Death and the Ascension

In considering those things which are beyond my own perspective, I have often found it helpful to consider the limits of my physical sight as a metaphor.

When I stand on a beach and look towards the horizon, I see boats disappear off the edge. I cannot help but picture the dread our ancestors might have felt witnessing this phenomenon before humanity became certain there was something beyond that horizon. Did they really believe that they would see those explorers again?

More importantly I also wonder what may lie beyond the limits of my own perspective, metaphorically speaking. What is the equivalent in my life of our ancestor's horizon?

If I were to lift off from that beach on a hot air balloon, I would see those boats again. And as they disappeared into that new horizon, I could continue to rise, higher and higher, to see them again and again. I may have to employ some equipment along the way, like binoculars, and then a telescope, and eventually an astronaut suit and oxygen. But beyond these technical needs, the only true limits of my perspective would by my own limits on how far I was willing to rise.

While Jesus walked on the earth with us, the limits of his perspective seemed to broaden without limit. He seemed to rise continually, if you will, in his conscious understanding of man and existence.

When called upon to heal the deceased daughter of Jairus, who was a ruler of the synagogue, he declared that "... the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. …" but Jesus "... took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; …"*

Jesus saw and talked to the damsel others could no longer see. When called upon to visit his friend Lazarus, who had been dead four days already, he called out to him also, and Lazarus walked out of the cave where he had been buried.**

The horizon of Jesus' perspective kept moving farther and farther away. He continually elevated his point of view to resolve the problem at hand.

There is one more thing I love about the beach metaphor. If I continued to rise, I would also be moving beyond the limits of what those on the beach can see. Something entirely different would be happening with me than is happening with the boats. But though I would cross no physical horizon, I would be gone from that beach just the same in my ascent.

Jesus, of course, is famous for his resurrection. After being crucified, after dying, he "... stood in the midst of them, …"*** as his disciples talked together. But then he did something which seemed even farther beyond the limits of their perspectives. They saw him ascend—they literally saw him rise from among them—"... up into heaven."****

The falsity and illusion of physical experience not only leads to erroneous conclusions about the origin of consciousness, it leads to erroneous conclusions about its destination as well.

In Christian Science, man is neither fallen and damned nor the result of chance and material evolution, because the false beliefs of human consciousness cannot create consciousness or house it for any period of time. Hence, man does not leave physical bodies behind in order to reach heaven, nor decay until he disappears silently into oblivion. Only a false sense of reality in human belief can ever be lost.

Beholding the incredible implications of this new view of existence, the apostle Paul rejoices, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? ... But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."*

For a while I struggled with how to address death in this chapter. On the one hand it seemed to me that any discussion of consciousness and existence was incomplete without addressing the strong human belief in their opposite: death, darkness, oblivion, etc. On the other hand, death is a sensitive subject, and one I do not wish to handle hastily. The loss of a loved one is not an experience I want to trivialize.

I hope, therefore, that I am able to walk the line between being concise and being respectful correctly. I hope my comments inspire a deeper study of the subject in Eddy's revelation of the science behind its experience.

There are many examples of people being brought back from death in the scriptures through prayer alone, as well as examples in which prophets like Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, and others outside the canonized books overcame death themselves. From the perspective of Christian Science, these are demonstrations of that victory which Paul celebrates. He writes that, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."* While perhaps the most difficult, death is an experience to be overcome, not an insurmountable obstacle.

There are also recorded instances in which Eddy or one of her followers brought someone back to life in modern times through Christian Science mental treatment. These are fairly well documented and searchable in the archives of The Mary Baker Eddy Library and The Christian Science Publishing Society.**

Then there are countless experiences throughout history outside of Christianity that defy the general human beliefs about death. One that gained a lot of attention in recent times is that of Doctor Eben Alexander, who experienced being clinically dead for a significant period of time before regaining consciousness. His case is particularly interesting because of his specific medical qualifications. In his book, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife, he systematically refutes each of the standard scientific dismissals of experiences like his. Then he illustrates his conviction that the brain does not create consciousness, and that consciousness does not end in bodily death.

Death has been compared to childbirth by many who believe in an afterlife. This is a useful metaphor because the transition of childbirth would seem as irreversible to a fetus as death seems to most of humanity. Also, accounts of the afterlife are often so otherworldly that they seem as hard to comprehend for the living as baby-life would seem for the unborn.

However, perhaps a better metaphor would be the version of space-travel depicted in the movie Contact, because people sometimes do come back from that other world. For those who want to avoid the spoilers, you can skip the next two paragraphs without missing the point.

In the film, the main character, Dr. Eleanor Arroway or Ellie, visits a faraway planet. The round trip is accomplished using technology so advanced that the rest of the world never sees her taking the journey. From the world's perspective, her trip never took place. From her perspective, it most certainly did. The different views yielded different experiences and narratives for the same event.

Ellie's journey is so otherworldly her words are inadequate to describe it or to say anything significant about it. Inside the spaceship she mumbles, "some celestial event. No - no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should've sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful... I had no idea." Ellie simply does not have the perspective to process or articulate what she is experiencing in a meaningful way.

We may expect afterlife accounts to share commonalities, especially given the accepted cultural expectations concerning the afterlife. Expectation, as an aspect of belief, plays a role in experience.

However, we should also expect that, as a whole, we have simply lacked the perspective to process or articulate these brief experiences of that which we understand so little. Afterlife accounts in human history have been far and few between, and usually hard to analyze in any sort of scientific way.

We still do not have a common understanding for nightly dreams, which most of us expect daily. In the afterlife, we are stepping beyond the limits of the general human belief and expectation.

Some of the most important aspects of Eddy's discovery concerning the subject of death for the context of this chapter are as follows. First, Eddy thoroughly addresses the belief in ghosts in a chapter of her textbook entitled Christian Science versus Spiritualism. For our purposes the following paragraph will suffice:

"Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are mysterious 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."*

In Christian Science, ghosts or apparitions are not very different from the illusion of a material universe, material bodies, and the entirety of material experience. The ghost itself, if it is not a trick or hoax, is a projection of mortal mind beheld by itself. It is not a person. In fact, the apparition is not even a misunderstood interaction with a departed person. As Eddy puts it, "No correspondence nor communion can exist between persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having died and left a material body and the belief of still living in an organic, material body."**

We will see those who are beyond that horizon again when our view of existence is elevated enough to see them as they really are. And not only them but aspects of existence before unseen. "As mortals gain more correct views of God and man," writes Eddy, "multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is [Mind], never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in [the infinite Mind], good, and needing no other consciousness."***

As for the experience of the person dying, she writes, "If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being are not in the least understood before what is termed death overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher [mentally] in the scale of existence on account of that single experience, but will remain as material as before the transition, still seeking happiness through a material, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from selfish and inferior motives."****

We can think of this as the opposite of the belief in reincarnation. Reincarnation suggests that a mind or soul moves from one material body to the next after death. Christian Science explains that Mind never inhabits matter, but the false human belief continually develops the experience of a material body in human consciousness, before and after it believes to have died.

Eddy explains, " Mortals waken from the dream of death with bodies unseen by those who think that they bury the body."*****

"As man falleth asleep, so shall he awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be after death, until probation and growth shall effect the needed change. ... No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment-day of wisdom comes hourly and continually, even the judgment by which mortal man is divested of all material error. As for spiritual error there is none."******

In other words, the dream of life in matter may continue indefinitely, for humanity and for the individual, until the belief in death is overcome. Material belief must be eradicated from the human consciousness. In Eddy's words, "It is a warfare with the flesh, in which we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here or hereafter, — certainly before we can reach the goal of Spirit, or life in God."*******

The basis for this discovery is once again the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Re-visiting his experience of death, Eddy writes that, "The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being. His three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. He proved Life to be deathless ..."*

Jesus had overcome the general belief in death. He had defeated that last enemy.

He had risen above that horizon to continue teaching his disciples, who now saw him once again unchanged, and gained a truer appreciation for the implications of his teachings.

Then he continued to rise, until he was gone from among them nonetheless. He had gone beyond the limits of their perspectives. He had reached that true sense of life, of heaven, which they could neither imagine, process, or comprehend.

"... the word which ye hear is not mine," Jesus had told his disciples, "but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."*

This Comforter, this Holy Ghost which would teach us all things and bring to remembrance the theology and works of Jesus, is that promised second coming of Christ, around which many religious philosophies and doctrines have been developed. Eddy sees it as "... an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a phenomenal exhibition. … for its establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; ..."**

This Christ, this manifestation of Mind, is once again ignored, misunderstood, and even despised by the general belief. Yet, it has come in every age to the individual conscious thought prepared to receive it. It was recorded biblically in the Day of Pentecost, in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, in the Revelation of St. John, and others. Today, it continues to come to the thought prepared for it, and it is recorded by those who follow in the footsteps of its early recipients.

"Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass," prophesied Jesus, "till all these things be done."***

"And he said unto them, ... ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: ... And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."****

The Christ, which they perceived to be and experienced as the man Jesus, had disappeared from the view of the apostles. His expression of Mind had risen God-ward, which they believed to be and experienced as upward, towards the sky.

As the heavenly message declared, that Christ would return.

"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. ... And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, ... and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles."*****

The Christ had come directly to their consciousness, instead of indirectly as the man Jesus. They perceived once again the divine manifestation of God. They now owned the means by which to solve more complex problems of the human experience. They themselves had risen to some degree.

This second coming was not a mystical, cosmic event at the end of time. It was the individual's present awakening from the dream of life in matter to spiritual existence. It was the expansion of their mental horizon.

"If ye love me," Jesus had told them, "keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."******

Eddy writes, "This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science."*******

ON CONSCIOUSNESS and the Christian Science view of existence

Death and the Ascension