Editorial May 12, 1923 Issue

Healing

Duncan Sinclair

As a rule when one speaks of healing, one is thinking of the recovery of the sick from some form of disease. The disease may be called physical, manifesting itself on the body, or mental, showing itself in weakness or aberration of intelligence. The term healing is also used to indicate recovery from some phase of sin. In brief, healing is generally thought of as taking place when some sufferer attains to normal health of body or mind, or gets rid of some evil tendency or practice.

A healing presupposes a condition of suffering or inharmony and a state in which there is freedom from both. In ordinary medical practice and, indeed, in every method of practice except Christian Science, matter, directly or indirectly, is supposed to be the cause of the trouble; and, accordingly, to effect a cure nearly all of these systems either manipulate the body or drug it, believing that certain chemical substances produce curative effects. In addition, there are those who believe that these agencies may be assisted by mental manipulation; that is, by acting on the so-called mind of the sufferer by mental suggestion or some other form of hypnotic influence.

In Christian Science, healing is looked upon from a totally different standpoint; and the method of healing in Christian Science is, consequently, altogether different from that practiced by either the obviously material or what may be called the quasi-material schools. What is the Christian Science point of view? To answer the question one must go back to fundamental positions. God, Christian Science teaches, is the sole cause of all that exists. God is Spirit; hence all that exists is spiritual. Thus, man is spiritual. In other words, the whole of creation, including man, is spiritual. There is therefore, in reality, no material creation and no material man. Christian Science declares emphatically that what the so-called material mind calls a material man does not exist; that so-called material man is a myth, an illusion of false material sense. Mortals, thus, are a supposititious creation. They believe in material sensation, and in a material body; and it is this false material sense which, in belief, suffers. Men are alienated from God, from Truth; and this belief of alienation results in all the suffering which afflicts the human race.

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