“I was impressed by this old form of parlance: the conviction that treatment heals”
/What stands out from reading these accounts of healing is the utter conviction that characterized both early workers (practitioners) and patients, as well as how treatment and the healing process occurred under the circumstances of those historic times. Healings occurred often through in-person treatment: visiting a practitioner’s office or a home visit by a practitioner. And the term treatment was very specific, sounding more like it is used in medicine. Patients reported healing after one treatment, or being much improved after one treatment, then healed completely after a course of five treatments. Today, we know that the healing work is treatment and learn through class instruction how to give treatment, but nevertheless we refer more to asking a practitioner for “help”; or to “work” for us. I was impressed by this old form of parlance: the conviction that treatment heals.
In the early years, as recounted in A Century of Christian Science Healing, if a person could not visit a practitioner, they would seek “absent” treatment. Today, while in-person visits to a practitioner still occur, it is far more common to “call a practitioner” by phone, as well as email communication. Today most treatment is “absent” though we don’t use that term. Our interactions between patient and practitioner are nearly instant; one can generally reach a practitioner very quickly, even at vast distances; we are easily globally connected. What impressed me in the accounts of absent treatment in these historical accounts is the faith and trust in God that would underly a patient’s efforts as they sought help at a distance – despite the hours or days it might take for communication to happen via the mail or telegram. And “absent” often really meant significant distance and remoteness, or to get to a practitioner required a huge effort. Or, just how far people would travel in order to meet with a practitioner.
Three examples stood out to me:
The account of the scientist who was working in a very remote forest in India and completely out of touch with civilization when he severely injured his leg. There was no practitioner in India at the time, and the nearest village with a telegraph office would have entailed having his men carry him 30 miles through the forest to send a telegram or be taken by ship to Bombay – a very long and expensive process to reach any help. Instead, he turned completely to God in prayer and took a stand for his perfection. He was instantly healed of the pain.
A very early (1914!) account of the woman living entirely alone in Ecuador who awoke one night in pain with a high fever and vomiting blood. People helping her brought a doctor, but she refused the medicines and instead sent a message to a Christian Science friend in Huigra, 150 miles away. She was healed as soon as the message was received. These extremes of distance and remoteness and primitive forms of communication did not phase these seekers of healing or shake their absolute conviction that healing was happening.
There were many accounts of how far people would travel in order to get in-person treatment, such as the account written in 1928 by a woman living in a small town of Dorpat, Estonia, where no one had ever heard of Christian Science. Being very ill and with no one to turn to, she moved to Riga, Latvia, which when I Google-mapped it, discovered was 260 miles away — no doubt a major journey at that time. There she found a practitioner and was lovingly treated and healed.
I am amazed and humbled by Association members’ reports of their healing activity, both in the responses to the assignment, in the fruitage section, and in the thoughts and healings of contagion. I’m grateful for their dedication to the healing work. A small but meaningful healing I had last year came about as a result of the lovingkindess I felt from those around me at a Wednesday evening testimony meeting. Just before leaving for church, I stumbled on an uneven staircase and jarred my foot. It hurt but didn’t hinder me from driving to church and walking in. But as the service went on, the pain increased to such an extent that I had great difficulty getting up out of the seat to sing the second and last hymns. I couldn’t put any weight on the injured foot. It became obvious to those around me that I was suffering, and friends offered to drive me home. I felt such love and care and was grateful for their offers of help, but I managed to drive home and literally hopped on one foot into the house. In bed, even the weight of the blanket on the foot was painful, but I really felt enveloped in divine Love. I declared the truth of my being and gratitude for the love and kindness of my church friends. When I woke in the morning I was healed. There was no pain, no gradual period of improvement. Just a complete healing of injury. This demonstration was to me a clear example of the healing mission of Church.
As a result of reading this book, I will be reminded of that deep conviction and commitment both to the possibility and the conviction in the healing power of Christian Science. I want to focus more specifically on what treatment is, while at the same time bringing the spiritual fiber of these early Christian Scientists to bear in my own healing work.