Phineas Parkhurst Quimby's Writings
In 1988, Dr. Ervin Seale (1909-1990) and the Quimby Memorial Church and Foundation published the three volume set, Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: The Complete Writings. Dr. Quimby's writings span a period of 21 years, from 1844 to 1865.
Rather than copying the writings from previously published materials, Dr. Seale and his group of volunteers conducted their own original independent research at the Library of Congress; Boston University; and Harvard University. This effort culminated in a complete and historically accurate textual transcription of P. P. Quimby's writings that is free of editorial interpretations. As the Quimby writings are handwritten documents, they do not include interpretative editing such as the use of italics.
Lecture Notes: A collection of seven untitled bound booklets, simply numbered one through seven, are preserved in the Boston University collection. Published for the first time in 1988 by Seale and the Quimby Memorial Church and Foundation, the internal evidence of these booklets, would suggest they were written sometime after 1844 and prior to 1847.
Dr. Quimby's Letters to His Patients: Although he held no formal academic degrees, the title of Doctor was bestowed on Phineas Parkhurst Quimby by his friends, family, and the more than 12 thousand people who came to him, seeking relief from physical ailments and undesirable conditions. There are approximately 70 letters to his patients, in the Boston University collection.
Phineas P. Quimby's Writings: The largest body of material is in the form of articles or essays. "Park", as he was called by his friends and family, referred to these writings as "pieces". These source writings are preserved in both the Library of Congress and Boston University. Through their research of the original source materials, Seale and his volunteers documented 335 unique articles. Of this number, 304 articles are either written in the first person "I" perspective, or begin in the third person narrative and revert to the first person "I" perspective. The remaining 31 articles are written as the third person narrative.
Index of the Writings: Neither the Library of Congress nor Boston University has an index of the writings of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby. This situation is additionally complicated due to the existence of multiple copies of individual articles. The task of compiling a comprehensive index of the Quimby writings was accomplished by C. Alan Anderson Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Religion, Curry College, Milton, MA).
Dr. Anderson compiled a comprehensive "index or directory" of the Quimby writing collections found in the Manuscript Collection of the Library of Congress; Boston University (originally deposited at Mugar Memorial Library of Boston University and subsequently moved to the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of B.U.); and the Houghton Library of Harvard University.
The Quimby writings with the designation beginning with the letter "L" represent source materials housed at the Library of Congress.
The Quimby writings with the designation beginning with the letter "B" represent source materials housed at Boston University.
The Quimby writings with the designation beginning with the letter "H" represent materials housed at Harvard University.
The subsequent numerical formatting indicates: first, the volume or grouping number; and second, the beginning page number for the article within the volume or grouping.
An index designation of "LC 6:42", would indicate the particular transcription has been made from an original source article located in the Library of Congress collection from volume or grouping number 6, beginning on page 42.
In his capacity of editor of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: The Complete Writings, Ervin Seale made the decision to publish an abbreviated version of the Anderson index. All of Quimby's articles are represented in the third volume of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby: The Complete Writings in the index beginning on page 481, but Seale published no more than two original source references for each article.
For example, the article True Wisdom is listed as "BU 100:45" (Boston University) and "LC 5:87" (Library of Congress) as published by Seale. Anderson's master index shows there are actually four copies of this particular article with additional copies found at "BG 87" (Boston University) and "HB 98" (Harvard University).
In another example, the single original source article for: The Effect of Mind upon Mind, is only found in the Library of Congress and indexed as "LC 6:47".
As of this date, the complete version of Dr. Anderson's comprehensive index or directory of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby's writings remains unpublished.
Another editorial decision made by Ervin Seale, was to omit the Harvard University collection of the Dresser family copy of Quimby's writings from the 1988 publication.
The Quimby Writings online here may be searched:
Chronologically (where possible, not all of the materials are dated). By tracing the writings in chronological order, the reader gains valuable insight into Quimby's personal spiritual progression from a mesmerist (hypnotist), as found in the earliest pages of his lecture notes, to his final and most productive years as an astonishing spiritual healer and teacher.
Alphabetically. You may quickly and easily find any of Quimby's writings in alphabetical order.
Concordance. An Internet version of the Phineas Parkhurst Quimby - Concordance on CD ROM, has been added to this web site and may be used free of charge. To access the Internet Concordance System, please click here.
Search. You may search this entire web site.
— Updated November 26, 2008
