PEOPLE THOUGHTFULLY exploring spiritual healing today are increasingly studying the capacities of human intention, one of which is believed to be the ability to heal. For instance, one individual observes, "Results already in hand suggest that the study of distant intentionality is both timely and central to an understanding of consciousness in healing." Marilyn Schlitz, "Intentionality in Healing: Mapping the Integration of Body, Mind, and Spirit." in Alternative Therapies, Vol. I, No.5 (November 1995), p. 119. She refers to an assumed ability of human intention to interact with matter, even at a distance, to heal.
What does Christian Science bring to the discussion of intention and healing? It agrees that belief, expectation, and volition—all considered aspects of the benign human intent to heal—are sometimes associated with altered material conditions. But it finds in the healing practiced by Christ Jesus something different from, and beyond, human intention.
The basis of Christian healing is the one Mind.