Article June 18, 2012 Issue

Straight talk about animal magnetism

Hal Shrewsbury

Sitting in a grade school assembly in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the late 1930s, I watched a hypnotist tell volunteer students from the audience to gaze at a pocket watch he swung in front of them. He told them they were growing sleepy, and they appeared to go into a deep sleep. Then he told them they would awake with red ants crawling all over their bodies. When they awoke, they started slapping the imaginary ants—much to the amusement of the audience.

When I related what I’d seen to my mother, who was bringing me up in the Christian Science Sunday School, she sternly told me to never, ever allow myself to be hypnotized by anyone. Little did I know then the role this experience and her stern warning would play in a healing I would have years later.

Fast forward to 1959 in Key West, Florida. I was stationed there as a naval aviator and had just broken my eardrum diving from a high diving board. No one else realized what had happened, and I made it to my apartment unassisted—but by the time I got home I was in intense pain. That night the ear started to drain, and I lost hearing on that side. After praying on my own, apparently with little success, I called a Christian Science practitioner for her prayerful help. When I went to work the next morning, I heard dire warnings from concerned fellow officers about broken eardrums and mastoid operations and the disqualifying effects they could have on my naval career.

About the author

Hal Shrewsbury is a volunteer Christian Science institutional chaplain. He serves in a substance abuse facility and a juvenile hall in San Antonio, Texas.

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