In The Unfolding Idea, Mr. Young explains how healing is not the overcoming of mesmeric beliefs, but a thinning out of the mist of mortal mind so that the ever present truth can unfold more clearly. This is the process wherein ultimately we realize such a spiritual state of mind that we know no evil, matter, or mortality. This concept developed in a clear and concise way opens up new insights into how Christian Science brings about healing and regeneration. He writes: “Divine Mind unfolds itself as our understanding of its infinite ideas appearing progressively as improved beliefs or concepts, which we call healing or demonstrations; but the improved belief or concept — the better “sense” world — is not the demonstration. The demonstration is Mind’s proof of its presence in our understanding of its ideas, and thus the disappearance of mortal mind with its disease.”

Mental cause of all things

In Dynamic Christian Science, Mr. Young emphasizes the purely mental cause of all things — good or bad. But he goes further and shows that, while all things are mental, some are true because they are of God and others are false because they are of evil. By distinguishing between the two, we can do prayerful work to deny and destroy the discordant, diseased illusions in consciousness which come from a belief in the power of evil, and we can affirm the health and harmony which are the truth about man. Under the subtitle “Dynamic Christian Science — Love in Action” he writes: “Christian Science is dynamic. It is alert, alive, pulsating with the power, presence, and intelligence of divine Love.

Dynamic Love

The statement ‘Love is reflected in love,’ is a dynamic remark. Our Leader’s writings contain numerous examples of such calls to action. Love is not static. It is not passive, quiescent, dormant, inactive but eager, joyous, glad, festive. It is always sprightly, glowing, fervent, alive. . . The reason that ‘he that feareth is not made perfect in love,’ is due to the fact that fear concerns a future condition, a status that may become a fact, whereas love is a present experience and is therefore a quality of omnipresent Love. It is impossible for love, which is a quality of the now, to be concerned with a future state. Conversely, because fear deals with the future and cannot be a quality of omnipresent Love, of the now, John was obliged to write, ‘There is no fear in love.’ . . . Only as love is loving now, is being love now, can it be love at any time. There is no such thing as love was, or love will be. Love is. That is dynamic Christian Science.”

In this paper, Mr. Young deals in specifics: how to overcome sensitivity to cold and heat, how to handle spiritualism, how to discern the body as a spiritual idea, how to do healing work for yourself and others. He poured a lifetime of learning and teaching into this address – the last one that he wrote.

This book is worthy of long and serious study. Mr. Young explains that there is only one Mind, and therefore all is Mind. There is no opposite to this one Mind. Prayerful work in Christian Science is not focused on denying and destroying evil, for the mortal concept is pure illusion, a false concept that has been accepted into individual consciousness. How can we destroy an illusion? Animal magnetism is nothing more than ignorance concerning God. Although we need at times to deny its seeming reality, we should realize that we are only denying an illusion, something that does not exist. Why try to destroy something that does not exist?

The main purpose of our work is to understand the nature of God so clearly that this eliminates evil, for the real and the unreal cannot both occupy in the same mind at the same time. In discussing the present state of consciousness, through which we relate to each other, he writes, “We are relatively at the same point of spiritual discernment, or we would have no awareness of each other as we appear today; there would be no point of contact; nor would we apparently have the same sense world. Being, in belief, at the same point of spiritual unfoldment, what appears as your world appears as my world, what appears to be personal disease is impersonal disease, what appears as personal hate or resentment is impersonal hate and resentment — the one universal claim, mortal mind, mass mesmerism operating consciously and unconsciously as ‘personal minds.’ Each so-called mind is its own universe, but the belief being mass mesmerism, it is the universe of all. . . . Until one awakens to the spiritual fact of the one Mind, as revealed in Christian Science, one’s universe continues to be the universe of mass mesmerism. . . . We are what others are, we have what others have, until we learn, through the revelation of Christian Science, to demonstrate our individuality as the reflection of Mind, by entertaining ideas which declare or express the infinite nature of that Mind which is God.”

We take in the false images of mortal mind and so suffer from them until we rise above the illusion that evil is real, and we live in the atmosphere of divine Mind. Mr. Young explains how to separate illusion from reality and how to meet the obstacles and resistance that this transformation brings. This is one of Mrs. Young’s finest papers.

Excerpts from Letters to Patients and Students Vol. 1

Most of Mr. Young’s papers are directed towards a large audience. But these excerpts from his personal letters bring out the one-to-one help he gave patients, students, and friends. Mr. Young’s letters address the more specific needs of the individual and show how to relate Christian Science to a wide range of problems — problems we all face today. Since Truth is timeless, these letters are also timeless. It is the warm, friendly, practical advice that makes these letters special. He writes to a patient: “Let me admonish you not to take your work too seriously. I do not mean by that, that you should not be in earnest about it, but there must be joy in it, because if the joy is lacking then there is no liveliness in the work, and you would get tired of doing it. Do not forget the essential thing, and this is happiness, because God is Love and there is no other God.”

Most of Mr. Young’s papers are directed towards a large audience. But these excerpts from his personal letters bring out the one-to-one help he gave patients, students, and friends. Mr. Young’s letters address the more specific needs of the individual and show how to relate Christian Science to a wide range of problems — problems we all face today. Since Truth is timeless, these letters are also timeless. It is the warm, friendly, practical advice that makes these letters special. He writes to a patient: “Let me admonish you not to take your work too seriously. I do not mean by that, that you should not be in earnest about it, but there must be joy in it, because if the joy is lacking then there is no liveliness in the work, and you would get tired of doing it. Do not forget the essential thing, and this is happiness, because God is Love and there is no other God.”

Most of Mr. Young’s papers are directed towards a large audience. But these excerpts from his personal letters bring out the one-to-one help he gave patients, students, and friends. Mr. Young’s letters address the more specific needs of the individual and show how to relate Christian Science to a wide range of problems — problems we all face today. Since Truth is timeless, these letters are also timeless. It is the warm, friendly, practical advice that makes these letters special. He writes to a patient: “Let me admonish you not to take your work too seriously. I do not mean by that, that you should not be in earnest about it, but there must be joy in it, because if the joy is lacking then there is no liveliness in the work, and you would get tired of doing it. Do not forget the essential thing, and this is happiness, because God is Love and there is no other God.”

This is a word-for-word record of the twelve days of Primary Class taught by Mr. Young. It includes answers to questions from students during the intermissions. Reading it is like going through class with one of the finest teachers the movement has ever known. Mr. Young remarks on each synonym and shows how man is the pure reflection of these seven terms for God. He talks about the unreality of matter and the handling of animal magnetism, then gives many practical insights on how to heal yourself and others. It is important in Christian Science that we not become so lost in the absolute statements, that we do not make it practical. We must apply this Science to the human need and bring about healing, for the Word of God must be made evident in the human experience. While Mr. Young is very metaphysical in his teaching, he always insists that we relate the truth to the error in consciousness and overcome it. In the absolute sense, he states, “Insist upon knowing yourself as God knows you. Realize that God has created man in His own image, unlimited, harmonious, incorruptible, pure, and perfect, that that individual man will never cease to exist, to express God. God must have an expression, must be manifested, to verify His own existence. Man is this expression. Get your thinking away from corporeal sense, so that your thinking is in accord with Principle. Recognize the naturalness of right ideas, and the infinite range of your thought when it expresses divine Principle.” Then, on the practical side, he remarks about the healing practice, “Treatment is the divine presence. One has to be it all the time! It is a case of being alive, so much alive that nothing can fool you. Alertness is the state of man, the very constant consciousness of God, God’s consciousness. See what Being is and be! It is being that counts. Not just seeing — being. And that being means that it is proper for us to expect to be able to think as Mind, not merely about it. The real practitioner is found in the realization of that oneness of Being. The thing that gives the treatment value is not the practitioner, but his realization of Mind as the only Being or intelligence or act, and the law of his treatment is perfection. “In treating himself, the practitioner is educating and healing somebody else. If he demonstrates that there is only one Mind, he will heal the person that is sick, because there is one Mind. There are not two persons, but the sons of God with one Mind. . . . “Only as I redeem myself can I help someone else. In treatment, what happens is your realization of God and your oneness with that realization, or the realization of the oneness of God and man. Your point of view makes it impossible to accept the testimony of the senses. That testimony, having no foundation, is made to disappear.” Mr. Young covers the main subjects of class teaching, and he also has much to say about the application of Christian Science to all avenues of human experience. He shows how to relate to the world as a demonstrating Scientist, and how to cope with the many challenges that practitioners face in the public practice. For those who have not had class, or who feel that going through class did not answer all of their questions, this verbatim report will be invaluable.