Thoughts are very real things and have as much of an identity as any other matter that is visible to the naked eye.
P.P. Quimby (1802-1866) stated that “ideas contain life and may be transmitted to another intentionally or unintentionally. It these ideas contain seeds of fear, they agitate the mind, disturb the senses and produce chemical changes in the fluids of the human system.”
Quimby, who was the father of the New Thought Movement in the United States, shared that when you believe something,you make it your own. If someone tells you something and you believe what the person is saying, you create within your own mind that thing that is being explained. Once it exists in your mind you are either in it or outside of it.
P.P. Quimby (1802-1866) stated that “ideas contain life and may be transmitted to another intentionally or unintentionally. It these ideas contain seeds of fear, they agitate the mind, disturb the senses and produce chemical changes in the fluids of the human system.”
Quimby, who was the father of the New Thought Movement in the United States, shared that when you believe something,you make it your own. If someone tells you something and you believe what the person is saying, you create within your own mind that thing that is being explained. Once it exists in your mind you are either in it or outside of it.
What Quimby was saying is that if you take it to heart as a truth then you are in it and will influenced by all actions of the idea. If you are out of it then it does not have an effect upon you. As an example, if I tell you that hippy-hop disease is going around, and you have no conception of what that is, it will not affect you. If I have explained what hippy-hop is and all of the symptoms and how it is coming close to you and you believe it, then you have got it in your mind and it is ready to spring up at any time when your system is in the right condition.
I have always marveled when someone mentions that their red runny nose and all of their sneezing is due to an allergy people are not concerned. But if that same person says they have a cold, what is your immediate thought process? What is your thought process when they mentioned the have an allergy? If you believe it is a cold then this is your wisdom and your wisdom will be confirmed with your catching a cold. Quimby argued that if you don’t feel something will harm you then that is your wisdom and your wisdom will not be effected by the idea. I have experimented with this concept myself and found it has some merit.
When Quimby speaks of disease in the mind, he does not mean it is imaginary, he means that an idea can be planted in your mind and if the ideas contains fear of a disease, that disease or phenomenon will manifest itself sometime or somewhere in your body.
“Suppose I should ask you if you have ever seen a chenet. You say, no, so I commence to tell you what it is and describe it to you in every detail. I say to you that a chenet is a tropical fruit the size of a large grape. It has a dark green semi-hard shell, and there is a large hard seed in the center of it. Between the seed and the shell there is a soft white substance which can be eaten. Before you heard what a chenet was, it was not in your mind, but now that I have explained it to you, it is in your mind and will remain there as a harmless idea.”
“But if I should tell you about a certain disease and explain its terrible characteristics to you in every detail – tell you what the symptoms are, how you are liable to catch it, and how dangerous it is, the ideas will be in your mind, just as the idea chenet was put into your mind but with this difference…the idea chenet contained no fear and will do you no harm, but the idea disease will, and if this fear is allowed to remain in your consciousness, it will create the disease which I have described to you, and this disease will manifest itself in or on the body at any time when your system is in the right condition.”
In an earlier post I mentioned that story of the pilgrim and the Plague. A pilgrim was leaving the city of Constantinople for a trip when he met the Plague coming into the city. The pilgrim said, ‘why are you here? The Plague answered, I am here for 5,000 souls. Two months later the pilgrim was returning to Constantinople and met the Plague as it was leaving the city after 50,000 people had died. The pilgrim said, ‘I thought you said you came for only 5,000 people?’ The Plague responded, ‘I only took 5,000 souls, Fear took the rest.’
I have included a painting of Napoleon, shown walking among the plague victims to demonstrate to his soldiers that he had no fear and the plague could not affect him. Goethe said in his memoirs that Napoleon told him that he went to where the plague was raging and deliberately walked and touched the plague victims to demonstrate that man has power over the plague and not the other way around. Below is a section of the painting by Antoine-Jean Gros, Bonaparte Visits the Plague Stricken in Jaffa, painted in 1804 and hanging in the Louvre, depicting the event.
I have always marveled when someone mentions that their red runny nose and all of their sneezing is due to an allergy people are not concerned. But if that same person says they have a cold, what is your immediate thought process? What is your thought process when they mentioned the have an allergy? If you believe it is a cold then this is your wisdom and your wisdom will be confirmed with your catching a cold. Quimby argued that if you don’t feel something will harm you then that is your wisdom and your wisdom will not be effected by the idea. I have experimented with this concept myself and found it has some merit.
When Quimby speaks of disease in the mind, he does not mean it is imaginary, he means that an idea can be planted in your mind and if the ideas contains fear of a disease, that disease or phenomenon will manifest itself sometime or somewhere in your body.
“Suppose I should ask you if you have ever seen a chenet. You say, no, so I commence to tell you what it is and describe it to you in every detail. I say to you that a chenet is a tropical fruit the size of a large grape. It has a dark green semi-hard shell, and there is a large hard seed in the center of it. Between the seed and the shell there is a soft white substance which can be eaten. Before you heard what a chenet was, it was not in your mind, but now that I have explained it to you, it is in your mind and will remain there as a harmless idea.”
“But if I should tell you about a certain disease and explain its terrible characteristics to you in every detail – tell you what the symptoms are, how you are liable to catch it, and how dangerous it is, the ideas will be in your mind, just as the idea chenet was put into your mind but with this difference…the idea chenet contained no fear and will do you no harm, but the idea disease will, and if this fear is allowed to remain in your consciousness, it will create the disease which I have described to you, and this disease will manifest itself in or on the body at any time when your system is in the right condition.”
In an earlier post I mentioned that story of the pilgrim and the Plague. A pilgrim was leaving the city of Constantinople for a trip when he met the Plague coming into the city. The pilgrim said, ‘why are you here? The Plague answered, I am here for 5,000 souls. Two months later the pilgrim was returning to Constantinople and met the Plague as it was leaving the city after 50,000 people had died. The pilgrim said, ‘I thought you said you came for only 5,000 people?’ The Plague responded, ‘I only took 5,000 souls, Fear took the rest.’
I have included a painting of Napoleon, shown walking among the plague victims to demonstrate to his soldiers that he had no fear and the plague could not affect him. Goethe said in his memoirs that Napoleon told him that he went to where the plague was raging and deliberately walked and touched the plague victims to demonstrate that man has power over the plague and not the other way around. Below is a section of the painting by Antoine-Jean Gros, Bonaparte Visits the Plague Stricken in Jaffa, painted in 1804 and hanging in the Louvre, depicting the event.
Quimby spoke of thought as being like the aroma of a rose. You can’t see the aroma but it is there. Thoughts surround and permeate our consciousness and existence. Some thoughts are self-generated while others are the thoughts and beliefs from other people. There is much more to the philosophy of P.P. Quimby and his concept of thought, belief and disease. If you wish to learn more about these concepts I would suggest:
by Ervin Seale and 
by Horatio Dresser.
The intent of my post is to awaken an inner knowing and to stimulate greater thought on this subject. The idea of the power of thoughts, thought forming and thought manifestation were an important part of several ancient teachings.
To inspire and empower. May the awareness of your greater potential blaze forth within you.
For integrative health information: http://www.wrf.org
To inspire and empower. May the awareness of your greater potential blaze forth within you.
For integrative health information: http://www.wrf.org
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