A doctor once told me a story that meant a great deal to him in a conversation we had about healing and prayer. He said that he had been treating a woman for cancer for over a decade. One day, she came into his office and asked to stop all treatment. After talking it over with her, he released her and encouraged her to go and celebrate all the joys in her life. Two years later, she came back—totally clear of the cancer—realizing that she was healed when she stopped identifying herself with the disease. The good doctor recognized the healing brought on by this mental shift in thought and commented thoughtfully that there is so much more we need to learn about healing. 

I’ve appreciated this brief encounter with the doctor for its feeling of respectful camaraderie and for finding common ground in our interests to understand more about healing. I’ve also become aware that there are a number of people asking about and exploring the mental and even the spiritual nature of healing disease. There seems to be an awakening in thought when it comes to understanding healing—and it’s a shift from a material basis to a spiritual basis. It’s a shift I have felt in my own thought. 

Many years ago, when I was starting to grasp the ideas in Christian Science for myself, I had a friend who was going through a severe struggle, and I very much wanted to help her. I shared what I was learning about Christian Science and I prayed for her. One key point I was learning in Christian Science is that we are made in the image and likeness of God, Truth, which meant that my friend was made in the image of God, thus spiritual. When she started identifying herself spiritually—with joy, love, and all those things that were life-affirming—instead of identifying with her circumstances, this turned her thought from being fearful to feeling encouraged and comforted. I saw that when the mental picture was spiritual, there was a change and that it was the spiritual element in thought that prevailed and determined the outward and actual experience.

Just as the woman patient stopped identifying herself with a disease, and my friend was able to identify herself more spiritually, so these actions gave a glimpse of something higher, more real and true, and this brought a gentle awakening to a higher view of oneself that ultimately brought on healing and comfort.

In my study of Christian Science, I’ve found that there is a divine influence that is always active and present in human consciousness. Christian Science, discovered by Mary Baker Eddy and articulated in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, explains the source of this influence as the divine Principle and rule behind Christ Jesus’ healing words and works. Christ Jesus placed a great emphasis on the action of the human mind, knowing that it is thought that governs action. And Christian Science recognizes mental energy as a recuperative power (see Science and Health, p. 394) but heals from a purely spiritual basis. So what stood out to me as unique to Christian Science is that it is the influence of divine Love on the human mind that heals. This happens not in mental manipulation, but in prayer.  For centuries, prayer has included self-abnegation before the presence of God, and continues to be initiated by a pure and deep desire to feel this divine influence, to claim our oneness with God and to claim our spiritual identity.

It is the influence of divine Love on the human mind that heals.

Christian Science is summarized in “the scientific statement of being” found in Science and Health on page 468, which concludes—“man is not material; he is spiritual.” Identifying oneself spiritually—with all that is from God, all that is good, enduring, and true—has been the strong point that has brought me healing a number of times, whether in the healing of severe burns on my face, the happy resolution of a financial difficulty, or a welcomed presence of peace and respect to a relationship in conflict. Family and friends who have practiced Christian Science have also found freedom from broken bones, migraines, shingles, and more. Christian Science has a growing track record of healings of almost every conceivable disease or discord, numbering now in the tens of thousands of verified cases, all based on the fundamental Principle of Christian Science, which identifies man as spiritual. 

The mental shift from identifying with disease to identifying with a higher, more spiritual sense of self is possible for anyone. Certainly, willingness to leave behind tired and limiting concepts of self will help one become more receptive to accepting a newer and higher view of oneself. But a love for God, and an ever-growing understanding of God’s goodness, and our inseparable relation to God, puts healing on a permanent, spiritual basis, not subject to the variableness of a psychological approach or to the pendulum of positive thinking. 

Every day we have a choice to make. I have found it anchors my day to choose to know God more clearly and identify myself spiritually as God’s own child—in God’s image and likeness. In my own small way I feel I’m expressing the Mind of Christ, “[Letting] this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5), which opens my heart to ways in which I can follow to some degree in the way that Christ taught. This brings healing and joy into my life.

There is an awakening going on, with more becoming aware that they can choose to stop identifying with disease—or sin, death, or other limiting ideas—and choose joy and life. And when that conscious mental choice includes the possibility of accepting one’s own inherent, permanent spiritual identity in which man is the image and likeness of God, healing happens. There is a divine influence that is always present in human consciousness and all can awaken to its healing power now.

Kim Crooks Korinek