Pilot’s sudden vertigo gone

Christopher Johnson

Many years ago I was a private pilot, and I used my plane to fly to business functions all over the Los Angeles Basin. One spring morning I was flying solo to Santa Barbara from San Diego. Santa Barbara is often surrounded by fog on spring mornings, and as I approached Santa Barbara, I noticed that my path was blocked by some heavy clouds.

As I got closer, I spotted a hole in the clouds below, and I started a gentle spiral to descend through that hole to get below the clouds. Suddenly I was gripped by a case of vertigo so severe that I lost all sense of my altitude and direction of flight. This was serious, as we had learned in flight school that over the years vertigo has claimed the lives of many private pilots.

So I prayed and simply asked God to help me. I believe I also prayed with the twenty-third Psalm, which starts this way: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (verses 1, 2).

Almost instantly I heard a voice in my thought that said to trust my instruments. I was trained in using them and allowed to use them, but I had temporarily overlooked that option that day. I obeyed and began watching my instruments, which allowed me to quickly steady the plane. Also, the vertigo disappeared so quickly that it was as if I had never had it, and I had absolutely no tendency to lose my bearings again.

For years thereafter, I always felt that my ultimate “instrument panel” was really the twenty-third Psalm. I prayed frequently with the ideas in this psalm. Other verses are: “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” and “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (verses 3, 6). The calm and clarity of this psalm have been a guiding influence in my thought.

I’m very grateful for the protection in this experience and for other healings through Christian Science.

Christopher Johnson
Oakton, Virginia, US

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