Health, not disease

An interesting concept regarding the measurement of health and disease came to my attention recently.


I’ve read in a number of places that cold cannot be measured. There is no such thing as cold. What we call cold is less heat, for in actual fact we measure heat, not cold. The less heat in the air the colder it feels. Cold as an entity does not exist any more than darkness, for cold is the absence of heat, not the presence of something else.


Christian Science explains that disease is not real. Just as darkness is the absence of light, illness is the supposed absence of health.


Yet, how often do people try to measure and find disease as if it’s a reality? They ask questions like, “How ill am I? What disease do I have? How bad is it?”


The healthier spiritual approach to curing illness is to turn away from the evil sensation producing the sickness to the presence of health. Health is the cure.


From a spiritual point of view, disease cannot be measured for there is none to quantify. Rather than asking, “How sick am I?” We should be responding with, “How healthy did God make me?”


What appears to be disease is a state of mortal belief crying out to see more health.


When you stand in a cold room, you think about turning up the temperature,--getting more heat into the atmosphere.


The same rule applies to curing disease. To get rid of disease, it doesn’t help to study disease and treat it as if it were a reality. It’s more productive to study health and fill consciousness with the spiritual truth that displaces the sense of disease.


As Mary Baker Eddy, a phenomenally successful Christian healer wrote,


“A physical diagnosis of disease — since mortal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease.”


As light dispels darkness, health dispels disease. Health is our spirituality manifest, qualities of Truth and Love that God freely imparts through us.


As we pray for the Mind of God to be our Mind, and let Truth and Love take over our perspective, fears, anxieties, and false beliefs that lead one to believe disease is real, disappear. And the disease vanishes too.


Disease can’t be measured anymore than darkness can be quantified. It’s an unreality. Health is the reality, and we all have been spiritually endowed with it to the fullest. It’s our divine birthright!

Anticipate health

Have you noticed recent headlines concerning swine flu? They certainly are lessons on the importance of avoiding self-fulfilling prophecies.

Article headlines these days take as a given that swine flu will cause widespread illness this winter. “Experts” aren’t sure how many people will be hit, but the mental picture they paint is not pleasant no matter how you look at it from their point of view.

These types of alarms are calls for conscientious metaphysicians everywhere to defend the population from unnecessary suffering.

Swine flu pandemic should not be a foregone conclusion. It is not imperative. It is spiritually stoppable and preventable. It doesn’t need to happen.

But we cannot sit on our mental laurels and be passive observers. The fear and worry circulating in public thought about the flu needs to be neutralized and replaced with calm and a secure understanding of God’s omnipresent care and protection.

God’s infinite love is a most powerful influence on the health and well being of mankind. This love is always active on everyone’s behalf, shielding from harm, protecting from contagion, and providing spiritual immunity to material infection. As children of God, we do not live in a chaotic universe of mindless unmerciful forces. We live in a universe of divine Love, where an all intelligent Mind guides and governs the well being of all creatures.

The current growing fear in public thought can be counteracted with an even stronger sense of God’s omnipresent Love that protects one and all from any type of pandemic. An understanding of spiritual truth is the most powerful vaccination against contagion on earth. And it is here to bless one and all.

In preparing for the winter season a few months away, I’ve decided to anticipate health, peace, safety, protection, calm, and well being. I'm striving to abide in a consciousness of spiritual love that knows no fear and is not exposed to any harmful influences.

There is no fear in Love, God, because in Love, there is nothing to fear, not even swine flu.

I’m looking forward to a winter of peace, health and harmony. What are you expecting?

Swine flu and contagion

With fear of Swine flu running rampant in public thought, it’s been important to defend oneself from the belief of contagion.

It’s helpful to remember that one person does not have to get sick because their neighbor is ill, that there is no law of God that says disease has to spread, and we have Christian Science to check beliefs of contagion and stop them from having an effect.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, made some astute observations about contagion. She wrote,

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. Science and Health

The words “mental contagion” explains how contagion works.

Medical theory teaches contagion via germs, viruses and bacteria. Christian Science explains that germs have no more power than belief gives them. It’s fear of disease that needs to be guarded against. A consciousness of spiritual truth is effective protection against contagion, even more so than washing hands and wearing face masks.

Because the human body is human consciousness, anything that does not get into thought, cannot get into the body. Through prayer we can keep the thought-germs of Swine flu out of thought, and thus protect the body.

I’ve flown in airplanes quite a bit this week to lecture in different parts of the country. I have not naively boarded planes and mingled amongst the crowds unaware of popular fears at the moment regarding the spread of Swine flu. I have actively prayed to protect myself and those around me from these fears, and I’m enjoying my flights accordingly. I have absolutely no fear of the disease, and am grateful to see fellow passengers calm about it too.

Spiritual consciousness of Truth is immunity to contagion. Truth is God, and God is all. In God, there are no Swine flu germs. We circulate in the omnipresence of God wherever we go when our thinking is centered on God, filled up with spiritual truth and rejoicing in the omnipresence of Love. A consciousness of spiritual reality is like an impenetrable armor to current fears and concerns concerning Swine flu.

We have a choice. We can decline to participate in the popular fear. We can choose to stay healthy and also bless those around us with calm, peace and loving assurance that all is well in the sanctity and security of Love in which we all circulate together.

There is no contagion in God’s Kingdom. Love is all. Good is everywhere. There is no room or space for evil to occupy in God’s allness.

Eddy also wrote,

"Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them." Science and Health

So, no need to wait around and see what happens. Be an active participant in stopping unnecessary fear of Swine flu by not fearing it yourself! It’s time for the current show to stop and go away. God is in control of the environment we live in, and divine Love fills the air we breathe with health, harmony and peace.

You're okay now

A friend reminded me yesterday of something I told him a year ago, and of the healing effect it had on him.

He was about to board a plane for an extended overseas trip. He was in terrible pain and didn’t see how he could go.

My prayer was to see him as he spiritually was, okay and alright in the now. He didn’t need to recuperate from a problem he didn’t have, I believed.

To allay his fear of taking the trip, I said, “You are who you are wherever you are.” And I meant, you are spiritual now, you will be spiritual during the trip and you will be just as spiritual and harmonious when you arrive at your destination.

He got it!

He said the pain went away. He took the trip. All went well and there was no more trouble.

So, if you ever worry about whether you can do something tomorrow because you suffer today, you can drop the fear. You are okay today and will be tomorrow. You are not a struggling mortal. You are a harmonious immortal. You are spiritual, always have been, and always will be.

You are who you are wherever you are—spiritual, perfect, healthy and well.

Too many medicines

As I sat at a restaurant table in the Los Angeles airport Tuesday morning eating breakfast, I noticed a businessman at a table near mine pull an 8 x 12 x 3 inch leather zipper case out of his luggage. He unzipped the pouch in half and spread it wide open before him. Inside were countless packages, plastic bottles and containers of medicines. He methodically sorted out a dozen or more pills, each a different size, shape and color. He placed them in groups on a napkin, and with a glass of water, gulped them all down with a swig after each dose.

Studies show that millions of Americans follow a similar daily routine. People have been educated to believe chemical dependency is a normal and necessary way of life. I had a woman tell me once that she took 18 medicines every morning, and she didn’t bat an eyelash. The god of material medicine has a very large congregation of worshippers these days.

Oh, how my heart goes out to these individuals who could benefit immensely from learning spiritual truth to be the most powerful and effective medicine for what ails one.

I was very close to walking over to this man’s table and letting him know there was a better way. A little Christian Science could likely save him from such a depressing habit. But he looked very satisfied with himself and his ritual, and his self-assurance caused me to hold back. But maybe not next time!

I thought about the many people I know who have practiced Christian Science for decades and live happily and healthily with no medicines. They are a testament to the healing power of Truth and a shining light to those looking for a way out of the medicine trap.

I also thought about some students of Christian Science who struggle with the belief of a chronic condition, but successfully so with no medicines. Even though their healing hasn’t come as quickly as hoped, they are still leap years ahead in terms of finding a final solution than thought that has entered the mental prison of “My life depends upon a slew of material medicines.” Eventually, everyone has to learn that their life and health are spiritual, supported and sustained by Spirit, not mindless, non-intelligent matter. And in that moment of understanding, all attachment to material medicine falls away. (Someday, Christian Science will put pharmaceutical companies out of business.)

The healing benefits of Christian Science are highly underrated and largely unnoticed by the bulk of the population. I do my best to share this powerful and healing truth with others, but obviously could do better because there are millions out there still struggling with the belief of life and health in matter, trying to find health where there is no health. Spirit is the remedy.

Oh, the work yet to be done….

Heading off another type of collapse

There are a number of people who saw the economic collapse coming long before it actually happened. In preparation, they saved their money, stayed out of debt and maintained a very conservative financial position. As the stock market has sunk and other assets have deflated, they’ve jumped in and bought up assets on the cheap, and they continue to build their acquisitions as prices sink even lower. They are not suffering at all, but actually prospering.

One lesson I learn from watching these attuned individuals, is that there are always signs ahead of time of what is around the corner, and if one is paying attention and heeding those signs, one will be prepared.

Another impending collapse that may be on the horizon is not economic, but health-wise.

For many years, health experts have been predicting a pandemic flu of worldwide proportions and calamity. It’s only a matter of time they argue. Every year, more articles are published by these scientists with increasing evidence that strains of flu are intensifying, becoming resistant to medical treatment and plaguing people with more severe symptoms.

Two days ago, I heard that 174 children were absent from a local middle school of around 600 children because of illness, presumably flu related. Flu season, they call it.

Mortal mind has a way of fulfilling its prophecies. The pandemic flu is one prophecy that needs to be prevented and pre-empted from happening. It is an unnecessary crime against humanity for a fear of flu to grow to such proportions that people feel useless to combat it or to do anything about it.

God is all-power, and able to stop disease from spreading. Flu is an error of belief that can be countered with spiritual truth and prevented. But to be protected, one must pray and gird their spiritual armor.

Millions of people have already proved the power of prayer to prevent and cure disease, including flu, so how to stop the plague is not an issue. Actually jumping in with the proper spiritual work to be successfully protected probably is the issue!

Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “…those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check.”

Christian Science explains how God governs the universe. God does not govern through fear and intimidation. God governs through love and good-will. The love of God, at work within, is sufficient to defend one from the flu or any threat of disease.

A Christ-consciousness of truth and love is a sure defense against the flu. It is spiritual immunity from contagion, and it is humanity’s hope of salvation from any pandemic flu predicted for the future.

Let’s head it off now and prevent having to work out of a deeper hole later.

Say No to colds

A friend was telling me how he heard a testimony where a teacher, who was a practicing Christian Scientist, was talking with a co-worker in school who was complaining about getting a cold. The teacher immediately told her friend that she wasn’t getting a cold and didn’t need to expect to suffer.

The next day, the friend reported that she had no cold and was delighted with the freedom. She asked, “What did you do?”

After thinking about the immediacy of the healing with a quick clear definitive reply of truth, the man telling me this story said that later in the week he was having lunch with his sister who started complaining about getting a cold, and described the on-coming symptoms in detail.

Without ado, my friend said, “No you’re not!” The sister did not agree, and argued that, “Yes she was getting a cold!” And continued to explain all the reasons why she would get a cold and suffer miserably. My friend held his spiritual position in thought that God’s child doesn’t get a cold, and let the discussion drop.

The next day, the two meet, and my friend asks his sister, “What happened to your cold? You look well to me.”

Caught off guard, and by surprise, she replied, “You’re right. I don’t have a cold. The symptoms are all gone.” She was not a Christian Scientist and didn’t understand what had healed her, but nonetheless, the truth still met her need and brought a cure.

Truth heals.

Look for health

I’ve been told that there is no such thing as cold. Temperature is a measurement of heat, not of cold. When the heat is low, we call the condition cold, but cold is not an entity anymore than darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Cold is the absence of heat.

From a young age, my son would go outside in cold weather dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. I would go outside in a winter coat and say, “Tyler get a coat on. It’s cold out here!” He would predictably reply, “I don’t need a coat, dad. It’s hot out here!” And he would run and play with absolutely no negative consequences from cold weather. Or at least, what I thought was cold weather.

Disease is like cold. Christian Science explains that disease is not real. It’s not the reality it appears to be to the mortal mind that believes in it. It’s the supposed absence of health. And the cure for disease is not to study disease, but to re-discover health.

Like warming up a cold room by turning up the heat, we cure illness by “turning up the health,” so to speak…

Health is a state of Mind, of the divine Mind expressed through us.

Jesus Christ, the master spiritual healer of all time, never studied disease to figure out how to cure it. He understood health, and cured his patients based upon his understanding of the divine reality.

Disease does not exist, just like cold does not exist.

When there’s little heat, we call it cold, but it’s really just less heat. We dispel the cold by finding more warmth.

When there’s little evidence of health, medical theory calls the condition disease, but it’s really just less evidence of health. We dispel the disease by finding more health.

What’s the moral of all this reasoning?

Don’t focus on disease as if it’s a reality. It’s not. It’s the absence of reality. It’s not a real thing to be gotten rid of. It’s a call to gain more health, and the health we’re looking for is not found in the study of sickness. It’s found in a deeper understanding of Truth and our eternal expression of it.

God is the source and creator of all health.

Happy health seeking!

Don't consent to disease

Have you ever consented to disease? Accepted it for you or for someone else?

“Oh well, that’s life, people get sick, and it’s my turn now…” This is not a plan for staying healthy. We should never consent to something we don’t want to experience.

Today I was thinking about how diligent we must be to not agree with disease. The media is filled with reports of suffering, graphic pictures of it, descriptions and symptoms detailed to impress, and then there are neighbors who seem infatuated with talking about disease as if there’s little else to discuss. If we’re not alert, we might start agreeing with the general consensus that disease is real powerful and out to get us. Thanks to Truth, this is not true! But we have to prove it by keeping our thought free of its deleterious influence.

Don’t consent to disease!

No matter how many other people we see struggling with disease, we do not have to struggle with it too. We can help them and keep our thought free of believing in it.

Disease is in belief only. It’s not a physical reality that becomes contagious. Any contagion is in mind alone, and we have spiritual immunity to that mental contagion through Truth.

Our immunity is the spiritual truth about perfect God and perfect man. The man of God’s creating does not catch a disease. It’s impossible. God’s man is spiritual, immortal, healthy and well forever. The more we identify ourselves as spiritual, and not fallible vulnerable mortals, the stronger our defenses are against the suggestion of disease, and the safer our bodies from being affected by it.

There are probably many things you absolutely refuse to consent to. For example, I would never consent to smoking a cigarette. No matter how adamantly someone offered me a smoke, I would not accept. I absolutely refuse to have anything to do with even the suggestion.

We can apply the same rule to catching a disease. We can absolutely refuse to catch one by not consenting. Out of thought, out of body, is a rule any of us can demonstrate.

So, don’t consent! If you see disease in the news, down the block, at work, in your memory, don’t consent to its claims. Refuse to believe it’s real and know you are the immune and permanently healthy child of God.

Don’t give disease an inch, or it will become a ruler….

Consent to God’s absolute control over your well being, and stay healthy. Agreement with Truth makes a positive difference, and it’s a safe way to live.

Where to find health?

I was speaking to a group of youngsters all under five years old. We were talking about where health comes from.

I asked them, “Where does milk come from?”

Tiny Susie piped up, “The refrigerator!”

Aaron, who was a bit older, corrected her with, “No it doesn’t. My mom gets milk from the grocery store.”

Older Tommy had to straighten everyone out with, “Uh-uh. Milk comes from cows!”

How many of us make the same mistake concerning the origin of health that Susie made with her belief about the source of milk?

Medical theory teaches us to look for health in the body.

• Check your pulse
• What’s your red cell count?
• Your cholesterol level?
• How much do you weigh?
• …and on and on.

These material checks are supposed to tell us how much health we possess. But they don’t. They are effect of belief only, not cause.

If we don’t find any milk in the refrigerator, we don’t panic. We go to get more (right to the cow if we live on a dairy farm).

Same rule applies to health. If we look into the body and find little health, from a spiritual point of view, we don’t panic. We go to the source and find more. God is the source of health!

God gives us health like God gives us honesty, integrity, and love. Health is a spiritual gift and freely imparted through us.

Health is very similar to love. You may express love in the form of a smile, a hug or good deed, but the love you express is not in the muscle that expresses it. It is in the thought that inspires the affectionate action.

Health, too, is not in the body that expresses it. Health is in the thought that produces the fit effect.

So, if looking for more health, go to the source. Go to God, and there you’ll find it.

“Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health.”

~ Mary Baker Eddy

Your Source

Have you ever considered that health and wealth come from the same place?

As I mentioned above under “Divine payroll,” my early years in the practice brought in modest income. I had lessons to learn about true supply and one of them was discovering health and wealth to have the same origin.

It occurred to me one day as I was praying for better health in my patients, that every good thing we could ever have comes from God, whether it is humanly identified as strength, ability, love or wealth. God is the source of all good. No exceptions.

Relief!

It became clear that if I trusted God to give me sound health, I could just as easily trust God to give me abundant wealth. The Source of all supply does not discriminate in the forms of good He provides. One type of supply is just as readily available and freely bestowed as any other.

The sun pours light on the tree to grow healthy limbs and leaves. The sun floods through our window to brighten our home. The sun shines upon the frozen river and melts the ice for springtime flow. The sun accomplishes many different tasks, but all in the same way. By being the sun.

God too, accomplishes many different tasks that meet human needs, but all through the same way and means—by being infinite omnipresent all-providing Love.

Whether your need is health related or financial, God’s unfailing love is up to the task. He is the source of any supply you could ever possibly need.

Your source of health is your source of wealth.

Unending health

Building on what I said yesterday about no bad health, another logical conclusion of understanding health to be spiritual is that it never runs out.

Health is just as spiritual, or metaphysical if you will, as honesty or compassion.

Do you ever fear running out of honesty? Do you fear using it up or having it wear out from use? I doubt it. It’s a spiritual quality emanating from an unending source.

The same rule applies to health.

Health is spiritual. It is a quality of God manifest through us. It never runs out.

No bad health

In thinking through the true nature of health yesterday, I realized there’s no such thing as bad health. Believing in bad health is like believing in bad honesty, or bad love, or bad compassion. “Bad health” is a contradiction of terms, for health, understood spiritually, never goes bad. It’s always good.

“Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind…” Science and Health explains. Health is not a state of the flesh, measured in pulse, blood content or bio-rhythms. Health is God expressed.

Jesus Christ, the Master healer of all time, never consulted the body to determine a patient’s health. Jesus consulted Truth, and acted according to what was spiritually correct about the person. He knew that health never changes. It is a state of Mind permanently fixed in Spirit, and expressed in man’s spiritual selfhood.

A sick body does not denote bad health. It images a wrong concept of man.

Health is not in the body anymore than love resides in the heart.

To illustrate, can you find love in the body? You may smile, hug someone, or engage in an act of kindness, but the smile, hug or act are not the beholders of the love they express. They are the effect of love felt in thought, and the source of that loving thought is God.

The same rule applies to health.

The body may express health in the form of a properly functioning heart, a strong gait, or an upright posture, but the dwelling place of that health is not in the heart, legs or back. It’s in God.

Believing health is in the body is like believing love is in lips. The lips may conform to a commonly accepted expression of affection called a smile, but love exists totally independent of lips.

If the lips don’t smile, that doesn’t mean love is lacking. It’s a thought of love that appears to be missing.

How to find the happy thought and inspire the lips? Go to God, the source of all love to begin with. Tap into Mind with spiritual sense, feel the omnipresence of God’s infinite good, and the inspiration comes once again.

Health is a state of Mind, of the divine Mind, expressed through us. Its love, wisdom, purity, morality, and spirituality manifest.

There’s no such thing as bad health, because there’s no such thing as a bad God.
There is one God, good, divine Love. And God is the producer, creator, and substance of all health.

Don’t look to the body for something you’ll never find there. Look to God, the source of all good, and there you’ll discover the health you were looking for all along.

It’s yours to claim today.

Eternal health

Do you believe in eternal life? If so, then you have to believe in eternal health.

It’s impossible to possess eternal life and not be healthy, for disease is the opposite of life, the effect of death in varying degrees.

Jesus taught, “I am the way, the truth, the life…follow me.” He didn’t mean worship of his physical personality was the way to Life, but living true to the one God and one’s spiritual self as he did would lead to heaven.

To arrive in heaven, we have to leave the earth and all of its limited material beliefs behind, including the belief that disease is real.

In the big picture scheme of things, disease is not real. It’s illusion. Life is eternal. People discover this when they pass-on and still find themselves alive.

We’re living our eternal life now. It’s not in matter. It’s not in a physical body. It’s not temporal. It’s spiritual, at-one with God, in Spirit, and it’s healthy--totally.

Claim your health today. Don’t look at yourself or others through the eyes of mortal mind that get spellbound by disease. Rise into a higher consciousness of life in Spirit where health is eternal, and live well!