"Addictive behavior has invaded every aspect of American life today," ^{"The Addictive Personality: Common Traits Are Found," The New York Times, January 18, 1983 .} reports The New York Times, quoting Cornell University Professor Lawrence J. Hatterer. Gambling, overeating, preoccupation with weight or sex; obsessive indulgence in chocolates or TV watching, or even computer games; compulsive use of tobacco, drugs, alcohol—modern-day addictions take various forms in many countries.

Over the years, however, lots of people have proved in Christian Science that permanent freedom from addiction can be won—won through understanding man's pure individuality as the likeness of God.

Man's genuine nature is not vulnerable to addiction. Man is, in truth, the expression of the infinite Soul, or Spirit, called God. Therefore he is not a physical mortal; contrary to the testimony of the physical senses, he is the conscious spiritual idea of creative Mind.

Learning more of what this implies for the individual, we come to see that the real man is already satisfied as the beloved image of Spirit. Whatever would make one a slave to compulsive urges is contrary to man's real status and individuality, hence unreal and without power.

Here is the simple fact in Science: Man cannot be subject to any material craving, because he already is complete and the beneficiary of infinite good. This is the truth of our real individuality; and because this is so, it is demonstrable when understood in Science.

This glorious truth finds expression in the writings of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy. For example, she tells us: "While material man and the physical senses receive no spiritual idea, and feel no sensation of divine Love, spiritual man and his spiritual senses are drinking in the nature and essence of the individual infinite. A sinful sense is incompetent to understand the realities of being,—that Life is God, and that man is in His image and likeness. A sinner can take no cognizance of the noumenon or the phenomena of Spirit; but leaving sin, sense rises to the fulness of the stature of man in Christ." ^{No and Yes, p. 19.}

The great need is to look deeper than the earthly view of man as a biological organism. Through our awakened and cultivated spiritual sense we see our real identity as revealed by the Science of Christ, Truth. Then we find release from the enslaving weaknesses of supposed material personality, and our higher individuality comes to light.

It is helpful to be specific in working with the above truths in prayer. Truth reverses the imprisoning beliefs of the mortal senses. As Christ Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." ^{John 8:31, 32.}

God is infinite Mind, infinite intelligence—the only Mind, the Mind of man. Consequently, the truth is that our real consciousness is not a product of brain action; our true intelligence is not the outcome of brain chemicals or cellular mechanisms. Our real cognition and feeling do not inhere in a physical nervous system but are found in our God-given spiritual senses.

Study the word "feel" and its derivatives in Mrs. Eddy's writings, using the Concordances, and you find that through the spiritual senses, the senses of Soul manifested in man, we can feel and know God's government of man. We can feel the divine energy of Spirit, the alterative effect of Truth, the ineffable peace and presence of divine Love. ^{See Rudimental Divine Science 10:5-14; Science and Health 249:6-11; 223:32-224:3; 371:30-32; 264:24-27.} This is true feeling. Thus our kindled spiritual sense counteracts the claims of the mortal senses.

Science shows that all cause and effect belong to Mind. All the powers of intelligence are exercised by Mind. Hence our true individuality is not at the mercy of supposed interaction of material substances or molecular formations. The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, tells us, "Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being." ^{Science and Health, p. 264.}

The fact in Science is that no subtle interplay of social, psychological, and physiological factors can operate to cause us anxiety or stress or the acute depression said to lead, in some instances, to addictive practices. In truth, man is subordinate to deific Mind only, governed by the beneficent forces of divine Principle, sustained and blessed by the unfailing ministrations of illimitable Love. The textbook assures us, "The spiritual man's consciousness and individuality are reflections of God." ^{Ibid., p. 336.} Science repudiates the mortal sense of a corporeal selfhood apart from God, and frees us from the binding restrictions of this illusion.

One finds this liberation communicated in many ways in the Scriptures. Speaking of "the Spirit of the Lord God," so fully embodied in the Christ, Isaiah portrays the work of this holy influence as bringing "the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." ^{Isa. 61:1, 3.} Mental depression is not our true birthright or condition. The psalms picture the infinite God, Love, as the wellspring of life and of joy: "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." ^{Ps. 16:11.}

In Christian Science all our prayerful work is done from the standpoint of man's unbroken unity with God. It follows that no unresolved internal conflicts can exist in our real consciousness and being because there are none in Mind. We gain surcease from mortal battles by knowing man's conscious oneness with God as Mind's reflection. Our true nature does not include any psychological problems—deep-seated, underlying, or otherwise. In the man of God's creating there are no self-destructive traits below (or at) the level of conscious thought, no raging forces of evil. Man's genuine consciousness expresses the purity and innocence, the goodness and harmony, of Love.

These truths of our real individuality are demonstrable in our present experience, insofar as they are understood. Pointing the pathway of liberation from addiction and other enslaving elements of the carnal mind, Mrs. Eddy writes, "A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 354.} Through reliance on Love's all-power, we can walk this pathway of progress daily—and so prove man's God-given dominion and freedom from addiction.

DeWITT JOHN