McDonald's advertising and mesmerism

A study just printed confirms the dangerous effect advertising can have on the unguarded thought.

Young children were given identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. They were then asked to identify which food tasted better. The branded foods always won out.

Why?

Researchers figure the pervasive and pointed marketing strategies of the food maker are the reason for the difference, and use the study to illustrate the powerful influence advertising has on children’s tastes and choices.

“Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids’ perception of taste was ‘physically altered by the branding.’ The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising,” the report indicated.

When I read the report, I dismayed for children, but even more, I wondered how many adults fall victim to the same type of mesmeric influence advertising strives to sway over their thinking.

And I’m not talking about consumer choices like which car to buy, or where to eat out. I’m thinking of deeper issues like choices we make to be healthy or not, depressed or happy, strong or weak, sick or well, poor or wealthy.

For example, the media is filled with images of disease and fear-breeding health reports. It gives the impression that the threat of illness lurks at every corner and we should live in paranoia as to whether we can stay healthy or not.

In light of the food report, how many adults unwittingly chose to live sick and depressed when they could live healthy and joyous? How many adults choose to live a harried, stressed filled life when they could have days filled with peace and buoyancy?

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science wrote,

The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought.

God has given each of us a productive, profitable, happy and healthy life to experience. It is eternally ours, but in this human experience we must assiduously protect our thinking from the harmful influence of advertising created to alter our perceptions in a way that causes us to accept premises that are not in our best interests.

Like the children who unwittingly chose the branded food as most desirable because that’s what they learned through advertising to choose, adults too often unwittingly choose to be sick because that’s what they learned through the media to expect out of life.

The lesson from all of this is to stay alert, to vigorously defend one’s mental home from outside influence, and to remain strong in knowing there is only one true influence, the divine Mind influence, over every thought and action.

The child of God, the expression of sound spiritual wisdom, intelligence and reasoning, is solely under the influence of God, and cannot be manipulated by baneful advertising.

Think for yourself—your spiritual self—and stay free of mesmerism.

No more errors

My wife and I played mixed doubles in a local tennis tournament this past weekend. We had a great time and I learned a valuable lesson about not giving into error.

While playing in the finals for the consolation round, we won the first set 6-4. After beginning the second set, in short order we found ourselves down 1-5. This was embarrassing! We were making too many errors.

At 1-5, suggestion rages strongly that defeat is inevitable. Once your opponent hits 6, the match is finished.

I wasn’t concerned about beating the opposition, but I was concerned about making too many errors on our side of the net. This was a less than a representative example of our playing abilities.

I kicked my prayers into high gear and decided this was a time to demonstrate the presence of unerring Mind.

We live in a universe of Mind, and there are no errors in Mind! I insisted.

Rather than seeing my wife and myself playing another team, I saw one Mind sending and returning the ball. I steadfastly grabbed onto the pure metaphysical truth that the one Mind never makes mistakes. The one Mind never errs, but hits every shot correctly and places it well.

The suggestion then came, “What about Kathy (my wife)? What if she makes a mistake?” I rebuked the temptation to allow error a passage-way into our game by declaring that she expressed the same Mind I did. She could not make a mistake, and neither could I. We were not two mortals thinking and acting independently of each other. We were as one expressing the same unerring Mind. I didn’t need to worry about her. I needed to stay riveted to the spiritual truth about our oneness in Mind.

All of this reasoning happened very fast in thought, for there was no time to lose. The opposition was coming down hard and fast, and happy about it.

I could not waver in conviction, I knew. One little waver in faith would allow for error, and the game would be finished.

I remembered Mary Baker Eddy’s rule, “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.” (Science and Health, p. 261) The word “steadfastly” was key. If I wished to demonstrate consistency, I had to be steadfast in my trust. There could be no wavering, no wishy-washy faith, no doubting.

I calmly, but resoundedly knew one Mind, and one Mind only!

The most amazing turn-around began.

My wife and I stopped making as many errors, and started to win our games. Soon we made it to 6-5. Right on the edge of victory, the opposition lobbed over my head and I reached to return the ball, but my faith wavered. Even though the ball was within my reach I pulled my racket back in doubt refusing to believe that I could get the ball back accurately, even though I could have. Suddenly, the score was 6-6. It was my first waver in thought, and the score tied. Lesson reinforced—you cannot waver!

We went into a 7 point tie-break, where first to 7 by 2 wins.

Then, the previous round of errors happened again. The score soon was 1-6, their favor. One more point and they were the winners of the set. I knew what the problem was. I was still despairing over my slip in faith from the previous set.

I set the failure out of my mind and affirmed the immediacy of Truth. There was no past haunting me, I agreed. There was only the nowness of Truth.

I snapped out of the mesmerism that wanted us to accept defeat and re-insisted that the unerring Mind was fully expressed through us.

Again, the most amazing reversal. We ceased making errors and came all the way back to 6-6, finally winning the tie-break 9-7.

The other side was in disbelief. We were too, a bit.

But it worked! Kathy and I could not see anything we changed in strategy or technique. We simply quit making so many errors, and the results spoke for themselves.

I’ve often been conflicted about prayer and sports competition, because my universal sense of Love precludes me from praying for one side against the other. That’s not the Love-way, I believe.

I had an insight this time that helped me view prayer and competition in sports in a freer vein.

In tennis tournaments, my motive never has been to beat my opponent. My goal has always been to be my best. If I learned and improved from the experience I considered myself a winner whether or not I had the higher score. And many times, I’ve had the lower score. But I’ve never felt like a loser.

While competing this weekend, I realized my rule for playing pertains to the other side too. If they were playing to beat me, then their motive needs to be purified and elevated, and that’s there task to figure out. But, spiritually reckoned, their motive should be the same as mine, to express the abilities and capacities of Mind to the best of their understanding. And if they learn and improve from the experience, they are always a winner, no matter what the score.

So, my job as a player, was to focus on fulfilling my responsibility on the court, which was to demonstrate the unerring capacities of Mind to the best of my understanding. That was all anyone expected me to do, and that’s what I needed to do. This motive also allows us to praise our competitor’s successes, even during the match. It is not a weakness on our part to acknowledge the talents and strengths of the other side, and openly say so. And it also is not commendable to perform poorly in the name of “loss doesn’t matter because the score doesn’t matter.” The score does not matter, but our attitude does. Success in sports is all about what is going on in our thinking. It’s a venue to improve and spiritualize thinking for those who are inclined to such activity.

I could go on and on…I learned so many lessons. But enough for now. There are more tournaments coming up to blog on further!

This experience of not giving into defeat when the odds are all against you will be a long lasting memory that inspires me for years. I look forward to my next time on court to take the lesson even further.

For those of you who like to play: Happy tennis!

Say No to colds

A friend was telling me how he heard a testimony where a teacher, who was a practicing Christian Scientist, was talking with a co-worker in school who was complaining about getting a cold. The teacher immediately told her friend that she wasn’t getting a cold and didn’t need to expect to suffer.

The next day, the friend reported that she had no cold and was delighted with the freedom. She asked, “What did you do?”

After thinking about the immediacy of the healing with a quick clear definitive reply of truth, the man telling me this story said that later in the week he was having lunch with his sister who started complaining about getting a cold, and described the on-coming symptoms in detail.

Without ado, my friend said, “No you’re not!” The sister did not agree, and argued that, “Yes she was getting a cold!” And continued to explain all the reasons why she would get a cold and suffer miserably. My friend held his spiritual position in thought that God’s child doesn’t get a cold, and let the discussion drop.

The next day, the two meet, and my friend asks his sister, “What happened to your cold? You look well to me.”

Caught off guard, and by surprise, she replied, “You’re right. I don’t have a cold. The symptoms are all gone.” She was not a Christian Scientist and didn’t understand what had healed her, but nonetheless, the truth still met her need and brought a cure.

Truth heals.