Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 12

80:9 Yet the very periodical containing this sen- tence repeats weekly the a.s.sertion that spirit-communica- tions are our only proofs of immortality.

Mysticism unscientific

80:12 I entertain no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their views. It is mysticism which gives spiritual- 80:15 ism its force. Science dispels mystery and explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the 80:18 realm of mysticism.

Physical falsities

It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know 80:21 that it is mind-power which moves both table and hand. Even planchette - the French toy which years ago pleased so many people - attested the con- 80:24 trol of mortal mind over its substratum, called matter.

It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter.

These movements arise from the volition of human belief, 80:27 but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and elec- 80:30 tricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly, hence that matter is intelligent.

Poor post-mortem evidence

81:1 There is not so much evidence to prove intercommuni- cation between the so-called dead and the living, as there 81:3 is to show the sick that matter suffers and has sensation; yet this latter evidence is destroyed by Mind-science. If Spiritualists understood the 81:6 Science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish.

No proof of immortality

At the very best and on its own theories, spiritualism can only prove that certain individuals have a continued 81:9 existence after death and maintain their affili- ation with mortal flesh; but this fact affords no certainty of everlasting life. A man's a.s.sertion that 81:12 he is immortal no more proves him to be so, than the op- posite a.s.sertion, that he is mortal, would prove immor- tality a lie. Nor is the case improved when alleged spirits 81:15 teach immortality. Life, Love, Truth, is the only proof of immortality.

Mind's manifestations immortal

Man in the likeness of G.o.d as revealed in Science can- 81:18 not help being immortal. Though the gra.s.s seemeth to wither and the flower to fade, they reappear.

Erase the figures which express number, silence 81:21 the tones of music, give to the worms the body called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine Principle lives on, - in the case of man as truly as in 81:24 the case of numbers and of music, - despite the so-called laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the 81:27 harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality de- pends upon that of G.o.d, good, and follows as a necessary 81:30 consequence of the immortality of good.

Reading thoughts

That somebody, somewhere, must have known the deceased person, supposed to be the communicator, is 82:1 evident, and it is as easy to read distant thoughts as near.

We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one 82:3 present. It is no more difficult to read the absent mind than it is to read the present.

Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought 82:6 in his verse. What is cla.s.sic study, but discernment of the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal exist- ence we may be in doubt?

Impossible intercommunion

82:9 If spiritual life has been won by the departed, they cannot return to material existence, because different states of consciousness are involved, and one 82:12 person cannot exist in two different states of consciousness at the same time. In sleep we do not communicate with the dreamer by our side despite 82:15 his physical proximity, because both of us are either un- conscious or are wandering in our dreams through differ- ent mazes of consciousness.

82:18 In like manner it would follow, even if our departed friends were near us and were in as conscious a state of existence as before the change we call death, that their 82:21 state of consciousness must be different from ours. We are not in their state, nor are they in the mental realm in which we dwell. Communion between them and 82:24 ourselves would be prevented by this difference. The mental states are so unlike, that intercommunion is as impossible as it would be between a mole and a human 82:27 being. Different dreams and different awakenings be- token a differing consciousness. When wandering in Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their 82:30 snow huts?

In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to 83:1 consider whether it is the human mind or the divine Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of 83:3 Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the work of wisdom.

83:6 Science only can explain the incredible good and evil elements now coming to the surface. Mortals must find refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter 83:9 days. Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science than a blind belief without understanding, for such a belief hides Truth and builds on error.

Natural wonders

83:12 Miracles are impossible in Science, and here Science takes issue with popular religions. The scientific mani- festation of power is from the divine nature 83:15 and is not supernatural, since Science is an explication of nature. The belief that the universe, in- cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but 83:18 that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, - this be- lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the precedence over Spirit.

Conflicting standpoints

83:21 It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life is either material or organically spiritual. Between Christian Science and all forms of superst.i.tion 83:24 a great gulf is fixed, as impa.s.sable as that be- tween Dives and Lazarus. There is mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation 83:27 of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of all things. Mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind- 83:30 reading are distinctly opposite standpoints, from which cause and effect are interpreted. The act of reading mortal mind investigates and touches only human beliefs.

84:1 Science is immortal and coordinate neither with the premises nor with the conclusions of mortal beliefs.

Scientific foreseeing

84:3 The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and mistaking fact for fiction, - predict- 84:6 ing the future from a groundwork of corpo- reality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men 84:9 become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demiG.o.ds, but by the one Spirit.

It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and 84:12 of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future.

Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to 84:15 commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetter- 84:18 less Mind.

The Mind unbounded

To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for 84:21 sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind- science by which we discern man's nature and existence.

84:24 This true conception of being destroys the belief of spirit- ualism at its very inception, for without the concession of material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no 84:27 basis upon which to build.

Scientific foreknowing

All we correctly know of Spirit comes from G.o.d, divine Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian 84:30 Science. If this Science has been thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can know the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read 85:1 the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of 85:3 the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca- pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the 85:6 divine Mind.

Value of intuition

Such intuitions reveal whatever const.i.tutes and per- petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not 85:9 evil. You will reach the perfect Science of healing when you are able to read the human mind after this manner and discern the error you would 85:12 destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"

85:15 It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his students, "knew their thoughts," - read them scientifi- cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed 85:18 the sick. After the same method, events of great mo- ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said: 85:21 "O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

Hypocrisy condemned

Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal 85:24 senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek- ing the material more than the spiritual. His 85:27 thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation. He said: "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 85:30 undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never imparts error.

Mental contact

86:1 Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone, 86:3 his disciples answered, "The mult.i.tude throng thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called 86:6 for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this mental call ill.u.s.trated his spirituality. The disciples'

86:9 misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.

Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce 86:12 unlike results.

Images of thought

Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste- 86:15 rious only because it is unusual to see thoughts, though we can always feel their influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual 86:18 noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing 86:21 is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?

Education alone determines the difference. In reality 86:24 there is none.

Phenomena explained

Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman- ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences, 86:27 can all be taken from pictorial thought and memory as readily as from objects cognizable by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as 86:30 certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it 87:1 with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce 87:3 them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind in which they are discoverable.

Mental environment

It is needless for the thought or for the person hold- 87:6 ing the transferred picture to be individually and con- sciously present. Though individuals have pa.s.sed away, their mental environment re- 87:9 mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though bodies are leagues apart and their a.s.sociations forgotten, their a.s.sociations float in the general atmosphere of human 87:12 mind.

Second sight

The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents 87:15 primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables one to read the human mind, but not as a clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but 87:18 not as a mesmerist.