Witnesses to Truth and a very happy dog

In the late 1920s, my maternal grandmother was sent to a sanitorium as a tuberculosis patient. Her two young children (my mother and her brother) were sent to live with relatives. At the sanitorium, the patient in the bed next to her had Science and Health and shared it with my grandmother. By reading it, she was restored to her family and lived well into her 80s. I have fond memories of my grandmother and even have her copy of Science and Health with her penciled notes in the margins.

As I was working with the assignment, I had an opportunity to apply something I gleaned from “Fruitage.” My husband and I were caring for two large dogs at our house while our friends were on vacation. Everything was going well until a few days before our friends returned. One of the dogs – a young, vibrant, and very active Labradoodle – became listless. She wouldn’t eat, or play, or even get jealous when I petted the other dog! Sadly, my first thought was, “Why did this happen on my watch?” As one of the testifiers in “Fruitage” wrote, I “worried along in this way” for a while (Science and Health, p. 640).

Nothing had changed by the time I went to bed. The dog did not follow us upstairs as she usually did. As I lay in bed, I finally began to pray. I really thought about the testifiers in “Fruitage.” They were all healed by a receptivity to the truth they were reading in the book – even if they claimed they couldn’t understand it. They were witnesses to Truth. And that’s what struck me. There was no human effort and no human thinking the problem away. They witnessed the revelation of God’s great power and presence. That is really all I wanted to do. I was relieved of a personal sense of responsibility and felt truly peaceful.

At about 1:00 a.m., I got up to refill a glass of water. This sweet dog was lying on the kitchen floor where we left her, but as I entered the kitchen, she thump, thump, thumped her tail. Then she got up and bounded after me back upstairs.

Healed of psoriasis by reading Science and Health

I was healed of psoriasis by reading Science and Health. I had struggled with this claim, which apparently has no medical cure, throughout high school and college. It was embarrassing and annoying. I read Science and Health from cover to cover for the first time after college. I recall finding it really hard and slow sometimes, but after I finished, I realized this claim had fallen away. Having a healing after reading Science and Health helped to give me the confidence to share Science and Health with others, and I remain so grateful.

Being absent from the body and present with the Lord

I’ve had a number of quick healings of claims of pain by working with this thought from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy: “Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality” (261:2–4). One Sunday morning, I woke up with pain in my wrist. I sort of assumed it would go away, but instead it increased as the day went on, to the point that I was unable to pour tea. That evening, during a long car ride, I cradled my wrist and found myself wondering why it was hurting. Of course, this was not a helpful or spiritual approach.

The next morning, when my wrist continued to hurt, I began to pray in earnest – what I should have done initially! I had wanted to wash the floor and do other cleaning that involved my wrist that day, and I thought that if this was a right idea, I would be able to do it. And I was! I was completely free from the pain and was able to share this healing that Wednesday at my branch church’s testimony meeting. After I spoke, another member gave a testimony that mentioned being “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Cor. 5:8). I feel that this is what happened with my healing – thank you, God!

Completely free of resentment!

I am very grateful to have been healed of a decades-old claim of bad feelings toward another person. When I was a child, a houseguest of my family acted unkindly toward me and my mother. Even though I rarely thought of this person, when I did, I definitely thought of her as a bit of a “villain,” and certainly without any love.

Then, several months ago, seemingly out of the blue, I received an email newsletter announcing an online talk that would be given by this person. I recognized her name and told my husband about her unpleasant visit as though it were yesterday! I wondered if I should attend her talk, thinking it might improve my opinion of her (now that we were both adults). The next day, The Christian Science Monitor featured a quote by this same person! I was rather surprised that I had gone several decades without hearing anything about this person, and now I was hearing about her twice in two days! I mentioned this to my husband again, and he gently said, “Sounds like this is coming to the surface to be healed.” I agreed but was finding it difficult. 

Clearly, more than human effort was called for, so I started by listening to a really great chat on JSH-Online on the topic “Unity and Forgiveness.” One of the speakers mentioned how she prayed to “see the face of God” in someone she was having trouble loving and also shared that if you are still seeing someone as a bad person, you aren’t truly forgiving them. She said, “To truly forgive is to see that it’s not part of the individual at all and never was,” and the host of the program added, “seeing past the thought of wrongdoing to what God is seeing.” 

The other thought that made me realize I needed to pray to be healed of this resentment was in that week’s Bible Lesson: “God requireth that which is past” (Eccl. 3:15). Another translation of this says, “God seeketh after that which hath been chased away” (which made me think of a long-buried hurt), and the Vulgate translation says, “God reneweth that which is passed.” I take this to mean that God heals any sense of inharmony from the past. When something is in the past, it can be tempting to think, “Well, I don’t have to see that person anymore – it’s not part of my current life.” But if the thought of that person or memory still rankles, it needs to be healed. 

I had called a practitioner for Christian Science treatment about something else. When I mentioned my challenge in forgiving this person, the practitioner told me that the unloving thoughts I was having toward this person were not my thoughts, which was very helpful. That day I read an article in the Monitor about my former houseguest and admired the good work that she was doing, and I realized later that day that I was truly healed of any lingering resentment! It wasn’t human effort trying to convince myself that she was a better person now, but rather a complete wiping away of bad feelings toward her and the unpleasant memory of her visit. I found myself thinking of how the men in the fiery furnace didn’t have even the smell of fire on them, and that is how I feel – completely free of resentment toward her! I am very grateful to God for this healing and am inspired to apply these healing truths to other perceived hurts or slights that I may be holding on to. I would rather hold onto God!

Divine Mind was guiding me through my taxes

I would like to share some fruitage related to my business. I have to file an annual sales tax, which I have done for almost a decade without much difficulty. But this year, my sales were greater and the sales tax seemed more complicated to figure out than in earlier years. I set aside time to do this, but found I was completely befuddled and overwhelmed, staying up really late the night before it was due and still not sure how I should proceed with calculating it. I had tried a bunch of different ways of importing and sorting my sales data, but was still confused. The day it was due, I called the state sales tax helpline as soon as it opened, but the help was confusing and I felt that I either wasn’t communicating my question well or wasn’t being understood. At this point, I had to do a chore that involved waiting in my car and – finally! – did what I should have done at the beginning, which was to turn to God, divine Mind. 

I read that week’s Bible Lesson, and this really jumped out at me: “God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof” (Job 28:23). I knew that God knew what I needed to know, and as God’s reflection, I did, too. I also recalled that wonderful testimony in a Century of Christian Science Healing (pp. 195–197) about a guy who needed to create a special airplane part. He couldn’t humanly figure it out, but just got still and listened to divine Mind, knowing that he reflected the intelligence of God. I thought, too, of a great testimony shared by a fellow Association member a few years ago that told how he was able to figure out very complicated tax issues through divine Mind’s leading. 

I finally got still myself and felt inspired to call the state sales tax helpline again. After a long hold, I was connected to a very helpful person who answered my questions very clearly and patiently. Even though I had a lot of calculations to do to figure everything out, I found I was able to do this with a sense of peace, order, and dominion, and was able to file my taxes before the end of the workday. This turn of events was almost shocking to me – although it shouldn’t be – because it was such a complete turnaround from the dread and confusion I had been feeling all weekend and that morning. It was very clear that divine Mind was guiding me through this process – I just needed to turn from mortal mind’s frenzied attempts to solve the problem myself and listen to God. I am so grateful for this healing, which felt pretty dramatic to me, and also very grateful for our Association, which played a big role in it.

Lifted up and out of incorrect teaching

I grew up in a Christian Science household, but not necessarily one that understood Science well. I had healings as a child and went to Sunday School. When I was unwell my parents called a practitioner and my needs were always met. When I was sixteen, I had trouble with eyesight and for the first time worked with a practitioner entirely on my own. Sunday School taught me about absolute versus relative, but that confused me and my parents didn’t clarify much. After seeing a lecture the next year, I reasoned that I would surely learn what I needed to know in class, and so I enrolled. 

In class I learned many things: anecdotal stories about the teacher’s past, World War II healings, and that one should use “steps” in a treatment. Also, that various physical problems had their root cause in predicable forms of wrong thinking; for example, if a patient has a problem regarding teeth, work about inharmony in family. These things didn’t set quite right with me and I wrestled with them for years, even asking my fellow Association members what they thought. 

In the mid-1990s, I read an article that Skip had written years before about reading “the book,” and I read Science and Health from cover to cover for the first time. That helped me understand what it was that I found unsettling about my teaching – what Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health simply didn’t support the things that were bothering me. While it took 20 years more and another couple of readings of Science and Health, I finally was comfortable where my original teaching had not been accurate. Then circumstances that no human could have foreseen took place: My original teacher, who had passed in 1991, was posthumously removed from the Journal, my Association was disbanded, and the Board of Education requested that we be retaught.

While I had already been on a path of sticking with “what the book says,” being a member of Skip’s last class was the biggest possible boost to understanding Christian Science correctly. He put the slightest amount of Skip’s personality in the teaching and the strongest possible emphasis on what Mary Baker Eddy says, most especially in Science and Health.

Not long ago a patient told me, “I’m not really sure I know how to give a treatment,” and I brought her right to page 410, “Mental Treatment Illustrated.” That’s because it’s not how I think a treatment should go, or even how Skip would do a treatment, but what our Leader says. This is how Science and Health has healed me – like a child of Israel, it lifted me up and out of incorrect teaching to a better understanding of what Science is.

The message of hope and healing was loud and clear

A healing I experienced was not actually from reading Science and Health myself, but from listening to it being read aloud. I am so grateful that JSH-Online provides a continuous audio stream that can be readily accessed through various means any time of the day or night. 

I awoke one night feeling great discomfort in my mouth. Although I immediately began to pray, the pain did not subside. I reached for my phone and was able to quickly access the audio version of Science and Health and began listening to it. I have no recollection of the exact words or pages read, but the message of hope and healing was loud and clear. What a comfort to know that each word read aloud affirmed the truth of my being and directly refuted what the material senses were trying to claim. Within a short time, I was able to fall back asleep. I woke in the morning without any pain and more importantly, most grateful for “the divine Truth that makes man free” (Science and Health 453:29-30).

Nothing bad could come from helping a friend

Before my last semester in college, I had a friend who was working as a librarian on the campus. One day, she struggled with a physical challenge. As a Christian Scientist, she was working through that situation to find healing. Then she needed to pick up a package from the postal office, but could not do so. She asked if I could help her.  

It was an opportunity for me to help. Right away, I picked up my bike, left the campus, and went to retrieve her package. On the way back, I took a shortcut – a trail with a very steep slope. It did not go well. I fell and was not able to stand up until some people came to give me a hand. I was dirty and scratched all over. I walked down to the campus and delivered the package without mentioning anything about the incident. 

One thing that really stood out was that I remembered calling God in the moment when I was going down. It happened fast. God was there and had been always there. I was happy to help somebody, and I knew well that nothing bad could come from doing that. When I got back, I was praying with the Scientific Statement of Being on page 468 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. As a result, the wounds started being less painful.

Later that day, I had to go to work off campus. It was hard to keep focused on my identity, yet at the same time, I knew that there are no accidents. I could not let mortal mind fool me, and I did not have to. It would not be right. In a couple of weeks, all the pain was gone. Until I left college, I was able to take the trail with the steep slope many times to exercise my off-road biking skills. I encountered no incident – only joy to be part of God’s creation and feel His love, tenderness, and, of course, His omnipresence. 

Embraced by “the great heart of Love”

Some years ago, I was working at home. As I entered the living room, I began experiencing extreme pain in my chest and felt I needed to sit down on the couch. As I sat there, I was having great difficulty breathing and I couldn’t get comfortable. I reached out to God and knew He was with me, but I was finding no relief.

A friend, who is a Christian Science practitioner, was visiting. Because she was upstairs cooking dinner, she did not know that I was struggling. I was finally able to speak loudly enough for her to hear that I needed help. She came down the stairs and sat near me and began to voice the truth of my being. She reminded me that I reflected “the great heart of Love,” and in that there was no pain or fear. I began to find some relief. At that point, she picked up Science and Health and proceeded to read to me. She read several references to Love. I was feeling so embraced by Love that I felt uplifted, and the pain left.

This was a very quick healing and it once again brought me closer to God, where I felt the warmth of His presence and the knowledge that God truly is my Life. There is nothing more sure and safe than to know that God will never leave us comfortless. I am so grateful for this demonstration and this solid proof that I am a spiritual idea and God’s perfect child.

The power of the word of God is in the pages of Science and Health

I had a healing from reading Science and Health several years ago. I was contracting as a Christian Science nurse in a facility in another state. One night while I was there, I had some trouble with pains in my head. The pains were intense and I had to really battle to stay with the Truth. I worked that night and all the next day, pacing the floor and declaring the Truth. That day I was unable to carry out my nursing duties. I felt bad because I was there to help the facility, but the managers were very loving about the situation.

The second night it finally came to me, “People have been healed by reading Science and Health. Why don’t you see if that is true?” It came to me almost as a dare or a test to see if this could possibly be true. So I sat down and started reading. I was healed by reading the book fairly quickly. It was true. It does heal.

One day more recently, I was not well and the thought came again to just pick up the book and start reading. I did so and was healed very quickly.

Now I have been reading and re-reading Science and Health for years, but these were specific times where the thought came to just read the book. This has been proof for me that the power of the word of God is in the pages of Science and Health. Even if everything is not understood, the power is there. As Ivimy Gwalter described that power in an article included the first Anthology of Classic Articles, “the power of the presence of God and the presence of the power of God” (“The Activity of the Christ,” The Christian Science Journal, December 1957).

I needed to do some specific work for myself!

According to my notes, I read Science and Health from December 1998 to December 1999 and from late May 2021 to early January 2022. My reading during 1999 and in the last year or so did a lot to improve my metaphysical study and contributed to my growing feeling of freedom.

There were also a number of physical healings since those times. This last year, I had a period of about twelve days when my stomach or inner parts were not at all comfortable. I lay in bed not doing much, though I had been reading Science and Health. A practitioner I was working with mentioned the specific work she had done on a problem. It made me realize I needed to do some specific work for myself! The next day, I worked hard and very specifically for a number of hours. The problem immediately began to move away. I think I was pretty much healed that day. But in two days I was absolutely sure I didn’t need any more help from the practitioner.

Taking a mental stand for Truth

At the beginning of the chapter “Science of Being” in Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy quotes Martin Luther: “Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God!” (Science and Health, p. 268). As Christian Scientists, our duty is to stand for the present spiritual perfection of man as created by God. Several months ago, I had an opportunity to see the healing result of such a mental stand for Truth. 

After church on Wednesday night, I received a call that a relative had tested positive for Covid. (My relative was obligated by her employer to take such a test.) Because I had been in close proximity to the relative and lived in group housing, I thought I should explain the situation to the person responsible for maintaining the house. I was asked to get a test before returning to the house. 

Taking this test seemed to be the highest sense of right under the circumstance. Though I don’t recall the exact words, it meant a lot when a friend who is a Christian Scientist shared a spiritual truth before I went to take the test. As I went to take the test, I worked with three spiritual truths: 1) I have only the substance of Spirit. 2) God made man (me) and woman (my relative) innocent, pure, and perfect. This is a permanent state and cannot be interfered with or lapse. 3) I am wholly good because I reflect God. That is my makeup, so I can’t be touched by disease. 

The test came back negative, and I was able to return to the group house soon after. Later in the day, I came across this citation, which seemed to sum up the whole situation: “The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth. Then error disappears” (Science and Health 406: 11–13).

This was Truth showing the nothingness of error. My relative was fine, too, and was able to return to work shortly thereafter. I am grateful to God for Christian Science and for this healing.

I challenged the belief of life in matter with what I was reading

When I submitted my Association assignment last Saturday afternoon, I didn’t have a testimony to share that was related to reading Science and Health. Most of my reading of Science and Health has been when studying the Bible Lesson or when being led to a particular passage by an article in the periodicals. Over the years, I have read various chapters, some multiple times, but have never read through the entire textbook, even though I have gotten started several times.

I began to read through Science and Health on Saturday evening. On Sunday evening, I was home alone when I felt a sudden sharp, localized pain in my abdomen. I felt nauseated and then began to feel very dizzy, so I lay down. As I reached for my phone to call a practitioner, I seemed to be going in and out of consciousness I was finally able to dial the practitioner and leave a short voicemail. She called me back a few minutes later, and I was able to answer. She assured me that I was not alone and began to audibly reject what seemed to be going on as unreal, declaring what was true. For a time, I could hear her, but could not respond in words. She stayed on the phone until I could answer her, and then asked if I wanted her to remain on the phone. I had begun to feel a sense of calm, and asked her to continue to work offline. For the rest of the night, I listened to the audio recording of Science and Health.

The next morning, I continued to read through Science and Health. For the next 48 hours, I read and rested. During the first night, additional disturbing symptoms seemed to develop and I began to pass an abnormal amount of blood. It was not easy to face the fear that accompanied this, because a family member had passed on after struggling with similar symptoms. I knew, however, that her dream was not mine. The pain seemed to come in waves, and I was up at least a half dozen times during both the nights. Each time an aggressive suggestion tried to claim control of my being, I challenged the belief of life in matter with what I was reading at that moment. I felt stronger and calmer each time.

Monday was a holiday, and I stayed home from work on Tuesday to study, pray, and rest. By the end of Tuesday, I felt ready to return to work because the symptoms had disappeared. When they seemed to reappear in the mornings of Wednesday and Thursday, I was able to affirm my safety, untouched by mortal belief. I am still reading Science and Health and expect that this dedicated study and moment-by-moment demonstration will deepen my understanding of Christian Science and move me forward.

Three life-changing healings from reading Science and Health

There are three testimonies I will mention. First, as a new Christian Scientist 50 years ago, I was desperate to find answers to life and some foundation for existence. When I found Science and Health, I read the chapter on prayer repeatedly – so many times. It gave me the base to go on, to find structure in my life.

Another healing came from reading the chapter on marriage. I was in a place where I thought marriage had to be this huge romantic thing. That mindset was leading me to go from one relationship to the next to always stay on a romantic high. I read “Marriage” until it finally became clear what was important and true about marriage. That led to the discovery that my obvious partner was a good friend. That was 46 years ago and we are still enjoying our life together.

A third healing: At one point, I was confronted with employees who wanted to take over my business and told me I was too old to run it. I read the chapter “Science of Being.” In reading that and in deep communion with God I saw the vision of myself as the temple in this statement: “The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God, good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no material life, and no death” (Science and Health 288:20). I experienced a complete sense of renewal and went on for many more years of active business.

Angels were all around me

On Christmas morning, I had read the lesson for the week, the subject of which was “Christian Science.” It was full of images of light and promises of God’s enveloping care. I had liked one citation so much that I had written it in my notebook twice: “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light” (Rom. 13:12). I had been praying all week to cast off a sense of darkness about family arrangements for the holidays that seemed less joyful than usual, and also to see that the world was not lost in darkness, even though a new variant of Covid was much in the news. That morning, I had found a place of quiet rejoicing that Jesus had been on earth, showing us how to live, and that Mrs. Eddy had dedicated her life to explaining the Science of Jesus’ teachings and healings. This was the Christmas we would celebrate that day.

It was a grey morning and had been raining, but the rain had stopped. I leashed up our two dogs and went outside to take them on a short walk before breakfast. What I didn’t realize was that the temperature was just low enough to turn the rain on the sidewalks into sheer ice. As I turned out of our driveway, my feet went out from under me and I hit the ground hard. One of my knees hit the pavement first, and the pain as well as the fall were startling. My first thought was “ow.” But because I had been so full of gratitude for the true light of Christmas, my second, insistent thought was, “This is NOT Christmas.” And faster than even that short sentence came the understanding that any projected darkness of a Christmas ruined by a fall was an impossibility, because angels, God’s glowing, loving thoughts, were all around me. My thought was an instantaneous dismissal of the suggestion that anything could “ruin” Christmas.

I repeated that healing thought, “This is NOT Christmas,” a couple of times, and suddenly some very tangible angels surrounded me. The dogs came and stood quietly next to me, as if protecting me; then I was aware of my husband lifting me onto my feet. Next my daughter appeared from the house, took the dog leashes from my hand, and marched off down the middle of the road – where it was less icy – with the dogs. I turned to my husband, who was steadying me, and said, “I’m OK.” That wasn’t a brave human declaration in spite of difficult human circumstances, but a spiritual declaration that as the loved reflection of God, good, I could never be anything but OK.

For much of the day, I was conscious of a pain in my knee, but I kept right on with the Christmas I knew was unfolding. When I was tempted to look at the knee to see if there was bruising or swelling, the angel thought that came, “Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?” (Prov. 23:5) I was able to keep myself from looking at the knee all day, took a long walk in the afternoon, and by the evening was free of pain. The next day in the shower, I noticed that there was no sign of any fall. It was literally as though it had not happened. Which of course, it hadn’t.

The symptoms vanished as I got into the message of the Lesson

When I served as First Reader for my branch church, I would often start to feel congested as the weekend approached. I would work on it, then ask for help from a practitioner so I could speak clearly on Sunday. This scenario occurred weekly and was so regular that it was impossible not to see that mortal mind was trying to obscure the voice of Truth at our services. The temptation gradually diminished and the message became more powerful.

Years later when I was reading at another branch, the congestion came again. This time I remember turning to the Bible Lesson for healing and noticing how the symptoms vanished as I got into the message of the Lesson. When the suggestion came again, I turned to the Lesson, and with consistent results, it vanished. There is great power in God’s word.

This experience reminds me of a testimony in “Fruitage” in which the author describes the healing of a sprained ankle: “The accident occurred in the morning, and all that day and during the night I gave myself a Christian Science treatment, as best I could. The next morning it seemed no better….Feeling that I had done all I could, I decided to stop thinking about it. I took my copy of Science and Health and began reading….After two hours….it was perfectly well. It was healed while I was ‘absent from the body’ and ‘present with the Lord.’ This experience was worth a great deal to me, for it showed me how the healing is done” (Science and Health, p. 603).

Solid evidence of the spiritual facts stated in our textbook

I’m feeling renewed gratitude for what Mrs. Eddy did in giving us the Science of Christ in our textbook, a compilation of spiritual facts and the way to apply and live according to these facts. She shows us over and over again how these spiritual facts support the law of God, which puts down the so-called law of sin and death. I am particularly grateful that my mother’s complete healing of a diagnosed spinal condition brought her to study and practice Christian Science. The healing occurred after she started reading the textbook and could not stop. Six weeks after her initial diagnosis, x-rays were taken, and the vertebrae that had disintegrated or were disintegrating in an earlier x-ray were totally restored. That was when we started going to the Christian Science church and Sunday School in our town.

Learning more about God and less about material conditions started in my teen years, when I began studying seriously Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Many demonstrations of the truth of the spiritual facts I was learning led me to trust God more and more. 

Recently I had a healing of a very uncomfortable condition that seemed very real according to material evidence. When I could not get beyond the fear and anticipation of discomfort, I asked for the help of a Christian Science practitioner. I continued to work on my own with the spiritual facts in the textbook, free of the fear and expecting healing. This statement in Science and Health was particularly helpful: “Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony” (Science and Health 412:23).

During this time, I was responsible for a number of things where I noticed I was getting very irritated. I realized I had to be more insistent that harmony is the fact, and not accept irritation of any kind. It is not of God.

One evening I was at a meeting where the temptation to get irritated and overwhelmed was pretty powerful. I refused to let anything but God lead me. Later that evening, as I was getting ready for bed – a time when the discomfort had usually come on in spades – I realized that everything was normal, the body was corresponding to the “normal conditions of health and harmony.” There was no more material-sense evidence of discord or infection. It was totally gone, and did not return.

I am grateful for yet further solid evidence that the spiritual facts, stated so clearly in our textbook, are valid and are the basis for healing prayer.

Blinding flashes of the obvious

Two recent insights have served as blinding flashes of the obvious (BFOs). On Sunday, just before stepping onto the platform at church, the following statement caught my eye: “Man, in the likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light of being, the invisible God. As there is no corporeality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection, so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Principle, not in a mortal body” (Science and Health 305:6). The insight that there is “no corporeality in the mirrored form” really set the tone for a very powerful reading of the Scientific Statement of Being.

On Tuesday, I woke very early in great discomfort, and considered canceling a class I teach. The above statement provided the basis for my prayerful work for myself. The class went forward with the instructor fully well, productive, and metaphysically active.

A glimpse of my identity as entirely spiritual

In “Fruitage,” an account of a healing of lungs goes on to tell of the healing of a sprained ankle. Although the author of the testimony treated the condition with Christian Science, the next morning the ankle seemed no better. At that point, the writer decided to stop thinking about the injury and begin reading Science and Health. While reading, the writer had “a glimpse of all God’s creation as spiritual, and for the time being lost sight of my material selfhood” (Science and Health, p. 603).

This account reminded me of a healing I had long ago when I glimpsed my identity as entirely spiritual. It involved a very bright light – that is the only way to express what I experienced. In that moment I was healed of breast lumps. I applied this inspiration to my little boy, who had broken his collar bone, and he was also healed. The healing fruitage, therefore, is that there has been a renewed strengthening of my faith.

More than human support was present

One night a number of years ago, I woke with pain in my stomach. When I got out of bed, the pain intensified. I hobbled into the living room and sat in a chair, where I prayed in silence to God. The discomfort eased, but when I stood up, I felt sharp pain.

I returned to bed and woke my wife. She read to me from Science and Health, beginning on page 390.  The situation had forced me to recognize just how deeply and totally I needed God, and so when my wife started reading, I listened with all my heart. Drinking in those spiritual truths felt like coming home. I was tremendously comforted. My wife was right there supporting me, but I could feel that something more than human support was present. I knew that divine Love was with us and that this Love not only comforts, it heals. After my wife had read several pages, I found that the pain had melted away, and I slept through the rest of the night. I woke in the morning free from the pain, which did not return.

Part of what my wife read to me that night was this: “We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, simply because, to the mortal senses, there is seeming discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony” (Science and Health 390:4–9). If ignorance of God produces discord, then pain and fear are the byproducts of that ignorance. Because Mind, God, is the very source of our lives, we can gain freedom from this ignorance. Naturally, when this ignorance – this illusion of life cut off from God – is replaced by the clarity and solidity of spiritual understanding, pain vanishes and the harmony that is naturally ours is restored.