WHAT TREATMENT METHOD WORKS BEST?

by
Joe Vitale

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Metaphysical Science in the
Department of Graduate Studies of the University of Metaphysics

December 3, 2002
DATE

Department of Graduate Studies

CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL

M.Msc. THESIS

This is to certify that the M.Msc. thesis of

Joe Vitale
has been approved by the Examining Committee for the
thesis requirements for the Master of Metaphysical Science
degree of the University of Metaphysics.

Thesis Committee:

___________________________
Thesis Supervisor
___________________________
Member
___________________________
Member

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction4
Review of Literature .5
Methods .7
Results9
Discussion .24
Summary and Conclusion..25
Bibliography...27

WHAT TREATMENT METHOD WORKS BEST? Vitale Page 4

Introduction
Im frustrated.
I want to know what treatment method works best. Im confused by the catalog of
treatments I can find offered in any new age yellow pages directory. I am in pain and
want out---but I have no idea which way to go to find the light.
Thats the plight of most people who seek treatment these days, including me. I
can look around and find people who offer to do treatments that involve taping my eyes
while I repeat mantras. I can also do research and find historical documents about
treatment methods. Well, which is right---the old or the new?
Now that metaphysics is very mainstream, being accepted by numerous people all
over the world and particularly here in America, there is the added problem of which
method of treatment works best.
In other words, with the rise of metaphysics has come different schools of
metaphysics, each promoting their own unique method of treatment, or way to help
people heal and grow. While the more treatment methods the merrier may be a good
slogan, is it true? Are all treatment methods created equal? If not, which treatment
method is best? Which does the most good? Which does the most (if any) harm?
If the goal of metaphysics is to help people realize their inner divinity and heal
themselves quickly, wouldnt the fastest, most direct route to treatment be the wisest
choice? If so, what is that method?
In short, what treatment method works best?
This thesis will attempt to answer these very questions.

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Review of Literature
I have devoured books old and new to understand treatment methods. Most of the
time Ive been left confused.
For example, if I look at early books on treatment, such as Rawsons 1912 book,
titled Treatment, and then look at a recent book on treatment, such as Joseph Murphys
brand-new Think Yourself to Health, Wealth, and Happiness, I find little in comparison.
While both speak about treatment, they seem to be speaking different languages.
I didnt stop there, of course. I cross-referenced old and new books to find
answers to my key questions. All of this will become clear in this thesis. For now, here
are some of my key resources:
There are two nice but very skimpy booklets on treatment in print, one by Jody
Carter called What Is Treatment?, and the other by Raymond Charles Barker called
Treatment. There are also in-print books containing material on the subject of treatment,
mostly essays by Joseph Murphy, Raymond Charles Barker, Emmet Fox, and Ernest
Holmes, that are too long to list here. Unfortunately, there is no one definitive full-length
book titled Treatment---The Guaranteed Method. (Actually, there is a book called
Treatment by F. L. Rawson from 1912, that Ernest Holmes once suggested might be a
definitive study of the subject, but it is now nearly one hundred years old.)
Since there are so few books in print on treatment, I decided to look elsewhere.
When I asked an out-of-print bookstore in Oregon to compile a list of all their books
covering the subject of treatment, they returned seven long pages of titles. Very few
books are focused solely on just treatment, while a few others briefly discuss treatment

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within their pages. By far, most books simply offer a wide variety of information on a
wide variety of treatment methods---from crystals to mind science to hands-on healing to
hands-off healing---the list goes on and on. In fact, I spent hundreds of dollars on these
books to help myself answer the question of this thesis.
There are good books that discuss treatment, such as Mind Surgery by Daniel
Boone Herring (1931), The Mirror of Your Mind by Orrin Moen (1961) and How to Give
Treatments Personal and Absent by F.W. Sears (1913), that are long out of print.
In addition, there are several biographies about the founders of metaphysical
schools and their own treatment methods, from Powerful Is The Light by Hazel Deane
(1945) (about Nona Brooks) to the recent colossal definitive biography, Mary Baker
Eddy, by Gillian Gill (1998).
The list doesnt stop there. There are also fine writings on treatment in collections
of essays, such as Mind Remakes Your World, edited by Ernest Holmes (1941). And
there are short explanations of treatment in such historical overviews of metaphysics as,
Spirits in Rebellion by Charles S. Braden (1963).
There is also material on the Internet about treatment, such as Stuart Graysons
explanation at http://www.stuartgrayson.com/mindtreatment.html and the very
informative collection of book and book excerpts on New Thought at
http://cornerstone.wwwhubs.com/framepage.htm
In addition to all of these titles and sources, I own a large personal collection of
books on New Thought, Mind Science, and metaphysics.
All of these resources, and more, were devoured to help answer the burning
question of this thesis: What treatment method works best?

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Methods
As a student of metaphysics for more than thirty years, I have had personal
experience with different methods of treatment. Some were direct and even harsh, others
were verbal and quick, and still others were silent and distant. All brought some healing
and some peace, but only one seemed to be the best treatment method of all.
I once went to a Chi Kung master who said he would heal me by pulling out my
bad chi. He did. I screamed as he poked at my ribs and supposedly sucked out the
negative chi in me. His brand of treatment left me black and blue and exhausted. I would
not say he did metaphysical treatment, but instead some Chinese version of it that was
more focused on energy than consciousness.
I spent ten years doing sessions with a hypnotist and NLP master who used verbal
talents and energy work to help me remove inner blocks to my goals. Most of this got
results, and quickly, but I would not say he did typical treatments. While he always asked
for white light and protection, he also ended up manipulating and molesting at least two
clients. Thats an obvious sign, to me, that he was not doing metaphysical treatments.
I have also called the Science of Mind phone line for a telephone treatment. I was
on the phone with the practitioner for maybe ten minutes. She prayed for me, but I sensed
her own skepticism in helping me achieve my stated desires. I would say her own inner
consciousness wasnt clear enough to do a traditional treatment. My results were nil.
I have worked with a remote healer who did treatments without seeing or
touching me. She apparently focused on me in her mind, cleansed me in her mind, and
fought off any negativity she saw around me in her mind. Results were mixed. The

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results seemed to depend on her own well-being at the time. If she couldnt focus due to
her own personal problems, she couldnt do a successful treatment.
I also spent a year working with a practitioner who does healing work globally.
She has helped 10,000 people. In the treatments done by her, sometimes she talks to me,
sometimes she is silent. She always invokes God and works for the highest good of all. I
would say her method of treatment is as close to pure as I have yet experienced.
Still, is her method the best form of treatment? Can it be improved? What other
methods are out there which I have never experienced? And out of all of them, which
method works best for the greatest number of people?
Even I have a book that I wrote that offers a 5-step treatment plan. My number
one best-selling book, Spiritual Marketing, offers a way to achieve goals and achieve
inner peace. But I have to admit, I doubt that it is the treatment method of all time.
Again, what treatment method works best?
Ive struggled with this question for years, and recently very intensely while
researching material to write this thesis. I believe there is a solid, testable, right way to do
treatment---and Im confused why no one has addressed it before.
My efforts here have been a sincere desire to find out what treatment works
bestfor myself, other healers, and for the world at large.
I believe knowing what treatment works best can serve the most number of people
the fastest. In a world where the population keeps expanding, and the problems keep
persisting, having a treatment method on hand that is proven to work would be
considered a God-send---and rightly so.

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Results
Where do we start?
A definition of the word treatment might help.
But the dictionary wont help much. My American Heritage Dictionary offers this
short definition of the word treatment:
1. The act or manner of treating something, such as a person or object. 2. The
application of remedies with the object of effecting a cure: therapy.
As any aware reader can see, the dictionary doesnt have a well defined
explanation for treatment. Saying treatment can be remedies is the very problem this
thesis is trying to address. Today treatments can be anything from aura cleansing to
prayer to guided visualizations to hypnosis to radical new forms of communing with the
divine to medical treatment, to you name it. I want to know what remedies count as
metaphysical treatment. The way the dictionary has it, a treatment can be anything from
herbal remedies to a chiropractic adjustment!
Again, we need a better starting place.
This thesis assumes that a treatment is any metaphysical attempt to help a
person heal whatever it is they state is troubling them.
The key word here, of course, is metaphysical. That will eliminate the herbal
healer, the chiropractor, the astrologer, and so on.
That being the case, what is a metaphysical treatment?
Lets see what the traditional metaphysicians have to say about it:

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Emmet Fox said, The word treatment is usually applied to a prayer that is made
to bring about a certain healing
F. L. Rawson wrote, Treatment is the word used to indicate that form of prayer
which is based upon right thinking, namely, thinking of absolute good. It is actively
thinking of the world of reality, or the absolute, called by the theologians, God and
heaven; by scientific men, cause and its manifestation; and by metaphysicians, Mind and
its ideas.
Paula Langguth Ryan, a metaphysical healer, wrote me the following in a private
e-mail exchange:
To me, a metaphysical treatment is an opportunity to help my clients release
or work through obstacles that are preventing them from having exactly what they want
in their lives.
The treatment method that works best for my clients seems to be to set and hold
an intention in prayer for them of something they want to be, do or have in their lives. I
always hold an intention for 30 days, and always begin each intention with "I see you...."
This powerful phrase creates a visual image of them as they want to be. I see them the
way they want to be, rather than as they often see themselves. I see them with no limits.
Finally, I add the phrase "This or something better now manifests for the highest good of
all."
I'm a strong believer that everything in this universe is occurring in Divine
Order, in Divine Timing. Whether I'm helping someone create perfect health, increased
wealth, loving relationships, greater peace of mind or anything else, this process never
fails.

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Here's an example of a treatment for prosperity that has proven very successful for
countless clients of mine:
I see all your finances in perfect order now. I see all the financial abundance you
desire manifest in your life now as you release your fears and open yourself up to
receiving your Divine Inheritance from expected and unexpected channels. I see you debt
free and I see prosperity flowing easily and effortlessly into your life from surprising and
wondrous places. I know this is so despite any appearances to the contrary for you are
housed in the rich substance of the Universe and nothing can impede the flow of your
Divine Inheritance. And so it is, this or something better now manifests, for the highest
good of all.
And Dr. Jon Speller, author of Seed Money In Action, told me in a private e-mail
correspondence, Treatments, metaphysically, are prayers for others or for self that can
utilize a number of methods, including visualization, Seed Money sowing, etc. Different
methods work better for different individuals, for various reasons.
For example, some years ago a Jesuit Priest who specialized in psychological
research (he had to call his research on hypnosis "subconscious isolation" in order to
avoid Canon Law proscriptions concerning hypnosis) learned that patients on the
operating table still had subconscious perception even though they were under anesthesia.
After monitoring a number of operations, including the dialogue of attending
surgeons and staff, the Jesuit came to the conclusion that many cases of unexplained
death through shock on the operating table had a probable relationship to unguarded
negative prognosis comments made by medical staff concerning the supposedly
unconscious patient.

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The Jesuit Priest was discouraged both by senior medical and religious
authorities from going further into that line of research concerning hospitals, because it
could open up all hospitals to numerous potential lawsuits.
The point is, however, that different patients reacted differently to the same
stimuli, even on a subconscious level, although there was a statistically valid relationship
concerning negative stimuli shown in the Jesuit Father's research.
Thats the rub. If treatments can be in any form, how does anyone know which
one works best? More importantly, how does an individual suffering, and maybe not
mentally clear about their own needs, select the best form of treatment for them from the
dazzling and confusing display of treatment methods now being offered?
To begin, this thesis will focus on traditional metaphysics to help narrow the
playing field. If treatment in all the possible forms it could appear were covered here, this
would be an encyclopedia, not a thesis.
Next, knowing we have to start somewhere to find our answers, lets agree on
what a standard treatment, or a traditional treatment, might consist of.
Jody Carter, in her booklet What Is Treatment?, offers a five-step formula for
doing treatments. Raymond Charles Barker, in his booklet Treatment, offers a six-step
formula. Stuart Grayson has a simple four-step formula for treatments, which he insists
every treatment follows and which he explains on his website. His steps are:
1. Recognition.
You recognize that Infinite Intelligence and Power is everywhere, always. It is
within all beings, all life. You are not simply a materialistically, physically-

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ordered individual. You live in life, you experience life, you embrace life
humanly and physically, you love it, but you are in essence oriented toward
primary cause, the prototype behind your experience of life. You are part of the
universal Mind and you express an archetype or pattern in it.
2. Unification
The second part of a treatment is unification or identification, in which you
identify yourself as an individualized part of the whole. We are like the rays of the
sun or like flowers on a plant; each of us is individual but still connected to, still
part of, the whole. In treatment this is expressed with words like This creative
intelligence is acting through me, expressing as me. It is my mind now, operating
through me. Another way to think of yourself is as a wave on an infinite ocean.
Thus, in reality you are the ocean as a wave. All the elements or chemicals of the
ocean must also be in its wave. We say the human consciousness is the bridge
between the universal mind and the particular expression in an individual form.
3. Particularization
In the third step of treatment, particularization, you state that every wrong belief,
every blockage, every suggestion that you are separate from the whole, is hereby
banished, neutralized, dissolved, as a result of your purposeful thinking. Therefore
you are able to see clearly who you are, what you are, where you are, and know
what to do. You recognize that the perfect pattern or prototype for your

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experience (specific health of a body part or function) exists and is the substance
and form of your body experience now.
4. Release
The final stage of treatment is release. You surrender to the action of the universal
intelligence or Mind and release the healing treatment to the law of creative
action, knowing change or fulfillment is happening. It cannot fail to happen,
because it is the neutral action of the universal law.

Orrin Moen offers a five-step formula for giving treatments in his 1961 book, The
Mirror of Your Mind. They are similar to Graysons steps. He describes them as follows:

1. Recognition. In this step we recognize that God is the only intelligence.

2. Unification. We next unify our thinking with God.
3. Realization. We must now reestablish that feeling and knowingness of being
one with god.
4. Thanksgiving. We now thank God that our life is complete.
5. Release. We act as though it (the problem) doesnt exist.

V. Manley Ayers offers a three-step formula in his essay That For Which We
stand in the 1941 book, Mind Remakes Your World. He wrote:

1. Stop thinking of the problem; think of God.

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2. Lift your thought to your highest conception of God, Man, Heaven.

3. Continue treating until you touch the point of releasement.

And just for the sake of contrast, lets look at one more formula approach to doing
treatments. This one is off the Internet, and written by Jeri Noble. She says:

Writing a metaphysical treatment is an organized way of focusing your

attention and concentration when there's something you want to manifest in your
life or for someone else. There's an acronym to help remember the sequence of
steps for this:
Are

You

Ready

To

Receive?

The first "R" is for Recognition

In this step we are recognizing the spiritual truth of the Universe, which is that
everything which could possibly exist, already does exist in Divine
Consciousness, or Mind. Since this Divinity is perfect, then all of It's creations are
also perfect and it is up to us to be able to perceive this perfection.

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Here's an example:
Let's say that we want to treat for the healing of a sore toe. The proper
consciousness of this would be that we want the inner reality of a whole, perfect
and complete toe to be revealed to us. Remember, it already exists in consciousness, we just have to bring our awareness up to the recognition of this fact. So our
statement looks like this:
Recognition: I recognize that there is only God (Goddess, the Divine, my Higher
Power, the Universe, or whatever your term is). In God, there can be only perfect
health, and perfect toes. I see this perfection in nature and everywhere around me.
"U" is for Unification
We are also recognize that this Infinite Potential must necessarily also exist within
us, because after all, It is infinite so there's nothing that is not It, including you
and me.
Unification: I am now aware of the great unity in all things, that I am One with
this great Infinite. It (he/she) is in me and all around me, permeating my being.
Therefore, I am one with this perfect health and cannot be otherwise.
The second "R" is for Realization
The realization step is where your affirmation comes from. It is important that you
allow this consciousness to sink deeply into your reality.
Realization: I know that my perfect health is already in existence and I accept it
into my life fully, without reservation or inhibition. All of my toes feel great and
each one is whole, perfect and complete. This is an established fact which I now
allow myself to comprehend, down to every cell in my body.

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"T" is for Thanksgiving

We can only be truly grateful for that which we have received or know that we are
going to receive. That's why this step is so important - it helps us to know this.
Thanksgiving: Knowing that I already have the perfect health that I need, I am
deeply grateful. My heart opens with joy and appreciation for this new revelation
of reality as I accept that indeed, my perfect health is now manifested. Thank you
Mother-Father God.
The third "R" is for Release
If you don't really, truly let it go, the Universe has no chance of manifesting it for
you. You have to let it go in order to allow the Divine to pick it up. "Let go and
let God".
Release: Knowing that I already have the perfect health that I have desired, I now
freely let go of this treatment to the One that is the Source of my Being. My faith
and trust are complete in knowing that the surrender of this is my signal that it is
now out of my hands and in the care of my Higher Power.

While Stuart Graysons four-step formula, Orrin Moens five-step formula, V.

Manley Ayers three-step formula, and Jeri Nobles five-step formula all help us realize
treatment at least has steps in them---at least according to Grayson, Moen, Ayers, and
Noble---an early founder of metaphysics might disagree with those very steps.
For example, Nona Brooks, the founder of Divine Science, is said to have gotten
her best results when she did treatments by not doing them. That is, when she surrendered
her desire and her will to the divine, the results came almost by magic. Her biographer

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explained it this way in the book, Powerful Is The Light: Her release of the matter was
in no sense resignation. On the contrary, real release to an Infinite Cause carried most
dynamic action.
It seems that when Brooks was convinced of what she wanted, she simply relaxed
into a knowing that it would come to pass, and somehow that treatment method worked.
If thats the case, which treatment method works best?
The instant one or the multiple-steps one?
And if its one of the multiple step formulas, which one of them works best?
Ernest Holmes simplifies the quest for an answer to that question by saying there
are at least two types of treatment: the argumentative and the realization.
The argumentative style of treatment, according to Holmes in The Science of
Mind, is a process of mental reasoning in which the practitioner argues to himself
about his patient.
This appears to be the method of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, generally considered
the father of New Thought. In volume three of The Complete Writings of Quimby, there
are many stories of how Quimby conducted his treatments. In the following excerpt a
Mr. R goes to Quimby seeking healing of swollen eyes and facial blisters.
So Mr. Quimby commenced taking up his feelings, one by one, like a lawyer
examining witnesses, analyzing them and showing him that he had put a false
construction on all his feelings, showing him that a different explanation would have
produced a different result.
After Quimbys argumentative treatment, Mr. R is healed by the next morning.

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Obviously, the argumentative method works, at least in the hands of a master such
as Quimby.
But what about the other method of treatment: Realization?
Ernest Holmes goes on to explain, The realization method is whereby the
practitioner realizes within himself---without the necessity of step by step building up a
conclusion---the perfect state of his patient.
This helps. At least weve narrowed our scope down to two categories of
treatment styles. It explains why Grayson and others need steps to do a treatment. They
were doing the argumentative style of treatment. It also explains what Brooks was doing:
the realization style treatment.
Still, in either case, what is the best method for treatment? And whether it is the
formula approach or the enlightenment approach, which works best? Can anyone do
either style? Which style gets the best results? The quest for the answer to the question of
this thesis continues.
Daniel Boone Herring, writing in his 1931 book, Mind Surgery, suggests there
had got to be a formula for treatments. He wrote: If a thing works it must be scientific,
although its formula may not yet be reduced to a definition.
Ernest Holmes would agree. In his 1948 book, How to Use Science of Mind, he
writes: Unless there were a method for spiritual mind practice, then such practice would
not be scientific. Unless there were a definite technique, its use could not be taught. And
later he wrote, in Living the Science of Mind: Unless there were a definite method of
procedure in spiritual mind healing, it could not be considered scientific.

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In this thesis we are looking for that formula, the proven technique, to successful
treatments. If Grayson says it takes four-steps, Moen five-steps, and Ayers three-steps,
yet Brooks suggests it takes only one step, what, in reality, is the correct answer? What is
the formula for successful treatments? As soon as we know it, we will have a formula we
can promote and reproduce so more people get more results.
Ernest Holmes again offers some light when he explains, The spiritual
practitioner does not make a demonstration merely by saying peace when there is no
peace. He makes a demonstration only when confusion is converted into peace.
This is fascinating. Holmes seems to be saying that what is most important in the
success of any treatment is not the person being treated but the consciousness of the
person doing the treating. In other words, if the metaphysical practitioner is not clear, he
or she will not give a good treatment, no matter what formula they follow.
F. L. Rawson wrote in Life Understood: When you treat, it should be clearly
understood that you are the person for whom, in the first instance, the error has to be
destroyed. When the false belief in the disease or trouble that appears to be connected
with the patient is thoroughly destroyed in your own consciousness, and the truth
realized of the perfection of man as Gods image and likeness, then it is that the so-called
patient is freed. You become a channel through which Truth works.
This helps explain why Nona Brooks was successful when she let go of her
desires in her treatments. She was in essence first being sure she was clear. When she was
clear, the divine was free to move in and help. No steps were taken or needed except one:
Feel peace within.
Is that all there is to a successful treatment?

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(At the same time the question is asked, the thought arises that being at peace isnt
always all that easy. Its the quest of all people. Most never find it. So just being at the
stage of pure contentment is quite an accomplishment. Still, is that all there is to it?)
Apparently inner change is the key, whether you are doing the treatment or
getting one. In other words, as soon as you can change your consciousness, youll change
your results. Then the treatment any treatment - will work. In fact, the best treatment is
the one that will help you change your consciousness the fastest.
Raymond Charles Barker, in his 1957 book The Science of Successful Living, put
it this way: You have a right to expect results from your spiritual thinking. Your
spiritual thinking changes you. It doesnt change the world. It doesnt change other
people. It changes you, and that is all that needs to be changed. Once you have changed,
the results of this change appear in your circumstances.
Again, this statement is eye-opening. Barker is suggesting that you can do
treatments on yourself by simply thinking spiritually. That also implies that if you are a
practitioner and a client comes to you for treatment, you are to work on your own
thinking, not theirs. When you are thinking spiritually about the client, the client will
change. Again, as Barker wrote above: Once you have changed, the results of this
change appear in your circumstances. Those outer circumstances include the client
before you!
Or, as Lester Levenson, founder of the modern treatment technique called the
Sedona Method, put it in his 1993 book, Keys To The Ultimate Freedom, If we dont
like whats happening to us in the world, all we have to do is change our consciousness--and the world out there changes for us!

WHAT TREATMENT METHOD WORKS BEST? Vitale Page 22

So, again, what treatment method is best?

Does all a practitioner have to do is sit and get happy?
Maybe so. According to Dr. Frederick Bailes, in his 1951 book, Basic Principles
of the Science of Mind, The entire treatment is an action within the mind of the
practitioner, by himself, upon himself, but for the purpose of correcting the patients
false belief. (Bolded words are by Bailes.)
Ernest Holmes agrees. In his 1984 book, Living the Science of Mind, he says
The treatment should be simple, unlabored, calm, but designed to convince the thought
of the one who gives it.
And Craig Carter, writing in the January 1994 issue of Science of Mind magazine,
also agrees by saying: There are many ways to give a metaphysical treatment for
healing, but there is only one purpose behind any treatment, which is to change the
consciousness of the person giving the treatment. Generally speaking, this is done either
by "argument" or by "realization," but the effect is the same.
Still, what method of treatment are we talking about here?
Its beginning to look like the word treatment is an umbrella term for a
collection of methods designed to free the mind of limiting beliefs. Even Bailes, in his
home study course, offers a half dozen methods for doing treatments. He admits, There
will be moments in the students healing work when his treatment seems to be getting
nowhere
What we seem to have here is inconclusive evidence. Any method of treatment
might work. They may consist of steps. They may have multiple or simple steps. They

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may be instantaneous. They may be variations of old methods or completely original

ones. The list goes on.
And maybe the answer to the question of this thesis --- What treatment method
works best? --- cant be answered by anyone until someone does a thorough study of all
the traditional treatment styles and then runs controlled tests on them. Maybe then, with a
more scientific eye on the question and the findings, will we be able to answer the
question with some degree of accuracy.
To wrap-up this short investigation into treatments, I would say that the current
best method for doing treatments at least involves these two steps:
1. Focus beyond the problem---on the underlying perfection. If you can do that
in an instant (realization), great. If it requires talking to yourself to get to that
space (argumentative), then that is great, too. Aligning with the divine is the
first and key step.
2. Let go---allow God to make everything right.
In short, the best method of treatment is the one that helps the practitioner reach
an inner level of communication with God, where he or she knows all is well underneath
all outward appearances. Whatever plugs the practitioner into that experience is the best
method of treatment for now.

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Discussion
Society can benefit from a careful study of treatment methods.
The more people know about their options, the greater power they have in making
positive choices. The more people know about treatments, the better they can make an
informed decision. And the more people know about treatments, the sooner they can heal,
grow, and experience their inner divinity. All of this can only benefit all of us.
The more practitioners know about the tools available to them, the better they can
serve humanity.
Far too many practitioners are stuck in a one-way approach to doing treatments.
They end up seeing life through the eye-glasses of that particular treatment method. Yet
the clients they see may require other methods. Or, more importantly, the practitioners
may require other methods of treatment to help them get clear before they can help their
clients heal.
Again, knowing more about treatments can only help the world.
If this thesis proves anything, it is that there are at least two types of treatment
available: the argumentative and the realization.
For most practitioners, the argumentative style is what they will use. Still, under
that heading, there are numerous multiple-step methods to attaining results. As far as I
can see, the results arent in yet to declare which method works best.
I urge everyone in the metaphysical profession to consider further research on this
subject. It can only help all of us.

WHAT TREATMENT METHOD WORKS BEST? Vitale Page 25

Summary and Conclusions

In 1912, F. L. Rawson wrote in his book, Treatment, the following:
In the early days of metaphysical healing, some forty years ago, the better
educated people would not take the trouble to investigate the subject and, be exemplified
in the life of Jesus, it was amongst the lower classes that the truth spread more rapidly. It
was found that if a man of the lower classes was shown a method of working, he was apt
to make it a formula, namely, he did not understand what was said and it became a group
of words which did not convey an adequate meaning. Consequently, in the early days of
metaphysical healing each person was usually left to work out a method of treatment
from the standpoint of personal understanding. When he did this the words he used had a
definite meaning to him, and he did not have to try to think out what the writer of the
words meant. Consequently in teaching, it is better to get the student to write out the way
in which he treats and then to correct it and give him additional points as to the
improvement of the treatment.
Again, Rawson wrote those words in 1912. I believe they are just as valid today.
What he urged then is what I urge today: Lets record how we do treatments and then
help each other polish and improve our methods so we can get the best results possible.
Finally, if we are to end this thesis with any sort of conclusion, its this:
1. Treatments are mental methods designed to free the mind of the one doing
them so they are attuned to the divine.
2. There isnt any one method of doing treatment. Whatever method of treatment
achieves results is the best method of treatment---for that moment and that person.

WHAT TREATMENT METHOD WORKS BEST? Vitale Page 26

3. Based on the limited research conducted to write this thesis, we cant declare
anything more helpful than this advice: Learn the various methods and use what seems
best at the moment.
In short, further study of treatments, and testing of them, is called for. Meanwhile,
whatever works to get you closer to God is the best method of treatment.
As I said earlier, I would say that the current best method for doing treatments
at least involves these two steps:
1. Focus beyond the problem---on the underlying perfection. If you can do that
in an instant (realization), great. If it requires talking to yourself to get to that
space (argumentative), then that is great, too. Aligning with the divine is the
first and key step.
2. Let go---allow God to make everything right.
In short, the best method of treatment is the one that helps the practitioner reach
an inner level of communication with God.
Achieve that state and youre on the way to miracles.

WHAT TREATMENT METHOD WORKS BEST? Vitale Page 27

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