Healing in Christian Science is not like any other curative method known to humanity. It does not involve changing a bad human situation into a better one, or a sick body into a well body. It consists of lifting the veil of false, mortal belief, which represents man as material, sick, and discordant, through the understanding of the truth of spiritual being, so that he may be more clearly seen as he really is—God's perfect son, or spiritual idea.
The purpose of a Christian Science treatment is to reveal the spiritual truth, which false, material thought conceals. The practitioner affirms and realizes the presence of Life, God, and God's ideal manifestation. This Christly understanding destroys the false belief that being is material, discordant, sick, and dying and brings into view spiritual reality, which is always perfect. Mrs. Eddy describes this healing action when she writes: "Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To material sense, this divine universe is dim and distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light." Science and Health, p. 513;
While healings of specific mortal difficulties often take place instantly when the truth of spiritual perfection is realized, the veil of mortal belief is not totally dissolved in one dramatic blaze of enlightenment. When dawn breaks, the full light of day does not immediately appear. First, even before the sun can be seen over the horizon, a few faint beams reach out over the sky. The darkness becomes less opaque. Then, moment by moment the sun effortlessly asserts itself. The light obliterates the darkness until finally all is light. Darkness has entirely gone.
