Seven synonyms: steps to healing
Mary Baker Eddy describes the healing effect of Christian Science as “... the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. xi ).
The term Principle as a synonym for God is unique to Christian Science. In the age in which Mary Baker Eddy lived, the principles of electricity, flight, and mechanical transport were just being discovered and utilized. These principles had always existed, but were only useful to mankind when they were discovered and understood. An airplane seen flying in Jesus’ time would have been considered a miracle, but today we understand it to be the principle of aerodynamics in operation. Likewise, Jesus’ healings were considered miracles for 1900 years, until Mrs. Eddy discovered them to be the operation of divine Principle, God.
After discovering Christian Science in 1866, she spent the rest of her life explaining it so that all could understand and utilize this system or science of healing. In her book Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy answers the question “What is God?” in the chapter “Recapitulation” in this way: “God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love” (p. 465 ). In her answer to the very next question, “Are these terms synonymous?” she clarifies that these synonyms “express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity.”
My practice of Christian Science as a demonstrable science has been greatly benefited not only by understanding the spiritual meanings of these synonyms, but also by how I’ve come to view the order in which they are stated in “Recapitulation.”
For many years, although I understood that order was necessary to understand any science (numbers for mathematics, notes for music, etc.), I did not appreciate the order in which these synonyms are given in that chapter. It became clear when I reviewed what has been an important healing for me: the healing of the fear of death associated with flying. I found that the order of events leading to this healing matched the order of the seven synonyms on page 465; each synonym leading to the next synonym and lifting my thought from that of a mortal fearing death to that of God’s image and likeness, who knows no fear.
I served in the Navy on an aircraft carrier, which had just come back from action in the Korean War. As I awaited my flight training orders, I heard so many stories of crashes and casualties involving flying on and off the ship that I became very fearful. It appeared I was risking my life not only on my own flying ability, but also on the capability of hundreds of other individuals, from those who designed the airplane to those who maintained and serviced it. I realized I had to heal my fear of flying before accepting those orders to flight training.
I cannot explain the freedom and peace I felt as the fear left my thinking.
I started reading every reference on death I could find in Science and Health as well as in Prose Works, a collection of Mary Baker Eddy’s other writings. One Sunday, I saw one of the squadron pilots on the ship in church, and, telling him of my fear of flying, I asked him how he dealt with that fear as a Christian Scientist. He took me up on the flight deck where the airplanes were tied down and asked me to look at the F4U Corsair that he flew. This plane had the reputation of being a “widow maker” because of its tendency to roll and crash when power was applied unless the pilot corrected the roll quickly. This pilot pointed out that there was nothing dangerous about the airplane sitting on the flight deck; the only danger was in what I thought would happen to the airplane in a given situation. He referred me to part of Mrs. Eddy’s definition of man in Science and Health as the “compound idea of God, including all right ideas; …” (p. 475 ), and added that the airplane did not include me, but that I included the “right” idea of the airplane.
I cannot explain the freedom and peace I felt as the fear left my thinking—it was as if a heavy weight was lifted off my back. However, as with any spiritual insight, it isn’t really understood until demonstrated, much as one has to prove mathematical understanding by working out math problems. The following week, I was on the flight deck and a Corsair was on approach trailing gasoline from a leak. When the plane stopped as the landing hook caught the wire on the deck, it burst into a big ball of fire as the leaking gas rushed forward into the hot engine. I felt sick as I visualized the pilot being killed, and was miserable all afternoon from what I saw. But at supper in the wardroom that night, I looked down the table and there was the pilot of that airplane, eating dinner with his shipmates! He had jumped from the plane after landing and hadn’t been touched by the fire I saw. I then realized the suffering I had experienced from what I “believed” was as real to me as if it had actually happened. This helped me to accept from all those references I had read in Mrs. Eddy’s writings that death was likewise an illusion, rather than the reality of God’s creation. I started to see that I could rely on my spiritual senses to protect me from what the material senses attempt to tell me.
Looking back, I saw my healing of the fear of flying occurred as I understood each synonym in the order of the definition of God in “Recapitulation” as mental steps to healing. It was the wisdom of Mind that told me to heal the fear of flying and seek a more spiritual understanding; Spirit, expressed through studying the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings, set me on the path to healing. That, along with my friend’s help to identify myself as the reflection of Soul, the “compound idea of God,” lifted the fear of flying from my consciousness. However, this spiritual understanding was not sufficient until I saw that even the material picture I was suffering from was false. This gave me the confidence to trust the spiritual senses of Soul, which identify me as God’s image and likeness. As my thought was uplifted through Mind, Spirit, and Soul, my prayer brought me into harmony with the operation of divine Principle, which in turn, demonstrated a career in flying (Life), the protection from error during that career (Truth), and the fulfillment and satisfaction of expressing God in that activity (Love).
This healing had a profound effect on my life as it freed me from the fear of being the victim of accident, be it airplane, automobile, or even a crashed economy. I am grateful for Mrs. Eddy’s discovery of God as divine Principle, which is always operating. As the mathematician aligns his thinking to the laws of mathematics to solve problems, we can experience the operation of divine Principle to heal our life problems by aligning our thinking with the spiritual meaning of those seven synonyms.
