An expression of gratitude in our periodicals is long overdue for the many blessings I have received through my study of Christian Science. Literally, I owe my life to the application of the Science of Christ, as revealed in the Bible and explained in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
During my early childhood in war-torn Germany, my family faced many severe challenges, including life-threatening illness. However, we relied on Christian Science without reservation, despite the fact that it was forbidden by the Nazi regime and possession of the Christian Science textbook and Christian Science literature was punishable by imprisonment or worse. My mother repeatedly stated that without Christian Science we would not have survived!
One of the major challenges I experienced was diphtheria, which caused me to become totally paralyzed. As required by the authorities, I was admitted to a children’s hospital. I wasn’t expected to live. According to the doctors, even if the necessary medication was available, there was less than a 5 percent chance of survival. My mother, my father (who at the time was conscripted into the German army), and a most courageous and devoted Christian Science practitioner provided prayerful support throughout the entire experience. Eventually, I was completely healed of both the diphtheria and subsequent paralysis, much to the surprise of the attending doctors and hospital staff.
Shortly after the war, during a period of extreme deprivation and starvation, I was stricken with acute dysentery, which at the time often proved fatal. I was again hospitalized as required by the authorities. Christian Science treatment was taken up by the same devoted practitioner. She proclaimed God’s ever-loving care for His children, no matter what the human circumstance. Although my mother had been advised by the hospital authorities that without adequate nourishment (which wasn’t available), survival was unlikely, our fear dissolved by gaining a clearer understanding of man’s true, spiritual nourishment.
From a human perspective, these were the severest of times, but the human need was unexpectedly met by an African American soldier stationed nearby who was serving in the then-segregated American occupation forces. This loving soldier shared his daily rations with me, a little German boy who was released from the hospital with a questionable prospect of survival, and in dire need. Truly this was divine evidence of God’s care and a demonstration of the true brotherhood of man even in extreme times. While I can’t remember exactly when, the dysentery was entirely healed.
For various reasons, including the closure of German schools after the ending of the war until such time as teachers could be “de-nazified” or replaced, I did not have any serious and systematic schooling until I was over nine years of age. As a result, I received consistently poor grades throughout my schooling thereafter and had a major lack of self-confidence. An educational psychologist, by whom I was evaluated at the request of the headmaster of my English boarding school, concluded that any expectation of my gaining a university education was totally unrealistic; successful completion of my high school education was in fact seriously doubted.
I ended up meeting, at a Christian Science church service, an American university professor who was teaching in Germany on a Fulbright Fellowship. This professor was a consecrated Christian Scientist, and he wanted to help me. Despite my disastrous high school record, he was able to arrange for me to attend the university where he taught in the United States. Certainly, acceptance had been possible only on account of his intervention.
While my first-year university grades proved discouraging, it was at this time that I gained a serious interest in understanding and relying on Christian Science, rather than depending on the support of my parents or that of Christian Science practitioners. Under the guidance of the professor—who was to become my Sunday School teacher—I was able to replace the view of myself as a struggling student trying to master academics with a fuller understanding of my true nature as an expression and manifestation of Mind’s infinite intelligence, wisdom, and right activity. Created in God’s image and likeness, wholly spiritual, I expressed the infinite qualities of my ever-loving Father-Mother, God.
As I increasingly gained this understanding of my true and only nature, it was evidenced in my human experience. I regularly made the dean’s list and received other academic awards. I also completed my B.A. requirements in less than the allotted four years, permitting me to start and complete a master’s degree in my chosen discipline.
The comprehensive examination for the master’s degree provided another opportunity to rely on Mind’s guidance. I was dismayed when finding that although the examination consisted of four questions, I was only prepared to answer the first one. I focused on answering that question to the best of my ability. Not knowing what to write for the three additional questions, I silently declared the presence of divine Mind and that I as an expression of this one Mind reflected infinite dominion. As I prayed, the ideas flowed, and I busily wrote them on the exam paper. To this day, I am not sure exactly what I wrote; however, weeks later when the exam results were published, I had passed with flying colors. In fact, the grades received on the final three questions were better than the grade I received on the first question!
Some years later, I was required to undergo a physical examination because of a change in employment, and I was told that I was suffering from extreme high blood pressure. The examining physician recommended that this condition be treated right away. While I heeded his advice to treat the condition, I did so through the application of Christian Science as taught in the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings. I consistently claimed that as God’s image and likeness I could never suffer or be subject to any false claims or suggestions of pressure. Science and Health explains that “Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate” (p. 451). This to me meant I could feel only the divine pressure, or demand, to reject the belief that man is a struggling mortal and replace it with the truth of the real man as created spiritually by God. While I am not aware when the healing took place, subsequent medical examinations required by my employers found my blood pressure normal.
I have had subsequent healings through the application of Christian Science, including recently while swimming in the Mediterranean and being stung by a poisonous jellyfish. The resulting rash and excruciating pain were instantaneously healed when applying the statement from our textbook, “The great I am made all ‘that was made.’ Hence man and the spiritual universe coexist with God” (Science and Health, p. 267). I understood that “man” refers to each individual as God’s spiritual idea. And it was clear to me that all of God’s ideas, even the fish in the sea, dwell in complete harmony with one another; one idea could not possibly injure or harm another.
Also healed were attacks of influenza, severe lightheadedness, and a badly damaged thigh from a serious fall on sheet ice just hours before taking a transatlantic flight. The dire comments of a doctor who had been called (without my knowledge) by a neighbor who had seen the fall, were immediately reversed and replaced by knowing that I was not subject to the belief that man was created materially and has fallen from a state of perfection. I was able to take my flight, and the crew kindly made three seats available so that I could lie down during the nine hours we were in the air. While the healing took some time, I did experience a complete healing.
For these and numerous other healings and proofs of God’s love demonstrated through Christian Science, the biblically promised Comforter, I am indeed grateful.
Hans-Martin von Tucher
Rottach-Egern, Germany
