From a very young age I resisted many of the attitudes prevalent...

Ada Maria M. Barrionuevo

From a very young age I resisted many of the attitudes prevalent in society; I especially couldn't accept human suffering as a necessity.

This impelled me to investigate different psychological and religious paths. When I was a student in high school, my friends and I had used amphetamines in the belief that they improved intellectual output. I became dependent on marijuana over a period of twenty years, until I began to question why I was using it. The most important reason I found was that I felt it increased my intelligence, making me more lucid and connecting me more with my inner self.

When I became dissatisfied with that justification, I asked God to free me from this dependence. At this time I became acquainted with Christian Science through a very dear friend. I began to study the Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy (see pp. 16–17). The part of the prayer "Hallowed be Thy name" and the interpretation "Adorable One" were illuminating. It helped me to see that I should put only God before me, since He is the Adorable One. I found "the scientific statement of being" (ibid., p. 468) and read the words "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter." I thought about this concept daily. As a result, I didn't feel the urge to smoke for several months—I didn't even think about it.