The Influence of the Alternative Religious Tradition on New Religious Movements Part Six

Alternative Religions Continued...

Page Six

Dr. Robert Collyer fascinated Quimby with Mesmerism when he saw a lecture and went on to experiment himself, mesmerizing Lucius Burkmar in the 19th century. He was amazed at Burkmar’s ability but soon started to wonder if Burkmar was really communicating with the deceased or if he was merely clairvoyant and reading people’s minds. He tested this and soon realized that what was on his mind could influence Burkmar (Christensen). Furthermore, the cures Burkmar suggested seemed absurd to Quimby and he started to wonder even more whether the cures themselves mattered as much as the client or patient’s belief in the cures working. Quimby soon came to the conclusion that Burkmar was clairvoyant, peoples thoughts influence their sickness and the cure’s effectiveness, that a doctor’s diagnosis could even manifest illness because of a person’s belief in it and that it was all mind over body (Christensen). He then rejected Spiritualism and defined illness as a wrong belief and a cure as a correction of a wrong belief. Moreover, Quimby believed that God made everything and all of it is good. Anything wrong with it is our own doing. We bring error and mischief which breeds sickness. He also said that the science he teaches is built on real laws and was practiced by Christ himself. After Quimby, Warren Felt Evans went on to add to Quimby’s theories that there was great power in words. That this power of words was even employed by Jesus who knew the healing affects of affirmative prayer/affirmations, when he would say things in the Gospels, such as, “be healed!” It’s from these beliefs that Christian Science developed, though Mary Baker Eddy whom established the church of Christian Science, denies being influenced by these pre-existing views.

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