Article May 29, 1915 Issue

The kindly tone of the editorial on Christian Science in...

Ezra W. Palmer—Denver, Col.

The Fraternal Union

The kindly tone of the editorial on Christian Science in your February issue is appreciated by all Christian Scientists who read the article. The writer of the article, however, confuses Christian Science healing by prayer with autosuggestion, or hypnotism, with which it has nothing in common. In Christian Science, the healing of sickness and sin is accomplished through the power of God, the same as Jesus and his disciples healed.

Autosuggestion, or hypnotism, is the belief that the human mind is a healer by means of which one human mind can rob another mind of its individuality and thus dispossess it of the errors of thought which may be depleting the body. Upon reflection it will be granted that no human mind is absolutely pure and free from sin and evil, so that the mind that projects its thought into the consciousness of another may be, and usually is, crowding out one erroneous state of thought only to have another, and perhaps greater, take its place. The process is merely a battle of conflicting and erroneous thoughts, the stronger retaining the field, the weaker pushed into the background but not destroyed. Since this is accomplished through the force of human will, a relapse inevitably occurs as soon as the external pressure is removed, and "the last state of that man is worse than the first."

Christian Science relies upon the human will not at all. Through spiritual understanding thought is lifted above the ills of mortal existence, and the healing is accomplished not through the mesmeric sway of the mortal or carnal mind, but through the power of God, the ever present infinite Mind. Jesus, when charged by the Pharisees with healing through Beelzebub, through the power of occultism, or mental suggestion, which was well known in his time, repudiated the accusation and declared, "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you." Christian Science teaches reliance on God alone in healing the sick, and makes it clear that autosuggestion has no value as a curative agency.

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