Handling Sympathetic Mesmerism

Lessons learned are milestones passed. Though the world war reaches a military halt, the carnal mind brings forth problem after problem, and to guard against a recurrence of the same evils, mankind must learn to handle sympathetic mesmerism.

When the “Lusitania” sank, it disappeared into a gulf which can never be bridged. The state of mind which planned this crime and that mind which has always maintained the tradition at sea of “Women and children first” have no common meeting ground. There can be no discussion, no agreement or arrangement, no adjudication of such a premeditated act, and diplomacy has found none. From the standpoint of the conspirators against the rights of man it was only an incident in the struggle for the control of the sea; from the standpoint of the defenders of liberty it was a deed so dark as to be unbelievable. The victors in the world war need to protect themselves against sympathetic mesmerism, against the danger of trusting the evil planner and mistaking his temporary abasement for genuine repentance.

After Saul had long sought in vain to slay David and David had spared Saul’s life, the defeated king broke down in momentary contrition and wept. “Is this thy voice, my son David?” he cried, “Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.” At the close of the chapter recording this incident are the significant words, “And Saul went home; but David and his men gat them up unto the hold.” Spiritual intuition prevented David from yielding to sympathetic mesmerism and trusting to Saul’s mock repentance. The near future proved the correctness of David’s intuition, for we read that soon after, Saul once more sought to slay David and was once more saved by David’s mercy. On this second occasion Saul again repeated his profession of repentance, but it is recorded that “David went on his way,” untouched by sympathetic mesmerism. The Bible story shows that after this second experience Saul desisted from pursuing David and within a short time lost his own life in battle through the self-destruction of error.

The shortest verse in the Bible states that “Jesus wept.” There are tears which are shed for others and not for one’s self, and when Jesus wept it was on account of the world’s subjection to mesmerism, its unwillingness, unreadiness, to perceive Truth. This obduracy wrung from him the cry, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” There are also tears of joy which like April showers glisten with the sunshine of love. There are tears which betoken the melting away of self under the pressure of Spirit. The child’s tears of genuine repentance make way for the smiles of a contrite heart. These are not tears of self-pity seeking to perpetuate self, but they are signs of self-surrender and of trust in God. Jesus showed the way of genuine sympathy with malefactors when he said to the repentant thief, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” It takes spiritual wisdom to separate the tares of sympathetic mesmerism from the wheat of divine compassion, and wide-awake Christians cannot be made to mistake the pathos of the fakir for an honest cry for help.

When evil finds its plans frustrated, its diabolism baffled, and feels the first pangs of self-destruction, it weeps,—not for its victims but for itself. Then the sympathetic onlooker needs to guard against the mesmerism which makes mankind forget instead of forgive scientifically through the destruction of error. Nobody is permanently benefited by this weakness. The unrepentant criminal goes away to plot further crimes. The history of evil repeats itself, and “the daughter of my people” is not healed. Moreover the evildoer tries to appear innocent; hence arise wolves in sheep’s clothing, serpents which imitate harmless limbs of trees, crocodile tears, and other evidences of the usual stock in trade of the mental manipulation by which evil, found out, seeks to reverse the law of God and hide itself anew. At a later and more propitious date Saul purposes to pursue David once more in order to slay him. Jesus did not trust Judas. The Master did not mince words in preventing his betrayer from posing as his loyal follower, for he said, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”

The English speaking people in their sports have learned to be good losers as well as chivalrous winners. The athlete who hates soon loses his prowess. In these games the contest may seem to be between persons; in reality the opponent is always personal limitation. Therefore “Let the best man win” is a wholesome attitude of mind in all such contests. The supposition that human will power and hate are good winners brings a terrible retribution in the hour of defeat. The man who obeys the will of God as Father and cherishes the love of God as Mother never knows when he is being beaten, and if he does not know he is beaten, he is not beaten. The world war, now closing its military phase, has presented the amazing spectacle of a group of nations constantly being pressed during more than four years by overwhelming numbers drilled in long preparation. Yet their faith in God never faltered, their obedience to Principle never wavered. They retreated physically but they advanced spiritually. They were good losers, and to-day are equally good winners. They do not avenge themselves for the nameless abomination perpetrated upon their loved ones during the years of retreat, but they do not trust the foe in tears any more than they trusted him arrayed in arrogance. To-day Saul weeps, but David and his men get them up “unto the hold” where sympathetic mesmerism cannot reach them.

Christian Science indicates that evil is more subtle in the hour of defeat than in the hour of seeming success. It becomes more serpentine in order more surely to elude the sword of truth, for when crushed to earth but not destroyed evil tends to take on the characteristics of that type of evil whose end is recorded in the Apocalypse in the words, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”

The Christian Scientist is learning to follow the Scriptural injunction, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” This command involves trusting God in sickness and in health, in good and evil report, here or hereafter. It rebukes any trust in materia medica, ritualism, or so-called physical science. It unmasks self-will, or hypnotism, and any influence supposed to be derived from mental suggestion, as devoid of real power and wholly untrustworthy. On a notable occasion in the summer of 1903 a great gathering of Christian Scientists was welcomed by Mrs. Eddy at Pleasant View, Concord, New Hampshire. Standing on the balcony of her home, with hands open as though to give them of the fullness of her spiritual store, she uttered the words, since published in “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany” (p. 170): “In parting I repeat to these dear members of my church: Trust in Truth, and have no other trusts. To-day is fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah: ‘And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'”