Head injury healed

A few years ago I injured my head while snowboarding. I have no recollection of the accident and only a spotty recollection of the events that followed.

The friend I was with tells me that we were separated for about an hour when he found me sitting on a bench at the bottom of a lift. He was glad to see me, but quickly realized that something was wrong. I was disoriented and confused. He checked for bumps on my head but found none. He then took me directly to the medical lodge at the resort. They told us that my injuries were serious and that I needed to be taken immediately to the hospital. Since no ambulance was readily available, my friend decided to drive me there.

When I arrived, they did a CAT scan of my head. They found my brain was bleeding and pressure was building between my brain and skull. When my wife arrived, the doctors told her that they needed to operate immediately, as my life was in danger. However, they wanted to ambulance me to another hospital about 30 minutes away, which was better equipped to perform the particular type of head surgery that was required.

My wife, new to Christian Science, felt it wise to allow them to pursue this course of action. She then called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. He agreed to give prayer treatment. At that time, no drugs had been administered, nor had medical intervention taken place.

Even though I was still disoriented and confused, I remember hearing this news of surgery, and at that point I began to pray. At the time, I was incapable of holding a coherent conversation, but I was still capable of praying silently.

I clearly recalled this passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 424). As a child, I had said it out loud with my dad many times as he drove me to school, so I knew it inside out. Praying with these ideas helped me focus my thought on the truth that I was spiritual and safe in God’s care; therefore, I had in reality never been involved in an accident.

I trusted that the very process of turning away from the material evidence of an injury and toward God would bring about healing. In order to gain a fresh perspective, I sometimes like to work with statements of spiritual truths in reverse, and I found I was able to do it in this circumstance. The latter part of the above statement from Science and Health told me that harmony is brought out through God’s unerring direction. I felt comforted that I could entrust myself to “God’s unerring direction” and know that everyone else was under His complete care, too, which is always good. I prayed with the whole passage, taking apart every phrase and considering it backward and forward, as much as I was able to, all the way to the hospital.

Once I arrived, they immediately sent me for another CAT scan. I remember thinking that my true state of being was spiritual and would not be visible through the lens of matter—and that the only image that anyone could possibly see of me was the image of God, the image of Love. I understood that, as the first chapter of Genesis describes, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him” (Gen. 1:27). I continued praying with this truth about myself—that I was not made of matter, but was the spiritual and perfect image of God, as I had learned in my study of Christian Science. And I knew that the practitioner was supporting me through prayer also.

As I watched the scanner’s disc go across my head, I closed my eyes and held steadfastly to my identity as God’s perfect image. The idea permeated and elevated my thought, freeing me of all fear. I truly was not afraid. And I was sure this was the presence of the divine Comforter, God’s healing presence.

To the doctors’ surprise, they found that the injury had stabilized. They decided not to operate for the time being, but informed me that I should expect to be in the hospital for at least one week. I was tempted to allow fear back into my thought, but I held steadfastly to what I knew to be the spiritual fact and trusted God to keep me in my right place. I looked forward to the opportunity to pray more. I spoke with the Christian Science practitioner, who was not at all surprised by the good news and agreed to continue praying with me. Throughout the entire incident, no drugs were administered.

By the end of the day, the symptoms of confusion had faded away, and I began to feel a strong sense of my own mental clarity. My wife noticed that I stopped repeating myself, and we both felt confident that complete healing had taken place.

That was confirmed the next morning, when the lead neurosurgeon came into my room with a team of several doctors. “So this is the miracle man! You, my friend, are very lucky,” one of them said. “You’ve had a remarkable recovery.” I knew that my rapid recovery had nothing to do with luck but was proof of the effectiveness of the Science of the Christ.

I was released that same afternoon. Before my release, I was informed that I would experience various symptoms of the injury for four to five months.

That evening, I went out with my wife for an evening of dinner and live music. We had a wonderful time and expressed gratitude for God’s loving protection and care. I continued to pray with the practitioner for the next few days. In less than a week, all aftereffects completely disappeared, and they have never returned.

James Chapman | Gig Harbor, Washington, US