My address before the Christian Scientist Association has been misrepresented and evidently misunderstood by some students. The gist of the whole subject was not to malpractise unwittingly. In order to be sure that one is not doing this he must avoid naming, in his mental treatment, any other individual but the patient whom he is treating, and practise only to heal. Any deviation from this direct rule is more or less dangerous. No mortal is infallible,— hence the Scripture, "Judge no man."
Insanity, or moral dementia, is not healed by defending your patient from other people whom you may think are malpractising upon your patient. This state of mind is induced by no one else but the patient's own idiosyncrasy, and the patient should not be treated as if it were. It is a constitutional belief, and is liable to be developed by circumstances which bring into action the latent elements, or characteristics, of the patient.
The rule of mental practice in Christian Science is strictly to handle no other mentality but the mind of your patient and treat this mind to be Christly. Any departure from this golden rule is inadmissible. This mental practice includes and inculcates the commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.'" Animal magnetism, hypnotism, etc., are disarmed by the practitioner who excludes from his own consciousness, and that of his patients, all sense of the realism of any other cause or effect save that which cometh from God. And he should teach his students to defend themselves from all evil, and to heal the sick by recognizing the supremacy and allness of Good. This epitomizes what heals all manner of sickness and disease, moral or physical.
