What is influencing your thought? It’s a good question to ask when navigating the multiple opinions, beliefs, fears and affirmations one encounters each day through media, neighbors, fellow workers, and internal conversations.
There are thousands of activists online called social influencers that focus on influencing people’s thoughts and actions through reviews, commentaries and posted content.
To live healthy and free, I find it helpful to remember that God is the #1 influencer in my life. The one all-knowing, all-wise Mind has the best advice, the wisest counsel, the most intelligent direction to follow. We often benefit from ideas shared by other people, but when we listen for Mind’s direction first, we’ll be able to sort out human opinion and suspect motives from helpful ideas and inspired truth.
Mary Baker Eddy writes, “We say that one human mind can influence another and in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that we govern our own bodies. The error, mesmerism — or hypnotism, to use the recent term — illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield to this influence, it is because their belief is not better instructed by spiritual understanding”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 402).
Understanding God to be the one Mind, the Head Influencer over all, and willingness to follow God’s direction, keeps us safe from being manipulated by selfish will.
Let God be your Influencer.
Thank you for this important reminder about being sure to check who or what it is that’s influencing our thought … it reminds me of Mrs Eddy’s statement:
“In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to consider whether it is the human mind or the divine Mind which is influencing one.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 82:31–2)
Thank you for always keeping us on track Evan! SpiritView is definitely an influence for good!
Multiple minds? Or one Mind?
By Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/12xyscdjqg6?s=e
Exactly! What a great morsel of Truth to start the day. Thank you.
This is a great topic to Literally keep In Mind, Evan, Thank you
and for the corresponding article, Harmony, Thank you. And
the pictures … So sweet and pertinent ~ Thank you to the
person who “influences” us so perfectly in a good way with
these refreshing and often thought provoking expressions
of Soul each day.
One Mind is really divine. God’s perfection manifested in
what is really lovely in our lives, each individual, but each
reflecting God’s influence when we turn to Him. Like the
beauty of each flower contributes to the collective whole
magnificence of the tree, or each color of the rainbow,
symbiotically creates such splendor, or each instrument
brings harmony to an orchestra, or each flower contributes
to a lovely bouquet, so, too, do we, as individuals reflect
one Mind’s influence in our expressions, in helping to
make the world around us a better place.
I Thank you Evan. Thank you David and thank you Harmony for the article. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy we read on page 492 that, ,”Science says: All is Mind and Mind’s idea. You must fight it out in this line. ”
Let Mind influence us as we are Mind’s idea and will forever be.
Thank you Harmony for sharing the article. Unfortunately, I’ve read that article many times and I don’t “get it”. In other words, I don’t understand how the article answers the question of “How” asked at the beginning of the article. Would anyone be able to help me understand? And please don’t just quote the article because I’ve read it many times. I’d prefer if you could tell me in YOUR own words.
For example, in the article is the following:
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When I have struggled on a case to witness to God’s healing power, most often I have been entertaining the latent belief that the patient has a separate mind that must change or yield to the Divine for healing. My own awakening from this belief by answering the question “How many minds are there?” with the scientific recognition of one Mind, one divine consciousness, has opened the way to full healing.
—————
So my question is…HOW does Michelle Nanouche recognizing that there is one Mind help the person that called her for help? Is it that when we recognize the truth ourselves, that understanding is “reflected” and, humanly speaking, that reflection of truth enlightens the understanding of others? In the absolute, I get that there is one Mind and everyone is reflecting that one mind individually, but in the absolute there is nobody asking for healing. So I’m struggling with how the absolute statement “there is one Mind” answers the relative question she asks at the beginning of the article.
Dear RH, I am by no means an expert on any of this and would love to
hear others’ interpretations, but what has come to me is … and through
articles here … that God is like the sun, shining forth it’s warmth, prisms
of light and we are all like rays of the sun, all Part of the sun and
Collectively we make up the sun (that is, Mind, One Mind), but
individually we would not be reflecting or part of this One Being, alone.
Like the drops of water in the ocean or grains of sand on the beach, one
drop would not make up the ocean, itself, or one grain of sand, be the
beach, but Together they collectively express these entities. So Together
we are loved so greatly by our Creator, God, Mind, that all of the Good
that is represented By God, is expressed through us. We all take
heavenly strides as sunbeams of God’s direction in our understanding
of this Truth.
Does this make sense? (hope, hope) Imho anyway. Great to ponder
and thank you for the question and look forward to other interpretations.
: )
Dear RH, thank you for posing this question, I too struggle with this concept. Maybe just knowing the Truth about someone allows the healing to unfold. Like the Bible quote, Ye shall know the Truth and the truth shall set you free.” Still I would like to see how others are understanding how it is that knowing the truth for another person (in this case knowing that there is one Mind) leads to the healing. Thanks everyone!
Christian Science Journal, CS Treatment: What it is , How it works. by Brian D. Wright 1985. I appreciate the many articles you reference. here is one for you.
Thanks Elizabeth. Here’s a link for everyone.
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/69srm0xu6o?s
“Christian Science treatment: what it is and how it works” by Brian D. Wright:
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/6087yvs4kw
Sorry this got posted twice. We must have been looking for this at the same time. Lol
RH,
I might suggest that you send an email to Michelle Nanouche and ask her to clarify. I’ve done that many times when I’ve read an article that makes a point for which I need clarification. I’ve found the authors very willing to respond via email or even set up a time to talk.
Just another suggestion….
What comes to thought is, “ye are my witnesses saith the Lord that I am God.” Our mindful acknowledgement of the presence and authority of good is helpful to those around us. Any further action we need to take will be clear to us. Linda in Quebec, Canada
I’ll have a go, RH.
As I see it, as we agree that there is only one Mind because there is only one God, we are all endowed with the spiritual facts that God is imparting. So as we turf out the false
claims in our prayers and affirm the spiritual facts about the problem, , this fact will be
brought to light in all who are struggling with that .problem.
The lie has been exposed through scientific prayer and properly destroyed by Christ,
Truth, and it enables the spiritual fact to come to light not just for the person we are
praying for, but for others struggling with the same problem. God doesn’t know
anything about any problems, because everything is God declaring His perfect Self to Himself (could mean His idea, man, His perfect idea) throughout His Creation. God has included in all of us the wonderful spiritual perfect facts of our being, and He is making sure we all know it by giving us dominion over the false claims of matter.
Does this make sense to you?
Thanks again Maggie…see my first thank you in my comment below. 🙂
I just reread your comment again and thought that what you describe is like how people were freed from the belief the world was flat. In other words, for years people thought the world was flat and they suffered from (were limited by) that belief. But then one day it only took ONE person to realize the truth (i.e. the earth is round) to free everyone else from the belief the world was flat. But in the flat world case, it took more than just one person *knowing* the earth was round to change the thoughts of others. One (or more) person had to humanly SPEAK the truth to others and then someone how to set off sailing in the direction of the horizon and come back and tell everyone they didn’t fall off the edge of the flat earth, etc., etc.. So I guess I’m still struggling with how a CS practitioner can just *know* the truth and that effects the person that called them? And also, I’ve read testimonies of practitioners knowing the truth that cancer isn’t real and that healed their patient, but people still suffer from cancer. So unlike the flat world belief, one person knowing the truth about cancer didn’t eradicate cancer as a belief for everyone else. Why not?
Thank you Carol and Maggie for responding to my question. I’m pretty clear on how man is the expression of God (Mind, Love, Truth, etc.). What I’m struggling with is HOW does my knowing this truth effect someone else to bring healing? To use the sun and sunbeam analogy Carol mentioned, how does one sunbeam effect another sunbeam. To my thinking, each sunbeam is distinct and individual and reflects the sun and there is really no interaction between sunbeams. Yet, in CS one sunbeam with a seeming problem (patient) calls another sunbeam (i.e. practitioner) and the practitioner sunbeam does something that causes the patient sunbeam to get better. But again, if both sunbeams are distinct and individual, how does one sunbeam do something that results in the other sunbeam realizing their problem is not real…or to state it differently…how does the practitioner sunbeam reflect light (truth) on the patient sunbeam to cause the patient sunbeam to realize their problem is not real and therefore it disappears from their thinking? How does that interaction happen, humanly (relatively) speaking?
Here’s my take: The answer to the “how” was when Michelle realized she needed to start from the right premise.
Your question, “How does Michelle Nanouche recognizing that there is one Mind help the person that called her for help?“ stays on the same premise Michelle was struggling with. Michelle was asking the wrong question. She realized the right question should have been, “God what are You seeing?”
You actually did get it when you stated “in the absolute…there is one Mind and everyone is reflecting that one Mind individually…” That’s the absolute truth and that is where the answer is. We must wake up, rise up to that truth, to the absolute, because that is where healing takes place.
Michelle left that question behind and rose up in consciousness to see reality. She yielded to One Mind, One Consciousness, which obliterates (heals) what the human mind thinks it sees. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 162 of Science and Health, “The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.” Michelle yielded, and that’s what we have to do. Yield to the harmony of the divine Mind. It’s already established, already true, already true about us. The practitioner goes to the Source, to absolute Truth.
Remember what Mrs. Eddy writes early on (p. xi) in S&H: “Many imagine that the phenomena of physical healing in Christian Science present only a phase of the action of the human mind, which action in some unexplained way results in the cure of disease.” Note that she says “unexplained.” As long as we keep asking questions from the basis of one human mind asking another human mind to help access the divine Mind for help, our questions will go unanswered.
I think basically we are helping each other to wake up and see the absolute, which is what Mind sees and knows. Ultimately we yield to Truth.
RH – it is not many persons knowing the Truth, or even one person knowing the Truth,
as I see it, it is knowing clearly that God IS the Truth, and the only voice and power, and trusting that God will reveal Himself, and letting Him reveal Himself. The Truth is true for
everybody, and we don’t have to try and make it true, we just have to understand
scientifically and apply the spiritual laws of God who made us all spiritual and
perfect. There is no power other than God that can cause disease, negate the Truth, or hide it.
As regards some people not responding and finding a healing from a Practitioner,
we don’t know anything about any particular case, all are different false fears, and it may
be that the fear was so great that at that particular time it had not yielded, for the treatment.
For it also involves the responsiveness of the patient to yield to the voice of God which the Practitioner is voicing through his/her understanding and application of the Science. But nevertheless, the prayers of Truth are not wasted, and those people will find out the nothingness of the claim eventually – especially since if they seem to die, they really
haven’t.since the bible tells us that the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death – and they will know that when they realise they have not died!
The onus is not on the Practitioner, for God does the healing and
revealing and the Truth is always the Truth for everyone. But we can’t do anything else
but cast out the lie, and affirm and apply the Truth which includes and enfolds all of God’s
children in His Love, and leave it to God to bring it to light for all receptive thoughts.
I think Evan might feel he needs to comment on our comments to make sure
we have it right!
Thanks Maggie for your explanations, much to ponder. I too hope that dear Evan will feel moved to chime in here and aid us with his insights. It’s very important for us to have clarity on this question.
Dear RH…. My feeling is that Michelle Nanouche was thinking of her patient as ..’over there..’
Instead of seeing them primarily as an individual consciousness permanently , solely expressing all that God, divine Mind is.
As students of CS we have to look for spiritual revealing, denying false claims of mortal mind…this in turn brings a healing because it is unstoppable Truth . So, when we need a bit more ‘revealing ‘ our practitioners are able to guide us to look in the direction we need. A practitioner will always hold us as part of the only creation…that of Spirit..
We are on a revealing journey here but in Truth we have arrived!
It’s worth remembering that even Jesus Christ did not heal when there was much opposition.
Hopefully Evan will read all the comments and quite succinctly answer your question>,. Much Love ❣️
I was hoping the same thing!
Thank you , Evan for this instructive post.
Dear RH, For me the important thing is starting with the fact there is only one Mind, and STAYING with this Truth. This helps me accept I never have to affect another mind or heal a person but just work myself with the misconception that there IS another mind APPEARING actual to me, and let the one and only real Mind clear THIS misconception. In the JB Phillips translation, John 7:24 Jesus says, “You must not judge by the appearance of things but by the reality. ” Really ponder this dear RH! Only Mind heals, and only as we accept Mind is healing/correcting what appears to be the problem in the distorted view, NEVER the so called mortal mind belonging to ourselves or another (which appear legitimate but are always mere counterfeits) is somehow able to change things! Just as the Principle of math allows no mistakes, our divine Principle has never REALly allowed even one mist taken view to be accepted as Truth. We can, even as so called humans, know and stick to Truth when we accept Christ’s knowing as our only TRUE knowing!
I just had another thought, that it is perhaps like a radio station.
The station is broadcasting but the “patient” may not be tuned
in to it, so the “practitioner” tries to awaken thought to be in
tune with it. That is, we are All able to be a Part of the station
if we are in tune to it. Even if we aren’t in tune, we are still part
of this Being (station) that is there for us.. The Love that the
practitioner feels is so in tune themself, perhaps, that this Love
is broadcast to the patient and the patient Feels that Love,
naturally, but with the added help, turns to Knowing his or her
reflection of the One Mind/Love/God.
I know what you mean, though, RH, and it is a question as to How
we know if the “patient” is in tune and to what extent, duration to
healing, etc. “humanly” speaking.
Interesting, for sure and I would love to hear more about this, also.
To my sense the interaction ( as mortals) between patient and practitioner is part of the dream of life in matter, and so the question of how one influences the other is part of the illusion. In reality only God influences man. It may seem to our limited sense of things that we are influencers and are healing one another, but in truth there is no intermediary between God and man. In reality we individually express God, but not as mortals. What is real are the God qualities we express. All healing is the result of realizing God’s allness. There is no mortal mind to recognize a problem.
Thanks RH for asking these thoughtful questions. Appreciate all of the responses.
Your questions made me think more about healing. I came across an article that contains questions that a practitioner asked herself and her patient(s), that resulted in healings. I thought it was interesting:
– “What is God?”
– “What it means to be, as the Bible says, “the image and likeness of God.”
– “What is our relationship to God?”
“Christian Science healing methods explained”:
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/28u7c88yiwg
Thank you J. Your comment reminded me of an article that was shared in the Cedars Camp metaphysical last week. A link is below:
Healing is not a talking cure
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/b2fq3y4e7e?s=e
Thanks for sharing this excellent article RH. What a fun and inspiring SpiritView…I loved all of the questions/answers and learned a lot. “The time for thinkers has come”…. Keep asking those questions! 🙂
Thanks again for all of the responses to my question. It occurred to me that I should clear up any misconception regarding whether someone thinks I’m questioning if CS heals. I KNOW it does. I’ve had many many instances of healings as a result of calling practitioners and of praying on my own. So I know it works and I think I understand how it works when I pray for myself. I’m just struggling with how it works when another person prays for me.
The first line in Evan’s blog today is “What is influencing your thought?” So I hope nobody feels like I’m hijacking the discussion today by pursing an answer to how the work of practitioners result in healing. To me that question falls into the topic of HOW thought is influenced. And it would seem to me the more we understand HOW that can happen, the more equipped we are to protect ourselves from negative mental influences.
In a comment I made to Spiritview on July 15, 2022, I wrote this:
————–
One thing I’m trying to do more and more via prayer and demonstration is to see things from a “spiritual paradigm” versus a “material paradigm”. For example, from a “material paradigm” everything is material, material laws govern everything, etc., etc. The material paradigm insists that communication must take place via the material senses. And in that paradigm, to “hold the mirror up to someone” would require communication of some type via the material senses.
But in a spiritual paradigm, we aren’t limited to communication via the material senses. Communication in a spiritual paradigm can happen in all sorts of ways we have yet to completely comprehend….
————–
Then I remembered another blog entitled from Sept 1, 2015 that Evan entitled “People hear what you think”. You can reference that using the link below:
https://spiritview.net/people-hear-what-you-think/
This idea of there being more than just the traditional material sense form of communication humanly inspired me to look up the word “silently” in the concordance. Below are a few citations I found interesting…
————–
Because the so-called material body is a mental concept and governed by mortal mind, it manifests only what that so-called mind expresses. Therefore the efficient remedy is to destroy the patient’s false belief by both silently and audibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious being, — representing man as healthy instead of diseased, and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 376:18–26)
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Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger. Watch the result of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 411:27–32)
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Argue at first mentally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of disease.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 412:20–23)
————–
If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs to be met mainly through the parent’s thought, silently or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian Science.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 412:28–31)
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These citations would seem to me to imply that Mrs. Eddy considered it natural for one person to communicate silently (mentally) with someone else. Or perhaps I should say that she considered it natural for one person to reflect God silently and the action of someone reflecting God will be heard mentally by others. I think she was also clear that there is no separate mind that can influence other separate minds. So would it be accurate to say that, in reality (in the absolute Truth), each individual idea of God (man) existing in Mind interacts with other individual ideas of God (other “people” or manifestations) and that action of God is reflected humanly when a practitioner knows the truth and their patient benefits from that? In other words, in the God-sun paradigm, the sunbeams do interact! God, reflected by one individual man, may be God’s way of supplying what another individual man needs and visa versa. God’s ideas work together as one and humanly that translates to one person providing the truth another needs, when they need it, and the material senses aren’t necessary for that truth to be shared!
Thanks again for all of your responses to my question. I really appreciate them all and they have all been thought provoking for me.
Dear RH — your most-recent insight above (sunbeams do interact) seems right on, echoing MBE’s statement in Miscellany (165:16): “As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good….able to impart truth, health and happiness…..” Such a valuable conversation!
RH, the thought came to me later after thinking further about your question. I think it is worth sharing with you. In the material experience we are posited in a worldly perspective such as the moon revolving around the earth which in turn revolves around a sun whose light shines on all. There is in the earthly orbit one moon, which because of it relationship with the earth and sun exhibits different reflections to the inhabitants viewing it in the night sky. Depending upon the season and the clearness of the night sky, the moon will exhibit a sliver, or a half, or honeymoon, blue moon, harvest moon, blood moon depending upon the various conditions. There is one moon, but many expressions. What appears is not always the truth, it just the reflection of those conditions. Likewise what we experience materially will not always be the truth such as one moon, one sun, but the source of those creations are united in purpose exposure, reflection. The truth lies within and without and beyond the perception of the current view. When we communicate to the source such as take in the sun’s rays be it in the day or in the observance of the night sky as a reflection of beams against an orb, there one source but many viewers, one truth but many travelers impacted by their view of that source. When one connects to that source one realizes that that source is not opposed to itself, its purpose or it could not exist. Often times that connection is the same but has different impact and different results due to needs of the viewer. The sun shines on flower and the beast, the orb and the viewer, beyond which the beauty and harmony can be indescribable awe. Thank you for raising the question as it has helped me to think more deeply into this topic.
RH – I am sure it was good for us all to ponder your question, so thank you for posing it.
I just had one more thought – “What feeds one (with the bread of heaven) feeds all,
and Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes”. Maggie
RH great question and it is reasonable to ask it. What is the relationship of the relative to the absolute? You ask this because much depends upon it. That is, freedom of choice, responsibility, the circle of love (love given and love returned), the actual progress of man to gain spiritual understanding. In sense it is the difference between the mirror and the reflection. The mirror being the relative, the reflection being the absolute. It sort of a relationship between the one and the many. There is one mind, but many reflections.
This question is a good one. Thank you for all the answers. They were all uplifting. Let me say my own How?
In John 1:1 we read.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
As we can see WORD starts with a capital letter and GOD starts with a capital letter also.
Using this to explain the HOW ? is simply that the Word heals. Let’s know that the words the Practitioners use come from the divine Mind and in seeing the clarity of this Word which is God Himself heals, as such God is the Healer. Let’s know God by knowing the Word.
This was such a learning experience today and I loved all of the
comments and links. I felt I was back in college again with all of
the studying, pondering and thinking. LOL Everyone’s sharing
was/is always so helpful in trying to understand what seems to
be sometimes a tiny bit confusing.
Well, some times a whole lot confusing. But it was great. These
metaphysics can really get deep in thought and that is wonderful.
Some (not CS, of course) believe that God is an Old Father ~
or Grandfatherly figure in the sky or in the corner somewhere,
whom one turns to only in times of wanting something, who
chime in only when needed for whatever purpose. But CS sees
God as Mind, Soul,Spirit, Truth, Life, Principle and Love …
Guiding, Governing directing our thoughts together where each
sees One Mind and this One is altogether Lovely. Period.
There is really no denying our God is Real.
Thanks Carol. Metaphysics is fascinating, and many different responses, which is interesting. Wondering if RH felt his question got answered.
Thank you very much for today’s absolute helpful SpiritView, dear Evan! This one and that SV from yesterday are very needed, I work and pray with them!