Editorial February 1, 1975 Issue

Christian Science Treatment

Carl J. Welz

Not the human mind, but the divine Mind, operates in Christian Science treatment. Such treatment is prayer, eliminating in human consciousness whatever obstructs the human view of the divine Mind's presence and action. But it does this with the power of divine Mind alone. When treatment is Christianly scientific, the patient becomes conscious, in some degree, of God, Mind, being All and governing all harmoniously.

There is a clear distinction between Christian Science treatment and methods of mental healing through the action of the human mind. An understanding of this distinction could spell the difference between success and failure in a given case. The problem in making the distinction is that humanly psychological methods often promote a kind of positive thinking that seems very much like Christian Science. And while the result of such thinking is sometimes impressive, it is also temporary.

With human mind methods the patient is perhaps asked to hold in thought the result he hopes his prayers will achieve. He is enjoined to visualize a healthy material condition in place of a diseased condition, to see some mortal as affectionate or honest instead of unloving and dishonest, to think of himself as a success, with his bills paid and his desires fulfilled, rather than as a failure, in debt, or frustrated. This seems to resemble Christian Science when the healer attempts to support his mental action with such facts of Christian Science as the allness, goodness, power, and love of God, Spirit, and the nothingness of Spirit's opposite, matter.

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