A WOMAN, SO I have heard, went into a drugstore and asked for a bottle of psychosomatic medicine.
Such medicine, of course, is not found on drugstore shelves for it does not come in pills or bottles. But there is a psychosomatic medicine just the same and many of us need it. It is a prescription compounded of prayer, faith, and dynamic spiritual thinking.
It has been variously computed that from 50 to 75 per cent of present-day people are ill because of the influence of improper mental states on their emotional and physical make-up. Therefore such a medicine is of great importance. Many people who are below par will find that there is a health formula which, in addition to the services of their physicians, can be of great value to them.
The manner in which spiritual and emotional treatment can restore declining vitality is illustrated by the sales manager referred to us by the head of a large company. This sales executive, formerly a man of outstanding efficiency and energetic driving power, experienced a serious decline both in ability and energy. He lost his creative skill. Previously his sales ideas had been unique and outstanding. It soon become noticeable to his associates that this sales manager was slipping badly. He was urged to consult a doctor, and the company sent him to Atlantic City for a rest and later to Florida for a second attempt at recovery. Neither of these vacations seemed to be productive of any definite improvement.
His physician, who knew about our religio-psychiatric clinic, recommended to the company president that this sales manager come to us for an interview. The president asked him to come, which he did, but he was rather indignant at being sent to a church.
“This is a pretty pass,” he fumed, “when they send a businessman to a preacher. I suppose you are going to pray with me and read the Bible,” he said irritably.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” I answered, “for sometimes our trouble lies in an area where prayer and the therapy of the Bible can have an important effect.”
He proved most sullen and unco-operative until finally I was forced to say to him, “I want to tell you bluntly that you had better co-operate with us or you’re going to be fired.”
“Who told you that?” he demanded.
“Your boss,” I replied. “In fact, he says that unless we can straighten you out, as much as he regrets it, you are going to be through.”
You never saw such a stunned expression on anybody’s face. “What do you think I ought to do?” he stammered.
“Often,” I replied, “a person gets into the state in which you find yourself because the mind is filled with fear, anxiety, tension, resentment, guilt, or a combination of all of them. When these emotional impediments accumulate to a certain weight, the personality cannot support them any longer and gives way. Normal sources of emotional, spiritual, and intellectual power become clogged up. So a person becomes bogged down by resentment, by fear, or by guilt. I do not know your trouble, but I would suggest that you think of me as a sympathetic friend with whom you can be absolutely confident, and that you tell me about yourself.” I emphasized that it was important he conceal nothing and that he completely empty himself of whatever fears, resentments, or guilt feelings might be in his mind. “I assure you that our interview will be held in strictest confidence. All your company wants is to have you back, the same highly efficient person you were.”
In due course the trouble came out. He had committed a series of sins and these had involved him in a complicated maze of lies. He was living in fear of exposure, and all in all it was a most pathetic mass of inner confusion. It came little short of mental filth.
It was rather difficult to get him to talk, for he was essentially a decent person and had a strong sense of shame. I told him that I understood his reticence, but that this operation had to be performed and that it could not be accomplished without a thorough mind-emptying.
When it was all over, I shall never forget the manner in which he reacted. Standing on his feet he began to stretch. He stood on tiptoes, reaching his fingers toward the ceiling, and then took a deep breath. “My,” he said, “I feel good.” It was a dramatic expression of release and relief. Then I suggested that he pray and ask God to forgive him and to fill him with peace and cleanness.
“Do you mean for me to pray aloud?” he asked dubiously. “I never did that in my life.”
“Yes,” I said, “it is a good practice and will strengthen you.”
It was a simple prayer, and as best as I can recall it, this is what he said, “Dear Lord, I have been an unclean man and I am sorry for the wrong I have done. I have poured it all out to my friend here. I now ask You to forgive me and to fill me with peace. Also make me strong so that I will never repeat these actions. Help me to be clean again and better—lots better.”
He went back to his office that very day. Nothing was ever said to him, and it did not need to be, for soon he got back into stride and is one of the best sales managers in his city today.
Later I met his president, who said, “I don’t know what you did to Bill, but he is certainly a ball of fire.”
“I did nothing. God did it,” I replied.
“Yes,” he said, “I understand. Anyway, he is the old-time Bill.”
When this man’s vitality sagged, he tried a health formula that restored him to normal efficiency. He “took” some psychosomatic medicine which cured him of an unhealthy spiritual and mental condition.
Dr. Franklin Ebaugh of the University of Colorado Medical School maintains that one third of all cases of illness in general hospitals are clearly organic in nature and onset, one third are a combination of emotional and organic, and one third are clearly emotional.
Dr. Flanders Dunbar, author of Mind and Body, says, “It is not a question of whether an illness is physical or emotional, but how much of each.”
Every thoughtful person who has ever considered the matter realizes that the doctors are right when they tell us that resentment, hate, grudge, ill will, jealousy, vindictiveness, are attitudes which produce ill-health. Have a fit of anger and experience for yourself that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, that sense of stomach sickness. Chemical reactions in the body are set up by emotional outbursts that result in feelings of ill-health. Should these be continued either violently or in a simmering state over a period of time, the general condition of the body will deteriorate.
In speaking of a certain man whom we both knew a physician told me that the patient died of “grudgitis.” The physician actually felt that the deceased passed away because of a long-held hatred. “He did his body such damage that his resistance was lowered,” the doctor explained, “so that when a physical malady attacked him he did not possess the stamina or renewing force to overcome it. He had undermined himself physically by the malignancy of his ill will.”
Dr. Charles Miner Cooper, San Francisco physician, in an article entitled, “Heart-to-Heart Advice About Heart Trouble,” says, “You must curb your emotional reactions. When I tell you that I have known a patient’s blood pressure to jump sixty points almost instantaneously in response to an outburst of anger, you can understand what strain such reactions can throw upon the heart.” One who is “quick on the trigger,” he wrote, is likely to blame someone else, impulsively, for a fault or mistake, when it would be wiser simply to avoid being so much disturbed by what is done and is therefore unavoidable. He quoted the great Scottish surgeon, John Hunter. Dr. Hunter had a heart condition himself, and a thorough understanding of the effect of strong emotion on his heart. He said that his life was at the mercy of anyone who could annoy him. And, in fact, his death resulted from a heart attack caused by a fit of anger when he forgot to discipline himself.
Dr. Cooper concludes, “Whenever a business problem starts to vex you or you begin to get angry, let yourself go limp all over. This will dissipate your mounting inner turmoil. Your heart asks that it be permanently housed in a lean, cheerful, placid man who will intelligently curb his physical, mental, and emotional activities.”
So if you are under par I suggest that you do a very scrupulous job of self-analysis. Honestly ask yourself if you are harboring any ill will or resentment or grudges, and if so cast them out. Get rid of them without delay. They do not hurt anybody else. They do no harm to the person against whom you hold these feelings, but every day and every night of your life they are eating at you. Many people suffer poor health not because of what they eat but from what is eating them. Emotional ills turn in upon yourself, sapping your energy, reducing your efficiency, causing deterioration in your health. And of course they siphon off your happiness.
So we realize today the effect of thought patterns upon physical states. We realize that a person can make himself ill by resentment. We know he can develop various kinds of physiological symptoms because of a sense of guilt. Also one may show definite physical symptoms as a result of fear and anxiety. We know that healing has been accomplished when the thoughts are changed.
Recently a diagnostician told me of a young woman who was admitted to the hospital with a temperature of one hundred and two degrees. She had a definite case of rheumatoid arthritis; her joints were badly swollen.
In order to study the case thoroughly the doctor gave her no medication except a slight sedative to relieve the pain. After two days the young woman asked the doctor, “How long will I be in this condition, and how long must I remain in the hospital?”
“I think I must tell you,” replied the physician, “that you will probably be in the hospital for about six months.”
“You mean it will be six months before I can get married?” she demanded.
“I am sorry,” he said, “but I cannot promise you anything better than that.”
This conversation took place in the evening. The next morning the patient’s temperature was normal and the swelling was gone from her joints. Unable to account for the change, the doctor observed her for a few days, then sent her home.
In a month she was back in the hospital in the same condition as before: temperature one hundred and two, joints swollen. Counseling disclosed that her father insisted that she marry a certain man who would be an asset to him in his business connections. The girl loved her father, wanted to do as he wished, but did not want to marry a man whom she did not love. So her subconscious mind came to her assistance and in effect gave her rheumatoid arthritis and a temperature.
The doctor explained to the father that if he forced this marriage his daughter could become an invalid. When told that she need not go through with the marriage, the girl’s recovery was quick and permanent.
Do not get the idea that if you have arthritis you are married to the wrong person! This incident merely illustrates the profound effect of mental pain on physical conditions.