p. 7 | EVIL OF HYPNOTISM by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 10, 1900

EVIL OF HYPNOTISM.

By Editor

ONE of the evil things which is coming into present-day education at no tardy pace is Hypnotism as a moral agent. An Eastern paper reports that Prof. John D. Quackenbos, of Columbia University, under the auspices of the Psychic Society, recently delivered a lecture on "Hypnotism from the Christian Standpoint," supplementary to one delivered previously, "Treatment of Moral Diseases by Hypnotism." Professor Quackenbos contends that Hypnotism may be used to overcome evil prenatal influences. It is advocated by others for use in schools.

By Hypnotism the mind of one person is brought under absolute control of another. If the controlling mind were always good, always wise, always true, there might be a little reason for its use; but this is more likely to be the very opposite.

But, even tho this could all be true, the operator good, wise, and true, yet even then Hypnotism is a perversion of the true.

God designed that man should be free, absolutely free, in mind and heart, in will and choice. The only way man can be free is in submission to God's will, which is the only law of liberty, righteousness, and truth. The law of the eternally-existing Creator is good, only and always good. Every other being is a creature, limited in mind and operation. Every other law is a creature law, absolute submission to which is slavery, not liberty.

Hypnotism, the absolute submission of man to man, is the lowest form of slavery. A will once so yielded, never in its own power returns to its normal independent tone. The will is weakened. The God-given individuality is lost, and the man is left to become, sooner or later, the sport and tool of evil spirits more crafty and powerful than man. We say to all our readers, Never for one moment become an automaton for another. Place your will in the keeping of no other save the God of the universe.