Article April 29, 1911 Issue

The only teaching of Christian Science regarding animal...

John M. Dean—Memphis. Tenn.

Commercial Appeal

The only teaching of Christian Science regarding animal magnetism in any of its assumed forms is that it is a false belief and as such is neither to be believed nor feared. It is a gross form of superstition, and on page 83 in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says: "Between Christian Science and all forms of superstition a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that between Dives and Lazarus." An entire chapter of this work, entitled "Animal Magnetism Unmasked," is devoted to its exposure and contains a brief history of the modern form of mesmerism or animal magnetism.

It seems that in 1784, Mesmer caused quite a furore in Paris by his pretended discovery of a new mental force which was called after him, mesmerism. In order to ascertain the truth of his assertions the French government appointed a commission with power to make a thorough investigation of the matter. This commission, of which Benjamin Franklin was a member, reported as follows: "In regard to the existence and utility of animal magnetism, we have come to the unanimous conclusion that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic fluid; that the violent efforts which are observed in the public practice of magnetism are due to impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of the human mind, and an important experiment upon the power of the imagination." Mrs. Eddy quotes this report with unqualified approval in Science and Health, and adds on pages 101 and 102: "In no instance is the effect of animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other than the effect of illusion.... Its basis being a belief and this belief animal, in Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so-called mortal mind."

The writer has been a student of Christian Science for more than twelve years, and in all that time he has never read a line from Mrs. Eddy's pen nor heard a word uttered by any person instructed in Christian Science that gave power or reality to anything savoring of such a "hoodoo" as animal magnetism. It is passing strange how some critics airily brush aside all first-hand evidence regarding Christian Science, and then out of the fulness of their ignorance presume to enlighten a benighted world concerning a subject of which such critics have, at best, only a superficial and hearsay knowledge.

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