What to do about spying

Espionage. Spies and counterspies. Clandestine and covert activities. All of this has been with us for a very long time.

In today's world such activity would hardly be considered divinely inspired! More often it is thought an unfortunate but unavoidable necessity. While the potential for abuse has surfaced in recent years, the gathering of intelligence is obviously going to continue—at least for the time being.

Is there a spiritual perspective that can be brought to bear on the whole area of information gathering?

When the children of Israel drew near to the Promised Land of Canaan, Moses sent spies ahead (see Num. 13–14). Their mission was to examine the land and determine the strengths and weaknesses of the people. After forty days the men felt they had gathered sufficient intelligence. But there was disagreement over their findings. Most felt it was clearly unwise to move against Canaan. Contrary to the weight of opposing evidence, Caleb and Joshua argued for the move.

Moses and the people were faced with an age-old intelligence problem: accurately assessing information. Moses was a man who turned naturally to God. He had felt divinely led to seek out the information. Although he intuitively perceived the answer now, the people themselves did not exercise sufficient spiritual insight to recognize the right solution. Their lack of spiritual perceptiveness cost them forty years in the wilderness.

A striking example of exercising spiritual insight occurred several hundred years later. Attacks planned by Syria against Israel had been foiled. The king of Syria suspected that one of his men must have delivered intelligence to Israel. The fact was that Elisha, through his spiritual-mindedness, perceived the Syrian plans and provided the king of Israel with the information necessary to avoid the attacks (see II Kings 6).

Moses' followers had failed to see beyond the accumulation and analysis of information. Moses was largely unsupported in his exercise of divine intelligence. Elisha's perceptions and actions showed the unique possibilities of drawing on God as Mind—the one supreme intelligence. The aggression ceased. Are there lessons here for present-day methods and motives?

Spiritual-mindedness enlarges the capacities of perception and discernment. One who understands the nature of God as divine Mind can support the exercise of spiritual insight—the drawing on divine intelligence—by those engaged in gathering and assessing intelligence.

Christian Science teaches that God is Mind—the one divine, eternal source of intelligence. Divine intelligence is not a mass of human information. It is Mind's infinite, ever-present knowing. In reality, all is Spirit, Mind, and its ideas. Man is spiritual. He is the expression of Mind—the reflection of divine intelligence. To the extent the Christ reveals these truths to us, human capacities are broadened.

We begin to find that useful and purposeful facts can be recognized with dependability—even exactness. To realize that Mind is all-knowing, and that man reflects this nature, relieves human thought of its limitations. Ultimately it lifts us entirely out of beliefs of mortality. But during that process of spiritual growth, we find increased acumen and intuition and less uncertainty and miscalculation. Elisha certainly proved the practical effects of these truths.

Each of us can become more acutely aware of the fact that man, the child of God, reflects divine intelligence. We can recognize that the gathering of human facts will be exercised more reliably and without abuse as the human mind is subordinated to the activity of divine Mind.

Some may find it puzzling to discuss spirituality and an increasing awareness of God as the only Mind when considering the business of spying. Nevertheless, a love for God as Mind will increase spiritual perceptiveness and thus the ability to know accurately what is of value. Even more important, it will serve as a protection against the abusive exercise of the human mind—whether by a government toward its own citizens or by one government toward another.

Exploration into certain areas of parapsychology has increased the possibility of wrongful mental manipulation. According to one news account, "A French scientist and former intelligence agent ... [observes] that extrasensory perception, one of the theories studied by parapsychology, may be used in espionage, thought control, surveillance and as a form of weapon." ^{The New York Times, June 19, 1977;}

Christian Science deals very specifically with this kind of misuse of the human mind. It reveals how an understanding of man as a reflection of divine Mind lifts thought above the erroneous concept that man is mortal and has a personal mind capable of evil. Mrs. Eddy contrasts immortal Mind-reading and mortal mind reading, showing how through divine Mind we can properly foresee facts that concern our welfare. Then she makes an important distinction: "This Mind-reading is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the divine Mind.

"Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and perpetuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not evil." ^{Science and Health, p. 85.}

Certainly Elisha yielded to the divine Mind. It enabled him to do good. Our conscious recognition that Mind is One—ever revealing its goodness and perfection—can move those legitimate human activities presently felt to be necessary toward a more reliable basis. An emphasis on such spiritual insight will protect and strengthen thought and guide it away from human abuse toward Mind, the one source of divine intelligence. The increased exercise of spiritual insight is inevitably a blessing for all mankind.