To outward appearances, Mary Baker Eddy was just another mortal walking around in her corner of the world. And in a way, she lived a normal life for someone who was propelled into the world’s limelight.
But in a wider, deeper way, she was vastly different from others. As she walked about, she saw things and therefore thought about things in ways that were monumentally different from the ways others were seeing and thinking about them. In fact, Mrs. Eddy was conscious of a creation that almost all of the rest of the world had no awareness even existed. This does not mean that she invented and lived in a fantasy world. Not remotely. It means that through the spiritual sense we all have but do not all use, she perceived the presence of the real spiritual world in all places where almost everyone else incontestably believes matter is present. Paul describes this spiritual sense when he writes, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (II Cor. 4:18).
Most readers of this magazine will know that Mrs. Eddy spent much of the first half of her nearly 90 years searching for a way to get well herself and help others be well. She was spiritually, intuitively sure that way must exist, if only she could find it, something like the lone prospector is humanly sure there is a gold vein for him, if only he could find it.
