What can evil do, and what can't it do? There is a very revealing account in the Bible's New Testament that illustrates one of Christ Jesus' encounters with evil. See Matt. 4:1-11 After dedicating forty days and nights to prayer and fasting, Jesus hears what the Bible describes as the voice of "the tempter" suggesting he command some stones to be made into bread. "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
"Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."
Finally the Bible relates that "the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
Instead of spending all that effort trying, for example, to persuade Jesus into leaping off a temple, wouldn't it have been much easier just to force Jesus to do these things? Why try to talk Jesus into leaping, when shoving him would have been far simpler?
Because the tempter, both then and now, doesn't possess the power to force anyone to do anything. Its temptations are only suggestions. In fact, the tempter's very existence is a suggestion. It's a suggestion derived from the false universal belief that evil is an actual power apart from God, that it has intelligence—that it exists. Note that Jesus was severely tempted immediately following a time of inspiration. And it is also helpful to recognize how the tempter used words from Scripture to suggest Jesus leap and destroy himself—the Scriptural record was very dear to Jesus. The tempter might try to suggest that evil must necessarily follow or react to good, yet there is no law of God to support such a claim—and God is the only One making laws governing man.
The notion that evil is as much a reality as good, and that it has power to act or react, is termed in Christian Science animal magnetism. Every difficulty, disease, and sin results from concessions to animal magnetism's temptations. The Biblical record in this case makes clear that evil can only propose or suggest a direction of thought or action. This helps us realize that what seems to be an entity opposed to God—in other words, animal magnetism—possesses no actual power to make anyone do anything or to keep anyone from doing what he or she should do. Animal magnetism isn't a real entity. What we're hearing is supposition, since the only power that exists is God. Just because some supposition of evil comes to thought doesn't mean there exists a power opposed to God communicating something real to us.
The chapter 'Animal Magnetism Unmasked" in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains: "Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and His power is neither animal nor human. Its basis being a belief and this belief animal, in Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so called mortal mind." Science and Health,p. 102
In college I played third base for our baseball team. When we were visiting another university's stadium for a game, I would prepare my thought for what might happen if, during the game, an opposing batter hit a pop fly high into the air in the foul area by the seats full of spectators. I knew that inevitably, as I would be waiting for the ball to come down, someone in the stands who was rooting against my team would yell "MISS IT!" That suggestion, no matter how many times it was yelled, or how many people were yelling, had no power to change the flight of the ball; it couldn't push my glove out of the proper position to make the catch, and it couldn't turn my head away from the ball. The only way the suggestion "Miss it" could hinder me was if I listened and responded to it instead of doing my job.
The only way any suggestion of animal magnetism can affect us is through our own consent. Mrs. Eddy, in a letter, once said: "Did you but know the sublimity of your hope; the infinite capacity of your being; the grandeur of your outlook, you would let error kill itself. Error comes to you for life, and you give it all the life it has." Irving C. Tomlinson, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966), pp. 84-85
We all have a first name. You know, of course, your own first name very well. And you know that there exist an almost immeasurable number of other first names. Today you could suppose your name to be something different than it is, yet that supposition alone wouldn't ever have the power to alter your name or change anything about you.
Similarly, we all have a perfect, permanent, spiritual identity as God's child. We could suppose any number of things about ourselves, yet suppositions can never change any aspect of our God-given identity, of spiritual reality.
If the suppositions, or temptations, of animal magnetism are so powerless, why do we sometimes find ourselves acting out its suggestions? It's because these suggestions often come to us as our own thought, sometimes in ways we would least expect. We might, for instance, hear ourselves thinking "I am afraid." Thoughts—especially recurring ones—that contain the words I, my, or me are some of the trickiest. These, for example: "I will probably never be healthy." Or, "Why is my life at the mercy of my brother?" Or even, "I'm going to hurt him before he does the same to me."
A thought such as "I tried to follow God's will but am only being punished for it" is certainly not an angel message from our loving creator! For that very reason, when such thoughts cross our "mental stage" we need to recognize their fraudulence in order to keep from acting on animal magnetism's subtle suggestions. Then we're receptive to God's message of love and truth, which keeps our thoughts in a place where we can act productively.
While we need
to be alert to
the modes of
mortal thought
and deal with
them specifically,
our overriding
priority is
to understand
the allness and
supremacy of God,
the one Mind.
It is vital, tremendously vital, to recognize that it is only God's message that frees us. Human will cannot either expose animal magnetism or destroy it. Attempting to do so through human willpower only leads to frustration, perhaps even to anger or resentment. Relying on divine will and God's message of truth, however, does expose evil. Our consciousness is then filled with God's truth, and through the truth's potency animal magnetism's claims are rendered ineffectual.
How can we best stay on the right track and keep safe? By being better aware of how the temptations might appear. In the Manual of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy states: "While members of this Church do not believe in the doctrines of theosophy, hypnotism, or spiritualism, they cherish no enmity toward those who do believe in such doctrines, and will not harm them. But whenever God calls a member to bear testimony to Truth and to defend the Cause of Christ, he shall do it with love and without fear." Manual, Art. VIII, Sect. 25
It is important not to succumb to the suggestions of "the doctrines of theosophy, hypnotism, or spiritualism." Yet, some might wonder why we should have to keep awake to things, such as theosophy and spiritualism, that at first might seem outdated. Because these doctrines actually underlie many of the current trends of thought that present to mankind supposed powers opposed to God. Theosophy tempts people to become entranced with and dependent upon the basic workings and intricacies of materiality. Dependence on materiality breeds superstition. Astrology, numerology, participation in lotteries and other forms of gambling, and Brahmanism—including its focus on mystical insight—are specific examples of the influence of theosophy. Hypnotism, or animal magnetism, appeals to human thought to fall sleepily into dangerous acquiescence in the temptations of a so-called mind independent of God. Animal magnetism presents suggestions of evil in the form of coercive thought or subtle claims that would lure people away from good—sometimes perhaps causing them to make unfortunate decisions or to personalize evil and hate their fellowman. Spiritualism's suppositions appear to people as mental pictures delineating sin, downfall, disease, and despair. Phases of spiritualism include rumination over ominous past events, predictions of future evil, images of accident or disease, in addition to the belief that others, whether present or not, can personally control us, or, if passed on, can beckon us to join them.
New concepts, new theories, new isms, many of them influenced by the doctrines of theosophy, hypnotism, or spiritualism, are constantly coming over the world's mental horizon, and deserve careful attention and our alertness to their claims. Sadly, much of what may be judged as prevalent "world" attitude is embraced by mankind without even a realization that the acceptance has occurred. Concepts and attitudes, often based only on opinion and conjecture, regarding health and disease, self-worth, longevity, opportunity, economic conditions, and so on, are unknowingly adopted broadly by humanity. Then individuals, in a zombie-like manner, may find themselves parroting those prevailing opinions, and even subsequently feeling distress as the result.
But while we need to be alert to the modes of mortal thought and deal with them specifically, our overriding priority is to understand the allness and supremacy of God, the one Mind. God, as the Bible states, is 'Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." Rev. 1:8 If God is All, 'Alpha and Omega," there is no place left for animal magnetism to act, react, effect inertia, or even tempt. There is nothing outside of God and His spiritual manifestation. Instead of considering ourselves to be on our own, subject to the whims of false suggestion or mortal opinions, isn't it much better to acknowledge the wonder of being God's very reflection, safely here in the realm of divine Mind, doing exactly what God's will is for us?
Animal magnetism hasn't power to accomplish anything; it is only suggestion. And each one of the tempter's alluring or depressing suggestions deserves only one response: total and complete rejection. In Jesus' words, "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."
