Article December 18, 1937 Issue

In a communication entitled "Religion and Hypnotism"...

William Kerr, Committee on Publication for the State of Idaho,

Lewiston Tribune

In a communication entitled "Religion and Hypnotism" appearing in the Lewiston Tribune issue of May 23, your correspondent made certain statements that might lead some of your readers to conclude that hypnotism is responsible for the healing work in Christian Science.

In the first paragraph of her article she expresses disagreement with certain statements appearing in an editorial quoted from The Christian Science Monitor in your issue of May 18. Your correspondent claims that the writer of the editorial chides the psychiatrist, who increases the scholarship of his students through the practice of hypnotism, but thinks it is all right to achieve the same or similar ends through the "influence of the divine Mind." The process especially referred to in the editorial consists in submitting oneself "to the influence and dominance of the divine Mind in order to express the capabilities which belong by divine decree to the real man." Had this correspondent understood that Christian Scientists use Mind as a synonym for God, and considered the full statement from the standpoint of the individual's being brought under the influence of divine guidance, there would have been less tendency to confuse the results thus accomplished with those resulting from the use of hypnotism.

Christian Science treatment heals an individual of the beliefs of sickness and sin by awakening him from the mesmeric influence of mortal mind to a fuller realization of a perfect God and His perfect universe as ever present. How this procedure differs from hypnotism can easily be seen by comparing it with Mrs. Eddy's statement as to the method of healing through hypnotism appearing on page 104 of Science and Health in these words: "The hypnotizer employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sickness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground, leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the stronger error."

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Article
In your issue of the twenty-fourth inst., under the caption...
December 18, 1937
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit