Editorial March 12, 1921 Issue

Spiritual Sense

Gustavus S. Paine

Any belief that the five physical senses are differentiated one from another by supposed human limits to their functions is a concept of hypothetical mortal mind and not the fact of being. Even psychologists and other investigators on a physical basis are concluding that each of these senses is closely related to the rest, and that they all merge into a unity of perception. A man who is considered deaf, for instance, may wonder whether he hears or feels the vibration of especially loud noises. Smell and taste, likewise, are so connected as sometimes to be indistinguishable. Other illustrations could be taken from the whole gamut of mortal sense testimony. Nowadays it is frequently argued, moreover, that there are many more than the so-called five senses. Some college textbooks deal with such others as a sense of motion and a sense of heat and cold, and maintain that these should be classified as distinct divisions. Then again, examination of the concepts that are supposed to constitute heat, light, sound, and so on, reveals that there must be other concepts which have been thus far believed to be beyond the perception of a man's classified senses. This all goes to show the interrelation of the mortal senses from an ordinary human standpoint.

Christian Science shows much more clearly that true, spiritual sense is unified and unlimited. On page 209 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy we read, "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God." There is no halfway position between the unlimited and the limited. Either spiritual sense is unlimited activity comprehending Principle or it is forever finite. Finite sense as the product of infinite Mind is impossible. Hence the true sense, which the mortal senses would counterfeit, is one boundless understanding of Truth. The seeming plurality of the human senses counterfeits the limitlessness of the "conscious, constant capacity" which is the true idea. What the human mind calls seeing, hearing, and so on, are just that mind's limited interpretations of the infinite idea, which is the present reality even while human belief denies it. By understanding this true idea as one and infinite, a man proves that it is interpreted to him in just the way that is requisite, whether he calls it sight or hearing or anything else. The true interpretation of sight or hearing, however, must be infinitely broad.

Why, indeed, should one hear a sound instead of seeing it? It is merely a belief of mortal mind that ears, and not eyes, are arranged for the perception of sounds. If mortal mind had supposed some other way more effectual, it would be so. By rejecting mortal mind as a creator, and accepting the one true Mind as producing spiritual perception, spiritual understanding, one finds the limits of the human senses giving way and proves for himself better hearing, keener vision, and more alert discernment of the truth in every way. From a human standpoint, any one of the senses is often supposed to enlarge its activity in compensation for another that seems defective. This, however, is only a makeshift imitation of the effective replacement of false limitations by spiritual sense. Each one is entitled to demonstrate for himself the satisfying reality of hearing, seeing, and all perception as idea attentive wholly to Mind. This demonstration reduces to nothingness whatever obstructions mortal mind may have believed to be facts.

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