In Christian Science one learns that experience is the outgrowth of thought, that what one holds in consciousness tends to be expressed in his life. From this fact he learns that it is both wholesome and healthful to keep his thinking in line with what is good and true. It becomes very important to understand the scientific truth that God is Mind, that there is just one God and one Mind, and that there is no other consciousness.
Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 469): "Mind is God. The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind—called devil or evil—is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality."
This is a very important point in the practice of Christian Science healing. If one would heal his fellowmen, he must learn how to purify both his own and his patient's thought, or consciousness. When error, sin, and disease are thoroughly excluded from the thought of the patient, they cannot appear in his experience.
To purify thought we must understand the nature of God, the one and only Mind, and of man as His expression. Divine Mind is synonymous with divine Life, Truth, and Love. This Mind is conscious only of Life and its perfect harmony, of the goodness of God's creation, of God's perfect government of man as His image and likeness. This Mind is infinite, it has no opposite, and it has no consciousness of evil or error. Therefore within this infinite Mind there is no sin, there is no disease, and there is no death.
Sin must be thought before it can be expressed in experience. In order to meet the temptation to sin, we must utilize the fact that since God, good, is the only Mind or consciousness, evil has no mind; it has no room to operate, no activity, and no expression. To know that evil has no mind is to strike at the very basis of its seeming existence. Our Leader tells us on page 339 of the textbook, "To get rid of sin through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelligence or power, pain or pleasure."
This method of destroying error is also effective in the case of disease. The human body is the expression of thought. The consciousness of the individual determines his experience of health or disease. When we come to know that there is just one Mind and that there is no disease in this Mind, we can glimpse the pure source of man's being, the diseaseless nature of man's life, the harmony of the one divine consciousness.
The fact that disease has no mind extends to the theory of disease, the diagnosis of disease, and the history of disease. There is no mind in these false beliefs, no substance or reality there. They have no authority or intelligence. Through the practice of Christian Science, we can employ "the exterminator of error" and deprive sickness of any expression in our experience.
Jesus demonstrated this way of healing. He came to do the will of God, and he cast out evil spirits, disease beliefs, disabilities, and sinful sense. He did this with the authority of spiritual understanding, with strict adherence to one God, one Mind. He was keenly conscious of the fact that there is no other Mind than God. He said (John 5:19), "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."
It is true that if one excludes from his consciousness any belief in accident with the thorough understanding that there is one Mind and that within this Mind there is perfect harmony and perfect government, he cannot experience an accident.
If God is the only Mind and God is Life, there is no death mind, or mortal mind. This fact will help deliver us from any belief in the reality or the inevitability of death. To say that death has no consciousness is axiomatic. It should be just as true that we do not dwell on beliefs of death or fear them. Jesus proved that to be constant in our worship of one God, who is Life, and to have no other Mind, we need never be conscious of death.
Paul has admonished us (Phil. 2:5), "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." And in another instance he advised us to fill our consciousness with whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. In these sayings he was emphasizing the effect of one's thought upon one's experience.
It is thoroughly good practice to be conscious of the allness of God, the oneness of Mind, and the pure goodness of that Mind. In reality there is no other consciousness. It is good practice to understand that error has no mind. We can put this fact into practice by understandingly affirming that there is no sinful mind, there is no disease mind, there is no death mind. God alone is Mind, and God is wholly good, harmonious, and eternal. Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 242): "There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality—to have no other consciousness of life—than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses."
