Through my experience in the public practice of Christian Science, I've learned some fundamentals that I believe are indispensable for Christian Science treatment. For one thing, it's very important to establish the facts of spiritual reality right at the outset of treatment. Not just repeat the right words, but establish clearly in thought that man is wholly spiritual and not material. This calls for turning from fleshly appearances and contemplating instead what is true of man's identity as God's likeness. And what's true is that man reflects the limitless good that characterizes God's nature.
In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, explains, "The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere." Science and Health, p. 516. If we believe that the condition of the physical body constitutes the actual state of a patient's health, our work will be protracted and even ineffective. Science and Health tells us, "A false sense of life, substance, and mind hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration." Ibid., pp. 325-326.
To my sense, when we give treatment in Christian Science, our starting point must be the scientific fact that man is spiritual, whole, and perfect now. Man is God's, Spirit's, reflection, and therefore can include only that which expresses God's own being. If it isn't in God, it can't be in His reflection. When you're convinced of this, only then do you have a solid basis for proving that man is not material and can never be a medium for disease or any other error.
