Some People Are Skeptical when they hear about metaphysical healing, because they don't believe words or thoughts alone can heal. They have heard, perhaps, that those who study the teachings of Christian Science claim a person is healthy when he or she is obviously ill—that they say "all is well" when the physical evidence is just the opposite. People may think of such an approach to healing as throwing optimistic but powerless words at a problem, like attempting to douse a fire using pieces of paper with the word "water" written on them!
Students of Christian Science are among those who are skeptical of merely applying upbeat words (or positive mental visualization) to a problem. Those who practice Christian healing on the basis of the divine Science taught in Science and Health don't rely on words themselves to heal. It's the power of divine Love, God, that heals, though words are sometimes steppingstones to a realization of the healing presence of perfect Love. The author of Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy, noted with some concern the efforts of healers who gush out words not matched by a spiritual understanding of God's presence and power and lacking the spirit of divine Love. Science and Health states: "If Christian healing is abused by mere smatterers in Science, it becomes a tedious mischief maker. Instead of scientifically effecting a cure, it starts a petty crossfire over every cripple and invalid, buffeting them with the superficial and cold assertion, 'Nothing ails you' " Science and Health, p. 460.
On the other hand, the Word of God— when truly understood and cherished—heals. God's self-revealing, His authoritative spiritual voicing of His own allness and of the perfection of His entire creation, very often comes to us through appropriate words we read or hear, or that come directly to thought. However, it may also come as a wordless, intuitive sense of the infinite goodness of God and of all that He creates. Either way, when an inspired understanding of Truth, God, penetrates thought with the spiritual sense of good, it heals.
