If you were to ask a Christian Scientist if he ever becomes intoxicated, he would undoubtedly answer with a vigorous No. A Christian Scientist knows that to indulge in intoxicating drinks would be inconsistent with the teachings of his religion. It would bind him to materiality and prevent him from demonstrating Christian Science.
There is a less obvious kind of intoxication, however, that needs to be seen and guarded against. This is the intoxication induced by animal magnetism, the name used in Christian Science to cover evil of all kinds. After speaking of the confusing and destructive effects of this supposed evil power, Mrs. Eddy says: "Other minds are made dormant by it, and the victim is in a state of semi-individuality, with a mental haziness which admits of no intellectual culture or spiritual growth. The state induced by this secret evil influence is a species of intoxication, in which the victim is led to believe and do what he would never, otherwise, think or do voluntarily."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 211, 212;
This species of intoxication may evidence itself to the Christian Scientist in many forms. It may induce him to neglect church attendance and church activity, cause him to be apathetic in doing daily prayerful metaphysical work, lull him into reading the Lesson-Sermon routinely or ritualistically, or entice him into devoting more time to social and worldly activities than to consecration to God. It may suggest to him that medical aid is on a par with or even superior to the healing Christ. It may engender factions and disagreements among church members and encourage them to worship materiality rather than spirituality. All of these are instances of a mental haziness that causes one to drift sleepily along, wondering all the while why life seems so unsatisfactory. Certainly such states admit "of no intellectual culture or spiritual growth."
