Article January 21, 1933 Issue

In your review of a book, on March 6, Mary Baker Eddy...

Harry B. Bonney, former Committee of Publication for the State of Tennessee,

Chattanooga Times

In your review of a book, on March 6, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is classed with Mesmer, who brought into notice mesmerism, hypnotism, or animal magnetism, and Freud, the psychoanalyst.

There is no more similarity between the theories of these men and Christian Science than there is between these theories and the teachings of Christ Jesus, since Christian Science is based entirely on his spiritual teachings.

In her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 101) Mrs. Eddy has this to say about mesmerism or animal magnetism: "The author's own observations of the workings of animal magnetism convince her that it is not a remedial agent, and that its effects upon those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do not resist it lead to moral and physical death. ... In no instance is the effect of animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic."

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