Editorial September 22, 1997 Issue

Consent to health—and spread it

Barbara M. Vining

People have a way of repeating what they've heard. A tune. An advertising slogan. A piece of news. Sometimes we're surprised to find ourselves repeating in thought, and even aloud, things we hadn't realized we'd taken in. And sometimes these are things we wouldn't have played host to if we had been alert to question what we were hearing.

Health is one of the things we hear a lot of talk about. Or, rather, we hear a lot about disease, and about its possible causes and cures. And have you noticed how, with all the talk about a particular disease, that disease then becomes "popular," not only in human thought but in experience?

Even diseases that are not considered to be contagious by physical contact seem to become more prominent when they are the subject of widespread publicity. Mary Baker Eddy makes a rather startling observation about this phenomenon. She writes: "Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe, and say what others say. Common consent is contagious, and it makes disease catching" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 228).

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