Healing at a Distance

Ernest Holmes

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HEALING AT A DISTANCE
written by Ernest Holmes for The Uplift Magazine
In the realm of spirit, time and space do not exist. Yesterday, today, and forever
are the Eternal Now. Age cannot be attributed to God, he lives from eternity to
eternity and his "years" are ever the same. So the real man, the ego, the inner life
which bears the divine likeness is ageless, and in the infinite reaches of eternity
will bear no relation to time.
Nor is there the element of distance in the spirit realm.
The Spirit which fills the interspaces of the universe and thrills through all things,
does not cognize space. The thought of God does not begin at one point and pass
hence to another. The thought is immediate. The Spirit has often been symbolized
by a winged dove and the messenger of God, as a flying angel but in truth, the
departure and the arrival of God's thought are always at the same point.
Now in healing, we work entirely through the medium of the spiritual nature. In
the realm of spirit, one mind does not lie at a distance from some other mind.
Entering the realm of the spirit, one lays aside distances. For example, love is as
real and as vital when two friends are far apart as when they are near. "Absent in
the body but present in the spirit," expresses it. Love unites though hearts be far
apart. Or we may find an illustration in prayer. It has been long recognized in the
church that prayer leaps at once from the petitioner to its object. I can pray for
my friend half way around the globe; the effect of the prayer is immediate.
Innumerable instances are on record showing that the time of the prayer and its
answer were identical, although the parties were far apart.
Acting upon this principle, in common with untold others we have healed many
"afar off yet near at hand."

AN ILLUSTRATION
Illustrative of my experience in healing at a distance, is the case of a woman living
some fifty or sixty miles from my home. I received a telephone message one
evening from a mutual friend, who told me about her condition. He said she had
lost control of the voluntary muscles of the throat and was unable to swallow
anything. Her physician declared that he could do nothing for her and commended
that she try this kind of help as a last resort. I enquired her name and other facts
and said, "She will be well in the morning."
The next morning I received another telephone message stating that she had
come down to breakfast and had eaten toast and had drunk her coffee. I
continued treating her for some time and although she is eighty years of age, she
has shown remarkable improvement in general health and mental condition.

Chapter II, NO REAL "DISTANCE" IN SPIRIT

One realizes that the "healer" is not the source but the channel, not the light but
the window, will readily realize that it is no more difficult for him to release the
laws of healing at a distance than immediately at hand. If we are to convey a
message by our own voice, we soon reach the limitation in the distance sound will
carry. But if we turn to the laws of electricity we find that it is as easy for us to
transmit a message for a hundred miles as it is for a hundred feet. We have
enlarged the medium of our communication, we have made use of a higher law of
vibration. By infinitely enlarging this concept we get some idea of the significance
of the process by which healing is secured at a distance. Were we dependent upon
our own powers we would find an immediate limitation. Like Jesus, we must say,
"I can of myself do nothing. It is my Father who doeth the work." Suppose that by
magnetic power we were to attempt to heal. The patient in our immediate
presence would doubtless benefit somewhat but we would have a very narrow
circle of power.
But let us realize that the healer is not himself the source. He is simply putting
into operation laws which will operate upon the patient. His thought is like the
touch of the wireless operator at the keys; he releases forces which themselves
act to transmit the message. The healer releases not electric but spiritual power.
As the electric vibration enters the great transmitting medium of space, so thought
enters the great medium of Spirit.
The question then arises, What is Spirit? And the acceptable answer is, God is
Spirit." God, the Ever Present, who moves through an, in all and over all, who fills
all things with His presence and moves through everything, knows no space nor
bounds. He is here. He is there. He is everywhere. Into this great ever present
Spirit we pour our healing prayer. We have entered a realm where distance is
unknown. If God knows no space nor form, if in Spirit the limitations of space do
not exist, our thought is at once in touch with the object of our healing desire.
Distance is then only a relative term and it is as easy to heal one who is "miles"
away as when present.
If it be objected that man seems thus to be working upon God to secure results,
which in all reason God would give before man ever thought of asking him, we
would reply that there is much that God never gives until asked. If it be true that
he would as readily give unasked as asked, then he did not need even the request
of Jesus, but would have performed all the healing wonders on his own initiative.
But we know from experience and observation that the forces that accrue to us
from the Almighty are released only through faith and prayer. And finally we
realize, since they are infinite forces which we release, that we can release them
anywhere and at any distance. Of this there is a suggestive example in the life of
Jesus. We are told by the Apostle John that "He came, therefore, again unto Cana
of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman,
whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of
Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down
and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said unto him,
"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe." The nobleman saith
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unto him, "Sir, come down ere my child die." Jesus said unto him, "Go, thy son
liveth." The man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him, and he went his
way. And as he was now going down, his servant met him, saying that his son
lived. So he inquired of them the hour when his son began to mend. They said,
therefore, unto him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the
father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth;
and himself believed, and his whole house."

Chapter III, THE NATURE OF SPIRIT

Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the Father knew that it was
at that hour in which Jesus said unto him, "Thy son liveth."--Jn. 4 :52-53.
There is always a certain sense of gratification when one who thinks much and
teaches incessantly finds his teaching corroborated by the scientific thought and
investigation of others. This is particularly true when we deal with a field of
exploration and endeavor new to the world, in which many of us move as pioneers
and wherein we are not able to refer our students to the familiar landmarks of
authority in other branches of human knowledge and endeavor. Having ventured
far into the unmarked regions of discovery and having served as guides to hesitant
and weary wayfarers, it is pleasant for us to meet with some other who has
ventured too, into the great unknown, but from a different point of the compass.
Finally, it is particularly gratifying to meet such a bold spirit, if he hail from a
country where he is well-known and his word carries the weight of authority. From
time to time we meet with such spirits and from them we sometimes secure a light
which casts a brilliant illumination upon a landscape we have sought to describe.
How often have we taught the truths of the following text:
"It is, is it not, a fact that God lives and works in ether, as we live and work in our
physical bodies. It would thus follow that other spirits and our own souls may yet
live and act in a direct sense in God, in the same space, the same ether, the same
God who fills all things.
And may we not wonder, and perhaps learn some day, whether the ether is not
the medium in its strain by which our spirit, our will, acts on our physical
structure? We know that it is through strain in the ether that physical movements
are secured; why may not the mind act on and through ether? Are we quite sure
that the mind is not itself a modification of ether? just as the electron is? Thus we
might conceive of the beasts as having an ether soul to be compared with the low
combining weight of hydrogen, while the human soul is complex, like an organic
molecule, and the vital soul of the tree is inert, like argon. We do not know, but at
least the conjecture is plausible that, as the ether is only semi-material, it may be
that my mind creates a current, a wave, in the ether, and this semi-material ether
is the conducting link between my immaterial mind and my material body. I t is as
good a conjecture as any, and in line with phenomena not yet explained, in which,
if a multitude of apparently well-authenticated tales are true, telepathic influence
has been conveyed from one mind to another far distant-wireless telegraphy
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through ether. I do not accept it as based on any real evidence, but I am allowed
the conception of God as an infinite spirit, residing in infinite ether, acting in it,
working through it, ether as really himself, as our bodies are ourselves, converting
it into matter or mind, and controlling it by his will. Thus I may dare to conceive of
ether as in a sense the body of God, and may conjecture that when God made all
things out of ether he made them not out of nothing, as men have been wont to
say, but out of himself; and yet I would conceive of the ether out of which
everything is made, as God only in the lower sense in which I speak of my body as
myself, when it is only the organ by which the I, that is, my mind, reaches its
purpose."
I am sure little comment is necessary. We have here a text from which it is easy
to draw lessons. We perceive the nature of the surrounding medium, we
comprehend the method by which intelligence can or does dominate it. We
understand the process by which thought is projected by the individual and is
transported to any distance. You will recall that in the September number of The
Uplift, under the title of "The Way of Love," we said, "We know that we cannot
project a thought of love into the air, but Love Divine will bear it on swift pinion to
the remotest physical object of our thought." And again, we have taught, "it is
love within setting the waves of Love outside us into motion." Thought, love,
passionate desire, prayer, faith, understanding - divine forces these! How swiftly
they pass through the intervening physical distance and like a messenger angel,
search out the object of our solicitude! So it is that we can comprehend the power
of the compassion and healing thought of Jesus when he said, "Lo thy son liveth" a
truth verified hours later by the father when he found on inquiry that the fever had
left him at the "seventh hour."
Many instances occur to us from our own experience, of which the following is
typical:

CURED OF FEVER
A woman living in a city in Illinois, telegraphed me one day, saying that she was
suffering from malarial fever, with its accompanying aching of limbs, severe pain
in the abdomen and excessive headache, and had been sick for two weeks.
She asked me to undertake her healing. I began treating her at once and in a few
days received a letter saying that the pain had left her immediately and that she
was now in a normal condition. This was most satisfactory as she was usually in
the finest health.
"What I Believe and Why," by William Hayes Ward-Chas. Scribner's Sons, pp 174176.

Chapter IV, NOT SCIENCE BUT FAITH ESSENTIAL

Our previous discussions have shown the power of the healing thought to be so
great as to be unhampered by physical distance. We have made clear through
philosophic terms the nature of the process, and we have also shown something of
the physical process by which the transmission of thought takes place. It is our
effort to tear off the curtains that shroud the healing laws in mystery and in so far
as we are able to make the healing laws clear to all. In this article we will show
what physical science contributes to this thought as this may be of help to some
who think most easily along the line of physical science.
Yet let us first offer this precaution: Never think you must know everything about
the law or laws before you can use them. Every time we shake a luscious apple
from the tree we employ the law of gravity, but no scientist has ever been able to
solve the mystery of that law. You may send forth the healing word, you may not
know how it goes hither or what wings its slender thought may take, yet it speeds
to its certain goal. Having once ventured on the path of faith, having received or
sent forth the healing word, and having observed its power, you are convinced of
the truth of the matter, though you cannot explain it. The father, whose son was
healed at "that very hour" in which the remote Christ had spoken the word, could
not have known "the how of it," but he could joyfully exclaim, "One thing I know;
this, my son, who was sick, is well again." After all, these things may be "hid from
the wise and prudent" and "revealed unto babes."

MUTUAL HELPFULNESS NECESSARY

Yet, again, whoever wills, it is his right to know what he can of the laws of mind,
matter, and spirit. But let no man be too zealous or over-exacting. Let him who
boasts too much in physical science declare unto us the ultimate nature and
constitution of matter, let him analyze mind into its constituent elements, or let
him demonstrate the correlation of the two. Then may he come to us as our
teacher and we will sit at his feet. Until then let us take counsel together, and let
us each heartily encourage the other, metaphysician saying to physicist, "Brother
be of good cheer; physicist saying to psychologist, "March on, we will stand ready
to lend a hand." This is the way in which the great thinkers in the several fields
are today co-operating and many rich results are the signs that follow their
common efforts.

TELEPATHY
We have casually mentioned the difficulty experienced by science in correlating the
activity of mind and matter. At what point does mind enter a transmissive medium
when thought is dispatched to a distant object? What is the process by which that
medium again converts the message into a thought registered upon the mind of
the recipient? Science designates the phenomenon by the term "telepathy."
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"Telepathy concerns the passage of thought between two distant but living
persons," says Ward, and the two brains may be conceived of as themselves able
to transmit and receive the current of thought." The mystery that seems to shroud
"healing at a distance" would be largely removed if we were better able to
understand how the brain sends forth or receives that message. Underlying the
whole problem is the question of the ultimate constitution and nature of matter
and spirit. Modern chemistry has done much to assist us by resolving matter from
electron to ether. If matter be composed of modifIcations of ether, it is possible to
discern how the brain, which is one composite of ether, can send its vibrations
through the more immaterial ether, which is yet of like substance. Again, if we
may posit, and this as yet cannot be demonstrated, that mind is a "spiritual
segregate" of ether, we may then see how thought passes from mind to mind. It
would be an ethereal wave, originating in ether, transmitted by ether, received by
ether. This theory, for it can only be classed as such at present, would be borne
out by the philosophic assumption, which all science constantly corroborates, that
there is an underlying unity in the whole universe. It is borne out by the testimony
of the philosophic idealist. It seems to me that it need not de-spiritualize the
essential philosophy of him who believes that God is all in all. Whatever be the
ultimate constitution of mind or matter, the nature of that constitution will not
change, call it by any name we will. All, all, belongs to God, all, all responds to the
will of him who works through God to the accomplishment of high and noble ends.

ABOUT DR. WARD'S THEORY

We venture in this connection to quote at length from Rev. William Hayes Ward, in
his recent interesting volume on "What I Believe and Why":
The evidence for telepathy is, I suppose, considerably stronger than that for
communication with the dead. Almost every family has some mysterious story of
its own. In my family my father when a boy, thought himself one night in great
danger of being murdered, and at that same hour his mother received the
impression, though many miles distant, that he was in great danger, and she
arose from her bed and prayed for him. If there is truth in telepathy a thought can
pass hundreds or thousands of miles from one mind, or brain, to another mind or
brain. It must be carried by some medium, and we know of no medium but the
ether. Now the sensations we know of in the body are not carried by ether, but by
the nerves. It would seem likely that the thought waves, carried plausibly and
even probably by the ether, most find their source of origin and their receiver in
something analogous to ether and thus be able to act upon it; or the transmitting
and receiving minds must actually be products of ether, just as is the case in
wireless telegraphy, or light, or gravitation. For it is the movements of the
ultimate electrons, which are merely modifications of ether, on which their power
rests. May we not then think of the mind as the transmitting and receiving organ,
and the ether as the conductor of thought; and the mind itself as a spiritual
segregate of ether, just as electrons are the physical segregate; so that what Paul
calls the spiritual body may be constituted of ether, and be the mind itself, or, if
not, the ultra-substantial organ through which the mind works, even as we may
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think of the whole infinite ether as the coeternal and co-infinite mystery in and
through which the infinite God lives and works? God's mind and will pervades
ether and has its being in it; and I know of no supposition more probable than that
the human mind in its essence and substance is somehow etheral.
Sir Oliver Lodge hints as much when he says in "The Ether of Space," p. 123:
"We know that matter has a physical significance, since it can constitute brain,
which links together the physical and the psychical worlds. If anyone thinks that
the ether, with all its massiveness and energy, has probably no psychical
significance, I find myself unable to agree with him."
And he quotes Clerk-Maxwell, a chief master of physics, as saying, p. 117:
"Whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter (the ether) is fitted
not only to be a medium of physical interaction between distant bodies, and to
fulfill other physical functions of which, perhaps we have as yet no conception, but
also to constitute the material organism of beings exercising functions of life and
mind as high or higher than ours are at present, is a question far transcending the
limit of physical speculation."
This stupendous conception has value not only as a word of cheer from science on
the question of immortality, but also as a rational basis for the believing in and
comprehending the phenomenon of healing at a distance. If thought can pass so
far from mind to mind, any kind of thought can so pass. Loving thought will carry
words of love. Solicitude of prayer will reach its mark. Health thoughts will come
to their goal. You may safely project the healing word and know it will be borne on
swift pinion to another's mind. Once lodged in the mind of another it performs its
wonted task in exactly the same manner as the spoken word, or the auto-thought
of faith, as described in Chapter V.
Several illustrations occur to me in this connection:

STOMACH TROUBLE
In Oakland, California, a certain woman was suffering from severe stomach
disorders. Her mother came to me at my Los Angeles office and in her behalf
asked me to undertake her treatment. I shortly received word that she was
entirely healed.
This woman was herself afflicted with so-called paralysis, and asked me to help
her. She was at that time living in Columbus, Ohio, while I was in California. In a
short time she wrote me of her recovery.

BUSINESS MAN'S EXPERIENCE

The wife of a business man asked me in his to give him treatments for an unusual
trouble. It was necessary for him to take certain trips by train, which he always
dreaded, because travel was a strain for him and always gave him severe pains in
the back. I gave him treatments at a distance and shortly after received a letter
from her saying that he had been entirely free from pain during a protracted
journey. He was very happy over it.

CO-OPERATION WITH THE PHYSICIAN

The following interesting letter came from Massachusetts, May 9, 1917:
Dear Mr. Holmes: I know you must have received our telegram and treated R-,
because our doctor says he never saw a child rally so fast in his life. Monday,
when we sent to you she was VERY ill and this morning she is her old self. Her
throat is nearly clear and she has a good appetite. The doctor says it is marvelous.
He has not seen anything like it in the 150 cases he has had this year.
Please keep up the treatments; we are going to get her out into the air and
sunshine next week. The other children are not going to take it.
Sincerely yours,

Chapter V, THE SURE WORKING OF THE LAW

When we think of the fact that there is neither distance or absence in the realms
of spirit we see that to speak of giving an absent treatment means the same thing
as giving a present treatment. For we are all in one spirit and in one God, so to
think of any as absent is to think of that which is not true. Real healing is soulhealing and this takes place only on the mental and spiritual plane where time and
space do not exist. Now as we are "all in one spirit," so we are all in one mind.
And being in one mind it makes no difference whether we are all present in the
body. To think of a person in mind is to be with them in mind.

SENDING OUT THOUGHTS

So to speak of sending out a thought to help others is merely a way of expressing
an idea. For in realty we do not have to send out a thought; we have simply to
think and know the truth which we embody will of itself do the work.
What makes people sick is that they have been living away from their source.
They have been thinking from the outside.
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Now what they need is to have their thoughts turned to the spirit. This then calls
for a spiritual way of thinking. There is in all people this spiritual realm and in all
people it is the same realm, there is no separation in the spirit. To think of a
person as a spiritual being is to be thinking the truth about him and if he is in a
state of mind to receive this thinking, he will get the thought that you think for
him and according to the strength of the thought in truth it will have power to help
and to heal him.
There must be an action on both sides. The healer must know that he is dealing
not with a theory, but with a fact, none the less scientific because it is spiritual. He
must have faith in the power that he believes in and must know that this is law
and that it will have the desired effect. There must also be an action of receiving
the truth on the part of the patient, and if this law is not complied with there will
be no healing. This is the law and no good results can be obtained unless the law
is complied with. Many people make a great mistake in thinking that a healer is all
that is necessary. No greater mistake could be made than to have this idea in
mind. There is no healing without it be received by the one wishing to be healed.
The wind blows against the window but will not come in unless we open the
window and let it come in. I can not make you a gift unless you will take it. So
healing cannot be done unless someone receives the healing. This calls for an
application on the part of the patient just as it calls for an application on the part
of the healer. Healing means a change of our way of thinking, a change in the
inside as well as on the outside.

WHERE THE PROCESS TAKES PLACE

The whole process takes place on an unseen plane, in the realm of mind and spirit.
In the realm of the real or the spiritual, all things are possible to him who believes
and in a certain sense all disease may be healed if there can be brought about a
realization of health. Some people can receive this and some seem unable to do
so. So it cannot be said that all people will be healed, for all people will not take
the time and train their thoughts as much as is necessary. No person is really
healed and permanently helped who does not become first really changed in his
thought. This is the whole process, a change of thought, from a material to a
spiritual basis. This takes time and a lot of effort and is not done in a minute.
There arc ups and downs in this work as in all other branches of endeavor. One
should not be discouraged if he or she does not seem to respond at once. The
work is going on and when the mind is finally renewed there will be a perfect
healing. It matters not how long it takes, the healing is going on all of the time
and to him who endures the results are certain. We must have patience and know
that the law is sure and is working and in that faith we must press on, not noticing
the little things that seem for the time to be in the way. For law is law, and the
person who will comply with it must reap the harvest. Some persons respond
almost at once to healing and others take a long time to get results. Some minds
are receptive and some are not and we should take into consideration this fact and
work with the understanding that all people can be helped. Some in a short time
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and some in a longer time, but all will be helped if we will use the law and have
faith in it. Sometimes the healing that takes the longest is in the end the best, for
the ones being healed are at the same time taught and will in time be able
themselves to heal themselves and others. No matter what time it takes, this
healing and this understanding of life is the one thing worth while. So let us press
on, let us endure and by so doing let us again prove to the world the truth of what
we teach.

THE UPLIFT
A Magazine of Truth, Devoted to Health and Faith
Edited by ERNEST SHURTLEFF HOLMES
The very number contains invaluable instruction in health and happiness. By
reading it, you can learn how to heal and help yourself and others, and how to
apply the law of supply.

UPLIFT BOOKLET SERIES

Fundamentals to Health
Fundamentals to Wealth
Near to the Heart of God
The Dynamic Power of the Higher Consciousness
The Unfailing Formula
Healing at a Distance
How to Realize the Presence

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