Editorial November 21, 1936 Issue

The All-knowing Mind

George Shaw Cook

Much of the difficulty in which mortals find themselves involved is due to the belief that there are minds many, existing apart from and entirely unrelated to the all-knowing, ever-present, omnipotent divine Mind, the origin of all true thoughts or ideas.

Mortals are educated to believe that each one has a mind of his own, existing and functioning in an organ called the brain, which is admittedly material; hence nonintelligent. The matter called brain is admittedly material; hence as all other matter, and is therefore without power to originate thought, consciousness, or action. However, the brain is generally believed to be the seat of intelligence, and consequently it is believed that if one's brain is injured or diseased, his ability to think lucidly is impaired, if not entirely destroyed. But the kind of thinking that is believed to emanate from the brain is not real thinking, because it is not of God. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord." Only those ideas which emanate from divine Mind are righteous and enduring. These are the thoughts which spiritual man possesses by reflection.

In her address, "Science and the Senses," Mary Baker Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 101, 102): "God is individual Mind. This one Mind and His individuality comprise the elements of all forms and individualities, and prophesy the nature and stature of Christ, the ideal man." This is obviously the Mind of which Paul wrote to the Philippians, when he said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." And it is interesting to note that Paul did not say "make," but "let" that Mind be in you. Therefore, letting the Christ-mind be in us is not a question of willing it to be so. It merely requires us to be humbly receptive to the thoughts emanating from that Mind. And this is as simple and as gentle a process as raising a window shade and letting the light into a dark room. It involves no struggle, no undue effort.

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