As a child and teen-ager I had a smattering of Christian Science. I attended the Sunday School from time to time. After graduation from high school, I quickly abandoned the teaching and became deeply involved in the drug scene with its accompanying immorality. Although during high school I never drank, smoked, or used drugs, it seemed as if all my purity left me at the age of eighteen.

During the time of this immoral living, which included using and selling drugs, as well as stealing and all forms of loose living, I still read from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. There was something in these books that encouraged me when I felt down, even though, as yet, I didn't know what it was.

I met, lived with, and married a man who was also deeply involved in the same life style. During the second year of our marriage we were given a "gift" of LSD. It was considered to be more potent than any we had previously taken. At this point I was not unhappy with my life style. I felt that I enjoyed taking drugs and drinking. There were no "bad trips" for me, and there seemed to be no reason to turn from drug use. And yet right in the middle of an eighteen-hour LSD trip, came a quiet thought within consciousness: "If this is all there is to it, you don't want it anymore." Well, I didn't comprehend this. But a few seconds later another more pointed idea came: "Christian Science holds all the answers that you seek."

These clear Christly messages penetrated the drug experience. And I was then and there healed of drug use in all its forms. All desire to use drugs or drink completely left me. That was ten years ago, and to this day I have never felt an urge to repeat those past experiences.

Best of all, I am finding all the answers I seek and loving them. A beautiful little daughter was born to us a few years after our marriage. I joined The Mother Church and a branch church and was eventually accepted for Christian Science class instruction. And for that last blessing I can't even begin to attach words of thanks. I can only let my life attest to its great value. In the words of Zechariah (9: 11, 12): " . . . I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee."

You who may be yet searching for that double portion, it is yours already, an inheritance from an all-loving Father-Mother God. And you who may need strength to get out of the pit, your God-derived strength is equal to that task too. Do not despair. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states (p. 12): "The drug does nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative." We can no more find spirituality in a drug than we can find health or happiness in it, whether the drug is alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, or a hypodermic of heroin!

I would also like to point out how vital it is to acknowledge a healing in Christian Science. I feel this acknowledgment is what has made my healing permanent. Additional healings include those of an ugly facial growth, influenza, sore throat, earaches, and many others.

I thank God for Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, for our faithful Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and for all who have helped me on my way toward real joy and spirituality.

ANDREA E. STROM
Worthington, Massachusetts