A dualistic sense of being is as old as thought and has been dramatized in the familiar tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The resolution of this age-old dichotomy can be found in Christian Science, which teaches very clearly that man is not an admixture of good and evil, Spirit and matter, immortality and mortality.
Spirit and matter do not and cannot mix. Which shall it be? We can choose. Sooner or later, we must. And only the choice of Spirit as the reality gives us a solid basis.
There are not two kinds of man. Essential for healing in Christian Science is the understanding that there is only one kind of man—the spiritual. Foggy mental pictures—sickness, lack, fear, lust, greed, conflict, inadequacy—do not make a mortal, material man real. In his or her true state, everyone is the pure image of Spirit. The understanding of this brings healing to suffering physical sense. It replaces lack with substance. Fear fades. A clear grasp of man as God made him— spiritual, not material—brings solid confidence. One's true identity is not a mingling of harmony and discord, purity and impurity. An awareness of the fictitious nature of any such mixture is necessary in working out specific problems in Christian Science.
