To say "I seem to be sick" sounds closer to the truth than "I am sick." And so sometimes Christian Scientists use this word "seem" because it indicates somewhat that sickness is an illusion, not a reality. But no matter how we state the problem in our necessary communication with others, healing requires radical disagreement with sense testimony. To believe that inharmony of any sort "seems" to be present is a mistake, and we need to privately disagree with this belief, even if necessity demands that we publicly voice it. A student of Christian Science cannot feel comfortable making such a statement of ill health unless he reverses it mentally and affirms the spiritual fact that testifies to reality.
Our use of terms that concede attention to false appearances requires us to keep in mind that a "seeming" condition is not a true one. In reality man is spiritual, the image of perfect Love. He doesn't really appear to be anything but what God has created—a divine idea. The illusion of mortal man, seeming to live and prosper or to be ill and inharmonious, is not real. In Science man is never less than spiritual and perfect and eternal. Harmony is the only true condition he can express. Material sense cannot describe a condition of infinite Spirit and its unlimited manifestation. Mrs. Eddy declares, "The Science of Mind-healing shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man." Science and Health, p. 120;
To keep our thought attuned to the Christ, the true idea of God, we need to maintain disbelief in appearances. Words, which are only symbols, should not get in our way as we do this. Sense testimony is untrue, and so a "seeming" condition is a lie. We cannot be too vigilant in rejecting the lie. The words we use, if reference to the condition is necessary, should not clothe it with any degree of legitimacy. Whether the illusion of sense be healthy or sick matter, it is still unreal. What it seems to be is not the truth.
