Article February 12, 1972 Issue

Overcoming the Belief of Recurrence

RAYMOND JACKSON ALLEN

One of the common and persistent arguments of error is that it can return. Perhaps one has considered himself healed of a specific difficulty, physical or otherwise, and then it reappears to plague him. His reaction may be one of frustration or even of bitterness. He may cry out: "I thought that I was healed, but here it is again. Why does it come back to torment me?"

How can one overcome this belief of recurrence and free himself once and for all from a particular manifestation of error?

First of all, it will help if recurrence is viewed as a challenge to renewed effort and not a cause for discouragement. Recurrence is a signal that more and better work needs to be done to destroy the belief in error's reality, whatever form it takes. In doing this work we must see that it is essential to avoid the pitfall of believing that we are dealing with something that was real and present at one time and has now returned. It was never real and therefore, according to Christian Science, never present in the first place. For this reason it cannot return. That which never existed can neither come nor come back.

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