I am a composer, conductor, and pianist. The week before a big concert, where I was to conduct an orchestra and seven solo singers, intense symptoms of an ear infection appeared in my right ear. There was pressure and excruciating pain, and my hearing in the affected ear was considerably reduced. At the time, I was in the middle of intensive daily rehearsals that required I work up to six hours at a stretch. I felt completely overwhelmed, and called a Christian Science practitioner for help.
The practitioner suggested I take as my remedy “a high attenuation of truth” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 153). He reminded me that the appearance of symptoms of a sick ear was not from God, divine Truth, and therefore was illusory, an utterly false claim. He also used the example of Beethoven to make the point that hearing is not a physical attribute, but a spiritual one, having nothing at all to do with the material apparatus of the mortal ear.
When I started to state my concern that an ongoing infection might permanently damage my hearing, the practitioner, with the intent of rousing my thought, very firmly and clearly pointed out the choice that I had before me. “Chad,” he said, “you can either take that high attenuation of truth, or you can go to the doctor and get a penicillin shot. It’s up to you.”
