200 Years of Positive Thinking
Twelve years ago I read The Secret. For those who missed it, The Secret is about the Law of Manifestation, the idea that your thoughts have actual physical power outside of your mind and even outside of your body. The book cites examples such as a man putting a picture of his dream house on his vision board and years later getting that house. Not a similar house but the exact one that was in the photo.
Most of the things in that book sounded equally ridiculous, claiming that intent and not hard work was the only necessary condition to achieve what you want. As long as you make a vision board and look at it every day, wishing earnestly as a kid on a Christmas, the Universe will provide. To be perfectly fair, there are a few sentences in the book about acting as well, but the predominant idea is that thoughts are all you need. In the opening chapter, we find the following quote:
Why do you think that I percent of the population earns around 96 percent of all the money that’s being earned? Do you think that’s an accident? It’s designed that way. They understand something. They understand The Secret, and now you are being introduced to The Secret.
Who gives a damn about taking action, working harder and smarter than anyone else, building a network, or just being born to rich parents? Nah, those things are mere accessories to the Secret that they know. It is the thoughts that they have that triggered the Universe to provide all successful people with their success.
I remember having similar ideas while reading the book. It all sounded like wishy-washy mumbo-jumbo, designed to make you feel good instead of helping you act to achieve what you want. At the same time though, there was a part of me that resisted this cynicism, chiming in with the occasional “thoughts do have power you know”. I had a feeling that thoughts do have some power over our lives, albeit not as concrete as the one outlined in The Secret, As is often the case, there turned out to be an ancient person who had summarized my ideas 2000 years before I was born¹:
Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.
There it was. Merely thinking about a Bugatti is not very likely to get you a Bugatti out of nowhere, but it might slowly turn you into the person who can afford one. Or it might lead you to watch a ton of Andrew Tate videos and admire his Bugatti, instead of taking whatever action is necessary. I digress, but the idea is simple — thoughts have power, even if it’s only power over the person who thinks them.²
Phineas Parkhurst Quimby
Even though I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the legitimacy of such ideas I had hardly ever thought about their history. That is until last week when, while reading William James’ “The Variety of Religious Experiences” I came across a paragraph about a movement called mind-cure. This sounded like something that Helena Blavatsky came up with, so I was instantly hooked. My interest peaked when I found out that the roots of that movement (more commonly known as New Thought) could be traced to a man called Phineas Parkhurst Quimby — with a name like that it would be a waste if you don’t start your own spiritual movement.
Quimby was born in Lebanon (a US city in New Hampshire, not the country) where he spent the first two years of his life before his family moved to Belfast (a US city again, this time in Maine). When he was a little boy he suffered from tuberculosis, for which he was prescribed calomel, a mercury chloride mineral. From the fact that it is not used nowadays you might deduce that calomel wasn’t a very good medicine and you would be right. On top of not curing tuberculosis, it actually leads to tooth rot and decay, which Quimby experienced himself. With that in mind, it is little surprise that young Phineas searched for a different cure for his illness.
He later claimed that he managed to heal himself using the methods that he developed, and that eventually formed the core of mind-cure or New Thought teachings. Given that he was 64, and not 12 when he died, it seems that whatever he did actually worked. Or, you know, he was part of the lucky 40% of people who actually survive tuberculosis without adequate treatment.
According to one of his patients, Quimby was a curious person, always seeking to improve his understanding of the world and its phenomena. He was an excellent engineer and an inventor who specialised in clocks and watches. He was also a daguerreotypist, a fancy word for a photographer, which I really wanted to use. Annetta Dresser, his patient describes him as “very argumentative, and always wanted proof of anything rather than an accepted opinion. Anything that could be demonstrated he was ready to accept; but he would combat what could not be proved with all his energy rather than admit it as a truth.”
This description fits perfectly well with his reaction when he first encountered mesmerism — the school of thought in medicine, which claims that invisible life energy flows through every living thing and can be used for healing, among other things:
“Mesmerism was introduced into the U[nited] State[s] by M. Charles Poyen, a French gentleman, who did not appear to be highly blest with the powers of magnetising to the satisfaction of his audience in his public lectures. I had the pleasure of listening to one of his lectures, & pronounced it a humbug as a matter of course. And that his remarkable experiments, which were related, were, in my belief, equally true with witch craft — I had never been a convert to witch craft, nor had even had any personal interviews[?] with ghosts or hobgoblins & therefore considered all stories bordering on the marvelous as delusive — “
I like the remark that he didn’t even do any interviews with ghosts or hobgoblins — I know your pain only too well Phineas, the supernatural creatures seem to avoid me too. Anyway, some way or another Quimby’s doubts were dispelled and by the 1850s he was touring the States and performing what would, back in those days, be described as mesmerism. Alas, some people described it as witchcraft, so the threat of mob violence was often present.
His assistant, Lucius Burkmar was susceptible to hypnosis more than usual, and the two of them would go from city to city giving “some of the most astonishing exhibitions of mesmerism and clairvoyance that have been given in modern times.” When, in Annetta’s words, “thoughtful men began to investigate the matter”, Quimby had his assistant look at sick people and try to discern, while under hypnosis, what was the cause of their illnesses. This didn’t work, but not for the reason you might expect. The problem was, you see, that Lucius was simply reading the mind of the patient and copying their own explanation for their illness, instead of finding its proper cause.
Quimby changed his method. Instead of hypnotising Lucius and having him do the work, he would sit with the patients himself. The seance went as follows — Quimby would sit down opposite the patient, hold their hands, and then explain to the patient what pain they were feeling. If he guessed it wrong, no payment was due and the patient could leave, which is fair enough. If his description of the patient’s feelings was real, however, he would go on to explain the causes of that pain. And those causes, in Quimby’s school of thought, were always to be found in the mind.
Quimby believed that pain in the body was caused by wrong ideas in the mind. Therefore the cure to any pain was simply to put the mind straight. By explaining the causes of their troubles, Quimby was able to set his patients’ minds straight and as a result, cure them of their physical pain. For the service, they would pay him $5–10 (or $150–300 in today’s money) — a hefty fee for a single appointment.
The most concise description of his theories comes from a letter that Quimby sent to a newspaper in 1886:
When I mesmerized my subject, he would prescribe some little simple herb that would do no harm or good of itself. In some cases this would cure the patient. I also found that any medicine would cure certain cases if he ordered it. This led me to investigate the matter, and arrive at the stand I now take: that the cure is not in the medicine, but in the confidence of the doctor or medium.
This is a perfectly good description of the placebo effect as we now understand it — a patient’s belief is sometimes so strong that their physical body experiences change even when they are given just sugar. The placebo effect is, of course, real and is the reason why we need to have double-blind trials to determine whether or not a medicine actually works. It’s a testament to the sharpness of his mind that he was able to discern that back in 1850, given the state of science at that time.
Unfortunately, he goes a lot further, claiming that not only is placebo a real phenomenon, but it is the only phenomenon that takes place when the medicine is administered:
Now, I deny disease as a truth, but admit it as a deception, started like all other stories without any foundation, and handed down from generation to generation till the people believe it, and it has become a part of their lives. So they live a lie, and their senses are in it.
To be fair, he was treated for tuberculosis by using a laxative that rots your teeth, so maybe back in the 1800s placebo was the main effect in action when treating diseases.
Mary Baker Eddy
In the 1850s and 60s, Quimby’s fame was spreading across New England. Although many people perceived him as a fraud, his ideas attracted crowds everywhere he went during his tours. Of the people who flocked to him looking for help, there is none more famous than Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, which is, of course, not an actual science, but look at this church.
Mary’s life started in 1821 in the little town of Bow, New Hampshire. The youngest of six children, she was brought up on the family farm. Her father, Mark Baker was famous for possessing the enviable combination of bad temper and extreme stubbornness. In the words of the other villagers he had “a tiger for temper, and always in a row”. They said that “you could no more move him than you can move old Kearsarge [the nearby mountain]”. He was the OG hall monitor, known for bringing charges against his fellow church members for backsliding, and would willingly go to visit and labor with the delinquents.³
Unfortunately for him, his authoritarian reign over the farmstead ended when Mary was born. Named after her grandma she was the family pet from the get-go and was, as a result, spoiled. The only of the six children to oppose her father’s will, she quickly turned from a nuisance to a nightmare, forcing her whole family to walk on eggshells and concede whatever she wished for.
One of the main reasons for this special treatment was Mary’s propensity to have “hysterical fits” during which she “fell headlong to the floor, writhing and screaming in apparent agony”. While some of their neighbors expressed doubts that she was faking it to get her way, her family seemed to believe wholeheartedly that she might actually die during one of these episodes. As a result, Mary always received special treatment growing up — “In a household where personal labour was exacted from each member, Mary spent her days in idleness”. To set up the picture properly, this was not some rich family’s mansion — “the house itself is of wood, unpainted and extremely small and plain”.
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As you might have guessed from the tale of Phineas Quimby, medicine at that time was powerless against whatever illness Mary had, despite the best efforts of some Dr. Clark who on top of being a medical professional, “dabbed a little in mesmerism and sometimes experimented on Mary, whom he found a sensitive subject”. He was fond of saying that he was able to partly control her movement by mental suggestion alone:
“I can make that girl stop in the street any time merely by willing it” he used to tell his friends, and he often demonstrated that he could do it
Unsurprisingly, Mary’s sickness went on and her episodes did not subside.
Hysterical fits and hearing voices (which she also claimed she did) definitely help to make an impression at home. And Mary loved making an impression. When her family moved to the nearby city of Concord (at that time booming with a population of over 3,000 people)
“[at church on Sundays] She always made a ceremonious entrance, coming up the aisle after the rest of the congregation were seated, and attracting the general attention by her pretty clothes and ostentatious manner”
Nothing like a healthy bit of narcissism to prepare for that future role of spiritual leadership, even more vividly illustrated by her own account of her baptism. Mary gave the following account of the events:
“[after asked how she felt, regenerated by the baptism] I replied that I could only answer him in the words of the Psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughst; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
This was so earnestly said, that even the oldest church-members wept. After the meeting was over they came and kissed me. To the astonishment of many, the good clergyman’s heart was also melted and he received into their communion, and my protest along with me
We have no way of knowing if everyone actually wept and if the clergyman’s heart melted then he kept it to himself since the official record of the event goes as follows:
1838, July 26, Received into this church, Stephen Grant, Esq., John Gilly and his wife Hannah, Mrs. Susan French, wife of William French, Miss Mary A. M. Baker, by profession, the two former receiving the ordinance of baptism. Greenaugh McQuestion, Scribe.
Since the entry is dated, we know for a fact that Mary, born in 1821, was 17 at the time and not 12, as she has claimed. Lying about her age to make the story more powerful makes one wonder what else she lied about.
In 1844, her first husband died after six months of marriage, leaving Mary and her unborn child in a dire situation. Luckily for her, her sister had married the richest person in Concord and was pretty well off so Mary went to live with her. It seems that she spent the next 20 years doing nothing in particular and living off her sister’s money.
Details are murky but it seems that around 1861 Mary had some sort of spinal infection. This was also when she first heard of Phineas Quimby and was immediately hooked, believing that he was the answer to her chronic health issues. She asked her sister to send her to Portland to get treatment but her sister refused on the grounds that Quimby was probably a quack. She instead sent her to the much more reputable Dr Vail to get treatment using his famous hydropathic cure, which consisted of taking baths and sitting covered in damp towels, since pure water heals every physical ill.⁴
Astonishingly, taking baths didn’t cure Mary’s illness so she devised a plan to go visit Quimby. She asked her sister for small sums of money for random expenses and hoarded those until she had enough to go to Portland. Her prayers were answered and after she met with Quimby, she was cured of her spinal problems. As anyone with lower back pain knows, alleviation of said pain is enough to believe in any philosophy, and she promptly became a convert and adopted Quimby’s central idea — that diseases are not real and treating them is a waste of time, just like painting over measle spots does nothing to fix the actual issue.
From this moment on, her life changed and she dedicated the rest of her days to the establishment and development of the Church of Christ, Scientist. She wrote the bylaws for the new doctrine, The Manual of The Mother Church⁵ and continuously revised Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures⁶ She even founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College — an actual establishment with an official state charter allowing it to grant degrees.
Legacy, New Thought, Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy’s legacy seems to be rather well defined — it is the Church of Christ, Scientist. Back in 1936, there were more than 270,000 members, but their numbers declined throughout the 20th century, going down to less than 50,000 in 2009.
On the other hand, Quimby’s legacy can hardly be pinned down as a single monolithic system. New Thought is not a well-structured movement, it comprises numerous sub-movements that share some core beliefs. Of course, the central tenet of all those remains the idea that thoughts become manifest in our lives in various forms. One might claim that The Secret and the whole concept of Manifestation are just New Thought ideas taken further — thoughts don’t just influence our bodies, they influence the actual physical world that we inhabit.
There is an ongoing debate (of course there is) on whether or not Mary Eddy’s ideas were based on the teachings of Quimby. The main argument against that relationship seems to be that Christian Science is a theistic philosophy, while New Thought isn’t. However one needs to take a single look at this passage from her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” to see the unmistakable connection:
Science not only reveals the origin of all diseases as is mentioned, but it also declares that all disease is cured by divine Mind. There can be no healing except by this Mind, however much we trust a drug or any other means towards which human faith or endeavor is directed. It is mortal mind, not matter, which brings to the sick whatever good they may seem to receive from materiality. But the sick are never truly healed except by means of the divine power. Only the action of Truth, Life, and Love can give harmony
Both Mary Eddy and Quimby seem to be playing on our willingness to believe that physical suffering is always caused by something else and can always be cured by non-material means. In Quimby’s case, the cure is in fixing the wrong ideas in the mind, in Eddy’s case the cure is to be found in the divine Mind and Science Prayer.
It is easy to dismiss both of those movements as just new-age mumbo-jumbo, aiming to prey on the more susceptible portions of the population. After all, most of the things they preach make absolutely no sense given our current understanding of biology and human disease. However, it is important to take the historical context into account. Both Quimby and Mary Eddy lived in times when all the sciences were still in their infancy, and when even the medical professionals held a host of wacky beliefs. After all, it wasn’t until 1854 that Jon Snow figured out that maybe it’s not such a good idea to drink water from the same river that you use to dump your actual shit.⁷
In such circumstances, the idea that your mind can cure your body seems way less radical. And on top of that Quimby was definitely on to something. The placebo effect that he described is a real effect that we can empirically measure. Our bodies can heal themselves sometimes, even in the absence of medicine. Nevertheless, the key word here is sometimes — you can’t depend on it, and it seems pretty clear that there are limits to the healing that the human body can do on its own.
A testament to the staying power of Quimby’s ideas is the myriad of self-prophesed gurus and healers that we can find on the Internet today. While back in the 1850s, the poor state of the sciences was a ready explanation for why people believed in such things, this is hardly the case in 2023. Maybe it’s not just the shortcomings of medicine that make people turn towards those alternative cures. Our need to believe, our need to have some form of control over our lives, or to know that someone has control (God), is strong enough on its own to sustain such schools of thought. This, paired with the disastrous image that Big Pharma has nowadays could explain why some people can sell millions of copies of books ridden with bad research and even worse theories.
In the end, everyone chooses how to take care of their own health. If your belief is strong enough to cure any illness that you have, then by all means, go on believing and be healthy. But if it isn’t then maybe medicine, is a better option. That is, of course, as long as said medicine is not some teeth-rotting crystal.⁸
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P. S. Here is one final bit of context- this book was written in 1843 when Quimby was 41 and Mary Eddy was 22:
- This quote is often attributed to Lao Tzu, but it could be a lot of other people as well
- The idea that thoughts don’t have a thinker but are merely events in your mind that you perceive has some interesting complications here. If you are a mere witness of your thoughts instead of their creator, then any downstream effects stemming from those thoughts can hardly be attributed to you.
- Life of Mary Baker Eddy and History of Christian Science
- It’s very hard for me to find reputable sources for things like this but here
- The Manual of the Mother Church
- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
- For his service in combatting the cholera outbreak, he now has a pub named after him, the highest honor in British society
- Seriously, this is what they were prescribing for tuberculosis back in the day
