The fundamental deception in which all other deceptions are involved, is the belief that man is material, included and operating in a material universe. On page 207 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes, "We must learn that evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence."

So long as men are self-deceived, that is, so long as they believe themselves to be mortal, governed by laws which limit, handicap, and victimize them, they will be the perpetrators and the victims of deceptions, of many of which they are unaware.

Every frailty and limitation, every temptation to fear, all forms of disease, are phases of deception. They are offshoots of the one monstrous hoax, calling itself mortal existence, which deceives people into believing that life begins with birth, and will terminate with death.

When the individual learns something of the real nature of God and therefore of man, when he finds that to him belongs the intelligence of Mind, the beauty of Soul, he will not be self-deceived. He will no longer continue to argue in favor of mortal existence, sometimes in conceit and vainglory, sometimes in misery and self-depreciation. Because he is no longer self-deceived, the temptation to deceive others will also be at an end. He will be imbued with but one purpose and that is to build upon, to bear witness to, what is true.

Healing may have come swiftly and gloriously to the seeker for truth, in Christian Science. And then to his surprise there may ensue a period of reversal. If this occurs, it is only because he still believes that what has once been destroyed by Truth can return; because he has been deceived a second time into believing that to be true which is not true. He is not yet fully awakened to the whole fabulous deceiving argument of unreality acting and reacting upon mortal thought.

If men were not deceived into believing that pretension and subterfuge are essential in obtaining those things they desire; that there is advantage to be gained in appearing what they are not, and in saying what they do not really think; if they recognized that Truth alone is reliable, valuable, permanent, and that it is the Life of man, the solution of every human problem would have begun. But this cannot be so as long as the one fundamental deception remains, the acceptance of mortal existence as real.

In speaking of God's creation, Mrs. Eddy writes on page 472 of Science and Health: "That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made. Therefore the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until God strips off their disguise."

The disguise of sickness or sin once stripped off would never return, did men recognize it as a disguise and find their true being in its place. Deception is not overcome by merely seeing it as such. It is essential that we discern the utter absurdity of its presumption to be real, and see what belongs unchallengingly in its place.

He who knows the truth of any situation is not deceived by the lie about it; he who has learned the truth that health is a divine fact, sustained by laws which cannot be reversed, maintained by Love, which bestows only good, will not be deceived a second time by so obvious a disguise as sickness or distress of any kind. He will meet and overcome every initial insinuating argument with immediate robust denial, and so continue until all evidence is overcome.

"Take heed." said Jesus to his disciples, "that no man deceive you." Looking back over the history of the world, considering the deception of whole peoples and races in religion, in ideologies, in conquest and defeat, which have gone on since that day men may well ask themselves how they can hope to avoid being deceived. And the answer is to be found in the fact that if men live as well as hear the truth, they will not be deceived. "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves," wrote James in his epistle. Here is the cornerstone against all deception.

He who hears the word of God and lives it will be preserved because he is proving daily in his own experience that evil is not power. He who lives honestly, lives faithfully, in devotion to Principle, he who perceives man as he spiritually is, and refuses to be mesmerized by the unreal, whether it tempt him in self-aggrandizement or in self-depreciation will not be deceived.

Christian Science has revealed to humanity the means whereby it can discern unfailingly between the true and the false, Jesus was able to tell his disciples to take heed lest they be deceived, because he had taught them the utter deceptiveness of all evil, had revealed to them the Christ-power whereby it is destroyed. No man, no situation, no predicament, even the most violent, subtle, or deadly, had deceived him. He called on his followers to follow his example, in obedience and consecration to the divine will.

He who has ceased to think that what appears as a mortal is himself or another will not only hear, he will do aright. Because the unreality of existence no longer deceives him, its reality will not appear unexpected, uncertain, or remote. The temptation to deceive, the fear of deception, will have vanished. He will understand why it was that Jesus thus summed up the purpose of his mission: "That I should bear witness unto the truth."

Evelyn F. Heywood