Where's the number 4?

Nobel laureate Dr. James D. Watson, who together with Dr. Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in 1953, was interviewed on a recent PBS broadcast.

Asked what scientific question he would most like to see answered now that the human genome has been decoded (a project that he helped start), Dr. Watson had an interesting response. He said that while scientists may soon know virtually everything about genes, they still don't know how we can remember a phone number. They don't know where those numbers are.

"Where's the number 4?" Watson asked. He said scientists know approximately where in the brain it's stored, but not exactly.

Long before the age of modern science, spiritual thinkers came to profound conclusions concerning the source and location of ideas and intelligence. The Apostle Paul expressed it succinctly: "We have the mind of Christ" (I Cor. 2:16).

Paul was referring to what gave Jesus power over any limitation and bad situation - what enabled him to heal all kinds of diseases instantaneously, to calm a raging storm, to walk on water, to feed crowds with next to no food, to raise the dead.

Do you and I really have that mind? What exactly is it?

Well, it's an intelligence of the highest order. One that is holy, divine, spiritual, pure, limitless. A consciousness that knows only truth, health, harmony, abundance, life, love, freedom, and perfection. Paul isn't referring to a brain. He's really referring to God, to the infinite Mind, which is not physical.

God was Jesus' Mind. And God is our Mind, too. God is where all the inspiration and originality and discovery come from that we need to help people and accomplish excellent things. Ingenuity, resourcefulness, wisdom, insight, and creativity flow from this Mind.

What's more, Mind isn't inside anyone. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?" (Jer. 23:23) God is here. Though invisible to the eyes, transcending space and time, Mind is everywhere. It's reassuring and practical to know that this Mind, which can also be known as Love, is always around to comfort, uplift, reform, transform, redeem, regenerate, motivate, illuminate, and heal.

"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," first published in 1875 by Mary Baker Eddy, describes our relationship to God as being like "a drop of water" that is "one with the ocean". God constitutes the very fiber of our being. Coming from the divine Spirit, we are really spiritual. Radical as it sounds, as God's "likeness" (see Gen. 1:26), your life, identity, purpose, income, and health are entirely independent of your physical circumstances. To contemplate this is a way to pray, a way to pray that gives us power from God. Power to do good and have good in every part of our lives.

How likely is it that scientists will discover the exact brain cell where 4 is stored? Or where the theory of relativity, or concepts such as idealism, equality, compassion, and truth are stored? Who knows? But the history of science has shown that the answers to fundamental questions often require major thought-shifts. So something Science and Health has to say about trying to explain existence from a physical point of view may give you pause: "The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma".

In my professional creative work, I look to infinite Mind for artistic vision, advanced ideas, exploratory forms, and new possibilities. And I'm learning that I can find everything good, original, and substantial by turning to God for inspiration and guidance.

Ye shall seek me,

and find me, when

ye shall search for me

with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

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