Editorial June 22, 1957 Issue

"DISEASE IS A MENTAL STATE"

Helen Wood Bauman

A basic teaching of Christian Science is that sickness is a mental state and that to be healthy one must understand that God is the only Mind and that man reflects this harmonious and sinless consciousness. Mary Baker Eddy says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 349), "A scientific state of health is a consciousness of health, holiness, immortality—a consciousness gained through Christ, Truth; while disease is a mental state or error that Truth destroys."

It is not always easy to remain convinced that disease in every form is a mental state and that it can only be permanently healed by the destruction of that ungodlike state of mind. Mortals cling to traditional methods of looking for cause in matter, giving sickness names, and then believing that material remedies can bring about a cure. But since disease is a mental state, only a correction of thought is needed to destroy it, regardless of the type of disease confronting one. Mrs. Eddy says in "Christian Healing" (p. 14), "Medicine will not arrive at the science of treating disease until disease is treated mentally and man is healed morally and physically."

It is one thing to admit, as some medical researchers are admitting, that many illnesses are often caused by the mental condition of their patients. It is quite another thing to learn that disease is altogether the product of what Paul termed "the carnal mind" (Rom. 8:7) and that the divine Mind—the only Mind, actually—must be brought to bear upon that false mentality in order to dispel it along with the inharmony it has produced.

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