NO MORE FEAR OF HEIGHTS

MARILYN LOGAN PROCTOR

I'd always longed to go to Europe and see some of the beautiful works of art I'd studied in college. I decided to go on my own rather than with a tour group, in order to have more freedom to visit the cities, museums, and tourist attractions of my choice. But for the final leg of the trip, a friend who was living abroad arranged for me to join a couple of short tours: one to Amsterdam, and then to Paris the following weekend, with her.

April in Paris seemed like every girl's dream! I couldn't wait to see the Louvre, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower. But wait, I thought. What about that very TALL Eiffel Tower? Suddenly, the whiteknukle days of my childhood, when I was afraid of heights and hid in the bottom of the car as my family crossed the high mountain passes of Montana and Idaho, flooded my thought.

I'd attended Christian Science Sunday School and had many healings while growing up. I'd even prayed about this fear of heights before—but not too earnestly since I assumed that I would just outgrow it. Now, I realized, it was time to pray in earnest.

The angel thought came, "You don't have to get from point A to point B. You're already there." To me, this meant that I was already at the standpoint of spiritual perfection as God's reflection.

This thought had come before as I'd studied the Bible accounts of Jesus' ability to pass through a mob of people apparently unseen, and through closed doors after his resurrection (see John 8:59 and 20:26). I was inspired by the example he set. Christian Science shows that the divine laws Jesus was aligning himself with help us to challenge commonly accepted laws of time and space.

However, this was the first time I'd thought of applying these concepts vertically! A passage from Science and Health helped me gain a clearer sense of my inseparability from God's loving care: "Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor separated from its divine Principle. When the evidence before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from God, from from sweet sense and presence of Life and Truth. ... Understanding this, Paul said: 'Neither death, nor life, ... nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God'" (pp. 303–304). No matter where I was, whether planted firmly on the ground, or up high above the city of Paris, I would be safe and could never be separated from God.

I was deeply grateful for these spiritual ideas, and clung to them throughout my travels. This brought about a quick healing of what felt like a sprained ankle in Rome within one day, helped me find my way while lost in Venice, and brought protection from pickpoctets in Florence. And these prayers helped me go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, completely free from fear. I even managed a brief, friendly conversation in French with the elevator operator—no small feat since I'd studied the language for only one quarter in college.

This trip, and the resulting demonstrations of Truth and Love it brought, have stood as a landmark of progress in my ongoing study and practice of Christian Science. My fear of heights was permanently healed. I've since been able to enjoy the 10,000-foot view out of the car window as I've traveled the nearby Cooke City Highway into Yellowstone National Park. I've even enjoyed stopping at lookout points and getting out of the car to photograph the gorgeous scenery.

I learned a new sense of being at home in divine consciousness—always safe, guided, and free. No matter where point A or B seem to be located, there is never really any place to go but up—to a clearer understanding of God.

MARILYN LOGAN PROCTOR
BILLINGS, MONTANA, US

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July 23, 2007

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