“The notion that mind and matter commingle in the human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must eventually submit to the Science of Mind, which denies this notion. God is Mind, and God is infinite; hence all is Mind. On this statement rests the Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is divine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.”
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 492, lines 22-28
If there ever was a strong, clear-cut statement, that is it. There is no equivocation; there is no room for any compromise in regard to that. That must be the basic attitude. That theme the nurse must see in order really to do the most effective job. There is no sick matter; there is no well matter; there is no young matter; there is no old matter. There is no pink matter; there in no white matter; there is no healthy matter; there is no diseased matter. There is no good matter; there is no bad matter. We must see that matter doesn’t matter; and do it consistently.
Now most of you, as you sit here, have though of where you have come from – some from considerable distances. It seems to you that you’ve got onto roadways and airways and perhaps you’ve traveled many thousands of miles. I submit, you never went anywhere. When we know that there is no matter, we know that there is no space, because space is only the distance between material objects. And, if there are no material objects, there is no space. There’s no separation. There is a unity of thought. When we get some concept of this, we can understand how Jesus could move a whole boatload of men three and a half miles across the lake instantly; how he could walk through walls. There was no material impediment to his movement, because he recognized that there was no matter.
Now this is a very radical stand, because the whole world is saying that we live in matter; that we are dependent upon matter. It says that Spirit enter into a capsule of flesh; that it stays there for so many trips around the sun. We call it years. Then it leaves to go someplace else – heaven, hell, someplace. It says that body is a temporary dwelling place for Spirit. In reducing it to the ultimate you can see the ridiculousness of it. It would place God, Spirit, in a position of dependency. Omnipresent God, all-present God, in a position of dependency upon the whim and fancy of two mortals getting together; having sexual relations; having a baby born in order that there would be a house for Spirit to dwell in. If that isn’t the most ridiculous concept you could possibly imagine!
Man is spiritual. The first record of Creation, Genesis 1:27, is the only true record. The second account, Adam and Eve, the allegory for the tribesmen, really isn’t taken too seriously by anybody. But that third story of creation, Genesis 4:1, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord,” this biological story of creation is a false concept of birth that would keep us chained to a matter body as something. The only possible way we will ever be free of death is to understand that there is no birth – that there is no matter.
Now when you nurses are caring for bodies, as it would appear, there must be a realization that there is no matter in order to be free of that though of the Adam and Eve story of creation. In regard to being practical, it is going to come to you sometimes in these cases, now, you’ve got to use wisdom. How many times do you hear that from Christian Scientists? Of course, you have to use wisdom; there is no question about that. But wisdom cannot be exercised at the expense of radical Christian Science. Our mission is to heal, and there is no healing unless we are radical Christian Scientists. So, when these suggestions come to you that you must be practical, and maybe in this case now – such and such – before you make the mental concession, stop and think of what Mrs. Eddy says in The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany (357:22-25):
[Spirit is infinite; therefore Spirit is all. "There is no matter" is not only the axiom of true Christian Science, but it is the only basis upon which this Science can be demonstrated.]
There is no room for quibbling here. And, of course, the reason we have to be practical, that is radical, Christian Scientists is that being radical is the most practical thing, because Christian Science heals.
Now mind you, it is your state of mind we are talking about. I’m not saying that you are not going to take good physical care, but I am asking, “What is the state of mind?” I was so happy to see Mr. Haddock bring that out about the state of mind, because that is all-governing. You don’t have to worry about whether nurse are going to do the kind, loving, practical, wise thing, if their state of mind is right, that will follow logically. You don’t have to give specific instructions about smiling at the right time, about loving the patients, being understanding and caring, or of quieting their fears. When you understand the mythical nature of the whole sense testimony – when that is in your hearts – there will be no problem about the practical demonstration of Science.
In speaking about being practical, was it practical to go fishing when Caesar’s tax had to be paid? Was it practical to invite thousands of people to a meeting when you had only five loaves and two fishes? Was it practical to allow someone to lie dead for four days in the desert heat before trying to raise him? Was it practical, to personal sense, to turn down a kingdom to be crucified on the cross? With such acts of radical practicality, Jesus changed the lives of more people than anybody that has ever lived, and will continue to do so in the future. It is that kind of radical practicality that will enable you to change the lives of people. It means that you can bring your healing mission to untold thousands of people in the most practical way possible. We speak in the relative to be understood of men, but we think in the absolute to understand God, and our thinking is what we are talking about here.
We must think in the absolute. In speaking of being practical, I’ll never forget the comments of a practitioner I knew who was in her late 90’s and was still making house calls. She didn’t entertain any concept about age being a limitation at all. And I remember her telling that when she got ready to go to bed she’d say, “Well, I’ve got to go bathe my doll now and put it to bed.” That’s the way she regarded this whole thing about body. Early in her life she had been condemned by the medical people to be a helpless cripple the rest of her life and that she would never leave a wheel-chair. She had been told that she would never be able to read because of eye trouble. She didn’t accept these beliefs and she demonstrated an activity which was just beautiful, because she looked beyond matter. That is the crux of the whole thing.
Mrs. Eddy says, “Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul” (Science and Health, 269:14-16).
You don’t see a table; you are aware of a thought called table. You think you are leaning on it. It exists as a mental image – absolutely nothing else. This reinforced concrete building that we think we’re sitting in is entirely thought – that is all. If we begin to think this way, it isn’t such a big task to take the next step. To believe that this three-dollar-and-sixty-five-cents worth of chemicals that we call a “body” – 86% water, 3 ¼ pounds of gray matter in the cranial cavity – is us becomes ridiculous. I remember Mr. Seeley saying in one of his lectures that if you could squeeze all the space out between the electrons and protons in the atomic structure called the body, you would have a speck so tiny that you couldn’t see it on the point of a pin. That is the so-called solid stuff we are talking about?
Some weeks ago in the [San Francisco] Examiner newspaper they had an article by an atomic physicist in which he was openly stating that matter resolves itself into nothing but crystallized thought. There is no question about it, to the atomic physicist that’s all it amounts to. And that’s all that we’re saying when we ask, “Why should we stand aghast at nothingness?” (Science and Health, 563:7 only). That means that when you are changing a dressing, or when you are making out a Medicare report that requires you to give some kind of a diagnosis – in effect, some kind of a description about the so-called physical condition – don’t allow it for a single moment to become a sentence, a diagnosis in your thought. That’s all there is to it. When you start to make it out, recognize that this is nothing but an illusion. You’re complying with a regulation, but it is not reality, and don’t allow it to become a reality. Somehow, when we have to write things they tend to become pretty real in our thinking, and they’ll slip in an that particular area is something that I wanted to warn you specifically about. The question is how to make this appearance of matter into a no-thing and keep it a no-thing. What’s the process, what’s the best way of doing this? Mrs. Eddy says in the textbook, “Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of material sense” (Science and Health, 490:28-29). So, let us think about this for a moment. If we can once see the mythical nature of what appears to be matter, we’re never going to stand aghast at it again.
For example, when you walk down the street and you see a tree, a bird, or an automobile, you can think of a tree, bird, automobile as thought; they all exist as ideas. I find myself practicing this because of what Mrs. Eddy says in regard to the first step, “to resolve things into thoughts.” That is not so easy. The world is constantly holding before you the concept that material objects constitute reality. Mrs. Eddy’s method of using sleep and mesmerism to illustrate the nothingness of this concept is so wise.
Now let us take a dream for instance. In a dream, we see, we feel, we hear all that physical sense reports. Sometimes this is even more vivid than in a waking experience. And yet, we know that everything we beheld, everything we experienced was entirely in thought. Not one single aspect of a dream was ever anything but thought. We know this. When we awaken into what we call the “waking” experience, we say, “Oh, but this is real.” Now, it is just as mythical, just as much a dream, as that sleeping experience. And when we realize that we’re dealing with thought in the “waking” experience just as much as we are in the sleeping experience we’ll begin to understand the whole situation. As long as we believe we are dealing with matter, we are not in the ball game. We’ve got to resolve things into thoughts before we can begin to make the exchange. And the exchange only takes place after we have it in the area of thought. (“Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a flower, – that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn that the flower is a product of the so-called mind, a formation of thought rather than of matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see landscapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence.” Science and Health, 71:10-17). That is why the practice of seeing things as thoughts, recognizing them as thoughts, puts it in the area where you can say, “Well, big deal; we can handle that.” But, if you’ve got it as something where cell structure has to be changed, an organ has to be restored, all of a sudden you’ve got a different ball game. That is what the world is constantly holding before your thought. And only an understanding of the mythical nature of mortal existence enables you not to stand aghast. (“From dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor matter is the image or likeness of God, and that immortal Mind is not in matter.” Science and Health, 71:17-20).
Now let us look at the whole picture of mortal existence as hypnotism, and then we are going to realize that ultimately that is all we are ever dealing with (“You command the situation if you understand that mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being.” Science and Health, 403:14-16). It is no accident that Mrs. Eddy uses the words animal magnetism and hypnotism synonymously.
[As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind.
Science and Health, 103:18-19
In no instance is the effect of animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other than the effect of illusion.Science and Health, 101:29-31]
In our textbook, animal magnetism is referred to as hypnotism; this really explains what it is. It is often unconsciously induced.
[So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own diseased conditions. The great difference between voluntary and involuntary mesmerism is that voluntary mesmerism is induced consciously and should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is understood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect. The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In reality, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be healed only by the divine Mind.Science and Health, 403:1-13]
Most of us hold to the belief that to be hypnotized you’ve got to have somebody with black glassy eyes staring at you. Then with closer concentration on the part of the hypnotist you become aware of a pendulum or bright light or swirling circle or something, and thereby you seem to succumb to this symbolic control. Believe me, this is not true. Even in the act of what is called voluntary hypnotism today, not even a spoken word is necessary. The Russians are now influencing the thoughts of people thousands of miles away, and they prove it by electro-typographs connected by telephone wires. They are now using a great part of their military force in this area, because they have come to recognize that you don’t have to steady the gun if you can control the man whose finger is on its trigger. Now, there isn’t a single group of people in the world trained to handle this belief of mental manipulation except Christian Scientists. So, we have to discern the mental nature of things and the hypnotic effect.
By way of illustration, I’d like to tell you of the experience of a friend of mine, for I think you may find it helpful. He was a member of Fifth Church [of Christ, Scientist in San Francisco] and had a very good friend who was an expert hypnotist, and they use to talk metaphysics from time to time.
The hypnotist used to say to the [Christian] Scientist, “One of these days I’m going to hypnotize you, and then you’re going to understand what we’re talking about – the phenomena of this so-called power.” The [Christian] Scientist good-naturedly scoffed at this. Time went on and one night they went to dinner in the Persian room of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The [Christian] Scientist ordered lamb chops. Presently, the waitress served him and he looked down at his plate and said, “Just a minute, miss, you made a mistake in my order. I ordered lamb chops not watermelon.” And she asked, “What watermelon?” Then he replied, “This watermelon,” and he held up what he believed to be a big slab of red watermelon right there in front of him. She said, “Are you trying to put me on?” “No,” he said. “I’m talking about this. I know that I ordered lamb chops.” She replied, “Well, I served you lamb chops; that’s what you’ve got.” Then they got into quite an argument. Finally, he got a glimpse of his friend sitting across the table from him with a little smirk on his face. He stopped arguing with the waitress, looked right at him and said, “You finally did it, didn’t you?” That broke the spell. He looked back at his plate and there, where an instant before had appeared to be a big slab of watermelon, there were the lamb chops. Then rather shame-facedly, he begged pardon of the waitress and the two men when on with their meal.
The next day the [Christian] Scientist and his mother went to visit an invalid aunt who was suffering from a belief of cancer of the face. It had reached a stage when she could no longer go out in public, and so the family all took turns being with her. This was their turn, and my friend had already shared the experience about he watermelon with his mother before they went to be with the aunt. As they walked into the room where the aunt was, he caught a glimpse of his aunt’s face all covered with this growth. He turned to his mother and almost with a chuckle said, “Why, Auntie’s got watermelon all over her face.” You see, he saw so clearly it was absolutely no different from the episode of the watermelon the night before. It was hypnotism, illusion.
Now, let us look for a moment at what happened. Psychologists have come to recognize that the breaking of a hypnotic spell requires two steps. The first step is to recognize it as illusion. Isn’t that exactly what happened when the [Christian] Scientist turned to his friend, the hypnotist, and said, “You finally did it?” You see, at that instant, he had recognized that it was an illusion. Just so, we must recognize it as an illusion, even when we’re standing knee deep in it. Even though that watermelon still seemed to be there, he recognized it as an illusion. Now that’s what we must do. Even though it looked like a cancerous growth was all over his aunt’s face, he recognized it as an illusion when he turned to his mother and said, “Why, Auntie’s got watermelon all over her face.” That was the first step in both instances, recognizing the error as illusion. The second step that is required is to know what the fact is. That’s what the waitress had provided in the first instance, hadn’t she? She had said, “Those are lamb chops.” She had provided the fact right there, in that instance. The combination of those two facts broke the spell. In the situation with his aunt, when the [Christian] Scientist recognizes what the true body is, what the fact was, that she was spiritual, every bit spiritual – not one iota matter – it had to break the spell. There was no way it could be avoided – no way. It is as unavoidable as darkness disappearing when light is placed in its presence. The oldest and most enduring darkness you could possibly imagine in a cave that had been dark for ten million years will give way instantly to the light of a tiny little flashlight. A lie in the presence of the truth is absolutely lost. Our job is to stand in the seeming presence of the illusion declaring its illusory nature, claiming it to be a lie – a false mental image and nothing more.
We’ve got to see things as thoughts. Then we can make the exchange. The growth had to be seen as nothing but a false thought, a hypnotic thought, in order for the exchange of the objects o sense for the ideas of Soul to take place. When that occurs, there is no avoidance of healing. Really, that which was there all the time is being revealed. Humanly speaking the lamb chops were there all the time. That is all that was there. There was no watermelon at any time.
When mortal mind has spoken
And lifts its hydra head
We do not have to listen
For nothing has been said.
We never heal physical conditions. We just prove the nothingness of misconceptions that the individual is entertaining in consciousness. Mrs. Eddy says, “Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; ” (Miscellaneous Writings, 60:28-29). Realize that what appears to be a material object is only a misconception of a spiritual idea.
[But, say you, is a stone spiritual?
To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spiritual substance, "the substance of things hoped for." Mortals can know a stone as substance, only by first admitting that it is substantial. Take away the mortal sense of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof. Matter can neither see, hear, feel, taste, nor smell; having no sensation of its own. Perception by the five personal senses is mental, and dependent on the beliefs that mortals entertain.
Miscellaneous Writings, 27:27-6]
Now a stone looks like an object; it feels like it; it is solid. It seems useful, doesn’t it? This is a thought. That is the first step – to see it as though, a material thought. Now that is the first step in the exchange. Where did that thought have its origin? We know there is only one Mind, that Mind is the source of all. There is no other Mind. Then, that means that the thought had to have its origin in the divine Mind. To spiritual sense, a fountain pen is a spiritual idea invisible to the material senses, but to the material sense this idea appears as what we call a fountain pen.
[Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material.Science and Health, 507:24-25, 30-31]
“All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea” (Science and Health, 151:26-27). Some of the qualities of the divine idea came through the distorting lens of material sense. Strength, Balance, symmetry, grace, utility, enough qualities that we say it is a useful instrument. But imagine what the real is like! Isn’t it exciting to think that we will come to see it as it is, as our thought is uplifted? We look at a sunset and we think, “Isn’t it magnificent?” But imagine the beauty of the spiritual idea when it is beheld in its reality, when we can see it from the standpoint of spiritual sense completely. Mrs. Eddy says that these ideas have form, color, and outline.
[From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and operations of mortal mind,--that is, ignorant of itself,--this so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the existence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is an attempted infringement on infinity.Science and Health, 512:21-3]
This gives us some idea of what Mrs. Eddy means when she says, “I love your promise.”
[Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are nothing and exist only in imagination?
Nothing and something are words which need correct definition. They either mean formations of indefinite and vague human opinions, or scientific classifications of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is something to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief, of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and earth, the harmony of body and Mind.
Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the grandeur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmosphere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal environment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue temporal sky.
To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature God's creation, which is unjust to human sense and to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail conception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind."Miscellaneous Writings, 86:9-14 next page]
The human concept does hold such a beautiful promise of what is real, because it is the human concept of the divine idea.
Now, I should like to share with you another thought about hypnotism. I can think of many things to say about it, but this one thought I wish to share with you, because of continuity of true thought. This ideas came from Laura Sargent, and I think it explains something of what is demanded of us in our work.
During Mrs. Eddy’s time, one of her students, anxious to know more about the handling of animal magnetism booked passage for India to learn more about defending oneself against hypnotism or mesmerism. He took his things aboard ship to his room; then he went up on the deck. As he was standing on the deck watching the stevedores load the ship, there were great stacks of boxes sitting all over the docks in big orderly piles. Everyone was happily going about his business. Among the passenger, he met a Hindu and they fell to talking. Presently, he asked the Hindu, “Do you believe in mesmerism?” It was a beautiful sunny day, but all of a sudden the most terrible storm came in from the Atlantic; great waves smashed into the boat and threw it like a toy against the wharf. The violent wind knocked the big piles of crates around, knocked some of the stevedores into the water, great waves piled up under the peers, tore the roof off of some of the buildings. Everybody had to hold on for dear life to the railing of the ship to keep from being thrown over-board. It was a frightening experience, just the most terrible forces. And this went on for some time. Then just as quickly it stopped – absolutely stopped. And when the fellow looked toward the dock, there were the stevedores going on about their business, all the crates standing there in perfect order, no roofs were torn off, the water was just as calm as a lake, nothing violent going on. Then the Hindu turned to him and said, “I’ve just answered your question.”
[The necromancy of yesterday foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypnotism of to-day.Science and Health, 322:15-17]
The [Christian] Scientist continued on his journey. Arriving in India, he kept his appointment with the adept that was to teach him about animal magnetism. He was shown into his quarters. They were very sparsely furnished – just a table and a chair – and then he was left alone. Presently, the door opened and a man came in carrying a magnificent Indian vase. He’d never seen anything so beautiful. The man walked around in front of him and suddenly lifted the vase above his head and slammed it onto the floor with all of his might. It broke into a thousand pieces, this beautiful vase. It was kind of a startling experience, to say the least, but the [Christian] Scientist was a bit prepared for this because of his previous experience on the ship. He recalled what the Hindu had told him, that the only defense against mesmerism is to hold to a fact, no matter how simple it is – hold to a fact. He remembered this, and he did it right there. The only fact that cam to him at the moment was two and two are four. He held to this fact, and to his amazement, the vase and all its pieces disappeared from view – absolutely disappeared, and he was alone in the room. So, he sat back kind of proud of himself, of what he had been able accomplish. Then he allowed his thought to drift away, and when he did, instantly the pieces were back – the whole mess all over the floor. Then he went back to that fact again; the pieces disappeared again. After a bit, he let his thought wander and back the pieces came again. In and out, in and out, until finally he saw that he had to maintain the fact. This he did, and with that the pieces of vase disappeared permanently.
[Coming and going belong to mortal consciousness. God is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”Unity of Good, 61:2-4]
Soon the door opened. The mesmerist came in, and he said, “You never need to fear mesmerism again. Now you know the secret of dealing with it.”
Mrs. Sargent told her students this in order to illustrate the necessity of continuity in our work. It is not enough to know the nothingness of error and then let yourself drift back into it again. You can’t talk to a patient, change a dressing, help him with something, write it down into your report, and then get back into it again – even remotely. Continuity of thought must be maintained, or the illusion will slip back. Never lose sight of the fact that you’re dealing with hypnotism. You’re dealing with illusion.
In Sunday School, we teach the basic treatment of denial and affirmation. That’s what we do. We are breaking the erroneous mental state. Very seldom do I allow the word “healing” in my thinking, because it is hard for me to keep the thought of healing separate from the process of a scab gradually forming. But if I think of “revealing,” there is no problem. I am seeing what is here already. I’m not having to change anything; it’s already here in actuality.
The ten lepers were healed not because they stood in the presence of Jesus, but because they stood in the presence of what he knew. Let your patient stand in the presence of what you know. When you are tempted to believe what the material senses are telling you, remember the experience of the practitioner. When he came face to face with the disease, he said, “Father, you are here, what do you see?” Just think this. It is helpful, because when we see it the way God is seeing it, the dreadfulness of the appearance – the helplessness, the hopelessness, the world belief of incurability, all of this is utterly washed away.