Should I submit to a medical examination if suffering from a disease which has not yielded to Christian Science treatment? Occasionally such a decision must be made by a student of this Science, and just what to do may seem perplexing. It is not recorded that Jesus of Nazareth, the master Metaphysician, ever inquired of a sick man which foot, or ear, or eye, or hand, or other part of the body was in distress. He read the thoughts of those around him, and he healed their diverse ills by lifting their thoughts above their bodies to God, the source of all true thoughts and of health. That he expected his followers to heal is supported by his assurance to his disciples (Mark 16:17, 18): "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
In each generation there have been some who have glimpsed with a degree of inspiration the manner in which healing really takes place, and they have attempted to pass this inspiration on to others. As early as 1759, John Wesley wrote in his Journal the story of a woman who suffered from a continuous pain in her stomach, for which doctors prescribed drugs without avail. Wesley found that it resulted "from fretting ..." and when she was comforted her physical disorder left. "Why, then," asked Wesley, "do not all physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind?"
There is a trend today to look away from the body for the cause of our ills. The medical profession is increasingly taking into consideration the thoughts of its patients in an attempt to find out where the physical machinery has become clogged. A substantial number of medical practitioners are today willing to admit that one's health is largely determined by one's mental state. There has, in fact, been established in the curriculum of some of the larger medical schools a course of study called psychosomatic medicine, a subject which takes into account the thoughts of the patient in relation to his illnesses, or the uniting of mind and body as a unit. This study accepts the premise that a patient's problems, his disposition, fears, restrictions, worries, limitations, frustrations, have a tendency to excite the emotions and thereby bring about what appear on the body as organic or functional disturbances.
