Everyone likes to be healthy. To this end, people pursue health in ways they feel will most benefit them. Yet what is true health? And how can it be demonstrated in physical well-being despite advancing years or exposure to conditions believed to be contagious?

Health is an absolute, spiritual quality of God, divine Truth, which man, His expression, reflects naturally. Therefore health, Christian Science teaches, is inherent in man's true, immortal identity.

The biblical account of creation recorded in the first chapter of Genesis depicts this state of spiritual wholeness that includes true health: "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." ^{Gen. 1:31;} As a manifestation of Truth, health is purely spiritual and not dependent upon material conditions, although to mankind a proper understanding of health as rooted in Spirit, God, appears to be physical well-being.

Outward evidence of health, however, is not always the product of spiritual understanding. It can be the result of ignorantly believing in the benefits derived from certain types of food or exercise. It can even seem to be the outcome of willpower. Consequently, Mrs. Eddy writes: "It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition." ^{Science and Health, p. 297;}

True health is a characteristic of perfect, spiritual being. In reality, man exists inseparably from divine Love as God's spiritual idea. As the reflection of Spirit, man possesses neither a healthy nor an unhealthy physical structure. The real man's identity is purely spiritual and Christlike. As we accept and understand this, we cognize more of true existence, which is expressed in well-being and satisfaction.

In Science, man does not need improved health, for he exists now as the idea of Truth in the realm of divine Love, and is eternally whole and perfect. Christ Jesus' singularly clear perception of this fact enabled him to heal disease instantaneously. On one occasion he asked a man who had suffered illness thirty-eight years, "Wilt thou be made whole?" ^{John 5:6;} His understanding of the man's immortal selfhood as a child of God brought immediate healing. The man then evidenced his fundamental wholeness and health.

Christian Science shows the impracticality of holding as real two diametrically opposed concepts of man—on the one hand as a spiritual idea, and on the other as a physical personality. One must be real and the other unreal. The demonstration of health follows the recognition of the allness of divine Truth and the perfection of man as Truth's idea. This is the foundation of health, and sound health is assured by our daily living of the Christ, our divine nature and manhood.

While healing the sick is important, our primary need is to establish an awareness of universal health, of man's wholeness as the perfect idea of God. The scientific recognition of man's wholeness forestalls, as well as cures, all ills, which are but the subjective states of false, material thinking. As we rely on the omnipotence and omnipresence of infinite Spirit, we prove sickness and distress unreal.

Opposing this truth, fleshly consciousness would suggest numerous sources of debility. But all ills are remedied by the Christ, the spiritual idea of God. Scientifically speaking, God, Life, expresses health, harmony, throughout His immortal creation, where man lives untouched by evil's invalid claims of the reality of disease.

Healthiness calls for our constant alertness in rejecting the intrusion of unhealthy thoughts into our consciousness. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "The Revelator sees that old serpent, whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, holiness, and immortality." ^{Science and Health, p. 563;}

Divine Love maintains all with its own eternal strength. Evil has no power. But if we ignore that which should be annihilated on the basis of God's infinite goodness, and allow claims of disease to take hold in thought, we may suffer from these false thoughts. Unhealthy thoughts would attempt to defy detection by claiming to be an inherent part of our own consciousness. Addictive appetites and unwholesome patterns in human conduct would plead for tolerance on the basis of their supposed normality. But freedom from un-wholesomeness is achieved only through self-discipline that consistently rejects as false every claim of evil.

In healing all unhealthy conditions we need to adhere to the purely spiritual basis of thinking. In its attempt to obscure the true concept of man, evil subtly suggests the existence of two creations, one material and one spiritual. But infinite Spirit alone is all. Perfection alone is real.

We cannot establish true health through material methods, because it isn't matter that needs adjustment. Instead, false, unhealthy thoughts need thorough rejection. Divine Mind with its universal expression is All-in-all, here and now. Our understanding and acknowledgment of this truth provides the basis upon which to demonstrate genuine health and to claim immunity from contagion.

I once visited a friend who was ill with a virus infection. The picture of illness must have impressed me. Soon after leaving him I too began to experience a heavy fever. As I had to fulfill an important assignment that evening, it was essential for the condition to be resolved. Quietly the conviction came that divine Life is the real source of man's health, and that health is an inherent quality of Life. The heaviness lifted, and I was completely free to carry on without any trace of illness. Later that night I learned that my friend, too, had completely recovered.

The spiritual truth of God and man accepted into consciousness, and understood even to a small degree, sustains our health. It not only ensures individual well-being but helps improve community and national health standards, for when man's spiritual identity is clearly seen and lived, the false beliefs about man necessarily diminish and disappear. The practical benefit that this acknowledgment of Truth's natural, health-giving activity brings to humanity is explained in these words of Mrs. Eddy's: "Test Christian Science by its effect on society, and you will find that the views here set forth— as to the illusion of sin, sickness, and death—bring forth better fruits of health, righteousness, and Life, than a belief in their reality has ever done." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 62.}