REASONING must be scientific in order to obliterate false belief. If reasoning is from a premise that is based on error, the error is certain to appear in the conclusion. If the premise is physicality, Mrs. Eddy shows where it leads when she says in Science and Health (p. 191), "Physical sense defines mortal man as based on matter, and from this premise infers the mortality of the body."
Reasoning from the testimony of physical sense, a Christian Science practitioner might conclude that a patient is fearful, hateful, resentful, and so on, and agree that he is suffering from an ailment because of these mental states. Since this false reasoning attaches error to person, it is a denial of the one primal cause, an acceptance of the belief that there is more than one Mind.
The first step to take in correcting these erroneous beliefs is to divorce error from its claim to an entity. To do this, we begin our reasoning by acknowledging Spirit as supreme and all-inclusive and its offspring as spiritual. What Spirit creates, Spirit causes to be perfect and to remain forever in the nature of its creator. Since man is spiritual, he manifests the intelligence of Mind, its all-power and all-presence. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 173). "If Mind, God, is all-power and all-presence, man is not met by another power and presence, that—obstructing his intelligence—pains, fetters, and befools him."
How impossible it is then for man to lose his spiritual identity and become fearful, hateful, sinful, or sick! He cannot and does not lose what God gives to him. Can a dream, an illusion, called a mortal, be dissolved if we accept it as a reality? It assuredly cannot. Such procedure is not based on a right premise and would contradict the teaching of Christian Science. The suggestions of the material senses are neither true nor real. If God does not cause His own beloved child to be fearful, sick, or sinful, then nothing else can cause him to be so.
Our conclusion, then, is that man has not a material selfhood which can include fear, disease, suffering, sorrow, or sin, for has not the Psalmist said, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us" ((Ps. 103: 12)? We must learn to adhere to this fact in our metaphysical work.
Contending for the truth of man as God knows him is basing our work on a right premise. This requires that every picture called a mortal be erased from thought. Mrs. Eddy teaches that we should never hold in mind the thought of disease but that we should efface all forms of disease from our thinking. The scientific work is to destroy false belief. We must be sure that we do not attempt to label such a belief as belonging to Mr. X or Mrs. Y and then expect to heal it.
False belief must be seen as deceptively erroneous and completely divorced from any entity. It is a lie, which contradicts God's truth. Our work is to prove the operation and power of ever-present divine Principle. God's law completely annihilates lawlessness, the lawlessness of the ills of material thinking and living—the unreal beliefs of a dream and dreamer. The result of divine law's action is certain to be health, holiness, freedom, dominion, harmony, and happiness.
In proportion as one realizes the power, presence, and actuality of divine Principle, he identifies himself with Principle. This perforce brings a recognition of the Son, the divine ideal, or Christ. The individual's true identity is revealed in conformity with the Christ. Thus through right reasoning we see that man in the likeness of his Maker is capable of spiritual thoughts only. Is not this what we need to see and to contend for earnestly when confronted with a problem we call our own or when a patient calls for help in the solving of a problem?
Understanding man's individuality precludes the possibility of mistakenly conjecturing that being individual means being a mortal different from other mortals. There is no more reality in one form or pattern of a material self than in another. We do not awaken to true individuality by changing from some phase of a material self to another phase or by improving a concept of a mortal into a better concept of a mortal. Individuality is not an improved mortal; but we perceive true individuality when we replace the mortal concept of man with the Christ-idea.
The activity of the Christ in human consciousness cleanses it from material elements such as fleshliness, fears, and other destructive beliefs. Paul admonished the Galatians (5:1), "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."
If the purifying influence of the Christ has freed human consciousness from the earthly elements of skepticism, arrogance, selfishness, pride, self-importance, sin, idolatry, criticism, and so on, then there is no longer within consciousness any element producing an affinity for the fickle, sordid, incongruous arguments of materiality. Thus as we adhere to a spiritual premise, we behold the glorious, enduring, complete view of true individuality shining forth in its spiritual splendor.
It is reason for rejoicing that alert thinkers in the business and professional worlds, in the world of writers, in the field of physical science, are getting a glimpse of the pressing need to preserve one's right identity and true individuality. Albert Einstein, whose thinking has had a tremendous influence upon natural scientists the world over, said, "The true relative value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure... in which he has attained liberation from the self."
Those of us who live in free countries can never be too grateful for our God-bestowed liberty to think and to act according to the dictates of our own individual conscience. But the tyranny of personal sense still claims to assert its power over us and to induce us to bow down to it through the mesmeric belief that man is a mortal under the domination of mortal mind.
Why does one sometimes subscribe to the domination of mortal mind and surrender his heritage of individuality by following the crowd? There are several answers to that question. One answer is this: fear of losing popularity if one leaves all for Christ. Another answer is that it is easier to drift with the stream of mortal-mindedness than to take one's stand unequivocally for Truth. Another reason may be an apathetic state which induces one to be willing to have another, or others, do his thinking for him.
A sense of mental laziness coupled with sluggishness of thought and deed can mesmerically influence one in the direction of wrong conclusions. Courage, moral strength, decisiveness, fortitude, and deep spiritual stability are required if one is to maintain his heaven-bestowed individuality midst a storm of cutting, cruel, merciless opposition or in the face of ridicule, scorn, and contempt. But calm faith, spiritual vision, and an assurance of God's power and ever-present control will win for us the victory.
As we advance in the understanding of divine Principle, we advance in the understanding that "the individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and enables him to conquer sin, disease, and death" (Science and Health, p. 317). By this understanding, resulting from Christly thinking, the way of victory is made plain.
