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| "Running in Forest Park, St. Louis, MO" photo by Heather Magnan |
“It can be but myself I crucify.”
It seems to me that this juncture in our studies could be ripe for a reaction of mortal mind, or ego, which Mary Baker Eddy termed chemicalization. During a twelve-day intensive class in Christian Science, I experienced this backlash in thought. Everything I was learning seemed silly and irrelevant. My supposedly logical mind came up with all sorts of reasons why I should turn away from the teachings of divine metaphysics and go back to the so-called safety of muddled material thought. This seeming-crises may manifest itself in numerous ways, but the basic experience is one of lapsing back into thoughts and actions which you relinquish during a change from material belief to spiritual understanding. In A Course in Miracles, it could be seen as the ego attempting to remain in control, keeping you from experiencing the salvation realized by accepting Truth. This is the point in this course where we are repeatedly told that we are on the brink of realizing salavation, revelation, heaven. Let's not be afraid if the belief systems we have put into practice throughout the years begin to talk back to us in protest of our new way of thinking! We have the tools to stand fast in our knowledge. We have each other as reminders in support. We have inner knowing to tap into for verification on our path. We can move onward, upward, inward, fearless and secure in Love.
Mary Baker Eddy quotes:
“Here let a word be noticed which will be better understood hereafter,--chemicalization. By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis. S&H Page 168:30
“What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal belief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case with a fermenting fluid.”
S&H Page 401:16
“Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.” S&H Page 96:21
