Part 44 (1/2)

Mortal verdict

294:9 The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This mortal belief, misnamed _man_, is error, saying: 294:12 ”Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man.”

294:15 This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology, to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed 294:18 by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.

Mythical pleasure

The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre- senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that 294:21 life and intelligence are in matter, show the pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in 294:24 which matter is represented as divided into intelligent G.o.ds.

Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by 294:27 mortals. G.o.d created man.

The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica- tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal- 294:30 ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon- strates the falsity of error.

Severed members

295:1 The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca- tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which 295:3 are no longer there, is an added proof of the un- reliability of physical testimony.

Mortals unlike immortals

G.o.d creates and governs the universe, including man.

295:6 The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them. Mortal mind would trans- 295:9 form the spiritual into the material, and then recover man's original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, 295:12 created in G.o.d's own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and 295:15 forever intact, will appear.

Goodness transparent

The manifestation of G.o.d through mortals is as light pa.s.sing through the window-pane. The light and the 295:18 gla.s.s never mingle, but as matter, the gla.s.s is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that 295:21 one which has lost much materiality - much error - in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides 295:24 the sun.

Brainology a myth

All that is called mortal thought is made up of error.

The theoretical mind is matter, named _brain_, or _mate_- 295:27 _rial consciousness_, the exact opposite of real Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that mortals are created to suffer and die. It further 295:30 teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the- orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat- 296:1 ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual, 296:3 eternal reflection of G.o.d.

Scientific purgation

Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for 296:6 the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf- fering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense 296:9 and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off.

Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic 296:12 matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.

The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish, 296:15 and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with 296:18 them.

Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de- 296:21 pends upon the tenacity of error.

Mixed testimony

The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit 296:24 and matter, Truth and error, seems to com- mingle, it rests upon foundations which time is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony 296:27 of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error, and aids in taking the next step and in understanding 296:30 the situation in Christian Science.

Belief an autocrat

Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving power. It says to mortals, ”You are wretched!” and they 297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until the belief changes. Mortal belief says, ”You are happy!”

297:3 and mortals are so; and no circ.u.mstance can alter the situation, until the belief on this sub- ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, ”You are 297:6 sick!” and this testimony manifests itself on the body as sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into 297:9 the understanding of what const.i.tutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition.

Self-improvement