I am so in awe of the completeness of spiritual healing. When the law of God is applied, bodily difficulties evaporate from thought—much like dreams—and thus from our experience. Mary Baker Eddy states in her seminal book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth” (p. 14). What I most remember from each healing is the joy of gaining more spiritual understanding and dominion. 

Several winters ago, I developed a severe cough, spent time in bed, and was not functioning very well. I called a Christian Science practitioner for spiritual treatment. I immediately felt relief and improvement, so I decided to release the practitioner from the case and simply continue to pray on my own. However, the cough lingered. When it became more aggressive, a family member was concerned and thought I should have a physician evaluate the condition, suggesting it might be pneumonia.

I immediately called another Christian Science practitioner, explaining how discouraged I was. I was distraught, wondering why I wasn’t able to heal this lingering cough through my own prayers. But rather than continue with discouragement and condemn myself, I thought about a concept I had learned in class instruction (a two-week course in Christian Science healing): Give up human opinions for God’s ideas.