Christian Science healing practices

from The Christian Science Journal

These are excerpts from a talk given in December 1997 by Virginia S. Harris, then Chairman of The Christian Science Board of Directors, at the fourth “Spirituality & Healing in Medicine” conference held by the department of continuing education at Harvard Medical School and the Mind/Body Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The conference included talks on African, Buddhist, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Islamic, Hispanic-Pentecostal, Christian Science, and several other healing practices as well as plenary sessions on the efficacy of spiritual healing and its place in current medical practice.

I’ve been invited, as a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science, to give a brief insight into the healing practice of Christian Science, which was discovered about 130 years ago in New England by Mary Baker Eddy. It is based on the Bible and particularly on Jesus’ healing and teachings.

The first half of her life, Mrs. Eddy was on a deep and committed search. For years she had sought a remedy for her own poor health, and took a path familiar to many today. She explored homeopathy and found that unmedicated pills could cure even difficult cases. She investigated allopathic medicine, as then practiced, and looked into other contemporary methods such as spiritualism, hydropathy, and mesmerism, but none of these brought permanent cure. Although these practices took her closer to a purely mental medicine, she ultimately left them because she realized they left God out.

‘If those healings occurred then, why can’t they be happening today?’

God was always an important part of Mary Baker Eddy’s life. The Bible was her constant companion. The accounts of healing were alive and real to her—an epileptic boy healed, a dying girl brought back to life, a woman who’d hemorrhaged for twelve years healed, an army commander’s leprosy healed, and many others. And she asked, “If those healings occurred then, why can’t they be happening today?”

At one point Eddy was seriously injured. But that injury brought a breakthrough. Near death, a few days after the injury, she asked for her Bible. She opened it to one of the accounts of Jesus’ healings. She had a profound spiritual insight and was healed right then.

That event didn’t leave her where it found her. She was committed to discovering an explanation of the Principle of healing. She researched the Bible even more deeply. She wrote, taught, and gave lectures. Then she tested what she was learning by healing others.

What happened? What changed?

Before her healing, she had accepted the conventional view that the human mind is a derivative of the physical world. She came, however, through prayer and searching, to see the physical world as a product of the human mind. So instead of accepting thought as a phenomenon of matter, she saw that matter is a phenomenon of thought.

Thought is the arena where change must take place in order for healing to occur.

Prior to her discovery, the mental state of a patient was just one of the factors in the case. After her discovery, she saw that thought itself is the patient. Thought is the arena where change must take place in order for healing to occur. In Christian Science this change of thought proceeds from the basis of understanding there is one God, one Mind. Here Mind is synonymous with God. The use of Mind in this way is not referring to the human mind, but to the divine Mind—divine consciousness.

In her journey of exploration and discovery, Mrs. Eddy received encouragement and discouragement. One source of encouragement came from a practicing physician, Dr. E. H. Davis of Manchester, New Hampshire. After witnessing her heal, through prayer, one of his patients who was dying of pneumonia, Dr. Davis asked, “How did you do it, what did you do?” Then he urged her to write a book explaining her discovery.

Six years later, in 1875, she published Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which contains the explanation of how Christian Science heals. By reading it, hundreds of thousands of people have been healed. There’s a chapter at the end with accounts of people healed just by reading the book.

Since Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery, students of Christian Science have been practicing healing for themselves as “self care,” and treating others. During the last one hundred years, there has been a continuous record of healings reported in monthly and weekly magazines—The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel.

Many more accounts of healing are given during weekly testimonial meetings held in churches of Christ, Scientist. These meetings include informal, spontaneous sharings of healings, insights, and inspiration in people’s lives.

There are Christian Scientists in 120 countries, and churches in 70 countries. Christian Science Reading Rooms are in many communities. These bookstores for the spiritual seeker sell all of Eddy’s writings, the Bible, Bible reference books, children’s books, The Christian Science Monitor, and other Christian Science literature. And they provide a place for prayer and meditation.

Some questions answered

Here, I might add two questions I’m often asked about the scope of Christian Science healing. “Is Christian Science treatment available to anyone? Can anyone telephone a Christian Science practitioner or go to his or her office for a visit?” Yes! Practitioners treat people from any religious background, and those with no religious affiliation.

Another question I’m asked is, “Will a Christian Science practitioner pray for someone who’s having medical care?” Under most circumstances, a Christian Science practitioner wouldn’t specifically give treatment to a patient who is at that same time receiving medical treatment. In the ethics of the case, it’s important not to interfere with another form of treatment. However, a Christian Science practitioner would and should feel free to visit with, guide, or help someone with his or her own prayer and study.

I had a case that illustrates this point. When I first met a girl called Linda, she was fourteen years old. She suffered from what her doctors had diagnosed as arterial venous malformation. She’d had piercing head pains since childhood and had missed a lot of school. She’d been receiving excellent medical attention, but the prognosis given to her family was one of little hope.

One doctor said that she would be riddled with pain her entire life and that she’d never be able to have children. Another doctor offered the option of experimental surgery but held out only a 50 percent chance of her surviving the operation. A second operation, they said, would be required within a week of the first, and there was no assurance of a permanent solution. Her family was pretty desperate.

Linda’s mother worked in the building where I had my practitioner’s office. She remembered hearing about Christian Science years before college. She thought it had something to do with healing and wondered whether Linda could be healed. I said I’d be happy to talk with her. Linda came to my office the next day, and for several weeks after that, to talk with me. She’d had very little religious training, so we started with the basics—the Bible, the Old and New Testaments.

I talked with her about three important points that are integral to Christian Science treatment:

First, to know what God is—that He/She is all-powerful and a loving Father/Mother who is ever present and caring for us.
Second, to understand better who man is—what it means to be the child of God. What did that tell her about her genuine selfhood, her inherent spirituality—a healthy, whole, spiritual being?
Third, as God is Father/Mother and we’re His/Her child, the relationship or connectedness of God and man—the relationship we each have with God—must be a very precious relationship. It must be permanent, unbreakable. It just can’t be touched by injury or pain.

When these three points are understood and applied specifically in prayer, they have the natural force of divine law and can affect the human condition.

During one visit, after three or four weeks, Linda told me she was no longer taking any medication. She said the pain was almost gone. For the first time she was free of headaches. Since she had given up the medications, and the family had decided to postpone the operations, the family asked me if I would give her Christian Science treatment. I agreed.

As a healer, it’s my role to help the patient:

understand and accept in thought the presence of God as divine Love. This usually brings a mental freedom so the patient can begin to
feel God’s healing presence, and
yield to its power.

This spiritual reasoning, or prayer, reaches and changes the patient’s thought from sickness to health. In Linda’s case, the debilitating thoughts of fear and hopelessness were replaced with expectancy and joy. She began to feel her inseparable relation to God.

I first began seeing Linda in early autumn, and by Thanksgiving she was fully healed. No headaches, no medication, and no operations. The doctors who previously had been treating her confirmed this and called her “their miracle girl”! That was eighteen years ago. Today, she’s married and has two children.

I still hear from Linda, and not too long ago I asked her if there was a point during her treatment when she felt a change taking place. She said it was when she realized she was safe. She said she was confident because she was now in charge of her body. She no longer felt any anxiety or fear.

Overcoming fear

All of us here today know the adverse effects of fear and chronic anxiety on health and recovery. Science and Health deals with this subject. In one place it says, “The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance, or sin.” And it goes on to instruct, “Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients” (Science and Health, p. 411).

Fear paralyzes thought and action. So fear needs to be lessened or eliminated—so that the patient’s thought is receptive to the prayer. In the Bible the Apostle John declares that “fear hath torment.” But he also prescribes the remedy: “God is love …. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear” (I John 4:16, 18).

We might be asking, “How, then, do we stop fear from taking over, in our own thought or our patient’s?”

In Christian Science treatment, fear is lessened or eliminated by gaining spirituality—by understanding that God is Spirit, the source of spirituality. Glimpsing even in the smallest degree what it means to know that God is Love can keep you safe and whole.

Prayer is not a strategic offensive against some problem or illness that belongs to a person. It’s the humble recognition and exploration of what Jesus simply called “the kingdom of God … within you” (see Luke 17:21).

It’s discovering man’s inherent spiritual nature. Science and Health puts it this way: “Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it” (Science and Health, p. 2).

Health, then, isn’t something we get, something that we have or others don’t have, that we gain or lose. And it’s certainly not just a pleasant interval between diseases!

Health is a quality of what we are in our genuine and permanent nature as God’s spiritual child. When our health is realized through prayer, it becomes the norm; the standard of one’s thought and being; the evidence of higher authority.

I hope I have given you at least a glimmer of what Christian Science healing is about. As these ideas are understood, they can lead to greater and more constant health and freedom.

Comments:

1. Linda Sotondji Says:

I have a 12 year old so, Unji at the age of 4 he was diagnosed with autism. I believe came from his vacination shots. I’m a christian, I have been praying every since he was diagnosed. He has a very sweet spirit, good social skills. however I do all his personal hygene, from assisting him in the rest room bathing dressing and brushing his teeth. I’m now a single parent. with twin girls we pray over him and have daily confessions about his healing. he does not speak often, when he does it just single words. When it comes to the world I feel like the extremely wealthy has an advantage, as far as the help they can afford for there child. I still believe as the word of God, ” by my stripes you are healed” and will continue to say this prayer of faith. what do you suggest?
Linda Sotondji

2. jenny Says:

Hi Linda,

As I read your message, I couldn’t help but think of this Bible passage from Luke:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6, 7).

I take this to mean that God is taking care of us all—wealthy or not, big or small. He knows and loves each of His dear children. Your son included.

And I love that you’re expecting healing for your son. He’s so fortunate to have a mother who wants to see him as he really is—as whole and well, the way God made him. I’ve both heard of and seen cases of children being healed of all sorts of problems that have been called incurable—birth defects, behavioral problems, and allergies, just to name a few. Your son deserves the same kind of freedom.

There are many ways to approach prayer for healing, and I wondered if you’d thought of talking with a Christian Science practitioner. In the “healing” section of this website (see the menu bar at the top) you can find more information about practitioners, including how to contact one. In my own experience, I’ve found that a practitioner’s experience in praying for and healing others has been especially helpful if I’m feeling stuck.

One other resource for you might be the book that was mentioned in this article: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. You can actually find a complete copy of the book on this site. Go to “publications” (in the choices in the bar along the top) and then choose “by Mary Baker Eddy.” Reading Science and Health along with the Bible has helped me to learn more about who God is as Love, as our caring Father-Mother, as our perfect Life. And it’s helped me understand what that means for me—and for all mankind. This has brought me peace, freedom, and healing.

Much love to you and your family.

3. Diane Morton Says:

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We believe that God is literally our Father and knowing that makes such a difference to me in everything that I do.

I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year and underwent surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Now they have found some nodules in my lungs and suspect that the cancer has metastised. I am struggleing to exercise faith but everyone dies– even Christian Scientists. Right? Don’t members of your faith ever get cancer or heart problems or do all you you live to a good old age and then just quietly slip away in your sleep. If everyone who prayed was healed would that make faith so easy, so easy infact that it would no longer be faith and there would be no tests, or trials etc? Can you enlighten me further and perhaps help me with my problem? I have good and dear friends who are Christian Scientists. I have never know such good people. Please know however that I know with all my heart and soul that my religion is true. So even writing to you seems somehow unfaithful.

4. Connie Says:

The main question I hear you asking is, “Can Christian Science help me?” Yes, it can when you understand how God’s all-powerful, ever-present Love heals. Blessings come as one opens thought to the truth God is constantly imparting to His children regardless of their faith. Spiritual truth is the healing law of God as revealed in the Bible. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy this law is found practical. In his healing ministry Christ Jesus proved, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). The truth about a cancerous condition of any kind is that God never made it. In His spiritual realm, therefore, where you actually live, move, and have eternal being, it has no destructive power. It only has the power one gives it through fear. God is all power, and His “perfect love casts out fear,” as stated in the Scriptures. He is a kind God who would never inflict pain or suffering on anyone. That is why He promises “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds”(Jeremiah 30:17). And the Psalmist encourages “Bless the Lord, O my soul … who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psalms 103:2-4).

I once had an extremely painful growth on my back. I had a great fear that it was cancerous. As I prayed with truths like the ones I just mentioned, my fear dissolved, and so did the growth. I know God’s love can do the same for you. One of my favorite passages to pray with from Science and Health urges, “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true and you will bring them into your experience, proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (Science and Health, p. 261). The enduring is the spiritual in contrast to the material condition feared. The good is the desired and expected result. The true is that which is forever perfect. And you can prove it now.

5. rubix Says:

I used to work with autistic kids i remember speaking with a parent who thought the same thing, that her son got autism from his shots. She took him to the doctor and they found out that he had an abnormal cluster of blood vessels in his brain which was common with people who have autism. The doctor showed her the brain scan images of the clusters so it most certainly was not just all in peoples minds.

6. David Says:

Rubix–

Christian Scientists don’t deny that there’s physical evidence of disease; they don’t say it’s just in a person’s imagination. They do deny that this evidence is absolute and has the final say. It’s sort of like our eyes telling us that the sun moves around the earth. That appears to be the case, but the evidence isn’t absolute and doesn’t determine what’s true.

The author of this article has another on the site called “Spiritual essence of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy.” In it, she explains how Christian Science healed her of serious injuries from an auto accident. The injuries (the physical evidence) were very apparent to everyone’s physical senses, but she proved that this evidence didn’t hold up to spiritual sense, which discerns what’s spiritually real and true.

7. stan Says:

i believe in christian science and the teachings of mary baker eddy i ordered her book online and will be recieving it in 2/3weeks meanwhile i am going to apply these principles to my own condition of prostate cancerand high blood pressure i believe GOD is a loving GOD and all powerfull and i believe i recieve these diseases through my own error believes i now know we are all spiritual beings and the children of the living GOD therefore i claim my healing

8. Gil Says:

Hogwash. My Mother, a Christian Scientist First Reader developed colon cancer and insisted she would would be healed through prayer for more than a year. Guess what? She’s terminal, and now has cancer in her lungs, lymph nodes, liver, rectum, colon and bladder. Prognosis: 1-3 months to live. I’ve watched her suffer and fail as she waited for a healing all the while working with a ‘healer’ from Philadelphia, PA.

You folks can believe in this hocus pocus religion, but it’s hogwash and you should be ashamed of yourselves for all of the untruths you’ve published here, encouraging others to believe in the falsehoods of Mary Baker Eddy.

9. Blog Administrator Says:

Gil—

While I can understand your frustration and anger, the fact is that Christian Science is not hogwash or a hocus pocus religion. It heals consistently and reliably, and it has healed cancer repeatedly. On this site you can find the article “From terminal to joyful and healthy,” in which a woman describes how she was healed through Christian Science of terminal brain cancer. And there’s “Divine healing brought complete cure,” in which a man describes his healing of cancer of the pancreas and liver after he’d been told he had three months to live. Christian Science does heal, even cases considered terminal. Sometimes, despite a Christian Scientist’s best efforts, things don’t turn out the way everyone expected. I can assure you that Christian Scientists are no more happy about that than medical professionals are when their best efforts don’t have the desired results. By and large, Christian Scientists strive to keep growing in their understanding and love of God so their healing work can be even more consistent and reliable. Despite the prognosis your mother was given, healing is possible, as the two articles mentioned show. We hope your mother regains her health just as those two writers and lots of other people have.

10. Kyle Says:

How come I can’t try Christian Science along with medical treatment (I know it is in Eddy’s book).

I have a hernia, and really do think I can heal it through Christian Science, but out of respect for my family I am going to get the surgery. I also believe I recieved inpiration and guidance to get the sugery.

I have got evidence through Christian Science, but small instances… God has healed acne on me as well as colds and flu through Christian Science.

I would like to at least do ’something’ that encompasses my beliefs in Divine Science with this hernia operation.

Any suggestions?

11. Blog Administrator Says:

Kyle—

As I understand it, not using Christian Science treatment and standard medical treatment at the same time isn’t just some arbitrary rule. The two start from different standpoints and would work against each other if used at the same time. Christian Science treatment is built on the standpoint that no matter now material a physical problem appears, it actually has a mental basis, and Christian Science treatment addresses that. Standard medical treatment, on the other hand, works from the standpoint that matter is very definitely the problem and attempts to solve the problem from that direction. Medical treatment says matter has power and effects; Christian Science treatment says it has neither. Obviously, those two standpoints would work against each other if combined.

As far as I know, however, there’s no reason you can’t pray for yourself in a general way while having medical care; you just don’t want to actually use Christian Science treatment.

I’m not trying to sway your decision in any way, but, in case they’d be helpful, I’ll let you know there are two testimonies on this site describing the healing of hernias through Christian Science: Hernia healed, attitude transformed and Pain in groin healed. Also, you might want to contact a Christian Science practitioner (if you haven’t already); healings through Christian Science treatment can be very quick, even instantaneous.

12. Kyle Says:

I believe that the cause is on a mental basis, and going through with the surgery is not addressing what I believe to be the problem.

I apreciate your advice on this matter, but I am new to this, and don’t think I can “make a demonstration that my Spirit is not ready for”

I have absolute faith in Christian Science, and believe that all my conditions are spiritual not material.

Can I still read Science and Health, even if I am not treating my condition with Christian Science?

After the surgery can I treat the “cause” using Christian Science or should I just move on?. (I would like to somehow address the “cause” because I believe that my hernia is an out-picturing of a mental / spiritual condition)

13. Blog Administrator Says:

Kyle—

Yes, certainly you can keep reading Science and Health even if you’re not treating your condition with Christian Science. And you can use Christian Science after the surgery. This paragraph from Science and Health (pp. 401–402) explains it all well: “Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation. Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the author has already in her possession well-authenticated records of the cure, by herself and her students through mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, and spinal vertebrae.”

All the best . . . .

14. Justin Says:

I am a male human being suffering from hernia for 2 years. Huge lump on left side lower abdomen, near the groin. Too old and poor to afford surgery.

Request you, dear Healer, to remove this lump immediately through the power of prayer. Please pray for me continuously for 60 days [name: Justin] so that I am thoroughly healed.

Shall be grateful for your prayerful help.

- Justin (hernia sufferer)
from Chennai (earlier name was Madras) South India

15. Blog Administrator Says:

Justin–

You may be interested in these two testimonies: Pain in groin healed and Hernia healed, attitude transformed. You might also want to contact a Christian Science practitioner. A full listing can be found in The Christian Science Journal, or you can consult a partial online listing.

16. JL Says:

God, truth, the only possibility in all existence, cannot be hindered by anything, including a decision to seek western medical treatment or not. Hold fast to the immutable truth of Love’s perfection whether undergoing medical treatment or not. If one is experiencing fear to such a degree that a complete reliance on prayer alone does not seem possible, then a temporary medical approach may actually help to alleviate the fear, opening a way for the spiritual and immutable truth to enter awareness. God does not abandon under any circumstances and will lead and guide at whatever point and whatever place one believes himself to be. Hold fast to the truth that there has never been anything but God’s perfection, that there is not now anything but God’s perfection and forever will be nothing but God’s perfection even if it seems that, for a time, it may seem necessary to undergo medical treatment. Undergoing medical treatment is like any other appearance and there is no appearance that can thwart God’s allness. God has never said and never will say, “Sorry, you’re using medical treatment. You’re on your own. Can’t help you. Come back when you stop taking medicine or after your surgery.” No matter what the appearance, there is NOTHING that is beyond healing for to say that there ever has been would be to suggest that there is someplace, somewhere, some time where God is or has been absent.

17. Agatha van Embden Says:

I suffered for more than 20 years of hernia. I couldn’t walk or sit without pain, and couldn’t stand a second because of the pain, and in bed I had to lie on my back about half an hour before I could rest on my side with little pain.
One day, sitting in my comfortable chair, I again had that awful pain. All of a sudden I thought: This awful pain you have dragged with you so long now, you’ve actually identified with it. But this pain doesn’t belong to you; you are a spiritual idea! And again came the inspired thought: You are a spiritual idea. And then: Pain is no part of a spiritual idea. And as this is true, there isn’t any pain at all in the whole spiritual idea. And immediatly the pain left and vanished from my back and I’ve been free ever since! That was several years ago and the healing is permanent. I can now stand for more than an hour without any pain and other people are amazed about that!

18. Janet Says:

How do I keep myself from falling into the trap of worry and fear over financial matters? Do you have any suggested thoughts or passages that would be helpful to me?
Thanks!

19. Blog Administrator Says:

Janet—

You can use the search box that appears at the top of each page of the site to find resources related to finances. Just search using a term such as finances, money, economy, employment, and so on.

To get you started, I’ll mention one article you might like: “Good cannot end.”

20. Beth Says:

I grew up with family friends who were Christian Scientists, and my father is a member of a Christian Science church, although he does see a doctor and take medication for some conditions. I was raised Methodist but am beginning to investigate Christian Science as a new route for my faith. The main concern that I have is setting aside modern medicine in life threatening situations. I have suffered for years from maladies resulting from being overweight…back pain, high blood pressure, hip pain, etc… I have been to countless doctors and spend more money than I care to think about trying to \”fix\” these problems. I want to get to the root of the issue, my weight, and fix it so that I can overcome the numerous problems I have. The idea that I could do it withouth medication, completely through faith and conviction and my own work is amazing to me, but almost sounds too good to be true…how can I get started on this journey without getting overwhelmed and how can I train my mind to a new way of thinking?

21. Blog Administrator Says:

Beth—

You could start a number of places—the Bible, for instance, maybe particularly Christ Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5–7). The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, is also a good place to start. A PDF of the entire book is available here; the first chapter, “Prayer,” can be found here. You might also be interested in these testimonies of healing: Weight issues resolved through prayer and Weight loss with joy. There are other articles and testimonies on the site that could help you too. To find them, use the search box that appears at the top right of each page. Finally, you may want to participate in the site’s discussion forums, where you can ask questions and get answers from the community.

For over a century now Christian Science has proven effective in solving all sorts of problems. You too can be healed without medication.

22. Gabriel Says:

At what point and for what medical conditions would you recomend treating physical symptoms (using traditional medical means) so as to prolong life and allow time for healing through prayer? Are there any medical conditions where I should use traditional medical care? Also the bible calls our bodies a vessel for our souls. Is there any reason why both the vessel and soul cannot be mended? I read the passage above about about medical treatment and and Christian Science treatment working against each other and don’t quite understand. Why can’t Christian Science heal the mind WHILE medical treatement heals the body? Is it a matter of faith and that traditional medical treatments demonstrate a lack of faith in God? But the bible says that God helps those who help themselves. If traditional medical treatments are done with the knowledge and faith that we can only mend the vessel than how can faith in God possibly be lessoned?

23. Ernie Says:

Gabriel—

First of all, anyone is entirely free to choose what sort of care to rely on in any particular circumstance, whether it’s deciding among the various standard medical treatments available or deciding between conventional medical care and Christian Science. But just as it’s often not a good idea to mix different types of medical care, it’s not a good idea to mix standard medical treatment and Christian Science treatment.

I think the reason is explained pretty well in comment #11 above. You can read the whole thing, but here are what may be the most pertinent sentences: “Medical treatment says matter has power and effects; Christian Science treatment says it has neither. Obviously, those two standpoints would work against each other if combined.”

As I understand it, Christian Science explains that the physical body and mind are one. What’s in thought generally gets expressed in the body in some way. Standard medical treatment gets at the symptom—the disease or whatever—but it doesn’t get at the cause, at what’s in thought. Christian Science treatment, on the other hand, deals with thought and so gets rid of the condition and its cause.

I’ll repeat that anyone is free to choose medical treatment at any time. Most Christian Scientists don’t because they’ve found that Christian Science heals reliably and usually quickly. They’ve seen that Christian Science is the best way to help themselves.

24. Gabriel Says:

Ernie,
I understand wholly that anyone is free to choose medical treatment at any time. This is not the point of my inquiry.
I am having the most difficulty with the statment that “medical treatment says matter has power and effects; Christian Science treatment says it has neither. Obviously, those two standpoints would work against each other if combined.”
The conclusion that the two standpoints work against each other does not flow from the prior reasoning. In particular, the prior reasoning only seams to imply a controversy over whether medical science works (i.e., Christian Science teaches that medical treatment will not work). This does not, however, imply that medical treatment is detrimental to Christian Science treatment.
Accordingly, please explain specifically why and how using both Christian Science treatment and traditional medical treatment simultaneously would conflict? Does traditional medical treatment completly negate/block the effectiveness of prayer treatment or does it only lesson its benifits? Does traditional medical care cause harm?
Also, does the use of traditional medical treatment bar Christian Science practitioners from providing prayer treatment or is this a decision left up to the practitioner? If patient’s seeking medical treatment are bared from prayer treatment, this would appear to be in moral conflict with the ideal of free choice of medical treatment, particularly if prayer treament is still able to provide (even marginal) benifits.
I realize that I have posed many questions and thank you in advance for your consideration and your time in responding thereto.
Sincerely,
Gabe
PS are there any specific writings of Mary Baker Eddy regarding the (ill) effect of traditional medical care? If so please include links to such in your response as I would be interested in reading them.

25. Ernie Says:

Gabriel—

Let’s say someone has some illness. This person was told by a doctor that the remedy was to eat more of a certain type of food to get a certain vitamin (or to take a pill providing the vitamin). The person decided to get a second opinion. The second doctor said that the remedy was to eat less of that certain type of food and certainly not to take a pill providing the vitamin because the problem was caused by already having too much of that vitamin. The person could not follow both these treatments; they’re contradictory. The person has to choose one or the other. Having to choose doesn’t limit the person’s free choice. It’s just that one form of treatment or the other has to be chosen because following both wouldn’t be at all likely to work.

Conventional medical treatment says that matter has power to create illness. It also says that when illness occurs, more matter has to be applied to counteract the ill matter. Christian Science heals through the understanding that matter does not have power. It says matter has no power, so no matter has to be applied to counteract ill matter. In fact, it’s the concept that matter has power that has to be overcome, and employing some treatment based on the premise that matter has power contradicts that. So, just as the person in the medical scenario described above had to choose which sort of treatment to follow, someone has to decide whether to use standard medical treatment or Christian Science treatment. The two are contradictory. That’s why a Christian Science practitioner generally won’t treat someone who’s under medical care. Again, this doesn’t limit the person’s free choice; the person just has to make a choice.

I, as one Christian Scientist, don’t deny that medical treatment can be effective. I know lots of people who rely on it, and it works for them. I don’t think it gets to the heart of the problem, however. Also, especially given the success I’ve had with Christian Science treatment, I don’t think conventional medical treatment is the most effective form of treatment available to me. I choose to go with what I find most effective for me.

26. Blog Administrator Says:

Gabriel–

The comments area isn’t the best place for a lengthy, ongoing discussion. If you’d like to discuss your subject further, please go to the site’s discussion forums and post your questions. You’ll probably get many more responses.

27. Gabriel Says:

Dear Ernie and Blog Administrator,
Thank you for your patience and input. After reading Ernie’s last post I now better understand the conflict in application of traditional and Christian Science healing techniques. Specifically, since traditional healing techniques counteract the concept that illness is immaterial to begin with they cannot possibly coexist with Christian Science healing techniques. I have read some of the numerous accounts of healing as reported on the Christian Science website. However, I was wondering if any statistical analysis has been done to demonstrate/verify the overall effectiveness of Christian Science treatment? It would seem that such a study would be prudent in allowing Christian Science to gain traction and acceptance within the more traditional medical community.
Sincerely,
Gabe

28. Blog Administrator Says:

Gabe–

A few studies have been attempted, all of them unsatisfactory. The methodological problems are huge. You may be interested in the discussion forum thread called Testing the efficacy of CS healing, in which participants discuss the issue, including some of the attempts and problems.

29. Engineer Says:

Christian Science — what a delightful oxymoron!

This blog is fascinating for me on several levels.

First of all, it is astounding that people in the 21st century still believe the religious nonsense. But it is a fact that some 90% of adults in the US, including otherwise intelligent and educated people, still believe in supernatural phenomena, just like our cave-dwelling ancestors. Truly mind-boggling.

Secondly, the blog demonstrates the power of wishful thinking and the need for self-delusion. As with any placebo, the belief is irrational, but the effect is real. Religion, a manifestation of human ignorance, actually does make some people feel good. That’s the reason why it will never go away, no matter how absurd it may be.

So keep up the good work, the deluded need to be brainwashed periodically!

30. Blog Administrator Says:

Engineer–

I can agree with you on one thing: that Christian Science won’t go away. But the reason it won’t go away is that it works, rationally and reliably, without brainwashing or delusion. In fact, some articles on this site explain how it has worked when conventional medical treatment hasn’t; see, for instance, Divine healing brought complete cure.”

31. Jess Says:

I’m fairly new to Christian Science, and I’m troubled by negative comments like “Engineer’s”–I stumbled across a random blog (not on this website) in which a bunch of people were trashing Christian Science (they were talking about health care paying for what they called “quackery”). What is being done to help inform the public about Christian Science? Also, when I stumble across material like this (or even hear people talking about it), what’s your advice on handling it? I know that debating CS publicly is not an option.

32. Blog Administrator Says:

Jess–

A great deal is being done. The Christian Science Committee on Publication, with offices in every state as well as Washington, DC, and various countries around the world, works with legislators, government officials, and the media to explain Christian Science and its history of healing. Web sites such as this one attempt to let people know about Christian Science and its healing effects. And perhaps the most effective “response” is the healing work individual Christian Scientists do in their own lives and communities. That’s something you can be involved with too. As you may have noticed by reading my responses to some of the comments posted here, pointing to actual cases of Christian Science healing lets people draw their own conclusions about what’s quackery.