Article October 15, 2007 Issue

SEEING THROUGH the ILLUSION

BY CHRISTIE HANZLIK-GREEN

In the early 1980s, magician David Copperfield performed an illusion that made the Statue of Liberty "disappear." Thousands of people witnessed the event either as part of the audience or in front of their television sets, and many were astounded to see this symbolic US landmark supposedly vanish.

I first learned about this magic trick as a child from a counselor at a Christian Science summer camp. I'd been spending the summer learning more about my inseparable, relationship with God, and was beginning to make distinctions in my own thoughts between the substantiality of good and the illusive nature of evil.

As I spent the summer living and practicing the truths I was learning in Christian Science, I was able to recognize that pain and fear were basic lies about my spiritual identity. A favorite passage in Science and Health consistently encouraged me to affirm God's goodness and power: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought" (p. 495).

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