Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism
Mental contact
86:1
Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone,
his disciples answered, "The multitude throng
thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that
it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called
for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the
faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this
mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples'
misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus
possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.
Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce
unlike results.
Images of thought
86:13
Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-
rious only because it is unusual to see
thoughts, though we can always feel their
influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual
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
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
there is none.
Phenomena explained
86:25
Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences,
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
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
with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive
these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce
them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind
in which they are discoverable.
Mental environment
87:5
It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-
It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-
ing the transferred picture to be individually and con-
sciously present. Though individuals have
passed away, their mental environment re-
mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though
bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten,
their associations float in the general atmosphere of human
mind.
Second sight
87:13
The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when
The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when
really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents
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
not as a mesmerist.
Buried secrets
87:19
The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its
The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its
rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns,
of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships
that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which
lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not
suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do
not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The
strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend-
ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind‑
readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions.
Recollected friends
87:29
Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We
Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We
have but to close the eyes, and forms rise
before us, which are thousands of miles away
or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and