OUR WORLD has been going through a period of great disunity. We see it between nations and within nations, as well as within business, family relationships, educational and other institutions, and even within church. In short, the world belief of disunity or a division of thought is clamoring for acceptance.
Why are we confronted with this challenge of disunity in so many aspects of our lives and in virtually all parts of the globe? One answer might be: the failure to handle what is called animal magnetism. That is, the failure to recognize that what appears as disunity or imperfection is not a real condition but merely a false concept, a lie acting mesmerically in human consciousness. So to meet the problem, we must deal with animal magnetism.
To understand just what animal magnetism is, it can be helpful to first define the words: error, animal magnetism, aggressive mental suggestion, and mental malpractice. Error is a term used to indicate the suppositional absence of truth or reality. Obviously it is suppositional because it is impossible to have real unreality or unreal reality. Animal magnetism is not something real. It is only a term used to indicate that error, the supposed absence of truth, has the power to act, to do something. But how could that which is not do anything? It cannot. It only seems to do so. How? By presenting a false suggestion. Aggressive mental suggestion is the means through which animal magnetism seems to act. But this too is only a term. Mental malpractice is the seeming effect or result of accepting aggressive mental suggestions. Because animal magnetism's suggestions come to us in the guise of our own thinking, we must be alert to detect them when they are presented to us. Mary Baker Eddy instructed us, "Stand porter at the door of thought." Science and Health, 392.
