Article January 13, 1951 Issue

GAINING A TRUE CONCEPT OF HEALTH

JAMES K. WESTOVER

More and more it is being recognized that health is a state of mind. More and more the medical and scientific world is approaching agreement with the observation concerning men that as one "thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). As one thinks, to the extent that he conceives himself to be healthy or ill, he will be found manifesting either health or ill-health. Health, to the average mortal, is a reasonable amount of ease and comfort of body. Mortals, generally, see no need to consult a physician so long as the body evidences no disorder. They declare themselves to be healthy, and to themselves and all observers they manifest a harmonious physical status.

Christian Science teaches that it is important for each individual to abandon his personal concepts of physical health and to replace them with a clear understanding of true health, spiritual well-being. For in Christian Science we learn that there is a mesmerism of health just as there is a mesmerism of sickness, and mankind is under the necessity of overcoming both. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes as follows (p. 297): "It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition."

Christian Science makes it clear that whatever the material senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, or smell—convey is sheer illusion, and such illusion, of course, does not erase itself. Rather does such testimony of the physical senses emphasize its own claim to legitimacy and thus enhance the possibility and probability of disease. The consciousness of matter's supposed presence cannot be expected to dissolve itself. Indeed, Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 120), "Any conclusion pro or con, deduced from supposed sensation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate and so leads to disease."