Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing   By: George Barton Cutten (1874-1962)

by

GEORGE BARTON CUTTEN, Ph.D. (Yale) President Of Acadia University

Illustrated

New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1911

[Illustration: BAS RELIEF REPRESENTING THE GALLIC ÆSCULAPIUS DISPATCHING A DEMON]

Copyright, 1911, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published February, 1911

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY

OF

Artemus Wyman Sawyer, D.D., LL.D.

PRESIDENT OF ACADIA UNIVERSITY

1869 1896

HE HID FROM US HIS HEART WHILE WE THOUGHT THAT HE LOVED ONLY HIS STUDIES; WE LATER LEARNED THAT HE LAID EMPHASIS ON THAT WHICH HE LOVED ONLY LESS TRUE KNOWLEDGE, IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT INTRODUCE IT TO THOSE THAT HE LOVED MOST HIS PUPILS. HE TAUGHT AS NONE OTHER

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Introduction Mental Healing 3

II. Early Civilizations 19

III. The Influence of Christianity 35

IV. Relics and Shrines 61

V. Healers 110

VI. Talismans 138

VII. Amulets 158

VIII. Charms 189

IX. Royal Touch 224

X. Mesmer and After 249

XI. The Healers of the Nineteenth Century 273

Index 309

PREFACE

The present decade has experienced an intense interest in mental healing. This has come as a culmination of the development along these lines during the past half century. It has shown itself in the beginning of new religious sects with this as a, or the, fundamental tenet, in more wide spread general movements, and in the scientific study and application of the principles underlying this form of therapeutics.

Many have been led astray because, being ignorant of the mental healing movements and vagaries of the past, the late applications, veiled in metaphysical or religious verbiage, have seemed to them to be new in origin and principle. No one could consider an historical survey of the subject and reasonably hold this opinion. It is on account of the ignorance of similar movements, millenniums old, that so much, if any, originality can be credited to the founders.

The object of this volume is to present a general view of mental healing, dealing more especially with the historical side of the subject. While this is divided topically, the topics are presented in a comparatively chronological order, and thereby trace the development of the subject to the present century.

The term "mental healing" is given the broadest possible use, and comprehends any cures which may be brought about by the effect of the mind over the body, regardless of whether the power back of the cure is supposed to be deity, demons, other human beings, or the individual mind of the patient.

It is hoped that this may contribute to the knowledge of a subject which is of such wide spread popular interest.

George Barton Cutten.

Wolfville, Nova Scotia, December 1, 1910.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Bas relief representing the Gallic Æsculapius dispatching a demon Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Cure through the Intercession of a Healing Saint 72

Valentine Greatrakes 134

Sir Kenelm Digby 152

King's Touch pieces 226

F. A. Mesmer 252

John Alexander Dowie 276

George O. Barnes 290

Mary Baker Eddy 302

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF MENTAL HEALING

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION MENTAL HEALING