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;}

A belief in the existence of mortal, material, limited mind produces in the believer a mesmeric state that would hide from him his unity with God, Spirit. Animal magnetism is the name Mrs. Eddy has given to the supposed force that drags thinking counter to the upward attraction of Spirit. Whatever lifts us up and away from belief in the material body and mortal mind, is the Christ, and derives from Spirit. Whatever constitutes, and chains us to, the belief that life or mind is in matter, is animal magnetism. When we are being attracted to and guided by Spirit, our days reflect this in energy, harmony, purpose, and joy. When we are being pulled downward, mesmerized by matter and by a picture of discord, drift, helplessness, overcomplication, sadness, or any such thing, we have been entrapped by animal magnetism.

Whether we are having a vague, general sense of unhappiness in our lives or are feeling an unhappiness related directly to very specific problems, we will find that uneliminated animal magnetism in our thinking is the underlying cause. Therefore, to rid ourselves of it, we must first of all know with conviction that Mind, Spirit, is perfect and infallible, and then deny the aggressive mental suggestion that mind is mortal and can manipulate us. Unsee the seeming reality of animal magnetism, the belief that life is in matter and apart from Spirit, before directing your attention to the specific symptoms of discord. God is the underlying cause of all good; the belief of animal magnetism underlies all evil.

Note how the Ten Commandments make clear that it's necessary for mankind to do more than just glorify the one God—important as this is. With the second commandment we are instructed to deny rigorously the belief in, and existence of, any other gods— in scientific terms, to deny animal magnetism: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." ^{Ex. 20:4;} That's a broad-scale approach to denying animal magnetism. Other commandments deny evil in the more specific forms it takes—anger, self-importance, lust, deceit, envy, and so forth. None of these willful, immoral states of mind, all of them erroneous desires, symptoms of false and downward attraction, are in and of themselves originators of evil. Like sickness and death, they are the outcome of the basic error of belief in a power and presence apart from God. These states of mind are merely the product of unchecked impersonal evil or animal magnetism.

Mrs. Eddy writes, "Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked motives which produce them." ^{Science and Health, p. 404;} Seemingly personal sin, erroneous desire, is just the puppet, or "front man" of hypnotic animal magnetism. To destroy error, we must uproot it.

If we are idolatrous "in heaven above" or, as one might say in modern terms, pseudo-religiously, "in the earth beneath" (consciously), or "in the water under the earth" (subconsciously), then we are allowing ourselves to be enslaved by animal magnetism, to have a false picture of reality, and consequently to suffer. The object of our idolatry might be fame, financial security, adventure, a healthy body, sexual satisfaction, intellectual knowledge, or human affection. Not all of these items are necessarily in and of themselves evil, but the idolatry of them always is. Idolatrous animal magnetism, whether it be the love of money or of anything else non-spiritual, is at the root of all evil.

When my health, circumstances, and environment all seemed so right, and yet I felt so stubbornly unhappy, I at first couldn't figure out why. But when I saw that to find the root of my unhappiness I had to look no further than animal magnetism, I felt a surge of strength and joy in knowing that I could defeat it. And I did, through consistent denial and affirmation. The restless nights, the insecurity, the depression, all vanished. What's best of all, though, is that now, seeing animal magnetism for what it is, I have an indispensable tool to use in facing any disease, psychic or physical, that presents itself to me. Of course, it would be only animal magnetism that would try to lull me into thinking I'll never have to face and conquer its suggestions again! With wisdom and love for her students, Mrs. Eddy wrote, "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind." ^{Manual of The Mother Church, Art. VIII, Sect. 6.}