HEALINGS THROUGH MENTAL SURGERY

When I was about 24 years old, I was reading from one of the Christian Science periodicals and came across the term "mental surgery." I started to pray, trying to understand exactly what the term meant and how it was accomplished. Finally it came to me that mental surgery was the exact, razor-sharp delineation between the real and unreal, between the spiritual and mortal man, between Spirit and matter. I went to bed still thinking about the importance of always being alert to the dividing line between the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter.

The next morning when I awoke, I noticed that a splinter that had been lodged in my wrist since childhood and had periodically become inflamed, had come out naturally. When I reached to touch the splinter that was lying on my pillow, it literally turned to dust. There had been an opening in my wrist joint which healed quickly, and there has never been any more inflammation in that area.

More recently, on my way into our Sunday morning church service, I caught my foot on the curb and literally sailed through the air several feet before landing on my face, on one hand and arm.

As I fell, I took my cue from something in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony. Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 424).

I declared that "there are no accidents," because God is omnipresent. Because He is perfect, nothing imperfect or unlike Him could be present. Even as I fell, I could already feel a sense of protection, and when I hit the sidewalk, I felt no fear. I knew from experience that I could trust God to help me this time as He had many times in the past.

Several ushers helped me to my feet, and at first I decided that I would not serve in the usher position for which I was scheduled. But after I sat down, it came to me that if I really believed what I was declaring—that "there are no accidents"—I should usher. I filled my post, cherished the church service, and was able with my wife's assistance to get in the car for the ride home.

When my wife helped me remove my coat and shirt, it was apparent that there were three breaks in my arm and that one shoulder was out of joint. Also, three knuckles on one hand appeared to be crushed. Even though my face had hit the sidewalk very hard, it was undamaged.

I called a Christian Science practitioner for assistance through prayer, and continued to pray and reason myself from the basis that I did not have to heal broken bones and dislocations, but had to awaken from the hypnotic suggestion that there had ever been an accident. I understood my relationship with God to be unbreakable, and refused to move from that mental stronghold. I logically declared the spiritual fact that right then, right at that moment, I was perfectly well, whole, and free. I didn't wait for the bones to be OK—I acknowledged my wholeness beforehand because I knew I lived in the kingdom of God, in His omnipresence. It never occurred to me to turn to surgery or any other form of material medicine.

Within an hour, the bone near my wrist went into place. Very shortly after that, the bone near the shoulder went into place. Several hours later my wife was in the kitchen at the other end of our home, and came out and asked me, "What was that popping noise?" I had been about to ask her the same thing.

With amazement we both noticed at the same time that the third break, midway between the wrist and the elbow, was now in place. There was no further period of recuperation involved in the healing of those three breaks.

Several days later, when I was taking a shower, I noticed that I had total and normal use of the shoulder that had been out of place. I never knew when the adjustment had taken place.

In spite of the predictions of well-meaning friends that the damaged knuckles on my hand would fuse and that I would lose use of the fingers, within a short time they regained their normal appearance. I was and still am able to use them just as I had before I fell.

I know that what helped me to be in the position to be healed in such a short time, through Christian Science alone, was the mental state that I maintained: "I am the child of God now. I will entertain no suggestion of evil that would cause me to doubt my relationship with my Father-Mother, and I will strictly maintain this Christ-consciousness as my only consciousness." A verse from Isaiah has always been a comfort to me, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" (26:3).

As a young man when I was beginning to see the healing power of the Christ Science and to experience this marvelous awakening to my real spiritual self, I felt a deep sense of gratitude, and I asked myself, "How can I ever express enough gratitude for this legacy of Mary Baker Eddy?" Right then I decided that living my life as much as possible in full accord with my growing understanding of the teachings of Christian Science was paying my debt of gratitude for what I was and am still learning about God and my relationship to Him. Sacrificing a false sense of who I am, and gaining a day-by-day, moment-by-moment, sense of my identity, set in the harmony and glory of eternity, is the crowning of my cross.

WILLIAM D. ANSLEY
TOPEKA, KANSAS, US