When an individual begins to understand Christian Science, he may seem to be going through a grand transformation. Perhaps a healing has convinced him that matter is not as substantial as he thought it was; that God, Spirit, is really All; and that the term man does not mean a multitude of material personalities. In a sense he is bearing witness to what John recorded in Revelation: "The former things are passed away. . . . Behold, I make all things new." Rev. 21:4, 5;
However, most individuals have such a heavy personal investment in finite thought that one burst of inspiration, and the healing that accompanies it, is not always sufficient to bring about an exchange of the finite for the infinite. Instead, the individual adjusts his thought to accommodate the new ideas, while giving up as little as possible of the old.
A sign of this is when one thinks of the Christian Science practice as a technique for using the infinite idea to improve the finite, considering metaphysical practice in terms of what works and what does not work, even measuring spiritual understanding of spiritual reality by the evidence seen through the material senses. The result of such thinking is that one's practice becomes less and less effective.
