[The speaker is Harvey Wood, who is active in the healing ministry of Christian Science. The questioner is Robert McKinnon.]

Questioner: In our last discussion you said that healing of serious physical conditions through prayer is not a supernatural act and that there is a rationale behind it.

Speaker: Yes, but this doesn't mean that there is some mental formula for prayer. Actually people are helped by prayer on many different levels of understanding. But the rationale or underlying reason behind the prayer that heals goes beyond the realm of blind faith. What we're referring to here is the real depth of prayer, prayer that brings thought into line with the true facts of what God is and what man is as indicated in the Bible.

Christ Jesus said, "When ye pray, use not vain repetitions" (Matt. 6:7); and in another place he said, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). It's prayer on this basis—being united to God, bringing thought into line with man's continuing God-given wholeness—that brings healing.

Now, in referring to God I mean divine Love, infinite Spirit. Following the Bible definition of man as the image and likeness of God, we see that man is the perfect expression of God's wholeness. And we make a distinction between man, who is spiritual, made in the likeness of God, and mankind or the mortal, limited concept of man.

It's important in the healing work that results from prayer to have a basis of perfect God and perfect man. You see, God is divine Love, and man is the image and the likeness of Love. Then man is the very expression of all the qualities of Love, of compassion, mercy, and tenderness—all the goodness of God. And this understanding gives us a basis for applying the goodness of God in human affairs and finding the healing we're looking for.

Questioner: You talk about bringing thought into line with the true facts of God and of man as he really is. And yet I still don't quite see how this would necessarily bring about healing. Why would it do this?

Speaker: You will remember that in our last discussion we spoke about the relationship that exists between thought and body. I think you mentioned that sadness can produce tears. And there are other examples of the effect of thought on the body. Fear can be expressed in moist palms or hair on end; and emotional excitement can bring goose bumps. Tension and pressure have been associated with ulcers. And then, of course, there's the continuing recognition that anger or resentment has an unhealthy effect on the body.

But in Christian Science we find that thought has a total effect on the body.

Questioner: Then why is prayer necessary?

Speaker: I don't want to lead you or anyone to think that somehow it's the purpose of Christian Science to put thought right in order that thought may then put body right. Christ Jesus taught the importance of Christianization or spiritualization of thought. And this is what enlightened prayer is. Such prayer tends to bring thought in line with the understanding of the true nature of God as divine Love, as infinite Principle, and of man's inseparable relationship to Him. Doing this is what dispels the fear, the ignorance, or the ungodlike thinking that underlies disease or impairment. And this prayer results in healing.

Questioner: You speak of thought affecting body, that body is perhaps a manifestation of thought, and so forth, but it's well known in medical circles and in psychology that very often a poor physical condition can, in turn, affect one's thought.

Speaker: Doesn't this emphasize the importance of prayer? When faced with disease, rather than being discouraged and fearful, we can, through prayer, bring thought in line with God, who is an everpresent help in trouble. This is what helps us recognize that wholeness of man which is manifested humanly as wholeness of body.

The healing message that Christian Science presents to the world is not an easy system of "come and be healed." Christian Science requires something of the individual. It requires him to be willing to transform his thought, to spiritualize his consciousness.

Questioner: I still can't quite see how thought and prayer would correct a very serious physical condition.

Speaker: Let me tell you the experience of a soldier I know of. He had sustained multiple shrapnel wounds on the entire right side of his body and was given a medical discharge. Upon his release from the Army, the hospital told him that he'd just have to learn to live with a paralyzed right arm and hand, a shortened right leg, and a painful sciatic condition.

Sometime later he began to study Christian Science and attend church as a result of observing some wonderful healings his wife had experienced. Through this study he began to learn an approach to prayer consistent with what we've been talking about—prayer expressed in right living. He began to yield his thought to God as divine Principle to make the effort to let go of a limited view of himself, and to express more of his actual God-given soundness and completeness.

This prayerful activity opened his thought to a deeper love, an understanding of God and man. He found that a limited concept of himself and of others began to disappear and that the fear was gone. It was this kind of transformation of thought or spiritualization of thought that made way, you see, for the true facts of God and man to be seen and expressed more and more in his human experience. And it brought a gradual healing to his body.

Questioner: Do you mean by this that the short leg and so forth actually changed and were healed?

Speaker: The physical conditions changed. Ultimately there was a complete healing. First, the sciatic condition was healed. One day he was working in his garage and had a sudden sharp pain that actually pulled him down to the floor. But even at this moment he held to the truth of his God-given perfection, that he was actually governed by the law of divine Principle, God, now and always. And he reasoned that this law is the only law there really is. The sciatic condition completely disappeared at that time.

As he continued to study and pray, the healing of the other conditions came gradually. He now has free use of his right arm and hand. His leg is normal, and he's full of vigor and vitality. The transformation of thought was so complete that he lost any feeling of inferiority and limitation. And it's brought him much good in every aspect of his life.

Now, the basis of all prayer that heals is underscored in the chapter on Prayer in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. In this chapter Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 1), "Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind."

To summarize, enlightened prayer brings thought in line with the truths of God and man. And doing this dispels the fear and ignorance that underlie disease and brings healing.