Scientific translations
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not
485:15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come
naturally into Spirit through better health and
morals and as the result of spiritual growth.
485:18 Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im-
mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in
body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg,
485:21 is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,
destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which
man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven
485:24 is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other '
powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful
images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents,
485:27 called disease and sin.
Material beliefs
The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and
agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or
485:30 muscles measure strength. To say that
strength is in matter, is like saying that the
power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-
486:1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you
can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned
486:3 falsehood's true nature.
Sense /versus/ Soul
Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to
the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.
486:6 What is man's remedy? To die, that he may
regain these senses? Even then he must gain
spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to
486:9 possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory
school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man
never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his
486:12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but
of error, and one error will not correct another.
Death an error
Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body
486:15 was the same immediately after death as before. If death
restores sight, sound, and strength to man,
then death is not an enemy but a better friend
486:18 than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes
harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet
supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long
486:21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-
tal in belief and subject to chance and change.
Permanent sensibility
Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are
486:24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-
tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in
matter, - hence their permanence. If this
486:27 were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the
five corporeal senses were the medium through which
to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness
486:30 would place man in a terrible situation, where he would
be like those "having no hope, and without God in the
world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often
487:1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
ness and existence.