A burgeoning number of books in bookstores deal with "the mind-body connection." These new offerings attempt to explain the human condition from the premise that there is a relationship, which is not yet fully understood, between one's consciousness and one's experiences.

Some of these books are authored by medical practitioners seeking a new model on which to base health care. Some show statistical correlations between one's mental state and the ability to overcome or withstand disease and injury. Some admit to a spiritual dimension and even recommend that prayer be taken seriously as a healing method.

While it is encouraging to see such signs of liberation from the traditional biochemical-mechanical model of man, I haven't found that this current writing matches—for depth, breadth, eloquence, and sheer practicality—Mrs. Eddy's work. Mrs. Eddy was a pioneer in modern Christian healing whose major work, Science and Health, sets forth the Biblical and rational basis for the healing method she named Christian Science. Even a quick perusal of this book shows that by 1875 she had gone far beyond simply noting that there was some kind of connection between thought and experience. She had discovered what that connection is. And what it isn't.

If definitely is not the ability of the human mind to bootstrap itself up out of its problems. Rather, Mrs. Eddy discovered that the human mind, which is a mixture of good and evil, needs to become subordinate to God, good, alone. This process of spiritualizing thought is essential to permanent healing. And it happens only through the action of something bigger and better, something entirely different, than the human mind. This bigger and better "something" Mrs. Eddy called divine Mind, a synonym for what is commonly called God. In Christian Science, God is seen not as a being who simply has a mind, but the one, supreme, creative intelligence of the universe—the only Mind there is.

The products of this one infinite creative intelligence, its innumerable ideas, constitute the real universe. In other words, everything God creates, including man, is an idea of Mind, God, and therefore is spiritual—composed of substance that is infinite, indestructible, good, and intelligent.

It follows that belief in the existence of an opposite—an evil, or mortal, mind—is based on the untenable assumption that there can be a mentality apart from the one divine Mind. This belief would argue that evil, or mortality, has power of its own, is creative, and capable of comprehending reality. The human mind, then, is a mixture of good and evil elements contained in, and believed to be controlled by, the material body and all the factors that influence it, such as age, chemical constituents, genetics, environment. Some contemporary observers are starting to notice, however, that the body doesn't control the human mind as much as the human mind controls the body.

Yet this "connection" is still inadequate to explain not only what man is but how to assure man's well-being. And manipulating human thought through willpower or various other forms of hypnosis is fraught with its own set of dangers. What these models and methods fail to note is the fact that there can't be more than one mind to influence if that Mind is God, who has to be infinite.

Therefore, the material universe is a misinterpretation of the real, spiritual universe. Christ, the true idea of God, corrects this error. This corrective influence reveals man's inseparability from God and is the basis of all spiritual healing and all true progress.

Mrs. Eddy found that when the human mind is made to consider spiritual truth, if only briefly and incompletely, it changes. And the degree of change, from error to truth, is revealed as change in human experience, including the body. In other words, good mental hygiene leads to good health. By daily and systematically immersing thought in spiritual truths, we enable it progressively to throw off limiting assumptions and be more susceptible to the correcting influence of the Christ. Frequent prayer and daily thoughtful study of the Bible and its key, Science and Health, are proven healthful practices. "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true," advises Science and Health, "and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts" (p. 261).

The corrective influence of the Christ that comes from holding our thought to spiritual facts brings not only relief from all sorts of physical ailments but also—and maybe more important—regeneration of character. Before I came upon Christian Science I used to think of myself as a chronic sinner. I had many pesky vices, most of which I longed to be free of. But my religious upbringing had provided me with a model of man that seemed to justify the conviction that I would never be free from what I thought were permanent defects in my being. I was caught in a vicious circle of guilt and rebellion that became increasingly destructive.

At the point of deepest despair I came across Science and Health. Here I first encountered the description of man as an idea in Mind, or God, the conclusion drawn from the account of creation given in the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness .... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (verses 26, 27). I was astounded to learn that this account is the diametric opposite of the one in the next chapter, where Adam and Eve were made out of matter, sinned, and spawned a race of born sinners.

Gradually I learned to identify myself, in every way, as a creature of the first account—as the likeness of God—and not of the second, that of the fallen angel or "born sinner." I started to reconstruct my life along more positive, orderly, and healthy lines. For example, I quickly and easily dropped several of those vices, including a long-standing addiction to tobacco and a heavy alcoholic intake. My life began to be purposeful and hopeful. I was able to enter into a loving and enduring marriage and to have a successful career.

What I have been learning since then is the importance of maintaining constant vigilance about what I let into or keep in my thought. Like hordes of persistent door-to-door salesmen, a host of suggestions is constantly being offered for mental consumption. The suggestions come to us as the expectation that we will have certain kinds of ailments at certain seasons of the year or that there are reasons to fear, to feel depressed, angry, or sensual, or even to believe that God is cruel or that man is doomed to annihilation.

To protect ourselves we need to cultivate a more spiritual consciousness. Christ Jesus left us the blueprint for accomplishing this in what has come to be known as the Beatitudes (see Matt. 5:1–12). Striving to be more meek, humble, loving, unselfish, peaceable, and patient tends to create a state of consciousness that brings harmony to all of our experience. It strengthens our faith in God's presence, power, and willingness to preserve us in health and serenity.

But in addition to exercising the positive virtues of the Beatitudes, there is also a necessity actively to negate unhealthy suggestions that may attempt to intrude on our thought. We need to post a mental sentry, so to speak, and make a habitual scrutiny of everything that comes to our thought. If sickly, fearful, cynical, or sinful concepts are allowed to take up residence in our mental home, they project their characteristics into our experience. That's why it's so important to maintain a constant watch over one's mental state. "Stand porter at the door of thought," advises Science and Health. "Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously" (p. 392).

Yes, there is a connection between thought and experience, a much greater one than displayed merely by an observed connection between human mentality and the physical body. On a metaphysical level the connection is the relationship between infinite, omniscient Mind, called God, and its permanently perfect idea, called man. When this relationship is made the basis for our daily thinking and acting, "the enduring, the good, and the true" become more and more characteristic of our experience.