Article May 31, 1919 Issue

The disposition of human nature to look on the dark side...

Peter V. Ross

San Jose (Cal.) Mercury-Herald

The disposition of human nature to look on the dark side of things and argue for the supposed power of evil, whether in the form of pain, sickness, or what not, is proverbial. And so long as the human mind accepts pain as a part of reality, it will seem to be so, in accordance with Shakespeare's dictum, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so;" whereas pain will begin to lose its hold as a reality and disappear from consciousness as the human mind awakes to the simple truth that a universe governed by Principle, must be a universe wherein harmony reigns to the exclusion of discord of any kind.

Looking back over our life experiences we find that painful incidents have almost become obliterated from memory, while pleasant scenes stand out in sharp relief. Does not this hint at the unreality of pain? Those who suffer at one moment find themselves free the next. Does not this prove pain to be unreal? If it were real, then it could not be healed, destroyed, or escaped from. All hope of ultimate happiness is predicated upon the unreality of pain. This state of happiness or bliss, to which all aspire and which is called heaven, is not some favored locality or some unknown realm in the great hereafter, but simply a state of consciousness which knows only harmony. No one denies that pain seems real to the human senses, yet no one denies that these senses are most unreliable witnesses. The facts of being are realized, not by reliance on sense testimony, but by listening to reason and revelation regardless of human appearances.

Revelation in the case of John disclosed, even in this world, a state of existence from which pain was eliminated. Every one at times gets glimpses of this true state of being and of his real selfhood, wherein harmony reigns supreme. Reason declares that a creator who is good and all-powerful would not create pain nor permit it to exist; therefore pain must be nothing more than a belief or illusion entertained by the human mind. The encouraging part of it all is that the person who accepts and holds to this idea finds himself proving its validity; for his fear of pain and his liability to it become less and less as his understanding develops.

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