I was a senior in college when I was informed of a measles outbreak on campus. Upon hearing this news, I tried to pray as I had learned in Christian Science, but I struggled with fear. I felt as though I were breathing in an impure atmosphere and couldn’t escape it.
Within a few days, I was showing symptoms of measles and was admitted to a health-care facility on campus, where I remained in isolation in accordance with local laws. As a lifelong Christian Scientist, having found the practice of Christian Science to be wholly effective, I contacted a Christian Science practitioner for metaphysical treatment.
After a short time, complications developed, including loss of the use of my arms and legs. However, at one point, I remembered a statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy that I don’t recall ever specifically committing to memory: “The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being” (p. 227). Suddenly I felt very calm and unafraid.
