In some nations there are nearly the same number of television sets as there are houses. Television inevitably has a strong cultural influence. The concepts conveyed through the combination of hearing and seeing can be potent. Advertisers, spending enormous sums of money, apparently accept that this is so.

The forcefulness of this medium can't help but be of interest and concern to us. The Christian Scientist, growing in his apprehension of the primacy of thought in determining the way people feel and act, necessarily has a concern for those things that influence thinking. Therefore we should be awake to both the pros and the cons of the electronic media.

Mary Baker Eddy was alert and concerned enough to thoughtfully analyze the literature of her pretelevision era and to give her conclusions space in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. After referring to the speculative theories, nauseous fiction, and shallow dogmas of some education she adds: "Novels, remarkable only for their exaggerated pictures, impossible ideals, and specimens of depravity, fill our young readers with wrong tastes and sentiments. Literary commercialism is lowering the intellectual standard to accommodate the purse and to meet a frivolous demand for amusement instead of for improvement. Incorrect views lower the standard of truth." ^{Science and Health, p. 195;}

Much current television programming is of a high and responsible standard. But Mrs. Eddy's condemnation of some literature could be brought to bear against a number of today's television programs.

What light can Christian Science bring to communications? This Science shows that God is infinite Mind, the source of all intelligence. As we realize what this means and accept the divine Mind as the only source of our intelligence, we become more perceptive of both the perils and the potential of modern media. We can analyze insightfully (for the purpose of healing what's wrong) whatever seems to be going on in the realm of material belief and gain a firmer conviction of the irresistible intelligent activity taking place in the realm of the real, in Mind's eternal universe.

Superficially considered, "television" might suggest simply an appliance giving us entertainment and a little education. Analyzed more basically, television involves a wide range of significant concepts—the assumption of many minds, a few communicating with multitudes; something neither intrinsically good nor bad, but an instrument whose application can be either; a medium to awaken mental activity or to hypnotize and deaden the thinking of millions.

That modern media be utilized for better rather than worse purposes is essential, and we can help determine this by prayer— by affirming the omnipotence of the All-Mind and nullifying what would seem to oppose it. While we think of communication as only an event involving finite minds, we can do little to improve the media. But we can help raise standards by acknowledging the irresistible intelligence of divine Mind.

Reasoning from the premise of one infinite Mind must inevitably give us a sense of communication different from the everyday view of it. Mind's eternal consciousness of its infinite self comprises the real communication. Admittedly, this may seem to many so transcendent as to be almost impossible to grasp and of no relevance in human affairs. But it's a point that bears thinking about because the purer our sense of communication, the more effectively we can contribute to lessening what is unworthy and destructive in the media and help facilitate the presentation of what is substantial, satisfying, and healing. Television personnel, scriptwriters, producers, studios, transmitters, are not the origin of real ideas. Divine Mind is. And the ideas which have their home in Mind—and which Christ Jesus demonstrated in healing—are purely spiritual. They reveal the power and grandeur of God and His Christ, the purity and nobility of man and the universe. "Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him," ^{Prov. 30:5;} the Bible says. The material sense of communication—involving electromagnetic impulses, antennae, and so on—is subordinate to the scientific realism of communication as always inseparable from the omniscience of God, divine Mind.

"God is at once the centre and circumference of being," ^{Science and Health, pp. 203-204.} states Science and Health. Could not this absolute truth be the starting point to quicken the recognition and development of the enormous potential for enrichment that television offers? Such acknowledgment can help shrink the number of lost or only partially exploited opportunities for doing good that television promises. It might well lead us individually to watch our TV more judiciously.

Realizing the omniaction of Mind, we can deny reality and power to merely material motivations to lower "the intellectual standard to accommodate the purse and to meet a frivolous demand for amusement instead of for improvement." Then we may find ourselves being directed to more worthwhile programs and becoming less satisfied with those comprised largely of "nauseous fiction," "exaggerated pictures," "impossible ideals."

It's not our intention to darken your television screen! Or to suggest that even the more delightful and humorous programs are in fact a waste of time. But to hint at the possibilities we all have for contributing to a better world.

Geoffrey J. Barratt