New Zealand's Greatest Doctor:
Ulric Williams of Wanganui
A Surgeon who became a Naturopath
By Brenda Sampson
Creating Health
(An article written in the 1980s)
In my childhood there was no TV, and bedtime for primary school children was usually 8 o'clock. But when in 1930 when I turned thirteen, my mother said, "I think you are old enough to come out with me sometimes in the evening" and she took me to hear a touring American lecturer speaking about creative thinking.
The evening made a strong impression on my mind. I can still see this radiant woman; her snow-white hair piled in curls above a glowing face; her long evening gown of sparkling, shining azure-blue brocade, and her diamond ring. There was a spotlight, and when she moved her hand in it, the facets of the diamond broke up the light into rainbow colours.
This kaleidoscope of blues and purples and every colour of the rainbow, was reflected on the wall at the back of the hall, and I spent most of the evening watching it in sheer delight.
I missed most of what she said, but I remember this. She believed thoughts and words are creative. By saying something, we begin to bring it into existence. So it is important to say only what is good. She illustrated her theory by referring to the story of Moses.
Moses spent many years between youth and old age, working as a shepherd. At the end of this period, God asked him to go back to Egypt and set free the Hebrew people enslaved there. Moses, who had been educated as an Egyptian prince, didn't know them, or their God. He said, "Who shall I say sent me?" God answered, "I am! Say that I AM sent you". The Hebrew words for I am, are Jaweh, corrupted into Jehovah, which is accepted as the name of God. But to Moses, the name of God was I am, and he said later when his work of liberation was achieved, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain".
The lecturer said, "God is all might, majesty, dominion and power. His name is I am and you must not use this name with words that have nothing to do with God; words like sick, tired, afraid, a failure, inferior, ugly. To say "I am sick" is to take the name of God in vain. So say, "I am well". Every time you say it, you remind your subconscious mind that God is health, and since he lives in you, you must be healthy". In 1940 I developed a painful backache that lasted for about two years. (It seemed longer than that.) In 1942 I went to a convalescent home in Wanganui run by Dr. Ulric Williams. Each morning a physiotherapist arrived to give the patients an hour's physical exercises. She was purposefully bright and when asked "How are you?" we all had to answer with an equally bright, "Very well thank you".
I resented the exercises, which were painful to do, and I resented having to say "I am well", when I was in pain. I said to myself, "I am NOT well; I am SICK; otherwise, I would not be here." But the word sick seemed to ring false in my mind. Even while I was emphasising it, something in me knew I was not sick. An analogy occurred to me between cleanliness and health. I regarded myself as a clean person; and I wouldn't change this opinion of myself just because I got mud on my hands when gardening. Couldn't I regard myself as a well person even though I had a pain?
So I said "I am well" and immediately the pain changed from being the centre of my life, dreadful and threatening, to being peripheral and unimportant. That was the point at which I began to get well.
