Edward J. Arens (1841-1905) was born in Memel, Prussia (now Klaipeda, Lithuania), and died in Westborough, Massachusetts. He emigrated to the United States in 1862, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1880. He was a student of Asa Gilbert Eddy's, studying with him in March 1878. Throughout 1878, he encouraged the Eddys to file lawsuits against students who had not paid for their classes, but all of these suits were unsuccessful. In October 1878, he and Asa Eddy were arrested and charged with the murder of Mary Baker Eddy's former student, Daniel H. Spofford. The two were exonerated in January 1879, and the supposed murder was revealed to be a conspiracy created to entrap them. In June 1880, he was expelled from the Christian Scientist Association and in April 1881, he married Adelma S. Atkinson, a former student of Mary Baker Eddy's. In April 1883, Eddy filed a lawsuit against Arens for infringement of copyright. Arens had established a mind cure practice in Boston and his publications plagiarized Science and Health. Eddy won the suit and an injunction was granted to stop Arens from publishing his pamphlets. He continued to run a mind cure practice in Boston until about 1892. In May 1900, he was committed to the Westborough Insane Hospital (later Westborough State Hospital) in Westborough, Massachusetts.

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