Clarity of thought brings healing

I’d like to share a healing that has meant a great deal to me. Over a year ago, a hardened area of skin that had been present for a long time on one of my limbs began to change and grow. At first I didn’t pay much attention to this, but then as its appearance grew more noticeable and the area became sensitive to the touch, I became alarmed. I began praying, but noticed no change, and my fear began to escalate.

I called a Christian Science practitioner, and together we began earnest prayer to gain a clearer sense of my dominion over the belief of matter’s presence and intelligence. This was key to gaining mastery over the situation. There is a relevant marginal heading in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy that reads “Servants and masters.” The passage beside it states: “The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply the truth of immortal sense. This understanding makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in submission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love” (p. 216 ). 

I knew I had to get to a clear understanding of the truth and power of these spiritual facts, because it was apparent to me that I would gain my freedom from fear if I could attain the confidence in Truth this paragraph promised. To get to that level of confidence, I felt that matter needed to be reduced in consciousness, and ultimately nullified. I utilized another passage from Science and Health to address this: “There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously” (p. 282 ). 

I prayed to see and understand this truth so fully that I couldn’t be swayed by any seeming opposing evidence or suggestion. Reducing my perception of matter from seeming solid substance to mere mortal thought was so empowering. I now understood why there could be no power in matter—because matter comes from lying mortal mind, with no vestige of truth to it, and it is never good, right, or true, because its foundation, mortal mind, is false. 

It felt as if this erroneous, discordant matter belief was almost dissolving before my eyes. Matter was losing its foothold in my thinking, and I was starting to see its nothingness more clearly. I began to feel more in a position of mastery over the body. 

I had prayed with the practitioner a few days, and a day after seeing more clearly the powerlessness of matter, about two-thirds of the growth fell away, and underneath was new skin. However, I was a little perplexed by a seeming partial healing. Why did this happen? Why not a complete healing? Even though it was not complete, I felt a glorious sense of reprieve, of salvation, and gratitude to God. I felt sure there would be a complete healing shortly.

But that wasn’t to be. I waited and waited, and prayed and waited for the prayerful unfoldment necessary to complete the healing. Even though it was quite different from my situation, I took heart from Jesus’ healing of the blind man in the book of Mark in the Bible, which appears to have taken place in two stages. First the man could “see men as trees, walking.” Then Jesus “made him look up,” and the man saw clearly (see 8:22–25 ). The healing took place when the man looked up spiritually.

A month and a half had passed without a complete healing, so I returned to working with the practitioner. She gave treatment, and we discussed that there can be no lingering, leftover vestiges or shadows of a lie, of something that never had a basis in fact; and that spiritual adhesion and cohesion are natural and normal—that spiritually there wasn’t anything that could exist or adhere to me that wasn’t a manifestation of God’s goodness. 

I loved considering and praying with the beautiful words of Hymn No. 363 from the Christian Science Hymnal: 

It wasn’t up to me or the practitioner to make me whole—Truth, God, was doing the work, revealing my perfect nature. The harmonious activity of Truth was revealing clear thoughts and clear manifestation to us. This is the natural activity of God’s universe. A day later there had been enough improvement that I felt I could work on my own. Shortly, the entire skin area became clear, smooth, and without sensation.

This healing and earnest prayer have forwarded my understanding of the need—in fact, the demand—to unseat the belief in matter as an aspect of healing. I now see there cannot be a shred of lingering doubt or concern on the side of material intelligence and substance. There has to be a consistent and powerful opposition to matter, actually a realization of its utter nothingness, which the Christ and the Christ Science clearly reveal.

Sally Sullivan
Indianapolis, Indiana, US