I want to express my gratitude for an instantaneous healing I had after symptoms of a heart attack some years ago. I was walking along a lake with friends when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my heart. I could not continue walking, and my friends helped me to a nearby bench. I tried to breathe, but it was difficult and painful. I sat slumped on the bench, with my head sunk on my chest and my eyes fixed on the ground under my feet. At that moment one of my friends said very firmly, “Look away from the body into Truth and Love.” 

The statement she was quoting comes from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. It reads in full, “Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality” (p. 261). My friend is a Christian Science practitioner, someone whose occupation is to give metaphysical treatment through prayer. Her response was natural, and she knew I would be receptive.

Indeed, the statement she shared immediately lifted my thinking away from a material body and the sense of having suffered a heart attack. I raised my head and thought more about this. What did I see by mentally looking away from the body? I remembered that I am the manifestation of Truth and Love as God’s harmonious idea—upright, untouched, and free. Within ten minutes, I was breathing normally and calmly.