satisfactory results whenthe "conditions" were not right, as he believed they shouldbe.

Forinstance, during a thunder storm his trials would prove utterfailures. If he pointed the sharp end of a steel instrument atLucius, he would start as if pricked by a pin; but, when the bluntend was pointed toward him, he would remain unmoved.

Oneevening, after making some experiments with excellent results, Mr.Quimby found that during the time of the tests there had been asevere thunder storm; but, so interested was he in his experiments,he had not noticed it.

Thisled him to further investigate the subject; and the results reachedwere that, instead of the subject being influenced by any atmosphericdisturbance, the effects produced were brought about by the influenceof one mind on another. From that time he could produce as goodresults during a storm as in pleasant weather, and could make hissubject start by simply pointing a finger at him as well as by usinga steel instrument.

Mr.Quimby's manner of operating with his subject, was to sit opposite tohim, holding both his hands in his, and looking him intently in theeye for a short time, when the subject would go into that state knownas the mesmeric sleep, which was more properly a peculiar conditionof mind and body, in which the natural senses would or would not,operate at the will of Mr. Quimby. When conducting his experiments,all communications on the part of Mr. Quimby with Lucius werementally given, the subject replying as if spoken to aloud.

Forseveral years, Mr. Quimby traveled with young Burkmar through Maineand New Brunswick, giving exhibitions, which at the time attractedmuch attention and secured notices through the columns of thenewspapers.

Itshould be remembered that at the time Mr. Quimby was giving theseexhibitions, over forty-five years ago, the phenomenon was lookedupon in a far different light from that of the present day. At thattime it was a deception, a fraud, and a humbug; Mr. Quimby wasvilified and frequently threatened with mob violence, as theexhibitions smacked too strongly of witchcraft to suit the people.

Asthe subject gained more prominence, thoughtful men began toinvestigate the matter, and Mr. Quimby was often called upon to havehis subject examine the sick. He would put Lucius into the mesmericstate, who would then examine the patient, describe his disease, andprescribe remedies for its cure.

Aftera time Mr. Quimby became convinced that whenever the subject examineda patient his diagnosis of the case would be identical with whateither the patient himself or someone present believed, instead ofLucius really looking into the patient, and giving the true conditionof the organs; in fact, that he was reading the opinion in the mindof some one, rather than stating a truth acquired by himself.

Becomingfirmly satisfied that this was the case, and having seen how one mindcould influence another, and how much there was that had always beenconsidered as true, but was merely some one's opinion, Mr. Quimbygave up his subject, Lucius, and began the developing of what is nowknown as mental healing, or curing disease through the mind.

Inaccomplishing this he spent years of his life fighting the battlealone and laboring with an energy and steadiness of purpose thatshortened it many years.

Toreduce his discovery to a science, which could be taught for thebenefit of suffering humanity, was the all-absorbing idea of hislife. To develop his "theory," or "the Truth," ashe always termed it, so that others than himself could understand andpractice it, was what he labored for. Had he been of a sordid andgrasping nature, he might have acquired unlimited wealth; but forthat he seemed to have no desire. He used to say: "Wait till Iget my theory reduced to a science, so that I can teach the Truth toothers, and then I can make money fast enough."

Ina magazine article, it is impossible to follow the slow stages bywhich he reached his conclusions; for slow they were, as each stepwas in opposition to all the established ideas of the day, and wasridiculed by the whole medical faculty and the greatmass of the people. In the sick and suffering he always found staunchfriends, who loved him and believed in him, and stood by him; butthey were but a handful compared with those on the other side.

Whileengaged in his mesmeric experiments, Mr. Quimby became more and moreconvinced that disease was an error of the mind, and not a realthing; and in this he was misunderstood by others, and accused ofattributing the sickness of the patient to the imagination, which wasthe very reverse of the fact. No one believed less in the imaginationthan he. "If a man feels a pain, he knows he feels it, and thereis no imagination about it," he used to say.

Butthe fact that the pain might be a state of the mind, while apparentin the body, he did believe. As one can suffer in a dream all that itis possible to suffer in a waking state, so Mr. Quimby averred thatthe same condition of mind might operate on the body in the form ofdisease, and still be no more of a reality than was the dream.

Asthe truths of his discovery began to develop and grow in him, just inthe same proportion did he begin to lose faith in the efficacy ofmesmerism as a remedial agent in the cure of the sick; and after afew years he discarded it altogether.

Insteadof putting the patient into a mesmeric sleep, Mr. Quimby would sit byhim; and, after giving him account of what his troubles were, hewould simply converse with him, and explain the causes of thetroubles, and thus change the mind of the patient, and disabuse it ofits errors and establish the truth in its place; which, if done, wasthe cure.

Hesometimes, in cases of lameness and sprains, manipulated the limbs ofthe patient, and often rubbed the head with his hands, wetting themwith water. He said it was so hard for the patient to believe thathis mere talk with him produced the cure, that he did this rubbingsimply that the patient would have more confidence in him; but healways insisted that he possessed no "power" nor healingproperties different from any one else, and that his manipulationsconferred no beneficial effect upon his patient.

Henever went into any trance, and was a strong disbeliever inSpiritualism, as understood by that name. He claimed, and firmlyheld, that his only power consisted in his wisdom, and in hisunderstanding the patient's case and being able to explain away theerror and establish the truth, or health, in its place. Veryfrequently the patient could not tell how he was cured, but it didnot follow that Mr. Quimby himself was ignorant of the manner inwhich he performed the cure.

Supposea person should read an account of a railroad accident, and see inthe list the name of his son who was killed. The shock on the mindwould cause a deep feeling of sorrow on the part of the parent, andpossibly a severe sickness, not only mental, but physical.

Now,what is the condition of the patient? Does he imagine his trouble? Isit not real? Is his body not affected, his pulse quick, and has henot all the symptoms of a sick person, and is he not really sick?

Supposeyou can go and say to him that you were on the train, and saw his sonalive and well after the accident, and prove to him that the reportof his death was a mistake. What follows? Why, the patient's mindundergoes a change immediately, and he is no longer sick.

Itwas on this principle that Mr. Quimby treated the sick. He claimedthat "mind was spiritual matter and could be changed," thatwe were made up of "truth and error;" that "diseasewas an error, or belief, and that the Truth was the cure." Andupon these premises he based all his reasoning, and laid thefoundation of what he asserted to be the "science of curing thesick" without other remedial agencies than the mind.

Inthe year 1859 Mr. Quimby went to Portland, where he remained untilthe summer of 1865, treating the sick by his peculiar method. It washis custom to converse at length with many of his patients, whobecame interested in his method of treatment, and to try to unfold tothem his ideas.

Amonghis earlier patients in Portland were the Misses Ware, daughters ofthe late Judge Ashur Ware, of the U.S. Court, and they became muchinterested in "The Truth," as he called it. But the ideaswere so new, and his reasoning was so divergent from the popularconceptions, that they found it difficult to follow him or rememberall he said; and they suggested to him the propriety of putting intowriting the body of his thoughts.

Fromthat time he began to write out his ideas, which practice hecontinued until his death, the articles now being in the possessionof the writer of this sketch. The original copy he would give to theMisses Ware, and it would be read to him by them; and, if hesuggested any alteration, it would be made, after which it would becopied either by the Misses Ware or the writer of this and thenre-read to him, that he might see that all was just as he intendedit. Not even the most trivial word or the construction of a sentencewould be changed without consulting him.

Hewas given to repetition, and it was with difficulty that he could beinduced to have a repeated sentence or word stricken out, as he wouldsay, "If that idea is a good one and true, it will do no harm tohave it in two or three times." He believed in the "hammeringprocess" and of throwing an idea or truth at the reader till itwould be finally firmly fixed in his mind.

Thefirst article he wrote was entitled, "Mind is Spiritual Matter,"and he thus explains what he means: He says: "I found that Icould change the mind of my patient, and produce thereby a chemicalchange in the body.... The world makes mind intelligence. I put nointelligence in it, but make it subject to intelligence.... I callthe power that governs the mind, spirit, in this piece, not using theword wisdom; but you will see that I recognize a wisdom superior tothe word mind, for I always apply the word mind to matter, but neverto the first cause."

Ina circular to the sick, which he distributed while in Portland, hesays that, "as my practice is unlike all other medical practice,it is necessary to say that I give no medicines and make no outwardapplications, but simply sit by the patient, tell him what he thinksis his disease, and my explanation is the cure. And if I succeed incorrecting his errors, I change the fluids of the system, andestablish the truth, or health. 'The Truth is the cure.'"

Inan article over his own signature, published in the PortlandAdvertiser of February 13, 1862, he says:

"Asyou have given me the privilege of answering the article in your paperof the 11th inst., wherein you classed me with spiritualists,mesmerizers, clairvoyants, etc., I take this occasion to state whereI differ from all classes of doctors, from the allopathic physicianto the healing medium. All of these admit disease as an independentenemy of mankind.... Now I deny disease as a truth, but admit it as adeception, without any foundation, handed down from generation togeneration, till the people believe it, and it has become a part oftheir lives.... My way of curing convinces him that he has beendeceived; and, if I succeed the patient is cured. My mode is entirelyoriginal."

Mr.Quimby, although not belonging to any church or sect, had a deeplyreligious nature, holding firmly to God as the first cause, and fullybelieving in immortality and progression after death, thoughentertaining entirely original conceptions of what death is. Hebelieved that Jesus' mission was to the sick, and that he performedhis cures in a scientific manner, and perfectly understood how he didthem. Mr. Quimby was a great reader of the Bible, but put aconstruction upon it thoroughly in harmony with his train of thought.

Hisgreatest desire was that the writer of this sketch should becomeinterested in his work, and learn to heal the sick as he did. Healways asserted that it was a science that he could teach, but that,if it were not communicated by him, others would take up the work andcomplete it. He wished the writer, after becoming conversant with theprinciples by which he cured, to fit himself for the lectureplatform, and, as he expressed it, "You lecture and then we willcall the sick on the stage, and cure them by wholesale, right inpublic."

Itmay not be out of place to state here that the writer did not attemptto learn to practice as Mr. Quimby did; not because he could not, butfor the reason that he was not at that time interested in the matter,and his tastes led him to adopt other pursuits.

Mr.Quimby's idea of happiness was to benefit mankind, especially thesick and suffering; and to that end he labored, and gave his life andstrength. His patients not only found in him a doctor, but asympathizing friend, and he took the same interest in treating acharity patient that he did a wealthy one. Until the writer went withhim as secretary, he kept no accounts and made no charges. He leftthe keeping of books entirely with his patients; and although hepretended to have a regular price for visits and attendance, he tookat settlement whatever the patient chose to pay him.

Thelast five years of his life were exceptionally hard. He wasovercrowded with patients, and greatly overworked, and could not seemto find an opportunity for relaxation. At last, nature could nolonger bear up under the strain; and, completely tired out, he tookto his bed, from which he never rose again. While strong, he hadalways been able to ward off any disease that would have affectedanother person; but, when tired out and weak, he no longer had thestrength of will nor the reasoning powers to combat the sicknesswhich terminated his life.

Anhour before he breathed his last, he said to the writer: "I ammore than ever convinced of the truth of my theory. I am perfectlywilling for the change myself, but I know you all will feel badly,and think I am dead; but I know that I shall be right here with you,just as I always have been. I do not dread the change any more thanif I were going on a trip to Philadelphia."

Hisdeath occurred January 16, 1866, at his residence in Belfast, at theage of sixty-four years, and was the result of too close applicationto his profession and of overwork. A more fitting epitaph could notbe accorded him than in these words:

THE COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS

of 

Dr. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby