Obtrusive Mental Healing
From Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy
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The question will present itself: Shall people be treated
mentally without their knowledge or consent? The
direct rule for practice of Christian Science is the Golden
10 Rule, “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye,”
Who of us would have our houses broken open or our
locks picked? and much less would we have our minds
tampered with.
Our Master said, “When ye enter a house, salute it.”
15 Prolonging the metaphysical tone of his command, I say,
When you enter mentally the personal precincts of human
thought, you should know that the person with whom
you hold communion desires it. There are solitary ex-
ceptions to most given rules: the following is an exception
20 to the above rule of mental practice.
If the friends of a patient desire you to treat him with-
out his knowing it, and they believe in the efficacy of
Mind-healing, it is sometimes wise to do so, and the end
justifies the means; for he is restored through Christian
25 Science when other means have failed. One other oc-
casion which may call for aid unsought, is a case from
accident, when there is no time for ceremony and no other
aid is near.
The abuse which I call attention to, is promiscuous
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1 and unannounced mental practice where there is no neces-
sity for it, or the motive is mercenary, or one can to ad-
vantage speak the truth audibly; then the case is not
exceptional. As a rule, one has no more right to enter
5 the mind of a person, stir, upset, and adjust his thoughts
without his knowledge or consent, than one has to enter
a house, unlock the desk, displace the furniture, and suit
one’s self in the arrangement and management of another
man’s property.
10 It would be right to break into a burning building and
rouse the slumbering inmates, but wrong to burst open
doors and break through windows if no emergency de-
manded this. Any exception to the old wholesome rule,
“Mind your own business,” is rare. For a student of
15 mine to treat another student without his knowledge, is
a breach of good manners and morals; it is nothing less
than a mistaken kindness, a culpable ignorance, or a
conscious trespass on the rights of mortals.
I insist on the etiquette of Christian Science, as well
20 as its morals and Christianity. The Scriptural rule of
this Science may momentarily be forgotten; but this is
seldom the case with loyal students, or done without
incriminating the person who did it.
Each student should, must, work out his own problem
25 of being; conscious, meanwhile, that God worketh with
him, and that he needs no personal aid. It is the genius
of Christian Science to demonstrate good, not evil,—
harmony, not discord; for Science is the mandate of
Truth which destroys all error.
30 Whoever is honestly laboring to learn the principle of
music and practise it, seldom calls on his teacher or mu-
sician to practise for him. The only personal help re-
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1 quired in this Science is for each one to do his own work
well, and never try to hinder others from doing theirs
thus.
Christian Science, more than any other system of
5 religion, morals, or medicine, is subject to abuses. Its
infinite nature and uses occasion this. Even the human-
itarian at work in this field of limitless power and good
may possess a zeal without knowledge, and thus mistake
the sphere of his present usefulness.
10 Students who strictly adhere to the right, and make the
Bible and Science and Health a study, are in no danger
of mistaking their way.
This question is often proposed, How shall I treat
malicious animal magnetism? The hour has passed for
15 this evil to be treated personally, but it should have been
so dealt with at the outset. Christian Scientists should
have gone personally to the malpractitioner and told
him his fault, and vindicated divine Truth and Love
against human error and hate. This growing sin must
20 now be dealt with as evil, and not as an evil-doer or per-
sonality It must also be remembered that neither an evil
claim nor an evil person is real, hence is neither to be
feared nor honored.
Evil is not something to fear and flee before, or that
25 becomes more real when it is grappled with. Evil let
alone grows more real, aggressive, and enlarges its claims;
but, met with Science, it can and will be mastered by
Science.
I deprecate personal animosities and quarrels. But if
30 one is intrusted with the rules of church government, to
fulfil that trust those rules must be carried out; thus it
is with all moral obligations. I am opposed to all personal
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1 attacks, and in favor of combating evil only, rather than
person.
An edition of one thousand pamphlets I ordered to
be laid away and not one of them circulated, because I
5 had been personal in condemnation. Afterwards, by a
blunder of the gentleman who fills orders for my books,
some of these pamphlets were mistaken for the corrected
edition, and sold.
Love is the fulfilling of the law. Human life is too
10 short for foibles or failures. The Christian Science Jour-
nal will hold high the banner of Truth and Love, and be
impartial and impersonal in its tenor and tenets.