Editorial January 25, 1964 Issue

Disease Has No Identity

Carl J. Welz

If we are conscious at all, we are conscious of identity. A face or a smile or the sound of a voice may identify someone we know. A brand name may identify a company whose products we like to buy. A certain type of melody may identify a composer. Everything has identity. But some things which appear real, such as disease, are not real, and they have no actual identity.

In Christian Science we learn that God is All. We learn also that mortal mind is a supposition of a mind or power apart from God. In the divine Mind there is no disease. Mortal mind includes disease in its false consciousness of being. God's identities reflect His immortal perfection. Mortal mind has no real identities. Its representations are its false beliefs. Identities, then, are verities, realities; they show forth the nature and character of the one Mind. False beliefs are unrealities; they identify the nature and character of mortal mind.

A disease is a false belief. It is one way in which mortal mind attempts to establish itself as reality. But mortal mind can have no identity, and disease can have no identity, except what we give it by agreeing with it or acknowledging it. Many of mortal mind's claims to identity are temporarily pleasant. If we do not challenge them and deny them, we find ourselves having to destroy the belief of disease after it has come in. When we understand that God and His manifestations alone have identity, we can begin to watch our thinking to see whether we are effectively denying mortal mind's false claims.

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