The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experiencehad not done for years, and the change was sudden, marked, andunmistakable. This tide seemed to mount for some weeks, three orfour perhaps, when, summer having come, I came away, taking thetreatment up again a few months later. The lift I got proved permanent,and left me slowly gaining ground instead of losing, it butwith this lift the influence seemed in a way to have spent itself, and,though my confidence in the reality of the power had gained immenselyfrom this first experience, and should have helped me tomake further gain in health and strength if my belief in it had beenthe potent factor there, I never after this got any result at all asstriking or as clearly marked as this which came when I made trialof it first, with little faith and doubtful expectation. It is difficult toput all the evidence in such a matter into words, to gather up into adistinct statement all that one bases one’s conclusions on, but I havealways felt that I had abundant evidence to justify (to myself, atleast) the conclusion that I came to then, and since have held to,that the physical change which came at that time was, first, theresult of a change wrought within me by a change of mental state;and secondly, that that change of mental state was not, save in avery secondary way, brought about through the influence of an excitedimagination, or a consiously received suggestion of an hypnoticsort. Lastly, I believe that this change was the result of my receivingtelephathically, and upon a mental stratum quite below the level ofimmediate consciousness, a healthier and more energetic attitude,receiving it from another person whose thought was directed uponme with the intention of impressing the idea of this attitude uponme. In my case the disease was distinctly what would be classed asnervous, not organic; but from such opportunities as I have had ofobserving, I have come to the conclusion that the dividing line thathas been drawn is an arbitrary one, the nerves controlling the internalactivities and the nutrition of the body throughout; and I believethat the central nervous system, by starting and inhibiting localcentres, can exercise a vast influence upon disease of any kind, ifit can be brought to bear. In my judgment the question is simplyhow to bring it to bear, and I think that the uncertainty and remarkabledifferences in the results obtained through mental healingdo but show how ignorant we are as yet of the forces at work and of118