In late June of 2012, my wife and I were camping in Yosemite Valley, California. While she was taking an outdoor art class, I went on a cross-country hike alone up a beautiful canyon. I intended to find a route up through cliffs to the rim of the glacial valley, then descend by another route I had been on before. I had worked years before as a national park ranger and was well trained in technical rock climbing (although I had no gear for it with me), so I felt comfortable with my plan and knew I needed to take care not to attempt an ascent above my ability level. However, I erred at one point and lost traction. One small false move came with big consequences. I tumbled down a steep, rocky slope, hitting hard against rocks along the way, and came to rest on my back about 100 feet below.

I lay immobile, not unconscious or in pain but mostly stunned, for a couple of hours, resting, assessing the situation, and praying what to do next. I had broken bones and deep cuts, and could tell the situation was serious. After several years of reliance on Christian Science for all my health needs, I already had an abiding and growing understanding that “thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee,” as Mary Baker Eddy wrote in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany (pp. 149–150).

I accessed my cellphone and sent text messages to my wife and 911 to ask for search and rescue. My wife eventually reached rangers, and I told dispatchers my location. I also telephoned a Christian Science practitioner, who immediately began treating me. That was most reassuring. A search party of three reached me just before dark. I explained to my rescuers that I was already having Christian Science treatment, and that I was in no pain as long as I did not move. They secured me in a body splint and kept me warm under a sleeping bag, staying with me throughout the chilly night. The next morning I was transported back to Yosemite Valley by helicopter, suspended at the end of a long sling-line with a ranger.

That morning the local emergency clinic staff washed and closed my cuts, and sent me to a hospital in Fresno. All the while I was able to keep in touch with the Christian Science practitioner, who assured me that “impossibilities never occur” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 245). This meant that regardless of material appearances, God does not make mistakes—my perfect being, created by God, was untouched by material circumstance.

The trauma team of several physicians honored my wishes to have no other treatment but the Christian Science treatment I had already engaged, but they did assess my condition with CAT scans, MRI, and X-ray imagery. These scans revealed that I had a fractured pelvis, a compound fractured finger, and three fractures in my neck and spine. I declined treatment from the plastic surgeon there—who said she expected my finger would end up a little shorter than normal if operated on. I asked that the finger be bandaged loosely with a protective splint.

I had already experienced Christian Science healings of broken bones, lacerations, and severe bruises—just not all at once like this! Still, I was quite confident of my reliance on Science, and I did not feel overwhelmed with fear. 

As I continued to pray, I began to regain freedom of movement in small ways every day. The practitioner assured me that “Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious action” (Science and Health, p. 283), which was quite comforting. We had been keeping in daily contact by telephone, and from the start the prayer treatments had been based on the spiritual fact that God makes and maintains me and all creation in a state of perfect being. I held to this statement from Science and Health: “Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s government. Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain nor inflammation” (p. 393). The practitioner and I claimed together that spiritual truths were operating as law in this case, and that the spiritual facts were being evidenced and shown forth. The practitioner’s prayer also helped expose a sense of arrogant pride in my thinking that needed to be replaced with humble gratitude. I found it most helpful to pray along the lines of another statement from Science and Health: “Correct material belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form you anew” (p. 425).

My wife and son lovingly stayed near me for the four days I was in the hospital, until I could walk a few steps with a walker and was released to be driven home. Over the next several days, I continued to pray with the Lord’s Prayer (see Matthew 6:9–13), the First Commandment (see Exodus 20:3), and “the scientific statement of being” (see Science and Health, p. 468). These and many other passages provided daily reassurance that “all, all is well” (Mary Peters, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 350, Adapted).

My wife drove me to church the next Sunday, and I was able to sit up for most of that healing service in the rearmost pew. My wife caringly helped me to eat, and cleaned my finger as it healed. Soon after, as a loving gesture to my wife, who is not a Christian Scientist, I agreed to be examined by different medical specialists in my local area, as advised earlier by the trauma team. Visits to three different doctors all confirmed, after further X-rays, that the bones had healed quickly and in good shape. And although the trauma doctors had prescribed extensive physical therapy for my recovery, I found it was simply not needed because I was listening to divine Mind’s direction on how to make every move.

Within a month I sang two solos at church, was walking and driving on my own, and was still gaining increased freedom to move. Six weeks after the hiking trip, I began a forestry project that continued through the autumn and entailed felling hundreds of trees on a mountainside. A 20-mile wilderness backpacking trip with my son was no trouble. Later I was ready to return with no limitation to my seasonal job as ski team coach and instructor. My finger healed and the nail grew back completely, and now it would be difficult to tell which finger had been hurt. I am continuing wilderness outings with an increased sense of responsibility for my actions and great gratitude for the liberation Christian Science brings.

Steep Weiss
Carson City, Nevada, US