One day last year, while moving about in my apartment, I went to take a step, but my slipper stuck to the carpet, and I fell forward, hitting my head and landing forcibly on my right arm and side. I was unable to move much, and it was painful and most awkward to find a way to get back up.
Being a longtime Christian Scientist, I knew how important it is, in any adverse circumstance, to instantly deny the material error and affirm the opposite spiritual truth. Immediately I began declaring that I was “unfallen, upright, pure, and free,” which is from a passage in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The full statement reads: “Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free, not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either of his life or of the weather, not needing to study brainology to learn how much of a man he is” (p. 171).
I also knew it was imperative to keep my thought steadfast on God, despite the condition presented. Science and Health states, in a section addressing accidents: “Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be” (p. 397).
