A FEW YEARS AGO I experienced bouts of severe abdominal pain that lasted for some 15 or 20 minutes each time. Incapacitated by the pain, I would lie down and silently affirm spiritual truths I had learned through my years as a student of Christian Science. Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health, "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought" (p. 495). I did this, diligently striving to understand that I am a child of God, made in His image and likeness as described in the first chapter of Genesis. Each time as I prayed in this way, the pain would go away. But then it would return again and again at unexpected times. This pattern persisted for about three years. Although I was grateful for the relief each time and expected that each time would be the final hearing, I could not shake the underlying fear that the pain would recur.
Then a breakthrough came during a Wednesday evening testimony meeting at my branch Church of Christ, Scientist. Serving as First Reader, I had prepared readings from the Bible and Science and Health on the topic of giving a Christian Science treatment. As I read, abdominal pain suddenly gripped me again. This time there was no lying down, physically or mentally. I knew this had to be and could be resolved right then and there. The readings included Mrs. Eddy's statement: "Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger. Watch the result of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, your patient is healed" (Science and Health, pp. 411-412). As I read these words, I realized that it had been my fear of the recurrence of pain that stood in the way of my complete healing.
As I continued to read to the congregation, the ideas from Science and Health calmed my fear, even though the pain persisted. Then I read this statement: "To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth, of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material senses. To heal by argument, find the type of the ailment, get its name, and array your mental plea against the physical. Argue at first mentally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony" (p. 412).
