Phineas Parkhurst Quimby was a mid-1800s clockmaker in Belfast, Maine. He became fascinated with the practice of hypnotism, then called mesmerism. He dropped his clockmaking profession and traveled around Maine, offering demonstrations of mesmerism. Over the years, he studied how the body, when mesmerized, could perform astonishing feats. Gradually, Quimby developed what he called science of the mind and used his concepts to heal the...