Editorial January 29, 1977 Issue

Understanding Odd Phenomena

Geoffrey J. Barratt

Someone has a premonition about a certain occurrence. It happens. Another may sense that a particular event has befallen a friend thousands of miles away. It turns out to be so. Someone's future predicted by the stars apparently comes about that way. Are we to assume there are mysterious and inexplicable forces at work and that some people have an unexplainable talent for insight into these?

To understand odd phenomena it is imperative to have a grasp of the subjective nature of experience. The divine Mind, God, creates—knows, as it were—only measureless, spiritual good. Supposititious mortal thought, on the other hand, believes in the negative and finite and experiences these, along with various peculiar phenomena, beyond the ken of the natural sciences and called psychic phenomena or magic.

There are many phenomena, Christian Science shows, which belong wholly to the realm of mortal belief. Mary Baker Eddy notes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts."^{ Science and Health, p. 86;} And, "Mortal mind produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and electricity."^{ ibid., p. 80;} Such fundamental statements as these are the door to solid, basic answers to the kind of question specified in the opening paragraph. Essentially, telepathy, astrology, telekinesis—their theory and practice—evidence the beliefs and actions of mortal mind.