Mankind generally is educated to believe a person can turn the responsibility for his body over to someone else. If the body is disordered, we are urged to take it to someone knowledgeable about bodies to fix it, thereby relinquishing responsibility for its health. This outlook is based on the belief that the body is a material object made up of components that can, of their own volition, function properly or improperly.

But many people are waking up to the fact (which Christian Science has taught for over a hundred years) that the body reflects and expresses an individual's thought; that one's health cannot be separated from the mental concept he entertains about himself.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health, "Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action." ^{Science and Health, p. 393;}

One who studies the Bible deeply—and in the light of Christian Science—learns to stop thinking of himself as a mortal. Instead, he works toward the wholeness and purity Christ Jesus described when he said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." ^{Matt. 5:48;}

Achieving this goal requires that we recognize God as the sole origin of all creation. The only authority or power, then, is given by God and can be exercised solely by God and His child. Mrs. Eddy states: "Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority." ^{Science and Health, p. 393;} Only in proportion as we recognize our sonship with God—our spiritual identity—can we actually fulfill that command.

I was thinking about this when I was serving on a bylaws committee for a branch church and had studied Robert's Rules of Order. The study suggested an interesting analogy. Parliamentary rules provide for a chairman to conduct the meetings of an assembly. The chairman has jurisdiction over the meeting. If a member of the assembly wishes to speak, the chairman must first determine whether he should be allowed to do so. If the chairman recognizes this right, he yields the floor to the member. If the chairman does not acknowledge a member's request to speak, that member must remain silent.

How does this relate to the body and how to "govern its feeling and action"? In the Bible, drawing an analogy between the physical body and the Church of Christ, Paul refers to the members of the body almost as he would to the members of an assembly: "...the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body .... The body is not one member, but many....Now are they many members, yet but one body." ^{I Cor. 12:12, 14, 20;}

Each one, as he perceives himself to be God's child, might think of himself as the chairman of his own assembly (experience), vested with responsibility for its conduct. That obligation does not belong to the individual personally, as the assertion of human will or ego, but rather as Jesus' example shows: "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge." ^{John 5:30;} The attempt to control our bodies by exercising a human mind over matter is futile. We cannot will our way to health.

Instead, we recognize that because man reflects God, His expression must be like Him. Since God is perfect, we, as reflection, are also perfect. Understanding this, one can begin to exercise the dominion God has given us. Mrs. Eddy advises: "Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, and rise to the true consciousness of Life as Love,—as all that is pure, and bearing the fruits of Spirit." ^{Science and Health, p. 391;}

One night I woke with severe cramps in my legs. I was tempted to listen to their complaints. But the thought of exercising my position as chairman of my own assembly came quickly to mind. Knowing myself as a child of God, I had the prerogative to refuse to let any part of my body "speak." I remembered reading in Science and Health: "Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for them?" ^{ibid., p. 217.}

I quickly took control of the situation and quietly but firmly called the "member" out of order, denying my legs the right to tell me how they felt. As chairman of my assembly (body), once having refused to recognize the members' (legs') right to speak, I didn't dillydally arguing the point but instead proceeded immediately to consider "in order" business.

I gave my entire attention to contemplating my incorporeal identity, praising God for His ever-presence; and I recognized that this concept called a physical body was not my true being.

There was no further pain. Without recognition by the chairman, the members could not voice an opinion.

Insofar as we recognize our real identity, pure spiritual consciousness, instead of a mortal mind and matter body, and let this recognition regenerate our living, we are each the chairman of our own assembly and fully govern its members.