Discerning reality
When we put on a virtual reality headset, the computer-simulated world in front of us can seem very real, even though it isn’t. This can certainly get us thinking more guardedly about what else we buy into, not just in virtual reality but in everyday life itself.
What underlies authentic existence?
Jesus said something thought-provoking that can make us question what we accept as reality: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63, New International Version). This suggests that all the physical, material reality we experience, as tangible as it may seem, is actually a form of “virtual reality,” an environment that we see and hear that isn’t the truth of being.
Christian Science teaches that God, whom the Bible calls Spirit, is actually the sole substance of reality. The action of Spirit results in spiritual existence, and this includes the real you and me. Referring to Spirit as divine Mind, Monitor founder Mary Baker Eddy says in her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God” (p. 507). She continues, “Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity.”
If existence is truly valid only on a spiritual level, then qualities such as beauty, perfection, health, and intelligence are not reliant on the status of what appears to us as matter, but are governed by Spirit, the divine Mind that is God.
Jesus also observed, “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). He was looking not into a virtual world, but into a world of true reality, and doing so enabled him to help and even heal people. This healing work wasn’t about changing a “real” substance called “the flesh,” or matter, but about recognizing the reality of present, perfect Spirit, and the spiritual creation it creates and governs.
Since spiritual reality is ever present, it is reasonable to follow Jesus’ model and accomplish healing today.
As an example, I used to suffer from a susceptibility to food poisoning. This had gone on for several years, and I’d had many bouts of it. One day, as I was thinking and praying, something struck me that I’d never realized before. I saw that my health – and also everyone else’s health – isn’t a consequence of matter, but is actually safely and spiritually intact in God, Mind!
In light of God’s perfect, all-inclusive creation, for matter to poison man is only “virtual reality.” It’s a construct of mistaken human perception. Man’s actual self, including health, is a perfect, changeless expression of God. That’s our legitimate reality.
“Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind...,” Science and Health says (p. 120). Recognizing the truth of legitimate reality in this way freed me from those recurring bouts. In fact, four decades have passed since then, and I haven’t experienced those symptoms again.
Even considering and appreciating the many progressive and useful technological developments, inventions, and discoveries appearing these days, the most significant discovery of our time is the recognition of God’s permanent, spiritual, and perfect reality. And the best news of all is that this truth is entirely practical and provable. “The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things,” states Science and Health. “The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth” (p. 207).
