Cancer—confronted and healed

I was a professional opera singer and was preparing to move to Germany to perform. Having had difficulty for some time with swelling and pain, I believed the throat problem was the result of an overly heavy vocal schedule. It was recommended that I see a specific vocal coach (later I learned that he was formerly an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist). After observing my vocal cords as I sang, the coach told me that, in his opinion, I was suffering from throat cancer and must do something about it quickly. He followed this earth-shattering news by expressing a loving desire to recommend the best medical specialists. He concluded, however, with a most remarkable statement. His son was a student of Christian Science (I had earlier told him that I was a Christian Scientist), and he wondered if perhaps I already had my answer.

Leaving this kind gentleman's studio, I felt quite shaken. I had been raised in a Christian home but had always relied on medical treatment; sometimes with success, sometimes not. In my twenties I began studying Christian Science and experienced many wonderful healings over the next thirteen years. Now I struggled to embrace more thoroughly the spiritual laws that Christ Jesus demonstrated—the laws that, in 1866, Mary Baker Eddy interpreted and demonstrated as effective for permanent and quick healing even today. Divinely inspired, she writes in Science and Health: "Our Master treated error through Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature, if by these are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs. There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a spiritual law instead of material" (p. 463 ). Oh, how I longed to know more about that specific law.

Having decided to rely on the Science of Christ for healing of this disease, I began my spiritual journey. Every day I spoke to a Christian Science practitioner. His spiritual understanding helped erase the pain and fear I was experiencing. He saw me as the perfect child of God far more clearly than I could at the time. I worked daily with the Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly. In addition to reading from Science and Health, I studied the Scriptures and didn't care to read anything else, other than articles and testimonies of healing where people had faced similar situations and won on the basis of revelations of Truth.

Slowly it became clear to me that I, as God's child, was, am, and ever will be perfect. This fact is unchangeable. Since man is created in the likeness of Spirit, God (see Gen. 1:26, 27), he does not have his life turned upside down with sudden illness or suffering of any kind. Science and Health explains, "The great truth in the Science of being, that the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike" (p. 200 ). I didn't have to be afraid of losing a life that is eternally the likeness of eternal God.

Little by little, over a period of three years, the fear was replaced by sparkling spiritual truths that were gently revealed to me. During this time I was able to meet all the concert engagements for which I had already signed contracts. I was also able to perform as the soloist at church. As a matter of fact, following the healing a former voice coach said my singing was stronger and clearer than he'd ever heard it.

We generally think that healing means returning to an original condition of wholeness, but that would imply that it is possible for God's man to slip into a state of discord or disease. But can man change God's perfect creation into something else? No way! A done deal is a done deal. I reasoned that a healing might be better defined as the moment we understand a previously misunderstood or unrecognized fact. This revelation in consciousness would have an effect on our health and harmony. I believe that is what happened in my case.

I also discovered that it's OK to face the problem head-on. I used to be afraid of the term cancer: But now, I see the word as merely a six-letter illusion. I am no longer afraid of it or of what it represents. What freedom!

In the space of about two and a half years, I was fully healed. By that time I was waking at a normal hour and going about my day with both mental and physical freedom. When I prayed to God to know when I might share some of the wondrous spiritual truths I had learned, I got the answer: "Continue studying." So I did, for another six months. One day, to my great surprise, I experienced a revelation that beat all others. It was this: as God's spiritual reflection I had never had cancer. What a discovery! Truth totally erased the belief of disease to such an extent that I knew nothing had been changed or fixed because in God's creation it had never needed to be. The truth is, the disease had simply never been. There is no reality to any disease. As Mrs. Eddy writes, "... the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine" (Science and Health, p. 365 ).

God cannot create any problem. God is only good. When we buy into a human picture or experience that is unlike that goodness, it is only of a dreamlike consciousness. Cancer had truly become a six-letter illusion to me; this provided an opportunity to study, learn, and practice the ever-present reality of health and harmony. Most important, I learned to trust God implicitly. I learned to resist all that the five physical senses reported as diseased, painful, or frightening. I learned to trust spiritual sense and divine law to reveal the one omnipotent, ever-sustaining God, now. Now are we eternally unchangeable, spiritual man—the perfect reflection of the perfect God.