Article April 6, 1907 Issue

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE OPPOSED TO HYPNOTISM AND SUGGESTION

JUDGE JOHN D. WORKS.

One of the most common beliefs about Christian Science on the part of the uninformed, and the charge most frequently made against it by its critics, is that its work of healing from sin and disease is nothing but the action of one human mind upon another. In earlier times these critics did not concern themselves about how it healed; they denied that it healed at all; but now the proof of its healing of all manner of diseases is so conclusive that all are compelled to admit that it heals. They, however, seek to degrade it by charging, without reason, that its influence is hypnotic.

This position was taken in a late newspaper article in Los Angeles, Cal., and showed how little our critic knew of the true teachings of Christian Science, and consequently how certain he was to be utterly wrong as to its practice and its effects. Christian Scientists do not deny the existence of sin, pain, or death, in the sense that he asserts. On the contrary, these evils are recognized as errors to be overcome, and their overcoming is constantly insisted upon. They do not deny that Jesus suffered for our sins, was crucified, and rose from the grave on the third day, as all other Christian churches teach; but Christian Scientists maintain that Jesus overcame sin and death, and thus he gave conclusive evidence of the unreality of these evils by showing that they could be overcome by the law of Spirit, or Divine power. It is true that Christian Scientists recognize matter only as a product of false belief,—as a counterfeit of substance,—hence, opposed to Spirit, and unreal in the sense that it is destructible and fluctuating. Christian Scientists admit that to the material senses all things seem to be material and not spiritual, hence the prevalence of sin, disease, and death. Mrs. Eddy says, "Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal,—that is, to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness is more than fancy; it is solid conviction" (Science and Health, p. 460).

It is part of the mission of Christian Science to overcome pain, but Scientists believe that sin and pain are the effects of mortal belief, or what Paul calls the carnal mind, which is enmity against God, and equally at enmity against man. It is needless to say that the statement, "All science is based upon the existence of matter," is erroneous. It is not surprising that one having so little knowledge or conception of what Christian Science really is and what it teaches, should be equally in error in his conclusions as to what it does and how it is done. If Christian Science is right in maintaining that sin and disease are the offspring of mortal mind, or wrong thought, as distinguished from the divine Mind and right thought; that one is error, or evil, and the other is Truth, or good, then what follows? Obviously the remedy for evil thoughts, or sin, and their results, sickness, disease, and death, is the restoration of the sufferer therefrom to right thoughts; it is to substitute the truth for error, and a sense of love for hate, revenge, jealousy, or other evil thoughts; in other words, to have that Mind which was also in Christ Jesus, instead of the carnal mind; the thought of God, good, rather than the thought of evil.

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