Daily the active Christian Scientist affirms statements of truth to replace the arguments of error. The truth is that God is supreme, infinite, omnipotent, ever present, and that evil is powerless, lawless, unreal, and, when considered from the standpoint of Spirit's allness, nonexistent, a mere illusion of the senses. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, states, "Evil is not something to fear and flee before, or that becomes more real when it is grappled with." And she adds, "Evil let alone grows more real, aggressive, and enlarges its claims; but, met with Science, it can and will be mastered by Science." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 284
In the Bible we read, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7 Christ, Truth, as revealed by Christian Science, is the remedy for evil, or animal magnetism, the error that would have us believe that disease is real, God-sent, and therefore part of our destiny. This Science proclaims that human ills are no more real than are mathematical errors; that they disappear when they are detected and resisted with divine power. Facing up to mortal error with Christ, Truth, is a joyful experience; and in destroying mortal beliefs, we are free to enjoy the perfection of our spiritual selfhood, God's idea.
What are some of the truths that destroy the claims of animal magnetism, or mortal thinking? Science reveals them to be these: God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," Hab. 1:13 and therefore sin, disease, and death have no divine authority with which to impose themselves upon us or to enforce false laws; God creates man of the substance of Spirit, not matter, and therefore human ills are merely false beliefs, errors of thought, not physical conditions; actually we are influenced by Spirit, God, not flesh, and therefore we can experience only spiritual good, health, joy, peace, harmony, and immortal being.
While spiritual harmony is the eternal fact of our real identity, humanly we must prove our divine heritage step by step through Science, until the human gives place to the divine. Since thought alone determines our experience, we must be diligent to accept as real only that which is spiritual. The dignity of our divine sonship appears more distinctly as such aggressive mental suggestions as sin, disease, pain, lack, age, and death are denied, understood as no part of God's man.
The words "animal magnetism" refer to nothing that is to be feared. As it is employed in Science, animal magnetism is an inclusive term for all mortal error; and it should never be thought of as more than that. There is really no more mystery about animal magnetism than there is about the false equation two times two equals three. Animal magnetism indicates faulty thinking. Working metaphysically, the Christian Scientist uses the term to remind him of the deceptive nature of mortal errors.
Whatever takes thought away from God is animal magnetism. If he is awake to error's attempts to draw thought away from God, the Scientist can dispose of the aggressive mental suggestions of sin and disease with the understanding of the power of Christ, Truth; he can see their unreality, heal them, and thus demonstrate the perfection of God and man. This method is the practice of Christian Science. Ignoring errors relating to human ills has never healed anyone any more than ignoring mathematical errors has ever solved a problem. Only as physical errors are exchanged for the spiritual facts of Science can we arrive at the right answer: perfect God and perfect man.
Since the thought of flesh is animal magnetism, we must be spiritually alert to resist the hypnotic suggestions of mortality. Jesus' parable of the prodigal son illustrates the power of Christ, Truth, to break error's mesmeric hold on thought. Lured away from his father's house by the carnal suggestions of riotous living, indulgence in fleshly thinking, the prodigal son experienced material and spiritual poverty, until through suffering he realized that error's claims of pleasure in matter are false and bring no enduring satisfaction. Then he returned to the more spiritually enlightened concept of being, represented by his father's house.
Spiritual satisfaction is found in saying No to carnal suggestions. God's man has no animalistic instincts, no carnal impulses, no sensual desires. Self-centered thinking enmeshes one in the belief of mortality. As we deny the belief that there is pleasure in matter, we can increasingly prove our immunity to the ills of the flesh. The spiritually-minded cannot be impressed, depressed, or oppressed by fleshly thoughts— animal magnetism. In the words of Paul, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." II Cor. 3: 17
The alert Scientist, knowing that Spirit, God, is the only real attraction, will not allow animal magnetism to lure him away from daily study of the Lesson-Sermons, outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly, regular church attendance, radical reliance on spiritual means for healing, or daily protective work for his understanding of the Christ-idea. Neither can the alert student be so mesmerized that he believes there is an easier or quicker course Spiritward than that provided by the pure theology of Christian Science. Purity is the stabilizing element of thought that assures progress Spiritward. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Matt. 5:8 And Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress." Science and Health, p. 324
Through spiritual enlightenment we gain freedom from carnal thinking, from animal magnetism. From the summit of divine Science, the Christlike understanding that all reality is in God and His perfect creation, we see error's unreal nature. As we progressively awaken to our God-conscious being, we see that matter is neither substance nor man. Then animal magnetism is proven impotent, sin and disease disappear, God is glorified, and man, God's image, is revealed.
