Observations placeholder
Hack Tuke, Daniel – Healing - Inducing bowel evacuation by suggestion and a placebo
Identifier
026020
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Illustrations Of The Influence Of The Mind Upon The Body In Health And Disease, Designed To Elucidate The Action Of The Imagination - Daniel Hack Tuke, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
PART I. THE INTELLECT. CHAPTER I.
GENERAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
SECTION II.— Of various Mental States comprised under the Intellect. Definition and Elucidation.
When a person on swallowing a bread-pill, in the belief that it possesses aperient properties, is purged, it is said to be through his Imagination ; the mental condition present yielding, on analysis, a definite direction of thought to the intestinal canal ; such leading idea exciting the same peristaltic action as would have been induced by castor oil. The force of this current of thought is augmented by Expectation.
The other day a lady nurse, at the Plymouth Hospital, told me of a patient in one of the female wards, who was much disconcerted at the doctor having left the hospital without ordering an aperient pill, as he had intended to do. The nurse procured a bread-pill, and satisfied her mind. Next day she found, on inquiry, that it had answered its purpose satisfactorily.