Are you living in any mental dungeons that you need to escape?
The story of Kaspar Hauser has always arrested my attention. Mary Baker Eddy relates,
“The authentic history of Kaspar Hauser is a useful hint as to the frailty and inadequacy of mortal mind…Incarcerated in a dungeon, where neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of seventeen Kaspar was still a mental infant, crying and chattering with no more intelligence than a babe…The light which affords us joy gave him a belief of intense pain. His eyes were inflamed by the light. After the babbling boy had been taught to speak a few words, he asked to be taken back to his dungeon, and said that he should never be happy elsewhere. Outside of dismal darkness and cold silence he found no peace. Every sound convulsed him with anguish. All that he ate, except his black crust, produced violent retchings. All that gives pleasure to our educated senses gave him pain through those very senses, trained in an opposite direction.” Science and Health, p. 194.
Eddy uses this story to illustrate that mortal mind is a composite of mortal belief, and the beliefs a mortal holds determines his experience, good or bad. Change the belief, and the experience changes. But thought needs to change for an improved experience.
So, back to my original question, are you living in any mental dungeons similar to Kaspar’s? Drug addiction, gluttony, resentment, anxiety, greed, depression, discouragement, disease are types of mental dungeons that would incarcerate thought into dark and foreboding places.
Mortal thought often gets so familiar with its situation, that it starts to view its status quo as “normal.” And efforts to break that mortal out of his ways are often met with vehement resistance, just like Kaspar wanting to return to his cold dark cell.
But Kaspar didn’t need to return to his cell to find peace. He could have found it in God’s presence, which is full of light and joy, spiritual mindedness and peace.
There was no truth to Kaspar’s belief that he could find peace only with his old lifestyle sequestered away in darkness in that lonely dungeon. It was a belief only, and it could have changed if he was willing.
So, if you are not mentally dwelling in ideal conditions, you can break free too. You don’t have to accept a cold harsh experience. You can do better! There is nothing fixed or permanent about any mortal belief. It can always be trumped by spiritual truth.
You are a child of God, the offspring of Spirit, not the product of mortal mind. You are divinely bestowed with the ability to think spiritually, feel and know the presence of divine Love, be comforted by its care, and fill with joy and happiness. It’s your divine right. Be sure to claim it.
Thank you Evan for this thought. It is easy to accept a condition as “normal” and live with it, but we need to awake from this illusion and accept our perfection as a child of God. Appreciated your “Daily Lift” this morning, also.
Thank you. This post and your “Lift” is the perfect message that I needed.
“There is nothing fixed or permanent about any mortal belief. It can always be trumped by spiritual truth.”
Wow!
This is great, Evan. I’ve been thinking about self-examination and really evaluating where I am. This fits right in on that topic! Really appreciate this.
Thanks so much. Thinking of being restricted (as Kaspar was) reminds me of Proverbs 4, verses 11 and 12. In the King James Bible they say “I have led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened.” Straitened is an interesting word that refers to restricted, difficult, narrow conditions, perhaps distressing or confusing. So our path in life is up and out of anything that says it’s a prison cell, as Christ Jesus proved many times.
Great, thank you. Habitual thought patterns not only shut us “in”, they also shut “out” the Truth. When Jesus asked, “Wilt though be made whole?” he was really asking. will you drop all your limiting beliefs about who you are?
Thanks, sweet Evan! Your dedication and devotion to Christian Science and Healing is so Wonderful and Inspiring!! My question is: How do we break out of “dungeon mortal beliefs” coming from our childhood and life experiences and get to that place of “Knowing that We Are Special?” Personally, even tho’ I was raised in C.S., I have had to use some other paths to help shake loose from my “dungeons”. I have used Therapy and 12-Step Groups and other paths to help open up and cut away the mortal beliefs that were blocking me from seeing my True Spiritual Individuality. I have found this so useful on my Spiritual Path in C.S., as it has only enhanced my understanding of what Mrs. Eddy is talking about when she talks about our pure and perfect spiritual identity. Just Sharing…….
Hi Bevi,
As you’ve probably already figured out to a degree, we break out of dungeon beliefs by understanding our primitive spirituality. The more we reason out from Spirit about our identity, the sooner we see that we can’t lose it, nor can it be imprisoned my mortal mind beliefs, ignorance or fear. It can be a gradual unfolding as our understanding of Truth grows, but every step is a step of progress.
It is interesting to me that in the Bible Lens for the last time this experience of Kaspar Hauser was in the Bible lesson, it was stated that subsequent facts had proved this story false. It was simply a myth. However, it still proves a point worth considering.
Your Daily Lift regarding how special and unique we all are was very inspiring. Thanks so much!
I too am so grateful for all the inspiration and support I feel from all the wonderful workers and healers in Science. But I also feel that I have been trumping the dungeons of mortal belief for so long, with such diligence, patient help from practitioners and yet without full release. I find the Kaspar Hauser account actually upsetting in the face of temptations to fear where to turn next or how to continue in such extreme human circumstances when the promises of the Bible tend to taunt as if they are only true for everyone else. I know this is false thinking… I have worked so to keep going, declare only what is true and continue in gratitude for all inspiration. Always looking for the idea that will turn the light on what I seem to be overlooking.
Thank you, Evan! You’re explanation is very Helpful! Sometimes when we are in emotional pain, that pain has to be acknowledged and cleared away first, before we can begin to reason out from Spirit. I think Mrs. Eddy calls it “self-knowledge” – knowing what thoughts, concepts and yes, even emotional, psychological wounds are in our consciousness that need to be seen and felt before they can be let go of. Otherwise, we might be doing what’s called a “Spiritual Bypass” – just burying things we don’t want to look at and covering them over with nice spiritual platitudes. “Whitened sepulchres”??
About a month ago a pair of wrens (mother/father) made a nest in our greenhouse. We positioned a motion activated surveillance camera so we could watch what happened in the nest. The parents kept the eggs warm until five baby birds hatched. At that point the mother and father wrens started bringing bugs to the nest to feed the baby birds. I would see them in the bushes quickly looking for bugs and then via the camera see them delivering the bugs to the baby birds. It takes a lot of bugs to feed five baby birds, so it was a full time job for the mother & father birds to keep the babies fed. The babies eventually got large enough to leave the nest and I was able to watch the mother gently coax the babies out. One baby was a day behind the rest, but the mother continued to fed and care for it until it too was ready to leave the nest.
While watching this it occurred to me that the parent birds would never, ever, do anything to harm the baby birds. Watching these birds care for their young was like watching a reflection of God, Love, in action.
It then occurred to me that God, Love, is loving me just like these wrens cared for their young. God would never, ever, do anything to harm me. God supplies all my needs and lovingly cares for me at all times (past, present, and future).
I’ve learned that I can keep the truth in thought all day long, but if I don’t also have that understanding of Love…that spirit of Love, the knowledge that the truth is true because God loves me so much…then the truth is not that effective in freeing me from dungeon thoughts.
It’s also helpful for me to think “what does God know, what is God doing, what is God thinking?” The most effective way to keep yourself in a dungeon is to believe that God knows you are in a dungeon. Believing that God knows something makes that something more of a solid reality in thinking. So the best way to free ourselves of some dungeon thinking is to realize “God doesn’t know this, God is not thinking about me in this way”. And then take the next step to realize what God is knowing and thinking about you. What is God doing for you. God only loves us like those parent birds loved their offspring. God only does good for us, like those parent birds totally devoted their entire day to supplying the needs of the baby birds in the nest. Nothing is more freeing than realizing what is true, so we just need to do that, and do it consistently, to realize the truth in our experience. And it may take a while sometimes, but what is more enjoyable than feeling loved? And isn’t that what we’re doing when we are spending time thinking of all of the ways God loves for us (i.e. praying)?
Much to contemplate and comfort….thank you so much , Brian.
Thank you. I continue to read S&H and just read the horrific story of Kasper. there is no such thing as just a little mortal mind. I can attest to its resistance as I struggle to stand straight and true the daily physical distractions are often loud. I do know where I want to live and it is not in mortal mind. I never did.
Thank you, Brian! That is just Beautiful and so Helpful to get a sense of how much God loves us! Do you know how to get rid of Blocks to feeling God’s Love for us? The only way I know how is to Feel, Deal and Heal…..I just don’t think it’s possible to do all the Healing in the Head, thru the Mind. I think there needs to be a catharsis that takes place on a Feeling level, in the Heart! I just did a Women’s Spirituality Retreat at a Benedictine Monastery and I learned there about the “Ear of the Heart”. Need to feel, not in the intellect, but in the deep place of the Heart – a thought/feeling level. Letting God touch us in our Heart…….I haven’t been able to do this so far……maybe because I don’t really trust and feel that God loves me. That part of me, if it was open, was closed a long time ago…….Also, can we really be Healed of physical things in C.S. if our Hearts aren’t open to God’s Love? Just wondering……
Hi Bevi, In my own experience I found it wasn’t until I had exhausted all other options, when I had investigated and lost hope in everything else, that I finally turned to God with all my heart and felt the presence and love of God. In the Prodigal Son parable, the Father never stopped loving the Son. But the Son had to exhaust all of his other ideas of what constituted happiness, explore all the dead ends, before he was finally able to realize his Father’s love for him.
Perhaps you are still searching and exploring different ideas in an effort to find what best meets your need and until you are finished with that process you are not yet sure where to place your trust . I encourage you to keep at it! It’s easy to fall prey to discouragement when we feel we are “waiting” to find an answer that satisfies us. But Mrs. Eddy wrote this line that has been helpful to me during “waiting” times:
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour
The fullness and joy of Life are with us even during those waiting hours.
Dear Bevi, you said “I don’t really trust and feel that God loves me. That part of me, if it was open, was closed a long time ago.” Now that’s a dungeon thought if I ever heard one!
I think Evan addressed this with his closing statements:
“There is nothing fixed or permanent about any mortal belief. It can always be trumped by spiritual truth. You are a child of God, the offspring of Spirit, not the product of mortal mind. You are divinely bestowed with the ability to think spiritually, feel and know the presence of divine Love, be comforted by its care, and fill with joy and happiness. It’s your divine right. Be sure to claim it.”
And yes, you can be healed because a practitioner is a practitioner because he loves God and he loves his fellow man/woman enough to want to serve God and help his fellow man. And the practitioner knows God’s love for his patients. It’s God’s love that heals, we can’t stop it!!!
Thanks so much, Brian, for your comments – both the initial and the reply to Bevi. They show a deep understanding of God.
Thanks Lori. I also thought Rhonda’s response to Bevi’s question:
Also, can we really be Healed of physical things in C.S. if our Hearts aren’t open to God’s Love?
where she wrote:
It’s God’s love that heals, we can’t stop it!!!
was a great response to that question.
We may think sometimes our hearts aren’t open to God’s Love, but that is not possible. Try as we might, “we can’t stop it!!!” 🙂
Thanks Everyone for your Loving Support………I think I’m starting to “Get It”!!!!