A friend called and said, "I know you have been a student of Christian Science for many years—how does it heal bad habits of long standing, such as those of smoking and drinking?"

I explained that we do not through human willpower or the use of the human mind force ourselves to stop smoking or drinking. He replied, "I know enough about Christian Science to understand what you mean by human will, but I want to know how one is healed if he doesn't use the human mind to stop these habits."

This was a good question and one that many of us need to have clarified. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health: "Human willpower is not Science. Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned." ^{Science and Health, p. 144;} We must realize that the use of human willpower, exerted to force ourselves to stop doing something we believe we enjoy—without the understanding of why we are not really in bondage—does not heal or stop the human craving to continue to indulge the appetite.

Much study and prayerful work with the Bible and the writings of Mrs. Eddy has brought me the following understanding: The physical body does not have intelligence of its own; therefore it cannot report pain. Mortal mind is the only source of the belief of pain; when this mind is asleep or unconscious, there is no pain reported. Clearly, then, I could see that if the material body has no mind or sensation it cannot report a craving for a stimulant, such as nicotine or alcohol. Mortal mind, or the human mind, is the only factor to be dealt with, not a physical propensity.

When this is fully understood and accepted, we find that the desire to drink or smoke leaves, without our using willpower to force ourselves to stop indulging these false appetites.

Pondering the statement by Christ Jesus "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" ^{John 8:32;} brought about this additional insight: Mortal mind is the sinner, telling us that addictions are real. This is a lie and not the truth of man. When we resist this lie by replacing it in consciousness with the truth of our spiritual dominion over mortal mind's suggestions, we are free. This freedom from mortal mind's supposed tyranny releases us from the belief that the body can form a craving without mortal mind's sanction or consent.

Matter without mortal mind could have no appetite or sense of taste to demand our attention. When we lift our thought to the higher sense of ourselves as spiritual expressions of Mind, we find completely without foundation in spiritual fact or truth the general belief that man is physical and self-indulgent and has slowly and painfully to overcome physical cravings or desires. We can free ourselves from the false belief that smoking or drinking or overeating is difficult to heal and must be gradually reduced or tapered off, as many believe. A false belief or appetite, however long indulged, when once understood to be unreal, loses its seeming power to enslave us with its enticements of physical pleasure. No lingering, longing desire to hang on to the indulgence remains.

We must not be misled into thinking that the false appetites will disappear through merely knowing that the physical body cannot form habits of itself. We also have to make the right decision to let divine Mind govern our desires and lift our thoughts to a higher level. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." ^{Science and Health, p. 1;} If our desire is truly and honestly to live a better, healthier, and higher life, we will understand that the first step in breaking the belief in unworthy habits of any kind is to decide that we desire to let the divine will be expressed in us. This is the firm decision we have to make. Then the words of the Psalmist become true for us, "Delight thyself ... in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." ^{Ps. 37:4;}

As this desire is strong enough and humble enough to turn us away from the suggestions of material sense and to cause us to accept the truth of man's complete spiritual existence, we bring into our experience the proof that mindless matter does not dictate habits, and our lives progress in the recognition of our Leader's powerful statement: "The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man." ^{Science and Health, p. 99.}

The meek will he guide
in judgment: and the meek
will he teach his way.

Psalms 25:9