Article February 2, 1974 Issue

SPIRITUALIZING THOUGHT

by recognizing that there is one Mind

WILLIAM MILFORD CORRELL

One of my favorite concepts of Spirit is ever-present intelligence. It seems to me that this expresses the nature of infinite Spirit, which is with us everywhere, always speaking to us, informing us, leading us. The Psalmist sang, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, ... even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me."^{Ps. 139:7, 8, 10;}

Spirit and Mind are both synonyms of God, and when we recognize that there is one Mind, we're also acknowledging the ever-presence of Spirit. This is a basic procedure by which we spiritualize our consciousness and thus experience the presence and power of God, almighty good. Our human experience is always the outcome of thought—what we allow in consciousness has a tendency to appear in experience. Spiritualizing our thinking by recognizing the oneness and allness of divine Mind is a purifying process that excludes evil from our thinking and hence from our daily life. Christian Science shows that to have one God, as the first commandment requires, is to have one Mind, and that Mind is infinite Spirit which includes no evil, no sin, disease, or death.

In explaining the divine demand "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," Mrs. Eddy says: "This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual."^{Science and Health, p. 467;} Surely this is the direct method of spiritualizing thought. Mortal mind, which is expressed in material thinking, and is the opposite of divine Mind, must be silenced, destroyed, cast out. We must learn to empty our thinking of false beliefs. To do this, we need to deny the errors of material sense, the lies of animal magnetism, and then fill consciousness with the pure ideas of God.