Just one chapter, seven pages in length, out of the total of 700 pages, specifically addresses the subject of animal magnetism in Mary Baker Eddy's transforming book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The importance of dealing rightly with this subject is in reverse proportion to the number of pages devoted to it.
The chapter is titled "Animal Magnetism Unmasked." There are additional and important references in Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy's other writings; however, this chapter is central to comprehending the origin, definition, explanation, and overcoming of the influence of animal magnetism.
According to an early (1784) investigation, animal magnetism was cited as "an important experiment upon the power of the imagination." Science and Health, p. 101. Mesmer, in Germany in 1775, thought it to be a "means of alleviating disease." Ibid., p. 100. Mary Baker Eddy, through her experiments in the 19th century, concluded "... that it is not a remedial agent, and that its effects upon those who practice it, and upon their subjects who do not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death." Ibid., p. 101.
