FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS I was addicted to cigarette smoking, and it was not easy for me to control or to quit it, because I didn't see anything wrong with it. I thought it helped me kill boredom and stress. I continued to smoke even after joining a Christian Science branch church here in Kenya. However, as I grew in my understanding of Christian Science, I came to know the truth about smoking and that truth did set me free. I learnt from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy that there is no real pleasure in matter. To me, this meant that matter-based cigarette smoking cannot be good and cannot truly relieve either boredom or stress.
Another spiritual insight I gained from this book is that "Error is a belief without understanding" (p. 472), and it has no spiritual basis. When I reviewed my lifestyle as a smoker, I realized that I was erring because I was doing something that I was not understanding. In fact, I didn't even know where the urge to smoke came from.
Above all, I discerned that for me to be a good healer I must be spiritually minded, always aware that I'm reflecting the goodness of God. Mrs. Eddy said in her book No and Yes that dishonestry destroys one's ability to heal mentally (see p. 2). In Science and Health, she wrote that spiritual understanding and material beliefs do not mingle (see p. 276). I classified addiction to cigarette smoking as dishonesty—being dishonest to my true, spiritual nature. And that as a material belief it couldn't really give me pleasure, because it is only matter—and I am entirely spiritual.
