When we are healed through Christian Science treatment, we may find that the effects extend into the past. That is, our sense of having been susceptible to illness is diminished and we gain a vibrant conviction that we have always been free. Thus the operation of the Christ, Truth, on consciousness not only heals our bodies but helps free us from the belief in linear time as substantial or valid. And our sense of present existence is enhanced and expanded by the recognition that divine good is ever present.
As we learn that God is the source of all being and that He originates only good, we become aware that everything we recognize as useful and beautiful in our lives is really a spiritual idea; and therefore it can never alter or decompose. But substance is not in the thing perceived, nor does it "occur" as matter, leave an impression in a period of duration called "time," and then disappear. The substance of all that is real is God, infinite Mind, and Mind maintains man and universe as the constant expression of His infinite nature. Mind conceives all, and all remains in Mind.
While the physical senses are not capable of seeing spiritual substance, an understanding of true substance awakens us to see what it is that lends true permanence and constancy to our most cherished experiences. As Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own identity."Science and Health, p. 261 .
