Learning That Nil Means Nil

At some station along the way in our spiritual growth in Christian Science we learn not to give a name and a habitation to any ailment or disease. Mrs. Eddy tells us that to give it a name only tends to make the seeming problem more real and increases fear, which is the basic enemy.

We learn that one way to begin spiking mortal mind's guns is to move the mental conflict into the arena of a claim, a belief, an illusion, a dream, a lie, or a false belief. This helps remove thought from the contemplation of material so-called laws and prognoses and thereby reduces the fear associated with a specific belief.

If we do not clearly grasp, however, what we are doing when we use these terms, the original temptation, suggestion, can easily be transferred in our thinking to a belief in and fear of a real claim, a real belief, a real illusion, a real dream, and so forth. Mortal mind is not fastidious about the means it employs as long as it gets our attention. The result will be the same whether the suggestion is accepted as this or that specific disease or a very real false belief.

When we see a problem as an illusion or dream we must be sure we are only using the term to remove it from thought as a reality of any kind, even as a real unreality. When we are able to turn wholly and instantly to God and fill our consciousness with thoughts of Him alone, then the use of the term illusion or lie has become a useful stepping stone to freedom from the suggestions of mortal mind, and we then know we are expressing more of the spiritual harmony and completeness that come only from some measure of demonstrating the fact that we are God's reflection eternally.