A woman sat in church resenting some unflattering slides she had seen shown of herself. She wondered if she could go to the photographer's house and get him to throw out the bad ones. Suddenly the woman remembered she was in a Christian Science service, and was startled by the thought, "Well, maybe I have some petty, resentful mental pictures I should throw out instead."

Then, recalling St. Paul's powerful words to the effect that nothing "shall be able to separate us from the love of God," ^{Rom. 8:39;} the woman reasoned that all the ugly pictures in the world—mental and otherwise—could not separate her from her true spiritual being in God's likeness. Her peace returned. She laughed to herself at the mental image of the state mortal mind had almost put her in.

Mortal mind, the false belief that life and intelligence are in matter, claims to be our own consciousness. It is always projecting unflattering pictures of ourselves and our fellowmen. It has a sin series, for instance, to tempt us with beguiling sensual relationships. It slyly whispers, "This is what you really want and need."

Mortal mind has some slides on sickness. It comments, "This is what happened to someone you know" or "This is what you had or have or will have." It further argues, "This picture is an indelible part of your memory or your present consciousness."

It has a self-condemnation series in which one's faults or past mistakes are depicted. It has a final discouragement slide tagged "death," which it likes to slip in every once in a while along with one that says, "You don't have enough spiritual understanding to cope with things."

Do we have to be a captive audience for mortal mind's slide show? No, certainly not. The remedy can be found in Paul's letter to the Philippians: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ^{Phil. 4:8;}

After all, mortal mind, being the supposed opposite of the one infinite and eternal Mind, God, really doesn't have any good pictures to show. Mrs. Eddy exposes mortal mind's negatives when she writes in Science and Health, "Human thought never projected the least portion of true being." ^{Science and Health, p. 126;}

What about the claim that mortal mind's continual suggestions are part of our mind? Evil would like us to think that it has a place and a consciousness to operate in, but in reality it has neither. Mrs. Eddy writes of the lie of mortality: "It was in no way contingent on Adam's thought, but supposititiously self-created. In the words of our Master, it, the 'devil' (alias evil), 'was a liar, and the father of it.'" ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 67;}

With the strength of this conviction we can search in the Bible and Science and Health for the specific truths that will correct and destroy any false mortal mind projections. As the Christ, or Truth, the Word of God, begins more and more to take hold in our consciousness, we increasingly discern spiritual substance, and are empowered to reject whatever is unlike God, good. This is not a theoretical or primarily intellectual process, however. It is a practical, step-by-step transformation beginning where we are now. It is the humble acknowledgment of what God, divine Love, has already done. It is a love for God and His perfect, harmonious reflection, man. It is a yielding to the perfect conceptions constantly being imparted by the divine Mind to its spiritual idea, man.

Once the writer dreamed that she was laboriously pulling weeds that were growing between her piano keys. When she awoke, she rejoiced that she would never have to be in such a fanciful situation.

Just so, in our daily human experience, it seems we must rid our thinking of false pictures. But when we truly awake to spiritual reality, we will see that no such pictures ever existed. How encouraging is Mrs. Eddy's insistence: "Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no sense of hatred. Life has no partnership with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God." ^{Science and Health, p. 243.}