Article March 10, 2014 Issue

Ready for takeoff

Wallace Wethe

Most students of Christian Science can recite from memory “the scientific statement of being” found on page 468 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. It is a staple of the Christian Science lexicon, repeated at the close of every Christian Science Sunday School and as part of the closing of every Christian Science Sunday church service. It is a statement of metaphysics that can be understood and demonstrated, and ends with the assertion that “man is not material; he is spiritual.” Putting this statement consistently into practice, men, women, and children accomplish countless healings every day.

I worked for many years as a military pilot and, later, as a commercial pilot carrying passengers and cargo through the air from place to place. From the start, I learned the principles of aerodynamics that are as basic to flying as the metaphysical laws in “the scientific statement of being” are to healing. When consistently applied, these principles enable planes to take off and fly every time, thousands of times a day.

If you have flown in an airplane, you have experienced these principles of aerodynamics in action. The demonstration begins as the plane begins the takeoff run. You feel the power of the engines thrusting the plane forward and overcoming the drag of all that mass being pushed through the air. As the plane accelerates the wind begins to flow more and more rapidly over the wings, generating lift that begins to overcome the weight of the plane and all its contents. At a predicted speed, the lift beneath the wings exceeds the weight of the plane, and the plane soars into the sky.