Editorial August 22, 1953 Issue

A MENTAL STATE

Helen Wood Bauman

Christian Science reduces all disease to a mental state, and this is one of its distinguishing and most important characteristics. Mary Baker Eddy, who healed every type of disease and explained her method thoroughly in her writings, says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 343), "Too soon we cannot turn from disease in the body to find disease in the mortal mind, and its cure, in working for God." She continues, "Thought must be made better, and human life more fruitful, for the divine energy to move it onward and upward."

To rid oneself of disease, then, one must improve his thought condition. His human life must be made fruitful in self-forgetful service to God and mankind. The reflected energies of divine Love must wipe out the seeming mesmeric mental energies that produce the pictures of disease and deformity. When God is understood and demonstrated as the Mind of man, false consciousness is put off and the real consciousness that cannot know evil or disease is unveiled intact and harmonious. Disease disappears because the false state of mind that produced it is proved nonexistent and no part of man.

Christ Jesus used no material means in restoring the health of those who came to him for healing, and his words often showed that his efforts were directed toward changing the patient's state of mind. He encouraged people to give up fear or to part with sin. He sometimes attributed their healing to an increase in faith, thereby implying that lack of faith in God involves disease. On one occasion he said (Mark 5:36), "Only believe." He showed that a wholesome state of thought is externalized in a healthy body.

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