Article July 21, 1917 Issue

Experience

NINA SEYMOUR KEAY

The knowledge that all is Mind, and that matter is but a false picture in the so-called human mind, brings the question of experience into a very different light. Experience as we were accustomed to regard it meant a succession of emotions, actions, and events, governed, if at all, by some force or influence outside of our personal control or knowledge. In the light of Christian Science experience is a question of human consciousness solely, and since our consciousness means our thinking, it is governed largely by our own voluntary choice. Therefore, instead of regarding our experiences as influencing our thinking, we learn that primarily our thinking influences our experience in every detail.

It may be objected that we get in our experience events which we have not consciously shaped in thought, but this is explained by the fact that a considerable part of our thinking is mechanical and follows automatically and undetected the lines of habit or memory, or succumbs equally undetected to mental pictures of evil suggested by the experiences, words, or thoughts of others. We walk, eat, and do many such things which we know to be directly controlled by thought, and yet at the time we are not conscious of any specific thinking in connection with these acts. In the same way we accept and act upon countless habits of thought which produce woeful results, often to our great surprise. Christ Jesus gave a much needed warning when he said, "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch."

The inert, mechanical part of our thinking can only be corrected by attaining greater mental alertness and vigor; by doing enough real constructive thinking to keep our minds "so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them," as our Leader enjoins on page 210 of Miscellany. Once it is fully realized, however, that all existence is wholly mental, and that nothing can be experienced except mentally, it is obvious that by keeping control over our thoughts we must necessarily control our experiences; that is, that it is not possible to experience what we refuse to entertain in our consciousness. We may seem to be the helpless victims of injustice, ingratitude, or misfortune, and we may even assure ourselves and others that we do not believe in these wrong conditions; but the inexorable logic of Christian Science points out that if we were not believing in them they could not be there, since our consciousness is the only sphere of action they can have, and "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

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