How to read the books

The book series is based on an idea that began to take shape in the late 1870s through the work of a New England woman named Mary Baker (1816-1910). Mary Baker was a farmer's daughter who grew up during America's great cultural and scientific renaissance, a time when many an old perception was challenged, when thought surged ahead to probe and embrace the infinite. It was a time when once even iron clad limits were overturned. It was a time of optimism and achievements.

Mary Baker became famous as a scientist when she discovered in 1866 the principles of Christ healing which she applied to the healing of disease on an almost commercial basis and was able to teach to others for the same effect. In the early years of her healing work, a medical doctor whom she had assisted to heal a 'hopeless' case, suggested that she should write a book about her new scientific method of Christ healing (which she later called "Christian Science)." Little did the good doctor know that this was already ongoing and that the work would turn out to be so huge in scope that it would take nine full years to complete.

Mary Baker wrote about this period, saying that she needed to understand the "science" that was involved. Of course, her discovery became widely publicized over the years and her "Christian Science" became one of America's major religions. The book that she had labored on for so many years, eventually sold by the millions. It was the standard textbook of her science, called "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." Like any scientific research document, the book was constantly updated by her. When she died in 1910, well over three hundred separate editions of it had been published. Soon, the book became a classic. It became studied daily by countless people all over the world. It is almost ironic against this background, that her greatest achievement, on which all her work was evidently founded, had remained obscured from the public for a hundred years. This portion of her work is the creation of a scientific method for discovery itself, for ordering exploration, for developing questions that need to be answered, for exploring fundamental principles and so forth. It is the exploration of this element of her work which the book series, "Discovering Infinity," is devoted to. The series is not designed to explore Mary Baker's religion, even though this religion has achieved more in the arena of Christian healing than any other. Instead, the series is designed to explore the scientific structures and processes behind her discoveries which had been left in obscurity for a hundred years. This is what the book series, Discovering Infinity, is focused on. The actual discovered elements, themselves, are all presented in Volume 3 of the series. Except, by the time this volume was written, it became evident that the real work had just begun.

Mary Baker Eddy (as Mary Baker called herself in later years after several marriages) never wrote or spoke about this formalized structure for scientific discovery which she had developed and utilized extensively. One is left, thus, to conjecture why this vital foundational element had been wrapped in absurdity. One may conclude that the general thinking was too shallow at her time for this aspect of her work to be brought into the open. Actually, it already existed completely in the open. All the essential aspects of it had been carefully incorporated into her textbook and other writings, which were studied by countless people. One would assume that it should have been recognized by at least one of them, by someone who would be alert enough to pay attention to the vast array of interconnecting details that she had provided. Evidently she was contend to allow her most vital work to remain hidden until the advancing process of discovery, itself, would bring it to light in due curse.

The first footsteps of this process of discovery were not taken until the 1940s. They were taken in London England, by a man named John Doorly, a teacher of Christian Science. Doorly had discovered some evidence that Mary Baker Eddy had structured her textbook in accord with a 16 element matrix structure which she had symbolically described by describing the biblical narrative of the city foursquare from the book of Revelation, Chapter 21. Figure 1 shows a matrix structure which is designed four elements square. See Figure 1 (please click on it). Doorly reasoned that it was not by accident that her textbook had been divided into 16 chapters, because a four square structure has sixteen elements, by which the two structures matched (see Figure 2). Unfortunately, John Doorly didn't take the work any further. The simple discovery that he made created such an upset within the hierarchy of the Church that the man was eventually excommunicated, by which the unfolding discovery was halted for another 40 years.

It was recognized in the early 1980s that Doorly had discovered only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. It was recognized that most of Mary Baker Eddy's major works have been created as individual structures that were divided into sixteen parts, or multiples of sixteen parts (see Figure 3). Now the question becomes imperative: What does this all mean? Why did she do this?

When the work was taken up to correlate all the structures which had evidently provided for this purpose, it was discovered that many more questions than answers emerged. It seemed that more guidance was needed, and behold a number of descriptive references were found that gave the unfolding structure a precise definition and functional purpose (see Figure 4). It was also recognized that the way the individual structures were organized within themselves allowed them to be directly applied to the matrix structure, according to their design. The work of correlating all of the predefined structures to each other, and to the matrix, naturally enriched every part of them so that the whole structure has quite a story to tell. Still, all this, too, turned out to be just another beginning.

As was shown in Figure 3, the Glossary of the textbook, too, is one of those structures that relate to the matrix. This structures contains 144 definitions, which happens to be just the right amount to create a nine part substructure for each of the sixteen elements of the matrix (9x16=144) See Figure 5. The development of so vast a structure also opens up a vast array of new questions. The interesting part about Mary Baker Eddy's scientific development structure is that less and less guidance is provided as the complexity is increasing, by which one becomes forced to seek answers by exploring the principles that are involved.

Still, there is more to be considered, in terms of exploring the fundamental principles of her scientific development structure. This work, again, involves the Glossary. The Glossary, actually, doesn't define 144 terms. It defines far fewer that that. However, a number of the Glossary terms have been given a dual definition. If one identifies these correctly, and adds them to the total, one finds that the Glossary contains 144 definitions of terms. Of course, of one applies a shallow rule for determining dual definitions, the correct total will not be obtained. Most likely, 148 definitions will be counted, depending on one's perception of the rule. This complex demand has a must significant advantage. It forces one to look deeper than one would normally be inclined. As one does this work, five different types of dual definitions become recognized which open up a whole new range of perceptions which the conventional perceptions would deny. A simple example of this is utilized in Volume 1b for exploring the dimension of justice which has no meaning in itself unless it becomes associated with other aspects, such as "truth" and "love."

These various dimensions that are encountered when one explores Mary Baker Eddy's scientific development structure, dimensions, such as 5, 9, and 16, are remarkably all verified in metaphor, which is build into the symbolism of a seal that is placed together with Mary Baker Eddy's signature on the cover of her textbook and all her other literary works except the Church Manual, which is a type of constitution rather than a pedagogical structure (see Figure 6). This seal signifies what she stood for. While the world saw her as a religious woman, she saw herself as a scientific explorer and made sure that this aspect of her would forever be associated with her name.

Still, there is more to be said about this scientific foundation that she had build on. If there was nothing more than this, the exploration in Volume 3 would have sufficed to tell the whole story. As it was, she herself realized that this was not enough. She must have understood that even the best scientific and spiritual development platform would be of no use if it did not elevate civilization. At the age of 86, therefore, she closed down her beloved country homestead and moved to Boston Massachusetts in order to establish an international newspaper, which he named: The Christian Science Monitor. Its official mandate was simple: To bless all mankind and injure none. Here, the principles that she discovered, and her process for discovery itself, would have to find their expression for their value to be realized.

It is for this reason that all the other volumes of the book series were added. They are needed to explore various aspects of her scientific development structure, as they would be reflected in the policies of nations, in human culture, and in and the way people relate to one another. The goal for all true scientific development must necessarily be the creating of a new Renaissance among humanity, in order to create wider freedoms, a richer life for society, and a more vital culture. With this in mind the book series was structured to to coincide with the foundation that Dante Aligherie laid for such a renaissance, with his three part series, The Divine Comedy. The series is further arranged to accord with the dimension of nine, according to the nine sub-elements in Mary Baker Eddy's design. This was done to highlight the complex interrelationship of structures that she was dealing with.

With the work now complete, one must ask the final question: What is its potential for humanity? This question may be best answered from the pages of history. When Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910, the fires of war had been deeply stirred throughout the world, so much so that four years later the nations of Europe reached for each other's throat in an artificially inspire rage of nationalism that unleashed a carnage unprecedented in human history. The mental processes that could have prevented this tragedy and the destruction of the rich culture of Europe, were all embedded within Mary Baker Eddy's structure for scientific and spiritual development. Rather than creating an atmosphere for discovery by which her scientific processes could have come to light, the European manipulations towards war had overshadowed and ended the American Renaissance that had given rise to her discovery. When Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910, within day after her death, the directors of her church issued a degree that her picture was to be removed, that had been printed among the first pages of every textbook. Thus, a vital link between herself as a scientist, and her formalized structure for scientific development, was purged from the earth. It is reported that she had asked her secretary to write down a statement a few days before her death, in which she declared: "I was mentally murdered."

If one regards mankind's present obsession with war, the wilful breaking up of nations, and the building of more and more nuclear weapons, then one cannot help but observe that Mary Baker Eddy's statement applies to humanity as a whole in the present age. The degree to which this trend is being reversed (if it is reversed at all) determines whether humanity will emerge from its present crisis to create for itself a brighter future than can be imagined, or whether it will die or sink into the darkness of a new and long dark age that promises to supersede the worst of the dark ages in history.