Mighty Thoughts and Strong Illusions

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

Having embarked on this journey of examining the causes and cures of disease in our world, I’ve been asked how someone like me, who was raised in Christian Science, and has spent the last three decades in sincere spiritual study, could possibly have lower-leg amputations! I’ve already stated that we should not blame ourselves for disease, and I’m not attempting to do that here. But at an early age, my mom’s brother lost limbs due to disease. There was such fear expressed by the whole family over this occurrence, that I distinctly remember thinking it was the worst thing that could happen to a person. While I never dwelt on these thoughts as an adult, they were always with me — as is anything which makes an impact on us, particularly as a child. I’m not attempting to find a cause, but I do know that the growth I have experienced in the past decade far exceeds that which would have occurred if I was tiptoeing through the tulips, happily in a relationship, with plenty of cash in the bank. The joy I’ve experienced recently has been total, with no regrets or wishes for something different. The only reason I tell you this is so there is no question about why my life isn’t “perfect”, if I’m so absolutely certain about the Truth of our Being. Please continue loving every little minute of this existence, knowing that whatever is happening is a doorway to something — and, oh, what an adventure it is, following that path!

“What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the world except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thoughts’ effects. It is but when their source is raised to question that the hope of freedom comes to him at last.”
—A Course in Miracles W-132.1:1-7

“It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. It is enough to let the present be accepted as it is. It is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to bring in passing by.”
—A Course in Miracles W-110.2:2-4

“A correct view of Christian Science and of its adaptation to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen. Works on metaphysics leave the grand point untouched. They never crown the power of Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against physical enemies, — even to the extinction of all belief in matter, evil, disease, and death, — nor insist upon the fact that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an image in mortal mind.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 116:11-18

“That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so-called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth. It would wield the scepter of a monarch, but it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and saves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored to make this book the Aesculapius of mind as well as of body, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them, although they know not how the work is done. Truth has a healing effect, even when not fully understood.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 151:31-8

The Only Choice We Need To Make

Photo courtesy of Blake Lasater

The relationship of sickness/health to our thoughts is a hot topic on many levels! First of all, it is NOT your fault for being sick, even though our thoughts may open the door for it. If every erroneous thought we had caused us to fall victim to that malady or situation, we’d be in horrid shape, would we not?? And if it was as easy as affirming our perfection and the symptoms we are experiencing would disappear, then we would all be well — right? So it is both more complicated than this, and far more simple, too. Let’s examine how we could come down with a disease we’ve never heard of before: collective consciousness. We are all one, if we share the same consciousness which is the “soup” of the Universe. If we are not “clad in the panoply of Love” (as Mrs. Eddy phrases it), we are leaving the door open to the myriad of erroneous thoughts this world presents to us. This is where it gets a bit tricky: it’s not simply a matter of thinking our way out of situations. It’s a product of holding our thoughts in line with the Truth of our Being — and doing so to the extent that nothing else has room to invade our mind. We are training ourselves to think with divine Mind, not with material, mortal mind. This way of living can, indeed, be learned, but it takes diligence. It’s terribly easy to fall into the ditch and wallow with the baser elements. The important thing to remember is that we have a choice. And if we slip and fall, choose again!

“And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made; we choose between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and Heaven. Let our gratitude unto our Teacher fill our hearts, as we are free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world.”
—A Course in Miracles W-190.11:1-2

“The moral and spiritual facts of health, whispered into thought, produce very direct and marked effects on the body. A physical diagnosis of disease — since mortal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 370:18-22

Mental Contagion

Art by Elise McDonald

Certain subjects have been coming up regularly, but I have chosen to put them back on the shelf — so to speak. Usually, if I keep getting prompts about something, I’m willing to look at the elephant in the room, no matter how inconvenient it might be. The subject of disease, and its causes and cures, brings up so many instances in my memory that I don’t know where to start. I think I’ll go with the first time I realized the extent of resistance to the subject from the general population. When I first moved to Eureka Springs, one of my neighbors had two little dogs. We spoke often when I was playing in my flowerbeds. Although we were not close, we were friendly. She often told me about her physical problems. One day she told me that her two little dogs had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and diabetes. These are the two maladies which she was being treated for, also. I couldn’t help laughing when she told me (unfortunately), so I was forced to tell her what I found amusing. In our metaphysical studies, we are learning that all disease is mental. Her dogs having the same maladies as hers seemed to prove how disease actually spreads. I suppose my explanation wasn’t as empathetic as it could have been, because the woman became angry and said I was accusing her of making her dogs sick. That instance shows what a slippery slope we embark on with this subject. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me!

“We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection. When this mental contagion is understood, we shall be more careful of our mental conditions, and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish error in any form, and certainly we should not be error’s advocate.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 153:25-3

“Think of the freedom in the recognition that you are not bound by all the strange and twisted laws you have set up to save you. You really think that you would starve unless you have stacks of green paper strips and piles of metal discs. You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death. You really think you are alone unless another body is with you.

“It is insanity that thinks these things. You call them laws, and put them under different names in a long catalogue of rituals that have no use and serve no purpose. You think you must obey the ‘laws’ of medicine, of economics and of health. Protect the body, and you will be saved.

“These are not laws, but madness. The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself. The body suffers just in order that the mind will fail to see it is the victim of itself. The body’s suffering is a mask the mind holds up to hide what really suffers. It would not understand it is its own enemy; that it attacks itself and wants to die. It is from this your ‘laws’ would save the body. It is for this you think you are a body.

“There are no laws except the laws of God. This needs repeating, over and over, until you realize it applies to everything that you have made in opposition to God’s Will. Your magic has no meaning. What it is meant to save does not exist. Only what it is meant to hide will save you.

“The laws of God can never be replaced. We will devote today to rejoicing that this is so. It is no longer a truth that we would hide. We realize instead it is a truth that keeps us free forever. Magic imprisons, but the laws of God make free. The light has come because there are no laws but His.”
—A Course in Miracles W-76.3:1–7:6

Can Religion Be Scientific?

“Discovery and Revelation: Religion, Science, and Making Sense of Things” is an exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. In this relatively small space, they examine the intersections of religion and science in American culture. Three prompting questions frame the exhibit: “What does it mean to be human? What do we owe each other? What is our place in the universe?” In this exhibit, you will find the Apollo 8 flight manual and Charles Darwin’s 1860 book, “On the Origin of Species”. This collection is meant to cause us to think, and reading about it certainly got me to thinking! I did not know there was something called Thomas Jefferson’s Bible, one in which he had excised all references to Jesus’ healings and metaphysical teachings. There is a portrait of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells were used after her death, without her or her family’s permission. Corporations have made billions of dollars from these cells, with nothing benefiting her family. In the portrait she is holding a Bible and the question is asked: What do we owe each other? The purpose of this exhibit and its fascinating items and facts is not to give us answers, but to cause us to ask questions of ourselves and our beliefs. In the center of the exhibit there are eight figures with the question,” Can religion be scientific?” Of course, the discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, is one of those eight. I look forward to finding more information on this!

“Jesus established what he said by demonstration, thus making his acts of higher importance than his words. He proved what he taught. This is the Science of Christianity.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 473:26-28

“All magic is an attempt at reconciling the irreconcilable. All religion is the recognition that the irreconcilable cannot be reconciled. Sickness and perfection are irreconcilable. If God created you perfect, you are perfect. If you believe you can be sick, you have placed other gods before Him. God is not at war with the god of sickness you made, but you are. He is the symbol of deciding against God, and you are afraid of him because he cannot be reconciled with God’s Will. If you attack him, you will make him real to you. But if you refuse to worship him in whatever form he may appear to you, and wherever you think you see him, he will disappear into the nothingness out of which he was made.”
—A Course in Miracles T-10.IV.1:1-9

We See What We Want

Art by Catrin Welz-Stein

I often wonder if we are hesitant to live from the heart because we worry others might think we're foolish. When we insist on seeing as Mind sees, rather than through the interpretation of human belief, we are often looked at askance! I remember once when I was in a monthly meeting of gallery owners in our town and the talk turned to theft in their shops. I turned my attention away from the discussion and was looking into a corner, thinking about something else, when suddenly I noticed everyone had stopped talking. I looked up and saw they were all looking at me! Someone asked me what I thought about this situation and I honestly told them that thievery was not a part of my existence and I didn't want to make it a reality by giving it energy. Someone said, Good for you! And the conversation continued in a different vein. With that in mind, I will not hesitate to wander away from discussions centered on fearful beliefs or angry reactions, while reinterpreting them with the Love which defines our being.

“Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts."
—Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 261:4-7

“You are not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. You can give it up as easily as you made it up. You will see it or not see it, as you wish. While you want it you will see it; when you no longer want it, it will not be there for you to see.”
—A Course in Miracles W-32.1:2-5

The Gift of Peace

JudyClementWall.com

Praying for peace — I think we are all doing this in our individual way. It is extremely painful to see the ravages of war. It’s difficult to face and understand the unrest within the United States over more things than I care to count. With this in mind, I offer you quotes on peace today. Namaste …

"We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate - thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising."

Maya Angelou

"Peace is our gift to each other." 

Elie Wiesel

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." 

John F. Kennedy

"There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity." 

Elise M. Boulding

"Every year at this time, an important phrase marks the season: peace on earth and goodwill towards men. It's so common we sometimes forget about what it really means - that we strive for a world without war, a society where we respect and help our neighbors, a place where we protect and uplift our most in need. This isn't a phrase we should live by for one day or one month. It's a set of values that must bond and motivate us every day." 

Dennis Kucinich

“We cannot give what we do not have: We cannot bring peace to the world if we ourselves are not peaceful. We cannot bring love to the world if we ourselves are not loving. Our true gift to ourselves and others lies not in what we have but in who we are.”

Marianne Williamson

"The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress." 

Mary Baker Eddy 

“Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself. The meeting of illusions leads to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. War is the condition in which fear is born, and grows and seeks to dominate. Peace is the state where love abides, and seeks to share itself. Conflict and peace are opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes the other disappears. So is the memory of God obscured in minds that have become illusions’ battleground. Yet far beyond this senseless war it shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace.” 

A Course in Miracles

Perceptions of Reality

Art by Jessie Willcox Smith, 1920s

“I'm not strange, weird, off, nor crazy, my reality is just different from yours.”

Lewis Carroll 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

When I saw this quote, paired with this painted scene, my thoughts turned to instances when friends and acquaintances have laughed and expressed disbelief in the face of my unrelenting positivity. But the fact is, when someone is relating a tale of woe, very seldom do I see their situation as sadly as they do. While I’m almost always willing to help those in need, I don’t think of sympathetic agreement as helpful. I’m pretty sure Lewis Carroll would enjoy the principles of A Course in Miracles, and it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he and Mary Baker Eddy enjoyed tea and conversation on occasion! Wherever you are, go forth with joy on this fabulous day, enjoying your reality in all its difference!

“As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.’ Like the archpriests of yore, man is free ‘to enter into the holiest,’ — the realm of God.”
—Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 480:31-6

“I cannot unite your will with God’s for you, but I can erase all misperceptions from your mind if you will bring it under my guidance. Only your misperceptions stand in your way. Without them your choice is certain. Sane perception induces sane choosing. I cannot choose for you, but I can help you make your own right choice. ‘Many are called but few are chosen’ should be, ‘All are called but few choose to listen.’ Therefore, they do not choose right. The ‘chosen ones’ are merely those who choose right sooner. Right minds can do this now, and they will find rest unto their souls. God knows you only in peace, and this is your reality.”
—A Course in Miracles T-3.IV.7:7-16