Chapter XII - Christian Science Practice
Sin a form of insanity
408:1
Every sort of sickness is error, – that is, sickness is
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
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
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-
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
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-
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
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
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.