How did Phineas Quimby influence Mary Baker Eddy’s developing ideas about healing?

Mary Baker Eddy’s association with Phineas Parkhurst Quimby from 1862 to 1865 served as an important stimulus for her developing ideas on healing, though the extent and nature of his influence remain subjects of historical debate.1

Quimby, a mental healer who believed illness resulted from a patient's mistaken beliefs, reinforced Eddy’s existing interest in the mental nature of disease, which she had previously explored through homeopathy. This association encouraged her to investigate the healing narratives found in the New Testament.21

While critics and proponents of the New Thought movement have historically argued that Eddy’s work was derivative of Quimby’s, modern evaluations suggest that the religious theology of Christian Science as it eventually emerged was fundamentally distinct from Quimby’s secular approach. Eddy herself denied that her discovery was influenced by him, and the publication of Quimby’s papers in 1921 highlighted the radical departure of her teachings from his primary emphases.21