I ONCE CAME ACROSS A PHYSICIST'S OBSERVATION that a material thing we see, which we believe to be matter, is actually an impression made upon thought by light, which we've unconsciously objectified. The physicist went on to explain that this is also true of the phenomena of all the material senses, and added that what we think we see, hear, feel, touch, or smell is not an object exterior to consciousness, but is an impression made on consciousness.
For example, when we look at a tree that has turned into autumn colors of yellow, orange, and deep red, and marvel at this radiant beauty, we may see the tree as an object and interpret it as transient—a joy to behold, but fleeting. But is beauty in that "object" called "a tree"? Or are we beholding a mental concept and calling it beautiful? As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And that saying rings true from the perspective of Christian Science. True beauty is something we are conscious of—it's a permanent, spiritual idea made and expressed by the divine Mind. Because this idea belongs to Spirit, beauty exists everywhere, for as the prophet Jeremiah heard God ask, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23:24).
In her major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy explained that "... matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous" (p. 277). Matter is a false impression made on the eye of the beholder—an erroneous assumption mentally entertained and objectified. And between an assumption and a spiritual idea, there is an unfathomable gulf.
