Wouldn't you be startled if, when you sat down on a chair, you thought you heard it say, "Ouch, you're hurting me"? You know the chair can't feel pain. And you know it doesn't talk! So you would doubtless dismiss the illusion as ridiculous.
But how about the suggestion of pain in your body? You can reject it in much the same way. Mrs. Eddy assures us in Science and Health that "matter has no sensation of its own, and the human mind is all that can produce pain."Science and Health, p. 166; She not only denies the belief of sensation in matter but also identifies the source of the deception—mortal mind, the mistaken supposition of a mind in matter. This supposition is what appears to produce pain—an aspect of the mistaken belief that there is intelligence in matter. Judgments based on this assumption spring from illusion, not actual cause, and consequently deal only with effects.
Real cause and effect are not material. God, Spirit, is the infinitely good activating cause, and spiritual man and the universe are the harmoniously active effect. Christ Jesus was able to correct erroneous effects, because he understood this true spiritual causation and its counterfeit. He said, "No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house."Mark 3:27; Mrs. Eddy elucidates this statement: "Mortal mind is 'the strong man,' which must be held in subjection before its influence upon health and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we can despoil 'the strong man' of his goods,—namely, of sin and disease."Science and Health, p. 400;
