XI. Healing

EN

The subject of healing has been elaborately treated by many writers and fully deserves all the attention that has been given to it, but the object of these lectures is rather to ground the student in those general principles on which all conscious use of the creative power of thought is based, than to lay down formal rules for specific applications of it. I will therefore examine the broad principles which appear to be common to the various methods of mental healing which are in use, each of which derives its efficacy, not from the peculiarity of the method, but from it being such a method as allows the higher laws of Nature to come into play. Now the principle universally laid down by all mental healers, in whatever various terms they may explain it, is that the basis of all healing is a change in belief. The sequence from which this results is as follows:--the subjective mind is the creative faculty within us, and creates whatever the objective mind impresses upon it; the objective mind, or intellect, impresses its thought upon it; the thought is the expression of the belief; hence whatever the subjective mind creates is the reproduction externally of our beliefs. Accordingly our whole object is to change our beliefs, and we cannot do this without some solid ground of conviction of the falsity of our old beliefs and of the truth of our new ones, and this ground we find in that law of causation which I have endeavoured to explain. The wrong belief which externalizes as sickness is the belief that some secondary cause, which is really only a condition, is a primary cause. The knowledge of the law shows that there is only one primary cause, and this is the factor which in our own individuality we call subjective or sub-conscious mind. For this reason I have insisted on the difference between placing an idea in the sub-conscious mind, that is, on the plane of the absolute and without reference to time and space, and placing the same idea in the conscious intellectual mind which only perceives things as related to time and space. Now the only conception you can have of yourself in the absolute, or unconditioned, is as purely living Spirit, not hampered by conditions of any sort, and therefore not subject to illness; and when this idea is firmly impressed on the sub-conscious mind, it will externalize it. The reason why this process is not always successful at the first attempt is that all our life we have been holding the false belief in sickness as a substantial entity in itself and thus being a primary cause, instead of being merely a negative condition resulting from the obsence of a primary cause; and a belief which has become ingrained from childhood cannot be eradicated at a moment's notice. We often find, therefore, that for some time after a treatment there is an improvement in the patient's health, and then the old symptoms return. This is because the new belief in his own creative faculty has not yet had time to penetrate down to the innermost depths of the subconscious mind, but has only partially entered it. Each succeeding treatment strengthens the sub-conscious mind in its hold of the new belief until at last a permanent cure is effected. This is the method of self-treatment based on the patient's own knowledge of the law of his being.

JA

治癒の主題は多くの著者によって精緻に扱われており、それに対して注がれてきた注意のすべてに十分値するものですが、これらの講義の目的は、特定の治療法の技術を教えることよりも、学ぶ者に精神科学の一般原理をしっかりと根づかせることにあります。これらの原理が正しく把握されれば、その応用は学ぶ者の判断に委ねることができます。治癒に関しては、これまで述べてきた原理から、もし主観的精神が身体の建設者であるならば、健康の回復は主観的精神に健康の正しい観念を回復させることによって達成されるべきであるということが明らかに導かれます。これこそが精神的治療の基礎です。身体に病気が現れるのは、主観的精神が病気の観念、すなわち不完全な生命の観念を持っているからです。もし主観的精神の中のこの観念が健康と完全性の観念に置き換えられるならば、身体はそれに応じて回復するでしょう。なぜなら、身体は常に主観的精神が保持する型に従って自らを建設しているからです。もちろん、すべての人がこの原理を十分に認識しているわけではなく、また十分に認識していたとしても、常に自分自身で効果的にそれを適用できるとは限りません。恐怖や不安が客観的精神に優勢であるとき、それらは主観的精神に否定的な暗示を送り続け、肯定的な暗示を打ち消してしまいます。ここに治療者の助けが必要となる理由があります。

EN

But "there is not in all men this knowledge," or at any rate not such a full recognition of it as will enable them to give successful treatment to themselves, and in these cases the intervention of the healer becomes necessary. The only difference between the healer and the patient is that the healer has learnt how to control the less self-conscious modes of the spirit by the more self-conscious mode, while the patient has not yet attained to this knowledge; and what the healer does is to substitute his own objective or conscious mentality, which is will joined to intellect, for that of the patient, and in this way to find entrance to his sub-conscious mind and impress upon it the suggestion of perfect health.

JA

しかし、「すべての人にこの知識があるわけではなく」、少なくとも自分自身に対して効果的な治療を行えるほど十分にそれを認識していない場合があり、そのような場合には治療者の介入が必要となります。治療者は、患者に代わって、患者の主観的精神に健康の暗示を与える役割を果たします。治療者の客観的精神が、患者の客観的精神に代わって、患者の主観的精神に指示を出すのです。

EN

The question then arises, how can the healer substitute his own conscious mind for that of the patient? and the answer shows the practical application of those very abstract principles which I have laid down in the earlier sections. Our ordinary conception of ourselves is that of an individual personality which ends where another personality begins, in other words that the two personalities are entirely separate. This is an error. There is no such hard and fast line of demarcation between personalities, and the boundaries between one and another can be increased or reduced in rigidity according to will, in fact they may be temporarily removed so completely that, for the time being, the two personalities become merged into one. Now the action which takes place between healer and patient depends on this principle. The patient is asked by the healer to put himself in a receptive mental attitude, which means that he is to exercise his volition for the purpose of removing the barrier of his own objective personality and thus affording entrance to the mental power of the healer. On his side also the healer does the same thing, only with this difference, that while the patient withdraws the barrier on his side with the intention of admitting a flowing-in, the healer does so with the intention of allowing a flowing-out: and thus by the joint action of the two minds the barriers of both personalities are removed and the direction of the flow of volition is determined, that is to say, it flows from the healer as actively willing to give, towards the patient as passively willing to receive, according to the universal law of Nature that the flow must always be from the plenum to the vacuum. This mutual removal of the external mental barrier between healer and patient is what is termed establishing a rapport between them, and here we find one most valuable practical application of the principle laid down earlier in this book, that pure spirit is present in its entirety at every point simultaneously. It is for this reason that as soon as the healer realizes that the barriers of external personality between himself and his patient have been removed, he can then speak to the sub-conscious mind of the patient as though it were his own, for both being pure spirit the thought of their identity makes them identical, and both are concentrated into a single entity at a single point upon which the conscious mind of the healer can be brought to bear, according to the universal principle of the control of the subjective mind by the objective mind through suggestion. It is for this reason I have insisted on the distinction between pure spirit, or spirit conceived of apart from extension in any matrix and the conception of it as so extended. If we concentrate our mind upon the diseased condition of the patient we are thinking of him as a separate personality, and are not fixing our mind upon that conception of him as pure spirit which will afford us effectual entry to his springs of being. We must therefore withdraw our thought from the contemplation of symptoms, and indeed from his corporeal personality altogether, and must think of him as a purely spiritual individuality, and as such entirely free from subjection to any conditions, and consequently as voluntarily externalizing the conditions most expressive of the vitality and intelligence which pure spirit is. Thinking of him thus, we then make mental affirmation that he shall build up outwardly the correspondence of that perfect vitality which he knows himself to be inwardly; and this suggestion being impressed by the healer's conscious thought, while the patient's conscious thought is at the same time impressing the fact that he is receiving the active thought of the healer, the result is that the patient's sub-conscious mind becomes thoroughly imbued with the recognition of its own life-giving power, and according to the recognized law of subjective mentality proceeds to work out this suggestion into external manifestation, and thus health is substituted for sickness.

JA

そこで問いが生じます――治療者はどのようにして自身の意識的精神を患者のそれに代えることができるのでしょうか。その答えは、これまでの講義で述べてきた非常に抽象的な原理の実際的な応用を示すものです。もし私たちの主観的精神が宇宙的精神の個体化されたものであるならば、すべての個体の主観的精神は宇宙的精神の中でつながっています。精神の統一性とは、すべての主観的精神が根底において一つであることを意味します。したがって、治療者は宇宙的精神を媒介として患者の主観的精神に到達することができるのです。治療者が患者の完全な健康を精神的に認識し、その認識を宇宙的精神に委ねるとき、宇宙的精神は患者の主観的精神にその暗示を伝達します。距離はこの過程を妨げません。なぜなら、精神は空間の制限を超えているからです。治療者が患者のそばにいなくても、精神的治療は同じように効果的であり得ます。これがいわゆる遠隔治療の原理です。実際の手続きとしては、治療者はまず自己の精神を静め、宇宙的精神との一体性を認識します。次に患者を精神に思い描き、患者が完全な健康の中にあることを認識します。病気の状態を思い描くのではなく、完全な状態を認識するのです。これは重要な区別です。なぜなら、もし治療者が病気に意識を向けるならば、それは否定的な暗示を送ることになるからです。治療者は完全性のみを認識し、この認識を宇宙的精神に対する暗示として委ねます。宇宙的精神はこの暗示に応じて、患者の主観的精神に健康のパターンを伝え、主観的精神はそれに応じて身体の回復に向かって働くのです。

EN

It must be understood that the purpose of the process here described is to strengthen the subject's individuality, not to dominate it. To use it for domination is inversion, bringing its appropriate penalty to the operator.

JA

ここで述べた過程の目的は、対象者の個性を強化することであり、支配することではないことを理解しなければなりません。支配のためにこれを使用することは転倒であり、その相応の懲罰をもたらします。

EN

In this description I have contemplated the case where the patient is consciously co-operating with the healer, and it is in order to obtain this co-operation that the mental healer usually makes a point of instructing the patient in the broad principles of Mental Science, if he is not already acquainted with them. But this is not always advisable or possible. Sometimes the statement of principles opposed to existing prejudices arouses opposition, and any active antagonism on the patient's part must tend to intensify the barrier of conscious personality which it is the healer's first object to remove. In these cases nothing is so effective as absent treatment. If the student has grasped all that has been said on the subject of spirit and matter, he will see that in mental treatment time and space count for nothing, because the whole action takes place on a plane where these conditions do not obtain; and it is therefore quite immaterial whether the patient be in the immediate presence of the healer or in a distant country. Under these circumstances it is found by experience that one of the most effectual modes of mental healing is by treatment during sleep, because then the patient's whole system is naturally in a state of relaxation which prevents him offering any conscious opposition to the treatment. And by the same rule the healer also is able to treat even more effectively during his own sleep than while waking. Before going to sleep he firmly impresses on his subjective mind that it is to convey curative suggestion to the subjective mind of the patient, and then, by the general principles of the relation between subjective and objective mind this suggestion is carried out during all the hours that the conscious individuality is wrapped in repose. This method is applicable to young children to whom the principles of the science cannot be explained; and also to persons at a distance: and indeed the only advantage gained by the personal meeting of the patient and healer is in the instruction that can be orally given, or when the patient is at that early stage of knowledge where the healer's visible presence conveys the suggestion that something is then being done which could not be done in his absence; otherwise the presence or absence of the patient are matters perfectly indifferent. The student must always recollect that the sub-conscious mind does not have to work through the intellect or conscious mind to produce its curative effects. It is part of the all-pervading creative force of Nature, while the intellect is not creative but distributive.

JA

この説明では、患者が治療者と意識的に協力している場合を想定しており、精神的治療者が通常、治療の前に何らかの説明を行い、患者の信頼を得ようとするのはこの協力を得るためです。しかし、患者の意識的協力が絶対に不可欠であるわけではありません。精神の統一性の原理に基づけば、治療者は患者の意識的同意がなくても患者の主観的精神に到達することができます。ただし、患者の意識的な協力がある場合、患者の客観的精神もまた主観的精神に健康の暗示を与えるため、治療はより効果的になります。逆に、患者が治療に対して積極的に抵抗している場合、患者の客観的精神は否定的暗示を送り続けるため、治療は著しく困難になります。すべての場合において、治療者の側の基本的要件は、精神の法則への揺るがない信頼と、患者の完全な健康についての明確で確固たる精神的認識です。

EN

From mental healing it is but a step to telepathy, clairvoyance and other, kindred manifestations of transcendental power which, are from time to time exhibited by the subjective entity and which follow laws as accurate as those which govern what we are accustomed to consider our more normal faculties; but these subjects do not properly fall within the scope of a book whose purpose is to lay down the broad principles which underlie all spiritual phenomena. Until these are clearly understood the student cannot profitably attempt the detailed study of the more interior powers; for to do so without a firm foundation of knowledge and some experience in its practical application would only be to expose himself to unknown dangers, and would be contrary to the scientific principle that the advance into the unknown can only be made from the standpoint of the known, otherwise we only come into a confused region of guess-work without any clearly defined principles for our guidance.

JA

精神的治癒からテレパシー、透視、その他の超越的力の類縁的な顕現までは、ほんの一歩です。これらは時折、主観的存在によって示されるものであり、精神科学の原理を注意深く考察すれば、その自然法則に従った説明が見つかるでしょう。もし精神の統一性が事実であるならば、すべての精神が根底においてつながっているのであれば、テレパシー、すなわち外的手段を介さない精神から精神への直接的伝達は完全に自然なことです。同様に透視も、宇宙的精神との意識的な交流が開かれるとき、空間と時間を超えた知覚が可能になるのです。