Isaiah 8:12 “Say ye not, a confederacy, to all whom these people shall say, a
confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.”
Animal magnetism, mesmerism and hypnotism
are words describing the influence, to a lesser or greater degree, of one human
mind over another. Sometimes we might think of hypnotism as beneficial or even
an entertainment. Often it is used with an evil intent. It is a belief in the
power of mortal mind; a belief which could be seen as either good or evil.To
use a more modern terminology, we could call this contrived effect or belief in
mortal mind as a conspiracy, or as Isaiah puts it, a confederacy. It is conspiracy of mortal mind to usurp the
power of the only true God by spreading the fear of disease and chaos.
In Science & Health with Key to the
Scriptures (S&H 103: 21-23), Mrs Eddy defines mesmerism as:
“ As
named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or or hypnotism is the specific
term for error, or mortal mind. It is the false belief that mind is in matter,
and is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful. This
belief has not one quality of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious.”
Mortal mind is a facilitator and
propagator of sin, disease and death. The concept of mortal mind appeared when
mankind claimed to be as gods and turned away from the one true God, the one
divine Mind. This created a situation where there were many conflicting human
minds all claiming to be godlike, all
with different views, which has given rise to the chaos we see in the world
today.
In their attempt to be as gods, human
minds have sort out many inventions and continually try to impose their will
either consciously or unconsciously on others. As a result of this process of
mesmerisation, the woes of this world have been spread from one mortal mind to
another. This state of self-ego has deceived us into believing that the
physical man is the real and only existence of man. The spread of this false
belief continues apace today with new diseases being 'discovered’ and talked
about daily. Those who do not guard against such thoughts will find themselves
involuntarily victims of these false beliefs.
Mrs Eddy says in S&H 403: 14-20 “You command the situation if you understand
that mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being.
Mortal mind is constantly producing on the mortal body the results of false
opinions; and it will continue to do so, until the mortal error is deprived of
its imaginary powers by Truth, which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal
illusion.”
Eph. 5:14 “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light.”
We must awake from this hypnotic dream of
mortal mind and its false and beguiling promises. Arise from those who are dead
to the Christ Truth. Sweep away the cobwebs of the dark sleep that ends in death and let the light of Truth
into your life.
Many people today would protest that some
of the inventions of mankind are good. Indeed they are, in a temporal sense. It
is not the inventions we guard against but the belief behind them. The belief
that because man can invent these things he must be the creator of everything; that he must be God;
that there is no spiritual man or eternal life. Of course we don't consciously
think of ourselves as being god, but this is the effect of not acknowledging
the absolute power of God and the existence of his kingdom. This is how mortal
mind would hold us in subjugation.
How and where then did mortal mind raise
its head? The allegory of the temptation of mankind by the serpent in Genesis
describes how mortal mind first conspired to claim power over us by tempting
mankind with the prospect of power and worldly knowledge.
Gen. 3: 4-5 “ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then ye shall be as gods, knowing
both good and evil.”
When we talk about mortal mind we are
really describing the aggregated effect of all the ego-centric human minds in
the world. Whether it was Adam or Eve who first succumbed to the temptation to
taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge is of no importance in metaphysical
science. The singling out of Eve as the temptress of Adam has been perpetuated
by mortal mind to this day. It is yet
another conspiracy of mortal mind by which it seeks to divide and conquer
mankind. There is no classification of ideas (children of God) in divine Mind
as either male or female (Gal.3: 28). Just as God is neither male nor female,
we, being created in his image and likeness, are not male or female. Neither
are God's children classified by race, colour, creed, size, or shape. These are
all divisive concepts of mortal mind.
Mortal mind, like the modern day
hypnotist, says ‘ look me in the eye and give me control of your mind and you
will experience all the pleasures of the world in return’. In today's world
mortal mind more commonly uses the threat of disease rather than a promise of
riches and power to hold us in subjugation.
The concept of disease was created by mortal mind itself when it claimed
to be as powerful as God. Mortal mind is in a cycle of self-deception, it is
the lie and the father of it (John 8:44). In our fear, we seek out temporary
medical solutions instead of addressing the cause by denying the power of
mortal mind and accepting only God as all-powerful.
How do we recognise and resist this
conspiracy of mortal mind? When mortal mind first suggests to you that you have
a disease deny the suggestion immediately and say ,’ get thee behind me Satan’ . Recognise that it is an attempt by
mortal mind to get you to admit that it has power over you and to thereby
involuntarily deny the absolute power of God.
Matt 16: 23 “Jesus said unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan: thou art an offence
unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of
men.”
We must be constantly alert to the
temptations of mortal mind. When Jesus told his disciples of what lay ahead of
him, Peter, out of love for him, suggest that he, Jesus, had the power to avoid
his human enemies. Jesus saw this for what it was and rejected the suggestion.
It was an attempt by the mortal minds around him to mesmerise him and convince
him that there was path or a power other than God's.
Peter had only the best of intentions from
a human point of view for suggesting this course of action. But this is typical
of the subtle forms of mesmerisation that we face today. It appears to be good
or the right thing to do to talk about this disease or that illness that
so-and-so has. But by doing so we are propagating that very thing in our own
and other’s minds. It is this involuntary mesmerism due to ignorance of the
Truth which we must guard against every day.
II Cor 11: 3. “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ.”
Paul warns us that we should not let
mortal mind hypnotise us so that we believe in it’s power rather than in the
simple Truth taught and practiced by Jesus : namely, that there is only one
all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving God. This is the key to eternal life,
glorious in its simplicity.
In I Cor 8: 5 & 6, Paul eloquently and
simply sums up Christ's message to us about the conspiracy of mortal mind and
how to overcome it:
“
For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as
there be gods many, and lords many,):
But
to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him;
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.”
The first statement by Paul sums up what
is wrong with the world today and the second is the solution, the 'simplicity
that is in Christ’: One God, the Father of whom we are, and one Christ by which
we are one in God. All things are made by God and we exist as spiritual ideas
in his eternal kingdom, reflecting his divine thoughts. Jesus Christ is the example of the perfect
child of God. We, by Christ, may regain eternal life in God, divine Mind. It is so breathtakingly simple! No scholastic arguments or learned tomes
required.
