From time to time the effort has been made to connect the teachings of Christian Science with spiritualism. A thoughtful study of the teachings of Christian Science leads us to the logical conclusion that spiritualism and its manifestations have no scientific foundation. Based on reason and pure spiritual inspiration, Christian Science contains no element of mysticism or the supernatural. Mary Baker Eddy recognized this attempt to misrepresent her discovery, and in her writings she has much to say which completely distinguishes Christian Science from any of the entertained beliefs of spiritualism and of ancient or modern necromancy, which according to dictionary definition implies the study or art of communication with the spirits of the dead.
Necromancy is an ancient practice in human history. In both the Old and the New Testament are numerous references to spiritualism, notably the account of King Saul's visit to the witch of Endor, a woman whom we today would call a medium or clairvoyant. It may be noted that the Scriptures specifically warned the children of Israel against the practice of spiritualism. The prophet Isaiah wrote (8:19, 20): "When they shall say unto you. Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." This ancient practice, however, has never ceased. Many modern newspapers carry the advertisements of spiritualists, mediums, and clairvoyants, an indication that these beliefs still command interest and are widely accepted.
Christian Science rejects spiritualistic concepts. People generally have been educated to believe that the human being has a soul or spirit and that this soul or spirit inhabits a mortal body, which it leaves at death. Exposing this fallacy, Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 478): "What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you within mortality? Even according to the teachings of natural science, man has never beheld Spirit or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a certain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul in the body?"
Christian Science reveals that man is not a soul in a matter body, but is the incorporeal reflection, or unfoldment, of Soul, the image of Spirit, God. It declares that man in his true and only being has always existed as idea, spiritual and perfect, and that he was never born in matter and therefore cannot die out of matter. Discerning the true selfhood of man, the Apostle Paul wrote (Rom. 8:9, 10): "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness."
In a most interesting way Mrs. Eddy shows how the belief in spiritualism evolves it own phenomena. She declares that mortals see what they believe as well as believe what they see. For this reason, mortal thought seems to fulfill its own erroneous beliefs and conditions. On page 80 of Science and Health we read. "It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know that it is mind-power which moves both table and hand." And farther on we read: "It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter. These movements arise from the volition of human belief, but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and electricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly, hence that matter is intelligent."
Christian Science teaches us not only to see intelligently the unreal basis of spiritualism, but also, due to the more or less widely accepted belief in its phenomena, to recognize that it claims to operate as so-called law. Through spiritually scientific understanding we are therefore enabled to set aside its claim of law and any of its beliefs in connection with our lives and our affairs. The belief in spirits many is identical with the belief of minds many; whereas Christian Science demonstrates that there is just one Mind, infinite and all-inclusive, and that all men have, or reflect, that Mind, and that this divine fact is the basis of universal harmony. This truth naturally and completely nullifies the superstitious belief in evil spirits entertained by many people even today.
In numerous instances we find the writers of the New Testament referring to this irrational belief in evil spirits and to the power of the Christ to cast them out, and thus prove their unreality. Speaking of the Master's power to do this, Matthew writes (8:16), "When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick."
Mortal belief claims that the human being with his so-called body is a medium for both good and evil, but Christian Science demonstrates that man's individuality, being spiritual and divinely mental, does not exist in the realm of spiritualistic belief and cannot be the medium for the expression of evil, disease, or sin. On page 84 of the textbook Mrs. Eddy writes, "When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit." And she adds: "To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind-science by which we discern man's nature and existence. This true conception of being destroys the belief of spiritualism at its very inception, for without the concession of material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no basis upon which to build."
Mediumship has no scientific basis, for it is a belief that man's individuality can be invaded, that something can come between God and man. It is a denial of oneness, the oneness or inseparability of Soul and its idea.
Soul, being infinite and all-encompassing, is the Soul of man individually and practically; therefore in Science, Soul is far more the Soul of man than when it was supposed to dwell in the belief of a material body, for man is the very expression of Soul's being. This is the only being expressed by man. He does not dwell in the realm of spirits or material personality. As these divine facts are comprehended, as man is recognized in his spiritual reality, complete freedom and immunity from the superstition of spiritualism are demonstrated.
