Article May 13, 1972 Issue

No Involuntary Action

IRENE M. BIENFANG

When I was a child, my father was engaged in a business necessitating the hauling of heavy loads in wagons drawn by teams of horses. One team used for this purpose had formerly been used to draw a fire engine in a small midwestern town. They were strong, healthy, spirited animals. But they proved to be unsuitable for this new work. Whenever they heard the ring of a bell or the clang of one piece of metal against another, they took off in a fast gallop as if going to a fire. They stopped for virtually nothing and, most often, spilled the contents of the wagon and, occasionally, the driver, too. Much damage and disaster resulted. My father had to get rid of the team.

I thought of this episode of my childhood in pondering the fact that human beings sometimes respond to stimuli that are so entrenched in human consciousness that involuntary action results. In response to a mental or physical stimulus one may find himself automatically responding without first giving consent to what he finds himself thinking or doing.

Christian Science assures us that self-containment can be attained by anyone through sincere effort. Mrs. Eddy says: "Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer?"^{Pulpit and Press, p. 3;}

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