In contrast with Christian Science we might classify as "mental suggestion" that subversive technique of a so-called material mentality which seeks willful control over bodily conditions, material circumstances, or events. It may take the form of autosuggestion or a silent attempt to influence other human minds—either for good or for evil purposes. How far such quackery is from the true practice of Christian healing!
The aim of Christian Science is to save humanity from sin, sickness, and destructive lies of all sorts. In fact such salvation would include overturning the very foundation of any merely mental technique by eliminating the false supposition that mind and life are material. The method of the saving mission of Christian Science is fundamentally prayer and demonstration. And prayer in Christian Science is the deeply Christian prayer that brings redemption through the action of Christ, Truth; the healing prayer that scientifically affirms and understands divine law. Embracing the law of God as supreme, such enlightened prayer acknowledges the eternal fact that there is no other Mind than the divine Mind, God; no other governing power than omnipotent Love; no other substance than infinite Spirit; no other being than divine Life and its expression. Man's real identity and consciousness reflect the one infinite Mind; and the understanding of this divine Mind, entertained in prayer, bestows the only power that can truly heal.
Mental suggestion, on the other hand, is actually a form of blindness, for it proceeds from the basis of wrongly believing in a power separate from God, the only true intelligence. Such suggestion operates either from a standpoint of ignorance or malice, or both. And consequently it never rises above its own self-imposed shortcomings and the darkness of false belief. A mortal mentality cannot perceive what is divinely real. It cannot know God's true creation, where man is never a conglomerate of physique, emotion, and preprogrammed genetic traits but is instead the pure spiritual likeness of his Maker.
