Editorial February 19, 1927 Issue

Right Mental Practice

Albert F. Gilmore

Christian Science emphatically states that causation is mental; that is, that God, Mind, is the only cause and creator of all that exists, of all reality. Likewise, Mrs. Eddy makes it clear that in the suppositional realm of materiality seeming causation is also mental; that it springs from mortal belief. Thus are set plainly before us the fundamental fact that God is the only cause and creator, and the belief that so-called mortal mind or material belief is likewise a cause.

In the destruction of error, the Christian Science practitioner takes full cognizance of both these statements. The commonly held belief that disease has a material cause is superseded in Christian metaphysics by the knowledge that causation is mental. Therefore, in treating claims of disease, whatsoever the type of manifestation, it is never overlooked that the seeming cause is wholly mental. On page 411 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy makes this very significant statement: "Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body." Since the cherished beliefs of mortal mind occasion the discords termed sickness or disease, when these erroneous beliefs are corrected, healing is accomplished. The practitioner deals with bodily conditions as wholly mental; that is to say, he "mentalizes" them. He deals with belief, not with its outlined manifestation claiming to be a material body. He destroys the seeming cause through uncovering its type and exposing it to the searchlight of Truth, which dispels every shadow of materiality.

The process is analogous to the operation of the cinema. If the picture on the screen is disagreeable, revolting, and unlovely, remedy is effected not by manipulating the screen, but rather by replacing in the lantern the film which has produced it. When spiritual truth replaces false belief, thought is corrected and the outward manifestation becomes harmonious. This happy result ensues not from mental manipulation of the so-called physical body, not by holding it in thought as something to be healed, but rather by seeing the perfect man, the man who has never been, nor ever can be, less than perfect. Thereby is lost all sense of a so-called physical man. The spiritual understanding which reveals man as eternal and perfect destroys all belief in man as discordant and diseased. The truth about man supplants the erroneous concept, and man as the perfect reflection of God stands forth.

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