"Contagion" by Mary Baker Eddy

Spiritual resource to share: our consent to robust health

Fueled by recent news stories of studies of anti-depressants and our ongoing reading of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, our other Science and Health discussion group talked about the mental nature of disease and how we give our consent for its cure. Mary Baker Eddy deals with that theme thoroughly in her article on "Contagion."

I have copied half of the article here, and at the end you can click onto the full article - as well as several translations of the article - from spirituality.com.

Contagion
by Mary Baker Eddy
from Miscellaneous Writings

Whatever man sees, feels, or in any way takes cognizance of, must be caught through mind; inasmuch as perception, sensation, and consciousness belong to mind and not to matter. Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe, and say what others say. Common consent is contagious, and it makes disease catching.

People believe in infectious and contagious diseases, and that any one is liable to have them under certain predisposing or exciting causes. This mental state prepares one to have any disease whenever there appear the circumstances which he believes produce it. If he believed as sincerely that health is catching when exposed to contact with healthy people, he would catch their state of feeling quite as surely and with better effect than he does the sick man's.

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Click here to read the full article.





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"....seeking (one's) own in another's good."

Spiritual resource to share: Science and Health

The full quote that includes the title of this blog is "The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good."

It is a fit quote for talking about sharing the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I have been sharing this book all my adult life, and most earnestly in the last ten years. It never ceases to amaze me the blessings I get by doing this. The line between who is the one rich in spirit and who is the one poor in spirit always gets blurred.

I am now in a second Science and Health discussion group. This group includes some experienced Christian Scientists and some who are new to Christian Science. Those who are new in this group have extensive backgrounds in literature, health care and religion. This month's discussion I found myself saying very little, and just listening, fascinated by what these people were learning and how the ideas in Science and Health impacted/affirmed/contrasted with their lives.

As one would question the idea that there is no intelligence in matter, another would share her experience in medicine that helped to illlustrate the illusiveness of matter. Another discussion focussed on the difference of positive thinking and of prayer that aligns thought to God. In another conversation, one of the women mentioned how similar Eddy's comments on motherhood jived with her understanding of Mary (mother of Jesus). One mentioned that his reading of Science and Health brought him profound assurance and profound questions.

As I listened to the discussion, I found myself being grateful - again - to Mary Baker Eddy's discovery and one of her opening statements in Science and Health "The time for thinkers has come." This active group of thinkers was taking on the big ideas seeing how much they related to current trends in society today, and in their daily lives.

I find that with every discovery or inspiration I share, I get twice that back from both new and experienced readers of Science and Health. My need to see the universality, and the breadth and depth of Christian Science is being wonderfully met in the honest and earnest disussions of these groups. And I am richer for it.

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Looking at healing from a scientist's perspective

Spiritual resource to share: synergy

I love this group! When I get together with my Science and Health discussion group, I always find new insights into some of my most favorite and familiar passages. (We are reading Science and Health slowly - about 30 - 50 pages every 2 weeks. This allows for a deep dive into its ideas.)

Yesterday's meeting, we were discussing the first section of the chapter "Science, Theology and Medicine" and the first section dealt with the science of Christian Science. We have some good science background in this group: a PhD in biological sciences, a licensed engineer, and a former student at IIT (many years ago).

Here are some of our insights:

Mary Baker Eddy uses the pronoun "I" significantly more in this chapter than in other chapters. This makes the chapter more autobiographical. It also speaks of her experiences in testing and trying out various assumptions. The whole section outlines how she made the discovery, tested it and established underlying principles.

"Science," the engineer in the group explained, "is more about a process of discovery than the end in and of itself."

"And there needs to be tangible evidence of this Science. It can't only be theory." was another comment.

This aligns with MBEddy's own statement:

The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by the author to designate the scientific system of divine healing.
The revelation consists of two parts:
1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by the Master.
2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order and continuity of being.

Reading the first section of this chapter has given me another dimension on my practice of Christian Science. I re-read the chapter from the perspective of a scientist, from the perspective of how I have "discovered" Christian Science on my own.

We are always discovering more about the infinite nature of God. We are all proving - healing by healing - the very nature of our relationship to an all-loving, omnipotent Principle.

More to come.......







To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.