Article February 1, 1975 Issue

Animal Magnetism: The Basis of Unhappiness

DAVID M. LUBIN

At a period in my life when everything was going fine and getting better, I had every reason to be happy and secure. Instead, I was depressed and afraid, and couldn't find the reason why. Looking for the answer—or better yet, the solution—I studied the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. I wanted to see God's law as the only one operating in my experience and to feel the peace and joy I knew comes from dwelling with Him. But no matter how diligently I claimed divine law's control, the anxiety persisted.

One night I awoke from a fitful, nightmarish sleep. At that moment it was as if an authoritative voice from within spoke out: "Declare that you have one Mind, God, and that there is none other." I followed instructions. Then the "voice"—which, of course, was a spiritual intuition—spoke again: "Handle aggressive mental suggestion. Deny the existence of many minds, the supposition of mortal mind, the notion that there is a mind apart from God." I switched on the light by my bed and studied my books for an hour or so, until I felt that I had regained dominion over my thinking.

The next morning I went to a Christian Science Reading Room and did research on the subjects of animal magnetism, aggressive mental suggestion, and mesmerism. I found a passage that showed me I had been mistaken to think of mesmerism as a term referring only to the hypnotic control of one human will over another mentality. It can refer to more than just that. In the textbook Mrs. Eddy points out a distinction: "The great difference between voluntary and involuntary mesmerism is that voluntary mesmerism is induced consciously and should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake a man is often instructed." Then she continues: "In the first instance it is understood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect. The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in one case, but matter is appealed to in the other." For one's thinking to be mesmerized, there needn't be a man wearing a tuxedo and swinging a gold watch from a chain; thought can be mesmerized by a belief in matter and in material effect. Mrs. Eddy concludes the paragraph on the two phases of mesmerism by stating, "In reality, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be healed only by the divine Mind."^{Science and Health, p. 403;}