h may help to show how mental
healing may be brought about. Not simply the alleviation of bodily
ills, but the complete cure may result from the influence on the
subconsciousness. A large number of cures are brought about by faith
in certain religious practices, this faith amounting to a certainty in
the minds of the patients before the cure is started or while it is in
progress. Trustful expectation in any one direction acts powerfully
through the subconsciousness because it absorbs the whole mind, and
thus competition with other ideas, either consciously or
subconsciously, is largely excluded. It is this which acts in mental
healing under the caption of faith, although some abnormal conditions
may also arise to assist the suggestion.

That this confident expectation of a cure is the most potent means of
bringing it about, doing that which no medical treatment can
accomplish, may be affirmed as the generalized result of experiences
of the most varied kind, extending through a long series of ages. It
is this factor which is common to methods of the most diverse
character. It is noticeable that any system of treatment, however
absurd, that can be puffed into public notoriety for efficacy, any
individual who by accident or design obtains a reputation for a
special gift of healing, is certain to attract a multitude of
sufferers, among whom will be many who are capable of being really
benefited by a strong assurance of relief. Thus, the practitioner with
a great reputation has an advantage over his neighboring physicians,
not only on account of the superior skill which he may have acquired,
but because his reputation causes this confident expectation, so
beneficial in itself.

There have been fashions in cures as in other things. At one time a
certain relic, or healer, would attract and cure, and shortly
afterward it would be deserted and inefficacious, not because it had
lost its power, but because it had lost its reputation, and the
people had consequently lost their faith in it. Some other relics
would then acquire a reputation, spring into popular favor, and the
crowds would flock to them. We have many modern instances of this
kind. If sufficient confidence in the power of a concoction, a shrine,
a relic, or a person can be aroused, genuine cures can be wrought
regardless of the healing properties of the dose.

The whole system of mental therapeutics may be divided into two parts;
what we may designate as metaphysic