Natural and good medicine

Some revolutions are so shattering, the entire world holds its breath while watching. Others just happen while people take little notice.

One day soon we may wake up and realize that our world of medicine would hardly be recognizable to people of a few decades earlier. On the surface, it appears that Western medicine is still largely an industry of drugs and surgery. Yet below the surface (and not too deep), a giant reordering is going on. Some people may think this is related to economic factors. But it's far more. The very meaning of medicine may change.

Many trends give us clues about this transition. One of them is the growing interest in what has been dubbed the mind/body connection. The shift to a realization that the human mind is far more "connected" to the body than was previously believed, could lead to a huge transformation in the way we care for our health. Society may be marching toward the treatment of quite a different "patient"—that is, the treating of thought as the most effective way of healing the body.

Another significant trend worth watching closely is the movement toward herbal remedies. As a New York Times article notes, "Each day the herbal realm wins new converts, particularly among those who have become disillusioned with the cost and consequences of traditional drugs, distrustful of conventional physicians and convinced that 'natural' equals 'good'" (February 9, 1999).

Are you one of the seventy million Americans pursuing such a drug-free or "natural" kind of medicine? If so, you may be on an important track. Especially if you begin to see herbs not as an end in themselves but as a step leading to an entirely fresh view of medicine's meaning. And especially if you're willing to experience a measure of revolution yourself.

It is understandable that many feel an intuitive resistance to traditional medicines that poison the system in an effort to help it. But as society increasingly looks to thought as the key to health, the question has to be asked whether herbs have the capacity to change the way one thinks. They really do not. Herbs are an alternative to conventional drugs—a little like French fries are an alternative to a baked potato. A real alternative to drugs involves something more fundamental.

This widespread movement toward an herbal approach to health, however, could well point the way toward a very different kind of future for medicine. It may contain some of the same impulsion that drove the homeopathic movement in the 1800s. Homeopathy involves the dilution of a drug until it no longer contains an active ingredient. The positive effects of diminishing the drug appeared hopeful to patients. And yet a more basic shift was needed. A foundational shift in thought.

In their hearts, people understandably feel a desire to move from things artificial to things more natural and real. And they feel those natural things are better for them. As the Times article so aptly describes the feeling: "... 'natural' equals 'good.'"

An urge to seek out the natural and to feel such naturalness is truly good—this is actually a spiritual journey. It is a journey that has a reachable destination. It's a journey that seeks a whole new way of thinking about medicine. In a phrase, this new medicine involves a radically fresh approach to changing one's thought. And nothing changes thought the way prayer does.

Mary Baker Eddy was a pioneer in many ways. Certainly she was a medical pioneer as well as a spiritual pioneer. It is clear that her life involved a pursuit of that which was natural and that which was good. Her search led to the discovery that God Himself was true nature. Sound startling? It was a revelation that has changed hundreds of thousands of lives.

She came to see, over a hundred years ago, that nature actually is good because real nature is Spirit, God. That which is truly natural, truly divine, is truly good. She writes, "In one sense God is identical with nature, but this nature is spiritual and is not expressed in matter" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 119 ).

This discovery led to a revolution in her thought about medicine and healing. For many years she had suffered partial invalidism. And yet she never stopped praying. Virtually every available remedy had been exhausted. But now she realized that the most truly natural medicine was rooted in prayer, in an acknowledgment that God is perfect, divine Mind, the source of all intelligent consciousness. In fact, this Mind, empowering such prayer, could be described as the most potent remedial agent on the planet.

This was a dramatic shift from prayer based on the best efforts of a personal mind pleading with God. Prayer that actually yields thought to God, a truly Mind-empowered prayer, was the basis of Christ Jesus' healings. He acknowledged God as the source of his being. He understood that this source was the impelling power of his prayer. His whole life illustrated a kind of prayer that provided an expression of God's intelligent presence—you might even say an intelligent medicine.

Science and Health asks, "Which was first, Mind or medicine?" Then it reasons about God: "If Mind was first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first medicine. God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was Mind, It could not have been matter, which departs from the nature and character of Mind, God" (p. 142 ).

Many people pray, but not as many have stopped to think of God, or Mind, as medicine that spiritually empowers their prayer and heals with reasonable consistency. Medicine in the broadest sense is that which nourishes our well-being. In the highest sense, it nourishes our sense of spiritual being. It's the natural substance that effectively treats the very roots of disease. When Mrs. Eddy described God as Mind, she set forth the basis for a "medicine" that actually treats thought—blesses our consciousness—because it defines the way we think and pray. When prayer is impelled by divine Mind, and we have the humility to acknowledge health as the reality of God's sons and daughters, the body responds positively. It harmonizes with thought because the body is, in the final analysis, a portrayal of thought.

Prayer that meekly yields a personal mentality for a God-based consciousness is deeply Biblical. St. Paul gave assurance for accepting such a consciousness when he insisted that "we have the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16 ). Acting on the basis of the divine truth that our real consciousness is of God has a powerful impact on our lives. A Christly consciousness is free of the fears, stresses, and angers that lead to disease. In fact, as people have cherished this God-given consciousness, both organic and functional diseases have disappeared.

The understanding that God is Mind and that this Mind gives intelligent expression to prayer and to life becomes the truly natural and good medicine. This is obviously more than changing from the French fries to the baked potato. It's even more than a shift from potatoes to rice. It's more akin to discovering a whole new way of nourishing ourselves. In this sense, the medicine of Mind is not simply an alternative. It literally changes our thought—even the way we look at life itself.

Instead of constantly focusing on matter for comfort, pleasure, security, and health, we begin doing what so many people found effective in Bible days. God was their medicine. An understanding that only Spirit, Mind, is truly natural upholds us in ways that drugs or herbs could never do. Science and Health explains, "Having faith in the divine Principle of health and spiritually understanding God, sustains man under all circumstances; whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all-might of infinite Spirit" (p. 319 ).

The realization that the condition of one's thought is fundamental to the condition of one's body is growing. The search for a natural and good medicine is growing. Many people are finding their answer in the converging of these two paths. They are discovering that the true source of consciousness is God, Mind. This Mind is Spirit, and its creation is pure and perfect.

You are vastly more substantial than matter. Spirituality is your true substance. Divine Mind intelligently defines this spirituality. By yielding to God as true Mind, you find that your thought is spiritualized. You might say it's even revolutionized. Such prayer is powerful medicine. It regenerates thought and heals the body in a way that couldn't be more natural and good.