Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter XII - Christian Science Practice

 

Naming maladies
398:1
Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he
said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him." It is added that "the spirit
[error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and
he was as one dead," – clear evidence that the malady
was not material. These instances show the concessions
which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance
of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the
distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter,
whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not
dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto
thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand
he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored
whole, like as the other."
The action of faith
398:16
Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms
of disease. What produces the change? It is
the faith of the doctor and the patient, which
reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect
upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of
pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink
is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not
in matter.
398:25
So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing
effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change
the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind
faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism
changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis-
ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue,
to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.
The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has
399:1
no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore
good is infinite, is All.
Corporeal combinations
399:3
You say that certain material combinations produce
disease; but if the material body causes disease, can
matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal
mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.
Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through
certain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se-
cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the
action of mortal thought, alias mortal mind.
Automatic mechanism
399:11
So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its
body, but this so-called mind is both the service and
message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un-
able to talk, and matter can return no an-
swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how
can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates
its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it,
and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action
of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua-
tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force
the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows
that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.
Mental strength
399:23
Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of
which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.
This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is
only a false sense of matter, since matter is not
sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin-
ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.
Confirmation in a parable
399:29
Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his goods, except he first
bind the strong man?" In other words: How
can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called
400:1
mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When
disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear
of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor-
oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," which
must be held in subjection before its influence upon health
and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we
can despoil "the strong man" of his goods, – namely, of
sin and disease.
Eradicate error from thought
400:9
Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they
forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine
Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.
Eradicate the image of disease from the per-
turbed thought before it has taken tangible
shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you pre-
vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy,
if you understand that every disease is an error, and has
no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to
it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con-
tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.
Mortal mind controlled
400:20
When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed
mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought
alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind
rules all that is mortal. We see in the body
the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted
on the retina the image which becomes visible to the
senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be
destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony
of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani-
fest as sin, sickness, and death.
Mortal mind not a healer
400:30
The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of
sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this.
It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many
401:1
mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Any
human error is its own enemy, and works against itself;
it does nothing in the right direction and much
in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing
evil passions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer,
but it engenders disease and death.
Effect of opposites
401:7
If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men-
tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as
when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be-
cause the truth of being must transform the
error to the end of producing a higher manifestation.
This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but
should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter
has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees
materially.
401:16
What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced
when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be-
lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to
the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case
with a fermenting fluid.
Medicine and brain
401:21
The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon
mental action. If the mind were parted from the body,
could you produce any effect upon the brain
or body by applying the drug to either? Would
the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore
will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?
Skilful surgery
401:27
Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem-
acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave
surgery and the adjustment of broken bones
and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon,
while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental
reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation.
402:1
Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but
surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last
acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the
author has already in her possession well-authenticated
records of the cure, by herself and her students through
mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints,
and spinal vertebrae.
Indestructible life of man
402:8
The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake
its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im-
mortal Mind and its formations will be appre-
hended in Science, and material beliefs will
not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructible
and eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortal
mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own
mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocation
can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and
disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is
Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal
mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.
The evil of mesmerism
402:20
We say that one human mind can influence another and
in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that
we govern our own bodies. The error, mes-
merism – or hypnotism, to use the recent term
– illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would
make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily
and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield
to this influence, it is because their belief is not better
instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof
that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce
both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or
pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be
a belief without a real cause.
Wrong-doer should suffer
403:1
So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own
diseased conditions. The great difference between vol-
untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol-
untary mesmerism is induced consciously and
should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self‑
mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake
a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under-
stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the
second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect.
The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in
one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real-
ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be
healed only by the divine Mind.
Error's power imaginary
403:14
You command the situation if you understand that
mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the
truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly
producing on mortal body the results of false
opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal
error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth,
which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion.
The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spir-
itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal-
ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from
dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint
your patient with it.
Disease-production
403:26
The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike
the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the
nature of a case, and the practitioner improves
or injures the case in proportion to the truth
or error which influences his conclusions. The mental
conception and development of disease are not under-
stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar
404:1
with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case
according to Christian Science.
Appetites to be abandoned
404:3
If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special
servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and
destroy these errors with the truth of being, –
by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering
which his submission to such habits brings, and by con-
vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-
tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body.
Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and
you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked
motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the
repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the
individual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is
fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy
sinner is the hardened sinner.
Temperance reform
404:17
The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results
from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree
that brings not forth good fruit. This con-
viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin,
is one of the most important points in the theology of
Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and
true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure,
and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and
increases his ability to master evil and to love good.
Sin or fear the root of sickness
404:26
Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and
the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require
the same method and are inseparable in Truth.
Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth,
make a man sick, and neither material medi-
cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body,
unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him
405:1
from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.
Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence
of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the
lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.
Mental conspirators
405:5
Christian Science commands man to master the pro-
pensities, – to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness,
to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with
charity, and to overcome deceit with hon-
esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you
would not cherish an army of conspirators against
health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you
to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The
judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of
the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and
body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing
is paid, – until you have balanced your account with
God. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of
sin. This is sin's necessity, – to destroy itself. Im-
mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good,
in which is no power to sin.
Cumulative repentence
405:22
It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth
than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con-
science. The abiding consciousness of wrong‑
doing tends to destroy the ability to do right.
If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is
hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are con-
quered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills they
bring. The pains of sinful sense are less harmful than its
pleasures. Belief in material suffering causes mortals to
retreat from their error, to flee from body to Spirit, and
to appeal to divine sources outside of themselves.
The leaves of healing
406:1
The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. "The
leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
Sin and sickness are both healed by the same
Principle. The tree is typical of man's divine
Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering
full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin will
submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and
forms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated
in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. "Per-
fect Love casteth out fear."
Sickness will abate
406:11
The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and
spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.
Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will
abate and seem less real as we approach the
scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and
all that is unlike the true likeness disappears. The moral
man has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he
should be as fearless on the question of disease.
Resist to the end
406:19
Resist evil – error of every sort – and it will flee from
you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately
shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direc-
tion of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life
over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go
on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no
more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of
any kind involves weakness and suffering, – a loss of
control over the body.
Morbid cravings
406:28
The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco,
tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery
of the body. This normal control is gained
through divine strength and understanding.
There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a
407:1
fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp
remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to
man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of to-
bacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no crea-
ture except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting.
Universal panacea
407:6
Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters –
passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge – is con-
quered only by a mighty struggle. Every
hour of delay makes the struggle more severe.
If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush
out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian
Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the
weakness of mortal mind, – strength from the immortal
and omnipotent Mind, – and lifting humanity above
itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and
good-will to man.
407:17
Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris-
tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire
and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness,
and existence.
Immortal memory
407:21
If delusion says, "I have lost my memory," contra-
dict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all
being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni-
ous in every action. Let the perfect model be
present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op-
posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light,
and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your
consciousness.
Sin a form of insanity
407:29
There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan-
ity in different degrees. Sin is spared from
this classification, only because its method of
madness is in consonance with common mortal belief.
408:1
Every sort of sickness is error, – that is, sickness is
loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact
that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac-
knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are
sick.
408:6
There is a universal insanity of so-called health, which
mistakes fable for fact throughout the entire round of the
material senses, but this general craze cannot, in a scien-
tific diagnosis, shield the individual case from the special
name of insanity. Those unfortunate people who are
committed to insane asylums are only so many distinctly
defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor-
tal minds and bodies.
Drugs and brain-lobes
408:14
The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use
of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species of
insanity. Can drugs go of their own accord
to the brain and destroy the so-called inflam-
mation of disordered functions, thus reaching mortal
mind through matter? Drugs do not affect a corpse, and
Truth does not distribute drugs through the blood, and
from them derive a supposed effect on intelligence and sen-
timent. A dislocation of the tarsal joint would produce
insanity as perceptibly as would congestion of the brain,
were it not that mortal mind thinks that the tarsal joint is
less intimately connected with the mind than is the brain.
Reverse the belief, and the results would be perceptibly
different.
Matter and animate error
408:28
The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra-
tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of
the body which we call sensation in matter
is unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of it-
self, – ignorant of the errors it includes and of their
409:1
effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You
may say: "But if disease obtains in matter, why do
you insist that disease is formed by mortal mind and
not by matter?" Mortal mind and body combine as
one, and the nearer matter approaches its final state-
ment, – animate error called nerves, brain, mind, – the
more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease-
beliefs.
Dictation of error
409:9
Unconscious mortal mind – alias matter, brain – can-
not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, "I am sick."
The belief, that the unconscious substratum
of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and
reports disease independently of this so-called conscious
mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing
how to govern their bodies.
So-called superiority
409:16
The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to be
superior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and
the stronger never yields to the weaker, ex-
cept through fear or choice. The animate
should be governed by God alone. The real man is
spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect
so-called "children of men" are counterfeits from the
beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This
mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put
on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man
and seek the true model.
Death no benefactor
409:27
We have no right to say that life depends on matter
now, but will not depend on it after death. We cannot
spend our days here in ignorance of the Science
of Life, and expect to find beyond the grave
a reward for this ignorance. Death will not make us
harmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance.
410:1
If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is
spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual
Life hereafter.
Life eternal and present
410:4
"This is life eternal," says Jesus, – is, not shall be;
and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge
of his Father and of himself, – the knowledge
of Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eter-
nal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The Scriptures
say, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," show-
ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind
objects to making this teaching practical.
Love casteth out fear
410:14
Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger.
The more difficult seems the material condition to be
overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our
faith and the purer our love. The Apostle
John says: "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love
casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made per-
fect in Love." Here is a definite and inspired proclama-
tion of Christian Science.
410:22
MENTAL TREATMENT ILLUSTRATED
Be not afraid
410:23
The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no
misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice of
Truth or Christian Science. If mental prac-
tice is abused or is used in any way except to
promote right thinking and doing, the power to heal
mentally will diminish, until the practitioner's healing
ability is wholly lost. Christian scientific practice be-
gins with Christ's keynote of harmony, "Be not afraid!"
411:1
Said Job: "The thing which I greatly feared is come
upon me."
Naming diseases
411:3
My first discovery in the student's practice was this:
If the student silently called the disease by name, when
he argued against it, as a general rule the body
would respond more quickly, – just as a per-
son replies more readily when his name is spoken; but
this was because the student was not perfectly attuned to
divine Science, and needed the arguments of truth for
reminders. If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear
witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific
way, and the healing is instantaneous.
Evils cast out
411:13
It is recorded that once Jesus asked the name of a dis-
ease, – a disease which moderns would call dementia.
The demon, or evil, replied that his name was
Legion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil,
and the insane man was changed and straightway be-
came whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesus
caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed.
Fear as the foundation
411:20
The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is
fear, ignorance, or sin. Disease is always induced by a
false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed.
Disease is an image of thought externalized.
The mental state is called a material state. Whatever
is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is
imaged forth on the body.
Unspoken pleading
411:27
Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear
of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemp-
tion from disease and danger. Watch the re-
sult of this simple rule of Christian Science,
and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every
disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear,
412:1
your patient is healed. The great fact that God lovingly
governs all, never punishing aught but sin, is your stand-
point, from which to advance and destroy the human fear
of sickness. Mentally and silently plead the case scien-
tifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet
the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat,
but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concern-
ing the truth which you think or speak, and you will be
the victor.
Eloquent silence
412:10
You may call the disease by name when you mentally
deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under
some circumstances to impress it upon the
thought. The power of Christian Science and
divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un-
clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.
Insistence requisite
412:16
To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth,
of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material
senses. To heal by argument, find the type
of the ailment, get its name, and array your
mental plea against the physical. Argue at first men-
tally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and
conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of
disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and
that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence
of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the
body corresponds with the normal conditions of health
and harmony.
The cure of infants
412:28
If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs
to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently
or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian
Science. The Scientist knows that there can
be no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent
413:1
and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, and
God, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter.
The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contem-
plation of physical wants or conditions induces those very
conditions. A single requirement, beyond what is neces-
sary to meet the simplest needs of the babe is harmful.
Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and
food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter
does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other
persons on these subjects produce good or bad effects on
the health of children.
Ablutions for cleanliness
413:12
The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural
nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish
out of water every day and covering it with dirt
in order to make it thrive more vigorously in its
own element. "Cleanliness is next to godliness," but
washing should be only for the purpose of keeping the
body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing the
whole surface daily. Water is not the natural habitat of
humanity. I insist on bodily cleanliness within and with-
out. I am not patient with a speck of dirt; but in caring
for an infant one need not wash his little body all over each
day in order to keep it sweet as the new-blown flower.
Juvenile ailments
413:24
Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of
flatulency, and constantly directing the mind to such
signs, – that mind being laden with illusions
about disease, health-laws, and death, – these
actions convey mental images to children's budding
thoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable
at any time that such ills may be reproduced in the very
ailments feared. A child may have worms, if you say so,
or any other malady, timorously held in the beliefs con-
414:1
cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of the
belief in disease and death, and thus are children educated
into discord.
Cure of insanity
414:4
The treatment of insanity is especially interesting.
However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than
do most diseases to the salutary action of
truth, which counteracts error. The argu-
ments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in
other diseases: namely, the impossibility that matter,
brain, can control or derange mind, can suffer or cause
suffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish
a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or the
thought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it is
called dementia, hatred, or any other discord.
414:15
To fix truth steadfastly in your patients' thoughts, ex-
plain Christian Science to them, but not too soon, – not
until your patients are prepared for the explanation, –
lest you array the sick against their own interests by troub-
ling and perplexing their thought. The Christian Scien-
tist's argument rests on the Christianly scientific basis of
being. The Scripture declares, "The Lord He is God
[good]; there is none else beside Him." Even so, harmony
is universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de-
clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neither
feels, suffers, nor enjoys. Hold these points strongly in
view. Keep in mind the verity of being, – that man is
the image and likeness of God, in whom all being is
painless and permanent. Remember that man's perfec-
tion is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is
blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine
Love.
Matter is not inflamed
414:32
Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an
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