"The question will present itself: Shall people be treated mentally without their knowledge or consent?" ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 282;}

In this way Mrs. Eddy begins an article called "Obtrusive Mental Healing." It deals with the question she poses, a question that has undoubtedly presented itself to most Christian Scientists.

As students of Christian Science we strive to follow the example of Christ Jesus. The keystone of his teaching was to love God without reservation, and one's neighbor as oneself.

After a certain lawyer had cited this fundamental precept, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?" ^{Luke 10:29;} Jesus then gave the parable of the good Samaritan, probably one of the most loved Christian teachings of all time. Most Christians, certainly most Christian Scientists, long to express the compassion of the Samaritan, rather than the unconcern of the priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side.

But how far can we go in helping with Christian Science someone who has not asked for help?

A Christian Scientist has no right to impinge upon the thoughts of another without his consent. In the article already mentioned Mrs. Eddy cites two exceptions: "If the friends of a patient desire you to treat him without his knowing it, and they believe in the efficacy of Mind-healing, it is sometimes wise to do so, and the end justifies the means; for he is restored through Christian Science when other means have failed. One other occasion which may call for aid unsought, is a case from accident, when there is no time for ceremony and no other aid is near." ^{Mis., p. 282;}

What does one do, then, when he sees a discordant condition and he's not asked for help? The answer can't be to pass by on the other side. A Christian Scientist cannot ignore any sense of evil that presents itself to him, whether from the pages of his daily paper or on the evening news telecast or in his everyday experience.

This is where we need to be clear on the difference between treatment requested by an individual and the handling of an error as a general false claim. In the first instance, the practitioner—the one giving the treatment—directs his healing work specifically to that patient who has requested it. If using mental arguments, he focuses them directly on the situation at hand. Along whatever lines the case calls for, the patient is specifically and individually identified as man, the idea of God, reflecting all of God's goodness.

Treatment for an individual may only be asked for occasionally. But a Christian Scientist has constant calls for the prayerful handling of world beliefs. In this work there is no sense of a specific person or patient involved. Instead there is the opportunity to deny evil circumstances and to affirm spiritual facts for all. One doesn't treat, for example, "that man's" crippled condition. One treats strictly his own temptation to believe in heredity or accident anywhere for anyone. One disabuses himself of the mistaken concept of man as matter. In this way the Scientist hasn't ignored an evil condition—passed by on the other side—but neither has he trespassed on another's thought.

One day on a vacation trip I had two experiences illustrating how a Christian Scientist can handle emergency situations through prayer. In the morning our tour bus stopped suddenly as one passenger, a girl I'll call Penny, was feeling ill. She got off the bus with her father. By this point on the trip our tour group had become very close, and several passengers began suggesting remedies for Penny. One woman, a nurse, hurried down the aisle with some medicine, saying, "I've got just what she needs."

I looked at the Christian Science Sentinel in my lap and thought, "This is just what she needs." But it didn't seem wise to me to climb off the bus and introduce Christian Science to her at that moment. Instead I began to consider the truths of Christian Science I had been reading. I thought of what man's true being is as the child of God. I didn't say mentally, "Penny, you are the child of God, undisturbed by material conditions." Instead I kept my knowing all-inclusive.

From my window I couldn't help noticing that Penny refused the proffered medicine. Soon she felt composed enough to resume her seat ahead of mine. As she sat down I said to her, "Penny, you will be all right." And she was.

That same afternoon, after hours on the bus in high temperatures, we had a flat tire out in the middle of nowhere. The tour director assured us our driver could change the tire but it would take three quarters of an hour. We piled off the bus and fanned out into the countryside in search of respite. In what seemed to be a demonstration of the loaves and fishes sort, one passenger found a pump, and soon many of us were having deep drinks of the cool water.

Suddenly a man from the area came up and became terribly agitated when he saw us drinking the water. He couldn't speak English, nor we Czech, but he finally managed to convey that the water was polluted. Immediately there was great consternation among the group. All sorts of dire predictions were made.

I left the pump and walked off into the countryside alone. This was not a case of wondering whether or not to give a Christian Science treatment to each person who had had some water. I didn't know which ones had drunk the water. Instead, this was a case of handling belief in an evil circumstance and in broken health laws, which had presented itself.

The first thing I thought of was Jesus' declaration to his disciples in regard to the strict Hebrew rules against certain foods considered unclean: "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." ^{Matt. 15:11;} I knew that the only thing to be concerned about was what I took into my consciousness. I knew there was neither life nor substance in matter. Matter has no reality.

In the Bible Lesson ^{in the Christian Science Quarterly;} that week was this emphatic statement by Mrs. Eddy: "Truth is not contaminated by error." ^{Science and Health, p. 304.} I reasoned that man's true being, which I had considered in the morning, could not be contaminated by any false laws regarding health and harmony. The lesson that week included many citations about law and government, and it became clear to me that man is controlled only by God's laws, by the operation of divine Principle. There is no other lawgiver, and there are no laws decreeing the destruction of man.

After a few moments of firmly establishing these truths in my consciousness, I rejoined the group. We were able to reboard the bus and were soon at our destination. Now, in a group traveling like that, everyone knows about everyone else's well-being at all times, and I can say, unequivocally, that no one suffered from drinking that water. The handling of the suggestion that a health law had been violated served to protect all those traveling with me.

We are Christians. We are Christian Scientists. We are good Samaritans. We bring a healing thought wherever there is a need. Wisdom and love will tell us when it can be personally directed and when it can't.