ipated. So it is all right. Keep up good courage and all will come out right. Tell Miss F. to keep good courage: her cure is certain.[1]
P. P. Q.
Portland, March 3, 1861.
To Miss T.
Your letter of the first was received. . . . I will now give you a short sitting and amuse you by my talk. But as you seem to want your head cured I will rub the top of it, and while doing this I will tell you what makes it feel so giddy.[2] You know I have told you, you think too much on religion or what is called religion. This makes you nervous, for it contains a belief, which contains opinions and they are matter, i. e. they can be changed. If opinions were not anything, they could not be changed. . . . All [so-called] religion is of this world and must give way to Science or Truth; for truth is eternal and cannot be changed. . . . So you see according to the religious world I must be an infidel. Suppose I am. I know that I am talking to you now: does the Christian believe in [this talking with the spirit]? No. Here is where we differ.
Eighteen hundred years ago, there was a man called Jesus who, the Christian says, came from heaven . . . to tell man that if he would conform to certain rules and regulations he could go to heaven when he died; but if he refused to obey them he must go to hell. Now of course the people could not believe it merely because he said so . . . so it was necessary to give some proof that he came from God. Now what proof was required by the religious world? It must be some miracle or something that the people could not understand. So he cured the lame, made the dumb speak, etc. The multitude was his judge and they could not account for all that he did: then he must come from God. Now does it follow? . . . I have no doubt that he cured. But his cures were no proof
- ↑ The regenerative process was often emphatic in the case of Dr. Quimby's patients because his power was great, its action immediate. In another letter Dr. Quimby says, “To reverse the action is not a very easy task, but if you will wait patiently I cannot help thinking it will take place.”
- ↑ This shows how little emphasis Dr. Quimby himself put on rubbing the head: he could do it as well absently! That is, it was merely “suggestion.”
