Article September 26, 1983 Issue

Stilling the storms of mortal mind

ELVEY WILLIAM ALFRED BARTON

The changeable nature of the carnal, or mortal, mind is like the waves of the sea—at times storm-tossed, choppy, sometimes calm but subject to gales. Mortal mind would act according to whims and fancies. Having no Principle or rule whereby to govern itself, it is uncertain in its moods and desires. The material forms germinated by mortal mind are subject to and manipulated by its unreliable disposition.

This is more readily recognized as we come to understand that there is no separation between mortal mind and its physical aspect termed matter or the material body. Physicality is but the outward manifestation of mortal thought. Our true nature as God's man is spiritual; and Spirit, God, is omnipresent. As this is understood, it is easy to see why Christian Science addresses this so-called mind in treating disease or other types of inharmony. When perturbed thought is pacified and purified by the serenity of divine Mind's all-inclusive love, the body naturally reflects better health and well-being.

Christian Science teaches that mortal mind, being a false claim of the existence of more than one mind, has no real being because God is the only Mind. Therefore man, made in the image and likeness of this Mind, is not subject to the claim of having an individual mortal mind with all its vagaries and foibles. Part of the Glossary definition of "mortal mind" given by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health reads, "Nothing claiming to be something, for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other errors; a suppositional material sense, alias the belief that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless ...."^{Science and Health, pp. 591–592.}