The Healing Mind

No subject is of greater moment to humanity than that of mind. What makes up the warp and woof of one’s mental life? What stands sponsor for a man’s opinions, inclinations, or acts? What is the deciding factor in our thinking, or whence do our thoughts come? Is God acknowledged as the supreme and only Mind, and therefore as the only source of right thought, or does that which is not good occupy the throne of intelligence for us and hold us captive to unworthy thoughts?

The apostle Paul differentiates between mental states by dividing them into two classes, namely, carnal-mindedness and spiritual-mindedness, the former including all evil and its effects, and the latter embracing all right consciousness and activity. In Christian Science these contrasting terms stand for mortal mind and divine Mind; and they represent the difference between error and Truth, between what is unreal in human existence and what is real. Each human being is directly involved in making a distinction in these terms, from the fact that knowingly or unknowingly he is accepting one or the other as his mind or consciousness. And what can possibly concern a man more intimately than his choice of a mental abode?

According to the New Testament narratives Jesus healed disease, sin, and death by spiritual means alone, and thus uncovered the mental nature of all error. On page 219 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, “Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes the whole body ‘sick, and the whole heart faint;’ whereas divine Mind heals.” Many physicians have departed from the old school of material thinking far enough to admit that to some extent disease may be produced mentally; but to be radically progressive they must push on to the discovery that all disease is mental, and that God, divine Mind, is the only healing agency. This would ultimately bring the medical schools to the point of adopting Christian Science, or the Science of the Mind which was in Christ Jesus,—a desideratum for which humanity has long been waiting.

The carnal or mortal mind is defined by St. Paul as a state of “enmity against God,” and among the evidences of this mind he enumerates hatred, wrath, strife, variance, and other unholy things. The revelator in a figure refers to this sensuous mentality as the home of “every unclean and hateful bird.” Confronted squarely by such a picture, what one of us would not protest against his mental abode being thus classified? Yet an honest self-examination would probably reveal that some of these unclean and hateful birds are making their nests in our own branches and finding shelter and activity in the field of our consciousness.

The importance of this question is such that we cannot too soon set about discovering whence our thoughts come. Are there times when with eyes open we let hatred, variance, or strife bias and darken our thinking, or when discouragement, fear, and doubt are given the reins in our consciousness? If so, we should remember that these and kindred errors make up the carnal mind, which is never at peace with God or with His children. This wrong-mindedness sooner or later pushes its fears to the surface under the name of disease, poverty, crime, suffering, and death; and what possible remedy exists for this false mentality and its effects other than right-mindedness? It should be evident that evil conditions cannot be corrected on a material basis or by appealing to the Beelzebub of mental suggestion, but only by a change of consciousness. Christian Science practice is not, therefore, a process of doctoring the carnal mind, but of getting rid of it altogether.

The opposite nature and effect of mortal mind and divine Mind may be simply illustrated. Take the hypothetical case that one person has wronged another. If the victim turns for relief to mortal mind, he will forthwith begin to think disturbing and destructive thoughts, the promptings of anger, resentment, revenge, and the like, all the while believing that they are his own. Even physicians admit that such vicious mental activity tends to induce bodily disease, sometimes in its worst forms.

Now if the victim turns for relief to divine Mind, if he lets this Mind be his, he will forthwith begin to think divine thoughts, the promptings of forgiveness, mercy, kindness, and brotherly love, and to manifest them in forbearance, tenderness, and compassion. What medical practitioner is ignorant enough to affirm that such qualities of godlike thought induce distress of mind or body? On the contrary, it has been demonstrated in scientific practice that good thoughts habitually cherished exclude the causes of disease, or nullify their effects if they have been admitted.

Mrs. Eddy tells us that “sick humanity … looks for relief in all ways except the right one” (Science and Health, p. 371). Mortals examine the material body, watch its action, regulate its food, and so on, instead of looking into mortal thought for their enemy and putting out what has no business there. It is obvious that trouble of any kind could not occur in human experience unless human thought had first made it possible; nor could suffering result from any circumstance apart from mental action. Therefore the potent remedy in sickness as in other errors is to obey the Scriptural injunction of Isaiah, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” In other words, the Scripture implies that if the sufferer will turn from his unrighteous thoughts and let divine Truth govern his thinking, he will be abundantly pardoned; that is, healed.

To quote Mrs. Eddy again, “The divine Mind produces in man health, harmony, and immortality” (Science and Health, p. 380). Admitting that God is the source or Principle of all being, the truth of this statement is self-evident; and that it is humanly possible to have this Mind, is proved by the ability which mankind universally possess to do good instead of evil and to express thoughts of love and peace instead of hatred and strife. The divine Mind is made known in the presence and activity of divine thoughts. It is the consciousness wherein the things of God alone are real; where Love is, but no hate; where peace reigns, but no contention; where Truth is, but nothing that “worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.”

If one is not healed, let him not be despondent because of material conditions, but let him take note of his mental activity, whether it is directed by what he knows of God or by what he believes of evil. There is obviously no profit in going to a practitioner, or in extending treatment over a long period, unless one is willing to forsake what is wrong in his thinking and to find his joy in thinking what is right and good. The carnal mind, that is, the mind which believes in matter and evil, always produces disease, because it has no harmony in itself to make manifest. If we are finding our consciousness in fear, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, self-love, passion, and other things that God does not know; if we let these decide our thinking, how can we expect to find the healing Mind there?

Only by actually having this Mind as ours, by the spontaneous and joyous thinking of divine thoughts, can permanent healing be realized. Disease will then naturally make place for health, for evil can have no place in the consciousness of good. Therefore let us hasten to acquaint ourselves with God as the only Mind, because there is no other way by which we may be at peace.