The ability to detect error in human thought and bring about correction is fundamental to Christian healing. The Christian Science text-book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, says, "Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired,—yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind." Science and Health, p.84.
This kind of perspicacity doesn't involve clairvoyance, and it isn't mind reading in the usual meaning of this term. As the textbook says: "There is mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of all things." Ibid., p. 83.
Here's an illustration. A large law firm had major trouble with its computers over a long period of time. They tried everything they could think of to determine the cause and to remedy the problem. They went so far as to purchase new computers at great expense, install new software, and hire the best technicians in the industry, but the troubles continued. It was as if their system were "haunted."
One of the officers of the firm was a Christian Scientist. During all this time, he'd been praying, but up to this point the problem hadn't been uncovered. One night he settled into earnest prayer, and the word ghost came to him. He looked it up in Science and Health, and this statement struck him: "So long as there are supposed limits to Mind, and those limits are human, so long will ghosts seem to continue." Science and Health, p.353. The passage went on, defining ghost as "some unreal belief."
Knowing what we need to know comes as a result of listening . . . to God.
Directly after this, the textbook's explanations of electricity came to mind. He read, "Destructive electricity is not the offspring of infinite good." Ibid., p. 93. As he thought about these ideas, he became convinced that the whole problem might well lie in the electrical system of his building. Because he'd been praying to know that God is Truth, and would supply the solution, he was convinced the idea had merit. He then convinced his business partners to check out the idea. Master electricians were brought in. They found nothing and were very sure this wasn't the problem. But he didn't let this deter him. He remembered an electrician he had done business with and called him. This electrician determined that in their building's wiring there were surges of power that were damaging the computers. Much of the building was rewired, and the computers worked fine after that.
The cause of the trouble came to light through that precious capacity called spiritual discernment, which we all possess as we cultivate spirituality. This man knew, when he prayed, that God would give him the answer. And when he heard it, he knew it was true, even though no one had ever questioned the electrical system because his office building was relatively new.
The more we pray and become conscious of the truth of being, the more we reflect the spiritual energies that heal.
These energies increase along with our purification of self and our love for God. Purity is the golden key to better healing. Purification involves taking control of one's thinking and choosing only high thoughts. Sensuality, fear, anger, impatience, jealousy, criticism, and the like need to be purged. Love for God involves a genuine yearning to understand God better. As we put this desire into practice, our thought is purified, and we're better able to heal with authority.
Spiritual perception is what takes Christian Science treatment, or prayer, out of the merely intellectual into the metaphysical, into the realm of Spirit. It separates us from mesmeric pictures of sick people and harmful situations and lifts us above that mental din, bringing the spiritual light that dispels darkness, doubt, and fear.
Some time ago, a friend of mine who was on an overseas flight was quietly reading the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly. Suddenly the pilot announced that they were coming into some turbulence. My friend prayed to unite with the one true Mind, God—to understand Mind's supreme, harmonious government. The bouncing began, but her thoughts were illumined. She looked up, and her eyes were drawn to the television screen, which showed where their plane was on its journey over the ocean. They were directly over Halifax. Immediately she recalled that an airplane had crashed in the waters off Halifax just six weeks earlier. She prayed to destroy the fear that was still lingering—the thought that an airplane is precarious and life subject to chance. She went straight to God and saw the universe and all life included in Mind and forever reflecting Mind's perfect government. She saw Love encircling the universe, including each passenger. The atmosphere within and without quieted, and the rest of the trip was uneventful. She had found "the secret place of the most High." Ps. 91:1. She had had audience with divine Love.
Divine Love knows no mental din.
In a talk Mrs. Eddy gave at one time, she said: "Because the senses of Spirit are spiritual and Divine they dwell in the understanding, abide in the secret of Infinity and demonstrate Life, Truth, and Love. How then can human sense or intellect attain the secret of Spirit or Divine Love? By turning away from the false evidence or material sense testimony and listening to the teachings of Spirit." Yvonne Cache von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer (Boston:The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1997), p. 173 . My friend on the airplane had gone to God in prayer and mentally shut out the turbulence. She had expressed and accepted divine Love's all-presence. This enabled her to sense her fellow passengers' fears and realize the nothingness of them. She saw the fear for what it was (a lie) and what it wasn't (a reality), and that took away all its assumed power. The plane and its passengers were helped. So was she, since she had proved her love for God and His children. This was deeply satisfying.
We increase our spiritual discernment by increasing our conviction in the truth. We can be so attuned to divine Love's presence that when a difficulty comes to our attention, we listen on a higher level—we wait to hear, through spiritual intuition, just what needs healing. Then we can treat and heal more effectively.
