Article November 20, 2017 Issue

No Life but the Divine

Virginia Slachman

Not long ago I had an experience that led me to a much deeper spiritual understanding of God’s allness. I’d been in pain for a number of months. I had the support of a Christian Science practitioner, and though the pain seemed to persist, I knew I could experience healing. I’ve had a lot of healings in Christian Science, so I saw this as an opportunity to prove, once again, that what Mary Baker Eddy outlines in Christian Science is actually the Truth—a synonym for God—and that His ever-present power was able to heal me, as it had so many times before.

When I was on a research trip, having to interview people and be in the public eye quite a bit, things seemed to take a turn for the worse. At times it was impossible to eat or sleep, and periodically I felt that I was going to pass out. When I got home from my trip, before unpacking I sat on the couch and reached out deeply to God. I knew that what appeared to be this persistent condition was not the truth about me. As I prayed, “the scientific statement of being” from Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures came to mind. I started with the first line: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter” (p. 468). I didn’t get any further than that. In fact, I didn’t get much further than the word “life.”

If there isn’t any life in matter, then there is no history in it, either.