Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898)/08 Animal Magnetism
CHAPTER VIII.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM.
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man. — Jesus.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM was first brought into notice
in Germany, in 1775, by Mesmer. According to the
Earliest investigations.
American Cyclopædia he regarded this force,
which he said could be exerted by one living
organism over another, as a means of alleviating disease.
His propositions are as follows :
There exists a mutual influence between the celestial bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminating itself through the substance of the nerves.
In 1784 the French government ordered the medical faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory, and report upon it. Under this order a commission was appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the commissioners. They reported to the government as follows:
In regard to the existence and utility of animal magnetism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipulations, or to the excitement of the imagination, and the impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of the human mind, and an important experiment upon the power of the imagination.
In 1837 a committee of nine was appointed, among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Cloquet, who Clairvovance. tested, in several sessions, the phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their report stated the results as follows.
The facts which had been promised by Monsieur Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions, are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with either physiology or therapeutics.
This Report was adopted by the Royal Academy of Medicine, in Paris.
The author's own observations of the workings of animal magnetism not only convince her that it Personal conclusions. is not a remedial agent, but that its effects upon those who willingly practise it lead to moral and physical death.
If it seems to alleviate or cure disease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of hypnotism other than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived therefrom is proportionate only to one's faith in esoteric magic.
Animal magnetism has no Scientific principle; for God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal. and His power is neither animal nor human. Its basis Negation. being a belief, and this belief an error, in Science, — animal magnetism, hypnotism, or mesmerism is a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor reality.
There is but one real attraction, — namely, that of Spirit. The pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-embracing power, or the attraction of Mind.
The planets have no more power over man than over his Maker, since God governs the universe. Reflecting His power, man has dominion over sky and earth, and all their hosts.
The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. Hidden agents. The looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtile. So secret are its present methods, that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on this subject which the criminal desires.
The following is an extract from the Boston Herald:
Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy explanation and development. It implies the exercise of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the individual or society.
Evil is not power. Its seeming despotism is but a Despotism. belief in evil. Christian Science despoils the kingdom of belief, and pre-eminently promotes affection and virtue in families, and therefore in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the personification of evil as “the god of this world,” and further defines it as dishonesty and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.
The liberation of the powers of mortal mind through Science, whereby man may escape from mortality into The liberation of evil. immortality, blesses the whole human family. As in the beginning, however, this liberation shows itself in a knowledge of good and evil; but this knowledge must be destroyed.
On the other hand, Mind-Science is wholly separate from any half-way, impertinent knowledge; because it is of God, and gives a spiritual understanding, which works out the purposes of Good only. The maximum of Good is always met by the maximum of suppositional evil.
As used in Christian Science, animal magnetism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind. It is a belief The genus of error. that mind is material, and both evil and good; and that evil is as real as goodness, and more powerful. This belief has not one quality of Truth or Good. It is either ignorant or malicious. The malicious form of animal magnetism ultimates in moral idiocy. The truths of immortal Mind sustain man; and they annihilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and fall into dust.
In reality there is no mortal mind, and consequently Thought-transference. no transference of mortal thought and will-power. Life and Being are of God. In Christian Science man can do no harm, for his thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God to man.
When Christian Science and animal magnetism are both comprehended, as they will be, it will be seen why the pioneer of this Science has been so unjustly persecuted, and belied by wolves in sheep's clothing calling themselves Christian Scientists.
Agassiz has wisely said:
Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly, they say they have always believed it.
Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action, and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness Theodicy. of all divine action (as the emanation of divine Mind), and the consequent wrongness of its opposite.
Remember that the medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty, sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, Adulteration. are not the mental qualities which heal the sick. The hypnotizer employs one belief to destroy another. If he heals sickness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground, leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the stronger error.
Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as well as the commission of a crime. Is it not clear that the human mind must move the body to Murder. a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the murderer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them, could not murder.
Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals, in order to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence, Mental crimes. and to punish those deeds. To say that these tribunals have no jurisdiction over mortal mind, would be to contradict precedent, and admit that the power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal mind, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime? Can matter be punished? Can you separate the mentality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case; and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts reasonably sentence it, according to its motive.
When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental crime, and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to Important decision. physical offences, these words of Judge Parmenter, of Boston, will become historic: “I see no reason why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to mechanics or mathematics.”
He who uses his developed mental powers like an escaped felon, to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity Escaped criminal. occurs, is never safe. God will arrest him. Divine justice will manacle him. His sins will be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of error foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
From ordinary medical practice, the distance to Christian The misuse of mental power. Science is full many a league in the line of light; but to go from the use of inanimate drugs, in healing, to the criminal misuse of mortal mind, is to drop from the platform of common manhood into the very mire of iniquity. To work against the free course of honesty and humility, is to push vainly against the current running Heavenward.
Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with inalienable Self-government. rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed, only when he is guided by no other mind than his Maker's.
Man's rights are invaded when this divine order is interfered with. The mental trespasser necessarily incurs the divine penalty due to this crime.
Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable Right methods. in Truth, and classify all others as did Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows:
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these — adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, WITCHCRAFT, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law.