Article April 30, 1979 Issue

Hypnotism denied

Helen L. Connelly

Lee and his younger brother Jon both went to high school. One day an assembly was to be presented that featured a hypnotist. Lee and Jon were Christian Scientists, and their first reaction was, "We should be exempt from this kind of program."

They discussed it with their mother, and she showed them the By-Law in the Manual of The Mother Church, where Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Members of this Church shall not learn hypnotism on penalty of being excommunicated from this Church."^{Man., Art. XI, Sect. 9;} The boys saw this By-Law as a protection, helping Christian Scientists to maintain their identity and individuality free from interfering influences.

At the beginning of the school year, as is the custom in the United States, the boys had turned in exemption cards that would release them from having to attend various discussions on disease, as well as from school requirements for doctors' examinations. But hypnotism! It didn't seem to fall into any category mentioned on the exemption card.

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