If our experience is wholly mental, as Christian Science proposes, it may be fair to begin by asking why physical or matter-based practices often seem more consistent than spiritual practices. For example, why does medical science seem to be more exact and provable than meditations or philosophies?
As mentioned in the previous chapter, from the perspective of Christian Science matter is the objective state of an erroneous and subjective perspective. In other words, matter is how limited or relative concepts are experienced in the human consciousness.
Of course, this experience, what Eddy calls material sense, is an activity in thought because it is the experience of a perspective. Hence, any study of the objective state of this material sense, such as medical science, is in reality a study of mental conditions, though it may be humanly misunderstood as a physical or matter-based practice. The misunderstanding arises from the perspective that Mind is limited, and that matter is an entity or aspect of existence, something separate from consciousness.
Looking at existence from an erroneous perspective, we may nonetheless arrive at answers that approximate what we are experiencing. For example, when Isaac Newton looked at his famous falling apple from the perspective that there was a gravitational force pulling objects towards the earth, he was able to develop a system of laws and equations that described our experience of gravity quite accurately. In fact, we use Newton's physics today to calculate the trajectory of an apple, a football, or a meteor as they make their way towards the ground.
Two hundred years later, however, Albert Einstein would develop a new system which would prove Newton's perspective to be, while a useful approximation of our human experience of gravity, not what was going on in reality.
Einstein discovered that what we feel as gravity is actually the way a mass bends the four-dimensional fabric of time and space. This was not an intuitive perspective like Newton's. We experience life as three-dimensional, and though we may feel the passage of time, we tend not to think of time as a dimension like the spatial dimensions. Nevertheless, Einstein's four-dimensional perspective could be proved to be more accurate than Newton's three-dimensional perspective.
You see, whereas Newton's equations described the movement of human-scale objects like apples and footballs quite well, they became less and less accurate for very large, cosmic-scale objects like planets and galaxies. Einstein's equations, on the the other hand, described both perfectly.
Over time, Einstein's work would revolutionize the study of the physical world, leading to further perspectives and discoveries like quantum theory, which in turn would begin to show cracks in his theories as well.
Einstein's equations are still very useful today. When you use your phone's GPS navigation capabilities, the mathematics Einstein developed account for the difference between how fast time passes for you on the surface of the earth and for the satellite which is farther from it, pinpointing your location with remarkable accuracy. But while these mathematics describe the movement of human and cosmic-scale objects flawlessly, they are completely inaccurate in the description of very small, quantum-scale objects like electrons.
Einstein's perspective, after all, was still an approximation. It described certain relative, physical phenomena, but it did not describe the all-encompassing reality underlying the development of these phenomena. Though more accurate than Newton's theories, Einstein's theories still misunderstood the objective state of material sense, in this case the four-dimensional fabric of time and space, to be an actual entity or aspect of existence outside of consciousness.
From a relative, human perspective, it would be accurate to say that the observation-based approximations of physics and medical science are more correct than the faith-based doctrines of religion and philosophy, as they relate to physical experience. From an absolute perspective, however, all fundamentally misunderstand existence.
A misstatement in a theory yields inconsistencies or limitations in its practice.
Eddy writes that, "... what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness."* There are no material practices, because there are no material experiences. All human experience being mental all human practices are mental, though seeming to tackle different aspects of experience, the material or the spiritual, according to the beliefs entertained.
Thus in the strictest sense, physical or medical sciences based on material theories and experimentation are misstated mental practices, while prayers or meditations based on superstitions or false doctrines are unscientific mental practices. All are experienced as concepts in the human consciousness.
One human practice may seem more consistent, exact, fruitful, or provable than the other in a specific area of human experience. But their relative rates of success depend ultimately on the rules that govern the experience of thoughts, not on the physical or religious theories that these practices suggest.
“Many imagine," writes Eddy, "that the phenomena of physical healing in Christian Science present only a phase of the action of the human mind, which action in some unexplained way results in the cure of disease."* However, after attempting unsuccessfully to find permanent healing for decades through the religious and medical offerings of her day, she discovered instead that all methods, except for the science of the Christ, “... are the fruits of human faith in matter, — faith in the workings, not of [the infinite Mind], but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science."**
The kindergartner’s trust in his teacher’s wisdom grows from faith to understanding. He advances from merely believing that the answer is 4 to understanding the reason why. Then the rules and tools gained from this knowledge become applicable to all kinds of math problems in perpetuity. The student now owns the means by which to resolve more complex equations.
For Eddy, faith in God must also grow into an understanding of God—an understanding of reality. As she puts it, until "... faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine."***
Creation, the conscious identity of being, is the infinite Mind’s compound idea. This understanding was so completely exemplified by Jesus, the most scientific teacher of that reality, that he saw himself as begotten of that Mind, inseparable from that Mind, and even incapable of any action which did not proceed from it. He said, "I can of mine own self do nothing: …"**** and " I and my Father are one."***** Hence, he healed multitudes, reformed sinners, and brought people back from death, including himself. Jesus owned the means by which to solve the more complex problems of human experience.
Following his example, we can start our own work today. We can address the simpler problems of our immediate circumstances through a higher understanding of ourselves and our fellow human beings. We are valuable ideas of the one infinite Mind, rather than flesh and blood, sinful and fallen mortals.
Building on a strong foundation that demonstrates our moral strength and genuine love for one another—our understanding that there is only one parent source, one cause and creator—we achieve the proof, the demonstration, of Mind’s government over all.
As the apostle Paul discovered, “... we have the mind of Christ."****** In reality, there is no other.
Here, we can bring this chapter to a close by answering the second BIG question in summary of the chapter's main idea:
- What is consciousness, and how, specifically, does consciousness relate to human experience?
In absolute terms, consciousness is the activity of the infinite Mind which is existence itself.
In relative terms, however, the human consciousness is the human sense of thought, which can include the real ideas of the infinite Mind as well as the misstated or inaccurate concepts of false belief and misunderstanding.
The general belief of the human consciousness is felt as the human experience unless corrected scientifically. It is governed by the majority of thoughts entertained by this false sense of existence. Individual dissent or faith, unless it rests on Science, is only a belief held by a minority with no reality or power of its own.
Like all scientific discoveries, this perspective is to be proved rather than believed. It is to be demonstrated in individual human thought and experience. The results may be inherently counterintuitive to the limited and erroneous perspectives of materialism, but they belong to the lineage of mental scientific revelation and healing throughout history. They are the relative steps of progress which uncover real existence, evolve general belief, and uplift humanity.