Chapter Four
Mental Healings In Ancient Times
Down through the ages men of all nations have somehow instinctively believed that somewhere there resided a healing power, which would restore to normal the functions and sensations of man's body. They believed that this strange power could be invoked under certain conditions and that the alleviation of human suffering would follow. The history of all nations presents testimony in support of this belief.
In the early history of the world the power of secretly influencing men for good or evil, including the healing of the sick, was said to be possessed by the priests and holy men of all nations. Healing of the sick was supposed to be a power derived directly by them from God and the procedures and processes of healing varied throughout the world. The healing processes took the form of supplications to God attended by various ceremonies such as the laying on of hands, incantations, the application of amulets, talismans, rings, relics and images.
For example, in the religions of antiquity, priests in the ancient temples gave drugs to the patient and practiced hypnotic suggestions prior to the patient's sleep, telling him that the gods would visit him in his sleep and heal him. Many healings followed. Obviously, all this was the work of potent suggestions to the subconscious mind.
After the performance of certain mysterious rites, the devotees of Hecate would see the goddess during sleep, provided that before going to sleep they had prayed to her according to weird and fantastic instructions. They were told to mix lizards with resin, frankincense and myrrh and pound all this together in the open air under the crescent moon. Healings were reported in many cases following this grotesque procedure.
It is obvious that these strange procedures, as mentioned in the illustrations given, favored suggestion and acceptance by the subconscious mind of these people by making a powerful appeal to their imagination. Actually, in all these healings, the subconscious mind of the subject was the healer.
In all ages, unofficial healers have obtained remarkable results in cases where authorized medical skill has failed. This gives cause for thought. How do these healers in all parts of the world effect their cures? The answer to all these healings is due to the blind belief of the sick person, which released the healing power resident in his subconscious mind. Many of the remedies and methods employed were rather strange and fantastic, which fared the imagination of the patients, causing an aroused emotional state. This state of mind facilitated the suggestion of health, and was accepted both by the conscious and subconscious mind of the sick. This will be elaborated on further in the next chapter.
Biblical Accounts Of The Use Of The Subconscious Powers
What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:24.
Note the difference in tenses. The inspired writers tells us to believe and accept as true the fact that our desire has already been accomplished and fulfilled, that it is already completed, and that is realization will follow as a thing in the future.
The success of this technique depends on the confident conviction that the thought, the idea, the picture is already a fact in mind. In order for anything to have substance in the realm of mind, it must be thought of as actually existing there.
Here in a few cryptic words is a concise and specific direction for making use of the creative power of thought by impressing upon the subconscious the particular thing which you desire. Your thought, idea, plan or purpose is as real on its own plane as your hand or your heart. In following the Biblical technique, you completely eliminate from your mind all consideration of conditions, circumstances or anything which might imply adverse contingencies. You are planting a seed (concept) in the mind, which, if you leave it undisturbed, will infallibly germinate into external fruition.
The prime condition, which Jesus insisted upon, was faith. Over and over again you read in the Bible, According to your faith is it done unto you. If you plant certain types of seeds in the ground, you have faith they will grow after their kind. This is the way of seeds, and trusting the laws of growth and agriculture, you know that the seeds will come forth after their kind. Faith as mentioned in the Bible is a way of thinking, an attitude of mind, an inner certitude, knowing that the idea you fully accept in your conscious mind will be embodied in your subconscious mind and made manifest. Faith is, in a sense, accepting as true what your reason and senses deny, i.e. a shutting out of the little, rational, analytical, conscious mind and embracing an attitude of complete reliance on the inner power of your subconscious mind.
A classical instance of Bible technique is recorded in Matthew 9:28-30.And when he was come into the house, the blind man came to him; and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, according to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes opened; and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, see that no man know it.
In the words according to your faith be it unto you, you can see that Jesus was actually appealing to the cooperation of the subconscious mind of the blind men. Their faith was their great expectancy, their inner feeling, their inner conviction that something miraculous would happen, and that their prayer would be answered, and it was. This is the time-honored technique of healing, utilized alike by all healing groups throughout the world regardless of religious affiliation.
In the words, see that no man know it, Jesus enjoins the newly healed patients not to discuss their healing because they might be subjected to the skeptical and derogatory criticisms of the unbelieving. This might tend to undo the benefits they had received at the hand of Jesus by depositing thoughts of fear, doubt and anxiety in the subconscious mind.
...for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they came out. Luke 4:36.
When the sick came to Jesus to be healed, they were healed by their faith together with his faith and understanding of the healing power of the subconscious mind. Whatever he decreed, he felt inwardly to be true. He and the people needing help were in the one universal, subjective mind, and his silent inner knowing and conviction of the healing power changed the negative, destructive patterns in the patients' subconscious. The resultant healings were the automatic response to the internal mental change. His command was his appeal to the subconscious mind of the patients plus his awareness, feeling and absolute trust in the response of the subconscious mind to the words, which he spoke with authority.
Miracles At Various Shrines Throughout The World
It is an established fact that cures have taken place at various shrines throughout the world, such as in Japan, India, Europe and America. I have visited several of the famous shrines in Japan. At the world famous shrine called Diabutsu is a gigantic divinity of bronze where Buddha is seated with folded hands, and the head is inclined in an attitude of profound contemplative ecstasy. It is 42 feet in height and is called the great Buddha. Here I saw young and old making offerings at its feet. Money, fruit, rice and oranges were offered. Candles were lit, incense was burned, and prayers of petition recited.
The guide explained the chant of a young girl as she murmured a prayer, bowed low, and placed two oranges as an offering. She also lit a candle. He said she had lost her voice, and it was restored at the shrine. She was thanking Buddha for restoring her voice. She had the simple faith that Buddha would give her back her singing voice if she followed a certain ritual, fasted, and made certain offerings. All this helped to kindle faith and expectancy, resulting in a conditioning of her mind to the point of belief. Her subconscious mind responded to her belief.
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