Mary Baker Eddy

File:Mary Baker Eddy's birthplace, Bow, New Hampshire (2).jpg

Eddy was born Mary Morse Baker on July 16, 1821, in a farmhouse in Bow, New Hampshire to farmer Mark Baker (d. 1865) and his wife Abigail Barnard Baker, née Ambrose (d. 1849). Eddy was the youngest of six children: boys Samuel Dow (1808), Albert (1810), and George Sullivan (1812), followed by girls Abigail Barnard (1816), Martha Smith (1819), and Mary Morse (1821).{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|p=3}}{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=27}} She was the cousin of U.S. Representative Henry M. Baker.{{sfn|Smith|1920|loc=online}}

She was the sixth generation of her family born in the United States.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=3}}{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=27}} The farmhouse she was born in was built by her grandfather, Joseph Baker Jr., on a tract of land his maternal grandfather, Captain John Lovewell, had been given for service in the American Revolutionary War. Eddy's father Mark inherited, alongside his elder brother James, the farm when Joseph Jr. died in 1816.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=4}}

A staunch Calvinist, Mark Baker was an active member of the Tilton Congregationalist Church.{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=27}}{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=7}} McClure's reported he had a reputation for holding strong opinions and quarreling with those he disagreed with; one neighbor described him as "[a] tiger for a temper and always in a row."{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|pp=5–7}} They also claimed he was an ardent supporter of slavery and a Copperhead who was reportedly pleased to hear about Abraham Lincoln's death.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=8-9}} Despite trying to oust his Republican pastor during the war alongside a faction of his church, he refused to leave the church alongside other members of the faction when they failed. Instead, he continued to attend services, but would storm out at the mention of the American Civil War during a service.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=9}}

File:Mark Baker, father of Mary Baker Eddy.jpg

Eddy and her father reportedly had a volatile relationship. Ernest Sutherland Bates and John V. Dittemore wrote in 1932 that Baker sought to break Eddy's will with harsh punishment, although her mother often intervened;{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|p=7}} in contrast to the strict religiosity of her father, Eddy's mother was described as devout, quiet, light-hearted and nurturing, and a benevolent spiritual influence on Eddy in her formative years.{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|p=7}}{{sfn|Silberger|1980|pp=18-19}}

Eddy experienced periods of sudden illness.{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=35}} Those who knew the family described her as suddenly falling to the floor, writhing and screaming, or silent and apparently unconscious, sometimes for hours.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=21-22}}{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|p=7}} Historian Robert Peel wrote that these fits would require the family to send Eddy to the village doctor.{{sfn|Peel|1966|p=45}}

The cause for Eddy's illness was unclear, but biographer Caroline Fraser wrote she believed the cause was most likely psychogenic in nature.{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=35}} According to psychoanalyst Julius Silberger, Eddy may have been motivated to have these fits in an effort to control her father's attitude toward her.{{sfn|Silberger|1980|p=28}} Fraser attributed the illness likely to a combination of hypochondria and histrionics as well.{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=35}}

File:EddyChildhoodChurch.jpg

In 1836, when Eddy was about 14 to 15 years old, she moved with her family to the town of Sanbornton Bridge, New Hampshire, approximately {{Convert | 20 | mi | spell = in}} north of Bow. Sanbornton Bridge was renamed in 1869 as Tilton, New Hampshire.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=6}}

Ernest Bates and John Dittemore write that Eddy was not able to attend Sanbornton Academy when the family first moved there but was required instead to start at the district school (in the same building) with the youngest girls. She withdrew after a month because of poor health, then received private tuition from the Reverend Enoch Corser. She entered Sanbornton Academy in 1842.{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|pp=16–17, 25}}

She was received into the Congregational church in Tilton on July 26, 1838, when she was 17, according to church records published by Cather and Milmine. Eddy had written in her autobiography in 1891 that she was 12 when this happened, and that she had discussed the idea of predestination with the pastor during the examination for her membership; this may have been an attempt to mirror the story of a 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=19-20}}

File:Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1850s (2).jpg

Eddy was badly affected by four deaths in the 1840s.{{sfn|Gottschalk|2006|pp=62–64}} She regarded her brother Albert as a teacher and mentor, but he died in 1841. In 1844, her first husband George Washington Glover (a friend of her brother Samuel) died after six months of marriage. They had married in December 1843 and set up home in Charleston, South Carolina, where Glover had business, but he died of yellow fever in June 1844 while living in Wilmington, North Carolina. Eddy was with him in Wilmington, six months pregnant. She had to make her way back to New Hampshire, {{Convert | 1400 | mi}} by train and steamboat, where her only child George Washington Glover II was born on September 12 in her father's home.{{sfn|Gottschalk|2006|pp=62–63}}{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=xxix, 68–69}}

Her husband's death, the journey back, and the birth left her physically and mentally exhausted, and she ended up bedridden for months.{{sfn|Gottschalk|2006|p=63}} As Eddy was unable to care for him, her son was nursed by a local woman while Eddy herself was cared for by a household servant.{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=37}}

Eddy's mother died in November 1849. Her mother's death was then followed three weeks later by the death of Eddy's fiancé, lawyer John Bartlett.{{sfn|Gottschalk|2006|p=64}}

File:Elizabeth Patterson Duncan Baker.jpg

Eddy's father Mark Baker remarried in 1850; his second wife Elizabeth Patterson Duncan (d. June 6, 1875) had been widowed twice, and had some property and income from her second marriage.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=86–87}} Baker apparently made clear to Eddy that her son would not be welcome in the new marital home.{{sfn|Fraser|1999|p=38}}

File:Phineas Parkhurst Quimby.jpg]]

Eddy married Dr. Daniel Patterson, a dentist, in 1853.{{Cite web |title=Eddy, Mary Baker (1821–1910) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/eddy-mary-baker-1821-1910 |access-date=2023-06-07 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} Mesmerism had become popular in New England; and on October 14, 1861, Patterson, wrote to mesmerist Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, who reportedly cured people without medicine, asking if he could cure his wife.{{sfn|Powell|1930|pp=95-96, 99}} Quimby replied that he had too much work in Portland, Maine and that he could not visit her, but if Patterson brought his wife to him he would treat her.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=126}} Eddy did not immediately go, instead trying the water cure at Dr. Vail's Hydropathic Institute, but her health deteriorated even further.{{sfn|Powell|1930|p=98}}{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=127}} A year later, in October 1862, Eddy first visited Quimby.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=131}}{{sfn|Powell|1930|p=98}} She improved considerably, and publicly declared that she had been able to walk up 182 steps to the dome of city hall after a week of treatment.{{sfn|Buchanan|2009|pp=80–81}} The cures were temporary, however, and Eddy suffered relapses.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=133-135}}

Despite the temporary nature of the "cure", she attached religious significance to it, which Quimby did not.{{sfn|Frerichs|1988|p=196}} Eddy believed that it was the same type of healing performed by Christ Jesus, who, unlike Quimby, administered no medicine or material means in his healings.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=60}} From 1862 to 1865, Quimby and Eddy engaged in lengthy discussions about healing methods like hydropathy practiced by Quimby and others.{{sfn|Powell|1930|p=109}}{{sfn|Peel|1966|pp=180-182}}{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=146}} She took notes on her own views of healing, as well as writing dictations from him and "correcting" them with her own ideas, some of which possibly ended up in the "Quimby manuscripts" that were published later and attributed to him. Furthering the case that Eddy had likely written large portions of Quimby's manuscripts, Quimby was notably "illiterate" and would never have had the ability to write his ideas down himself.{{cite news|title=Mind Healing History |url=https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1887/6/5-3/mind-healing-history |publisher=Christian Science Journal |date=June 17, 1887}}{{sfn|Peel|1966|pp=181-183}}{{sfn|Fisher|1929|p=29}} Despite Quimby not being especially religious, he embraced the religious connotations Eddy was bringing to his work since he knew his more religious patients would appreciate it.{{sfn|Fisher|1929|pp=27-29}} Phineas Quimby died on January 16, 1866, shortly after Eddy's father.{{efn|Mark Baker died on October 13, 1865. He left his entire estate to George Sullivan Baker, Mary's brother, and a token $1.00 to Mary and each of her two sisters, a common practice at the time, when male heirs inherited everything.{{sfn|Knee|1994|p=7}}}}

File:Mary Baker Eddy, c. 1864.jpg

J. Gordon Melton has argued "certainly Eddy shared some ideas with Quimby. She differed with him in some key areas, however, such as specific healing techniques. Moreover, she did not share Quimby's hostility toward the Bible and Christianity."{{sfn|Melton|1999|p=175}} Biographer Gillian Gill has disagreed with other scholars arguing they "have flouted the evidence and shown willful bias in accusing Mrs. Eddy of owing her theory of healing to Quimby and of plagiarizing his unpublished work."{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=120}}

On February 1, 1866, while living in Lynn, Massachusetts, Eddy slipped and fell on a patch of ice. A contemporary account by the Lynn Reporter stated:{{sfn|Silberger|1980|pp=92-93}}

{{Blockquote|text=Mrs. Mary Patterson of Swampscott fell upon the ice near the corner of Market and Oxford Streets on Thursday evening and was severely injured. She was taken up in an insensible condition and carried into the residence of S. M. Bubier, Esq., near by, where she was kindly cared for during the night. Dr. Cushing, who was called, found her injuries to be internal and of a severe nature, inducing spasms and internal suffering. She was removed to her home in Swampscott yesterday afternoon, though in a very critical condition.}}

When Georgine Milmine interviewed Dr. Cushing forty years later, he stated that his records from the time documented that Eddy was in a "semi-hysterical" intense emotional state which subsided after she was given a small amount of morphine.{{sfn|Silberger|1980|pp=92-93}}

On February 14, 1866, the day after Eddy finished her care with Dr. Cushing, Eddy wrote to Julius Dresser, another patient of Phineas Quimby, claiming that her injury and her subsequent medical care had undone all of the healing that Quimby had done before, and requested that he heal her. Dresser refused, stating that he was not enough to take on the burden of healing, and urged Eddy to instead spread Quimby's teachings further. Eddy would later credit her accident as her moment of spiritual revelation and the "falling apple" that led to her discovery of Christian Science. She claimed that after rejecting the medicines offered to her by her doctor, she opened her Bible three days after her fall and returned to full health after reading of Jesus healing the sick.{{sfn|Silberger|1980|pp=93-97}}

{{see also|Spiritualism (movement)}}

File:Daniel Patterson (dentist).jpg

Eddy separated from her second husband Daniel Patterson in 1866, after which she boarded for four years with several families in Lynn, Massachusetts and elsewhere. Frank Podmore wrote:

{{blockquote|But she was never able to stay long in one family. She quarrelled successively with all her hostesses, and her departure from the house was heralded on two or three occasions by a violent scene. Her friends during these years were generally Spiritualists; she seems to have professed herself a Spiritualist, and to have taken part in séances. She was occasionally entranced, and had received "spirit communications" from her deceased brother Albert. Her first advertisement as a healer appeared in 1868, in the Spiritualist paper The Banner of Light. During these years she carried about with her a copy of one of Quimby's manuscripts giving an abstract of his philosophy. This manuscript she permitted some of her pupils to copy.{{sfn|Podmore|1909|pp=262, 267–268}}}}

File:Mary Baker G. Eddy, Lynn, 1871.JPG

According to Peel, spiritualists were "eager to claim her as one of their own."{{sfn|Peel|1966|p=133}} After she became well known, reports surfaced that Eddy had been a medium years earlier in Boston and St. Louis.{{sfn|Peel|1966|p=133}} However, at the time when she was said to be a medium there, she lived some distance away in North Groton, where she was bedridden.{{sfn|Peel|1966|p=133}}{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=627}} According to Gill, Eddy knew spiritualists and took part in some of their activities, but was never a convinced believer.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=179–180}} For example, she visited her friend Sarah Crosby in 1864, who believed in Spiritualism. According to Sibyl Wilbur, Eddy attempted to show Crosby the folly of it by pretending to channel Eddy's dead brother Albert and writing letters which she attributed to him.{{sfn|Wilbur|1913|pp=113-116}} In regard to the deception, biographer Hugh Evelyn Wortham stated "Mrs. Eddy's followers explain it all as a pleasantry on her part to cure Mrs. Crosby of her credulous belief in spiritualism."{{sfn|Wortham|1930|p=220}} However, Martin Gardner has argued against this, stating that Eddy was working as a spiritualist medium and was convinced by the messages. According to Gardner, Eddy's mediumship converted Crosby to Spiritualism.{{sfn|Gardner|1993|p=26}}

File:Sarah G. Crosby.jpg

In one of her spiritualist trances to Crosby, Eddy gave a message that was supportive of Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, stating "P. Quimby of Portland has the spiritual truth of diseases. You must imbibe it to be healed. Go to him again and lean on no material or spiritual medium."{{sfn|Gardner|1993|p=25}}{{sfn|Dakin|1929|p=56}} The paragraph that included this quote was later omitted from an official sanctioned biography of Eddy.{{sfn|Dakin|1929|p=56}}

Between 1866 and 1870, Eddy boarded at the home of Brene Paine Clark who was interested in Spiritualism.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=172}} Seances were often conducted there, but Eddy and Clark engaged in vigorous, good-natured arguments about them.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=173}} Eddy's arguments against Spiritualism convinced at least one other who was there at the time—Hiram Crafts—that "her science was far superior to spirit teachings."{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=174}} Clark's son George tried to convince Eddy to take up Spiritualism, but he said that she abhorred the idea.{{sfn|Peel|1966|pp=210-211}} According to Cather and Milmine, Richard Hazeltine attended seances at Clark's home, and Eddy had acted as a trance medium, claiming to channel the spirits of the Apostles.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=111}}

Mary Gould, a Spiritualist from Lynn, claimed that one of the spirits that Eddy channeled was Abraham Lincoln. According to eyewitness reports cited by Cather and Milmine, Eddy was still attending séances as late as 1872.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=111}}{{sfn|Hall|1916|p=27}} In these later séances, Eddy would attempt to convert her audience into accepting Christian Science.{{sfn|Leonard|2005|pp=32-33}} Eddy showed extensive familiarity with Spiritualist practice,{{sfn|Rapport|2015|p=200}}{{sfn|Braude|2001|p=183}} but she denounced it in later Christian Science writings.{{sfn|Rapport|2015|pp=212-216}} Historian Ann Braude wrote that there were similarities between Spiritualism and Christian Science, but the main difference was that Eddy came to believe, after she founded Christian Science, that spirit manifestations had never really had bodies to begin with, because matter is unreal and that all that really exists is spirit, before and after death.{{sfn|Braude|2001|p=186}}

In the fiftieth edition of her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, published in 1891, Eddy added the chapter, Christian Science and Spiritualism. This chapter was renamed in 1910 to Christian Science versus Spiritualism. {{Cite magazine | title = Was there a chapter in Science and Health titled "Imposition and Demonstration"?| website = Mary Baker Eddy Library | date = May 10, 2019 | url = https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/was-there-a-chapter-in-science-and-health-titled-imposition-and-demonstration/}}

File:Mary Baker Eddy stipple engraving circa 1924 - MET DP846163 (cropped).jpg]]

Eddy divorced Daniel Patterson for adultery in 1873.{{Cite web |title=Mary Baker Eddy · Fifty Women · Bridwell Library Special Collections Exhibitions |url=https://bridwell.omeka.net/exhibits/show/fiftywomen/americans19th/eddy |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=bridwell.omeka.net}} She published her work in 1875 in a book entitled Science and Health (years later retitled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures) which she called the textbook of Christian Science, after several years of offering her healing method. The first publication run was 1,000 copies, which she self-published. During these years, she taught what she considered the science of "primitive Christianity" and the "lost art of healing" to at least 800 people.{{sfn|Peel|1977|p=483|loc=n. 104}} Many of her students became healers themselves. The last 100 pages of Science and Health (chapter entitled "Fruitage") contains testimonies of people who affirm to have been healed by reading her book. She made numerous revisions to her book from the time of its first publication until shortly before her death.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=324}}

File:Asa Gilbert Eddy (2).jpg

In January 1877, Eddy spurned an approach from one of her students, Daniel Spofford. She then married another student of hers, Asa Gilbert Eddy.{{sfn|Peel|1971|pp=18–19}} On January 1, 1877, the two were wed, and she became Mary Baker Eddy in a small ceremony presided over by a Unitarian minister.{{sfn|Beasley|1963|p=83}}{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=244}}

In 1881, Mary Baker Eddy started the Massachusetts Metaphysical College with a charter from the state which allowed her to grant degrees.{{sfn|Beasley|1963|p=82}}{{sfn|Koestler-Grack|2004|pp=52, 56}} In Spring 1882, the Eddys moved to Boston to Massachusetts Metaphysical College.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=283}} Gilbert Eddy's health began to decline around this time,{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=283}} and he died June 3 that year.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=285}}

File:Mary Baker Eddy cph.3b20582.jpg

Eddy devoted the rest of her life to the establishment of the church, writing its bylaws, The Manual of The Mother Church, and revising Science and Health. By the 1870s, she was telling her students, "Some day I will have a church of my own."{{sfn|Peel|1971|p=62}} In 1879, she and her students established the Church of Christ, Scientist,{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=269}} "to commemorate the word and works of our Master [Jesus], which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing."{{sfn|Norton|1904|pp=10-11}} In 1881, she founded the Massachusetts Metaphysical College,{{sfn|Peel|1971|pp=81–82}} where she taught approximately 800 students between the years 1882 and 1889, when she closed it.{{sfn|Peel|1977|p=483|loc=n. 104}} Eddy charged her students $300 each for tuition, a large sum for the time.{{sfn|Caplan|2001|p=75}} In 1892, at Eddy's direction, the church reorganized as The First Church of Christ, Scientist.{{sfn|Gottschalk|2006|p=217}} In 1894, an edifice for The First Church of Christ, Scientist was completed in Boston.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|p=407}}

Her students spread across the country practicing healing, and instructing others.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}} Eddy authorized these students to list themselves as Christian Science Practitioners in the church's The Christian Science Journal.{{sfn|Peel|1966|pp=196-197}} She also founded the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine with articles about how to heal and testimonies of healing.{{Cite web |date=Dec 7, 1929 |title=Eddy, Mary Baker (1821-1910), the Founder and... / Christian Science Sentinel |url=https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1712kon05js |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=Christian Science Sentinel |language=en-US}}

When the church re-organized in 1892, Eddy was made the leader of the church as "Pastor Emeritus".{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=404-406}} In 1895, she ordained the Bible and Science and Health as the pastor.{{sfn|Cather|Milmine|1909|pp=461-462}}

Eddy founded The Christian Science Publishing Society in 1898, which became the publishing home for numerous publications launched by her and her followers.{{sfn|Peel|1977|p=372}} In 1908, at the age of 87, she founded The Christian Science Monitor, a daily newspaper.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=xv}} She also founded the Christian Science Journal in 1883,{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=325}} a monthly magazine aimed at the church's members and, in 1898,{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=410}} the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly religious periodical written for a more general audience, and the Herald of Christian Science, a religious magazine with editions in many languages.{{sfn|Peel|1977|p=415|loc=n. 121}}

{{see also|Animal magnetism}}

File:Richard Kennedy (Christian Science).jpg

The opposite of Christian Science mental healing was the use of mental powers for destructive or selfish reasons – for which Eddy used terms such as animal magnetism, hypnotism, or mesmerism interchangeably.{{sfn|Beasley|1963|p=71}}{{sfn|Nenneman|1997|p=266}} "Malicious animal magnetism", sometimes abbreviated as M.A.M., is what Catherine Albanese called "a Calvinist devil lurking beneath the metaphysical surface".{{sfn|Albanese|2007|p=290}} As there is no personal devil or evil in Christian Science, M.A.M. or mesmerism became the explanation for the problem of evil.{{sfn|Williams|1997|pp=42-43}}{{sfn|Squires|2017|p=92}} Eddy was concerned that a new practitioner could inadvertently harm a patient through unenlightened use of their mental powers, and that less scrupulous individuals could use them as a weapon.{{sfn|Moore|1986|p=86}}

Animal magnetism became one of the most controversial aspects of Eddy's life. The McClure's biography spends a significant amount of time on malicious animal magnetism, which it uses to make the case that Eddy had paranoia.{{sfn|Squires|2017|p=42}} During the Next Friends lawsuit, it was used to charge Eddy with incompetence and "general insanity".{{sfn|Meehan|1908|pp=172-173}}{{sfn|Beasley|1963|pp=283, 358}}

According to Gillian Gill, Eddy's experience with Richard Kennedy, one of her early students, was what led her to began her examination of malicious animal magnetism.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=207-208}} Eddy had agreed to form a partnership with Kennedy in 1870, in which she would teach him how to heal, and he would take patients.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=188, 192}} The partnership was rather successful at first, but by 1872 Kennedy had fallen out with his teacher and torn up their contract.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=192, 201}} Although there were multiple issues raised, the main reason for the break according to Gill was Eddy's insistence that Kennedy stop "rubbing" his patient's head and solar plexus, which she saw as harmful since, as Gill states, "traditionally in mesmerism or hypnosis the head and abdomen were manipulated so that the subject would be prepared to enter into trance."{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=202}} Kennedy clearly did believe in clairvoyance, mind reading, and absent mesmeric treatment; and after their split Eddy believed that Kennedy was using his mesmeric abilities to try to harm her and her movement.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=207-208}}

In 1882, Eddy publicly claimed that her last husband, Asa Gilbert Eddy, had died of "mental assassination".{{sfn|Miller|1995|p=62}} Daniel Spofford was another Christian Scientist expelled by Eddy after she accused him of practicing malicious animal magnetism.{{sfn|Haller|1981|p=139}} This gained notoriety in a case irreverently dubbed the "Second Salem Witch Trial".{{sfn|Gallagher|Ashcroft|2006|page=93}}

Later, Eddy set up "watches" for her staff to pray about challenges facing the Christian Science movement and to handle animal magnetism which arose.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=397}} Gill writes that Eddy got the term from the New Testament account of the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus chastises his disciples for being unable to "watch" even for a short time; and that Eddy used it to refer to "a particularly vigilant and active form of prayer, a set period of time when specific people would put their thoughts toward God, review questions and problems of the day, and seek spiritual understanding."{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=397}} Critics such as Georgine Milmine in Mclure's, Edwin Dakin, and John Dittemore, all claimed this was evidence that Eddy had a great fear of malicious animal magnetism; although Gilbert Carpenter, one of Eddy's staff at the time, insisted she was not fearful of it, and that she was simply being vigilant.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=397}}

As time went on, Eddy tried to lessen the focus on animal magnetism within the movement, and she worked to clearly define it as unreality which only had power if one conceded to it.{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=444}} Though, it continued to play an important role in the teaching of Christian Science.{{sfn|Gottschalk|1973|p=113}}

The belief in malicious animal magnetism remains a part of Christian Science doctrine.{{sfn|Wilson|1961|p=126}}{{sfn|Williams|2000|p=201}} Christian Scientists use it as a specific term for a hypnotic belief in a power apart from God.{{sfn|Mead|1995|p=106}}

{{see also|Hinduism}}

Scholars debate the influence of Hinduism on Eddy and her work.{{sfn|Miller|1995|p=174}} The 1930 work Hinduism Invades America argues Eddy referenced the Bhagavad-Gita in the 33rd edition of Science and Health.{{sfn|Thomas|1930|pp=228–234}} Gillian Gill argued that Eddy's editor, Reverend James Henry Wiggin, had introduced the references, and Eddy removed from the 1891 revision all the references to Eastern religions.{{sfn|Gill|1998|pp=332–333}} Christian Scientist church member and historian Stephen Gottschalk argued that Eddy consciously distinguished Christian Science from Eastern religions starting in the mid-1880s.{{sfn|Gottschalk|1973|pp=152–153}} Damodar Singhal noted that whether or not Eddy was directly influenced by Hindu philosophy, "the echoes of Vedanta in [her] literature are often striking."{{sfn|Singhal|1980|p=136}}

{{see also|British Israelism}}

Eddy was introduced to British Israelism by Julia Field-King, who herself was introduced by the writings of C. A. L. Totten. Totten alleged to have traced Queen Victoria's genealogy to King David and Field-King offered to create a genealogy tracing Eddy to King David. Eddy eventually requested Field-King cease work on the genealogy and transferred her to London to work on expanding the church there.{{sfn|Peel|1980|p=114-121}} Since her death, academics have debated the extent of Eddy's relationship with British Israelism with Christian Scientist historian Robert Peel arguing she was "intrigued by the theory for several years," while keeping "it resolutely out of her work and her writing on Christian Science." He acknowledges she uses the term "Anglo-Israel" in one poem, but argues the meaning is "metaphorical" instead of "ethnic or historical."{{sfn|Peel|1980|p=118-119}}

Political Scientist Michael Barkun argued that "Eddy continued to maintain an interest in British-Israelism, although she kept it out of her doctrinal writings" and noted that a "schismatic offshoot" organized by Annie Cecelia Bill in England after Eddy's death centered on British-Israelism.{{sfn|Barkun|1997|p=26-27}} Professor of religious studies John K. Simmons, citing Peel, argued that Eddy "gave the theory no real credence, at least in verifiable written form," but acknowledged British-Israelism "seemed to attract the turn-of-the-century metaphysical crowd."{{sfn|Simmons|1991|p=119}}

File:Calvin A. Frye cph.3b20581.jpg

There is controversy about how much Eddy used morphine. Biographers Ernest Sutherland Bates and Edwin Franden Dakin described Eddy as a morphine addict.{{sfn|Moreman|2013|p=58}} Miranda Rice, a friend and close student of Eddy, told a newspaper in 1906: "I know that Mrs. Eddy was addicted to morphine in the seventies."{{sfn|Springer|1930|p=299}} A diary kept by Calvin Frye, Eddy's personal secretary, suggests that Eddy occasionally reverted to "the old morphine habit" when she was in pain.{{sfn|Gardner|1993|p=271}} Gill writes that the prescription of morphine was normal medical practice at the time, and that "I remain convinced that Mary Baker Eddy was never addicted to morphine."{{sfn|Gill|1998|p=546}}

Eddy recommended to her son that, rather than go against the law of the state, he should have her grandchildren vaccinated. She also paid for a mastectomy for her sister-in-law.{{sfn|Whorton|2004|p=128}} Eddy used glasses for several years for very fine print, but later dispensed with them almost entirely, claiming she could read fine print with ease.{{sfn|Peel|1977|pp=108–109, 411|loc=n. 65}}{{sfn|Peel|1971|p=376}} In 1907, Arthur Brisbane interviewed Eddy. At one point he picked up a periodical, selected at random a paragraph, and asked Eddy to read it. According to Brisbane, at the age of eighty six, she read the ordinary magazine type without glasses.{{sfn|Brisbane|1907|p=456}} Towards the end of her life she was frequently attended by physicians.{{sfn|Stark|1988|pp=189–214}}

{{main|The Next Friends suit}}

In 1907, the New York World sponsored a lawsuit, known as "The Next Friends suit", which journalist Erwin Canham described as "designed to wrest from [Eddy] and her trusted officials all control of her church and its activities."{{sfn|Canham|1958|pp=14-15}} During the course of the legal case, four psychiatrists interviewed Eddy, then 86 years old, to determine whether she could manage her own affairs, and concluded that she was able to.{{sfn|Bates|Dittemore|1932|pp=411, 413, 417}} Physician Allan McLane Hamilton told The New York Times that the attacks on Eddy were the result of "a spirit of religious persecution that has at last quite overreached itself", and that "there seems to be a manifest injustice in taxing so excellent and capable an old lady as Mrs. Eddy with any form of insanity."{{sfn|NYTimes|1907|loc=online}}

A 1907 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that Eddy exhibited hysterical and psychotic behavior.{{sfn|Anonymous|1907|pp=614-615}} Psychiatrist Karl Menninger in his book The Human Mind (1927) cited Eddy's paranoid delusions about malicious animal magnetism as an example of a "schizoid personality".{{sfn|Menninger|1927|p=84}}

Psychologists Leon Joseph Saul and Silas L. Warner, in their book The Psychotic Personality (1982), came to the conclusion that Eddy had diagnostic characteristics of Psychotic Personality Disorder (PPD).{{sfn|Saul|Warner|1982|pp=187-188}} In 1983, psychologists Theodore Barber and Sheryl C. Wilson suggested that Eddy displayed traits of a fantasy prone personality.{{sfn|Wilson|Barber|1983|pp=340-387}}

Psychiatrist George Eman Vaillant wrote that Eddy was hypochrondriacal.{{sfn|Vaillant|1992|p=70}} Psychopharmacologist Ronald K. Siegel has written that Eddy's lifelong secret morphine habit contributed to her development of "progressive paranoia".{{sfn|Siegel|1994|p=105}}

File:Mary Baker Eddy monument in Mt. Auburn Cemetery (00316p)2.jpg]]

Eddy died of pneumonia on the evening of December 3, 1910, at her home at 400 Beacon Street, in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts. Her death was announced the next morning, when a city medical examiner was called in.{{sfn|NYTimes|1910|loc=online}} She was buried on December 8, 1910, at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her open-air mausoleum was designed by New York architect Egerton Swartwout (1870–1943).{{Cite web |title=Mary Baker Eddy Monument |url=https://www.mausoleums.com/portfolio/mary-baker-eddy-monument/ |access-date=2023-10-17 |website=Mausoleums.com |language=en-US}}

A bronze memorial relief of Eddy by Lynn sculptor Reno Pisano was unveiled in December 2000, at the corner of Market Street and Oxford Street in Lynn, Massachusetts, near the site of her fall in 1866.{{sfn|Shippey|2001|loc=online}}{{sfn|Safronoff|2016|loc=online}}

In 1995, Eddy was elected to the National Women’s Hall of Fame as the first American woman to have founded a worldwide religion.{{cite news |title=Mary Baker Eddy History|url=https://contest.savingplaces.org/cyzotwba|publisher=National Trust for Historic Preservation|date=5 July 2022}}

Eddy was named one of the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time" in 2014 by Smithsonian Magazine,{{sfn|Frail|2014|loc=online}} and her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was ranked as one of the "75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World" by the Women's National Book Association in 1992.{{sfn|Oakley|2015|loc=online}}

{{anchor|Mary Baker Eddy residences}}

In 1921, on the 100th anniversary of Eddy's birth, a 100-ton (in rough) and 60–70 tons (hewn) pyramid with a {{convert|121|sqfoot}} footprint was dedicated on the site of her birthplace in Bow, New Hampshire.{{sfn|NYTimes|1921|loc=online}} A gift from James F. Lord, it was dynamited in 1962 by order of the church's board of directors. Also demolished was Eddy's former home in Pleasant View, as the Board feared that it was becoming a place of pilgrimage.{{sfn|Hartsook|1994|pp=25–28}} Eddy is featured on a New Hampshire historical marker (number 105) along New Hampshire Route 9 in Concord, New Hampshire.{{sfn|NH.gov|2018|loc=online}}

Several of Eddy's homes are owned and maintained as historic sites by the Longyear Museum and may be visited (the list below is arranged by date of her occupancy):{{cite web |url=https://www.longyear.org/historic-houses |title=Visit Longyear Museum and the Mary Baker Eddy Historic Houses |publisher=Longyear Museum |access-date=December 4, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190623115315/https://www.longyear.org/visit/historic-houses/ |archive-date=June 23, 2019}}

• 1855–1860 – Hall's Brook Road, North Groton, New Hampshire
• 1860–1862 – Stinson Lake Road, Rumney, New Hampshire
• 1865–1866 – 23 Paradise Road, Swampscott, Massachusetts{{cite web |url=https://www.longyear.org/historic-houses/swampscott-massachusetts-0 |title=Swampscott, Massachusetts |work=Longyear Museum |date=May 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202154549/https://www.longyear.org/historic-houses/swampscott-massachusetts-0 |archive-date=December 2, 2017 |access-date=January 16, 2017 |author1=Support }}
• 1868,1870 – 277 Main Street, Amesbury, Massachusetts
• 1868–1870 – 133 Central Street, Stoughton, Massachusetts
• 1875–1882 – 8 Broad Street, Lynn, Massachusetts (NRHP-listed in 2021)
• 1889–1892 – 62 North State Street, Concord, New Hampshire (NRHP-listed in 1982)
• 1908–1910 – 400 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts (NRHP-listed in 1986)

File:Mary Baker Eddy Historic House - Swampscott, MA.JPG|23 Paradise Road, Swampscott, Massachusetts

File:Mary Baker Eddy Historic House - Amesbury, Massachusetts.JPG|277 Main Street, Amesbury, Massachusetts

File:Mary Baker Eddy Historic House, Stoughton MA.jpg|133 Central Street, Stoughton, Massachusetts

File:8 Broad Street, Lynn, Massachusetts, 1906 (postcard, cropped).jpg|8 Broad Street, Lynn, Massachusetts

File:Dupee Estate - Mary Baker Eddy Home, Newton, Massachusetts.jpg|400 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

:Source: [https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/mary-baker-eddy/writings/ "Writings"] via the Mary Baker Eddy Library.

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures |year=1910 |orig-date=1875 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Miscellaneous Writings, 1883–1896 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31427/31427-h/31427-h.html |year=1896 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Retrospection and Introspection |url=https://archive.org/stream/retrospectionin00eddy |year=1891 |publisher=Boston, Mass., W. G. Nixon |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Unity of Good |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16591/16591-h/16591-h.htm |year=1887 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Miscellaneous Writings |year=1896 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Pulpit and Press |year=1895 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Rudimental Divine Science |year=1887 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=No and Yes |url=http://christianscience.com/read-online/no-and-yes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406042316/http://christianscience.com/read-online/no-and-yes |archive-date=April 6, 2015 |year=1887 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Christian Science versus Pantheism |year=1898 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Christian Healing |url=http://www.cslectures.org/thebooks/other/Christian%20Healing-Eddy.htm |year=1886 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=The People's Idea of God, Its Effect on Health and Christianity |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35081/35081-h/35081-h.htm |year=1886 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany |year=1913 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Manual of the Mother Church |year=1895 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Christ and Christmas |year=1893 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Message to The Mother Church for 1900 |year=1900 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Message to The Mother Church for 1901 |year=1901 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Message to The Mother Church for 1902 |year=1902 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Eddy |first1=Mary Baker |author-mask1=0 |title=Poems |year=1910 |language=en}}

{{refend}}

• Septimus J. Hanna, student of Eddy and vice-president of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College
• William R. Rathvon, student of Eddy, early Christian Scientist and lone person to leave an audio recording of his hearing Lincoln's Gettysburg Address at the age of nine.
• Bliss Knapp, a child when the church was in its formative years. Later, he was a teacher and also lectured for 21 years. His father was one of the first Directors of The Mother Church. Knapp's Book, The Destiny of the Mother Church, which was rejected by the Church but privately published, was quite controversial, and Knapp's opinions of Eddy remain controversial to this day in the Christian Science Church.
• Augusta Emma Stetson, pastor and later First Reader of First Church of Christ, Scientist (New York, New York), excommunicated by the Mother Church in 1909.
• William E. Chandler, ardent anti-Christian Science lead counsel for the 1907 Next Friends suit against Mary Baker Eddy, a case he would eventually lose, admitting of Eddy: "She's sharp as a steel trap."
• Marietta T. Webb, the only Black American to have a personal healing testimony selected by Eddy to appear in Science and Health.
• Sibyl Wilbur, an American journalist, suffragist, and author of The Life of Mary Baker Eddy, which became the first church-authorized biography to be sold in Christian Science Reading Rooms.

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Anonymous |year=1907 |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/462330 |title=Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy's Case of Hysteria |journal=Journal of the American Medical Association |volume=XLVIII |issue=7 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Albanese |first1=Catherine L. |year=2007 |title=A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Barkun |first1=Michael |author1-link=Michael Barkun |title=Religion and the racist right : the origins of the Christian Identity movement |date=1997 |publisher=Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-1-4696-1111-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/religionracistri0000bark/page/26/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=9 July 2024}}
• {{cite book |last1=Bates |first1=Ernest S. |author1-link=Ernest Sutherland Bates |last2=Dittemore |first2=John V. |author2-link=John V. Dittemore |year=1932 |title=Mary Baker Eddy: The Truth and the Tradition |publisher=A. A. Knopf |location=New York |oclc=1199769 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Beasley |first1=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G10aAAAAMAAJ |title=Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Duell, Sloan and Pearce |year=1963 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Braude |first1=Ann |title=Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2001 |language=en}}
• {{cite magazine |last1=Brisbane |first1=Arthur |title=An Interview with Mrs. Eddy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_cosmopolitan_1907-08_43_4/page/450/mode/2up |magazine=Cosmopolitan Magazine |date=August 1907 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Buchanan |first1=Paul |title=American Women's Rights Movement: A Chronology of Events and of Opportunities from 1600 to 2008 |publisher=Branden Books |year=2009 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Canham |first1=Erwin |author1-link=Erwin Canham |title=Commitment To Freedom: The Story of the Christian Science Monitor |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1958 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Caplan |first1=Eric |title=Mind Games: American Culture and the Birth of Psychotherapy |publisher=University of California Press |year=2001 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Cather |first1=Willa |last2=Milmine |first2=Georgine |title=The Life of Mary Baker G. Eddy and the History of Christian Science |year=1993 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0-8032-1453-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofmarybakerg0000cath |orig-date=Originally published 1909 |access-date=May 1, 2023 |ref={{harvid|Cather|Milmine|1909}} |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Dakin |first1=Edwin F |author1-link=Edwin Franden Dakin |year=1929 |url=https://www.questia.com/read/3772032/mrs-eddy-the-biography-of-a-virginal-mind |title=Mrs. Eddy: The Biography of a Virginal Mind |publisher=C. Scribner's & Sons |language=en |access-date=September 4, 2017 |archive-date=December 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191217030814/https://www.questia.com/read/3772032/mrs-eddy-the-biography-of-a-virginal-mind |url-status=dead }}
• {{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=H. A. L. |title=Our New Religion |location=London |publisher=Benn |year=1929 |language=en}}
• {{cite magazine |last1=Frail |first1=T. A. |title=Meet the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonianmag/meet-100-most-significant-americans-all-time-180953341/ |magazine=Smithsonian |date=November 17, 2014 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Fraser |first1=Caroline |author1-link=Caroline Fraser |year=1999 |title=God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church |title-link=God's Perfect Child |chapter=Mere Historic Incidents |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/godsperfectchild0000fras_v4o5 |publisher=Metropolitan Books |isbn=9780805044317 |via=Archive.org |language=en }}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Frerichs |editor1-first=Ernest S. |url=https://archive.org/details/biblebiblesiname0000unse/page/196/mode/2up |title=The Bible and Bibles in America |publisher=Scholars Press |year=1988 |isbn=978-1-55540-096-5 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Robert M. |title=The Modern Siren |year=1916 |publisher=Our Hope |url=https://archive.org/stream/modernsiren00hallgoog#page/n38/mode/2up |access-date=May 1, 2023 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Haller |first1=John S. |title=American Medicine in Transition, 1840–1910 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FeaucvGO41MC&pg=PA139 |year=1981 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252008061 |via=Google Books |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Hartsook |first1=Andrew W. |title=Christian Science After 1910 |publisher=Bookmark |year=1994 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gallagher |first1=Eugene |first2=Michael W. |last2=Ashcroft |title=Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oZiScvbS6-cC&pg=RA1-PA93 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2006 |isbn=9780313050787 |via=Google Books |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Martin |author1-link=Martin Gardner |year=1993 |title=The Healing Revelations of Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Prometheus Books |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gill |first1=Gillian |author1-link=Gillian Gill |year=1998 |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyrad00gill |title=Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0-7382-0042-2 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Gottschalk |first1=Stephen |author1-link=Stephen Gottschalk |title=The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life |url=https://archive.org/details/emergenceofchris00step |publisher=University of California Press |year=1973 |isbn=9780520023086 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Gottschalk |first1=Stephen |year=2006 |url=https://archive.org/details/rollingawaystone0000gott |title=Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34673-5 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Knee |first1=Stuart E. |title=Christian Science in the Age of Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-313-28360-4 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Koestler-Grack |first1=Rachel A. |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddy0000koes |title=Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Facts on File |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7910-7866-2 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Leonard |first1=Todd Jay |title=Talking to the Other Side |year=2005 |publisher=iUniverse |location=New York |isbn=978-0-595-36353-7 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Mead |first1=Frank S. |year=1995 |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofdenomi0000mead_d0r0 |title=Handbook of Denominations |edition=10th |location=Nashville, TN |publisher=Abingdon Press |isbn=9780687014781 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Meehan |first1=Michael |url=https://archive.org/details/mrseddyandlates00meehgoog |title=Mrs. Eddy and the Late Suit in Equity |year=1908 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |author1-link=J. Gordon Melton |year=1999 |url=https://archive.org/details/religiousleaders0000melt/page/174/mode/2up |title=Religious Leaders of America: A Biographical Guide to Founders and Leaders of Religious Bodies, Churches, and Spiritual Groups in North America |location=Detroit |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=9780810388789 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Menninger |first1=Karl |author1-link=Karl Menninger |title=The Human Mind |publisher=Garden City Publishing Company |year=1927 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Timothy |title=America's Alternative Religions |publisher=State University of New York |year=1995 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=R. Laurence |title=Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SG2qNXqdNHsC |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-19-536399-9 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Moreman |first1=Christopher M. |year=2013 |title=The Spiritualist Movement: Speaking with the Dead in America and Around the World |volume=1: American Origins and Global Proliferation |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0-313-39947-3 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Nenneman |first1=Richard A. |year=1997 |url=https://archive.org/details/persistentpilgri00nenn |title=Persistent Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Nebbadoon Press |isbn=978-1-891331-02-2 |language=en }}
• {{cite web |url=https://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/markers/documents/markers_bynumber.pdf |title=List of Markers by Marker Number |website=nh.gov |publisher=New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources |date=November 2, 2018 |access-date=July 5, 2019 |ref={{harvid|NH.gov|2018}} |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Norton |first1=Carol |title=The Christian Science Church, Its Organization and Policy: The History of the Apostolic Church and the Formation of the Christian Science Church Compared |year=1904 |publisher=Christian Science Publishing Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o71NAQAAMAAJ |access-date=May 2, 2023 |language=en }}
• {{cite news |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0810FF3B5A15738DDDAC0A94D0405B878CF1D3 |title=Dr. Alan McLane Hamilton Tells About His Visit to Mrs. Eddy; After a Month's Investigation Famous Alienist Considers Leader of Christian Scientists "Absolutely Normal and Possessed of Remarkably Clear Intellect" |work=The New York Times |date=August 25, 1907 |ref={{harvid|NYTimes|1907}} |language=en }}
• {{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D01EFDD1638E333A25756C0A9649D946196D6CF |title=Mrs. Eddy Dies of Pneumonia; No Doctor Near |work=The New York Times |date=December 5, 1910 |ref={{harvid|NYTimes|1910}} |language=en }}
• {{cite news |title=Eddy Centenary Observed at Bow |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1921/07/17/archives/eddy-centenary-observed-at-bow-new-yorkers-in-group-who-lay.html |access-date=May 2, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=July 17, 1921 |location=Concord, NH |ref={{harvid|NYTimes|1921}} |language=en }}
• {{cite web |last1=Oakley |first1=Adeline |url=https://www.wnba-books.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/75-Books-by-Women-Whose-Words-Have-Changed-the-World.pdf |date=June 2015 |title=75 Books by Women Whose Words Have Changed the World |access-date=March 10, 2023 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Peel |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Peel (historian) |year=1966 |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyyea0000peel |title=Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Peel |first1=Robert |year=1971 |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyyea00peel |title=Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Trial |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |isbn=978-0-03-086700-2 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Peel |first1=Robert |year=1977 |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyaut00peel |title=Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority |publisher=Holt, Rinehart and Winston |isbn=978-0-03-021081-5 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Peel |first1=Robert |title=Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority |date=February 1980 |publisher=Henry Holt & Company, Inc. |isbn=978-0-03-056709-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyyea0000robe/page/114/mode/2up |access-date=9 July 2024}}
• {{cite book |last1=Podmore |first1=Frank |title=Mesmerism and Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing |publisher=George W. Jacobs and Company |year=1909 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Lyman Pierson |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyali017973mbp |title=Mary Baker Eddy: A Life Size Portrait |publisher=MacMillan, Christian Science Publishing Society |year=1930 |language=en }} ([https://archive.org/details/marybakereddylif1950powe Reprinting])
• {{cite book |last1=Rapport |first1=Jeremy |title=Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling |editor1-last=Guttierez |editor1-first=Cathy |year=2015 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-04-26408-3 |chapter=The Nature of Reality: Christian Science and Spiritualism |pages=199–218 |doi=10.1163/9789004264083_011 |language=en}}
• {{cite web |last1=Safronoff |first1=Cindy |url=http://www.crossing-swords.com/mary-baker-eddy-made-a-leap/ |title=The fall that led to the rise of Mary Baker Eddy |date=February 5, 2016 |website=Crossing Swords |access-date=August 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413052248/http://www.crossing-swords.com:80/mary-baker-eddy-made-a-leap |archive-date=April 13, 2016 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Saul |first1=Leon |last2=Warner |first2=Silas |title=The Psychotic Personality |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |year=1982 |language=en}}
• {{cite news |last1=Shippey |first1=Kim |date=January 29, 2001 |title=City of "firsts" Lynn, Massachusetts, honors Mary Baker Eddy |url=https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/opq1r8reyo |work=Christian Science Sentinel |access-date=August 28, 2022 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Siegel |first1=Ronald K. |author1-link=Ronald K. Siegel |title=Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1994 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Silberger |first1=Julius |title=Mary Baker Eddy: An Interpretive Biography of the Founder of Christian Science |year=1980 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-316-79090-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakereddyint00silb |access-date=May 5, 2023 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Simmons |first1=John K. |title=When prophets die : the postcharismatic fate of new religious movements |date=1991 |publisher=Albany : State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-0717-2 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/whenprophetsdiep0000unse/page/118/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=9 July 2024 |chapter=Charisma and Covenant: The Christian Science Movement in its Initial Postcharismatic Phase}}
• {{cite book |last1=Singhal |first1=Damodar |title=Modern Indian Society and Culture |publisher=Meenakshi Prakashan |year=1980 |language=en}}
• {{Cite Americana|wstitle= Eddy, Mary Baker |volume= IX |last= Smith |first= C.P.|author-link= |short= 1|year=1920}}
• {{cite book |last1=Springer |first1=Fleta Campbell |year=1930 |title=According to the Flesh: A Biography of Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Coward-McCann |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Squires |first1=L. Ashley |year=2017 |title=Healing the Nation: Literature, Progress, and Christian Science |publisher=Indiana University Press |edition=Kindle}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Stark |first1=Rodney |author1-link=Rodney Stark |year=1988 |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537909808580830#preview |title=The Rise and Fall of Christian Science |journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=189–214 |doi=10.1080/13537909808580830 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Wendell |title=Hinduism Invades America |publisher=The Beacon Press |year=1930 |pages=228–234 |url=https://archive.org/stream/hinduisminvadesa013865mbp#page/n227/mode/2up |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Vaillant |first1=George |title=Ego Mechanisms of Defense: A Guide for Clinicians and Researchers |publisher=American Psychiatric Press |year=1992 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Whorton |first1=James C. |title=Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517162-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RU0DndWVSPoC |access-date=May 1, 2023 |language=en }}
• {{cite wikisource |last1=Wilbur |first1=Silby |author-link=Sibyl Wilbur |plaintitle=The Life of Mary Baker Eddy |wslink=The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur)/Chapter 09 |chapter=Mesmerism Dominant |scan=Index:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu |year=1913 |publisher=The Christian Science Publishing Society |nolink=yes |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Jean Kinney |year=1997 |url=https://archive.org/details/christianscienti00will |title=The Christian Scientists |location=New York |publisher=Franklin Watts |isbn=9780531113097 |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=William |title=Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: From Alien Abductions to Zone Therapy |publisher=Facts on File |year=2000 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Bryan R. |author1-link=Bryan R. Wilson |title=Sects and Society: A Sociological Study of the Elim Tabernacle, Christian Science, and Christadelphians |year=1961 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NWVP5kDBJcC |access-date=May 6, 2023 |via=Google Books |language=en }}
• {{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Sheryl C |last2=Barber |first2=Theodore X |year=1983 |chapter=The Fantasy-Prone Personality |editor1-last=Sheikh |editor1-first=Anees A. |title=Imagery: Current Theory, Research and Application |location=New York |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |pages=340–387 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wortham |first1=Hugh Evelyn |author1-link=Hugh Evelyn Wortham |year=1930 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001964877 |title=Three Women: St. Teresa, Madame de Choiseul, Mṛṣ Eddy |publisher=Little, Brown and Co. |language=en }}

{{refend}}

{{refbegin|26em|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book |last1=Bancroft |first1=Samuel P. |author1-link=Samuel P. Bancroft |title=Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870 |publisher=Geo H. Ellis Co |year=1923 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Beasley |first1=Norman |author1-link=Norman Beasley |url=https://archive.org/details/crosscrown00beas |title=The Cross and the Crown: The History of Christian Science |publisher=Duell, Sloan and Pearce |year=1952 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Braden |first1=Charles S. |author1-link=Charles S. Braden |title=Christian Science Today: Power, Policy, Practice |title-link=Christian Science Today |publisher=Southern Methodist University Press |year=1958 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Brisbane |first1=Arthur |author1-link=Arthur Brisbane |url=https://archive.org/details/marybakergeddy00brisrich |title=Mary Baker G. Eddy |publisher=Ball |year=1908 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Buckmaster |first1=Henrietta |title=Women who shaped history |year=1966 |publisher=Collier Books |location=New York |lccn=65023073 |url=https://archive.org/details/womenwhoshapedhi00buck |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Keith S. |title=The Christian Science Monitor: Its History, Mission, and People |year=2012 |publisher=Nebbadoon Press}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Feldman |first1=A. Bronson |title=Animal Magnetism and the Mother of Christian Science. |journal=Psychoanalytic Review |date=Summer 1963 |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=153–160 |pmid=13962786 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/a0507271f8b122f8b5d88d4279fa40b4/1 |location=New York |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Frederick |first1=Heather Vogel |title=Life at 400 Beacon Street: Working in Mary Baker Eddy's household |year=2019 |publisher=Longyear Museum |location=Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-578-40482-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZDhwAEACAAJ |access-date=May 1, 2023 |language=en}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Hall |first1=Irene |title=Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science |journal=Feminist Theology |date=September 2007 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=79–88 |doi=10.1177/0966735007082518 |s2cid=171007592 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0966735007082518 |language=en |issn=0966-7350}}
• {{cite book |last1=Haushalter |first1=Walter M. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006662060 |title=Mrs. Eddy Purloins from Hegel |publisher=Beauchamp |year=1936 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Ingham |first1=Arleen M. |title=Women and spirituality in the writing of More, Wollstonecraft, Stanton, and Eddy |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2010}}
• {{cite book |last1=Reimer |first1=Hans-Diether |title=Literatur über die "Christliche Wissenschaft" (Christian Science): Sammlung an der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen-Nürnberg |year=1975 |publisher=Evang. Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yby0yAEACAAJ |language=de}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kennedy |first1=Hugh A. Studdert |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006531917 |title=Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her: Being Some Contemporary Portraits of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science |publisher=The Farallon Press |year=1931 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lomaxe |first1=Paul |title=Mary Baker Eddy: Spiritualist Medium |url=https://archive.org/details/MaryBakerEddySpiritualistMedium |publisher=General Assembly of Spiritualists |year=1946 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Lord |first1=Myra B. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007648400 |title=Mary Baker Eddy: A Concise Story of Her Life and Work |publisher=Davis & Bond |year=1918 |language=en}} ([https://archive.org/details/marybakereddycon00lordiala archive.org])
• {{cite book |last1=Martin |first1=Walter Ralston |author1-link=Walter Ralston Martin |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005947712 |title=The Christian Science Myth |series=The Modern cult library |publisher=Zondervan Publishing House |year=1955 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Peabody |first1=Frederick W. |url=https://archive.org/stream/completeexposur00peabgoog#page/n1/mode/2up |title=Complete Exposure of Eddyism or Christian Science: The Plain Truth in Plain Terms Regarding Mary Baker G. Eddy |year=1904 |publisher=Peabody |orig-year=1901 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Lyman Pierson |author1-link=Lyman Pierson Powell |url=https://archive.org/details/christianscience01powe |title=Christian Science: The Faith and Its Founder |publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons |year=1907 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Safronoff |first1=Cindy Peyser |title=Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy Vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage |date=2015 |publisher=This One Thing |location=Seattle, WA |isbn=978-0-9864461-0-8 |edition=First |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zIWArgEACAAJ |access-date=May 1, 2023 |via=Google Books |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Clifford P. |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalbiogra00smit |title=Historical Sketches from the Life of Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science |publisher=Christian Science Publishing Society |orig-year=1934 |year=1969 |isbn=9780875100050 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Snowden |first1=James H. |url=https://archive.org/stream/truthaboutchrist00snow#page/n5/mode/2up |title=Truth About Christian Science the Founder and the Faith |year=1920 |publisher=Philadelphia, The Westminster press |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Robert David |title="With Bleeding Footsteps": Mary Baker Eddy's Path to Religious Leadership |year=1994 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-41495-7 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGjZAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Tomlinson |first1=Irving C. |author1-link=Irving C. Tomlinson |url=https://archive.org/details/twelveyearswithm00toml |title=Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy |publisher=Christian Science Publishing Society |year=1945 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Twain |first1=Mark |author1-link=Mark Twain |title=Christian Science |title-link=Christian Science (book) |publisher=Harper |year=1907 |language=en}}
• {{cite book |last1=Voorhees |first1=Amy B. |title=A New Christian Identity: Christian Science Origins and Experience in American Culture |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2021}}

{{refend}}

{{Sister project links|Mary Baker Eddy|s=Author:Mary Baker Eddy|wikt=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|d=Q235069|c=Category:Mary Baker Eddy|n=no}}

• [http://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/ Mary Baker Eddy Library]
• [http://christianscience.com/what-is-christian-science#about-the-founder Mary Baker Eddy] and [http://christianscience.com/what-is-christian-science#basic-teachings Basic teachings of Christian Science], christianscience.com
• [http://www.longyear.org/ The Longyear Museum]
• {{Gutenberg author |id=1203| name=Mary Baker Eddy}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Baker Eddy}}
• {{Librivox author |id=4748}}
• Norwood, Arlisha. "[https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-eddy Mary Eddy]". National Women's History Museum. 2017.

{{Christian Science|state=collapsed}}

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eddy, Mary Baker}}

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