From the Editors February 10, 2014 ISSUE

The spiritual view—right in front of us

The Editors

A recent online post reads: “Bees See Your Face as a Strange Flower” (livescience.com). Though the article reports potential research on the human brain, at first glance that headline triggers an amusing image. Beyond that, it has the potential to open up a metaphysical conversation.

Even without a spiritual sense of things, almost all of us can admit to moments when we’ve misinterpreted the world in front of us—someone’s actions or motives; what they’ve said, or haven’t said. In other words, the “face”—the “strange flower”—of what we experience.

Once we see from a spiritual viewpoint, we realize that God, good, includes not one iota of the human picture we’ve been accepting.

But if that simple objectivity is helpful once we realize we were off course, how do we convey the immense gratitude we have for Christian Science—the Science that invites us to put aside all the layers of human/brain interpretation—good or bad, right or wrong—and consider an entirely new universe. The spiritual universe of infinite, divine Mind. Mary Baker Eddy saw so clearly that the human picture—what we experience as “mortal mind”—consistently “sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 86 ). And once we see and understand from a spiritual viewpoint, out from infinite Mind, we realize that God, good, includes not one iota of the human picture we’ve been accepting—no matter what “face” we put on it.

Referring to this ever-changing human picture, Eddy made the bold statement: “Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes, and drift to the ground” (Science and Health, p. 250 ). What a bugle call, to let those “snowflakes” of mortal, limited suggestion “drift to the ground”—and melt. Because as consciousness clears of the daily snapshots that vie for our attention, we have the opportunity to become more and more confident of our entirely spiritual nature.

In this way, everything that shows up as fear, intimidation, sickness, anger, competition—is seen for what it is—the “face” of a lie. A distraction from the main and only event—Love’s ongoing, creative activity, and our activity within this realm.

So, you might say that while those bees in the lab who see certain images as “strange flowers” are under one kind of scientific observation, we can engage in an entirely different scientific observation. “Distilled,” as Mary Baker Eddy says, “in the laboratory of infinite Love” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 178 ).

When you abide here, the view is clear, consistent, and infinitely spiritual.

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