It is said that in the middle ages, the bones of a saint, kept in one of the monasteries, were working miracles of healing. On certain days a great crowd of the afflicted gathered to touch the relics, and all who did so were healed.On the eve of one of these occasions, some sacrilegious rascal gained access to the case in which the wonder working relics were kept and stole the bones, and in the morning, with the usual crowd of sufferers waiting at the gates, the fathers found themselves shorn of the source of the miracle working power. They resolved to keep the matter quiet, hoping that by doing so they might find the thief and recover their treasures, and hastening to the cellar of the convent they dug up the bones of a murderer, who had been buried there many years before. These they placed in the case, intending to make some plausible excuse for the failure of the saint to perform his usual miracles on that day; and then they let in the waiting assemblage of the sick and infirm.
To the intense astonishment of those in on the secret, the bones of the malefactor proved as effective as those of the saint, and the healing went on as before. One of the fathers is said to have left a history of the occurrence, in which he confessed that, in his judgement, the healing power had been in the people themselves all the time, and never in the bones at all.
Whether the story is true or not, the conclusion applies to all the cures wrought by all the systems. The Power that Heals is in the patient themself, and whether it shall become active or not does not depend upon the physical or mental means used, but upon the way the patient thinks about these means.
There is a Principle of Health in every human being which is related to this Healing Power. This is dormant or active, according to the way a person thinks - Wallace D Wattles
From The Science of Being Well By Wallace D Wattles, 1860 - 1911