ONE NIGHT AFTER DINNER AT OUR HOME, a family friend, who is an illusionist, performed some of the tricks he uses when he entertains at parties and events. Before our other guests arrived, he let us in on the secret of how he accomplished one of the illusions. As our friends watched the trick, my family and I were amazed, not at the trick, but at how transparent it was to us since we'd seen how it was done. We relied on our understanding instead of our eyes to tell us what was actually happening.
Like magic tricks, the material senses are deceptive. You might say they tell us lies about what is really going on. Every day we make adjustments about what we see by filtering in what we understand to be true. For instance, we know that the sun doesn't sink into the ocean at sunset and that railroad tracks don't actually merge together in the distance.
Mary Baker Eddy, in her writings on spiritual healing, referred to sickness as illusion. She explained that sickness is a product of the mistaken material senses—mortal mind—and that through spiritual sense we can understand that the divine Mind, God, can destroy disease. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures makes this clear statement about God as Truth "... omnipotent Truth certainly does destroy error" (p. 353). As a follower of Jesus, Mrs. Eddy equated all that is good with God. And she equated all that is evil or erroneous—and that includes sickness—with the "liar" that Jesus referred to when he rebuked the material-mindedness of those who denied his sonship with God (see John 8:44).
