IS THERE A LINK BETWEEN WHO WE ARE AND HOW WELL WE FEEL— between what we understand of our identity and our health? Many people today recognize the unseverable connection between thought and body. Nevertheless, from a medical standpoint, the healing of some physical ill is still viewed strictly as matter being made better. From the standpoint of Christian Science, though, healing is mental awakening. Christian Science healing involves discovering the truth of our being—our God-created spiritual wholeness, our eternal status as expressions of the one I AM. The Discoverer of this Science, Mary Baker Eddy, experienced a transforming healing when she glimpsed what she described as "... Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence" (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, p. 24).
The term Science, with a lowercase s is understood to be systematized knowledge based on fundamental laws that are practical, utilitarian, and demonstrable. When used with an uppercase S in Science and Health, Science refers to the laws of God or the fundamental truths that sustain the health and harmony of all existence.
Being is synonymous with life or existence. Being means that which has reality or actuality, defined in a dictionary as the "complex of qualities that constitute each individual's essence, place, home, standing, destiny." When used with an uppercase B, the word Being stands for God, as in this statement: "Life is the everlasting I AM, the Being who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase" (Science and Health, p. 290).
