[The participants are John Lewis Selover and William Pead.]

Pead: People in many parts of the world are concerned about pollution. They want clean air, pure water, uncontaminated land, and are willing to do something about it. Some are writing letters to the government, some are protesting, and some are participating in lobby organizations. Some are even getting on their hands and knees and removing trash, cleaning up riverbanks and public lands. But what more can an individual do?

Selover: Every useful project started with some individual's idea to benefit mankind. Consider for a moment what's behind pollution. Pollution is an effect, not a cause. It's not things but, startling though it may sound, states of thought—unwise, unthoughtful, or careless thinking—that result in pollution. This is where spiritual insights can really be effectively meaningful.

Christ Jesus, speaking of a rather all-encompassing form of pollution, said (Matt. 15:11), "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man." And then he went on to add (verse 18), "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." So from understanding this point of view better, the individual can make wonderful and effective contributions in the form of action. Being alert to pollution within and purifying our outlook and habits have a direct bearing on freedom from pollution without.

Pead: You refer to "within." You mean the individual's innermost thoughts?

Selover: Yes.

Pead: How does this relate to pollution in general?

Selover: Let me put it this way. Thought has a direct effect on the environment. We might ask ourselves if there would be a trashfilled stream if individuals really were thoughtful of others, if they really appreciated beauty. Would there be litter if people understood that their environment could be cleaner and more beautiful? Their awareness must take place in thought. Then they can begin to do something about it. When our thinking is purified, we express qualities of thought—love and consideration—that help us make our environment more wholesome and attractive for the next fellow as well as for ourselves.

Pead: This love for the other fellow—it's a big order for some people. They're not used to disciplining themselves.

Selover: Right. But think of the tremendous impact of applying this idea of love and consideration to this problem! From my own experience I have found that these attitudes do have an unlimited source, and I would name that source God. Reasoning from this point, there cannot be any defilement in what infinite Spirit or God maintains or expresses. His creation is spiritual, and His creation is perfect. This perfect creation includes man. The atmosphere of divine Love is always pure and beautiful. This real spiritual man, then, as the idea of God, cannot contaminate or be contaminated, because he is pure, whole, living in an atmosphere of divine Love, which cannot, simply by its very nature, generate trash. This is the individual's true nature. It's a God-given, God-derived nature, which each one of us, in reality, has.

Christ Jesus proved what the understanding of this could mean to the total environment of mankind. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes of Jesus (p. 54): "Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness, seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified example introduced." On this basis we all have what we need to get rid of defiled or polluted thinking within, and to take action without—the outward expression of getting rid of pollution in our environment.

Pead: I can see from what you are saying that it is the primary concern of the individual to recognize that his attitude has much to do with his compassion for his fellow citizens and himself.

Selover: Eliminating the type of thinking we've let contaminate us—apathy, indifference, disorder, carelessness—helps us express the thoughtful care and intelligent love that are needed to make a contribution to the overcoming of pollution. It fires up our higher motives and prompts us to take action that is God-directed and God-derived.

Let me tell you of an experience involving purification of thought, which led to a very beneficial effect for a woman personally and throughout her environment. For many years this woman had wondered why all through her life she had been thrown into contact with unpleasant people. This annoyed her. One day a friend—a fellow Christian Scientist—recommended that she look up the word "annoy" in the dictionary. She did, and found it might indicate taking poison to oneself.

Pead: Pollution of a sort.

Selover: Yes. She realized that she had allowed her thinking to be polluted by other people's shortcomings and imperfections. She began to watch every thought, and clean it up as she went along. She stopped every self-righteous reaction and dissatisfied thought with the truth of everyone's real nature as the expression of God, divine Love. It wasn't easy. She found herself bristling at slow traffic when she was in a hurry and at people around her who didn't do things the way she thought they should. But she said that she intended to clean up every annoying and irritating thought that came to her.

This was a truly religious, regenerating experience for her. As a result, one morning she woke up with a greater sense of freedom, physically and mentally, than she had ever known before. Along with this she was healed of a difficult sinus condition that she had had for some time. Her disposition was entirely transformed. And this changed quite literally what she had always thought of as herself. From then on she became especially alert to pollution within and has since made many a constructive contribution to a smog-filled area.

On this basis, a chemist I know is working very diligently to eliminate automobile exhaust and to purify the exhaust from power generating plants. Another individual has been extremely active and effective in a conservation organization, chairmaning it and getting new ideas to eliminate pollution. And there are many others. What's being done here is much more than clearing up a muddy stream, filthy alley, littered park, as important as that is. It is purifying and elevating character through a greater realization of our true nature. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 492): "Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character."

We've been discussing what one individual can do about pollution. We've emphasized spiritualizing our thinking so that we can cope with pollution within, and so take direct and specific action in our environment and our communities to eliminate pollution and purify our atmosphere.