"The future of medicine—and the medicine of the future"

Physicians, health care professionals, and others are giving more and more attention each year to the spiritual dimension in healing. What practical applications spirituality has in the healing process has become a serious topic for research in such fields as biotechnology, genetics, modern surgical practices, and psychological counseling, as well as in the hands-on nursing care provided by so many dedicated women and men, Of the one hundred twenty-five accredited medical schools in the United States, at least sixty-one now offer a course on spirituality in medicine; and as many as forty of those encourage future doctors to put patients' spiritual histories on their medical records.

Issues like these have been fully discussed each time a wide range of people from the fields of science, theology, and medicine have gathered for a symposium on "Spirituality and Healing in Medicine," sponsored by Harvard Medical School and the Mind/Body Medical Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, These symposia have been taking place for several years now.

Course director, Herbert Benson, M.D., said that, as we move into the new millennium, "researchers and medical professionals must begin looking at how [they] can better incorporate the spiritual element into [their] patients' care."

Commenting on the "increased evidence that religion and spiritual practices are important in the healing process, and [that] patients want these practices incorporated in their care," Dr. Benson added, "Reaching this level of acceptance and understanding in the area of spirituality and health is very exciting."

Many conference participants gain a fresh outlook on spirituality and emerge with a different and often revitalized approach to health care by joining in a day-long session on the spiritual healing practices of various religions. The speaker on Christian Science has been Virginia S. Harris, C.S.B., Chairman of The Christian Science Board of Directors.

In her talk at the December 1999 conference, she began by thanking the Templeton Foundation for its continued support in "forwarding healing and spirituality," and she expressed her appreciation to conference delegates from many fields of health care for their contributions. "Your daily work and efforts," she said, "are changing the way our society is thinking about and dealing with health, healing, and spirituality. I have great respect for each contribution."

She then spoke substantially as follows:

When Harvard began sponsoring these conferences, we sensed that something profound was happening. On the one hand, we heard patients and many health care professionals yearning for a more spiritual approach to health care. On the other hand, there were doubts and skepticism regarding the validity of this new direction. We can see today that the momentum of mind/body medicine and prayer-based healing is irreversible! Polls, surveys, and research give us numbers and data to confirm this momentum, and patients' lives healed and transformed give us solid proof.

To some, the demand for spirituality in health care is a "quiet revolution," To others, it's an "explosion that can't and won't be stopped!" But whatever it's called—whether it's a quiet revolution or an explosion—we are here because to some degree we realize that this demand is causing a significant shift in the fields of science, theology, and medicine.

Spirituality is no longer a mere curiosity or yearning, but has become something of a demand. People are demanding to know more about how they can discover their spirituality, how they can connect with it, and what it will do for them.

Candlelight march

To me, this change—this demand for spirituality—can be compared to the change in thought that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall—an event that marked its tenth anniversary in October.

I spent a good deal of time in Germany—both before and after the collapse of the wall and the system that sustained it. Over the many years and visits to that country, I could see hopes grow and thoughts about freedom change.

Just days before the wall came down, I was in Leipzig, in what was then East Germany, visiting the St. Nicholas Church. That's where Johann Sebastian Bach played, and where the famous candlelight peace marches began.

I talked with the pastor who started those peace marches. He explained that the marches began as prayer meetings for freedom. As people met to talk and pray about freedom, they found encouragement and support—and the numbers grew.

While I was in East Germany, it was my privilege to walk in the last peace march. It was an incredibly touching scene—mostly fathers and children, holding hands and carrying candles. They were praying and walking silently toward a future that was open and free.

Well, we know the wall came down—with no violence. It was the most natural occurrence—and something that none of us would have imagined could happen that way. Then, almost overnight, the way we thought about the world changed.

Later, a film was released in Germany depicting the events of Leipzig and the marches. The film shows the chief security officer for the city standing on a raised platform, looking out over seventy thousand people, and saying, "We were prepared for everything, except for candles and prayers,"

Candles and prayers! Why do I tell you about this? Because I see here today, as I've sat in the back of the room, qualities like those expressed by the men, women, and children who joined in the peace marches and whose prayers, courage, hope, and unquenchable spirit brought down that wall.

We have come together because we know that there is more to learn about healing and well-being, We're searching, listening, and, yes, actually taking down the wall that divides us from each other. It is becoming clearer that medicine and religion are entering a new dynamic of mutual respect and inquiry. This is a convergence—not a collision—and it will determine the future of health care. These few important days together will give us insights about the methods of healing in the twenty-first century.

Christian Science practice

I've been invited to share some insights about how the practice of Christian Science healing works. Before I do that, let me take a moment to say that Christian Science is a system of healing based on the timeless principles of truth in the Bible. It can be applied by anyone. More people use Christian Science as a form of health care than actually belong to the church that grew up among those being healed. Christian Science is preventive and curative. For our purposes today, I'd like to share with you three aspects of Christian Science and how it is practiced.

First, I'll share some insights as a patient, as one who uses this system of healing and has experienced healing by relying on the power of prayer.

Second, I'd like to comment as a Christian Science practitioner, who treats patients through prayer.

And third, I'll give some background about Christian Science and its Discoverer, Mary Baker Eddy.

There was one particular healing, among the many I've had, that touched me beyond any other. It was the healing that not only saved my life but changed it. It gave me the strong desire to help others through spiritual healing.

About twenty years ago, I was involved in a serious car accident. I had just dropped our three young boys off at school and was heading home. I was crossing a major four-lane expressway, when a car ran a red light and crashed broadside into my car, pushing it into two other cars.

My first thought was probably like anyone else in that situation: "Help. Oh, God, help!" I was alone and injured. I was trapped in the car for about forty-five minutes while they worked to remove me from the wreckage. It seemed like a lifetime. I knew the situation was serious. I was in and out of consciousness and couldn't move.

But I could think and pray. So I reached out to God as never before, fighting to stay conscious. I guess I reasoned that if I could stay conscious, I would know I wasn't dead. I also knew that if I was conscious, I could pray, which was my only hope and help.

I was aware of the divine power and presence—of comfort and assurance. I remembered the Bible verse from Psalms "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" [Ps. 46:1 ]. I prayed for that help; prayed to feel an answer to my need.

While all the rescue activity was clamoring about me, I remember feeling a divine comfort. This helped me deal with feelings of fear, panic, and possible death. I can honestly say that most of the time I was able to stay calm.

We were all taken by ambulance to the emergency room of a nearby hospital. Someone notified my husband, and he immediately came to the hospital. I was connected to an IV. A team of doctors examined me and concluded that because the internal injuries were so severe, I might not survive. Their prospects for my recovery didn't give much hope.

All the while that I was fighting to live, in the car and then in the ER, I had a deep feeling of God's powerful care and love for me. And I had a feeling deep down—it was a spiritually intuitive feeling—that this power and love could and would save me.

So, with not a lot of hope from the doctors, my husband and I decided that I should be at home—that we could trust God to heal me. We felt very comfortable with this decision because I'd had healings before. All my life I'd seen solid and specific proofs of the power of prayer.

Now, I'm sure some of you may think, "Wait a minute. Here you are in an emergency room with all the latest equipment and professional skills. Why didn't you stay there and use those resources and prayer?"

Faith was a necessary part of my decision. My faith had grown into an understanding of, and trust in, the system of healing, Christian Science treatment, and the results I'd had. So this was not a blind rejection of the care offered to me by the doctors and nurses. I appreciated their help, and respected their recommendations.

My husband and I knew the choice was ours to make. For us it was natural, normal, and safe to choose Christian Science treatment. My husband had called a Christian Science practitioner, who began giving me treatment through prayer. The release forms were signed, and I was taken home by ambulance.

The first couple of days were rough. I couldn't move, and the pain was severe. There was a time that I thought I was dying. The mental and physical pull to give up and give in to death was very aggressive. But I didn't give up. I can honestly say that even at those moments, I felt God's love, strength, and presence actually holding me safe and calm. I expected healing!

During these challenging days my mother or my husband sat with me every moment. Our three boys would come in and hold my hand or lie on the bed beside me. Neighbors and friends cared for the boys and brought us meals. The practitioner continued to give me treatment. My entire family prayed. We read the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

I also did a lot of praying and quiet listening, especially during the night, to the angel messages—God's thoughts. They brought me comfort and peace. I was not a beginner in praying for myself, but this serious situation really drove me to get a deeper understanding of the basic principles of my faith.

There were several important elements of the prayer that I prayed—sometimes many times a day. These elements are fundamental to treatment as practiced in Christian Science.

The first was, "What is God?" I prayed to know more about the Supreme Being. Lying there almost immobile, I used what was available to me—my mental energies—to begin to understand the infinite God as all-power, as eternal Life, as divine Love; to understand this divine presence as an ever-present help in trouble. I asked myself, "What does this mean?"

I began to feel that I understood God more, not just as a powerful father figure, somewhat detached and remote, but as Mother. I certainly leaned on the strength of God as Father; yet I felt every moment that dear mothering of divine Love, healing, comforting, caring, ministering to my needs—truly sustaining me.

Beginning with God and gaining more of that Father-Mother presence, the second thing I prayed to understand better was what it means to be, as the Bible says, the "image" and "likeness" of God [see Gen, 1:26].

I asked myself, "What does that tell me about me, in this situation? What does it tell me about my spiritual nature—my whole being? What does it tell me about my prospects for life—not death?"

When I speak of my spiritual nature, I'm thinking of my real being, the permanent and eternal expression of my very being as the image and likeness of God. A very lucid expression of this real being is seen in a translation of the first chapter of Genesis: "He created man in the image and likeness of Mind, in the image and likeness of Mind created He him" [see Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings, p. 97]. I am not two separate persons—one spiritual, and another mortal. I have one permanent being and identity as an idea of Mind, God.

My prayer was nurtured and supported by a sentence from Mrs. Eddy, where she writes, "... man's perfect model should be held in mind, whereby to improve his present condition; that his contemplation regarding himself should turn away from inharmony, sickness, and sin, to that which is the image of his Maker" [ibid., p. 98].

And the third element I prayed to understand more clearly was my relationship to God. I asked myself, "What is that relationship? Am I connected to God? What does that mean? What is the oneness that each of us has with the Almighty? And, as I understand this relationship, how does that help? How does this relationship bring healing, even when one is faced with death?"

I was trusting that my relationship to God would sustain me, even at those moments when I thought I was dying. Since God is Father-Mother, and we're His child, that relationship between God as Father-Mother and His/Her child must be a very precious one—in fact, an eternal relationship that is unbroken, unchanging, unthreatened.

As I was forced to push the "pause button" in my life, I began to discover divine Life. I saw how much more there is to life. I'd been spiritually hungry, searching for more depth and meaning in my life, when I came face to face with what it means to have a permanent, indestructible relationship with God as Love, as Life, as Spirit. I realized that God had been there all along, and I'd only begun to touch the fringes of what is knowable and real to me—to us.

These three elements are basic and essential to Christian Science treatment. Both practitioner and patient generally include them in their prayer and treatment:

1. What is God? Love; Father-Mother; an omnipotent presence.

2. What is the true nature of men and women as the image and likeness of God? What is our inherent spiritual nature?

3. What is the relationship that each of us has with God as Father-Mother, every moment?

When I, as the patient, began to know more fully the truth of these three basic spiritual principles, it brought about healing. It was like beginning to comprehend something that was always there, always true, but had become clouded by the routine of daily life. It was a tough way to dispel the clouds, but great spiritual growth took place. I gained something fresh and deep about what divine Life really is.

In two weeks I was able to be up, and was soon driving the boys to school and caring for my family. I was fully healed. I had felt the power of God heal and save me. For what this experience taught me and taught many others, I am extremely grateful.

Over the years, there have been other, perhaps less earth-shaking, healings, but each of them has added more certainty to our family's trust in this system of spiritual healing.

How Christian Science began

How did Christian Science begin? Where and when did it start? In thinking about some of the explanations of faith and tradition that we've heard presented today—some of them go back centuries—I feel like a newcomer, because Christian Science was discovered just one hundred thirty-four years ago.

It was discovered by a woman from New England named Mary Baker Eddy. A noted biographer recently described her as a "radical Christian thinker, pioneer in the recognition of the mind/body connections" [Gillian Gill, Mary Baker Eddy]. Mrs. Eddy envisioned a world that embraced and was blessed by spirituality and healing. Her discovery was in essence a totally new view of the relationship between God and the human mind and body, But before I discuss that relationship, I'd like to tell you how she arrived at this discovery.

During the first half of her life, as a nineteenth-century, widowed, single mother, Mrs. Eddy was on a search, not unlike many people today. She had always had poor health. As a suffering patient, she tried many different treatments, but found nothing that could heal her.

She also became an experimenter, investigator, and health care provider. She knew from her illnesses, her research, and her practice of healing that there must be a connection between mind and body. She continually searched for that relationship.

She explored homeopathy. She treated some people with unmedicated pills. She investigated allopathic medicine. She looked into the contemporary methods of that time such as hydropathy, mesmerism, and various dietary systems. But she found that none of these brought permanent cures either to herself or to her patients. All of these explorations, however, brought her closer to realizing that there was a purely mental medicine. She realized that God had been left out of the methods she had been exploring; and God, to her, was everything.

For Mary Baker Eddy, the Bible was, and always had been, a constant companion. The accounts of healing of sickness, death, and near-death experiences in both the Old and New Testaments were a vital record—a living reminder of God's healing and saving presence.

She took Biblical healings seriously: among them, Elijah's healing of the widow's son, and Jesus' healings—of the woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years, of blindness, of an epileptic boy, a dying girl, and Jesus' friend Lazarus, brought back to life after four days in a tomb.

These healing accounts were beacons to Mrs. Eddy and repeatedly made her ask, "Why are we not healing like that today? What is it that heals? Is there a principle that underlies healing—that was true then, that must be true today?"

At one point during her search (at the age of forty-five), she suffered a serious injury—an injury that brought a tremendous breakthrough in her healing work for herself and others. Near death a few days after the accident, when no hope was given for her survival, she asked for her Bible. She opened it to the New Testament, to one of Jesus' healings. This Scriptural account of healing gave her profound spiritual insights. She was healed right then!

Well, this experience didn't leave her where it found her. It changed her view of the world, and more specifically, her view of the relation between God and the patient's thought and body. She was committed to a more vigorous search for the explanation of this healing principle.

She explored the Bible, realizing that something must be there that could explain what she'd experienced. Glimpses that there was a divine healing principle became tangible and practical. She began testing what she was discovering and learning with students and patients, and the healing results were significant.

What had happened? What had changed? Before her accident and discovery, she had accepted the conventional view of the human mind as a derivative of the physical world. She believed that the mental state of a patient was just one of the factors in the case. She came, however, to see the matter-world as a product of the human mind. Instead of accepting thought as a phenomenon of matter, she saw that matter is a phenomenon of thought.

After the accident and discovery, she understood that thought itself is the patient. It is thought that needs to be healed. Thought is the arena where change must take place in order for healing to occur.

This change of thought grows from the understanding that there is one God—one divine Mind. Mind here is synonymous with God. The use of Mind in this way is not a reference to a human mind, but to the divine Mind or consciousness. Mrs. Eddy discovered that the divine Mind governs the physical body. She says in Science and Health: "Many years ago the author made a spiritual discovery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to prove that the divine Mind produces in man health, harmony, and immortality. Gradually this evidence will gather momentum and clearness, until it reaches its culmination of scientific statement and proof" [p. 380 ].

Like many great thinkers, along the way in her exploration, Mrs. Eddy received encouragement from others. One meaningful contact was Dr. E. H. Davis, a medical doctor from Manchester, New Hampshire. Dr. Davis had a patient who was dying of pneumonia.

BY this time, Mrs. Eddy was quite well known in the New England area for her healing ability. So when this patient showed no signs of surviving, Mrs. Eddy was called. She went to the woman's bedside and prayed silently. In a short time—just a matter of minutes—the woman was healed.

Dr. Davis, standing on the other side of the room, watched this healing occur (See The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 105). He asked Mrs. Eddy how she'd done it. Following their discussion, he urged her to write a book explaining her discovery and healing method.

Six years later she published Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It is being read today around the world by healers and seekers of spirituality. It continues to be a bestseller.

Science and Health is a book about how to be healthy and whole, as well as a "how-to" book for prayer-based treatment. It is written for both healer and patient. It is a book that explains spiritual laws of healing and Christ Jesus' application of these laws. It makes spiritual healing practical.

Evidence of that practicality or self-care in Christian Science is seen in the final one hundred pages of the book. This chapter contains accounts of people having been healed simply by reading Science and Health. Other chapters cover such subjects as prayer; Science, theology, medicine; physiology; Christian Science practice; Genesis; and the Apocalypse.

Throughout Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy returns again and again to one of the most important ingredients in healing—love. She explains that it is more than just human love that is necessary; it is understanding God, Father-Mother, as divine Love, the essence of all. In Science and Health she says, "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals" [p. 13 ].

Further developing the part love plays in healing, Mrs. Eddy posed a question to students in one of her classes on healing: "What is the best way to do instantaneous healing?" The students replied reasonably well, but she finally and fully answered her own question for them by saying, "I will tell you the way to do it. It is to love! Just live love—be it—love, love, love. Do not know anything but Love. Be all love. There is nothing else. That will do the work. It will heal everything; it will raise the dead. Be nothing but love" [We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, p. 134].

This love motivated and characterized her actions throughout the remainder of her life. She healed, taught thousands, lectured, wrote constantly, and founded a church, together with its publishing activities—the best-known element being The Christian Science Monitor.

All of us who deal with patients—and even in our own lives—know all too well the cruel and adverse effects of fear, anxiety, isolation, and loneliness on health and recovery.

If one can remove fear and replace it with hope, love, life, compassion, joy, peace, expectancy, one finds patients much more receptive to healing. The Apostle John declares in the Bible, "... fear hath torment." But he also prescribes the remedy when he says: "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. ... There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear" [I John 4:16, 18 ]. And Science and Health instructs healers, "Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients" [p. 411 ].

We might ask, "How, then, do we stop fear from taking over in ourselves or in our patients?" Fear is lessened or overcome by gaining spirituality, by understanding that God is Love, the source of spirituality, and by finding that God's love is immediate, ever present, unending. This assurance keeps us safe and whole. This eliminates, in human consciousness, thoughts of fear or hopelessness and restores health.

Teenager healed

Let me give you an example. I met Linda when she was fourteen years old. She was suffering from what her doctors had diagnosed as an arterial venous malformation. All her life she'd had paralyzing head pains. She'd missed a lot of school. She'd been receiving excellent medical attention, but the prognosis was one of little hope. Doctors said that she would have to live with medication, CAT scans, and pain all her life, and that she'd never be able to have children.

Another doctor said there was an experimental surgery that could be performed, but this offered only a 50 percent chance of survival. If she did survive, there would have to be follow-up surgery within a week.

The family was desperate. Linda's mother worked in the same office building where I had my practitioner's office. One day she came and asked, "What do the letters 'CS' after your name mean?" I explained I was a Christian Science practitioner.

She'd remembered, during college, learning that Christian Science had something to do with healing. So she tearfully described her daughter's situation and asked if she could be healed. I said I'd be happy to visit with her daughter.

The next day they came to my office. And Linda continued to come for several weeks. This family had no religious affiliation. Linda knew little about God and spirituality. So we started with the basics. We talked about the Bible—the Old and the New Testament.

I also discussed with her those three points I mentioned earlier. We talked about what God is, about God as Father-Mother, and of God's love for her. She liked that idea of God's love for her! And then, just as important to her, was who she is as the child of God. We talked about thinking of herself more spiritually and what this means for her health. We also talked and thought about her relationship to her creator, Father-Mother Love. These weekly appointments were meaningful and comforting to her. She was learning to pray for herself, about herself.

One day when she came, she said, "I'm feeling so much better! I'm not having as many headaches. And because I'm feeling so much better, I'm not having to take the medication." Her parents were very encouraged by her progress, and so they decided to postpone the operation. They asked if I would begin to treat her in Christian Science.

As I prayed with her, she gradually embraced the possibility of being well. She became receptive to healing. She began to understand that she could accept God's power and love for her. As she did, thoughts that had been so debilitating to her were replaced with hope and courage, expectancy and joy. She began to feel a connectedness to God. She knew she could be healed.

That was in early fall, and by Thanksgiving she was completely healed—no more medication, no more headaches: and she never had the operation. The doctors who examined her afterward, called her the "miracle girl."

By the way, today she's the mother of two children. I see her occasionally, and recently I asked her, "Do you remember when the change occurred in your thought that brought healing?" She said, "It was when I felt that I was no longer vulnerable, that I was in charge of my body." And she added, "Then I wasn't afraid anymore."

Overcoming fear

As this case illustrates, the patient's thought is the arena in which change takes place in order for healing to occur—the healing of fear, which is really the healing of disease or a deep uneasiness. Prayer brings about this change in human consciousness as the individual recognizes his or her wholeness and feels the presence of divine Love.

People who are in pain, like Linda, or facing a terminal illness, tend to feel separated, alone, out of control, discouraged, somehow cut-off. Disease to them can become their whole world. For many it even becomes part of their identity. They talk about "my cancer," "my arthritis," or "my depression."

Health isn't something we get, something that we have and others don't have, that we can gain or lose. And it is certainly not just the pleasant interval between diseases! Health is an aspect of who we are in our genuine and permanent nature, as a child of God.

As a practitioner, I find that during treatment, each patient experiences a transformation of thought. Whether the patients are seeking physical, emotional, or stress-related relief, they've asked me to treat them through prayer. One of the added blessings is their own discovery of their relationship to God and the peace and health it brings.

To me, the call to pray with each patient is a gift. I'm helped and healed by our prayers together. Each case demands my devotion, my trust, and my spiritual conviction. It is in this way that I can honestly and tenderly, and in the spirit of Christliness, minister to the needs of my patients. It is only as I continue to grow that I can help bring healing.

I trust I have given you today at least a glimpse of the freedom and hope that prayer and spiritual treatment in Christian Science have brought to me and to hundreds of thousands who have relied on it. Treatment in Christian Science is not a strategic offensive against something that belongs to the patient. It is not a technique or formula. It is the humble, quiet recognition of what Jesus simply called "the kingdom of God ... within you" [Luke 17:21 ].

Treatment through prayer as practiced in Christian Science includes the three basic elements that I touched on before: (1) Understanding what God is; all-power—divine Love, Father-Mother; (2) Getting to know one's inherent spirituality as a child of God; (3) Understanding one's relationship with God, the Supreme Being.

And flowing through all three is, of course, Love—unconditional and universal love.

Just like those marchers for freedom in East Germany, most of us are here today because we are healers who, in our heart-of-hearts, believe in our freedom through a connectedness with the Absolute and in the healing power of exploring and experiencing that relationship.

We hold in our hands and hearts the future of medicine—and the medicine of the future. It is the spiritual component of each individual that we must understand and value and nurture.

As a part of this conference—this march for health and well-being—we are holding candles for children, women, and men to be much more than genetic codes or biological beings. Each and every one of us yearns to help and heal better—to know more fully the spiritual component. This yearning is the power behind the quiet revolution for health and wholeness.

Our devotion to the new/old paradigm of mind/body/spirit will help assure the inevitability of spiritual progress. What better gift, my friends, with which to mark the advent of a new millennium. We have lighted our candles. May they continue to burn and light our way.