"The true consciousness is the true health," declares Mary Baker Eddy on page 298 of "Miscellaneous Writings." This statement reverses the customary concept of health as a condition of the material body and reveals that the attainment of perfect health is a present possibility. God is the all-knowing Mind, and the real man, God's spiritual image and likeness, being conscious only of what God knows, is always in a state of true consciousness, or perfect health. The continuous purpose and effort of the Christian Scientist is to prove this by becoming more and more conscious of divine reality.
Helpful in bringing to light this true consciousness is a consideration of Mrs. Eddy's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 411), "The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance, or sin." Our Leader indicates throughout her writings that fear is an element in all disease. To discuss all the phases and ramifications of fear in the space of an article would be as impossible as it is unnecessary. Suffice it to say, fear is based primarily on the belief that man is a destructible mortal, who is at the mercy of unhappiness, impairment, disease, and death; and fear subsides and disappears as the true concept of man as God's likeness appears. This true concept of man unfolds through spiritualization of thought, or an increasingly clearer discernment of the fact that Spirit, God, is All, and is the creator of man and the universe.
In what is termed human consciousness there appear to exist both mortal beliefs and spiritual ideas. The Christian Scientist, understanding that divine Mind alone is the source of true and eternal consciousness, constantly turns to this Mind in prayer and communion to perceive more of its varied and inexhaustible ideas. Such perception spiritualizes human consciousness by replacing or destroying some portion of that which is wholly erroneous, or mortal.
