Symptoms of food poisoning quickly healed

A while ago, I was eating a meal that had been saved for me. I tasted a part that did not seem right to me and noticed that some of the food had a strange appearance, so I discarded the rest of the meal.

The next morning I suddenly felt ill and then very hot, and I thought I was going to pass out. It occurred to me that I might be suffering from the effects of food poisoning.

I was visiting my mother at the time, but she’d gone out, and I was alone. My natural response was to call a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful help to meet the emergency. The practitioner agreed to pray with me, and pointed me to Matthew 15:11 in the Bible, which reads, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”

I also read further in that chapter, finding a passage where Jesus said, “Whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught” (Matt. 15:17). This reminded me that it is right for the body to operate naturally and without disturbance. As I continued to read, I began to see that my real being was spiritual and intact. I felt a sense of separation from physicality as I realized the food I had eaten didn’t have power to harm me or influence my health.

Thinking further, I saw that what “comes out” of man, who is wholly spiritual, is really the consciousness of peace, love, and harmony. When I put the material picture aside and thought of myself spiritually, it became clear that the only things that could emanate from my being were spiritual qualities that reflect God.

I immediately felt calm and peaceful, and I no longer felt ill or hot. I lay down on the bed for a short while, and soon after, my mother came home. The effects of the food poisoning were completely wiped out, and I said nothing about the incident. She put lunch on the table, and I joined her to eat. This healing took place within about half an hour.

Later, as I was marveling over this experience, I thought of the story of Elisha found in II Kings, chapter 4, which I had included in preparing a Bible reading for our church service the week before. In this story, there was a famine in the land, and Elisha made stew for a group of prophets. He sent his servant to gather some wild herbs for the stew, and the servant found a vine with wild gourds, which he put in the stew. But after they started to eat, someone cried, “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot.” The gourds had apparently poisoned the stew, but Elisha simply added some meal to the pot, and it was safe to eat.

Elisha understood that in God’s universe, there is no harmful element, and this “spiritual meal” neutralized the belief that one could be contaminated or poisoned in any way. Thinking about this story, I understood why Elisha did not choose to dump the pot and start all over. I felt that this fact had been proven in my experience, too. Only a false belief of contamination needed to be removed, to be replaced with a clearer understanding of man’s indestructible spirituality.

Barbara Gnas | East Windsor, New Jersey, US