Mary Baker Eddy wrote:

We must give up the spectral at all points. (Science and Health, p. 353)

Now, much of the world believes in ghosts, apparitions, otherworldly beings, spirit-guides, loved-ones who have passed on overseeing our day-to-day activities, ethereal guardians, channeling, past hauntings, etc. And, make no mistake, these are indeed wrongful thought-influences that we need to be alert to and metaphysically handle accordingly.

But is this statement from Science and Health applicable to just these beliefs? Or does it go a lot further?

What about catastrophic events, the belief of traumatic situations, past illnesses, emotional disturbances, abusive relationships, lack, or anything inharmonious—not of God—that would try to continue to enslave and limit us by haunting our thoughts? By evoking images or feelings of anxiety, depression, or manifesting itself in present sickness?

And what about the beliefs of heredity, genetics, and DNA that would claim we are programmed by the past—either by our immediate forebears or the extensive lineage of distant ancestral populations—to have certain proclivities, good or bad, based on material circumstances?

The good news is that we don’t need to be mesmerized by or experience any of these claims. Why? Because they are not of God—of omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and omni-active all good! They are nothing more that the lies of material sense, of mortal mind—lies without authority, presence, intelligence, or any real activity.

And it is God—and God alone—that maintains and sustains us as His beloved creations—healthy, holy, and harmonious at all times, contrary to all of the suggestions of the carnal mind and so-called human knowledge!

God’s love for us is so complete that its very presence obliterates anything unlike itself! We need to recognize this absolute and indisputable fact, and strive to both live our lives and align our thinking accordingly. How? By turning away from the falsities of mortality and instead listening to and obeying the constant testimony of Spirit—of God.

In her Pulpit and Press (p. 3), Mrs. Eddy stated:

Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer? Our surety is in our confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man’s eternal mansion.

And in that mansion there are no hauntings!