Article August 9, 1941 Issue

In the third installment of a series entitled "El milagro...

Herbert W. Beck,—Guatemala City, Guatemala (translation)

El Imparcial

In the third installment of a series entitled "El milagro y la farsa en la medicina," there appear erroneous statements about Christian Science, which show that the author of the articles is not informed about this religion. May I, therefore, have the privilege of making some corrections?

In the article referred to, mention is made of the use of mesmerism in the treatment of the sick, and it is stated that Christian Science patronizes and defends it. This remark alone shows the misunderstanding of this subject so apparent in the article. Christian Science does not advocate the use of mesmerism, but denounces and destroys it. In her famous textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, its author, devotes an entire chapter to the subject of mesmerism or animal magnetism, tearing away the veil of this evil influence on the world and showing how it may be destroyed by right, spiritual thinking. Elsewhere in the textbook many forthright instructions are given which enable the student to destroy the effects of mesmerism.

In her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mrs. Eddy writes (p.19): "From ordinary mental practice to Christian Science is a long ascent, but to go from the use of inanimate drugs to any susceptible misuse of the human mind, such as mesmerism, hypnotism, and the like, is to subject mankind unwarned and undefended to the unbridled individual human will. The currents of God flow through no such channels."