A Christian approach to spiritual healing
Tom Black, C.S.B.
What is healing from a Christian Science perspective? How does it work—and how do you know when you're healed?
In this inspiring chat, Tom Black, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science, explains that healing comes when we look away from the body and into Truth and Love.
Tom shares his own experiences, including a dramatic healing of blindness while serving in the military, and explains why we can always expect healing, because—as he learned himself—"it is just that simple."
Using sports analogies and Scriptural examples to illustrate his responses, Tom shares his thoughts on Christian Science study as a continuous journey of progress and answers questions from site visitors on the role of the Christian Science practitioner, overcoming the fear of pain, and dealing with discouragement when healing isn't immediate.
spirituality.com host: Hello, everyone! Welcome to another spirituality.com live question and answer audio event, “A Christian approach to spiritual healing.” Our guest is Tom Black, a teacher and practitioner of Christian Science. He’s also a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors here in Boston, Massachusetts.
Tom, do you have some thoughts to get us started?
Tom Black: Well, first, thanks very much to you for the invitation to be with you today, and to your staff. It’s kind of nice to sit here and see them all sitting there in the control room. I understand from you these programs have been going on for, what, three or four years, haven’t they?
spirituality.com host: That’s right.
Tom: You’ve done 40 or 50 of them.
spirituality.com host: Somewhere in between there.
Tom: It’s just impossible to know how much good these programs have done. I guess it’d be nice to say “Welcome” to the folks who are listening, too. And thanks in advance for sending in your questions. My only request is please make them all easy. No hard questions today. I think we’ll grow together for the next hour. There’s so much interest in spiritual healing. People want to be healed themselves, they want to know how to heal others, and I’m sure that we’ll have questions that relate to those two issues.
I noticed in the promo for this program, that you mentioned that there are many approaches to nontraditional healing, and you mentioned laying on of hands, meditation, channeling, and so forth. There’s a lot of interest in those subjects out there, and thanks for mentioning them. But I also know that I don’t know anything about those. I’m simply not familiar with them, even in the broad category of spiritual healing—that word spiritual, as you know so well is such a huge word, that I cringe a little bit when somebody asks about spiritual healing. So I was especially glad that the title of this program is “AChristian approach to spiritual healing”, because I guess it could be said that I know a little bit about healing by prayer in Christian Science. But, to be honest, and not immodest, I sometimes wonder how deep that well is, too.
So we’ll just do our best, okay, and I’ll expect to learn from the questions. And I thank you and your audience, in advance, for your patience. I guess we’ll just all kind of lean on God here for the hour or so—how’s that? And whether they’re asking questions or we’re answering them, we’ll just lean on Him. So thanks again for the invitation, and what do you say, you want to get going?
spirituality.com host: For sure.
Tom: Okay.
spirituality.com host: We’re so glad you’re here. This first question is from Bobbie in Indiana who’s asking, “What are the mechanics in giving Christian Science treatment. Specifically, what role does the practitioner play, and what role does the patient play?”
Tom: Mechanics. Was that the word, mechanics?
spirituality.com host: Yes.
Tom: I’m not sure I would go exactly with mechanics, but I understand the question. Mrs. Eddy refers to Christian Science a couple of hundred times as a system. So if you’re thinking of it that way, I guess your question would be right on target. But she also counsels against formulas. Jesus maybe had the perfect balance of this when he said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will [shall] make you free.” That seems to me to be systematic in a sublime way.
spirituality.com host: What do you feel about the role of the patient and the practitioner? Is there something further you’d like to say on that?
Tom: Well, yeah. I’m not a great basketball fan, but I am aware that the NBA finals are now underway, and that Cleveland has a player, LeBron James, who is somewhat of a phenomenon. I don’t know how many of the listeners have seen him play, but he passes with unusual, uncanny timing and ability. And it seems to me that he’s calling on his teammates to be especially alert because they never know when the ball’s going to get to them. And I think prayer is somewhat that way. That the patient and the practitioner need to be especially alert to hear or catch the passes that God is making to us in the form of angels. And that those angels are what transform our thought and bring healing. So that seems to be a pretty nice thing for both patient and practitioner.
spirituality.com host: This is a little bit different. It’s from someone who is writing from Southern California. Her name is Lucy. She says, “I sincerely believe that as a healer spiritualizes his outlook,” and then she refers to Jesus’ comment, "If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
Tom: Right.
spirituality.com host: “As newly in the fulltime practice, I have plenty—myself, my practice, my church, newspaper headlines, etc.—to pray about, and I’m seeing progress and results. However, no one is requesting treatment from me. Should I be doing something more?”
Tom: Well, as you probably remember, Lucy, and by the way, welcome to the practice—isn’t that wonderful to have somebody working away at it? The time will come when you’ll say, “Give me a break.” But that’s not right now. Yes, lift it up. Is there something more we can do? Yes. Mrs. Eddy, as you’ll remember, says, “We are all capable of more than we do.” I find it’s helpful, even though I’ve been in the practice for a little bit here now, to pray for my practice as an entity, as an activity that is taking place within God. To pray for it, to see it that way—perfect and whole and active right now, rather than seeing it some other ways.
I remember when I was early in the practice, I sat there by the telephone, and it didn’t do anything but just sit there on my desk, and I wondered why it wasn’t ringing. And I remember reaching out to God one day and just saying, “Dear Father, just give me some sign that I’m not wasting my life.” And the idea that came to me was along the lines that “All is well right now." And I just remember I sat there in that chair just basking in that truth and you know what? The phone rang—not once, not twice, but three times, one right after the other.
spirituality.com host: That’s great.
Tom: It was. It was really a wonderful sign.
spirituality.com host: Yeah.
Tom: What else have you got there?
spirituality.com host: Well, this one is from David in New York. And he’s saying, “I know there are many different kinds of Christian healing prayer. I avoid the need for medicine and surgery as much as possible, but right now, I have been in so much pain I have asked for and received medicine from a doctor. Will you pray for me? How?”
Tom: David, bless your heart. I would love to pray for you, and I think—you’d love to pray for him, too, wouldn’t you?
spirituality.com host: Of course.
Tom: Yeah. We would love to do that. And we will certainly do that. That’s a little bit different from giving treatment in Christian Science, though, and I think maybe we would want to step back from that right now, because the medical involvement…can’t mix the two real successfully in most cases. Treatment in Christian Science is a little different thing, where the practitioner is specifically yielding to spiritual ideas and so forth. Not that it’s a formula, as I said before. But I think it’s wonderful that you’re wanting and expecting to find healing. And I know that God has a way to touch your consciousness, your thought, right now where it is. Has a way. That way—Jesus said, “I am the way,” and I think he was referring to the Christ, so as we pray about this, and as you pray about it, why, just expect the Christ is going to ding! Right?
spirituality.com host: Open the door.
Tom: Yeah.
spirituality.com host: This is from Brandon in Illinois: “Can you be a Christian Scientist and also belong to a recovery group or a 12-step program?”
Tom: That’s a good question, and I don’t see why not. I’ll tell you what it does with me. It raises the question of “What is a Christian Scientist?” Is it somebody who’s a church member? Well, I don’t think so, because Mrs. Eddy was never a church member.
spirituality.com host: You’re right.
Tom: So we’ve got a little problem there. So, what is a Christian Scientist? Is it somebody who reads the entire Bible Lesson every day? Is it somebody who’s a member of a branch church? It seems to me that a Christian Scientist is someone who is aware of the laws of God, and is actively, in a way that satisfies him right now, sincerely reaching out to embrace those laws in his own thought. And that reaching out runs across the entire board. I mean, who is a golfer? Is a golfer somebody who shoots par? A golfer is somebody who hits a ball with a club. And I think it’s kind of that way in Christian Science—that there’s a huge range of honest and sincere seekers. And that all of us are on that range some place. We might try a little of this and a little of that, and as we move along, we may set aside the 12-step program. But at one time, somebody might be studying Science and Health and going to a 12-step program—are they not a Christian Scientist? I don’t know, I wouldn’t say that. My heart doesn’t tell me…too big.
spirituality.com host: Yeah.
Tom: Too big.
spirituality.com host: I love what you brought out about it being a continuum. I think, also, one of the other sides to that is where people at different stages are making progress and are learning about Christian Science. Because there are things that I read inScience and Health now that have a totally different meaning to me now than they would have had ten years ago, because I’ve understood more of what Christian Science is. So it really is a spiritual progression more than just a “snap your fingers,” and you’re there.
Tom: But it was just as thrilling ten years ago as it is now.
spirituality.com host: Oh, for sure. For sure. In fact, in some ways, more thrilling.
Tom: Yeah.
spirituality.com host: This is from someone in Michigan, who says, “After continual prayer regarding a physical ailment, I still experience mild discomfort. How can I pray more effectively, so that the error yields to divine Mind?”
Tom: Well, how can I pray more effectively? The Bible says, “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” And I think the first “open reward” is light. Enlightenment. It is, “Oh, my, I‘ve seen…,” like you were talking about, ten years ago and even now, just feeling that glimpse of the Christ. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” So, Ms. Michigan, I think I would just encourage you to go back into your closet, like all of us do, right, all of us do—shut the door, and just reach out quietly and humbly for just another crumb of Christ’s truth from the table of His infinite love.
spirituality.com host: Now this one is from Marcy in Rochester, and she’s asking about the book of Ephesians, and I’ve got the Bible here so I can read the verse. She says, “How might this apply to healing: in Ephesians, Paul talks about the ‘armor of God.’ In light of Christian Science, what does it mean in chapter 6, verse 12?” I’m going to read that exact verse: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Tom: Right.
spirituality.com host: And she says, “I understand in Christian Science, heaven is ‘harmony,’ and Spirit is God.” So how can there be spiritual wickedness in heaven? I think is what the question is.
Tom: I would hesitate to give the transliteration or interpretation of any Bible passage. Just in my own reading in a given week, I find that a single passage will mean multiple things. There is no, as I understand it, there is no evil in good. It’s like asking, how many corners are there in a sphere?
spirituality.com host: Just not there.
Tom: They’re just not there.
spirituality.com host: Yeah.
Tom: There is no evil in good. Does it sometimes seem to be there? Yeah, I guess it does. But I think the more we understand the sphere, or the more we see, hey, what we thought was a corner isn’t really a corner…. I may not get the gist of that question, and if so, I apologize to Rochester. But, do you want to ask anything more about that?
spirituality.com host: Well, I think that basically God being all good and ever-present, there really can’t be evil in any concept of harmony. If there’s harmony there, evil is excluded by virtue of the fact that evil can never bring harmony.
Tom: Yeah. Of course, intellectually, that’s really a puzzler, and we don’t need to dip into that very far except to say that one healing in Christian Science explains it all.
spirituality.com host: Yep.
Tom: One healing. Would you mind if I just tossed out a little experience I had a couple of years ago?
spirituality.com host: I’d love it.
Tom: I was involved in some athletic activities, and I smashed one of my toes. And I was at a gathering where it would have been pretty inconvenient to hobble around. But I did hobble back to my room, and the pain was very, very intense. Of course, it was not diagnosed, but it had the appearance of being deformed.
And I remember reaching out to God and just wanting to have a clearer sense of His reality. I don’t remember all the stuff that came to me, but I do remember that a quiet sense of peace came to me. And I fell into a deep, deep sleep. I was sitting in a chair, and I woke up because I slumped so far in my deep sleep, I was starting to fall out of the chair. And I realized it was healed. The toe was realigned, and I was able to walk without limping.
Something interesting about that is that a colleague of mine said nothing at all to me about it, but she had noticed that there was something amiss. And without telling me, she was praying, and I’m sure that I was the beneficiary of that very sweet sense of collegial embrace and spiritual embrace.
To me, that kind of answers the question, Is there good in evil? No, it’s just not there.
spirituality.com host: It’s not there.
Tom: Yeah.
spirituality.com host: This is another question from Indiana: “How can a Christian Scientist who is taking medicine, but would like to overcome the seeming need for medicine, be helped and healed?” And, again, in a way, that’s that continuum we were talking about, where someone is at a certain stage in their progress and would like to maybe move beyond the medical outlook.
Tom: Yeah, maybe it’s like golf a little bit, too. If your short game is not as good as it might be, you go out to the practice place, and you practice your short game, and you keep hitting 6-iron shots, or whatever it is, until you find that groove. And then you have the confidence that you can hit 6-iron shots henceforth with dominion. And I think that the practice of the Science of Christianity is not too much different from that in a way, although, there’s a motivational difference there. But nonetheless…. Practice, just work at the truth, and let it be ingrained more and more deeply in consciousness. And then it appears, first with that sweet sense of light, and then with physical healing.
spirituality.com host: Now, this is sort of a tricky one, but it might be one we could explore a little bit anyway.
Tom: Okay.
spirituality.com host: It’s from Jeanine in Florida, and it also ties in with medical reliance. And the person basically is saying that sometimes Christian Scientists who do take medical intervention feel both like a failure and almost like they’re lost in sin—that kind of thing.
I remember just about a week ago having a conversation with someone about perfectionism, about that drive to be perfect. You know, the Bible says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” But sometimes I think people mistake that “perfect” for perfectionism. And they feel that if they aren’t totally perfect at demonstrating Christian Science, for example, right away, then they feel like they are lost.
Tom: Sometimes on the Board of Directors, we joke about the fact that as many applicants as we have for membership in The Mother Church, we have yet to find any of us who is perfect. So I don’t look for perfection in the human scene. I don’t mean to make light, either, of the desire of some individuals to be free of medication. That, again, to me, is part of that continuum, that at any one moment all of us are doing the best that we seem able to do at that moment. And while we know we could do better, it doesn’t help to beat ourselves up because we’re not. But it does help, I find, to be sweetly grateful for the good we already have, however slight it may seem in one perspective. And that this gratitude, which is a just acknowledgement of God’s loving care, just tends to open thought a little bit more, a little bit more, and then setting off medicine is less of a ritual than it is a joyous, natural relief. Just setting it aside, because we no longer need it.
spirituality.com host: And I’ve read testimonies in the religious periodicals that we publish where people actually forget about the medication. Where they become spiritually uplifted and so clear about the presence of God that they forget. And then a month later, they say, “Oh, what’s this?”
Tom: Right.
spirituality.com host: And it’s just a totally different experience, so just not there anymore. It’s, in a sense, outgrowing the need for it…
Tom: Yes.
spirituality.com host: …more than feeling deprived of it.
Tom: Right. People put off their glasses that way sometimes. And hearing aids, and so forth, yeah. Good point.
spirituality.com host: This is an interesting question. The person isn’t telling us who they are or where they’re from, but they say, “How do I know when I’m healed?”
Tom: “How do I know when I’m healed?”
spirituality.com host: Yes.
Tom: Well, from the example you just gave, you may not know when you’re healed, I guess. I guess if you’ve been taking medication and a month later you’ve realized that you have not taken it for a month, you might not know that you were healed a month ago. You may not know. On the other hand, there may be a moment of overwhelming profound light and joy. Or there may be—and I myself had this experience not too long ago—where there was a tingling sensation in a part of my body that seemed to be pretty severely injured, and it just tingled away for about ten minutes. And when it stopped, the pain was all gone, so I don’t know that there is a way? Do you?
spirituality.com host: No.
Tom: Probably multiple.
spirituality.com host: As you were talking, I was thinking of a healing. I’d had a very long-term, medically-diagnosed bone difficulty that I’d lived with before I learned about Christian Science, and then that took some years to be healed of, and that I prayed about diligently. And oddly enough, you reminded me that I actually did forget I was healed, because what happened was, the pain stopped, and my thought had changed so much as it went on that it suddenly—I don’t know how much later—I thought, “Oh! It’s gone.”
Tom: A case in point.
spirituality.com host: Exactly.
Tom: That’s great.
spirituality.com host: Now this one is from Holland, Michigan, and the person is saying, “Mankind is hungering for proof that there is a God. Psalm 103 declared that one of God’s benefits was to heal ‘all thy diseases.’ How can we convince mankind that healing is the proof that there is, indeed, a God?”
Tom: You know, I’m not so sure that there is any better proof that there is a God than a single healing in Christian Science.
spirituality.com host: Yes.
Tom: Mrs. Eddy refers to it as the “bugle-call” (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 2) to human thought. And I think there is something that is irrefutable about that healing. There may be skeptics who would deny it, but I’m sorry to say there are even people who think the world is flat, and a society to that end, in England.
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: So there may be those who would disbelieve, but there are also millions and millions who are hungering after that sweet assurance and who accept it without question from a sincere and humble heart.
spirituality.com host: That’s right. This one is another interesting one. It’s from Fred in New Hampshire, and it is, “Christian Science teaches that everyone is capable of healing. Therefore, are practitioners necessary?”
Tom: Well, at this period, it appears that they are. It kind of depends how you think of a practitioner. Sometimes it’s nice to think of a practitioner as simply a helper. There are a lot of women who hire helpers to clean their homes. And we take our cars to service stations to have help in repairing them. And I think sometimes the circumstances of life are such that we just welcome the helper, and so with a Christian Science practitioner. Sometimes it’s wonderful to just have that yielding humility that is willing to ask somebody, “Will you please be my helper today?” Is that necessary? Well, in some cases it’s not.
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: But in other cases it seems to be very, very helpful.
spirituality.com host: Yes, it is. There are times when you really need someone who is outside the problem…
Tom: Yeah, that’s true.
spirituality.com host: …in terms of the prayer that they are doing. They’re not embroiled in all of the minutiae that sometimes humanly you get involved in. And also sometimes they bring a more advanced spiritual perspective to something that you just didn’t think of. There are myriad ways that practitioners help.
We could also say that ideally everyone could be a practitioner who is healing—spiritual healing is something that could happen to anyone who is studying Christian Science and is sincere.
Tom: Oh, sure.
spirituality.com host: In this whole world, there is a lot of healing work for everyone. Don’t you think?
Tom: Oh, boy. Absolutely, you’re so right. It’s a labor of love, and there are infinite opportunities for loving this suffering world. But I suppose that…this sounds like an absurd question, but is it possible that the laws of mathematics don’t apply to some people? Or that some people cannot learn how to add and subtract?
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: No. There are laws that apply, and anybody who applies themselves to learning those laws can learn them and apply them. The same is true of the Science of Christianity. There are laws of divine Love, or God. And anybody can apply themselves to learning them sufficiently, to demonstrating them for himself and others.
spirituality.com host: We’ve even had examples of children bringing about healings with their parents where a parent is ill, and a child will say just some little thing that is exactly the right thing at the right time.
Tom: You mentioned earlier the publications of The Christian Science Publishing Society. And if I might, I’ll put a little plug in here for The Christian Science Journal, which is a monthly; and the Christian Science Sentinel, which is a weekly; and then The Herald of Christian Science, which comes out either quarterly or monthly. Of course, The Christian Science Monitor is a daily.
And I’m reminded of that because on one occasion, I had an article, (I think it was in aSentinel), about an experience one of my daughters had when I was out playing tennis one day, and my practice phone rang. And the children were told to stay away from the phone, the answering machine will pick it up. But of course, all you’ve got to do is tell a child…
spirituality.com host: “Don’t do it…”
Tom: Right. “Don’t do it.” So she sneaked into my study and picked up the telephone. I think she was about five at the time. And this woman told me about it later. And she said, she was just in terrible pain, and she poured this out to this little five-year-old girl, who said to her, “But God loves you the way you are right now.” And the woman said she was instantly and completely healed.
spirituality.com host: Wow. That’s neat.
Tom: Isn’t that precious, though?
spirituality.com host: Yes. It’s not for nothing that Jesus said, “A little child shall lead them.”
Tom: How very true.
spirituality.com host: Now this one is from Meg in Texas, in Houston, and the question is, “Will you share an experience from your life that proved to you that Christian healing is possible?”
Tom: I certainly could do that. I already have a couple. Maybe Meg tuned in a little bit after we started. Do you feel like you’d like another one or have we got enough already?
spirituality.com host: I think another one would be fine.
Tom: Well, years ago, I was a pilot in the United States Navy, and one weekend I got hit in the eye with a tennis ball and was completely blinded. The eye was just as black as the inside of a coal mine. Worse than that, I was terrified to think of what I might have to go through as the result of that, because the Navy was not exactly tolerant of spiritual healing to that level at the time.
And I prayed about it. I went back to my room and I prayed about it. I was only out of Sunday School maybe two or three years. I had not had class instruction in Christian Science, which is a period of a couple of weeks of intensive study of the theology of Christian Science—hadn’t had that experience yet. So I sat at my desk, and it just occurred to me to think about that passage, “There is no fear in Love, but perfect love casteth out fear.”
As I sat there and thought about it, I thought, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear.” And then this question came to me: “And why are you so afraid?” And it was sort of a crossroads, you know. I could have said, “Well, I’m afraid because I can see myself lying on a gurney in a hospital waiting for surgery.” Or I could say, “I’m not afraid, because perfect Love has cast out fear.” And for some reason, God just touched me with the inspiration to say, “I am not afraid.” It was a sublime moment of spiritual insight, as you can understand.
And I looked up from my desk, out across acres and acres of lawn, the mountains and beyond, and I could see perfectly clearly. Perfectly clearly. And then another thought came to me, “Well, Christian Science can’t be this easy.” I’d never had an experience like that. There’s got to be something more to it than this. And you know what? Bingo! That eye closed down again, just as bad as it was before.
spirituality.com host: Wow.
Tom: Just like that. Which proved how mental the whole thing was, right?
spirituality.com host: Yeah.
Tom: Okay. So the next week, God still took care of me, because I didn’t have to fly the whole week. You know, when you’re flying high performance airplanes in close formation, it’s helpful to have two eyes.
spirituality.com host: Oh, yeah.
Tom: Depth perception, and all that kind of stuff. So I had a downed airplane, I had a meeting, had some bad weather. And as I look back on that, I think it was God caring for me.
So the following Sunday, I was at church, and a friend of mine who was a Christian Science minister of the armed services said, “How are you doing?” I said, “You really want to know?” He said, “Yeah.” I said, “Well, I’m blind in one eye.” He said, “What?!” And he laughed. So I told him very briefly about this experience. And he put his arm around me. I’ll never forget this. And he gave me this big hug right out there on the sidewalk, and he said, “You big jerk. It is that easy. It really is that easy.” And you know, it was like the Fourth of July. You know how you see all those fireworks going off. I was just astonished with the truth of his reminder.
And I got in my car and I drove back out …this was NAS Miramar, there north of San Diego. And as I drove back out there, all I could think about was how easy it was.
So I drove on to the base and as I did, the Marine guard clicked his heels and saluted. And I sort of came back to what might be thought of as “reality.” And I realized I was completely healed.
spirituality.com host: Excellent.
Tom: And one of the nice things about this is that just a few days after that, I had the annual flight physical.
spirituality.com host: Wow.
Tom: I knew that was coming, so there was another pressure on me. You know, they check your eyes—those drops and dilation, and all that stuff.
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: He didn’t say anything about any trouble with my eye.
spirituality.com host: That’s neat.
Tom: And it stayed that way.
spirituality.com host: That is really neat. This one is from Ron in Colorado: “What is the relationship between having strong morals and spiritual healing?”
Tom: What a wonderful question. You know, I’m thinking of the Sermon on the Mount and its emphasis on morality. Morality—not just sexual morality, as important as that is, and as implicitly as that is covered in the Sermon on the Mount—but the morality of love, and the morality of truthfulness, and the morality of selflessness. These are the rules in the Science of Christianity, to me. And as we obey those rules, they open our thought to a deeper understanding of the Scriptures in which we start to perceive maybe a little bit at a time, the allness of God and a new sense of reality. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the theater, but there is a thing—I’m not real familiar with it—but there’s a thing called ascrim, I think. And it’s very gossamer, as I understand it, on which a scene is painted. And if it’s lighted from the front, you see the scene. If it’s lighted from the back, you look right through it.
And I think that morality is leading us to see through that scrim, so that it is a step of preparing our thought for spirituality. It’s wonderfully important. Peace-giving.
spirituality.com host: This question is from Garden Grove, California.
Tom: You sure have listeners from all over.
spirituality.com host: Yes, we do. “Would you please explain the difference between prayer and Christian Science treatment?” And I know we touched on that a little bit, but I think this is a request for a somewhat more in-depth explanation.
Tom: Well, to me, prayer is the sincere reaching out of the heart for a sense of God’s loving presence. And it can come in many, many, many forms—of petition, of affirmation, of just a moment’s humility, of yielding to God. Prayer can have a very wide range of expressions.
Treatment in Christian Science is more specific. And it also has many forms, but I think it has perhaps a more specific focus of wanting to have a clearer sense of a specific situation or of a belief that seems particularly apparent to the healer.
spirituality.com host: Do you think that it has more of a focus on the unreality of matter…
Tom: Yes. It…
spirituality.com host: … and the reality of Spirit? Would you say it’s more focused that way?
Tom: Yeah, that’s a good point. It may be that. It may also be more systematic than prayer, starting with affirmation of the truth. But that’s a good point that you make. It may be more focused on that which is invisible to the senses, but even more tangibly real to the spiritual consciousness. So that when a patient says, “I am sick,” through treatment, the healer can come to a conscious, rational conclusion, “You are not sick. You are not even material. You are a spiritual idea embosomed in divine Mind.” And that might sound like esoteric mumbo jumbo to some people, but I’ll tell you, it’s not.
spirituality.com host: It heals.
Tom: It really does.
spirituality.com host: This is from Susan in State College, Pennsylvania, “I’m not a Christian Scientist, but I’m wondering if the faith teaches that all conditions can be healed, or if it recognizes the idea that God’s plan could involve not healing for some people, but rather to teach acceptance of the less-than-perfect physical state. Is the idea to actually heal, or more to accept the situation of being less than 100 percent?”
Tom: Boy, thank you for asking that question. Christian Science heals every human woe to the degree that it is practiced faithfully. Our sense of God, my friend, is that God is infinite, unchanging good, and that God knows no evil, suffering, or disease. And that He would never, ever leave disease with anyone. It is no part of His plan. It is as far removed, in our sense of God, as darkness is from light. The two are not part of that.
I do understand your question, because that is a pretty deeply-held theological belief in other disciplines. Dear friend, you are certainly welcome to it, but it is no part of the theology of Christian Science.
spirituality.com host: This is from Shelley in Guatemala, and she’s asking, “What makes Christian Science healing particularly Christian?”
Tom: Oh. Well. That’s like asking what makes candy sweet. Everything about Christian Science and its healing practice is Christian. Jesus, in one of the most tender expressions of pure Christianity said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;... for my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” The Christian Science God is Love. And the practice of Christian Science is the demonstration of love in our lives. Every healing in Christian Science, no matter how minute it may be, involves the embrace of Christianity as pure good coming to human experience. Jesus was the first Christian, and his whole life was one of tender affection. And it just seems to me that the practice of Christian Science is the demonstration of tender affection, whether it’s a child or an adult—age is immaterial.
You referred to this earlier, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not.” An image that I have of Jesus is that his hands were always quiet. That they were relaxed, that he was always caressing a child’s head, patting somebody on the back, standing calmly with his hands clasped. That Christianity to him was one of Soul-filled peace. And healing in Christian Science is a fulfillment of that Soul-filled peace.
spirituality.com host: That’s very helpful.
Tom: Es bastante?
spirituality.com host: From Jeanine, who’s writing from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada: “I have a family member who has mental health issues and who has just tried to commit suicide. How can I help him? He’s on medication and does not seem to be in his right mind. He’s been experiencing these symptoms for many years.”
Tom: Well, I think sometimes we help others best by simply making sure that they have the assistance that they most want at the time. They, themselves, may not even know what that is. And it’s incumbent on us to be as sensitive to their situation and needs as we can be, and then be as attentive as we can to be sure that they get what is in their best interests at the time. That’s part of it.
But I think another part of that is that you yourself can be lifted up. Even though this dear family member is suffering from a long-term debilitating illness, you are not required by the law of Love to agree with that in your heart of hearts. You have the opportunity to sort of quietly, in the peace of your own consciousness say, “I will not believe it. It is not what God knows of this family member, and I will be obedient to my heavenly Father, not to the senses.”
spirituality.com host: I have a note here that we’re getting a lot of questions from people who are having difficulty—their healing hasn’t happened, and they’re feeling discouraged about that. You and I talked a little bit earlier about someone who wrote in who said that he was concerned about prostate disease, and that there was a lot of news coverage of that disease and so forth.
Tom: Oh, yeah.
spirituality.com host: And when we were talking together, you said something that I thought was really pretty interesting that might be helpful in this context, which is the idea that Christian Science, it’s not like applying a couple of truths…like a bandage.
Tom: Right.
spirituality.com host: It’s more far-ranging than that. And it may be that you would have some thoughts along those lines that could help the individuals who’ve been asking for guidance on the discouragement they’re feeling if a healing doesn’t come.
Tom: I do remember that conversation we had. I can well understand the discouragement that people feel when they’re not healed, because, boy, I’ve sure felt that. And I’ll bet a dollar to a doughnut that you’ve felt it, too, sometimes, haven’t you? That discouragement seems to be part of the human condition. There is no law of material corollaries here, that every case that is not healed instantaneously is caused by the same false belief. We all have our own false beliefs, and each one of those needs to be lifted by the Christ.
But one thing that I’ve found when I’ve been struggling with these kinds of things is to remind myself what healing really is. I think that that earlier question about the prostate condition talked about advertising and…
spirituality.com host: All kinds of coverage along those lines, yes.
Tom: Yeah, that’s right. News reports and so forth, that’s right. Yes. The world seems to define healing as the return of the body to a normal functioning condition. Right?
spirituality.com host: Yes.
Tom: I think a Christian Scientist certainly understands that. And Christian Science would be a fraud if it did not have those kinds of results. But I think it would fail to be a religion if it sought those primarily. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” He said, “Take no thought for your body.” And I’ve found in my own experience that I sometimes need to be reminded that healing in Christian Science is a transformation of thought, not just from sin to no sin, not just from anger to pleasure or approval, or not just from…well, you get the point.
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: But it is the movement of thought to some degree, however minute, from a material sense of reality to a spiritual sense of reality. That somehow there is in consciousness a seismic shift. And it may only be a fraction of a millimeter, but it is seismic in that consciousness, because it is an awakening from a belief that matter is king, to an awareness that God is all. That is healing in Christian Science.
So when Mrs. Eddy writes about the awakening of human consciousness, when she talks about, quoting the Bible as she does, putting off the old man for the new man, I think it is something more than putting off a diseased body for a well body. It is putting off a belief of life in matter for a glimpse, however faint, of life in God. And I’ve found that as my priorities shift, that it sure is helpful in the healing process.
spirituality.com host: Yes. I think that’s true. And I think that often you’re focused in on the body and what the body is doing, and that’s where your priority is. And I’m not saying that’s not understandable, I mean, it’s definitely understandable.
Tom: Yeah.
spirituality.com host: But the spiritual requirement is to be looking to God. And I was thinking just now, actually, of Mrs. Eddy’s concept of man as the reflection of God. And if you’re thinking of man as the reflection of God, and that would include men and women, of course…
Tom: Sure.
spirituality.com host: …that reflection, of course, is perfect because it reflects God. So if you’re looking at, for example, instead of looking at the reflection, you’re looking at a pile of garbage in the room, so to speak, instead of the reflection, you won’t be able to see the reflection, because you’re not looking at it.
Tom: That’s true.
spirituality.com host: And the spiritual demand is to look away from that which is not true to that which is true, wouldn’t you say?
Tom: Yeah, I would. It’s kind of like that friend of mine who said to me, “Hey, you big jerk. It is easy.” And to think about the fireworks of Truth…. And if I may say, you said that your lovely staff was saying to you that you were getting several questions along these lines—I wonder if we could bounce back to my little daughter. And that we could say to all of those who are writing in on this subject that “God loves you the way you are right now. And the way you are right now is not the way the material senses are trying to say that you are right now.” The way you are right now is the way that little girl perceived that woman right then. And that was as a spiritual idea of God. That we could say to each one of those who are writing in, “You will never be more loved by God, more adored by Love, than you are right now. And it is honest of you to accept that about yourself.”
spirituality.com host: That is really the truth. One individual has written in to us, and is asking, “How can I put more conviction in my treatment?” In a way, what you’ve just said is really it.
Tom: “How can I put more conviction in my treatment?” Well, I guess…that’s a fair question. “How can I be more convinced?” I think is maybe what that party is asking. I think conviction arises out of humility. We “bow before Christ, Truth, to receive more of his reappearing and silently to commune with the divine Principle, Love.” And I just find that as I am willing to bow before God and set aside what I think is true or good, that there is a…well, the Bible refers to it as the “beauty of holiness.” There’s a communication that takes place in that condition of meekness that is, as I said before, it’s sublime, and it brings conviction. The holy-moly feel, “Oh, my word…look what’s…! I never….”
spirituality.com host: Yes.
Tom: Right. There’s that awe about it, isn’t there?
spirituality.com host: There is.
Tom: Yeah, that’s a conviction I guess.
spirituality.com host: Well, that’s part of it, and I think also, sometimes people forget about the healings that they’ve had. And sometimes…
Tom: Yeah, sometimes.
spirituality.com host: …you build up…if you realize, “Well, God has been with me through all these other experiences, why would He not be with me now?” And that can sometimes push you over the top if you’re having difficulty seeing your way through something.
Tom: That’s a wonderful point. There’s a correlative point to that, too, perhaps, and that is if you’re new to Christian Science and you don’t have that history, you can ask another question, and that would be, perhaps, “How about all those wonderful people that have had all those healings? If it could happen to them, can’t it happen to me?” Right?
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: So we can build on the experience of others as well as ourselves.
spirituality.com host: And, again, getting back to the religious periodicals, there’s over 100 years of testimonies in those magazines of people who have proved their way through all kinds of injuries, diseases, experiences of the most amazing kinds, and God has helped them. And sometimes just simply reading those is just so awesome.
Tom: Right.
spirituality.com host: It reminds me of the long history of spiritual healing that Christian Science has had. It’s been around. It’s not just a flash in the pan.
Tom: You’re so right. It’s proven itself without question from the very get-go—130 years ago, or whatever it was.
spirituality.com host: Right.
Tom: It’s proven itself to be viable and successful.
spirituality.com host: Now we have one more question here. We’re getting a little close to the end of our time.
Tom: Okay.
spirituality.com host: It looks like it’s from Massachusetts: “Could you speak about being mesmerized by fear, about the onset of intense pain that one has experienced? When you know that this is happening, how can one stop it? How can one be less fearful about physical evidence that appears to be an abnormality?” And I was wondering if I could make a comment about the pain part of this. Many, many, many years ago, I had that kind of experience. And what I learned was to pray before it happened. That when there was no pain, that was when I spent a lot of time praying to understand the unreality of pain.
And what it did was, that at the moment when the suggestion, the pain, started to come, I could jump on it right away, and just say, “Sorry, that’s not true, and it’s not part of me, and it never came from God.” Because I’d spent time outside the pain preparing for that moment. It’s almost like arming yourself for battle in that way. And I found that very helpful, so I just wanted to pass that along.
Tom: That sounds like a pretty wonderful answer to the question.
spirituality.com host: Well, we do have the second part of it, though, which is how to be less fearful of physical evidence that appears to be abnormal.
Tom: Science and Health gives a sweet, if demanding, instruction along those lines. It says one place, “Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of…” man’s being, or something like that. And I think where there is abnormality we could ask ourselves, “What is actually there?” And what is actually there is a spiritual idea that is entirely normal in divine Mind. She doesn’t just say, “Look away from the body” into oblivion, she says, “Look away from the body into Truth and Love...,” which is God. And our experience is that as we do that the Truth and Love awakens us to a true sense of identity, and we gradually become aware of normalcy where abnormality appears to be. And while that may take some doing, it is the right path.
spirituality.com host: Well, this has been wonderful, and we’re really grateful to all of you for your questions.
Tom: Oh, we sure are.
spirituality.com host: There are some of you whose questions have not been answered, but I hope that from this conversation, you will be able to glean answers that will help you, and the healing power of Christian Science really is valid and available to you. You can read the Bible and Science and Health right on the website, and do feel free to take advantage of that.
But I wanted to ask you, Tom, if you had some final comments that you might want to leave with our listeners?
Tom: Well, thanks for that opportunity. I didn’t have anything prepared, but I would say, first of all, thanks to all of them who sent in questions; and our regrets to those who didn’t get their questions addressed. There will be another one of these in a couple of weeks, and maybe they can take another crack at it then.
spirituality.com host: All right.
Tom: Thanks again to you and to your wonderful staff for the invitation. But most of all, thanks to Mrs. Eddy for providing a periodical that will touch hearts in this medium.
Citations used in this chat
Science and Health
King James Bible