A. T. SCHOFIELD, M.D.^ ON SCIENCE AND THE UNSEEN WORLD. 53 



The power in faith-healing generally that effects tlie cures is 

 subjective and not objective. It is in that part of the ])erson 

 that is reached by hypnotism — the unconscious mind, and 

 <^specially that section of it concerned with the care of the 

 body, known teclniically as the vis mcdicatrix naturcv. 



This power is stirred into curative activity by agents as various 

 as medical instruments, such as thermometers, by bits of wood 

 or metal, by incantation, by charms, by witchcraft, by devil 

 worship (as near Zurich), by idols, by impostors, such as Dowie 

 of Chicago, by kings, by sacred relics, by visions as at Lcurdes, 

 and by the sacred beliefs of the Christian Faith. In the cure 

 itself the agency seems indifferent, provided it is sufficiently 

 powerful to excite the faith of the individual, but in the 

 benefits received — the moral and spiritual results — the blessing 

 or the curse which the recovered health bestows, all of course, 

 -depends upon the object on which the faith rests. I will 

 illustrate this. 



At Zurich, at Mannedorf, Pastor Zeller cured all sorts of 

 oases; but he remarked to me, "the devil cures them just as 

 well at the end of the lake." On enquiry I found that numbers 

 are cured there by incantations and dancing round oak trees 

 with curious rites. The results were indistinguishable from 

 Pastor Zeller's. 



The case of blind Martha is remarkable as showino- how 

 faith cures. 



*M. D., thirty years of age, was, with her stick and white dog, a 

 familiar figure in Bayswater for about fifteen years, and was well 



known as Blind M . Close enquiry as to her condition and 



antecedents revealed the fact that she had been considered incurably 

 blind from birth. She had been treated at Charing Cross and 

 Middlesex Hospitals and at Moorfields, and had also long attended 

 at a society for the blind in Red Lion Square, where she was taught 

 to read the raised type. She had a faint perception of light 

 occasionally, but nothing that was of any real use to her. She was 

 seen by one or two other doctors besides those at the hospitals, who 

 told her there was no cure for her. Several people who have 

 known her for varying numbers of years have testified to me that 

 she was practically blind. A general grocer where she has dealt 

 for years told me that he often stood unseen beside her for a trick 

 when she has kept calling for him, and that at no time did she give 

 any evidence whatever of being able to see anything she bought. 



Hearing one day that this blind girl had received her sight and 



Extract from Faith Healing, A. T. SchoHeld, M.D., Religious Tract 

 Society, 189:2. 



