About a year ago, I woke up and was in so much pain I couldn't even move. This seemed to be related to my monthly menstrual cycle. Every month, I'd just sort of ignored some discomfort, but this was unbearable, unlike anything I'd experienced before.

I knew I had to pray, to get right down to work metaphysically, because my day's schedule didn't allow for me to stay at home curled in a ball. My ballet students were having their end-of-year performance, so I was going to be very active in the theater for 15-plus hours. This seemed like a daunting task, since I was throwing up every few minutes and felt as if I was floating in and out of consciousness.

In one of my lucid states, I was able to crawl to get my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and was going to try to read the Christian Science Bible Lesson. The subject that week was "Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced." Well, this certainly seemed like a hypnotic and mesmeric state of thought that was crippling me! And it was getting worse because I was fearful that I wouldn't be able to go about my day and take care of my students.

Taking a break in between sections of the Lesson, because I couldn't keep my eyes open, I began thinking about my right as God's beloved child not to be experiencing anything other than goodness. Love was all around me, and therefore there was no place for fear. It became clear that my right place for that day was in the theater and nothing could hinder that. I couldn't be mesmerized by materiality and by what the bodily senses were trying to tell me. I was spiritual and wasn't going to be hypnotized by the material picture.

I started to mentally defend my womanhood, as something that had nothing to do with a material monthly cycle. As a true woman of God, I expressed strength, beauty, grace, vitality; my life was in God. As a spiritual idea, I could never have any dysfunction. I was not enslaved by this material cycle, as there are no material life-cycles that supposedly control our lives. I couldn't be made to believe that this pain was something that every woman just had to deal with every month. God had complete control over every aspect of my life, and I had a right to feel what Science and Health calls "the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love" (p. 264).

After praying with these ideas for a little while, I was able to move from the floor to my bed and continue reading the Lesson. I was a little bit calmer, more at peace, but still in intense pain. Toward the end of one section, I came across this statement from Science and Health: "Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called despotism is but a phase of nothingness" (p. 102). It was as if a light had been turned on.

The "so-called despotism" of crippling pain, discomfort, and illness had no control over me. I wasn't subject to its false tyranny. It wasn't something that even needed to "go away," because it was always nothing from the beginning. Immediately, the pain was gone—I was healed instantly and completely.

I was so conscious of God's ever-present love right there with me, dispelling all fear, pain, and weariness. I got out of bed rejoicing and with such gratitude for the healing power of the Christ. I was able to go about my day joyfully and with complete freedom. And since then, I have never experienced any of the uncomfortable symptoms that I had suffered with every month for the 15 years before this healing.

JEREMY RUTH REVILOCK-FROST
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, US