Article April 13, 1912 Issue

Under the heading of "Auto-suggestion," Dr. Forbes Winslow...

Frederick Dixon—London, England.

London Magazine

Under the heading of "Auto-suggestion," Dr. Forbes Winslow alludes, in your January issue, to Christian Science. His reference is quite kind, and is honorably free from the virulent denunciation of Christian Science which is only too common among those who know nothing about it. He alludes to "the tremendous growth" of the movement "all over the world," and this is a reason why I would ask your permission to take exception to the basis of his arguments.

Christian Science is a world movement, a movement the adherents of which are to be found not only wherever the Anglo-Saxon sets his foot, but among all other nations and peoples. The mere fact that it is able to support a great daily paper of an ordinary type is alone sufficient proof of this. At the same time the gentleman is wrong in imagining that Christian Science treatment is a process of suggestion. The mere fact that it includes in its treatment every phase of material phenomena should be sufficient proof of this. It in no way draws the line at those subjects to whom suggestion is commonly supposed to be applicable, nor does it work indirectly, as he would seem to think, through auto-suggestion.

It is perfectly true, as he says, that suggestion has been practised for centuries, consciously or unconsciously, by the medical profession. It is the inheritance of the wonder-workers of the East, and it is coupled with the terrific penalty that if it is possible to suggest good, it is equally possible to suggest evil. It was just here that Jesus drew the distinction between the suggestion of the exorcists and his own spiritual healing, and this distinction will always separate the two.

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