Man is actually a spiritual idea, an individualized expression of the one divine consciousness. Therefore every lie of mortal mind, whether it appears as a sick or sinful mortal, is actually a lie about consciousness, about what man knows. What appears as a sick mortal is a manifestation of the belief that man has a separate mind from the one Mind, God; that he has lapsed from the consciousness of his God-given wholeness and believes he is sick. Sin also stems from the belief that man has a private mind apart from God; that he has broken away from divine Principle.
Some questions we may need to ask ourselves, then, are: What does man know? What is the source, or Father, of man's consciousness? The answers are found in the Bible and in Mrs. Eddy's writings. There is one infinite Mind, and man's consciousness is the emanation, the very expression, of the divine Mind. Man knows only good.
As long as we identify sin or sickness with a person, we will be working from the wrong standpoint. We won't realize that the believer is not man but a false belief. Consequently we may think we need to change a person or persuade someone to change. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "A false belief is both the tempter and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the disease and its cause." Science and Health, p. 393; Knowing this, we rebuke the belief of sickness or sin, not persons. Jesus gave us an example in the case of the boy he healed of an evil spirit. He said, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him." Mark 9:25; When the belief was destroyed and the boy healed, there was no believer. The belief had been all there was to the believer.
