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ladytetra777["The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness" is spread across two lectures, but combined in one chapter in the CLC edition of the text.]
In this lecture, James provides a series of accounts that fall under the concept of the "mind-cure," detailing instances where the direction of mental faculties has a direct impact on physical life. These phenomena have been described in other terms, like "placebo effect" or "auto-suggestion" in other fields, but a distinct label like "mind-cure" draws attention to the religious aspect of this process, and not the medical or psycho-physical as the former terms are often used to imply. Here, "mind-cure" is a religious experience for James in that a wish upon the body is fulfilled by the same fervor religious experiences in general have thus been characterized by, thus a move from setting guiding questions and preliminary definitions to sketching out types of religious experiences has begun in the series.
Many of these accounts follow a similar structure: a person reaches a point of mental stillness, genuinely communicates a desire to heal within the self, they do not externally share this communication, and after some passage of time, their wish is fulfilled. Here I am reminded greatly of the speeches of Neville Goddard, who spoke of "dwelling in the end" as in visualizing the state desired and mentally assuming its accompanying attitudes as a means of manifesting the wish in physical reality.
Consider one account James reads: "I made the positive suggestion... 'I cannot be sprained or hurt, I will let [God] take care of it,'" (120) of a person who prevented an injury to their ankle through an unwavering faith in their own positive health. The experience is religious in that it demonstrates a connection to a higher power, backed with a resolute faith, but similar to Goddard in that they assumed well-being and it was granted to them. The language of "suggestion" from the mind-curer even invokes the language of NLP mentioned at the start of this summary.
James' analysis parses these experiences into the steps of manifestation. First, there is "the force of personal faith," followed with a "letting go," and fulfilled by interaction between "great use of the subconscious life" (114-115). This is reality selection as I understand it: a person clearly defines a desire, has faith that desire will be realized, they let it go from the grasp of their ego, it is planted like a seed into the subconscious, which then enacts its growth as instruction. The accounts of healing James provides in these two lectures are heartwarming in that the people discussed really did see improvement in their lives, but one commonality underlying their experiences are occult principles, namely, laws of manifestation. I am predicting that following lectures will have comparable principles hidden therein, eager to find out.
In this lecture, James provides a series of accounts that fall under the concept of the "mind-cure," detailing instances where the direction of mental faculties has a direct impact on physical life. These phenomena have been described in other terms, like "placebo effect" or "auto-suggestion" in other fields, but a distinct label like "mind-cure" draws attention to the religious aspect of this process, and not the medical or psycho-physical as the former terms are often used to imply. Here, "mind-cure" is a religious experience for James in that a wish upon the body is fulfilled by the same fervor religious experiences in general have thus been characterized by, thus a move from setting guiding questions and preliminary definitions to sketching out types of religious experiences has begun in the series.
Many of these accounts follow a similar structure: a person reaches a point of mental stillness, genuinely communicates a desire to heal within the self, they do not externally share this communication, and after some passage of time, their wish is fulfilled. Here I am reminded greatly of the speeches of Neville Goddard, who spoke of "dwelling in the end" as in visualizing the state desired and mentally assuming its accompanying attitudes as a means of manifesting the wish in physical reality.
Consider one account James reads: "I made the positive suggestion... 'I cannot be sprained or hurt, I will let [God] take care of it,'" (120) of a person who prevented an injury to their ankle through an unwavering faith in their own positive health. The experience is religious in that it demonstrates a connection to a higher power, backed with a resolute faith, but similar to Goddard in that they assumed well-being and it was granted to them. The language of "suggestion" from the mind-curer even invokes the language of NLP mentioned at the start of this summary.
James' analysis parses these experiences into the steps of manifestation. First, there is "the force of personal faith," followed with a "letting go," and fulfilled by interaction between "great use of the subconscious life" (114-115). This is reality selection as I understand it: a person clearly defines a desire, has faith that desire will be realized, they let it go from the grasp of their ego, it is planted like a seed into the subconscious, which then enacts its growth as instruction. The accounts of healing James provides in these two lectures are heartwarming in that the people discussed really did see improvement in their lives, but one commonality underlying their experiences are occult principles, namely, laws of manifestation. I am predicting that following lectures will have comparable principles hidden therein, eager to find out.