My first healing has always been a great inspiration to me, particularly in trying times, for I was completely freed from invalidism of five years' standing. I had sought relief at hot springs and similar places, with no results. Seventeen doctors and specialists had afforded me no help, and in the midst of making many arrangements for my own funeral, I was asked, as a last resort, to try Christian Science for a few days. I immediately asked for treatment from a practitioner, and in only a day or two was able to attend church. There has never been a return of the condition that had troubled me during those five years.
On another occasion, after sitting up day and night for three weeks, I was healed of bronchial asthma in its last stages. One night, when I could scarcely speak in a whisper, the practitioner who was helping me was called. She showed me that I was looking at a false picture. My mother had passed on from this disease, and I realized that I had looked at that picture and feared it ever since I could remember. As I worked with the practitioner I improved perceptibly, although it took much persistence for over a year to eradicate the trouble wholly. Two years later, it presented itself again, with the argument that the season of the year made it inevitable, but I declared that I was not afraid of it because I had been healed. I clung to this declaration of the true facts through two seasons, during which time the condition was particularly insistent on Wednesday nights, and often argued that I should not go out into the open air in order to attend church. After that period passed, I was completely free.
Our daughter was instantly healed of mumps while I read aloud to her from Science and Health until she fell asleep. On another occasion I was with a friend in a store and turned my back on a flight of stairs leading to the basement. I stepped off backwards, landing on the bottom step standing upright with both hands full of small packages. Although I had sprained my ankle, I walked up the steps and out on the sidewalk to get away from people who were declaring I must be severely injured. My friend declared aloud that I was not hurt, and I kept repeating "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 468) over and over for a few minutes. Then I went on my way, shopping all afternoon. That evening, I ran the sewing machine for two hours, before it occurred to me that I was using the foot that had been sprained. The realization frightened me, and in less than an hour that foot was so swollen and painful that I could not walk on it. I called a practitioner, who reminded me that the swelling and pain were only a result of my fear. She recalled to me the statement Mrs. Eddy makes in Science and Health (p. 397): "When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, 'I am hurt!' Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real." The inflammation soon disappeared.
