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.

Throughout the school year they'd been friendly with the dean of boys, so Lee went by himself to the dean's office and showed him the Manual, explaining that the By-Law forbids the learning of hypnotism.

The dean didn't even check the Manual. He simply said, "Fine! No problem, no problem at all."

So both boys went to a study hall until the assembly was over. Their friends came out of assembly exuberantly telling them what they had missed.

"It was exciting! Great! They put a girl to sleep and made her do all sorts of funny things. You don't know what you missed!"

"You guys must be the ones who are sound asleep!" replied Jon. "That's nothing but mind control. Your mind is so precious. How could you let anyone try to control it?"

The experience of these two boys illustrates what Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: "The Christian Scientist demonstrates that divine Mind heals, while the hypnotist dispossesses the patient of his individuality in order to control him."^{Science and Health, p. 375;}

One of the valuable lessons taught in the Christian Science Sunday School is how to defend one's thought against all illegitimate forms of control. Learning to know God as our Mind helps us to appreciate ourselves as His image and likeness and to love and protect what we are as God's reflection. Our intelligence, our ability to make decisions, our good judgment, and our discernment of right from wrong are all based on what we know of God as Mind, as our Father. While we honor our human father and mother and are obedient to the laws of the land, we know God is the only real power.

Young adults have a keen appreciation of individual freedom. What freedom is more important than the privilege to think rightly for yourself, without any malicious human power claiming the authority to do your thinking for you? The sixth tenet to which every Mother Church member subscribes says: "And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure."^{Man., p. 16;} This Christ influence frees us and makes us independent and strong. No unchristlike influence has a lawful place in our lives, and we need to stand up for our right to mental freedom. We are not dependent on people but only on God.

As the Bible says, we should be actively "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."^{II Cor. 10:5.}

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