SPIRITUALITY - 150 Years of Healing (74 Pages)

7/29/2019 SPIRITUALITY - 150 Years of Healing (74 Pages)

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150 Years of Healing

Americas Great New Thought Healers

R. L. Miller, Ph.D. 2000

Abib Publishing CompanyPortland, Oregon

ISBN: 0-945385-04-8

Paperback edition; 144 pages

In Appreciation Every work is a product of many interacting minds andexperiences; I am grateful for them all. Special thanks for this project go to:Helen Perkins for remembering, Vici Derrick and Suzan Hill for creating acontext, and Bob Stensland for making it real.

150 Years of Healing is about a few great American leaders, men and womenwho have stepped out beyond the religious and medical expectations of their

time and dared to live life in a new way. These men and womenfrom

Phineas Quimby in 19th century New England to Louise Hay and MarianneWilliamson in 20th Century Los Angelesare the founders and leading

practitioners of Americas unique religious tradition: New Thought. Theirteaching and practice is simple: our current experience is the result of

assumptions and beliefs that we have held in the past; our future is a productof what we are thinking today; and we can change those thoughts.

150 Years of Healing provides an overview of their lives and practice andgoes on to provide current scientific evidence and theory that explains howand why what they have done works.

INDEX

FOREWORD

PHINEAS PARKHURST QUIMBY


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A Clockmaker Heals Himself

Exploring Mesmerism

Beyond Hypnosis

Spiritual Understanding

MARY BAKER EDDY

An Invalid is Healed

A Church is Born

EMMA CURTIS HOPKINS

Ready Students

Sometimes Health Requires Moving On

Teacher of Teachers

The Message

CHARLES AND MYRTLE FILLMORE

Hearing the Word

Unity

Practicing Principles

Myrtle Fillmores Ideas

Charles Fillmores Ideas

Mastering the Money Idea

H. EMILIE CADY

Physician, Heal Thyself

Teaching Truth

NONA BROOKS

Seeing the Light

Sharing the Way

OmnipresenceERNEST HOLMES

A New Science

The Practice of Healing

An Institution


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LOUISE HAY

Healing as a Way of Life

AIDS and beyond

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HEALING THE PLANET:

BARBARA MARX HUBBARD & MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

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Planet-Healing

EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE ACCUMULATES

A New Look at Placebos

A New Vision for Medicine

UNDERSTANDING HOW

What They All Have in Common

20th Century Science

A New World View

New Ways of Perceiving

Cause and Effect Are Not What They Seem

Consciousness and Cognition

Archetypal BehaviorsManaging Consciousness

Relationship and Consciousness

Relating as Cognitive Choice

Healing Through Cognition

Transforming Ourselves

Putting It All Together

Foreword

For two thousand years, our Western European culture has developed in thecontext of the works and teachings of Yshua ben Yosef of Nazareth, called bymost, Jesus Christ. For most Europeans and Americans today, the miraculous


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healings ascribed to Jesus are considered either mythical impossibilitiesarising out of the biographers ignorance and adoration, or the result of powersunique to Jesus as the One God, incarnate. For a few hundred thousand peoplearound the world, though, the words these things and greater shall you do,ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament, have been taken literally. For thisgroup of people, the Gospel is more than the story of Jesus life; it is a manualfor livingand healing. This is the story of the founders and leaders of thatmovement, the people who have dared to heal themselves and others, livingand teaching a New Thought about who we really are and what we are capableof doing. More, this is an exploration of what they did and how they did it. Itis an attempt to understand why hundreds of thousands of people experiencedhealing and relief from troubling symptoms in their presence. Recent scientificstudies and theories shed useful insight on the processes and ideas that these

people have used and taught over the last 150 yearsinsight that may provide

a model for therapy in the future.

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby

A Clockmaker Heals Himself

In the 1830s, tuberculosis, or consumption, as it was known then, was acommon malady, whose cause and cure were not at all understood. Onecommon treatment was calomel a compound that poisoned the patient as

often as it reduced the symptoms. For Park Quimby, a clockmaker inBelfast, Maine, the combination of the disease and its cure had caused himto give up his business and all hope of recovery by his early thirties. But hehad a friend who was freed from the disease, and that friend insisted he hadcured himself by horseback riding. Determined to find relief, but too weak toride, Quimby rented a carriage. A few hours out in the countryside, he indeed

began to feel better, but then his horse shied and refused to pull the cart up along, muddy hill. Still very weak, Quimby had no choice but to get out of thecarriage and lead the horse to the top, which seemed impossible until a farmer

obligingly helped him get the horse going again. And go, they did! The horsetook off and Quimby held on to the reins, riding at a mad pace through thehills all the way back home. Once there, Quimby was amazed to find that hefelt as strong as ever. He soon resumed his business, and continued it,reflecting on the hows and whys of the incident, for some years.

Exploring Mesmerism


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Quimby had a scientific approach to his inquiries.Having learned the clockmaking business as an apprentice, he was somethingof an engineer, as well. And he really wanted to understand how he had beencured of consumption. So, when in 1838, a Dr. Collyer arrived in town with alecture and demonstration of the strange new European phenomenon calledmesmerism (known today as hypnosis), Quimby was in the audience. Hewas fascinated, immediately began to read whatever he could on the topic, and

practiced it on any willing subject. Not surprisingly in that relatively smallcommunity, he soon began to develop a reputation. One doctor, for example,wrote to a colleague that he had performed an operation using only Quimbyshypnosis as an anaesthetic, and the patient had given no sign of feeling pain. Alocal paper described him as a gentleman, small in stature, . . . with a powerof concentration surpassing anything we have ever witnessed." It was during

this period that Quimby began to work with a young man named LuciusBurkmar, who was a remarkably easy subject. Over several months, heexperimented with Lucius, attempting to discover both the nature and thescope of this new technique. It seemed that Lucius, once mesmerizedthatis, in an hypnotic trancewas able to describe events and conditions that werenot visible to those in the waking state. Initially, as an entertainment, Quimbywould have Lucius tell people about their past, or the whereabouts andcondition of someone or something dear to them but not in the room. Then, as

people began to ask, Lucius began describing their illnessoften prescribinga cure. Soon, Quimby and Lucius were working with local doctors in thediagnosis and prescription of cases, with apparently considerable success.Quimby was curious about these prescriptions, however. Writing in aPortland, Maine, paper some years later, he said that sometimes Lucius would

prescribe a simple herb that could do no harm or good in itself, yet the patientrecovered. It seemed that any medicine would have the same effect. He beganto wonder if the recovery were more a function of the patients confidence inthe doctor or Lucius than of the particular treatment prescribed. The turning

point for Quimby appears to have been an incident when Lucius, underhypnosis, spontaneously began to describe Quimbys own recurring pain and

its cause. Quimby had a lifetime habit of pushing himself beyond his physicallimits and while the consumption of his earlier years was no longer a problem,he had felt, for some time, that his kidneys were failing. The hypnotizedLucius confirmed this opinion and went further, telling him that one kidneywas half gone and the other was hanging on by a string. When Quimbyasked if there was a remedy, the entranced Lucius said, I can put the piece onso it will grow, and you will get well, and put his hands on Quimbys back. A


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day or two later, Lucius pronounced him well and, wrote Quimby in hismanuscripts some 20 years later, from that day I have never experienced theleast pain from them. Quimby was committed to understanding what hadhappened. Had Lucius only read his mind, telling him what he, himself, had

been thinkingas Lucius had done so often with others? Was his ownassessment of his condition mistaken? Had Lucius indeed done somethingwith his hands? Was the trouble only mental in the first place? Had he simply

believed what the doctors had told himand experienced increasingly severesymptoms because of their statements that they knew of no cure? He began to

pay more attention to the diagnoses and cures in his work. And, after a numberof cases not unlike his own, he began to mistrust doctors completely, believingthat the doctors often created their patients disease through their own beliefs,with the outcome determined by their own faith in their prescriptions and the

patients capacity for healing. As he worked with Lucius, Quimby became

aware that, under hypnosis, the young man would often act before Quimbyactually stated what he wanted. In fact, after a few experiments, Quimby

began to regularly direct Lucius by concentrating on what he wantedgoingso far as to cause him to laugh by thinking of an amusing situation, or expressfear by vividly imagining a ferocious animal in the room. He reached the pointwhere anything he could give form to in his mind, Lucius would respond to.Abstract thoughts, however, were apparently not graspedat least not in away Lucius could describe when in trance. These experiences caused Quimbyto feel even more strongly that, in their own way, doctors were often creatingthe disease in the patient. It also caused him to denounce the increasingly

popular Spiritualistson the grounds that the medium could easily beimplanting the experience of spirits in those present just as he created theexperience of a wild animal in Lucius mind.

Beyond Hypnosis

Based on all these experiments, Quimby finally came to believe that allexperience is essentially mentalthat a disease is a wrong belief and a cure isthe correction of that belief. His goal from that time forward was to change the

mind of the patient, so that the undesirable physical condition would no longerbe manifested. At that point, he stopped using mesmerism and focused onreasoning with the people who came to him, until they substituted a new belieffor the old. For several years he went from town to town throughout Maineand upper New England working with patients. His pamphlet read Dr. P.


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P. Quimby would respectfully announce to the citizens of ______ andvicinity, that he will be at the _________ where he will attend thosewishing to consult him . . .. gives no medicine, and makes no outwardapplications . . . tells them their feelings and what they think is theirdisease . . . then his explanation is the cure; . . . This part of the pamphletended with The Truth is the Cure. In 1859, Quimby was working inPortland, Maine and writing frequent articles in the local paper. They allfollowed the same theme: disease is essentially mental. . . . an individual isto himself just what he thinks he is, and he is in his belief sick. If Ibelieve I am sick, I am sick, for my feelings are my sickness, and mysickness is my belief in my mind. Therefore all sickness is in the mindor belief . . .. . . the body is only the house for the mind to dwell in . . . ifyour mind has been deceived . . . into some belief, you have put into itthe form of a disease . . . By my theory or truth, I come into contact . . .

and restore you to health and happiness. This I do partly mentally, andpartly by talking till I correct thewrong impression and establish theTruth . . .. . . Dr Quimby, with his clairvoyant faculty, gets knowledge inregard to the phenomena, which does not come through his naturalsenses, and by explaining it to the patient gives another direction to themind and the explanation is the science or the cure. Based on his lettersand notes, Quimbys method appears to be simple. He sat down next to a

patient, allowed himself to become completely passive and focused on thepatients feelings. He then reported to the patient what he understood aboutthem and explained to them the error of their belief, impressing on them hisown belief concerning their true conditionhealth and strength. Over timesometimes several sessionspatients would begin to accept Quimbysstatements in place of their previous beliefs, and their body no longerdisplayed the unwanted symptoms. Only if the patient required some physicalaction to accept his explanation did Quimby touch them or recommend anactivity. Over the years, Quimbys patients numbered in the thousandshisnotes indicate that he sat with 12,000 people while in Portland, some of themmany times before they were free of symptoms. Among his successes wereJulius Dresser, a Harvard Ph.D. and Swedenborgian minister whose son later

edited and published Quimbys notes and manuscripts, Mary Baker Patterson,who later became Mary Baker Eddy, and Warren Felt Evans, the first majorwriter to define the New Thought movement. He also worked with peoplethrough the exchange of letters. (Since his work with mesmerism and Luciushad shown him that time and space were not relevant to the mind, he had no

problem accepting the efficacy of such absent treatments.) He would write tothem what he perceived about them as he held their letter of request and


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persuade them to accept a different understanding of their condition, oftendescribing himself as being present with them through the medium of theletter. Usually, he would encourage them to find a comfortable place and readhis letter several times a day for several days. Among the conditions he listedin his manuscripts as having cured are cancer, lameness, back pain,consumption, heart disease, fever, small pox, cold, brain fever, lung fever,neuralgia, and diphtheria. Although smallpox was recognized by the medicalestablishment as an infection, with vaccination was an accepted cure, Quimbywas consistent in his approach declaring it a superstitious idea . . . Theirdiseases are the effect of the community . . .. In ignorance of causes people aresatisfied with someones belief . . . Small-pox is a lie . . .

Spiritual Understanding

While having developed his approach through hypothesis and experiment andhaving carefully separated his healing activities from any religious dogma,Quimby nonetheless felt there was a spiritual explanation for his process. Theeditor of his Manuscripts, Horatio Dresser, noted that at least half of Quimbysnotes were filled with references to religious problems and the Bible. In part,that was because Quimby had found that many of his patients conditions werethe result of fears and beliefs bound up with religious creeds and experiences.And, in part, Quimby was himself, attempting to reconcile his experience withthe faith in which he was raised. In apparent drafts of articles he wrote: Godmade everything good, and if there is anything wrong it is the effect ofourselves . . .. . . there is no intelligence, no power or action in matteritself . . . the spiritual world to which our eyes are closed by ignoranceor unbelief is the real world, . . . in it lie all the causes for every effectvisible in the natural world. . . truth which shall set men free mustexplain both disease and sin . . . the cure of both was Wisdom, whichrelates not alone to the life of the flesh, but also to the life within.. . .mans happiness is in his belief, and his misery is the effect of his belief. . . Establish this and man rises to a higher state of wisdom, not of thisworld. . . all human misery can be corrected by this principle . . . The

sting of ignorance is death. But the Wisdom of Science is Life eternal .. . .All the religion I acknowledge is God, or Wisdom, I will not takemans belief to guide my barque [boat]. I would rather stand at the helmmyself.. . . every man is part of God, just so far as he is Wisdom . . .what we call man is not man, but a shadow of error. Wisdom is the trueman, and error the counterfeit.In all these statements, he seems to echo thespiritual ideas of the Transcendentalists, though theres no evidence that he


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encountered them. That group of Unitarians in Massachusetts, led by RalphWaldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, were defining anew American ideology. And, in fact, one historian of the period has said,Dr. Quimby may be called the scientist of Transcendentalism because hedemonstrated visibly on human organisms the operational validity ofEmersons hypotheses. Quimby stated clearly that he believed he was doingwhat Jesus had tried to teach the disciples to do, but which teachings had not

been passed on in the Church. He believed that Jesus knew that illness anddeath were a function of our individual and collective beliefs and bothdemonstrated and tried to teach that Wisdom. You ask if my practicebelongs to any known Science. My answer is No, it belongs to Wisdomthat is above man as man. The Science I try to practice is the Sciencethat was taught eighteen hundred years ago, and has never had aplace in the hearts of man since . . . He believed that false understandings

of the Bible were the cause of half the diseases from which his patientssuffered. So to cure, I have to show by the Bible that they have been made to

believe a wrong construction. His interpretations were often allegorical: Hewould say that Jesus calling of the disciples, for example, caused them toabandon their netsthat is, old beliefsand their shipserrorand followHimWisdom. P.P. Quimby died in 1866. His body, weakened by overworkand lack of rest, gave in to a serious illness when he was 64 years old. Hisfamily believed that had he been willing to limit his work, even to take sometime off, he would have continued to ward off disease as he had for the

preceding 30 years. His son George kept his notes and manuscripts and passedthem on to the Dresser family for editing and publicationwhich was finallyaccomplished in 1921. Reflecting on Quimbys philosophy in his own book,Health and the Inner Life, Dresser stated:According to Mr. Quimby, it wasthe natural man whose life is moulded by belief. The moral of Mr.Quimby's discovery is not self-affirmation but the profoundest self-understanding. Man has long tended to circulate about his own littlecollection of beliefs. To free him from that bondage, Mr. Quimbydirected man's attention to his true self. Now that true self is not mentalbut spiritual. It is as a son of God that one should go forth to practice

the new principles, not as an agent of mere thought.Far moreimportant than the discovery that man is susceptible to manifold hiddeninfluences and tends to build his own little world of beliefs from within,is the fact that man is recipient of a higher wisdom and superior power.The discovery of these subtle influences enabled Mr. Quimby toexplain disease to his own satisfaction, but this knowledge was notsufficient to produce the remarkable cures without which Mr. Quimby


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would never have been heard of . . ..That man is spiritual andpossesses spiritual senses is of far more consequence than theproposition that "mind is spiritual matter." That the spiritual man canbecome open to and use spiritual power is of more consequence still; .. .Therefore [1] the fundamental consideration for Mr. Quimby was theexistence of the omnipresent Wisdom, the God of peace andgoodness, who created man to be sound and sane. [2] The secondgreat principle was that of the Christ within, or the principle of divinesonship . . . . each of us is to discover the true God within our ownconsciousness. Most of the material on Quimby is drawn from The QuimbyManuscripts, as edited by Horatio Dresser, and from Charles Braden's Spiritsin Rebellion. Quimby Manuscripts, p. 30. This was before the placebo something with no medicinal value that is given to a patient as if it weremedicationwas understood. Studies have shown that a significant proportion

of people (in some cases 50-60%) receiving the placebo experience relief fromthe symptoms. Mrs. Eddy founded the Christian Science church based in large

part on what she learned from Quimby. This and other quotes are taken fromThe Quimby Manuscripts. S. Holmes, in New England Quarterly, Vol. XVII,quoted in Charles Braden, Spirits in Rebellion, pp. 85-88

MARY BAKER EDDY

Mrs. Eddys contribution to the healing work of the New Thought movementis profound. She personally performed several hundred documented healings,and she taught her thinking and techniques to hundreds of others. Her Churchof Christ, Scientist (known as Christian Science), based in Boston, haschapters all over the country, most of them with Reading Rooms incommercial districts where anyone can tap into the Christian Scienceliterature, including The Christian Science Monitor, on a daily basis.Following her guidelines, Christian Science practitioners and nurses haveaccomplished thousands of well-documented healings all over the world. Yetit is, perhaps, in her opposition to anything other than her own teachings thatshe has most profoundly influenced this peculiarly American religious

movement. Mrs. Eddy and her church have isolated themselves from all otherapproaches to this work. Under her direction, Christian Science members and

practitioners have relied solely on Mrs. Eddys writingsmost notably herbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesas the only source ofunderstanding to be followed regarding this approach to healing. Sheadamantly opposed all else as misguided at best and charlatanry at worst. Shewas born Mary Morse Baker in Bow, New Hampshire, in July, 1821, to


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deeply religious parents. Young Mary Baker was an earnest student of theBible. She received most of her early education at home from her brother,much of it focused on interpreting the Old and New Testaments. She laterwrote: From my very childhood I was impelled, by a hunger and thirstafter divine thingsa desire for something higher and better thanmatter, and apart from itto seek diligently for the knowledge of Godas the one great and ever-present relief from human woe. She marriedGeorge W. Glover in 1843, but was widowed shortly afterward. During hersingle years, Mary apparently was associated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton andSusan B. Anthony following the First Woman's Rights Convention at SenecaFalls in 1848. She was on her own in a society that regarded women asnaturally frail and prone to illness. This view, combined with the primitive andharsh medical treatments of the day, prompted women to seek alternativeapproaches to healthcare. Gentler therapies such as homeopathy, hygiene, and

hydropathy became popular among womenespecially those taking up theirright to a profession and Mary Baker Glover became a homeopathic

physician Like Quimby, Mary saw early on that treatments were not quitewhat they seemed, as evidenced in this description of an experience during hertraining:A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into my hands. Itwas a terrible case. Tapping had been employed.... I prescribed thefourth attenuation of Argentum nitratum with occasional doses of a highattenuation of Sulphuris. She improved perceptibly. Believing thensomewhat in the ordinary theories of medical practice, and learningthat her former physician had prescribed these remedies, I began tofear an aggravation of symptoms from their prolonged use, and told thepatient so; but she was unwilling to give up the medicine while she wasrecovering. It then occurred to me to give her unmedicated pellets andwatch the result. I did so, and she continued to gain.... She went on inthis way, taking the unmedicated pellets, - and receiving occasionalvisits from me, - but employing no other means; and she was cured.Marys practice was reasonably successful. She married again in 1853 to anitinerant dentist named Patterson and traveled with him, practicing alongsidehim in the small towns of New England. She, however, was not well.

Chronically ill from childhood, she searched alternative therapies for arelationship between thought and physical effecta mind/body connection.At the same time, she deepened her study of the Bible for its promises ofcomfort and healing.

An Invalid is Healed


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In 1862, Mary Baker Patterson, by then almost a total invalid, sat withPhineas Quimby. By all accounts, (and evidenced by her later activities) sheexperienced total recovery from her symptoms through his verbal treatments.She was delighted, and there is ample documentation that Mary BakerPatterson subsequently held well-publicized lectures on the efficacy of TheQuimby Method in the towns around Maine and upper New England.According to Quimbys notes, she met with and corresponded with him manytimes over several years, studying his system. In 1866, a spinal injury,occasioned by a fall on an icy street, left Mrs. Patterson "in a very criticalcondition," according to an account in the Lynn Reporter. According to theDressers journals, she immediately sought out Quimby for assistance andended up coming to the Dressers when she found he had died. This time, shewas healed by working not only with the healer, but also with her own inner

process, relying heavily on the Bible as a source of inspiration and guidance.

She recovered fully and went forward to teach and heal others. Although shehad relied heavily on his thoughts and approach, Eddy eventually rejectedQuimby's healing method, because through her own experience, she came to

believe that healing came through the power of God, not the human mind.(Apparently Quimby had not shared with her his own ideas on the subject.)She attributed this belief, and the discovery of her new Science, to the spiritualrevelation she had while reading the Bible in 1866 during her convalescencefrom the fall. She asserted that her quick recovery, and the restoration of herhealth in general, resulted from her understanding of the spiritual truths thatformed the basis of Jesus' healing ministry. It was in Massachusetts, inFebruary, 1866... that I discovered the Science of divine metaphysicalhealing which I afterwards named Christian Science. The discoverycame to pass this way. During twenty years prior to my discovery I hadbeen trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause; and in thelatter part of 1866 I gained the scientific certainty that all causation wasMind, and every effect a mental phenomenon.My immediate recoveryfrom the effects of an injury caused by an accident, an injury thatneither medicine nor surgery could reach, was the falling apple that ledme to the discovery how to be well myself, and how to make others so.

Even to the homeopathic physician who attended me, and rejoiced inmy recovery, I could not then explain the modus of my relief. I couldonly assure him that the divine Spirit had wrought the miracle - amiracle which later I found to be in perfect scientific accord with divinelaw." She spent the next few years studying Biblical healing and testing whatshe was learning by healing "incurable" cases. She named her discoveryChristian Science and began to teach it to others. An account of one of her


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healings was attested by Margaret E. Harding from Lynn, Massachusetts:Sometime during...1866 Mrs. Norton drove her young son, George, toLynn beach for a day's outing. At the time, George was about sevenyears of age and had been carried on a pillow since birth, having beenborn with a deformity commonly known as club feet, both feet beingturned backward, and consequently he had never walked.Mrs. Nortonlaid the child upon the pillow on the sand and left him alone while shehitched the horse and went for water. On her return shortly the childhad disappeared and the mother searched bewilderedly about only tofind him down by the water and walking with a woman holding hishands, which she released a moment later and George stood alone.Later he took a few steps and from that time was able to walk.Thestrange woman and the mother both looked into each other's eyes alittle and thanked God for this seemingly miraculous healing.I need not

add that the strange lady was Mrs. Mary B. Glover, who afterwardsbecame Mrs. Eddy, and the founder of Christian Science. Maryexperienced considerable success and became an important part of thealternative healing community in the region, dominated by women at thattime. She described some of her experiences in her books.About the year1869, I was wired to attend the patient of a distinguished Md., the lateDr. Davis of Manchester, N.H. The patient was pronounced dying ofpneumonia, and was breathing at intervals in agony. Her physician,who stood by her bedside, declared that she could not live. On seeingher immediately restored by me without material aid, he askedearnestly if I had a work describing my system of healing.Whenanswered in the negative, he urged me immediately to write a bookwhich should explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics.Through four successive years I healed, preached, and taught in ageneral way, refusing to take any pay for my services and living on asmall annuity.At one time I was called to speak before the LyceumClub, at Westerly, Rhode Island. On my arrival my hostess told me thather next-door neighbor was dying. I asked permission to see her. Itwas granted, and with my hostess I went to the invalid's house.The

physicians had given up the case and retired. I had stood by her sideabout fifteen minutes when the sick woman rose from her bed, dressedherself, and was well. Afterwards they showed me the clothes alreadyprepared for her burial.... This scientific demonstration so stirred thedoctors and clergy that they had my notices for a second lecture pulleddown, and refused me a hearing in their halls and churches. During the1870s Mary taught her religious system in Lynn, Massachusetts. She had one


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student in her first class, but was clearly well known in the community. I wascalled to visit Mr. Clark in Lynn, who had been confined to his bed sixmonths with hip-disease, caused by a fall upon a wooden spike whenquite a boy. On entering the house I met his physician, who said thatthe patient was dying.... I went to his bedside. In a few moments hisfaced changed; its death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. Theeyelids closed gently and the breathing became natural; he wasasleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and said: 'I feel like anew man. My suffering is all gone...' I told him to rise, dress himself,and take supper with his family. He did so. The next day I saw him inthe yard. Since then I have not seen him, but am informed that he wentto work in two weeks. The discharge from the sore stopped, and thesore was healed.

A Church is Born

In 1873, happily settled in Lynn, Mary Baker divorced Dr. Patterson. Then,in 1875, the first version of her most important book, Science and Health withKey to the Scriptures, was published. The preface sets the tone for the work:Theology and physics teach that both Spirit and matter are real andgood, whereas the fact is that Spirit is good and real, and matter isSpirit's opposite. . . . Sickness has been combated for years by doctorsusing material remedies, but the question arises, is there less sicknessbecause of these practitioners? A vigorous No is the response. The author has not compromised conscience By thousands of well-authenticated cases of healing, she and her students have proved theworth of her teachings these mighty works are not supernatural butsupremely natural. In 1877, Mary Baker married Asa Eddy, a follower ofher new religion. In 1879 she obtained a state charter for the Church of Christ,Scientist. She opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in Boston in1882 to provide systematic training in her doctrine. The College taughtstudentsboth women and mento practice healing and to teach others. Thecollege was closed in 1889 and was later replaced by the church's Board of

Education. Having a healing practice provided independence and a self-sufficient income for many women in a time when most were dependent onthe men around them, making Mrs. Eddy very popular among members of theemerging suffragette movement. Her students were taught to rely solely onthe Bible and her own Science and Health for inspiration and understanding.Using these tools and deep prayer, Christian Science Practitioners were taughtto treat those who came to them for any physical, emotional, or financial


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difficulties. By this point, Mrs. Eddy consistently denied having had anythingto do with Quimby, saying that the technique developed by that mesmeristhad nothing in common with her own revelation, and that anyone whofollowed his ideas was teaching falsehoods. They regard the human mindas a healing agent, whereas mind is not a factor in the Principle of ChristianScience. This denial has caused more than a little distress in the movementand contributed to the isolation of the Christian Scientist churches from other

New Thought schools and churches. In 1892 Mary reorganized the church inBoston, creating a central administration for the rapidly growing movement,and renamed it The First Church of Christ, Scientist, familiarly The MotherChurch. Christian Science church services were based on readings from theBible with Mrs. Eddys commentary from Science and Health and, onWednesday evenings, were supplemented by testimonials of individuals whohad experienced relief from symptoms. Medical doctors were to be avoided

completely, and special Christian Science facilities were built, with licensednurses and practitioners, to permit her followers to be treated without medicalintervention. If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he constantlyturns away from material sense and looks toward the imperishablethings of Spirit Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration Through demonstrating his control over sin and disease He workedfor their guidance, that they might demonstrate this power as he didand understand its divine Principle Human philosophy has madeGod manlike. Christian Science makes man Godlike metaphysicsresolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense forthe ideas of Soul. The theories I combat are these: 1) that all ismatter; 2) that matter originates in Mind and is as real as Mind,possessing intelligence and life. When Mrs. Eddy retired she leftmanagement of the church to a board of directors, who govern underguidelines established in her Manual of The Mother Church (1895, finalrevision 1908). She maintained a role in church affairs as pastor emeritus untilshortly before her death. Following her retirement from the church, Eddyfounded the Christian Science Publishing Society in 1898 and organized andedited various Christian Science publications. In 1908 she launched the

Christian Science Monitor, still a highly regarded international dailynewspaper. Among her other writings are Christian Healing (1886), theautobiographical Retrospection and Introspection (1891), Unity of Good(1887), and Miscellaneous Writings (1896). Today, the Church continues to

practice what Mary Baker Eddy taught. From the Christian Science (MBE)web site, we read: Christian Science healing comes through scientificprayer, or spiritual communion with God. It is specific treatment. Such


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prayer recognizes a patient's direct access to God's love and discoversmore of the consistent operation of God's law of health and wholenesson his behalf. It knows God, or divine Mind, as the only healer. It bringsthe transforming action of the Christ, the idea of divine Love, to thepatient's consciousness. A transformation or spiritualization of apatient's thought changes his condition (see Science and Health, p.194:6).Christian Science treatment and medical treatment proceedfrom opposite standpoints. Christian Science is based on the laws ofGod that all cause and effect are spiritual. Medicine primarily deals withmatter as both cause and cure. To try to heal from opposite systemsmay be unfair to the patient and could be counterproductive to healing.

A Christian Science nurse is an experienced Christian Scientistprepared to provide skillful physical care and spiritual reassuranceconsistent with the theology of Christian Science. Christian Science

nursing does not include any form of medical treatment, such asdiagnosing, drugs, or therapy. It does include practical bedside care,such as bathing, dressing wounds, turning, lifting, modification of food,etc. Anyone who is depending solely on God for healing and who isapplying the principles of Christian Science, as explained in Scienceand Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, mayengage a nurse at home or go to a Christian Science nursing facility.Practiced effectively for more than 100 years in some families,Christian Science has been a means of healing and care for fivegenerations. During the past 112 years, more than 50,000authenticated testimonies of healing have been published in themonthly and weekly Christian Science periodicals. Many of these havemedical verification. In addition, thousands of accounts of healing aregiven each week at Wednesday testimony meetings in ChristianScience churches around the world. The exclusive reliance on Mrs.Eddys form of Christian Science principles and on Christian SciencePractitioners required of church members has been a great source ofcontroversy over the last century, among both the medical and the legal

professions. Today, there are several court cases in process around the country

having to do with parents rights to withhold medical treatment for theirchildren, in favor of Christian Science practices. Mary Eddy clearly felt theneed to isolate and defend herself, her church, and her ideas. Nonetheless, herextension of Quimbys approach and her language describing her ownexperience have had a major influence on those who followed. Much of the

biographical data is taken from the Microsoft Encarta OnlineEncyclopedia 2000 from Retrospection and Introspection, p. 31. Mary


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apparently attended the famous Seneca Falls conference, at which theWomens Suffrage movement was launched in the U.S. One of the outcomesof that conference was a declaration of womens rights to develop a

profession. Theres some evidence that the use of corsets, which greatlyreduce lung capacity and distort internal organs, may have been a factor in this

perception. from Science and Health, p. 156 from Retrospection &Introspection, p. 24 Christian Healer, p. 43 from The First Church of ChristScientist and Miscellany, p. 105 from Retrospection & Introspection, p. 40from Science and Health, p. 192 from the Preface to Science and Health. FromScience and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the chapters: Atonement andEucharist and Science of Being.

Emma Curtis Hopkins

Ready Students

When Quimby passed on, he left no successor. However, Julius Dresser andhis wife, who had been his patients, took his notes and set up as mentalhealers using his system. They worked directly from Quimbys notes, seeingindividual patients with some success, for many years. In 1883, they began toteach classes, based on those notes, calling them The Quimby System ofMental Treatment of Diseases. Many of their students were patients who,having been healed, wanted to understand how it was done. Some were former(or rejected) students of Mary Baker Eddy, through whom the Dressers cameto understand that the system Quimby had called Christian Science was beingtaught by her as a personal revelation. The Dressers responded to her claimswith a circular: . . . [It is] natural and right to be well, and the simpletruth understood and applied destroys the error of disease.There is atruth not generally known, the understanding of which tends to avoidsickness and leads to health and happiness. It is no man's belief; it isan eternal truth. One student of Mrs. Eddys who apparently read thatcircular was Emma Hopkins. Having participated in the Christian Science

practitioner class of December, 1883, she was, by September of 1884,appointed the editor of the Christian Science Journal. Although theres no

clear account of what happened, piecing together a few references from laterissues gives us a hint. From Mrs. Eddys writings, it looks as if Emma was insome sort of difficulty when she took that first class, and, it appears, beganworking on the Journal in lieu of paying tuition. Being an able thinker andready reader, she probably shone in that work, and was quickly promoted tothe editorship.


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Sometimes Health Requires Moving On

That Emma thought highly of her teacher during this period is made clear bythe tone of her articles and editorials, one of them praising Mrs. Eddy as lateas September, 1885. But she made the mistake of reading other metaphysicalwriters (and referring to them in the Journal), which practice was notacceptable in Mrs. Eddys church. By the next issue, she had been summarilydismissed as editor. There is no record describing the event or her reaction toit, but it cannot have been pleasant. To have been on a path and suddenly beshifted off it is always a challenge. But Emma practiced what she wroteandsoon began to teach it, as well. In the years to come her sweet spirit of charity. . . with never a word of criticism of any sect or any school would become amodel for many. Spring of 1886 found Mrs. Emma Hopkins in Chicago,setting up on her own to teach the principles and practices of this method,

Popularly known as Christian Science. (Mrs. Eddy was not pleased, and wroteseveral articles against her teachings over the next few years, declaring herincapable of teaching Christian Science and lumping her with the Dressersas spreading false compendiums of my system.) In time, Emma began toreceive patients, advertising in the Chicago papers and inviting a select fewto stay in her home for board and treatment. She also gave public lectures onvarious topics of Christian Science. In 1887, she opened the Christian ScienceTheological Seminary in Chicago, with a board of directors and faculty, anddaily healing services. Its statement of purpose included the following: TheBibles of all times and nations are compared; their miracles are shownto be the result of one order of reasoning, and the absence of miraclesshown to be the result of another order of reasoning . . . . We perceivethere is one judgment in all mankind alike. It is restored by the theologytaught here. With its restoration we find health, protection, wisdom,strength, prosperity. Later that year, she began a series of lectures in othercities around the country, the first of many such tours. That she was a belovedteacher in San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Kansas City, as well asChicago, is well documented. In later years, she worked in London, as well.

Teacher of Teachers

Initially, Emma called her classes Christian Science, as had Quimby andEddy before her. Later, she began to use the term Higher Mysticism todescribe her work. Under whatever name she used, though, she wasremarkable. In an article in Modern Thought announcing one of her classes inKansas City, she is described as Undoubtedly the most successful teacher


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in the world, her instruction not only gives understanding to the studentby which he can cure the ills of himself and others, but in manyinstances those who enter her classes confirmed invalids come out atthe end of the course perfectly well. . . . all who listen to her are filledwith new life. Successful, indeed. Though she made it a point not to speak ofher successes, her classes touched far more lives than even those who attendedthe lectures could imagine. Virtually all of the founders of New Thoughtschools and churches were Emma Hopkins students. In San Francisco, her250 member classes included Melinda Cramer, who with Nona Brooks ofPueblo, Colorado, founded the Church and School of Divine Science, whichlater ordained the popular writer and New York minister, Emmet Fox (towhom Norman Vincent Peale attributed much of his understanding). InKansas City, the classes included Myrtle and Charles Fillmore, who went onto found the Unity School of Practical Christianity, with its worldwide

ministries of Silent Unity, Unity churches, and the monthly reader, DailyWord. Attending classes in New York was Emilie Cady, the physician whowrote Lessons in Truth, which has become the fundamental text for Unitystudents around the world. Even Religious Science, founded in the 1930s, is

based in part on Emmas teachings, for Ernest Holmes managed to persuadeher to work with him in the last years before her passing in 1925. We knowlittle of her past or her private life, but in all her work, one thing is clear: Mrs.Hopkins was remarkably well read and comfortable with a wide range ofclassical and early historical philosophies. For example: Plotinus (A.D. 250)lost himself seven times in a trance of ecstasy by thinking over theword God in his mind. The use of the word by Plotinus, Porphyry,and Spinoza did not solve the mystery of life for them, however Jesus Christ had quite a different idea from these men, In my namepreach the gospel, in my name heal the sick. It has been taughtfrom the remotest times that we have the Name stored within us asconcealed energy. The Zend-Avesta tells us that it is by the DivineWord that the sick are most surely cured. Cornelius Agrippa ofCologne (1486), ascribed to numbers an efficacy. But nomathematician is a healer because of his mathematics. He must use

the Healing Word, or the reasoning which brings down somewhat ofthe power of the Healing Word. Her supporters suggest she wassomething of a genius, saying that at 15, having entered Woodstock

Academy in Connecticut as a new student, Emma Curtis wasappointed to the faculty within the year.


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The Message

Emma had developed a system for presenting her material, based on what shecalled the twelve doctrines of Jesus Christ which she later compiled in a

book, Scientific Christian Mental Practice. Her goal in all was that eachstudent (or reader) would Let this mind be in you which was also in ChristJesus (Philippians 2:5). In her teachings, the first doctrine, or lesson, is calledThe Statement of Being. Hopkins says, The first lesson in Truth is theword God. She tells us that most people have an inadequate understandingof the nature of the divine, as indicated by the use of the term God. She tellsus not to be confused by Jesus use of the phrase in my name: . . . thatName . . . is certainly not the word God, for these men who used thatword continually were not mighty healers. . . .The first lesson finds out

what your mind is seeking and names it. . . . The naming of what themind of the whole world is seeking is the foundation thought . . . It isthe GOOD. . . .. . . the Good which you are seeking is your God. . . .The Good which you are seeking created you. . . . The honeststatement that My Good is my God has the power . . .The first nameof God is Good, and the first name of Good is God. There is Good forme and I ought to have it, says the unconscious instinct . . . When youlook at the worm . . . the drunkard, or miser, you will say he is seekinghis Good. His heart will be better satisfied the instant you speak . . . Ifhe should say so, his life would come nearer to being a satisfying one.To acknowledge God is to admit we are seeking our Good. It is well togive one day a week to acknowledging that we are seeking for ourGood. . . .When you speak for yourself you speak for the world. . . .You can name your Good as free health. . . . The moment you feel thistruth, and speak it, . . . You catch a new breath of health and yourneighbor catches a new breath of health. Sometimes when you say tothe sick man, mentally, that the Good he is seeking is his God, andGod is free health, he will get well in five minutes. . . .Mind speakingtruth through the lips, or thinking Truth consciously, can bring all the

satisfaction to the world which the world is seeking. No materialprocess can bring health. By a metaphysical process health willquicken and thrill mankind.Another name for God is support. . . . It isnot Truth to say that man depends on any kind of work for his support.His work is not the Good he is seeking. He must tell the Truth and Godwill work for him.Support is another name for substance. Allmetaphysicians have called God the One Substance. . . . If you name


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your Good, do not fail to say: My Good is my unlimited support, myunfailing support. The Good will soon bring you marvelous support . . .your old business will not be interesting to you. It will leave you, yet youwill have your living. By and by you will have great and wonderfulmiracles of support come to you. . . .. . . Metaphysicians, in tracing thecause of evil conditions, have all agreed that fear of evil is the only evil.. . . in every place where we proclaim that defense, there is the Goodwe are seeking. . . .God is our love. . . . Love is another name for life.. . . Do not forget to say The Good I am seeking is Love.How shallwe get hold of our Good? Not by working with our hands, for countlessages of labor have failed. . . . The Jesus Christ method brings thefulfillment of all our expectations. . . . To expect Good and to be verydefinite in the mind that it IS coming, is to see it coming. . . .The wordGood is the only word that can make all things. . . . Let the magic name

Good be the name of all names in your mind. It is the name that JesusChrist comes to be understood by. . . . The Statement of Being wascontinually in the mouth of Jesus Christ. Let it be in your mouth also. . .. Expect to see it work quickly. Truth is not slow. . . . With Truth, all isNOW.Truth does not have to make things new for you. In Truth it wasso from the beginning . . . All Truth is waiting for you to say plainly whatis your Good. The speaking out continuously what we have felt andthought intuitively, is the first movement toward demonstration, towardmanifestation, toward satisfaction. . . . These excerpts summarize thefirst, foundation lesson in Emma Hopkins classes. From there she went on toexplain the use of denials of illusions and affirmations of Truth. Sheexplained that Faith is in the expectation of the Good, the realization of theTruth in spite of any temporary illusions. Our way of believing deep downin our convinced mind is our faith. We are sure to speak out from thatfaith. If we . . . do not quite believe that the health principle is mostpowerful and yet we keep on talking for health and will not admit thatwe are afraid of the sickness, we surely will find our faith comingaround to the side of omnipotent health. . . . If . . . everything seemsagainst us and everything hurts us greatly, we must put great

vehemence into our saying, I do not believe in sickness, I believe inhealth. I do not believe, or think, that misfortune has any powerwhatsoever. I believe in prosperity and success. Drawing heavily on theBible as well as historical philosophers and well-chosen anecdotes, Emma

broke through old, culturally accepted, expectations and planted in the studentnew ideas about the reality of being. . . . our reasonings based on the premiseof matter being real, are not enduring . . . The sixth lesson . . . is all about


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the quickening power of the Spirit in understanding. . . . We speak ofthat Spirit within ourselves which is exactly like His Spirit, and of it wesay, I understand the Secret of Jesus Christ. . . . We abide in the lightby acknowledging only our Christ nature. We are torn in the conflict ofchange, and ups and downs, by acknowledging two natures. We abidein the darkness by yielding to the idea that we are matter and intellect. .. . Spirit is all in all and the only Reality. . . . As Spirit I perceive that allis Good. In her references to the Bible, Emma used a metaphoricalinterpretation. This practice was based in part on the fact that Hebrew is alanguage of images and multiple meanings, and in part on the realization thatinspired writing is always communicating at the unconscious, as well as theconscious, level. Her approach was developed even further by her student,Charles Fillmore. Like most masters of metaphysics, Emma chose not todocument her life. She believed that talking about her practice would weaken

it. She even avoided writing down her teachings for many years, until, towardthe end of her life, she realized she was being recorded anyway. Then sheselected and formulated the most effective combination of words and ideas forcalling forth the experience her students would need to be effective. Thismaterial comes from H.W. Dressers Health and the Inner Life. There is nodefinitive biography and no known autobiography for Emma Curtis Hopkins.This material is extracted from Charles Bradens Spirits in Rebellion. Vol. 1,

No. 7, as quoted in Charles Braden, Spirits in Rebellion. Scientific ChristianMental Practice, ch.1. from the Foreword to Scientific Christian MentalPractice. This experience, however, was not all that unusual at the time, whenmany bright teens were appointed teachers for the primary students while

pursuing their own studies. This description of Emma Hopkins teachings istaken from her book Scientific Christian Mental Practice. From ScientificChristian Mental Practice, pp. 17-27 p. 90 pp. 130-131. Ursula LeGuin says,in an essay in Language of the Night, the language of the arts speaks fromunconscious to unconscious in a way that is understood. In The MetaphysicalBible Dictionary, which all Unity students are encouraged to use wheneverthey read the Bible.

Charles and Myrtle FillmoreHearing the Word

In the late 19th Century, Middle America was flourishing economically. Therailroads were bringing people and goods beyond anyones expectationbut,somehow, the churches were not filling the spiritual hunger of the people.During those years a tradition of lay-led meetings and church societies was


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established that became one of the defining characteristics of life in theMidwest through the 1950s. It was in that context that one of Emma Hopkinsstudents came to speak in Kansas City, Missouri. And it was in that culturethat Silent Unity and the Unity School of Practical Christianity was founded.[30] Charles Fillmore was a self-made man. Coming from a broken home, hewent to work on the railroads at an early age. During those years, he injured aleg so badly that it was shrunkenrequiring him to walk with a crutch orcane. No longer able to work as a laborer, he went into real estate. He metwith some success in Pueblo, Colorado, where he and his wife met the Brookssisters (who later founded the Church of Divine Science with MelindaCramer). Then, when the boom wore out in Pueblo, he moved his family toKansas City. Things went well there too until, again, the market busted andhe and his wife Myrtle were left struggling. Myrtle Fillmore was the college-educated daughter of a family with a history of consumption, which we call

tuberculosis. She was well read and opinionateda strong woman for thetimesuntil the family illness struck and she was weakened by its symptoms.

Nothing they tried seemed to help, and the downturn in their finances wasaggravating the condition. Then a friend recommended that the couple golisten to the lectures of Dr. E. B. Weeks, whom Emma Hopkins had sent toteach in Kansas City. While Charles found nothing useful in the talk, Myrtleheard one sentence that, she said in later years, turned her life around: I am achild of God, and therefore I do not inherit sickness. Although it took nearlytwo years for the healing to be complete, Myrtle was sure from that momentthat she would be healed. She was a changed person and people around herwanted to know what had made the difference. She began sharing her newinsight and understanding, and others began to experience healings as a result.In a matter of months, she had established a reputation in the area as a healerand teacher. In her own words: I was once an emaciated little woman,upon whom relatives and doctors had placed the stamp "T.B." And thiswas only one of the ailmentsthere were others considered beyondhelp, except possibly the changing of structures through an operation.There were family problems too. We were a sickly lot, and came to theplace where we were unable to provide for our children. In the midst of

all this gloom, we kept looking for the way out, which we felt sure wouldbe revealed. It was! The light of God revealed to usthe thought cameto me firstthat life was of God, that we were inseparably one with theSource, and that we inherited from the divine and perfect Father.Whatthat revelation did to me at first was not apparent to the senses. But itheld my mind above negation, and I began to claim my birthright and toact as though I believed myself the child of God, filled with His life. I


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gained. Others saw that there was something new in me. They askedme to share it. I did. Others were healed, and began to study. Myhusband continued his business, and at first took little interest in what Iwas doing. But after a time he became absorbed in the study of Truthtoo. Charles, the businessman, took over a year to be convinced, but theevidence of his own wifes increasing health and that of those she workedwith began to bring him around. They began to study with another of Emmasstudents, Joseph Adams, and in time, left their children with a relative for afew weeks and went to Chicago to study with Emma, herself. At that point,Charles began applying the principles to his own withered leg, and feltconsiderable improvement as a result.

Unity

By 1889, these ideas were the center of the Fillmores life. Charles continuedto maintain his real estate business, but his heart, and much of his time, wasdevoted to these teachings. He launched the magazine Modern Thought, inwhich he wrote about all the metaphysical schools as forms of a new,Christian, Science, referring to Mrs. Eddys Christian Science as one ofmany. During these years, Myrtles success with her neighbors led her to theconviction that it was possible to bring about healing at a distance. So, in1890, she launched Silent Unity. Initially, it was a group of Kansas Cityresidents (Myrtle and a few neighbors and friends) who had agreed to meet insilent communion every night at ten oclock all those who are in trouble,sickness, or poverty, and who sincerely desire the help of the Good Father.She invited the readers of the magazine, Modern Thought, to join the group,and sit in a quiet retired place if possible, at the hour of ten . . . for not lessthan fifteen minutes, and hold in silent thought the words that shall be givenevery month . . . in the magazine. Silent Unity was a quick success. Letters

poured in from people seeking help. The hour was changed from 10 p.m. to 9,to make it easier for people to gather and participate, and Charles and Myrtle

began responding to the letters they received, providing counsel and advice.People were invited to form their own prayer groups, starting with as few as

two people, for Two persons in perfect harmony will do more than a hundredin discord. And still, today, people all over the world meet in Unity prayercircles or sit quietly at home and repeat the months Silent Unity prayer. AtUnity Village, a prayer team works 24 hours a day for the good of all who callor write and ask for support. About 150 people are needed to respond to themany requests. The Fillmores worked closely with other metaphysical groupsin the area, sharing offices and developing a library. They began holding


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informal, participatory, prayer-and-song gatherings on Sunday afternoons andevenings (so as not to interfere with regular church) at which differentmetaphysical leaders would speak. And they invited speakers from out oftown, including Emma Hopkins. In 1893 they went to the Chicago WorldsFair and the World Parliament of Religions, with its concurrent New ThoughtCongress. They participated in the International Divine Science meeting therein 1895, as well. By 1898 the donations from their spiritual activities werelarge enough to support the family, so Charles finally gave up his real estate

business, and in 1905 the organization built their own building in KansasCityusing what was left of Charles resources to finance it. The buildingincluded a vegetarian lunchroom, a meeting hall, and offices. Employeescould count on ample coffee and tea and free seconds at the nominally

priced meals. They also were provided recreational facilities. By the end ofWorld War I, it was clear that more space was needed. The Fillmores sons

worked with them to find and develop a small farm outside of Kansas City, inthe town of Lees Summit. Through gifts and volunteer efforts, that farm hassince grown to 1300 acres, with a seven-story office tower, printing facilities,residences, a swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts, picnic places, and ahotel for students to stay in while taking courses. Its incorporated as UnityVillage, and is the home of Unity Press, publishers of Unity magazine, theDaily Word, and numerous books, the Unity Association of Churches, SilentUnity, and a flourishing school for students, ministers and teachers fromaround the world.

Practicing Principle

With the formation of Silent Unity, Charles and Myrtle had turned a corner intheir lives. From this point forward, they understood religion not as somethingseparate from daily life, but integral to it. The important thing in their life wasseeking, sharing, and living by Truth, wherever it might be found. Theystudied the Bible diligently, and Charles developed his Metaphysical BibleDictionary as a tool to understand the allegorical meaning behind the surfacestories. They were also open to other teachings. They met with Yogananda

and Krishnamurti, read the Vedas and The Quran, and Charles was wellacquainted with developments in atomic physics, even writing a book on thesubject. They spent a minimum of 30 minutes a day in prayer andmeditationas they recommended to all who came to them. This silence orstillness was a source of Wisdom and Peace for them, and they knew allcould benefit from that daily practice. Both of them wrote and taught and theyworked with individuals seeking help. Their classes were held in Kansas City


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and Colorado, and by correspondenceat first for ones own spiritualunfoldment, then later to train teachers and ministers. Their books andcollected writings comprise dozens of volumes and continue to form the bulkof publications sold through the Unity Press. Besides the Metaphysical BibleDictionary, Charles Twelve Powers of Man and Christian Healing continue to

be important resources for Unity students, teachers, and ministers.

Myrtle Fillmores Ideas

Myrtles writings were the letters she sent to the many people asking for helpor offering thanks. Some of these were published in a book, Myrtle FillmoresHealing Letters. In one letter she responds to a close co-worker: You call methe mother of Unity! Well, now, I know of nothing that would give megreater joy than to feel that God could work so perfectly through me

But in reality, I feel that I am only the soul who caught the first vision ofthis ministry, and who nurtured that vision until others came along Itis my great joy to perceive somewhat of the mother side of Godthedivine love that never fails and that is equal to the drawing of souls toitself. It is my prayer to be able to radiate the qualities of this divinelove to all. You too are the mother of Unity, because in your heart youhave the same ideals, and the same great generous spirit, and theendless and tireless service, and the love that never fails! The motherof Unity is the universal mother. How happy we are, to represent thismother! And, as the letter proceeds it includes rare, personal insight intoMyrtles experience and thought. I work here every day, and receive asalary, just as several hundred other workers do. I think a very capablebusinessman or woman would not consider working for this salary. Butit meets my personal needs; and usually I have a little each week withwhich to do what my heart prompts. we have always had tolaunch out on faith without visible evidence of the ultimate success. Weknow that God is in His work, and that it is the Spirit of God operative ina given service that provides whatever is required in doing that work.I'm going to tell you a secret: I don't get to keep house as much as I

should like. I'm not supposed to have time for itfolks demand somuch of my time. So I have a woman to keep house for us. But do youknow, I like to carry the dishes away from the table at the close of themeal; and make a nice hot suds and wash the dishes, wipe them, andput them away in nice rows in the china closet! So if sometimes youfind yourself doing work that isn't supposed to be desirable, rememberthat there are other good folks doing the same sort of work, and that


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still others would like to be doing it, even though circumstances haveplaced them at something else. Whatever you undertake, do it the verybest you can. Folks will note your good work, and soon you will begiven more important positions. I often think that we are all in toomuch of a rush trying to do too much, and failing to discern and do thethings that would mean most. So much that we think and do, surely,would not be done by one in the Jesus Christ consciousness. Like herteacher, Emma Hopkins, Myrtle Fillmore was committed to a mysticalrelationship with the power she called God. I know that God would nothave me struggle with unknown things, or talk of that which I have notproved. I realize that that which God would have me do God inspires inme, that it is very easy to do God's will, and that when I thus conductmyself, a great peace and friendliness comes and abides.We musthave quiet and opportunity for inward searching, for we must go

beyond what we have heretofore attained. There is nothing in hearsayor in observation or in the evidence of the senses, apart from spiritualdiscernment, that can take us beyond our present footing. Myrtlesreligious background was, she felt, a hindrance to her life in the early years. Iwas very religiously trained and suffered a lot from the theology taught But I am rejoicing in the doctrine of our wise and loving heavenlyFather who chooses that none shall perish but that all shall haveeternal life. Part of Myrtles practice was to limit the things she owned.Know this, dear, that I know I must be beautiful within, and in myfellowship with others, and in my sharing with them the good things oflife if I am to become beautiful without. Anything that makes me havethe feeling of selfishness cannot result in more beauty to me. Anythingthat awakens in me the loving desire to have others happy andadorned with beautiful things, and anything that helps me to expressthis loving desire in my living is sure to bring forth its fruit in my life.Now, I am sure that you understand, and approve my passing on toanother the use of the beautiful gift that you with so much love sent tome. You did mean for me to use it in the way it would give me most joy,didn't you?

Charles Fillmores Ideas

If Myrtle was the relationship side of this couple, Charles was the ideaside. Throughout his writings, Charles held to a few basic principles. Thesewere based on his interpretation of the Bible, in the light of the understandinghe gained working with Emma Hopkins. First among these is that thought


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expressed as the spoken word creates our experience according to afundamental, divine law of the universe. Every idea originating in DivineMind is expressed in the mind of man; through the thought of man theDivine Mind idea is brought to the outer plane of consciousness. Following the creative law in its operation from the formless to theformed, we can see how an idea fundamental in Divine Mind isgrasped by the man ego, how it takes form in his thought, and how it islater expressed through his spoken word. If in each step of this processhe conformed to the divine creative law, mans word would makethings instantly, as Jesus made the increase of the loaves and fishes.But since he has lost, in a measure, knowledge of the steps in thiscreative process from the within to the without, there are many breaksand abnormal conditions, with more failures than successes in theproducts.However, every word has its effect, though unseen and

unrecognized. A weak thought is followed by words of weakness.Through the law of expression and form, words of weakness change toweakness the character of everything that receives them. . . . Talkingabout nervousness and weakness will produce correspondingconditions in the body; on the other hand, sending forth the word ofstrength and affirming poise will bring about the desired strength andpoise. . . . The usual conversation among people creates ill healthinstead of good health, because of wrong words. Charles second

principle is that the Bible is to be understood as metaphor or allegory moreeffectively than as literal accounts or fact. Over and over again, he wouldstate that a high place or mountain was a reference to a higher state ofconsciousness, or that a storm or flood was a reference to our internalstorms and floods when we lose sight of Truth, or God. For example, WhenMoses was instructed by the Lord to furnish the tabernacle, thecommand was, See . . . that thou make all things according to thepattern that was shown thee in the mount. The mount is the place ofhigh understanding in mind, which Jesus called the kingdom of Godwithin us. The wise metaphysician resolves into ideas each mentalpicture, each form and shape seen in visions, dreams, and the like.

The idea is the foundation, the real; when understood and molded bythe power of the word, it creates or recreates the form at the directionof the individual I AM. . . .Esau represents the natural man. Jacobrepresents the intellectual man supplanting Esau; hence Jacob iscalled the supplanter. Historically, he seems a trickster, takingadvantage of those of less wisdom, but this incident merely shows howthe higher principle appropriates the good everywhere. Imagination


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was the leading faculty in Jacobs mind. He dreamed of a ladderreaching from earth to heaven, the angels of God ascending anddescending upon it. This is prophecy of union between Spirit and body;. . . Farther along in his development Jacob awakened all his faculties,represented by his twelve sons.Next, there are twelve qualities, orpowers in humanity, as illustrated by the twelve sons of Jacob (the tribes ofIsrael) and the twelve disciples of Jesus. Each of these powers, Fillmore

believed, corresponded to what the Hindus call chakras or energy centers inthe body. The following outline gives a list of the Twelve, the facultiesthat they represent, and the nerve centers at which they preside:FaithPetercenter of brain.StrengthAndrewloins.Discrimination or JudgmentJames, son of Zebedeepit of stomach.LoveJohnback of heart.PowerPhiliproot of tongue.ImaginationBartholomewbetween the eyes.Understanding

Thomasfront brain.WillMatthewcenter front brain.OrderJames, son of Alphaeusnavel.ZealSimon the Cananaeanbackhead, medulla.Renunciation or EliminationThaddaeusabdominalregion.Life ConserverJudasgenerative function.The physiologicaldesignations of these faculties are not arbitrarythe names can beexpanded or changed to suit a broader understanding of their fullnature. For example, Philip, at the root of the tongue, governs taste; healso controls the action of the larynx, as well as all vibrations of powerthroughout the organism. So the term "power" expresses but a smallpart of his official capacity.Like the other faculties, faith has a centerthrough which it expresses outwardly its spiritual powers. Physiologistscall this center the pineal gland, and they locate it in the upper brain. . .. The physiologist sees the faculties as brain cells, the psychologistviews them as thought combinations, but the spiritual-minded beholdsthem as pure ideas, unrelated, free, all-potential. . . .Peter (faith),James (judgement), and John (love) were the three disciples who werevery close to Jesus, and they are more prominent in His history thanany of the other disciples. This indicates that these three faculties aredeveloped in advance of the others, also that they are closely

associated. Another of Charles major principles was the importance of Loveas the divine idea of unity and its expression as both natural and essential forthe healthy functioning of any body or group.Among the faculties of themind, love is pivotal. Its center of mentation in the body is the cardiacplexus. The physical representative of love is the heart, the office ofwhich is to equalize the circulation of blood in the body. As the heartequalizes the life flow in the body, so love harmonizes the thoughts of


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the mind.. . . We connect our soul forces with whatever we center ourlove upon. If we love the things of sense or materiality, we are joined orattached to them through a fixed law of being. In the divine order ofbeing, the soul, or thinking part, of man is joined to its spiritual ego. If itallows itself to become joined to the outer or sense consciousness, itmakes personal images that are imitations. . . .One should make it apractice to meditate regularly on the love idea in universal Mind, withthe prayer, Divine love, manifest thyself in me. Then there should beperiods of mental concentration on the love center . . . Think about lovewith the attention drawn within the breast, and a quickening will follow;all the ideas that go to make up love will be set into motion. Thisproduces a positive love current, which , when sent forth with power,will break up opposing thoughts of hate, and render them null and void.. . . The love current is not a projection of the will; it is a setting free of a

natural, equalizing, harmonizing force that in most people has beendammed up by human limitations. . . . And perhaps the most revolutionary

principle that Charles held, with his wife Myrtle, was that abundance is part ofGods plan for all beings, and those people whose consciousness is filled withabundance both give and receive abundantly, without effort. The love ofmoney, not money itself, is the root of all kinds of evil. Money is aconvenience that saves men many burdens in the exchange of values.. . . Trusting in God, we have faith in Him as our resource, and Hebecomes a perpetual spiritual supply and support; but when we put ourfaith in the power of material riches, we wean our trust from God andestablish it in this transitory substance of rust and corruption. . . . Theman who blindly gives himself up to money getting acquires a love for itand finally becomes its slave. The wise metaphysician deals with themoney idea and masters it.

Mastering the Money Idea

The Fillmores had, early on, made a commitment to prove this last idea,providing whatever services they could freely, with no price, according to the

principle that as ye mete, it shall be measured unto you. The price for themagazine was the minimum the law would allow. Food served in thelunchroom was based on donation until they realized people were embarrassedto give too little, so they put nominal prices on the dishes and freely servedseconds. They never charged for their healing workand Unity still does not,to this day. Gifts were gladly accepted, but never requested. Over a hundredyears later, their work proceeds. With no grants or contracts or fees for


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service, it supports a staff of several hundred people and the infrastructure fora whole village. All based on the Principle that we reap what we sow. Liketheir teacher, Emma Hopkins, the Fillmores made it a point not to talk abouttheir intentions or their successes. The extent of their commitment, the secretof their success was found in Myrtles papers after she died in 1942. It readsas follows: We, Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, husband and wife,hereby dedicate our selves, our time, our money, all we have and allwe expect to have, to the Spirit of Truth, and through it, to the Societyof Silent Unity.It being understood and agreed that the said Spirit ofTruth shall render unto us an equivalent for this dedication, in peace ofmind, health of body, wisdom, understanding, love, life and anabundant supply of all things necessary to meet every want without ourmaking any of these things the object of our existence.In the presenceof the Conscious Mind of Christ Jesus, this 7th day of December, 1892

AD. Some time after Myrtles death, Charles married a woman named Coraand they continued the work. Charles wrote, preached, met with clients, anddid radio shows well into his 90s, when, according to Unitys poet-laureateJames Dillett Freeman, he still said I reserve the right to change my mind.Most of the biographical material on the Fillmores comes from CharlesBradens Spirits in Rebellion. From Myrtle Fillmores Healing Letters fromMyrtle Fillmores Healing Letters from Myrtle Fillmores Healing Lettersfrom Myrtle Fillmores Healing Letters from Myrtle Fillmores HealingLetters. This and the following quotes are from Charles Fillmore, ChristianHealing, a series of twelve lessons he started teaching in 1897 and compiledfor publication in the 1920s. This one is from Lesson Six, The Word. FromFillmores Christian Healing, Lesson Nine. From Fillmores Twelve Powersof Man, ch. 1. From Fillmores Christian Healing, Lesson Eight. From CharlesFillmores Christian Healing, Lesson Twelve.

H. Emilie Cady

When Emma Hopkins went to New York to speak in the late 1880s, she was

met by an enthusiastic crowd. Among those who were affected by her wordswas a struggling schoolteacher whose family had fallen on hard times. EmilieCady heard Emmas lectures and decided to become a physician in order to

better practice the principles. She knew that as a physician she would be ableto see and help more people who were suffering than in any other form ofwork available to an educated, middle class woman of the time. It was a leapof faith, for money and her own stamina were limited, but she chose to put her


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trust in the new way of thinking and take the leap. At that time, there wereseveral accepted forms of medical practice, and she chose the least invasive,homeopathy. She completed the course and set up a practice there, in NewYork.

Physician, Heal Thyself

Combining her understanding of metaphysics with traditional homeopathicremedies, she was quite successful. And, as she worked with her patients, shecontinually stretched her own understanding and capacity to use Truth,trying various experiments in her own life to prove the theories. That sheapplied them to her own health challenges is shown in the following:Afterdays of excruciating pain from a badly sprained ankle, the anklebecame enormously swollen, and it was impossible for me to attend to

my professional work as an active medical practitioner. Ordinaryaffirmations of Truth were entirely ineffectual, and I soon struck out forthe very highest statement of Truth that I could formulate. It was this:There is only God; all else is a lie. I vehemently affirmed it andsteadfastly stuck to it. In twenty-four hours all pain and swellinginfact, the entire liehad disappeared. Perhaps the most telling of theseexperiments was her attempt to follow the principle of abundance and stopcharging fees for her services. I had a good profession with plenty ofpatients paying their bills monthly. But there were also peoplewhose visible means of support were gone. These were like casesof gnawing cancer or painful rheumatism. There-fore, there must be away out through Truth, and I must find it. As always, instead of rushingto others for help in these tight places, I stayed at home within my ownsoul and asked God to show me the way. He did. He gave me the clearvision of Himself as All Sufficiency in All Things; and then He said:Now prove it, so that you can be of real help to the hundreds who donot have a profession or business on which to depend. From that dayon, no ministry or work of any kind was ever done by me for pay. Nomonthly bills were sent, no office charges made. I saw plainly that I

must be working as God works, without expectation or thought ofreturn. Free gift.For more than two years I worked at this problem,never letting a human being know what I was trying to prove. Morethan once the body was faint for want of food, and yet, so sure was Iof what God had shown me that day after day I taught cheerfully andconfidently to those who came to my office the Truth of God as thesubstance of all supplyand there were many in those days. At the


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end of two years of apparent failure I suddenly felt that I could notendure the privation any longer. I went direct to God and cried out;Why, why this failure? His answer came flashing back in thesewords: God said, Let there be light: and there was light. It was all theanswer He gave. I did not understand. I kept repeating it again andagain, the words God said becoming more and more emphasized, untilat last they were followed by the words Without Him [the Word] wasnot anything made that hath been made. That was all I needed. I sawplainly that I had not once spoken the word: It is done: God is nowmanifested as my supply. Suffice it to say that the supply problemwas ended that day for all time and has never entered my life or mindsince.

Teaching Truth

Dr. Cadys first attempt to document these experiments and their results wasin a small pamphlet called God, A Present Help Referring to her work in thethird person, Dr. Cady was able to show the effectiveness of her practice in aclear and readable (for the time) fashion. An early version of the bookletattracted the attention of Myrtle Fillmore, who persuaded her husband Charlesto invite Dr. Cady to write for their magazine. Neither Do I Condemn Theeappeared in the magazine in 1892, and other articles appeared frequently inthe issues that followed. In that first article, she issued a challenge: Evenamong Truth students who know the power of the spoken wordandbecause they know it, so much greater is that powerthere is awidespread tendency to condemn the churches and all orthodoxChristians, to criticize and speak disparagingly of students of differentschools ), and even to discuss among themselves the failings ofindividuals ...Let us stop and see what we are doing. Why should wecondemn the churches? Did not Jesus teach in the synagogues? Hedid not withdraw from the church and speak contempt-uously of it. No,He remained in it, trying to show people wherein they were makingmistakes, trying to lead them up to a higher view of God as their

Father, and to stimulate them to live more truly righteous lives. He remained with them and taught them a more excellent way Shallnot we, whom the Father has called into such marvelous light, ratherhelp those sitting in darkness, even in the churches, than utter oneword of condemnation against them? Strong thoughts ofcondemnation about anyone by any person will give him the physicalsensation of having been hit in the pit of the stomach with a stone. If he


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does not immediately throw off the feelingas he can easily do bylooking to the Father and saying over and over until it becomes reality,God, approve of meit will destroy his consciousness of a perfectlife, and he will fall into a belief of weakness and discouragement unless there is something within us that responds to sin in others weshall not see it in them The moment we begin to criticize orcondemn another, we prove ourselves guilty of the same fault Cadys articles were well received, and in 1894 Charles asked her to write aseries of lessons that others might use to duplicate her success. She washesitant at first, but finally agreed to the project. She pulled together her notesfrom her classes with Emma Hopkins, and the first Lesson in Truth appearedin the October, 1894 issue of the magazine. A total of twelve lessons were

published over the next year, and they received an enthusiastic response. Somany requests came in for back copies of the issues that Charles had the

articles printed up in little bookletsof four lessons each. In later years, thesewere combined into one book, Lessons in Truth, which has become thefundamental text for membership in all Unity schools and churches.Unfortunately, Cady was not pleased with Charles editing and publishing ofher work as a textbook. He had taken her articles and divided them up intonumbered paragraphs with subheadingsa format that she felt interfered withher intention in the writing of it. This disagreement caused a breakdown intheir relationship for some time, such that no more of her articles were

published, but it seems to have been healed when Cady presented theFillmores with a sequel to Lessons in Truth, a collection of her earlier articlescalled How I Used Truth. In the Foreword to this second book, she writes Thepapers that make up this volume have been written from time to timeas a result of practical daily experience. In none of them is thereanything occult or mysterious; Truth is that which is so, and it cannever change. Every true statement here is as true and workable todayas it was when these papers were written. Prove all things foryourself; it is possible to prove every statement in this book. Everystatement given was proven before it was written. And, in a letter inserted

by the editors of more recent editions, we learn about Cady and her

experience, for the fir

SPIRITUALITY - 150 Years of Healing (74 Pages)

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