To bring out clearly the effect upon Mrs. Eddy’s daily life of her genuine belief in this diabolical thing she calls malicious animal magnetism, and her efforts to avail herself of the supposed power of mind to cause disease and death, the following letter, received from a gentleman, now a practising physician, who in his earlier manhood was attracted to Mrs. Eddy and her teachings, is incorporated here:
“I lived in the ‘College’ with Mrs. Eddy and her family for nearly a year, and had ample opportunity to observe all the things I now tell you; I shall not make a statement without knowing that it is absolutely true.
“As you desire information in regard to her teachings of malicious animal magnetism, I will confine myself mostly to that subject.
“Nearly two-thirds of the time of her class lectures was taken up with teaching us how to ‘meet the enemy,’ as she called Richard Kennedy, Edward Ames, Clara Choate, and her mother, Mrs. Childs. We were taught that Richard Kennedy, especially, was the ‘Arch Enemy’ of Christian Science, and of Mrs. Eddy herself; that he had learned the art of using ‘malicious animal magnetism’ on Mrs. Eddy and her students; that he had ‘secret service’ men and women who watched every movement of Mrs. Eddy, and of each one living with her; that we could not go out without some one following, and watching us, reporting to ‘the ring of enemies,’ namely, Kennedy Ames, Choate and Childs. We were taught that by being aware of all our movements—just how we looked, and who our patients were—they had the mental power to so mesmerize our minds as to cause us to meet with defeat in all our attempts to heal; that they were informed of the diseases and weaknesses from which we had been healed, and by malicious thoughts and concentration upon us could cause us to relapse into our old forms of disease.
“Mrs. Eddy was constantly having attacks of illness (always in the night). We were often called up about eleven o’clock at night to treat her, and were obliged to remain up until about two o’clock a.m. These attacks, we were told, were brought on by the ‘enemy,’ working through us, as her students. She claimed that the only way the ‘enemy’ could reach her was through her students, she being so strong and so pure that their ‘malicious animal magnetism’ could not reach her in any other way. So we used to go into the parlor, after breakfast and supper, each day, and mentally ‘take up the enemy.’ We were taught to recognize the error, and treat ourselves and the ‘enemy,’ so that they (‘the enemy’) could have no power over us, or our patients; and every time we gave the treatments we were taught to first ‘treat the enemy.’
“The result of all this was, that Mrs. Eddy was always full of fear; as the ‘enemy’ were supposed to have power to prevent all kinds of desired results, not only in healing, but in business, as well.
“I was taught that the postal clerks were so mesmerized that letters to and from the College would never reach their destination unless certain conditions were complied with; also that the telegraph operators were so under this malicious influence that a message sent by telegraph would not reach the person to whom it was sent unless certain precautions were taken. I was once sent from her house to West Newton to forward a telegraph message to Chicago, so that it would be sent by way of Worcester, instead of Boston, as all Boston operators were supposed to be so mesmerized by the ‘enemy’ that no message from Mrs. Eddy could reach its destination, if sent through their hands. And so I might run on for hours, giving you facts about such things.
“I was told to treat the ‘enemy’ (Kennedy, Ames, Choate and Childs) to cause their ‘old beliefs’ to return, ‘and prostrate them at once!’ ‘Old beliefs’ meant former diseases, from which they had been healed, in some cases even tumors and cancers.
“I could write pages of things said and done, to show that insane idea of the power of malicious men and women to nearly, if not quite, kill people. We were taught that they had killed several students of Mrs. Eddy. I was taught that Kennedy and Ames knew how to treat people in a way to cause ‘sixty symptoms of arsenic poisoning.’
“I was often called in the night to treat Mrs. Eddy, as she was sick. I have been sent to the homes of other students to call them in the night to help her out of her fears and spasms.
“I was sent in the month of May, 1884, at two o’clock a.m., to call lawyer Roberts to make her will, as it seemed she could not live till morning—all caused by ‘malicious animal magnetism,’ or ‘M.A.M.’ as we were in the habit of abbreviating it.
“I found Mrs. Eddy a strong-willed, obstinate, and arbitrary woman. Her business was obliged to be conducted as she dictated, whether right or wrong.
“I was one of four students told by Mrs. Eddy to treat certain clergymen of Boston to come into her classes and endorse Christian Science.
“The following incident might be of interest at this time:
“In the summer of 1884, Mrs. Eddy taught her first class in Chicago. For several weeks before going there she was constantly in a state of worry, or fear, that Mrs. Choate would ‘prostrate her,’ and so prevent her from going there, as she thought that Mrs. Choate herself wished to go and teach a class. Calvin A. Frye had purchased Mrs. Eddy’s ticket, and engaged a private compartment for her, and a berth for himself (to accompany her to Chicago), when, the night before she was to start, she was taken very ill (the work of Mrs. Choate, she believed it to be) and was not able to go the next day, as she had intended to do. She called in her students, at the College with her, to treat against Mrs. Choate, to prevent her mesmerism from prostrating her (Mrs. Eddy), and by the second day she was able to go to Chicago. We afterwards learned that at the same identical time, Mrs. Choate was ill, and thought that Mrs. Eddy was sending ‘malicious animal magnetism’ to prostrate her, and called in a former student of the college to treat against Mrs. Eddy’s mesmerism.
“So you see how fear controlled Mrs. Eddy (even at that distant day) and every one connected with her, and has continued to control every one taught by her, who has not escaped from the bondage of that teaching.
“This is only a fragment of what I might tell you in regard to Mrs. Eddy and her teachings at the time I was with her; but it is enough to show you what she taught and practised then, as well as now.”
Could anything be more insane than the condition of Mrs. Eddy’s household as indicated in this letter? Or could anything be more diabolical than her attempt, to which this gentleman and others are willing to make oath whenever they are called upon, by concerted mental operations to afflict her enemies with tumor and cancer?
But to be somewhat more specific. Some years ago Mrs. Eddy regarded Mr. Daniel H. Spofford, who had been one of her students and friends, as an enemy, and it was her determined and expressed purpose that he should in some manner be disposed of. The cause of Mrs. Eddy’s violent antipathy to Spofford is not quite clear, except perhaps upon the theory that all of her antipathies have been violent. It may be in some measure due to his unwillingness to pay her money he did not believe was due her, and to the failure of various litigations brought against him by her. Mrs. Eddy brought suit against Spofford upon one of her early contracts for $100 for teachings, ten per cent royalty on income, and $1,000 for omission to utilize the teachings; and she failed to recover in the courts. She actually caused a suit in equity to be brought against Spofford in the Superior Court at Salem, Mass., in which the court was asked to issue an injunction to restrain Spofford from using his mind to cause the illness of her patient, who was said to suffer physically from his malicious mental activity.
It is interesting to note that this singular proceeding was brought in the same jurisdiction in which, some hundreds of years ago, certain individuals were arraigned and tried for the crime of witchcraft, found guilty and hanged by the neck until they were dead.
Mrs. Eddy acted as attorney in fact for the plaintiff in this suit and the power of attorney is still of record in the case. The strange bill of complaint is as follows:
“Humbly complaining, the plaintiff, Lucretia L. S. Brown of Ipswich, in said County of Essex, showeth unto your Honors, that Daniel H. Spofford, of Newburyport, in said County of Essex, the defendant in the above entitled action, is a mesmerist and practices the art of mesmerism and by his said art and power of his mind influences and controls the minds and bodies of other persons and uses his said power and art for the purpose of injuring the persons and property and social relations of others and does by said means so injure them.
“And the plaintiff further showeth that the said Daniel H. Spofford has, at divers times and places since the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, wrongfully and maliciously and with intent to injure the plaintiff, caused the plaintiff by means of his said power and art great suffering of body and mind and severe spinal pains and neuralgia and a temporary suspension of mind, and still continues to cause the plaintiff the same. And the plaintiff has reason to fear and does fear that he will continue in the future to cause the same. And the plaintiff says that said injuries are great and of an irreparable nature and that she is wholly unable to escape from the control and influence he so exercises upon her and from the aforesaid effects of said control and influence.”
Naturally Mrs. Eddy could find no lawyer sufficiently besotted, or shameless, to argue this case for her when it came up for hearing. She was present and such argument as was made was by one of her then dear friends, who afterwards became, as she believed, one of her dearest foes; but upon the filing of the demurrer by Mr. Spofford’s lawyer, raising the legal point that the bill of complaint did not set forth any cause of action, the court sustained the demurrer and threw the case out, declaring with a smile that it was not within the province of the court by its writ of injunction to control the operations of Mr. Spofford’s mind.
Whatever may have been the cause of Mrs. Eddy’s hatred of Spofford, she wished him killed, and to that end instructed her students to sit together daily, at noon and in the evening, and by concerted mental concentration hurl disease into Mr. Spofford.
I do not contend that Mrs. Eddy, or Christian Scientists or others, ever killed or can kill or afflict with disease any other person by absent mental treatment, and one of my strong reasons for this confident belief is that I am still permitted to walk the earth. I only seek to show the murderous purpose in the heart of the woman who is pretending to be the voice of God to this age and the equal of Jesus Christ.