Question: What does Science of Mind believe about God?
Answer: God is that transcendent and beautiful Mystery: The Origin of all; the Sustainer of all; the Truth of all that is; Presence and Principle; Love and Law; Life Itself; and the Substance of all form. This is, in part, our concept of God, but no person can fully explain what God is since God is infinite.
Question: What is the Science of Mind belief about Jesus?
Answer: In the Science of Mind, we believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a loving, powerful man who walked the earth two thousand years ago. Jesus was a Master Teacher and a great example of how to live the individual expression of God. We think of Jesus as an example, the Way Shower, if not the exception, certainly exceptional.
In the Science of Mind, the phrase “Christ Consciousness” is used to refer to a universal principle of God expressing through humanity. Jesus was the great example, given to us all, of fully living our divine potential, our “Christ Consciousness.”
According to our founder Dr. Ernest Holmes, “The Science of Mind does not deny the divinity of Jesus; but it does affirm the divinity of all people. It does not deny that Jesus was the son of God; but affirms that all beings are children of God. It does not deny that the Kingdom of God was revealed through Jesus; but affirms that the Kingdom of God is also revealed through you and me.”
Question: Does Science of Mind believe Jesus is our Savior?
Answer: Any world teacher who helps humankind to be free from material, intellectual, or emotional bondage is a spiritual “savior.” Jesus showed us a way to be free, perhaps the most effective way ever known, and it can indeed release humankind from bondage.
Question: What does Science of Mind believe about the Bible?
Answer: It is one among many sacred scriptures, all of which were inspired by the One Mind and presented through various spiritual teachers. We believe that for Western people, the Judeo-Christian scriptures offers a useful path to spiritual freedom. We also find truth in many of the world’s sacred texts.
Question: Does the Science of Mind believe in heaven and hell?
Answer: Heaven and hell are states of mind, and neither is a literal geographical place. Modern science has demonstrated that there is no actual “up” or “down” in this universe where heaven or hell might be.
There are certain exalted inner states of consciousness which may be more like the “Kingdom of Heaven” than our everyday life on earth, but we must always realize that God is here and now, and to know this is to sense something of what heaven is.
Because the Science of Mind philosophy views all life as God, there can be no hell. The terms “heaven” and “hell” are symbolic of what each individual creates in his or her own life.
We find heaven when we live from our hearts, know our oneness with God, and are true to ourselves. This deep inner peace, which has been written about through the ages, is heaven.
Hell, on the other hand, is the inner pain we feel when our lives and experiences seem to be against us. In reality, nothing is against us when we understand the basic unity of all life. We always have the power to change our thinking, and this alone lifts us from any hell-like experiences into heaven on earth. Both are in our minds.
Question: Does Science of Mind believe in Eternal Damnation?
Answer: No, we do not. God does not create life and then destroy or condemn it. As free individuals, we may bring great difficulties upon ourselves, but that is as near as we come to so-called damnation. Then it is God, as perfect Law, Love, and Truth, to whom we may turn for release from these difficulties. The choice is always ours.
Question: Does Science of Mind believe in a “Hereafter?"
Answer: We believe in the eternal now, which includes both here and hereafter, for Life is an ever-unfolding experience of God’s Self-expression. There is much, much more to it than what this world contains. We do not, however, believe in sudden change in our whole nature when we leave this plane, for we retain our individual identity. And that “immortality” is not something awaiting us in the future, because we are immortal now! In other, yet unseen dimensions of life, there are new fields to conquer, new challenges, new and beautiful Truths to discover in an unlimited and divine Cosmic Universe.
Question: Does Science of Mind believe in good and evil?
Answer: God is the Source of all, beyond good and evil. God simply is. But in human life, where our freedom allows us to make mistakes (so-called “sin”), our comparisons of actions to what would have been better lead us to ideas of good or evil. However, they are human inventions, for ultimately there is only God: Infinite Love and Truth.
Question: Does Science of Mind believe in the Ten Commandments?
Answer: Yes, for we affirm the validity of this wise and useful code of conduct, this intelligent and loving life pattern.
Question: Who is the founder of Centers for Spiritual Living?
Answer: Dr. Ernest Holmes founded the spiritual movement which became Centers for Spiritual Living. Born in 1887 on a small Maine farm, Dr. Holmes spent his teenage years outdoors, asking himself “What is God? Who am I? Why am I here?” This questioning led to his 1926 book, The Science of Mind, which outlined the foundational viewpoints of modern New Thought.
Question: What is Science of Mind?
Answer: The Science of Mind (also referred to as Religious Science) is the core teaching of The Well; it is a philosophy which integrates spiritual truths with science and physics. Simply put, the Science of Mind teaches the unity of all life. Intentions and ideas flow through a field of consciousness, which actually affect and create the world around us. This idea is common to most major religions and is supported by the teachings of psychology and quantum physics.
In the Science of Mind, we believe that the secret to living a successful life is to consciously choose positive and productive thoughts. Put another way, “As you think, so you become.” It is the intention of The Well to use the Science of Mind principles as a force for good in our world by transforming personal lives.
Question: Is Centers for Spiritual Living related to or connected with Scientology?
Answer: No. Religious Science and Centers for Spiritual Living are in no way related to Scientology.
Question: Is Centers for Spiritual Living associated with Christian Science?
Answer: No. Centers for Spiritual Living are a unique and separate entity from Christian Science. Ernest Holmes, the founder of Centers for Spiritual Living, studied with many of the spiritual leaders of his time, including Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, but he was not a member of that group. In the Science of Mind, we believe that healing comes in many forms. God is expressed through doctors and medicine just as God is expressed through everyone and everything in the physical universe.
Question: Is Centers for Spiritual Living a Christian organization?
Answer: Yes and no. The Science of Mind philosophy derives from the Christian tradition with a belief that the teachings of Jesus are accessible to all people. Dr. Ernest Holmes, the founder of Centers for Spiritual Living, grew up in the Christian tradition. Additionally, he was a prolific reader who studied all of the world’s religions and synthesized the truths running through them all, free of any particular dogma. Honoring all paths to God, he developed his philosophy with the intention that all churches, especially Christian ones, would embrace the philosophy and incorporate those teachings into their own.
Question: Is The Well a “New Age” organization?
Answer: The Science of Mind is a New Thought philosophy that incorporates spiritual tools of affirmative prayer, healing and creative visualization to transform lives and make the world more peaceful, harmonious, and prosperous.
The New Thought tradition dates to the 1880s and has its roots in the Transcendentalist Movement of the 1830s. New Thought has a long and respected history, and includes luminaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Phineas Quimby, and Emma Curtis Hopkins. Some of the better known authors today associated with New Thought teachings are Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle (author of A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose) as well as many others.
The Well does not consider its teachings to be New Age, but rather incorporates the ancient wisdom of all the spiritual traditions through the ages. People of all spiritual paths — Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, New Age and others — are all welcome in the New Thought communities.
Question: Is The Well a place for healing?
Answer: Yes, The Well is a place where amazing healings and life transformations take place. The Science of Mind philosophy promotes the idea that God is all-powerful, omnipresent, and benevolent, true human selfhood is divine, all sickness originates in the mind, and “right thinking” has a healing effect.
Question: Does the Science of Mind believe in miracles?
Answer: Yes. The Science of Mind teaches that everything is possible in God. Everything that occurs in our lives is simply the manifestation of our consciousness. Events that seem to be miraculous are actually the metaphysical laws acting at a level beyond our awareness. As our consciousness evolves, what previously seemed miraculous becomes a natural, normal and understandable way of life.
Question: Does the Science of Mind believe in the devil?
Answer: The Science of Mind philosophy states that there is only one power and that is God. Because there is only one power, the devil cannot exist. There is only the manifestation of falsely held beliefs, which produce the appearance of some sinister invisible force acting in our lives. To blame unpleasant conditions and circumstances on the devil, or anyone else, is a way of avoiding responsibility for our own life decisions.
Question: Does the Science of Mind believe in sin?
Answer: The original meaning of sin was simply to “miss the mark” of spiritual perfection. In the Science of Mind, we believe that there is no “sin” in the traditional sense of that word. We can choose behavior that produces an undesirable effect in our lives, thus creating hardship or suffering. In other words, we are punished by our sins, not for them.
Question: What does the Science of Mind believe about death?
Answer: The Science of Mind philosophy teaches that life is eternal. We do not believe that we are human beings having a spiritual experience, but rather that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We accept that our physical bodies operate within a natural cycle of birth and death. However, even though we have a body, we are more than our body. We are the Life that animates our body, and that Life is infinite and immortal. As we become increasingly identified with our divine and eternal nature, our underlying fear of death dissolves and our experience of life becomes more joyous.
Question: Does the Science of Mind believe in reincarnation?
Answer: In the Science of Mind philosophy, we neither endorse nor reject any particular theory or concept of reincarnation. Because life is eternal, there are an unlimited number of possibilities for its evolvement after physical death.
