Have you ever seen a scale model of an atom? If I drew one on an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, it would consist of a tiny dot at the center, representing the nucleus, and an appropriate number of other tiny dots, smaller than could be seen by the naked eye, representing the electrons. All of these infinitesimally tiny dots would be made up of smaller particles, called quarks, or whatever. (Hey, I'm no scientist.)
The physical sciences, all the reality discernable by our five senses, is the science of those tiny dots.
Christian Science is the science of all the rest of it.
There is no overlap between the two sciences (PS & CS, for short). The realm of one is completely independent of the realm of the other. And we each experience life in the science where we invest our attention, in the proportion that we invest.
The CS science is the realm of Spirit, of infinite Mind. In this science, this substance or reality, there is no gender. There is no body. There is no death. This substance is the same throughout all space; there is no place you can go to escape it. We all live inside this substance-space of Spirit. The science that Mary Baker Eddy developed states that substance is Mind; that "all is Mind." The PS science is the realm of the earth, of mortals, of death, and it occupies only a relatively tiny, very limited existence.
One of these must be superior to the other in power and effect; and that one is the realm of Spirit, because it is the one that can influence the other. Nothing within the power or realm of PS can affect that "empty" space at all. On the other hand, the realm of PS is completely mutable. Experiments such as Schrodinger's Cat demonstrate the paradox of the physical sciences and senses. In his book, The Self-Aware Universe, Amit Goswami relates an experiment that showed a particle in two places at the same time – until it was observed, at which point it became solid in one place. (I'm relating this from memory, so if I get it wrong, my apologies to Mr. Goswami – and my readers.) Even the existence of life is a conundrum in the physical sciences, because life can't be replicated, yet it is.
Mr. Goswami comes at this situation from a different angle than Mary Baker Eddy, but comes to some remarkably similar conclusions. "Marshalling evidence from recent research in cognitive psychology, biology, parapsychology and quantum physics, and leaning heavily on the ancient mystical traditions of the world, Goswami is building a case for a new paradigm that he calls "monistic idealism," the view that consciousness, not matter, is the foundation of everything that is." [emphasis mine] Mr. Goswami reaches this conclusion from his search into cognitive psychology, biology, and quantum physics; Mrs. Eddy reached what seems to me to be an identical conclusion solely by reading the Bible and studying the works of Jesus and the prophets.
Because the foundation of reality is consciousness (or Mind), not matter, our thought creates our reality.
My problem with Christian Science is, first, that it is presented to the world as a religion, rather than as a science. And second, that the literature of Christian Science is written in the language of patriarchy and judgment. This is understandable in Mrs. Eddy's case, given the culture in which she lived; but I find it disturbing in the literature which is being written today. I find it distracting, as I am constantly interpreting the language as I read, seeking the truth hidden within a very inadequate language.
Despite that challenge, I also find it fascinating. The power of consciousness, of Mind, has barely been unleashed upon a very malleable matter. Imagine what it can do to an oil slick.
4 comments:
Part I
Seda, I'm not sure where to begin. There's much I'd like to say, but space and time will not allow it.
You're right: Consciousness is at the heart of it.
It is the all of it. As you've suggested, you can say, accurately, consciousness is life, and life is consciousness. For sure, it's creating our many disparate realities.
Let's take it down a notch. I'm an out-of-body traveler/explorer. I have been most of my life.
I often experience the phenomenon of being in two places at the same time--inside my body, and outside my body--what I call bi-location, being in two places at the same time.
Whitley Strieber, the fame author and mystic, has on one occasion, perhaps more, experienced, during a dream state, of being discretely in several alternate realities all at once, without them overlapping, or intruding on the other.
Interested? Read more here.
Christian Science's Scientific Statement of Being is right on target, and is confirmed by my own experiences.
It says:
There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub-
stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite
manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal
12 Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and
eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is
God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore
15 man is not material; he is spiritual.
Here's what I've learned and the explanation that I have given on another blog I maintain, regarding the connection of the Soul and body. It's a rather long explanation, so bear with me.
Let me began by telling you something shocking. We're not only not our bodies, but our bodies aren't even alive!
Our bodies are being kept alive.
Let me give you an analogy. I've seen hospital patients kept alive by being connected to a variety of medical instruments (a life-support system): instruments to breathe for them, instruments to feed them, and instruments to monitor what the instruments are doing.
Science knows so little about how the body is kept alive that it posits that it is alive. I tell you from personal knowledge that that is just not so.
Further, the physical body that you call your own is not even sentient. That, too, is an illusion. If you rub your hands together or touch any other part of your body, I'll tell you, categorically, that that wasn't your physical body that you touched. You did touch a body, however, but it wasn't physical.
Your body is being kept alive by another body. Some mystics call it the "astral body". If you were to see it, it would look a lot like the body that you now inhabit. Even "inhabit" is not an accurate description.
Part II
Your astral body surrounds the physical body rather than resides within it. Because of a magnetic attraction, the astral body stays in alignment with the physical one.
Without this attraction, we'd drift off into our native, non-physical environment, which is where we reside in the always. I suspect that at night in our dream state we become unmoored from the physical body, drift away from it, and embark on many journeys that we have little awareness of when we're awake again.
Although it seems that we're interacting with a physical world, it is, in actuality, a non-physical one, material appearances, notwithstanding. What we have, then, is a great deception, one that our physical senses are in collusion with.
The umbilical cord that connected you to your mother is replicated at the astral level. We see remnants of it in the coccyx, also known as the tailbone.
The tailbone represents a function of the astral body showing up in the physical, but occurring at the astral level. A cord, not unlike the umbilical cord (silver in color, about the size of an average man's wrist), connects the astral body to the physical.
There's only one Biblical reference to the cord, and that is in Ecclesiastes:
Book Ecclesiastes, Chapter 12, Verse 6
5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Death only occurs when the cord is loosed, and that is when the vital body is no longer able to sustain the physical body, usually because the physical has suffered irreparable damage, or has been abandoned by the soul.
The "golden bowl" is the soul that encompasses the physical (It's seen as an aura, and breaks away from the physical once a decision is made to move on to the non-physical realm); the "pitcher" at the fountain represents the flow of intelligence from the bowl to the physical; the "wheel" represents the process that carries the flow of life-giving energy from the source (cistern) to the body.
All things proceed from the spiritual (our native state). Two of those things are intelligence and life, both of which allow thought (words, spoken and unspoken, as well as mental images) to exist.
What I'm going to tell you now, neither science nor mystics know. In all my readings not one has revealed what I'm going to tell you here.
The silver cord extends from the back of the astral body. From the shoulder and neck, large and small cords of varying sizes (some the size of your pinkie, and others the size of the thumb and other digits) fan out like fingers and bundles at the base of the astral back as a cable does when it consists of many strands or cords. These cords hold fast to the astral body with a steel-like grip. They can't be moved even with the greatest of effort.
This bundled cord attaches to the physical body at various, but vital areas. It's been seen attached to the heart, the back of the head, and at the third eye located between the eyes.
Now, here is what you need to know. Along this cord, the vital or astral body sends the energy and intelligence that keep the physical body alive, keep it functioning properly, regulating it, and setting in motion all the chemical actions and reactions that are necessary to make the body run smoothly, and operate effectively within the physical realm.
It serves the same function as the medical instruments hospitals use to keep the physical body alive, but it does so in a more sophisticated, and extraordinary manner.
Some years ago, I read a book, titled, "The Difference of Man, and the Difference it Makes, by Mortimer J. Adler.
In it, Adler examined the mind-body dilemma, and concluded that since mind and body are so dissimilar that one of two realities must exist--either all is mind, or all is physical or matter-based.
I don't remember whether Adler resolved the conflict in his own mind, but I have.
All is Mind.
This is such a nice addition thanks!!!
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