Editorial February 20, 1978 Issue

How mind and body relate

GEOFFREY J. BARRATT

The general opinion of humans about themselves is that mind is in the body; that the direction of traffic between the two is from the body to mind—that is, the body tells the mind such things as whether it is comfortable or in pain, tired or fresh, healthy or unhealthy. This analysis is qualified to some extent by the increasingly accepted view that the way we think does have something to do with our health.

In its teaching and practice Christian Science fully clarifies the subject. Mary Baker Eddy pointed out decades ago: "That which is temporary seems, to the common estimate, solid and substantial. It is much easier for people to believe that the body affects mind, than that the body is an expression of mind, and reflects harmony or discord according to thought." She goes on to say: "Everything that God created, He pronounced good. He never made sickness. Hence that is only an evil belief of mortal mind, which must be met, in every instance, with a denial by Truth."^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 247;}

Christian Science shows that both fleshly bodies and their conditions are mental pictures rather than material things or events. It shows that diseased conditions, organic malfunctions, pains—even fractures—are mental states, not physical. Through prayer, or Christian Science treatment, we can change material thought with spiritual ideas. And that changed thought externalizes itself to human sense as healing.

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