EMMANUEL CHURCH MOVEMENT. Emmanuel Church is a church in Boston, U.S.A. The movement, also called the " Emmanuel Movement," is medico religious in character. It began in an attempt to cure the poorest consumptives without removing them from their homes. " A Tuberculosis Class was formed under the direction of a distinguished medical authority. The treatment offered consisted of the most recent scientific method of combatting consumption, plus discipline, friendship, encouragement, and hope—in short, a com bination of physical and moral elements." The success of this move led to an extension of the work. It was decided to render the same help to the morally and nervously diseased. The sympathetic approval and active co-operation of the leading neurologists in the country was first invited and obtained. One of the fundamental ideas of the movers is that all work of this kind should be under strict medical control. " We be lieve in the power of the mind over the body, and we believe also in medicine, in good habits, and in a whole some, well-regulated life. In the treatment of functional nervous disorders we make free use of moral and psychical agencies, but we do not believe in overtaxing these valuable aids by expecting the mind to attain results which can be effected more easily through phys ical instrumentalities. Accordingly we have gladly
availed ourselves of the services of the skilled medical and surgical specialists who have offered to co-operate with us, and we believe that our freedom in this respect and the combination of good psychical and physical methods have had much to do with our success." It will be clear at once that the Emmanuel Movement is not to be identified with Christian Science. It " bears no relation to Christian Science, either by way of protest or of imitation, but it would be what it is had the latter never existed." The Emmanuel workers believe in the existence of what is known as the Subconscious Mind and avail themselves largely of the power of Suggestion. They claim that by means of Suggestion it is possible not only to cure physical (nervous) disorders, but also to check or remove moral failings (e.g., alcoholism). In England the Church and Medical Union (q.v.) worked on similar lines. The Psycho-Therapeutic Society (q.v.) did good work for some years (since 1901). Its field was rather wider, and it could perhaps claim to be more scientific. It was not specially identified with any particular religious denomination. See Religion and Medicine (1908), by E. Worcester, S. McComb, and I. H. Coriat.