The five senses are designated, for the most part, as material and believed to be so. This reasoning has its roots in old Adam, the theory of intelligent matter and of a finite, material sense of God. Through progressive apprehension of the nature of God, Spirit, and the consequent spiritual nature of the real senses, we learn the actual source of sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell.
The revelation of the truth of spiritual sense is the outcome of our growing acquaintance with Spirit, what it is, where it is, and what it includes. This knowledge comes to us individually in the form of an answer to wholehearted prayer; it stems from profound and purposeful scriptural research, which, when pursued in the light of Christian Science, takes on new meaning. The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, describes and implies a multiplicity of spiritual attributes. These lead us to an understanding of the senses of Spirit, God.
Take, for example, touch. What is touch? Is it contact between a physical sense and physical objects or bodies? Is it feeling with the fingers, touching things hot or cold, hard or soft, smooth or rough? And is touch really physical, or is it mental? In other words, is it matter that feels or is unfeeling, sensitive or insensitive? Or is it mortal mind that claims to feel, to touch or be touched?
