Divine Science is the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, promised by Christ Jesus.See John 14:16, 17; It is mankind's greatest blessing. Why is it, then, that Christian Science lectures, church services, and Wednesday testimony meetings are not always flooded with people?
May it not be because of animal magnetism's resistance to the spiritual idea, the Christ, or Truth—materiality's impersonal obstruction to spiritual progress, claiming to operate as individual and community resistance? Animal magnetism is the one term covering all error. In any of its specific phases—apathy, sensualism, materialism, atheism, as well as occultism, ecclesiasticism, hypnotism, spiritualism, material medicine, and so on—it is the false belief that matter is substantial and intelligent. It uses human beings—usually without their conscious knowledge—as mediums for its subtle mental operations against Truth.
When not dealt with, animal magnetism is an obstruction to individual and church progress and to quick healing through Christian Science. Animal magnetism is not, however, a real force or law. It is a state of ignorant mortal mind, sustaining itself through suggestion and general belief. Of itself it is impotence, nothingness, but it appears to thrive through attaching itself to persons, places, or things.
