On page 368 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "Because matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act: its conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the source of all seeming sickness." By this and similar declarations, Mrs. Eddy has clearly indicated the mental nature of disease—classifying it as illusory. According to Webster's dictionary, an illusion is a state of being deceived, a false impression, or a misconception.
The basis for the conclusion that disease is illusory may be found in the teachings of Christian Science. They acknowledge that God, Spirit, is absolutely, incontrovertibly, and uncompromisingly All-in-all, and that in consequence of this fact the only real substance must be and is Spirit. Matter, on the other hand, being finite and limited, is declared to be but the hypothetical opposite of infinite and illimitable Spirit. Therefore, all so-called conditions of matter must be equally suppositional. They could not be substantial, for, as aspects of nothingness, they possess neither power nor circumstance.
To think of matter, then, as being circumstantial or substantial is to be deluded. To admit that any of its varied conditions are true is to be deceived, is to believe that to be real which is unreal. But to be conscious of Spirit's omnipresent glory and active being—as the reflection of Spirit—is to exemplify divine wisdom and perspicacity, to be Mind's intelligent expression. Such perfect and harmonious knowing disperses the mist and mirage of personal sense testimony, acts as a law of obliteration to its false claims, and reveals the reign of spiritual being in divine Science. This identification of thought with all-embracing Mind is evidenced in human experience as better health and improved conditions. Nevertheless, because of the illusory nature of matter, an amelioration of its supposed conditions does not mean that matter has been made better, even though this seems to have been the result. On the contrary, it means that more of the divine is appearing in human consciousness, permitting a clearer perception of spirituality and true substance.
