Article September 3, 1904 Issue

The critic lays down the proposition that "the acceptance...

Ezra W. Palmer

Business Woman's Magazine

The critic lays down the proposition that "the acceptance of Truth from another's vision is a species of hypnotism," and then proceeds to say that Christian Scientists are hypnotized because they daily read Science and Health. The absurdity of this proposition is clearly apparent. All our educational development is received from those who have progressed beyond us. The wise teacher in the school, the skilled mechanic who guides the apprentice, the prophet with clear vision who warns and guides a nation, the great Master himself, who came to earth that we through him might know the truth and be free; all these show that truth comes through the vision of the worthy, to those who are ready to receive it. This receiving of truth is not hypnotism, and no amount of specious reasoning can make it so. Hypnotism implies bondage, control of one mortal by another. The truth never binds any one; truth frees, and he who grasps the truth as understood by another whose vision is clear, is himself helped.

Would our critic say that the study of a text-book on astronomy or natural science or mathematics, when understood, would produce hypnotism? Certainly not. Then why make an exception and charge Christian Scientists with being hypnotized, since they universally declare the great freedom, peace, and harmony which have come to them from the reading and understanding of Science and Health in connection with the Bible?

Ezra W. Palmer
Business Woman's Magazine.

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