To challenge pain as an illusion might sound downright impossible given that many people’s lives are built around managing pain. And most of us have felt intimidated at times by discomfort in the body.
When I have been faced with pain, it has been an opportunity to learn something more of the all-comforting love of God and how it can dissolve what appears to be an intractable and mesmeric wall of bodily inharmony. And each time I have found my way through the mirage of pain, it becomes clearer to me what a bullying but utterly bogus threat it is, and this gives me courage to walk through that illusion more and more quickly.
Mary Baker Eddy gives specific instruction on handling pain in a foundational passage in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious—as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not” (p. 495).
