Day 42: Purgatory

76:6-77:32

Mary Baker Eddy mentions that spiritism, the belief in spirits,

consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling that of blighted bugs, –to a wretched purgatory, where the chances of the departed for improvement narrow into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of matter.

How funny we, as people, don’t want change. We don’t want it for our selves and we don’t want it for our ghosts, real or imagined. A change in the spirit requires a change in us.

I have a friend who is very much into her ghosts. They are personal to her as if for her alone. She talks of her own angels as well. It’s so much easier to believe in a personal deity, angel, or ghost than it is to believe in the all-loving. It’s almost like an impersonal, although complete love from God, can’t possibly be as powerful as personal love which we all have at least had a taste of.

2010

Day 40:

72:1-74:2

Mary Baker Eddy writes:

The belief that one man, as spirit, can control another man, as matter upsets both the individuality and the Science of man, for man is image.

I would like to propose as modified version of this sentence, for your consideration:

The belief that one man, as spirit, can control [negative verb of choice here] another man, as matter upsets both the individuality and the Science of man, for man is image.

My point is that the concept of control, fear, or harm isn’t limited to spirits but is something we walk around with everyday. Some of use give spirits more power than any other materiality, when we shouldn’t. None if it should have any more power than God. Or more correctly, none of it has power at all. 

2010

Day 179: The Ghost

351:8-353:6

In this section, Mary Baker Eddy writes about calming a child’s fear about imaginary ghosts. It’s an analogy, she could have meant any material fear but ghosts are particularly frightening to little children so the analogy is that much more poignant. She writes:

In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, because there are no such things. If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be restored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into nothingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor.

People who read this have an interesting reaction: I’ve experienced a ghost myself – how can you tell me they aren’t real? This book is about Christian Science and spiritual reality, not about ghosts. If you want to believe in ghosts because you have experienced them – good for you. But how is that different from believing in sickness, or sin? It’s not.

Go back to the analogy and replace the word ghost with anything you are afraid of, in pain from, etc. The paragraph is still truthful. The idea is the same. One material sensation is just as unreal as the next.