Get familiar with health, not disease

June 6, 2025 | 26 comments

What are you getting familiar with today?  Health or disease?  Your answer may reveal much about how healthy you feel.

Mary Baker Eddy shares some wise words on the importance of defending our mental home from harmful influences.  She writes, “We should become more familiar with good than with evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we bar our doors against the approach of thieves and murderers” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 234).  The more familiar we are with good, the less we are influenced by evil, the logic flows.

As I studied this phrase recently, I saw a new meaning I hadn’t seen before.  

My mind substituted the words good and evil with health and disease.  I saw, “We should become more familiar with health than with disease….”  And then thought, “Aha!”  This is the answer for those curious about physical symptoms of disease on their body and wondering if they should research the internet to see what disease they have.

As Mrs. Eddy is reminding us, the more thought is filled with disease, the more real disease appears to that thought.  And conversely, the more thought is filled with health, the easier health is to find and demonstrate.

If you’re tempted to study disease, study health instead!  Study what you want to live out and manifest.  

The book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, is all about health. Its ideas will fill your mind with images of health and simultaneously empty thought of images of disease.  The body will follow where thought leads it.

Fill up with what you want to live, not with what you don’t want to live.  Fill up with images of health.  Spiritual health!

26 thoughts on “Get familiar with health, not disease”

  1. Thank you Evan. Too easy to think about disease and let it dominate thought. Also.listened to your talk about animal magnetism and how we can be hypnotised with thoughts of disease and importantly how to nullify and replace those intrusive thoughts. So helpful. Thank you Evan x

    1. Caz. Are you referring to Evan’s Podcast on February 03, 2020, which was adapted for the August 2020 issue of the Christian Science journal? Amazing! I had it printed out and refer to it at times.
      And thank you Evan for this morning’s blog. It is so right on and such a great reminder.
      I so appreciate these blogs. They are so uplifting.

      1. Would love to read and study this article in journal as well. I would very much appreciate if anyone could provide a shareable link to it. Thank you very much.

        1. Hi KH, I don’t have a shareable copy; however, if you open the link below it may/may not open up as a free article, as it’s the beginning of the month. I believe they allow you one free article a month. Or maybe someone could kindly attach a shareable copy. 🙂

          What is animal magnetism? Evan Mehlenbacher interviewed by the Journal’s Aaron Bingham. From the August 2020 issue of The Christian Science Journal.
          (This interview was originally recorded as a podcast on February 3, 2020 and was adapted for the August 2020 issue of The Christian Science Journal.):
          https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/2020/8/138-08/what-is-animal-magnetism

      2. I remember listening to that podcast back in Feb 2020. I was not familiar with Evan at that time but was very impressed with the things he said in that podcast. I listened to it a few times then did some hunting around online to find out more about Evan, and that’s how I ultimately found SpiritView. So that podcast is extra special to me because it brought me here to this SV community, an important part of my daily life and spiritual journey. Blessed weekend and love to all.

  2. This is a must do! Too easy to ponder symptoms and self-diagnose. Am grateful for the message today. L. X

  3. Thank you, Evan. Wonderful thoughts to ponder and to be clear about. I sometimes keep the television on for background noise while I’m working. But, I find myself muting it to block pharmaceutical commercials which are pouring into thought continuously, trying to convince us of disease and the cure mortal mind offers. Sometimes it’s best we keep television off or watch programs that have no commercials.

      1. Thanks Bob and Angela. These pharmaceutical and disease-promoting commercials are a pet peeve of mine. The mute button on my remote gets a lot of exercise, sometimes it is better to just stay far away from the TV and spend time more wisely in cultivating our understanding of our true, God-authorized, legitimate state of wellness, wholeness, holiness.,

    1. All of these wonderful thoughts and Evan’s interview on animal magnetism
      are so refreshing and inspirational. Subliminal messages can be so sneaky
      sometimes in their attempt to get us to think they are true and powerful.
      Mute buttons of thought keep us on the right track of health and help to
      eliminate dis – ease or the non – ease of spiritual thinking that would
      try to sway us into believing in something other than what is beneficial
      to our true selves of God’s creating.
      Thank you all for sharing these lovely thoughts. So appreciated!!

  4. Evan thank you for this wonderful reminder to stay the course to know oneself as a whole, healthy child of God.

    1. Thank you, Linda, Evan and all. I think the word, “child” (of God) is key here. As
      Mrs. Eddy writes, “Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for
      the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the
      false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, – this disposition helps to precipitate
      the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress.
      ‘Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God”” (S&H pg 323-324) … and
      in her Glossary, she defines Children as : “The spiritual thoughts and representatives
      of Life, Truth, and Love”. And as Evan states, above, “The more familiar we are with
      good, the less we are influenced by evil, the logic flows”. Without sounding Pollyannish,
      how True.

  5. re-Mind. ? It struck me ..as such a common expression.. to take note…
    never possible to leave MIND as Gods ideas.. never can, will, or have ever been apart….it’s a fantasy to believe other-Wise.. other wisdom? Whose where or how?
    …fear nothing since fear IS nothing….realize ..the eye of God is the only one only eye from the Divine Watch Tower, editing the Beam of light ..one can only be..
    Once and for All
    remind me, God.. , how any-ONE can ever be lost or apart from perfect Creation.. so Beautiful….On track with the Beam..The World of Infinite Love.. the 1955 article…
    a few days back…..Thank you ..

  6. I’m going to FILL myself up with …

    Fidelity to Truth | Infinite possibilities | Loving unselfishly | Limitless Mind

    1. Thank you for the link, Anne. I found, right at the beginning of the article, a link to the podcast which I listened to again. It is so helpful to be able to read the article and use it that way, and to have Evan explaining it all audibly.

      Thank you, Evan, for this wonderful blog which includes such helpful guidance on becoming more familiar with good than with evil.

    2. Hi Anne, thank you; but unfortunately the link is not a shareable one, so it won’t open for those without a subscription. If you like, you can go to the left of the article where it says Share. Click on Share, and you’ll see Copy Link. Right Click to Copy Link to add it here.

    1. Thank you so much Willam E. for attaching a shareable link. I noticed in the upper left of the article that we can listen to it too.

  7. This subject is so helpful Evan…
    It made me think firstly of what we know as the Truth. That is the truth of our being and that being as solely the expression of divine Love.
    I remember listening to Evan’s podcast about Animal Magnetism and with so many comments referring to it I’ve listened again plus thank you so much William E for the shared transcript. For me it is a game changer or maybe a thought changer is more accurate. Today has given me a substantial step change in understanding the error of mortal mind….that is , not as a spiritual target but as The Spiritual Truth to be familiar with.
    As a post script I’d like to add how grateful I was to be able to see the Mother Church annual address.
    It’s so wonderful to see how spreading Christian Science teaching in communities is effective .
    I’m very grateful for Spirit View and all of you who meet here ❣️

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