Whatever may be discordant in our experience has a mental basis. This is because thought is objectified in experience. Whatever discord we're facing is essentially a form of mesmerism. Not necessarily the kind of mesmerism that one observes when a piper spellbinds a cobra, but rather the mesmerism that results from being so preoccupied with matter and its complaints that God, Spirit, seems far away or hidden.
The mesmerist knows that if he were to suggest to a volunteer that there was water on the table and that it would quench the volunteer's thirst, the person would drink it, and it would seem to quench his thirst, even if there was nothing in the glass but air. But anyone else in the audience would understand what was really going on.
The Christianly scientific practitioner knows that the patient needs to be awakened from a false sense—a deception of thought—no matter what its physical form. The practitioner also knows that to awaken the patient he must spiritually understand what is really going on—the truth of being, the reality of Spirit, God, and His perfect spiritual creation, man. And he knows that once the patient is awake to the facts of man's being, the patient is healed.
How does the practitioner spiritually understand what is really going on? By following the teachings of Christ Jesus, who said, "Take heed that ye be not deceived." Luke 21:8 This could be considered the practitioner's job description.
The practitioner turns away from the false sense of life in matter to God, Spirit. In the depths of prayer he keeps thought on the reality of God and His creation. He excludes matter and its supposed existence from thought. He confidently affirms the allness of God's presence and power. This is how the practitioner spiritually understands what is, in fact, going on.
Once the practitioner gains a clear view of God's allness and of man's perfection and inseparability from Him, this spiritual view, or understanding, serves to correct the false belief that discord of any kind is an actual condition. This realization, inspired by the one Mind, by Truth itself, carries with it the power of God. And it's this power that awakens the patient to see that what is actually going on is wholly spiritual and good. Thus practitioner and patient are undeceived by mortality and its commotions. Healing naturally follows, because thought changed for the better results in experience changed for the better.
Taking heed that we're not deceived requires spiritual alertness and prayer. It requires the spiritual understanding that not only knows God and His goodness but is alert to the machinations of mesmerism and their erroneous effects. This is necessary, because when the practitioner is undeceived, he can prayerfully help another awaken from a false belief that life is in and of matter—whether its form is disease or sin, conflict or lack. Through prayer, communion with God, the practitioner is able to demonstrate man's perfection.
This perfection isn't something that the practitioner has to create. God did that. The practitioner has simply to see spiritually the facts of man's being. Doing this dispels the false, mental sense of inharmony. The result is physical healing.
The supposed realm where all discord originates is mortal mind. Mortal mind is the antipode of the one infinite, divine Mind, God. Its so-called substance is matter rather than Spirit. So when the practitioner prays to awaken the patient to a deeper understanding of God and of man's relation to Him, he's praying to awaken thought from the false sense of substance in matter to the true, spiritual sense of existence as solely in and of God, good.
Who's the believer in sin and disease? Is it man? "The believer and belief are one and are mortal," Science and Health, p. 487 states Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. Mortal mind is the believer. Mortal mind is the instrument, if you will, of deception or mesmerism. But mortal mind isn't real Mind. It's not a genuine power. At most, it's a supposition, without authority or actual existence. It is, in fact, nothing. And to the spiritually alert that's exactly what the destructive actions of mesmerism are. Nothing.
It's important to remember that it's mortal mind that is the believer. The believer in matter and evil is never man, God's beloved creation. The real man is never the instrument of deception or mesmerism. The real man, God's idea, is never involved in a false belief, never involved in mortal dreams. He forever remains untouched by mortality.
The believer in matter and evil is never
man, God's beloved creation. The
real man is never the instrument of
deception or mesmerism.
The dreams and deceptions of mortality are written in the tabloids of false belief in matter. They report the nothingness of the antics of mesmerism. Thus we can conclude rightfully, as Mrs. Eddy concluded in a poem that appears before the Preface of her book Miscellaneous Writings, "There's nothing here to trust." Mis., epigraph page
There's nothing here—in matter—to trust, because matter isn't true substance or intelligence. God, Spirit, is the actual substance and source of all being. He's the only Mind and power. Mortal experience is an illusion, a false mental sense; it's not the actuality of man's being. Disease, sin, death, are specters of mortal thought, of material sense. They are part and parcel of the false belief in an existence apart from God.
Science and Health states: "Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream. Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable. Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or validity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes. Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears." Science and Health, pp. 490-491
It doesn't matter what the specter is that may be confronting us, whether it's sin, disease, hereditary difficulties, relationship problems, lack. These are false beliefs because they do not originate in divine Mind. And because they do not originate in divine Mind, God, they can be destroyed by awakening spiritually to man's true being, created by God, undeceived by mortality.
