Quimby’s Written Prescriptions: Mental Remedies for Patients

Introduction

In the mid-nineteenth century, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, a clockmaker and mesmerist from Portland, Maine, developed a radical approach to healing that bypassed physical touch and instead relied on the written word. His "written prescriptions"—personal letters sent to patients—were not merely correspondence but deliberate therapeutic instruments, designed to shift the patient’s mental state and thereby alleviate physical suffering. These letters, preserved in The Quimby Manuscripts, offer a window into the birth of mental healing and the emergence of what would become the New Thought movement. Quimby’s practice of absent healing through written instructions anticipated the central tenets of New Thought: the power of the mind over the body, the role of belief in disease, and the possibility of healing without material intervention. This article traces the historical development of Quimby’s written prescriptions, their content and method, and their profound influence on figures like Mary Baker Eddy and the broader New Thought movement.

Historical Context

Quimby’s work emerged at the confluence of several intellectual and cultural currents: American Transcendentalism, with its emphasis on the individual’s intuitive connection to the divine; the popular craze of mesmerism and animal magnetism, which suggested that unseen forces could influence the body; and the broader religious ferment of the Second Great Awakening, which encouraged personal spiritual experience. In the 1830s and 1840s, Quimby was an early practitioner of mesmerism, using hypnotic techniques to diagnose and treat patients. However, by the 1850s, he had moved beyond the mechanical aspects of mesmerism to a more philosophical and psychological understanding of disease. He concluded that illness was fundamentally a matter of false belief, and that correcting the patient’s mental errors could effect a cure. This shift aligned with the ideas of Swedenborgianism and the mind-cure movement, which were gaining traction in New England. Quimby’s written prescriptions were a natural extension of his practice: if disease was a belief, then the written word could serve as a vehicle for changing that belief, even at a distance. His letters were not merely advice but active therapeutic interventions, often describing specific physical manipulations (e.g., rubbing the head) that he claimed to perform mentally while the patient read. This practice of "absent healing" would later be adopted and adapted by Christian Science and New Thought groups.

Main Narrative

Origins of the Written Prescription

Quimby’s use of written letters as therapeutic tools developed organically from his practice. When patients could not visit him in person, he would correspond with them, and he soon realized that his letters could have a healing effect. In a letter dated Portland, February 9, 1860, to a patient in Hill, N.H., Quimby writes: "Your letter apprised me of your situation and I went to see [absent healing] if I could affect you. I am still trying to do so, but do not know as I can without sitting down and talking with you as I am at present. So I will sit by you a short time and relieve the pain in your stomach and carry it off." He instructs the patient: "Sit up straight. I am now rubbing the back part of your head and round the roots of your nose." This letter demonstrates the core elements of his method: the claim of mental presence across distance, the description of physical manipulations, and the instruction for the patient to participate actively by reading and visualizing. Quimby explicitly states, "When you read this, I shall be with you: and do as I write. I am in this letter, so remember and look at me, and see if I do not mean just as I say." The letter itself is the medium of healing, and the patient’s reading is the moment of cure.

The Practice of Written Mental Remedies

Quimby’s written prescriptions were not standardized but tailored to each patient’s ailment and mental state. In a longer letter to Miss L., dated Portland, December 7, 1861, Quimby expands on his philosophy: "You and I have a power called the inner man by the ignorant, but its true name is Wisdom or progression. This is the child of God, and although at first almost without an identity this little wisdom implanted in this earthly man or idea is held in ignorance till some higher wisdom frees it from its prison." He uses biblical metaphors, comparing himself to Moses leading the patient through the "sea of ignorance". The letter is both a spiritual discourse and a therapeutic prescription. Quimby’s method involved identifying the patient’s false beliefs—often related to fear, ignorance, or religious superstition—and replacing them with true wisdom. He believed that disease was a "belief" that could be corrected by the patient’s own understanding. The written prescription served as a tool for this correction, providing a clear, authoritative statement of truth that the patient could absorb and internalize. Quimby also used the letters to instruct patients in self-care, such as relaxation techniques and mental exercises, but the primary mechanism was the transfer of his own mental state to the patient through the written word.

Reception and Influence

Quimby’s written prescriptions were part of a broader practice that attracted patients from across New England, including Mary Baker Eddy, who was treated by Quimby in 1862 and later developed Christian Science. Although Eddy would later distance herself from Quimby’s methods, her early writings show a clear debt to his ideas about the mental nature of disease and the power of correct thought. The letters themselves were preserved by Quimby’s followers and ultimately published in The Quimby Manuscripts, edited by Horatio W. Dresser and released in 1921. This collection made Quimby’s approach accessible to a new generation of New Thought leaders. The practice of written mental remedies also influenced the development of correspondence courses in New Thought, such as those offered by Emma Curtis Hopkins and the Unity School of Christianity. In these later movements, written lessons and affirmations became central tools for spiritual healing, echoing Quimby’s innovative use of the written word.

Key Concepts in the Prescriptions

Several key concepts recur in Quimby’s letters: the "inner man" or "Wisdom" as the true self, the idea that disease originates in false belief, the role of the healer as a guide (like Moses), and the power of presence through writing. Quimby also emphasized the importance of the patient’s active participation—reading, sitting up straight, and visualizing the healer’s actions. These concepts would be systematized by later New Thought writers, but Quimby’s letters retain a personal, almost conversational tone that reflects his pragmatic approach. He did not claim to be creating a new religion or science, but rather to be applying a practical method of mental healing. The letters also reveal Quimby’s view of himself as a catalyst for the patient’s own inner wisdom, rather than a miracle worker. This aligns with the New Thought emphasis on the individual’s innate divine power.

Why It Matters in New Thought History

Quimby’s written prescriptions represent a pivotal moment in the transition from mesmerism to mental healing. They demonstrate a shift from physical manipulation to cognitive and spiritual intervention, and they establish the written word as a legitimate medium for healing—a concept that would permeate New Thought literature, from Emma Curtis Hopkins’s "Scientific Christian Mental Practice" to Ernest Holmes’s Science of Mind textbook. The letters also illustrate the foundational New Thought idea that disease is a belief that can be changed, and that the healer’s role is to guide the patient toward a correct understanding of reality. Moreover, Quimby’s practice of absent healing through letters anticipated the distance-learning and correspondence courses that became hallmarks of New Thought organizations like Unity and Divine Science. For students of New Thought history, these letters are primary evidence of the movement’s roots in personal, idiosyncratic practice as opposed to formal doctrine. They show that New Thought was not born from a single revelation but from the trial-and-error experiments of a self-taught healer who trusted the power of the mind and the written word.

Primary Sources

• The Quimby Manuscripts, edited by Horatio W. Dresser, 1921. Contains the letters to patients, including the February 9, 1860 letter to a patient in Hill, N.H., and the December 7, 1861 letter to Miss L. Available at sacred-texts.com and sacred-texts.com.
• Phineas Parkhurst Quimby’s writings—various manuscripts and letters preserved in the Quimby Collection at the Library of Congress and other archives.
• Mary Baker Eddy’s early correspondence—Eddy’s letters and notes from her time with Quimby, which show his influence on her thought.
• Horatio W. Dresser’s History of the New Thought Movement, 1919, which contextualizes Quimby’s work.
• Annetta Dresser’s The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby, 1895, an early compilation of Quimby’s ideas.