It is customary, when confronted with unusual or surprising information, to ask, "Who told you so?" The question might at times imply doubt as to the informant's veracity, but as a rule it is a well-meant effort to value the information by examining its source. If the origin or authority of it is found to be reliable, we accept as fact what has been told us. Otherwise we do not. Actually, a great deal depends on the source of the information.

Not all of what is told us comes through auditory channels. Much of it is imparted mentally, entering our consciousness through the printed page or as thoughts presenting themselves for acceptance. We do well to challenge these sources of information by asking, "Who is saying this?" For more subtle than spoken words, more difficult to cognize or evaluate, are these silent claimants for admission to our thinking. Of our own thinking we are the sole and privileged guardians; therefore it is essential that we examine carefully the credentials of each and every would-be thought guest.

It is both interesting and profitable to remember, whenever we are informed of anything, that information cannot present itself. Who or what is it, then, that tells us? Suppose to your consciousness there comes the suggestion that you are sick. Who or what is telling you that you are sick? Is God the only creator, telling you this? No. God made man perfect, in His own image and likeness. Since God is Truth, God could not inform you of anything contrary to Himself, contrary to the forever facts concerning His creation. And God certainly knows what is true, for God is the all-knowing Mind. A suggestion of inharmony does not bespeak the intelligence of a perfect creator.

Then the information must come from an entirely opposite direction. So, indeed, it does. The senses, the five physical senses, hasten to assure you it was they who supplied it. Your sight, your hearing, your feelings have declared it. And if you are not alert, you will be deluded into agreeing with them. "Why, of course," you acquiesce, "my own eyes, my own feelings, tell me I am sick. Surely I can believe them!"

That is precisely what you cannot do. There is nothing more misleading than the testimony of the physical senses.

A few very commonplace illustrations will suffice to show how unreliable the senses are. Your senses—specifically your sense of sight—tell you that the sun moves round the earth. The same eyes tell you that the railway tracks meet in the distance. Again they tell you that the sea and the sky join at the horizon. Another sense tells you that when you hello to a distant cliff, a voice over there answers your call. While yet another sense informs you that a decayed tooth aches long after it has been removed. In each of these instances, the fact or truth of the case refutes and destroys the lie of the senses.

To the collective voice of the senses, our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has given the name mortal mind. This is the so-called mind that is associated with corporeal being and is subject to death. St. Paul calls it the carnal mind, and of it he says (Rom. 8:7), "The carnal mind is enmity against God." Since God is Truth, the carnal or mortal mind is the opponent of Truth, in other words, is error. Here is authoritative Scriptural confirmation that evidence coming from the physical senses is wholly misleading.

Whenever to one's question, "Who is telling me this?" the answer comes, "My own senses," then one may be quite sure he has been wrongly informed; because mortal mind, mouthpiece of the senses and advocate for their spurious material manifestations, is "a liar, and the father of it." It not only lies, but it originates the lies it tells. Mrs. Eddy has written (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 70), "The testimony of the corporeal senses cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures of Truth."

Laboring as we often do under the delusion that we are self-informed, we might with profit individually adjure ourselves thus: "If I must tell myself something, at least it ought to be something of benefit to me." But we do not inform ourselves. Too often, alas, it is mortal mind to which we listen, because it seems so plausible and so subtle. Also its suggestions appear sometimes to be loud-voiced.

On the other hand, intelligence, voicing reality, speaks to us in "a still small voice," to which our hearts must be carefully attuned if we would hear aright. Intelligence is the great informant. It is, as Shakespeare might have said it, the stuff that understanding is made of. Intelligence is freely and impartially available to all of us at its one and only source, divine Mind, God. So long as we are listening for the quiet voice of Truth, we can rest assured that our question, "Who is saying this?" will be clearly and unmistakably answered, and that the "treasures of Truth" will be unlocked to us.

"Any supposed information, coming from the body or from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illusion of mortal mind,—one of its dreams." So we read on pages 385 and 386 of Science and Health. The immediate and pressing need of humans is to know what man is. The so-called mortal self is only the fictitious creation of mortal mind. The real man is the likeness of God.

As we come to have a correct and clear concept of God as the creative intelligence, the only Life, there inevitably follows a better understanding of man and therefore of what we really are. Proportionately as this understanding is gained, we become immune to the delusion of the senses. Thus freed, we are able to answer the questions we have asked ourselves: "Who accused me of being imperfect?" "Who said I am to suffer?" "Who told me so?" Then, having effectively refuted error's false charge, we find the accuser no longer with us.

Undisturbed and undivided, our thoughts are turned to the calm contemplation of man as spiritual and perfect. We have faithfully and obediently complied with our beloved Leader's direction to Christian Scientists (Science and Health, p. 395): "They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to God."