Having now briefly outlined the salient points pertaining to the first two fundamental psychological propositions, it remains to add a third term to complete a working hypothesis for the systematic study of mental medicine. The third term, or proposition, therefore, is that The subjective mind is the power that controls the functions, sensations, and conditions of the body.

I need not dwell at length upon this proposition here, as its truth will more fully appear as we proceed in subsequent chapters. No scientist will deny the existence within us of a central intelligence which controls the bodily functions, and, through the sympathetic nervous system, actuates the involuntary muscles, and keeps the bodily machinery in motion. Nor will the most pronounced materialist deny that this central intelligence is the controlling energy which regulates the action of each of the myriad cellular entities of which the whole body is composed. It matters not how we may designate it, or what our theories may be as to its origin and destiny; it exists. Whether we call it the "principle of life," the "abdominal brain," the "communal soul," the "subliminal consciousness," or the "subjective mind," it exists; and it controls the bodily functions in health and disease, and, in turn, is controllable by the subtle power of suggestion.

We have, then, in three propositions, each of which is demonstrable by experimentation, a complete working hypothesis for the systematic study and practice of mental therapeutics. They may be restated and grouped in systematic order as follows:

1. Man is endowed with a dual mind, objective and subjective.

2. The subjective mind controls the functions, sensations, and conditions of the body.

3. The subjective mind is amenable to control by suggestion.

CHAPTER III

THE VARIOUS SYSTEMS OF MENTAL HEALING

The Intelligence that controls the Functions of the Body in Health the Power or Energy that requires Assistance in Case of Disease. The Body a Confederation of Micro-organisms controlled by this Central Intelligence. It is a Mental Organism that all Therapeutic Agencies are designed to energize. — Mental Therapeutic Agencies the Primary and Normal Means for this End. - Physical Agencies not excluded. A Mental Stimulus more direct and positive than a Physical One. - Material Remedies Good and Legitimate Forms of Suggestion. Whether Remedies are Material or Mental, they must energize the Central Controlling Intelligence. The Therapeutic Value of all Agencies proportioned to their Power to stimulate the Subjective Mind. — Suggestion the Prepotent Therapeutic Energy. This is the Law of Mental Healing. The Teleological Argument to be drawn from the Law of Mental Medicine. None other so demonstrative of Divine Benevolence. - Absence of Fear and Pain at the Moment of Dissolution. This Phenomena, considered together with the Law of Mental Healing, possesses a Teleological Significance. — The Law of Mental Healing is universal and adapted to every Grade of Human Intelligence.— Antiquity of Suggestion as a Therapeutic Agent. — Its Myriad Forms. All effective in proportion to their Faith-Inspiring Potency. Scientific Significance of the Beliefs and Practices of Primitive Humanity. All were useful, and each was adapted to some Special Grade of Intelligence. - Primitive Minds still exist in the Highest Modern Civilization with Corresponding Powers of Reasoning. Current Beliefs adapted to Varying Grades of Intelligence. - Their Religious Features Potent Factors in their Success. - Systems based upon Error less efficacious than one founded upon Truth. Nearly all refer the Healing Power to Extraneous Sources, an Error which Jesus insistently controverted.

T must now be evident to the scientific student

IT

that the three propositions stated at the close of the preceding chapter apply with equal force to every system of mental medicine, from fetichism to the most exact and scientific system of suggestive therapeutics. Like all the laws of nature, the law of mental medicine is universal in its application; and, like all the others, it is simple and easily comprehended. Granted that there is an intelligence that controls the functions of the body in health, it follows that it is the same power or energy that fails in case of disease. Failing, it requires assistance; and that is what all therapeutic agencies aim to accomplish. No intelligent physician of any school claims to be able to do more than to "assist nature to restore normal conditions of the body. That it is a mental energy that thus requires assistance, no one denies; for science teaches us that the whole body is made up of a confederation of intelligent entities, each of which performs its functions with an intelligence exactly adapted to the performance of its special duties as a member of the confederacy. There is, indeed, no life without mind, from the lowest unicellular organism up to man. It is, therefore, a mental energy that actuates every fibre of the body under all its conditions. That there is a central intelligence that controls each of those mind organisms, is selfevident. Whether, as the materialistic scientists insist, this central intelligence is merely the sum of all the cellular intelligences of the bodily organism, or is an independent entity, capable of sustaining a separate existence after the body perishes, is a question that does not concern us in the pursuance of the pres

ent inquiry. It is sufficient for us to know that such an intelligence exists, and that, for the time being, it is the controlling energy that normally regulates the action of the myriad cells of which the body is composed.

It is, then, a mental organism that all therapeutic agencies are designed to energize, when, for any cause, it fails to perform its functions with reference to any part of the physical structure. It follows that mental therapeutic agencies are the primary and normal means of energizing that mental organism. That is to say, mental agencies operate more directly than any other, because more intelligibly, upon a mental organism; although physical agencies are by no means excluded, for all experience shows that a mental organism responds to physical as well as to mental stimuli. All that can be reasonably claimed is that, in therapeutics, a mental stimulus is necessarily more direct and more positive in its effects, other things being equal, than a physical stimulus can be, for the simple reason that it is intelligent on the one hand and intelligible on the other. It must be remarked, however, that it is obviously impossible wholly to eliminate mental suggestion even in the administration of material remedies. Extremists claim that the whole effect of material remedies is due to the factor of mental suggestion; but this seems to be untenable, for reasons stated in another chapter. The most that can be claimed with any degree of certainty is that material remedies, when they are not in themselves positively injurious, are good and legitimate forms of suggestion, and, as such, are invested with a certain therapeutic potency, as in the