“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…” (Col. 3:16.)
“…the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation…” (SH 575:27.)
Physically, the definitions of magnetism and gravity are different, but metaphysically they indicate two aspects of the same universal principle discussed virtually everywhere in Mrs. Eddy’s writings: the law of attraction
Law of attraction is, briefly: “that which is like unto itself is drawn.” In other words, I become what I fasten my gaze upon.
“Where shall the gaze rest?” (SH 264:9.)
“…[W[e must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually.”
(SH 248:25-27.)
In painting a portrait of Jesus, I can’t be occupied with the specter of Judas. This same principle of single-mindedness applies to the sculptor and his model. (SH 260:3-6, 248:12-26.)
“Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also.” (SH 451:14.)
“We must look where we would walk and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being.” (SH 264:10-12.)
“Mortals must gravitate Godward…in order that sin and mortality may be put off.” (SH 265:5-9.)
“If man’s spiritual gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we ‘live, and move, and have our being,’ should be lost, and if man should be governed by corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated.” (SH 536:11-16.)
When an ordinary piece of iron is rubbed against a magnet, the former’s electrons become aligned — moving in one direction only — where they had previously been moving randomly, in all directions. Thus, ordinary metal takes on the characteristics of the magnet with which it comes in contact.
By exposing myself continually to the polar magnet of the Word, I cannot help but to align all of my misaligned “mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows” with their immortal counterparts (SH 587:23-24). Death to self is death to all of self’s omni-directional misalignments with the things of God.
Aligning myself — uni-directionally — with the polar magnet of the Word aligns me magnetically with all the characteristics of God, imparts to me the nature of Soul, not sense, a process that is the opposite of “animal magnetism”.