I was healed by Christian Science in February, 1887

Stella H. Sisson

I was healed by Christian Science in February, 1887. While studying at the Conservatory of Music in Leipzig, I was stricken with paralysis during one of my lessons. I was playing a concerto through with my teacher, preparatory to a rehearsal with the orchestra, when I suddenly lost control of my hands, which were on piano keys. My teacher advised me to rest the remainder of the day, thinking that the trouble was due to fatigue. The most intense pain set in, described by physicians later as being like the pain attending gunshot wounds. I grew steadily worse, and left Leipzig for rest and travel. I consulted a physician in Munich, after a few weeks, who said that I had had two strokes of paralysis, and had lost the sense of touch. I was sent to Switzerland and spent two months under the care of a celebrated physician. The pain continued, but I would not give up, and I returned to Leipzig, determined to play in spite of all that had been said by the physicians. The first attempt to practise, however, convinced me that I could not play, and although the nerves in my hands had been traced with needles until the blood dripped from the ends of my fingers, without causing pain, I did not realize the loss of the sense of touch. I then consulted another physician, and he said that I would never be able to play again, but that something should be done to try to relieve the excruciating pain I endured; that it was not a case for one man, but for the medical faculty of the University.

Being a student in a royal institution under the same authority as the University, the case had to be given to the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig to determine whether I was able to continue five weeks of study in order to complete a course entitling me to a diploma or certificate. After one week's consultation, the case was pronounced hopeless and incurable. They said that half my brain was gone and the spinal cord worn out in spots; the extensor muscles and nerves in my hands were destroyed and the nerve cells nothing but dead tissues: and that there was no relief for the pain. They hoped that death might release me within three months, otherwise, I should have to live out my life in an insane asylum. I was advised to return to my home, as nothing could be done for me, and to avoid all intellectual work. One of the worst features of the case was my youth. The condition easily became chronic, as I was not full-grown. My home was in Texas, at that time three weeks' journey from Germany.

For six years and eight months I battled with that disease known to materia medica as professional neurosis. I never ceased to try to recover,—was without medical treatment but two months during the whole time, and studied and read medical works to try to get an intelligent understanding of my own condition. All the physicians consulted agreed with the first diagnosis, but were willing to experiment: hoping to prolong my days outside of an asylum. For some unaccountable reason I could not die, but lived right on without some of the conditions considered necessary to human life. Right here I wish to pay tribute to the American physicians who tried to help me: more loyal and unselfish devotion to the cause of relieving suffering humanity I have never seen.

I had been raised in an orthodox church, but received no help in my misery from its teachings. To be told that God was afflicting or punishing me was poor consolation, and I left the church and devoted sleepless nights to the study of German philosophy, deciding finally that there was no God.

The strain became too great to bear, and I realized that I was breaking under it and losing my memory. Having tried all kinds of treatment, including Swedish movement-cure, baths, spiritualism, and mesmerism, and feeling that all resources had been exhausted. I decided to commit suicide rather than go to an asylum. Just at that time there was something in the papers about Christian Science having healed some cases of disease. Five years before I had taken forty treatments from a so-called mental scientist, without any benefit. As a last resort I decided to spend ten dollars on Christian Science in Chicago, and to let that end all,—expecting no help. Oblivion was all that I longed for. I went to a practitioner and gave a brief outline of the case. Although I refused to hear one word about God, Jesus, the Bible, or Science and Health. I was perfectly healed in two treatments—two days—so that I could play the piano. Three years later I returned to Europe, and for two years studied from five to ten hours daily, always growing stronger mentally and physically.

The experience of so much suffering was sad, but that grave truly was swallowed up in victory, as hundreds have been led to Christian Science and healed through this one case alone. Mortal mind uninstructed in Christian Science resorts to many reasons for trying to evade admitting the truth of its teaching. Where the healing cannot be denied, it is often said that the chief objection to Christian Science is the fact that its followers love Mrs. Eddy too much.

The Bible teaches that if we not love our brother whom we have seen, we cannot love God whom we have not seen. It therefore follows that if we are not grateful to her through whom this healing truth has come, we are ungrateful to "God from whom all blessings flow."

Stella H. Sisson, Chicago, Ill.

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