Article March 5, 1984 Issue

Overcoming self-consciousness

HAROLD BERNARD JORDAN

Many people suffer from self-consciousness when meeting other people, attending public functions, or starting a new job. They feel embarrassed and unable to show themselves at their best. It is a false sense of self, however, that causes such distress.

Christian Science teaches that God is Love; that Love is infinite, all-inclusive; and that man is the idea, the divine image, or reflection of God, Love. The true consciousness of oneself as God's idea destroys a false consciousness of self that springs from a belief that man is separate from God. To the degree that one understands his unity with God, he loses the mistaken material concept of himself as an inadequate and confused mortal. He becomes more aware of his spiritual selfhood. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health: "Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by mortals. God created man."^{ Science and Health, p. 294.}

All human problems stem from the erroneous belief that life is material; that intelligence is of matter, capable of expressing good and evil. Such beliefs are illusory and powerless.

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