Article October 10, 1953 Issue

Activities for the Armed Services

[The following accounts of experiences of servicemen and servicewomen have been received by the Activities for the Armed Services Department and are now shared with the Field.]

North Africa—Air Force Base

At a testimony meeting held at an air force base in North Africa an airman who is a fairly new student of Christian Science spoke. His group was decorating a hangar for a Fourth of July party. Someone asked him to climb out on a narrow steel beam 125 feet above a cement floor to attach some party decorations. He complied and went out onto the beam without thinking of anything but the job to be done. When he looked down to the floor far beneath him, he was seized with great fright and could not move for fear of falling. He reasoned with himself somewhat as follows: "If the beam were lying on the ground, I could walk back and forth on it with perfect balance. Therefore, it is just a mortal mind suggestion that I cannot walk back on the beam to safety."

He denied aggressive mental suggestions and affirmed that he was a spiritual idea, and not in a material, weighted body. He found himself suddenly rid of the fear and able to make his way across the beam and on down to the floor. An officer who had come into the hangar said that no one else was to climb to the beam because it was much too dangerous. The Christian Scientist rejoiced that he had proved his understanding of his relationship to God in fearlessly expressing poise and assurance in this experience.

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