Quotes discussing witchcraft

From page 267 of Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy

There is no one known to my personality, within my circle or without it, naming the name of Christian Science — loyal or disloyal — that can ignorantly or maliciously malpractice upon me. Neither can malpractice or mesmerism prevent me from recognizing such error and handling it.

Nothing can come to me except that which comes from God, and that is always good.

I am a law unto myself. There is no ignorant, malicious, willful, superstitious, sympathetic, intentionally directed malpractice from theosophy, palmistry, phrenology, occultism, witchcraft, necromancy, black or white magic, spiritualism, animal magnetism, hypnotism, mental science, free love, malpractitioners, trustees, directors, laymen, occultists, materia medica, or from Roman Catholicism, neighbors, friends, enemies, acquaintances or relatives, that can mesmerize me or influence me or confuse my spiritual continuity, or interfere with my spiritual work, or cloud my vision (mental), or darken my consciousness; neither can it impede my progress in my true understanding of God.

Excerpt of “How to Save the World” by Nancy Beauchamp

Click here for the complete text

Mary Baker Eddy made a rather bold statement to Martha Bogue, one of her early workers. She stated, “The truth that God is All-in-all and that there is no evil, held faithfully by Christian Scientists, will save the world and it is all that will save it.” (Miscellaneous Documents) Apparently, Mrs. Eddy was speaking about the not so distant future. She gave us a hint at what this future world-wide calamity might be …

The hint, you ask? She italicized the word witchcraft. It is not italicized in the King James Bible, (Galatians 6:19-21). We as Christian Scientists are to handle the belief of witchcraft, of a belief in a power apart from God where evil is worshipped. The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines witchcraft as “the practice of witches; sorcery; enchantments; intercourse with the devil.” Sorcery is defined as “divination by the assistance or supposed assistance of evil spirits”. Enchantments are “the use of magic arts, spells or charms”. So, are we to be afraid of witchcraft and evil spells? No. As Christian Science teaches, God is the only power in the universe, and we all bow our knees unto Christ. The first commandment is to “have no other gods before Me.” We should have no faith or belief in any other supposed power.

Watching Point 52 from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

Click here for the complete text

Christian Science takes evil out of effect and puts it into cause, where it can be handled successfully; out of matter, or material causation, into the mental realm where divine Mind can dispose of it. The adherents of matter complain that this makes too little of evil and ignores self-evident wrongs. The advocates of the human mind object to this, declaring that it sets up a new devil, and makes witchcraft and mesmerism formidable.

The world’s attitude toward evil can be described as fearing the rattle, and ignoring the venom of the rattlesnake. Mrs. Eddy reversed this mistake, and endeavored to build up a fear of wrong thinking, on the basis that it cuts man off from God and produces sin, sickness and death. She taught that mortals need not fear the rattle, or effect, but should be grateful for it as a warning of the presence of evil, so that one may wake up from its delusion promptly. To Mrs. Eddy the venom of the snake, which she called mental inoculation, was the important issue, since it involved the control of mortals by mesmerism. She saw that they must have sufficient fear of it to handle it, and thus awaken from it.

Materia Medica, from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 110-111

Click here for the complete text

There is no power, intelligence or principle, mesmeric or hypnotic, in materia medica, as individual or collective mind. Therefore, it cannot blind nor hypnotize mortals, through human beliefs or will-power, from seeking the true healing, as it is in Christ Jesus and Christian Science.

There is but one Physician, because there is but one Mind; whose medicine is Truth; which destroys all error; whose attraction is Love, which casteth out all fear. This is the one Mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, and this Mind alone can draw all men unto Him — divine Love.

Materia medica cannot hide under the guise of hygiene, witchcraft, magic, spiritualism, mind-cure, faithcure, or any other subtle form of carnality, for to be carnally-minded is death. Man (I) cannot be bewitched or mesmerized by alluring or high sounding phrases or methods, nor by any personality, individual or collective, which substitutes matter and materia medica for the healing power of Truth, Christ.

Belief: Reversal, Relapse, Rebound by Bicknell Young

Click here for the complete text

Liberated belief in our time claims that every prophecy has to be fulfilled; that all the evil prophecy announced as error shall have fulfillment, and as belief, calls Divine Science the error; liberated belief claims to be mind-power pronouncing those evil prophecies upon anything that does not stand for evil. Then that is the way you would protect Christian Science, by reversing the statements and replacing them. Another method by which liberated belief claims to be mind power and produce phenomena — by knocking at the door of consciousness to give it phenomena — is invultuation. The definition according to Webster: “Invultuation: A form of witchcraft in which an image of a person is made, usually of wax, and then stabbed with pins, thorns, or the like, or slowly melted before a fire; it being supposed that the person imaged will suffer injury or waste away in death in consequence. The superstition is as old as human culture, and spread throughout a great part of the world, still surviving even in Europe.”

“A courtier told Constantine that a mob had broken the head of his statue with stones. The emperor lifted his hands to his head, saying: ‘It is very surprising, but I don’t feel hurt in the least.’” (Miscellaneous Writings) Belief sets up an image which it calls you, and then does everything to that image which it would like to do to you. When it sets up and attacks a mental image of you, it is called mental manipulation. If some mental image seems to be in consciousness and you cannot get rid of it either as malpractice, or suggestion, declare that malicious mental malpractice or liberated belief claiming to be mind-power, cannot keep that belief before your thought; cannot hold it before your thought to keep it there. Then you have uncovered the belief in just the way it claims to operate, and the belief cannot play the game any longer. That is the belief of clairvoyance. Declare that belief cannot operate even in belief, or at all, as belief called ignorant animal magnetism, or as liberated belief called malicious animal magnetism, or as mental malpractice, to produce and determine any phenomena. …

Liberated belief claims to be the one mind with power to determine phenomena called animal magnetism or mental malpractice; but it cannot operate even according to belief or as malicious malpractice, as mind-power, as power to determine phenomena through any belief or claim of material causation, material substance, material action, or material law. It cannot operate through ignorant belief called animal magnetism, such as fear, doubt, prenatal influence, and so on. It cannot operate through liberated belief called animal magnetism, such as spiritualism, mediumship, psychology, astrology, theosophy, thought transference, false metaphysics, clairvoyance, so-called Christian Science, priestcraft — either oriental or Roman Catholic, and all the rest. It cannot operate through any belief of law of mental malpractice called laws of reversal, relapse, rebound, obstruction, penalty, curse, or apostasy. Rebellion against the unfolding idea is the sin of witchcraft.

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.” (I Samuel) Because the lie has rejected the Word, it has no power. Absolutely none.

Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Precepts, by Gilbert Carpenter, from the commentary on the letter from Dec. 3, 1895, text below starting on page 428 of Vol. III

The letter of December 3 written to the church also requests the last sentence of the Rule, Article IV, to be stricken out. This sentence reads, “No person shall become a member of this church, or remain a member thereof, who is proven guilty of malicious mental malpractice to the extent of injuring the health, reputation, or the morals of men.”

One may ask why Mrs. Eddy ever included such a statement in the Manual, since it implies the possibility of students malpracticing, and the reality of its effects in injuring others. Mrs. Eddy plainly teaches that the power of malprac­tice is a myth; then why should she turn around and indicate that a member could be proved guilty of malpractice to the extent of injuring others? …

Salem witchcraft was no more than an hysterical mania based on imagination and fear. It illustrated the power of suggestion operating to affect mortals, and to cause them to believe in the reality of illusion. Mrs. Eddy foresaw the possibil­ity of a renewal of this mental abuse, when she acknowledged the possibility of individuals learning the operation of mind and then misusing it. She knew that right-minded students would be restrained from misusing their liberated mental powers in any direction that might harm others; but she framed this By-law in order to awaken students to the awful possibilities latent in the human mind, and thus to prevent evil being done by this method.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy indicates that the day will come when the courts in our land will take cognizance of mental crime in the form of mal­practice; but the question arises as to how this could be done, until there are individuals who have reached a state of spiritual growth where they could not be deceived, and so could detect what was going on in the mental realm. Mrs. Eddy could do this unerringly, and her ability in this direction grew out of the fact that she was in tune with divine Mind.

In the Salem tragedy, the stigma. of guilt was fastened on innocent people because there was no one who could read thought correctly, or who understood self-hypnosis. In court the supposed victims exhibited symptoms of being bewitched, declaring that the accused was the cause of such phenomena. Who was present who could see through the cloud of fear, false belief, hysteria and self-mesmerism in order to fasten the guilt where it belonged?

In the Christian Science Journal for February, 1889, there is an article by Mrs. Eddy on animal magnetism which plainly states that “Science fastens guilt upon its author through mind, with the certainty and directness of the eye of God Himself.” She was guided to frame this By-law dealing with mental mal­practice in order to help to restrain it, and undoubtedly it accomplished its mission. Then she was led to withdraw it, lest it foster the belief in students that they might think wrongly about others, and in this way injure their health, reputation or morals. She wanted no revival of Salem witchcraft, even though she had discovered that the sum total of all evil lay in mortal mind, and that every belief in the action of this mind is “evil, occultism, necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism” (Science and Health, page 104).

If the “eye of God” is essential in determining the source of malpractice, what are students to do, if there is no one who has demonstrated the “eye of God”? Might not innocent people be excommunicated, and thus the By-law be turned into an abuse?

Yet it was necessary for a hint to be given the members that from a human standpoint they might malpractice upon each other, and that if God sent such a By-law to warn them, there must be a punishment from God for this crime, since He knows whether one is malpracticing or not. And surely His punishment is more severe, more just and inexorable than any human punishment could be. It must be concluded that the wisdom of God gave this By-law to Mrs. Eddy, even though she ruled it out of the Manual temporarily. It is in the present Manual as Sec. 8 of Art. VIII.

It would appear as if the Salem witchcraft farce proved for all time that the courts of our land cannot determine mental crime. Yet Mrs. Eddy indicates that the day will come when this will be done. In the meantime it will be found wholesome for members to feel that God knows and punishes mental crime. Also it can do no harm for students to prepare for the time when they will be able to probe the action of thought, so that they can detect the action of mal­practice unerringly and without abuse.

“Malpractice Today” from Volume Nineteen / Number One of The Banner from Fall 2005

The subject of malicious animal magnetism, also known as mental malpractice, has evoked much fear and too little understanding since the early days of Christian Science. Yet it has appeared in many forms over the centuries. In Proverbs 26, one finds a recognition of this: ” … the curse causeless shall not come.” Today one finds versions of this inside and outside of religious organizations. The Muslims have the hutaba which is used against those who convert to Christianity (See Fall 1993 Banner), the Roman Catholic Church has anathema,, and secularists have secret warfare. Regarding the latter, The Jerusalem Post of November 7, 1987, included an article subtitled Soviets use witchcraft againstfoes. In this article, Israeli KGB expert Avraham Shiffrin is quoted: “The KGB has a para-psychology department located in Baku, whose members can kill people long-distance without the use of weapons.” An interviewer observed, “Witchcraft is a matter of bygone ages.” Shifrin replied, “Not so, serious institutes in Russia and in the U.S. investigate these matters.”

Of particular interest to Christian Scientists is mental malpractice as manifested within their own church. Regretably, this phenomenon still exists today and is actively used against those who oppose or dissent from the official program enunciated at church headquarters.

Reginald G. Kerry sent out a series of explosive letters to the Christian Science field from 1975 to 1990 which detailed a pattern of corruption and immorality which the directors of that era denied completely and which their successors still deny these many years later. One day Mr. Kerry was met on a Boston street by a very prominent former member of the Christian Science Board of Directors who stated, ”We don’t understand why you are still alive. We have one hundred practitioners working on you.” Mr. Kerry’s simple reply was, “I hate no man.”

A practitioner, who was viewed as a troublemaker for having published a pamphlet without church permission, was summoned to see the head of the department of practitioners. This department head told the individual that his own regular business hours were from 9 to 5, but that his real work took place from 1 A.M. to 6 A.M. That night the verity of that statement was demonstrated with full force as the individual awoke with clear indications of maliciously directed mental manipulation.

It would be useful for the reader to know the general indications of this demonic activity. Sometimes it is manifested in the target as intense mental pain without any seeming source. Other times, a specific vital organ is the focus. In other cases, a general sense of chaos is introduced into the individual’s daily routine with no apparent cause. The classic desired effect is an automobile accident. For the most part, the mental work is crude and heavy-handed. Sometimes it takes place only at night. Other times it can last twenty-four hours a day for weeks. Occasionally, it can be very clever. One example gives some insight: For no apparent reason, an individual felt a very strong, overpowering sense of euphoria. He realized that it was not spiritually based and refused to embrace it. Rather, he observed it almost as a bystander. Within a few minutes, it was as if that material sense, like a soaring airplane, had been deliberately nosedived and crashed into the ground. The targeted individual mused about what might have happened had he gotten on that “airplane”.

Malpractitioners, of necessity, must justify themselves. They reason: “We know that death is unreal. We are just moving people from here to there so that they cannot disrupt or cause harm to the church.” Sometimes they reason: “This person had been mentally warned, ought to have taken the hint, and should have ceased his activity. Therefore his human death was his own fault. In any case, we know that death is not really real.”

The reader should realize that mental malpractice is very hard work. Sometimes these people work in shifts. Other times they work alone. When the desired effect is not achieved, they do give up, and the target can actually sense the malpractitioner’ s fatigue and can literally mark the hour when the malpractice stops.

A genuine Christian Science practitioner receives spiritual benefit from every healing of his patients. A malpractitioner, on the other hand, clearly does not gain any benefit except the gratitude and material perquisites from his employer. He can only fancy that he is able to tum back to the books for solace with the erroneous conviction that he has been “working for church.”

The reader should also know that mental malpractice, in one sense, can be used creatively by the targeted individual. It is possible to experience physical healing and achieve valuable mental self-correction (which are entirely recognizable and distinct from the false suggestions planted by the malpractitioner) in the midst of virulent m.a.m. In some cases when one is working out a problem in the midst of an attack, a healing will burst forth just as the malpractitioner gives up.

As Mrs. Eddy states: ”The increasing necessity for relying on God to defend us against the subtler forms of evil, turns us more unreservedly to Him for help, and thus becomes a means of grace.” (Mis. 115) Mrs. Eddy also gave a statement to her students. Daisette McKenzie recorded it: “When the winds of error blast, go down and down in humility like the grass to rise up unbroken after the storm. The winds are sin’s revenge upon its destroyer.”

Edward and Caroline Bates served Mrs. Eddy when the original Mother Church was built. It seemed impossible to complete the construction by the deadline of December 29, 1894. Mr. and Mrs. Bates remained at the site, resolving disputes and delays around the clock. The last, finishing touches were completed at the stroke of midnight. The first service, scheduled for the next day, was a communion service. Mrs. Eddy later met with these faithful workers and said, “We have built the church; it will be easy for branch churches to build their structures as we have cleared the way. If the Mother Church had not been finished at the time designated, it would have remained a monument to the error and my students would have died sudden and unnatural deaths. You have helped me to save them.” Then, referring to church members in Boston, Mrs. Eddy asked, “Mr. Bates, are you prepared for what is to come? They will shun you; they will try to ruin you morally, physically, financially, and spiritually.” Mr. Bates wrote in his memoir that he had ample evidence of this in the following days.

Mental malpractice is a form of ‘Justified” hatred in which the malpractitioner feels justly ordained to undertake this action. However, Mrs. Eddy states, ”Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it masters us; brings suffering upon suffering to its possessor, throughout time and beyond the grave.” (Mis. 12)

It is possible to overcome malicious animal magnetism. Students of Christian Science need to know that when m.a.m. is recognized for what it is, malpractice is defanged. Its deadly aspect is reduced from dangerous to. disturbing. Sometimes there is deep water to be traversed, and the seeming fury of the storm may require much from us as we work our way through it. But the error does give out if we hold firmly to the Truth, and persist without wavering or doubting. Then we see that this erroneous phenomenon is much like the wizard of Oz. It turns out to be a pathetic creature behind a curtain with a megaphone booming and thundering with special effects as in a movie.

The only danger, then, is not to know all of this. Some people are entirely innocent of the workings of mortal mind. When a condition or claim does not yield to prayerful work that was successful in the past, malpractice is usually the cause. Recognizing this leads to renewed healing. Mrs. Eddy states, “A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error.” (S&H 252) Over the past two decades, the editor knows of at least one individual who succumbed to mental malpractice. There are other cases that raise strong suspicions. If this activity is not reined in, The Banner is prepared to publish even more specific information on this subject.

Excerpt from “The Monitor and the F.B.I.” from Volume Eleven / Number One of The Banner from Fall 1997

The Summer 1996 Banner reprinted excertps from a June 19, 1920, editorial in the Monitor while the paper continued to be published under Mrs. Eddy’s still operative deed of trust. It should be remembered that the Bolshevik revolution in Russia was less than three years old in 1920, and communist coups d’etat had been attempted inGermany and Hungary. A civil war between the whiteand red armies was still raging inside Russia. Thousandsof Russian Orthodox priests had been murdered and theirchurches desecrated by the Bolsheviks. Political agitationand violence were taking place on the streets of theUnited States and countries in Westem Europe. A newcentury characterized by mass murder, tyranny, andreligious persecution was underway.

In light of this, the 1920 Monitor editorial included: “What it is important to dwell upon is the increasingevidence of the existence of a secret conspiracy,throughout the world, for the destmction of organizedgovernment and the letting loose of evil. People are aptto smile, with incredulous tolerance, at the mention ofthe word witchcraft. But witchcraft, when it is understood in the psychology of evil, is not the riding ofaged harridans of broomsticks, but the impulse to do evilfor the sake of evil in the human consciousness … As the human mind shakes itself free from any regard for Principle, it must, indeed, in the very nature of things,substitute evil for its deity.”

from Talks Given by John W. Doorly on Christian Science Practice, page 334

“Oriental Witchcraft” -time and time again you have to handle that, especially if you have patients living in Africa or India, or any of those parts of the world where there is intense mysticism, witchcraft of every kind, permeating the atmosphere. I have had some very striking cases through handling that. For instance, a young fellow was with the army in India and had been in hospital there for six months in very bad shape, and when it looked as though he couldn’t possibly get better, he telegraphed me for help. I telegraphed back, “There is only one East, and that is the divine East, the symbol of the Christ.” The change in him took place immediately. That boy was suffering from the influence of oriental witchcraft; he was suffering from the mesmerism of that mysticism and fatalism and witchcraft of the East which has gone on for thousands of years in thousands of millions of people. That oriental witchcraft fills the atmosphere of the East. The whole condition changed at once when I saw clearly that there is only one East, the divine East, the symbol of the Christ.

The mesmerism of the East is the belief in fatalism. I remember the case of a man who had lived in the East and he couldn’t understand why something was always happening to desolate himself and his family. Well, it was just this belief of fatalism, which had to be handled. It permeates your thinking without your knowing it, unless you deal with it through the Mind of Christ. Again, Africa is always known as the Dark Continent, and it has a mental atmosphere which you must protect your thought against, or it will influence you without your knowing it.

Witchcraft a Nullity, from the Christian Science Monitor, Monday, May 31, 1920

(excerpt 1)

“WITCHCRAFT, of course, has no place in the divine Mind. It therefore does not truly exist, because that of which God has no knowledge possesses no reality. Divine intelligence is the sole cause of effect, which is always good. Hence this so-called evil, which would try to claim to be more than all the effect there is, clearly is impossible and non-existent. And this Mrs. Eddy says on page 468 of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”: “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.”

But considering witchcraft from the standpoint of human belief, and the existence it has seemed to have, too many persons think of it as having been burned up at Salem or in England centuries ago. It is thus thought to have only historical interest for the present age. A dictionary defines it as sorcery and enchantment, which is necromancy. In establishing the Lesson-Sermons for the Christian Science churches, Mrs. Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, provided as one of the subjects the following: “Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism denounced.” And at the end of her chapter “Animal Magnetism Unmasked,” in the textbook, Science and Health (page 106), she has very significantly italicized a word, in quoting the following from the epistle of Paul to the Galatians: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings and such like: of which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Since divine Principle and its limitless activity is the sum total of being and infinitely perfect, it is the forever complete wiping out of any belief of evil that could affect anything good. What is the practice of witchcraft is the chanting or uttering of a magic formula. But such apparent wrongdoing is a ludicrous counterfeit of the only uttering there is, which consists solely and unceasingly of the outpouring of eternal good by the divine Mind to the real and only man, the spiritual image and likeness of infinite consciousness. Divine intelligence is all that originates or can produce anything, and such sending forth blesses man with wide-awakeness, with keen and unending understanding.”

(excerpt 2)

“The attitude of the world in the past has been either to ridicule or fear witchcraft. But “the time is at hand” for an energetic revision of such a policy toward such a suppositional evil. This revision is possible now in the light of Christian Science, the exact opposite of this mental wrong. Christian Science provies logically, and demonstrates by healing, the truth that evil of all kinds is an unqualified nullity. And the lethargic indifference of courts and lawyers is also to be brushed away. In the whole lethargic indifference of courts and lawyers is also to be brushed away. In the whole sweep of the law in England, examination shows that apparently there have been no cases under the modern name of hypnotism. A significant case, however, has been found under the heading of witchcraft. This was that of Hoigges v. Harry, in equity during the reign of Henry VI in the fifteenth century. Hoigges, an attorney, asked the court for an injunction against further injuries at the hands of a priest, who he claimed was using the “sotilll craft of enchauntement, wycchecraft and socerye” in an effort to prevent the plaintiff from carrying on a suit against the priest’s master, the Prior of Bodmin. (See Calendar of the Proceedings in Chancery, Vol. 1. The original document is in the Tower of London.)

In the light of this old case it is significant that Mrs. eddy prophesies in her writings that the courts will at some time take jurisdiction of mental crimes. And in Science and Health (page 105) she writes: “Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order to restrain crime, to prevent, deeds of violence or to punish them. To say that these tribunals have no jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind, would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal mind, evil, which is real outlaw, defies justice and is recommended to mercy.”

But the spiritual man, the only creation there really is, has always been and is now governed by the all-powerful law of God, for the plain and obvious reason that infinite intelligence and its manifestation fills all space and there is and never has been any room for darkness or subtlety or any kind. Divine consciousness and its eternal manifestation is everywhere present. Man is under the control of limitless Spirit, which is the sole source of Life and of unhindered happiness and freedom.”

The Independent Christian Scientist, Vol. IV, July, 1979, No. 1 by Doris Grekel

Once malpractice was fully fathomed, our Leader wasted not a moment in making known the methods of evil and the remedy. It was the summer of 1881 that the world of evil received its death blow, for on the seventeenth of August in that year the third edition of Science and Health was published with its forty-six page chapter on “Demonology.” One sentence from that chapter reads: “The solution of Salem witchcraft has come, and its remedy is metaphysics instead of a gibbet.”

Excerpts from “Perverted Metaphysics Versus Theology Of Christian Science” by H. P . S., from the February 1886 of the Christian Science Journal

He who identifies himself with that phase of healing called Mind-cure, let it be remembered, is taking an attitude before the public of one who says, “I can kill, as well as cure.” If he does this he commences with little evils, and goes on until he breaks all the commandments. It must be understood that this is not the teaching of Christian Science; for Scientists have no such power…

The future will be a perfect Babel of tongues, and witchcraft will again be rampant, unless the standard of Christian Science is adhered to, so that it may put down this evil that the Mind-curers carry on. If the bird is killed, you will find no more golden eggs, after poaching those already in store.

Let us look to her who has given us pearls of great price, and procure one, before they have been spoiled, who lie in wait for patronage in the market-place

The clergy are willing to see mental healing established, but without its supporting theology.

They would then have Mind-curers without moral responsibility.

From Collected Writings by Bicknell Young, page 40

Handle palmistry as a special belief. Hypnotism, mesmerism, theosophy, palmistry, oriental witchcraft, esoteric magic, phrenology, divination, prophecy, even in the Bible. Don’t let it go. Once thoroughly handle the whole. The whole work is prevention…