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84-596: Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (February 16, 1802 – January 16, 1866) was an American folk healer , mentalist and mesmerist . His work is widely recognized as foundational to the New Thought spiritual movement. Born in the small town of Lebanon, New Hampshire , Quimby was one of seven children and the son of a blacksmith and his wife. As was customary for his social and economic class at that time, Quimby received little formal education. He later wrote that he suffered from consumption (now called tuberculosis ) in his youth,

168-455: A "gnostic" healing tradition. Some of his methods were adopted by John Alexander Dowie , who revolutionized Christian faith healing in the 1880s. Although Quimby never published anything in his lifetime, a number of his writings have been published after his death. The publication of Quimby's writings and their editors are as follows: Folk healer Historically, women have taken on roles of communal folk healers. While some men learned

252-653: A Spiritualist, and to have taken part in séances . She was occasionally entranced, and had received "spirit communications" from her deceased brother Albert. Her first advertisement as a healer appeared in 1868, in the Spiritualist paper The Banner of Light . During these years she carried about with her a copy of one of Quimby's manuscripts giving an abstract of his philosophy. This manuscript she permitted some of her pupils to copy. According to Peel, spiritualists were "eager to claim her as one of their own." After she became well known, reports surfaced that Eddy had been

336-466: A book called Prose Works . Eddy was born Mary Morse Baker on July 16, 1821, in a farmhouse in Bow, New Hampshire to farmer Mark Baker (d. 1865) and his wife Abigail Barnard Baker, née Ambrose (d. 1849). Eddy was the youngest of six children: boys Samuel Dow (1808), Albert (1810), and George Sullivan (1812), followed by girls Abigail Barnard (1816), Martha Smith (1819), and Mary Morse (1821). She

420-424: 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—". Instead it appears that it was Robert Hanham Collyer , another practitioner of animal magnetism, who visited Belfast in 1841, who attracted Quimby's interest: "Next came Dr Collyer, who perhaps did more to excite a spirit of enquirey throughout

504-486: A designated female healer in the community to provide healing and medicinal treatment because of their exclusion from white medical practices and institutions. Women throughout history were typically the ones who were concerned with the physical demands of pregnancy and childbirth. A large majority of the earliest forms of folk healing focused on a woman's body during these life stages. Because of this, folk healers have come to be associated with women's fertility , something

588-643: A disease that then had no cure, and was prescribed calomel by his doctor. The calomel was no cure, and began to rot his teeth. Quimby began experimenting with his own ideas for a cure. He found that intense excitement (such as galloping on his horse) alleviated his pain for brief periods of time, and he became interested in the mind's ability to affect the body. He claimed to have cured himself of consumption by his methods. About 1836 Charles Poyen came to Maine from France on an extended lecture tour in New England about mesmerism, also widely known as hypnotism. He

672-447: A family of four children. One of his sons, George, was a follower and strong defender of him, working to differentiate his work from that of Mary Baker Eddy , a patient who later founded Christian Science. His son owned his father's writings, which were mostly not released until the 1920s, after the son's death. By trade Quimby was a watch and clockmaker . He also was a daguerreotypist , and he invented items and held several patents for

756-465: A fund of common sense, and she is a shrewd judge of character. In sickness, she is the first to be consulted, for she is generally something of an herb doctor, and her advice is sought by the young people of half the countryside in all things from a love affair to putting a new web in the loom. Folk medicine in Appalachia has historically included nontraditional methods of treating skin cancer . In

840-492: A genealogy tracing Eddy to King David. Eddy eventually requested Field-King cease work on the genealogy and transferred her to London to work on expanding the church there. Since her death, academics have debated the extent of Eddy's relationship with British Israelism with Christian Scientist historian Robert Peel arguing she was "intrigued by the theory for several years," while keeping "it resolutely out of her work and her writing on Christian Science." He acknowledges she uses

924-461: A healer steeped in Protestant theology and science. Later, claims were made that she was at least partially inspired by Quimby in her theology. However, both Quimby's son and Christian Scientists have pointed out major differences between Quimbyism and Christian Science. Biographer Gillian Gill and others agreed, pointing out that because of its theism , Christian Science differs considerably from

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1008-411: A local youth who was particularly susceptible to hypnosis. Finding him useful to work with, Quimby and Burkmar developed a tour of their own. Quimby demonstrated mesmeric practice with Burkmar in front of large crowds. Later Quimby and Burkmar stopped touring. Quimby claimed to heal people of ailments which doctors could not cure. Quimby told his patients that disease was caused by false beliefs, and that

1092-627: A medium years earlier in Boston and St. Louis. However, at the time when she was said to be a medium there, she lived some distance away in North Groton, where she was bedridden. According to Gill, Eddy knew spiritualists and took part in some of their activities, but was never a convinced believer. For example, she visited her friend Sarah Crosby in 1864, who believed in Spiritualism. According to Sibyl Wilbur , Eddy attempted to show Crosby

1176-412: A negative force by religious institutions. This is why folk healers were often viewed as witches and became connected to the earliest forms of abortion care. The Foxfire books , consisting of 12 original books, is a collection of written entries that have been comprised to preserve Appalachian culture . Inside these books, readers can find a variety of recipes, how-tos, and descriptions of what it

1260-421: A quack: you not only lose your money, but your health. He gives no opinion, therefore you lose nothing. If patients feel pain they know it, and if he describes their pain he feels it, and in his explanation lies the cure. Patients, of course, have some opinion as to what causes pain—he has none, therefore the disagreement lies not in the pain, but in the cause of the pain. He has the advantage of patients, for it

1344-454: A spiritualist medium and was convinced by the messages. According to Gardner, Eddy's mediumship converted Crosby to Spiritualism. In one of her spiritualist trances to Crosby, Eddy gave a message that was supportive of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby , stating "P. Quimby of Portland has the spiritual truth of diseases. You must imbibe it to be healed. Go to him again and lean on no material or spiritual medium." The paragraph that included this quote

1428-860: A successful garden, beekeeping , and the effective and proper ways to preserve food . Granny women are purported to be healers and midwives in Southern Appalachia and the Ozarks , claimed by a few academics as practicing from the 1880s to the 1930s. They are theorized to be usually elder women in the community and may have been the only practitioners of health care in the poor rural areas of Southern Appalachia. They are often thought not to have expected or received payment and were respected as authorities on herbal healing and childbirth. They are mentioned by John C. Campbell in The Southern Highlander and His Homeland : There

1512-561: A variety of unrelated, larger mechanical devices. Among the people who claimed to be cured by Quimby were Julius Dresser and his wife Annetta Dresser , from what sickness it is unclear. Their son, Horatio Dresser , wrote extensively on Quimby's theories. He edited and collected many of Quimby's papers in his book Health and the Inner Life: An Analytical and Historical Study of Spiritual Healing and Theories (1906). He also edited and published selected Quimby papers in

1596-488: A very critical condition. When Georgine Milmine interviewed Dr. Cushing forty years later, he stated that his records from the time documented that Eddy was in a "semi-hysterical" intense emotional state which subsided after she was given a small amount of morphine. On February 14, 1866, the day after Eddy finished her care with Dr. Cushing, Eddy wrote to Julius Dresser, another patient of Phineas Quimby, claiming that her injury and her subsequent medical care had undone all of

1680-450: A volatile relationship. Ernest Sutherland Bates and John V. Dittemore wrote in 1932 that Baker sought to break Eddy's will with harsh punishment, although her mother often intervened; in contrast to the strict religiosity of her father, Eddy's mother was described as devout, quiet, light-hearted and nurturing, and a benevolent spiritual influence on Eddy in her formative years. Eddy experienced periods of sudden illness. Those who knew

1764-500: A weapon. Animal magnetism became one of the most controversial aspects of Eddy's life. The McClure's biography spends a significant amount of time on malicious animal magnetism, which it uses to make the case that Eddy had paranoia. During the Next Friends lawsuit, it was used to charge Eddy with incompetence and "general insanity". According to Gillian Gill, Eddy's experience with Richard Kennedy, one of her early students,

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1848-429: Is something magnificent in many of the older women with their stern theology – part mysticism, part fatalism – and their deep understanding of life. ..."Granny" – and one may be a grandmother young in the mountains – if she has survived the labor and tribulation of her younger days, has gained freedom and a place of irresponsible authority in the home hardly rivaled by the men of the family. ...Though superstitious she has

1932-480: Is sometimes identified as the "founder of New Thought," but his actual influence is debated. Since Quimby's writings were not available until Dresser's The Quimby Manuscripts in 1921, they did not directly effect New Thought's development during its formative period. Barry Morton, a scholar of faith healing, has said that Quimby's constant practice of his mind cure method led him to make important discoveries related to curing psychosomatic illnesses, and in effect started

2016-457: Is the worst kind of robbery, tho' sanctioned by law. Now, if they will only look at the true secret of this description, they will find it is for their own selfish objects—to sell their medicines. Herein consists their shrewdness!—to impress patients with a wrong idea, namely—that they have some disease. This makes them nervous and creates in their minds a disease that otherwise would never have been thought of. Wherefore he says to such, never consult

2100-470: Is to deceive people by pretending to cure all diseases. The sick are anxious to get well, and they apply to these persons supposing them to be honest and friendly, whereas they are made to believe they are very sick and something must be done ere it is too late. Five or ten dollars is then paid, for the cure of some disease they never had, nor ever would have had but for the wrong impressions received from these quacks, or robbers, (as they might be called,) for it

2184-423: Is unlike all other medical practise, it is necessary to say that he gives no medicines and makes no outward applications, but simply sits down by the patients, tells them their feelings and what they think is their disease. If the patients admit that he tells them their feelings, &c., then his explanation is the cure; and, if he succeeds in correcting their error, he changes the fluids of the system and establishes

2268-422: Is very easy to convince them that he had no pain before he sat down by them. After this it becomes his duty to prove to them the cause of their trouble. This can only be explained to patients, for which explanation his charge is [blank space to be filled in] dollars. If necessary to see them more than once, [blank space to be filled in] dollars. This has been his mode of practice for the last seventeen years. For

2352-477: Is what Catherine Albanese called "a Calvinist devil lurking beneath the metaphysical surface". As there is no personal devil or evil in Christian Science, M.A.M. or mesmerism became the explanation for the problem of evil. Eddy was concerned that a new practitioner could inadvertently harm a patient through unenlightened use of their mental powers, and that less scrupulous individuals could use them as

2436-605: The Christian Science Sentinel , a weekly religious periodical written for a more general audience, and the Herald of Christian Science , a religious magazine with editions in many languages. The opposite of Christian Science mental healing was the use of mental powers for destructive or selfish reasons – for which Eddy used terms such as animal magnetism , hypnotism, or mesmerism interchangeably. "Malicious animal magnetism", sometimes abbreviated as M.A.M.,

2520-456: The water cure at Dr. Vail's Hydropathic Institute, but her health deteriorated even further. A year later, in October 1862, Eddy first visited Quimby. She improved considerably, and publicly declared that she had been able to walk up 182 steps to the dome of city hall after a week of treatment. The cures were temporary, however, and Eddy suffered relapses. Despite the temporary nature of

2604-738: The "Quimby manuscripts" that were published later and attributed to him. Furthering the case that Eddy had likely written large portions of Quimby's manuscripts, Quimby was notably "illiterate" and would never have had the ability to write his ideas down himself. Despite Quimby not being especially religious, he embraced the religious connotations Eddy was bringing to his work since he knew his more religious patients would appreciate it. Phineas Quimby died on January 16, 1866, shortly after Eddy's father. J. Gordon Melton has argued "certainly Eddy shared some ideas with Quimby. She differed with him in some key areas, however, such as specific healing techniques. Moreover, she did not share Quimby's hostility toward

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-537: The "cure", she attached religious significance to it, which Quimby did not. Eddy believed that it was the same type of healing performed by Christ Jesus, who, unlike Quimby, administered no medicine or material means in his healings. From 1862 to 1865, Quimby and Eddy engaged in lengthy discussions about healing methods like hydropathy practiced by Quimby and others. She took notes on her own views of healing, as well as writing dictations from him and "correcting" them with her own ideas, some of which possibly ended up in

2772-574: The 1875 book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , selected as one of the "75 Books By Women Whose Words Have Changed The World" by the Women's National Book Association . She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995. Other works Eddy authored include Manual of The Mother Church , and a collection of varied writings that were consolidated posthumously into

2856-556: The Bible and Science and Health as the pastor. Eddy founded The Christian Science Publishing Society in 1898, which became the publishing home for numerous publications launched by her and her followers. In 1908, at the age of 87, she founded The Christian Science Monitor , a daily newspaper. She also founded the Christian Science Journal in 1883, a monthly magazine aimed at the church's members and, in 1898,

2940-575: The Bible and Christianity." Biographer Gillian Gill has disagreed with other scholars arguing they "have flouted the evidence and shown willful bias in accusing Mrs. Eddy of owing her theory of healing to Quimby and of plagiarizing his unpublished work." On February 1, 1866, while living in Lynn, Massachusetts, Eddy slipped and fell on a patch of ice. A contemporary account by the Lynn Reporter stated: Mrs. Mary Patterson of Swampscott fell upon

3024-518: The Christian Science movement and to handle animal magnetism which arose. Gill writes that Eddy got the term from the New Testament account of the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus chastises his disciples for being unable to "watch" even for a short time; and that Eddy used it to refer to "a particularly vigilant and active form of prayer, a set period of time when specific people would put their thoughts toward God, review questions and problems of

3108-520: The Massachusetts Metaphysical College, where she taught approximately 800 students between the years 1882 and 1889, when she closed it. Eddy charged her students $ 300 each for tuition, a large sum for the time. In 1892, at Eddy's direction, the church reorganized as The First Church of Christ, Scientist. In 1894, an edifice for The First Church of Christ, Scientist was completed in Boston. Her students spread across

3192-416: The book, The Quimby Manuscripts (1921). Warren Felt Evans was a Methodist minister who was moving over to Swedenborgianism about the time that he visited Quimby twice about 1863. While he was reputed to be a student of Quimby, modern scholarship has shown that he considered himself an equal of Quimby and not a student. Mary Baker Eddy , the founder of Christian Science , was a patient of Quimby's and

3276-528: The community than any who have succeeded." (Quimby's son George stated in New England Magazine, March, 1888, that "a gentleman visited Belfast, about the year 1838," but an extensive search of Belfast newspapers during that time period finds no visit by Poyen mentioned in 1838, even though Poyen was quite newsworthy. 1838 is too early for Robert Collyer. 1836 appears to be the correct year for Poyen.) About 1842 Quimby encountered Lucius Burkmar,

3360-529: The country practicing healing, and instructing others. Eddy authorized these students to list themselves as Christian Science Practitioners in the church's The Christian Science Journal . She also founded the Christian Science Sentinel , a weekly magazine with articles about how to heal and testimonies of healing. When the church re-organized in 1892, Eddy was made the leader of the church as "Pastor Emeritus". In 1895, she ordained

3444-457: The cure was in the explanation of this. Quimby published a flyer, "TO THE SICK," that was used about late 1850s to early 1860s and read as follows. It is an important statement of his beliefs: DR. P. P. QUIMBY would respectfully announce to the citizens of [blank space to be filled in] and vicinity, that he will be at the [blank space to be filled in] where he will attend to those wishing to consult him in regard to their health, and, as his practise

Phineas Parkhurst Quimby - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-532: The day, and seek spiritual understanding." Critics such as Georgine Milmine in Mclure's , Edwin Dakin, and John Dittemore, all claimed this was evidence that Eddy had a great fear of malicious animal magnetism; although Gilbert Carpenter, one of Eddy's staff at the time, insisted she was not fearful of it, and that she was simply being vigilant. As time went on, Eddy tried to lessen the focus on animal magnetism within

3612-551: The early 1900s, for example, a Virginia man named Thomas Raleigh Carter became renowned for his prowess in healing skin cancer in addition to his midwifery. Although he was a minister, his treatments focused on the application or ingestion of specific herbs and plants rather than on faith in a higher power. Carter kept his formula secret, even from his immediate family, and treated many people for lesions and skin conditions believed to be cancerous. Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (nee Baker; July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910)

3696-569: The family described her as suddenly falling to the floor, writhing and screaming, or silent and apparently unconscious, sometimes for hours. Historian Robert Peel wrote that these fits would require the family to send Eddy to the village doctor. The cause for Eddy's illness was unclear, but biographer Caroline Fraser wrote she believed the cause was most likely psychogenic in nature. According to psychoanalyst Julius Silberger, Eddy may have been motivated to have these fits in an effort to control her father's attitude toward her. Fraser attributed

3780-688: The family first moved there but was required instead to start at the district school (in the same building) with the youngest girls. She withdrew after a month because of poor health, then received private tuition from the Reverend Enoch Corser. She entered Sanbornton Academy in 1842. She was received into the Congregational church in Tilton on July 26, 1838, when she was 17, according to church records published by Cather and Milmine. Eddy had written in her autobiography in 1891 that she

3864-501: The farm when Joseph Jr. died in 1816. A staunch Calvinist , Mark Baker was an active member of the Tilton Congregationalist Church . McClure's reported he had a reputation for holding strong opinions and quarreling with those he disagreed with; one neighbor described him as "[a] tiger for a temper and always in a row." They also claimed he was an ardent supporter of slavery and a Copperhead who

3948-454: The folly of it by pretending to channel Eddy's dead brother Albert and writing letters which she attributed to him. In regard to the deception, biographer Hugh Evelyn Wortham stated "Mrs. Eddy's followers explain it all as a pleasantry on her part to cure Mrs. Crosby of her credulous belief in spiritualism." However, Martin Gardner has argued against this, stating that Eddy was working as

4032-547: The healing that Quimby had done before, and requested that he heal her. Dresser refused, stating that he was not enough to take on the burden of healing, and urged Eddy to instead spread Quimby's teachings further. Eddy would later credit her accident as her moment of spiritual revelation and the "falling apple" that led to her discovery of Christian Science . She claimed that after rejecting the medicines offered to her by her doctor, she opened her Bible three days after her fall and returned to full health after reading of Jesus healing

4116-513: The ice near the corner of Market and Oxford Streets on Thursday evening and was severely injured. She was taken up in an insensible condition and carried into the residence of S. M. Bubier, Esq., near by, where she was kindly cared for during the night. Dr. Cushing, who was called, found her injuries to be internal and of a severe nature, inducing spasms and internal suffering. She was removed to her home in Swampscott yesterday afternoon, though in

4200-421: The illness likely to a combination of hypochondria and histrionics as well. In 1836, when Eddy was about 14 to 15 years old, she moved with her family to the town of Sanbornton Bridge, New Hampshire , approximately twenty miles (32 km) north of Bow. Sanbornton Bridge was renamed in 1869 as Tilton, New Hampshire. Ernest Bates and John Dittemore write that Eddy was not able to attend Sanbornton Academy when

4284-605: The influence of Hinduism on Eddy and her work. The 1930 work Hinduism Invades America argues Eddy referenced the Bhagavad-Gita in the 33rd edition of Science and Health . Gillian Gill argued that that her editor, Reverend James Henry Wiggin , had introduced the references, and Eddy removed from the 1891 revision all the references to Eastern religions . Christian Scientist church member and historian Stephen Gottschalk argued that Eddy consciously distinguished Christian Science from Eastern religions starting in

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4368-443: The law of the state, he should have her grandchildren vaccinated. She also paid for a mastectomy for her sister-in-law. Eddy used glasses for several years for very fine print, but later dispensed with them almost entirely, claiming she could read fine print with ease. In 1907, Arthur Brisbane interviewed Eddy. At one point he picked up a periodical, selected at random a paragraph, and asked Eddy to read it. According to Brisbane, at

4452-434: The main difference was that Eddy came to believe, after she founded Christian Science, that spirit manifestations had never really had bodies to begin with, because matter is unreal and that all that really exists is spirit, before and after death. In the fiftieth edition of her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , published in 1891, Eddy added the chapter, Christian Science and Spiritualism . This chapter

4536-413: The mid-1880s. Damodar Singhal noted that whether or not Eddy was directly influenced by Hindu philosophy, "the echoes of Vedanta in [her] literature are often striking." Eddy was introduced to British Israelism by Julia Field-King, who herself was introduced by the writings of C. A. L. Totten . Totten alleged to have traced Queen Victoria 's genealogy to King David and Field-King offered to create

4620-399: The movement, and she worked to clearly define it as unreality which only had power if one conceded to it. Though, it continued to play an important role in the teaching of Christian Science. The belief in malicious animal magnetism remains a part of Christian Science doctrine. Christian Scientists use it as a specific term for a hypnotic belief in a power apart from God. Scholars debate

4704-547: The new marital home. Eddy married Dr. Daniel Patterson, a dentist, in 1853. Mesmerism had become popular in New England; and on October 14, 1861, Patterson, wrote to mesmerist Phineas Parkhurst Quimby , who reportedly cured people without medicine, asking if he could cure his wife. Quimby replied that he had too much work in Portland, Maine and that he could not visit her, but if Patterson brought his wife to him he would treat her. Eddy did not immediately go, instead trying

4788-408: The past eight years he has given no medicines, nor made any outward applications. There are many who pretend to practice as he does, but when a person while in "a trance," claims any power from the spirits of the departed, and recommends any kind of medicine to be taken internally or applied externally beware! believe them not, "for by their fruits ye shall know them. Quimby married in 1827 and had

4872-487: The practices associated with healing, women tended to dominate the field because of their association with child care and at-home remedies. Women were assigned the responsibility of caring for sick loved ones because of their historic restriction to other professions and tasks in society. Particularly in African-American communities, due to their extended marginalization from society, it was not unfamiliar to have

4956-471: The religious institutions at the time grew dissatisfied with. The men who dominated these religious spaces wanted to have the main control over fertility as a way to exert their power. However, folk healers did not stop their work with pregnancy and childbirth and often became very well-versed in the needs and potential complications that could come from childbirth in early history. Since folk healers refused to abandon this area of medicine, they were recognized as

5040-525: The rest of her life to the establishment of the church, writing its bylaws, The Manual of The Mother Church , and revising Science and Health . By the 1870s, she was telling her students, "Some day I will have a church of my own." In 1879, she and her students established the Church of Christ, Scientist, "to commemorate the word and works of our Master [Jesus], which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." In 1881, she founded

5124-579: The science of "primitive Christianity" and the "lost art of healing" to at least 800 people. Many of her students became healers themselves. The last 100 pages of Science and Health (chapter entitled "Fruitage") contains testimonies of people who affirm to have been healed by reading her book. She made numerous revisions to her book from the time of its first publication until shortly before her death. In January 1877, Eddy spurned an approach from one of her students, Daniel Spofford. She then married another student of hers, Asa Gilbert Eddy. On January 1, 1877,

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5208-493: The sick. Eddy separated from her second husband Daniel Patterson in 1866, after which she boarded for four years with several families in Lynn, Massachusetts and elsewhere. Frank Podmore wrote: But she was never able to stay long in one family. She quarrelled successively with all her hostesses, and her departure from the house was heralded on two or three occasions by a violent scene. Her friends during these years were generally Spiritualists; she seems to have professed herself

5292-568: The teachings of Quimby, who did not base his work in religion. Quimby has sometimes been connected with Transcendentalism , especially by historians relying on the Dresser version of his writings, however his knowledge of Emerson and the Transcendentalists "was no doubt tenuous and secondhand at best" according to Albanese, and it was really only "Dresser's spiritualized Quimby that fit this classification" according to Hazen. Quimby

5376-618: The term "Anglo-Israel" in one poem, but argues the meaning is "metaphorical" instead of "ethnic or historical." Political Scientist Michael Barkun argued that "Eddy continued to maintain an interest in British-Israelism, although she kept it out of her doctrinal writings" and noted that a "schismatic offshoot" organized by Annie Cecelia Bill in England after Eddy's death centered on British-Israelism. Professor of religious studies John K. Simmons, citing Peel, argued that Eddy "gave

5460-488: The theory no real credence, at least in verifiable written form," but acknowledged British-Israelism "seemed to attract the turn-of-the-century metaphysical crowd." There is controversy about how much Eddy used morphine. Biographers Ernest Sutherland Bates and Edwin Franden Dakin described Eddy as a morphine addict. Miranda Rice, a friend and close student of Eddy, told a newspaper in 1906: "I know that Mrs. Eddy

5544-452: The truth, or health. The Truth is the Cure. This mode of practise applies to all cases. If no explanation is given, no charge is made, for no effect is produced. His opinion without an explanation is useless, for it contains no knowledge, and would be like other medical opinions, worse than none. This error gives rise to all kinds of quackery, not only among regular physicians, but those whose aim

5628-581: The two were wed, and she became Mary Baker Eddy in a small ceremony presided over by a Unitarian minister. In 1881, Mary Baker Eddy started the Massachusetts Metaphysical College with a charter from the state which allowed her to grant degrees. In Spring 1882, the Eddys moved to Boston to Massachusetts Metaphysical College. Gilbert Eddy's health began to decline around this time, and he died June 3 that year. Eddy devoted

5712-464: Was Abraham Lincoln . According to eyewitness reports cited by Cather and Milmine, Eddy was still attending séances as late as 1872. In these later séances, Eddy would attempt to convert her audience into accepting Christian Science. Eddy showed extensive familiarity with Spiritualist practice, but she denounced it in later Christian Science writings. Historian Ann Braude wrote that there were similarities between Spiritualism and Christian Science, but

5796-964: Was 12 when this happened, and that she had discussed the idea of predestination with the pastor during the examination for her membership; this may have been an attempt to mirror the story of a 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple . Eddy was badly affected by four deaths in the 1840s. She regarded her brother Albert as a teacher and mentor, but he died in 1841. In 1844, her first husband George Washington Glover (a friend of her brother Samuel) died after six months of marriage. They had married in December 1843 and set up home in Charleston, South Carolina, where Glover had business, but he died of yellow fever in June 1844 while living in Wilmington, North Carolina. Eddy

5880-413: Was Eddy's insistence that Kennedy stop "rubbing" his patient's head and solar plexus, which she saw as harmful since, as Gill states, "traditionally in mesmerism or hypnosis the head and abdomen were manipulated so that the subject would be prepared to enter into trance." Kennedy clearly did believe in clairvoyance, mind reading, and absent mesmeric treatment; and after their split Eddy believed that Kennedy

5964-529: Was a French mesmerist who followed in the tradition of Armand-Marie-Jacques de Chastenet, Marquis of Puységur . The McClure’s magazine 1907 biographical serial of Mary Baker Eddy written by Willa Cather & Georgine Milmine started the misunderstanding that Quimby was a follower of Poyen and followed him around—which is not supported by the Quimby family or Quimby's writings. In fact, Quimby wrote about seven years later about hearing Poyen lecture: "Mesmerism

6048-473: Was addicted to morphine in the seventies." A diary kept by Calvin Frye, Eddy's personal secretary, suggests that Eddy occasionally reverted to "the old morphine habit" when she was in pain. Gill writes that the prescription of morphine was normal medical practice at the time, and that "I remain convinced that Mary Baker Eddy was never addicted to morphine." Eddy recommended to her son that, rather than go against

6132-565: Was an American religious leader, Christian healer, and author, who in 1879 founded The Church of Christ, Scientist , the Mother Church of the Christian Science movement. She also founded The Christian Science Monitor in 1908, and three religious magazines: the Christian Science Sentinel , The Christian Science Journal , and The Herald of Christian Science . Eddy wrote numerous books and articles, most notably

6216-472: Was far superior to spirit teachings." Clark's son George tried to convince Eddy to take up Spiritualism, but he said that she abhorred the idea. According to Cather and Milmine, Richard Hazeltine attended seances at Clark's home, and Eddy had acted as a trance medium , claiming to channel the spirits of the Apostles . Mary Gould, a Spiritualist from Lynn, claimed that one of the spirits that Eddy channeled

6300-510: 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

6384-409: Was later omitted from an official sanctioned biography of Eddy. Between 1866 and 1870, Eddy boarded at the home of Brene Paine Clark who was interested in Spiritualism. Seances were often conducted there, but Eddy and Clark engaged in vigorous, good-natured arguments about them. Eddy's arguments against Spiritualism convinced at least one other who was there at the time—Hiram Crafts—that "her science

6468-559: Was like to live in rural Appalachia before technology was widely adopted. These books have been viewed as a source of the very intimate daily life of rural Appalachians throughout history and are believed to perpetuate the values and belief systems of the people of the time, and, arguably, of the region today. Foxfire volume 11 specifically elaborates on common herbal remedies and healing procedures of historic Appalachia, all of which had been created and passed down through families and folk healers. Book 11 also details tasks such as how to grow

6552-558: Was nursed by a local woman while Eddy herself was cared for by a household servant. Eddy's mother died in November 1849. Her mother's death was then followed three weeks later by the death of Eddy's fiancé, lawyer John Bartlett. Eddy's father Mark Baker remarried in 1850; his second wife Elizabeth Patterson Duncan (d. June 6, 1875) had been widowed twice, and had some property and income from her second marriage. Baker apparently made clear to Eddy that her son would not be welcome in

6636-490: Was renamed in 1910 to Christian Science versus Spiritualism . Eddy divorced Daniel Patterson for adultery in 1873. She published her work in 1875 in a book entitled Science and Health (years later retitled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures ) which she called the textbook of Christian Science, after several years of offering her healing method. The first publication run was 1,000 copies, which she self-published. During these years, she taught what she considered

6720-480: Was reportedly pleased to hear about Abraham Lincoln 's death . Despite trying to oust his Republican pastor during the war alongside a faction of his church, he refused to leave the church alongside other members of the faction when they failed. Instead, he continued to attend services, but would storm out at the mention of the American Civil War during a service. Eddy and her father reportedly had

6804-610: Was the cousin of U.S. Representative Henry M. Baker . She was the sixth generation of her family born in the United States. The farmhouse she was born in was built by her grandfather, Joseph Baker Jr., on a tract of land his maternal grandfather, Captain John Lovewell, had been given for service in the American Revolutionary War . Eddy's father Mark inherited, alongside his elder brother James,

6888-475: Was using his mesmeric abilities to try to harm her and her movement. In 1882, Eddy publicly claimed that her last husband, Asa Gilbert Eddy, had died of "mental assassination". Daniel Spofford was another Christian Scientist expelled by Eddy after she accused him of practicing malicious animal magnetism. This gained notoriety in a case irreverently dubbed the " Second Salem Witch Trial ". Later, Eddy set up "watches" for her staff to pray about challenges facing

6972-425: Was what led her to began her examination of malicious animal magnetism. Eddy had agreed to form a partnership with Kennedy in 1870, in which she would teach him how to heal, and he would take patients. The partnership was rather successful at first, but by 1872 Kennedy had fallen out with his teacher and torn up their contract. Although there were multiple issues raised, the main reason for the break according to Gill

7056-428: Was with him in Wilmington, six months pregnant. She had to make her way back to New Hampshire, 1,400 miles (2,300 km) by train and steamboat, where her only child George Washington Glover II was born on September 12 in her father's home. Her husband's death, the journey back, and the birth left her physically and mentally exhausted, and she ended up bedridden for months. As Eddy was unable to care for him, her son

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