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Nothing can deter you from healing

7/7/2014

It is natural to want to help others through your prayers. Practicing prayer for others needn’t and shouldn’t be scary. Healing prayer is very fulfilling. It is motivated by love for God and man. While not every practitioner decides to advertise as a healer, taking out a listing in The Christian Science Journal can be a next step as the commitment to practice Christian Science healing matures into full-time availability to help others. But whether one is Journal-listed or not, the conditions and standards of practice are the same. Each one needs to do what is necessary to give effective help.

To an early practitioner, Christian Science discoverer Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Every day treat yourself that no evil suggestion nor argument can swerve you or frighten you--or deter you from healing and doing just what is needed here . . . Three times each day treat yourself for this temptation then watch that your house be not broken open.” [MBE to Alfred E. Baker, 2/2/1899, F00147]

I remember a time when I felt totally blocked as a healer. Really stuck. I couldn’t see any progress in my cases and felt afraid. Maybe I shouldn’t be practicing, I thought. Then I confronted head-on that aggressive and false suggestion that I couldn’t heal. Three times a day I treated myself, my practice and my community to understand that God through Christ was the healer, and that as God’s reflection, I express His eternal, healing Christ.

Mrs. Eddy defined Christ as “the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 583) She also spoke of this Christ as “voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness.” (ibid 332) She explained that this Christ is “the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death.” (ibid 332)

I affirmed regularly that this very Christ is always a present and effective healer; that where I am, the healing Christ is manifest. As I did, I began to feel the authority that Christ gives each one to heal through prayer. I began to think of myself less as a personal healer and more as a perpetual witness to and expression of this healing Christ through every treatment I gave. I stopped being afraid that I couldn't heal. And then things started moving, really moving fast.

Sometimes healing came so quickly that I asked myself if I had had the time to give the case a full Christian Science treatment. But my three-times-a-day prayer always showed me that its not a personal me doing something extraordinary in prayer. My role is to witness the Christ expressed in me and in the patient - to witness to the Christ-message of God’s perpetual care for His creation - the divine message of unending good that restores harmony where discord seems to be.

I am trying to keep up a regular practice of treating myself three times a day “that no evil suggestion nor argument can swerve [me] or frighten [me]--or deter [me] from healing and doing just what is needed here.” It isn't always easy and sometimes I have to set an alarm to remember to do it. But I am striving to be regular about it, because, bottom line: Good healers are needed. And those of us whose love for God and man move us to want to lift up our brothers and sisters in healing prayer, have every right to be effective in our holy work.

Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say...
"You came near when I called you, and you said, 'Do not fear.' You, Lord, took up my case..."
LAMENTATIONS 3:41,57,58 NIV

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An inside look at Christian Science treatment

4/25/2014

Christian Science treatment is systematic and original prayer. When I say original I mean prayer treatment doesn’t involve auto-pilot repeating of phrases or memorized lines. While every treatment includes certain basic elements, it doesn’t follow a formula of thinking certain thoughts for certain symptoms. The person praying doesn’t have to have any particular expertise in certain problems. The healing Christ is the expert in every case.

In giving Christian Science treatment, the practitioner engages with the Christ, with God’s self-revealing power that is ever-present to heal. Jesus expressed this Christ-power to such a degree that his name is forever linked with it. It was the Christ that healed Jesus cases, and it is the same Christ, or God-power, that heals through prayer today. Here are the elements of Christian Science treatment:

An acknowledgement and understanding of the authority of God who is Spirit, divine Love, over the case and of the healer’s reflected ability to treat and heal. This authority begins immediately to eliminate fear in both the practitioner and the patient.
An acknowledgement and understanding of the allness of God, His total goodness, power, presence, etc. Treatment involves a deep and far-reaching look at God - what God is and is doing through Christ. Christ is the divine and everpresent manifestation of God, divine Good, blessing His creation.
An acknowledgement and understanding of the true nature of man, including the patient, as the image and likeness of God and the expression of His Christ. Treatment involves seeing the 100 percent spirituality of the creation of Spirit, in both general and specific ways relating to the case.
Such an awareness of what is true spiritually, of the reality of the present wholeness and goodness of God’s creation that whatever the problem appears to be begins to lose substance and reality to the healer. This doesn’t involve simply visualizing a problem disappearing, but understanding why and how the problem lacks reality, substance and permanence.
An acknowledgement and understanding of the total unity and inseparability of God and man, therefore the inseparability of the divine Mind and its perfect idea, of cause and effect, of the sun and its rays, of a person and his health, etc.
An awareness and experience of joy, gratitude, power, dominion, that results in healing that is quick and permanent.

I could elaborate more, but that would involve in-depth teaching beyond the scope of a simple blog. So this is more of a quick overview of the basic elements of Christian Science treatment.

It may seem like all that could or would take some time – and it often does. But sometimes the points are covered very quickly, almost simultaneously, depending on the case. Some of Christ Jesus’ healings occurred over a period of time and others immediately. His teachings indicate that he was nearly always engaged in thinking profoundly on, teaching, or demonstrating, one or more of these points of treatment.

When it comes to healing prayer, Mary Baker Eddy, discoverer of the Science of Christ-healing that Jesus practiced, debunked blind belief as an aid to healing. She explains, “It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief.”(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,12) Rather the Christian Science healer seeks in his prayers “the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, - of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.”(ibid)

Jesus’ theology of the perfection and spirituality of man as the likeness to perfect Spirit who is God, and of man as inseparable from Truth and Love, heals. Health is the outward evidence of an inner truth. Prayer in Christian Science doesn’t change reality. It involves a thorough examination of the divine Truth that is God, of God’s omnipresence and of man's pure likeness to his Maker, revealing the sole reality and permanence of health in God’s creation.

This is a preview of a part of a new lecture under development. Stay tuned for news about when/where it will be available.

Bow down to disease or bow before good?

9/23/2013

If you have ever found yourself caught in a battle against illness and have struggled to find peace and healing without making much headway, this audio blog post is for you.

Christ Jesus was a master at turning water to wine. The wine they drank was not like the intoxicating drink of today. It was mixed with water, to make bitter, undrinkable water sweet and pure. This redirection from bitter to sweet, unhealthy to healthy, was a theme in all of Jesus works.

Here you will find a 4-minute audio clip that discusses the healing of a woman whom Luke described as "bowed for 18 years." Listen to insights into how Christ - the spirit of Truth that Jesus expressed - transforms minds and bodies from a bitter battle with disease to the sweet worship and praise of the infinite and ever-present Good that heals.

Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years,
and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her,
“Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.”
And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. (Luke 13:10-13)

"We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts of God like the pagan idolater.
Mortals are inclined to fear and to obey what they consider a material body
more than they do a spiritual God."
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, 214)

Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. (Psalm 150)

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Dump the anger, heal the pain - Podcast sneak-peak of part of new lecture

6/25/2013

Here is a 5 minute podcast that shows you a bit of what I am working on for the "Angry no more" lecture that will be coming soon. Hope you find it helpful!

Also, if you would like to see/hear short clips from my other two lectures- "Finding God, finding health" and "Unending life within your reach" - they are now available on my LECTURES page.

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VIDEO: Healing through prayer of a broken toe

2/22/2013

Here is my first attempt at video blogging. Please bear with me. There is clearly a learning curve. Shaky camera work, scary closeups, blurry bits and unsynchronized lips/words aside - it was fun. And hey, you can always listen with your eyes closed! Find a link to a print version of this experience as it appeared in the March 1999 Christian Science Journal.

"We cannot in reality suffer from breaking anything except a moral or spiritual law. . . . The harmony and immortality of man will never be reached without the understanding that Mind is not in matter. Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the rule of perpetual harmony,—God's law. It is man's moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never inflicted by divine authority." ( Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 381).

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Reaching someone who seems beyond help

2/18/2013

QUESTION: “How does one heal someone who has lost their sense of orientation, who is 80 percent deaf, who doesn’t know who he is, or with whom he is, anymore? I believe in spiritual healing. I want to see such healing for this man.” (Question originally asked in French.)

RESPONSE: Prayer is especially helpful in such cases because it bypasses broken down lines of human communication and lifts the case directly to God. Prayer involves engaging spiritual sense, which is the innate capacity we all have to discern spiritual reality. Through spiritual sense we can discern the true and present nature of God and man and prove that no one is out of reach of God’s care.

When the material senses break down, a case can seem unreachable. But this evidence of deterioration only points to a mortal belief about man as cut off from good. This is never the actual case. No one is without hope or help. Your prayers that seek out God’s perspective of His creation can lead you to the truth about the material senses – that they neither limit nor define a man’s capabilities. When we stop fretting over what seems to limit the person and discover real life to be limitless and free in God, the door opens wide to healing.

The identity and liberty of each one of God’s children are intact and safe. Never separated from the divine Life that is God, real life is completely free from limiting, material conditions. We don't have to wait for some hereafter moment to experience the freedom of spiritual being. This present state of existence is completely discoverable through prayer.

A marginal heading, “Identity not lost” appears twice in Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

“What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the material structure? If the real man is in the material body, you take away a portion of the man when you amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limb or injury to a tissue is sometimes the quickener of manliness; and the unfortunate cripple may present more nobility than the statuesque athlete, — teaching us by his very deprivations, that ‘a man’s a man, for a’ that.’” (172)

“The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and remains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleasures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all that will ever be lost.” (302)

If you are worried that your prayers “here” may not reach one in need “there,” don’t be. It has been scientifically proven that the discernment of the true nature of man in one human consciousness can set others free from their false beliefs about themselves. Christ Jesus discerned the perfect man that divine Truth, God, creates and maintains. He did this in cases where, to material sense, the patient seemed completely out of reach. (See the healing of Jairus’ daughter, Gospel of Luke 8:41-56; and the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Gospel of John, chapter 11) Jesus proved that no one cut off from the Love that is God. He discerned the kingdom of God within us – the spiritual capacity to know and express the Life that is God.

Mary Baker Eddy explained, “When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material.” (476)

Jesus didn’t illustrate an exception to the rule. He showed that the power to heal belongs to each of us and can be demonstrated when we understand who we are as children of God. The divine perspective that heals the sick and raises oneself and others out of the oblivion of material sense is available to everyone who is willing to seek it out.

Your prayers are important. Let your search for healing begin with deepening, expanding, your understanding of the true nature of God. The Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health are indispensable tools to aid you in your prayers. Let them open your eyes to what God is, and to what he is doing right now for His creation.

I frequently receive questions from readers of this blog concerning the practice of healing prayer. Many questions are personal in nature, but occasionally I receive a question generic enough to be addressed for a wider audience. If you have helpful thoughts to share with this questioner, please feel free to leave them in your comment below.

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Nothing left out - a guest post by Kay Olson, CSB

11/3/2012

What grandmother isn’t delighted to help care for her newborn grandson? When my daughter asked me to help her with her new baby, I was a delighted grandmother! I had visions of holding the little one in a rocking chair, singing lullabies, putting him over my shoulder and patting him on the back.

There was just one wrinkle in this happy scenario. When I arrived at my daughter’s home, I was greeted by a very large, very black dog. And, as I soon discovered, a very ill dog.

My daughter and I hugged each other and she introduced me to Eli, an adorable, plump little boy, and to her dog, Pneuma, a not so adorable, skinny dog.

Very soon I had many opportunities to rock Eli in the rocking chair, pat him on the back, and change his diapers. It was fun! … but then there was that dog.

Since my daughter and son-in-law were taking some college courses during the day, it was up to me to care for baby and dog while they were away.

Pnuema refused to eat. He also, I discovered, tended to spit up on the floor from time to time. I had not bargained for dog clean-up duty. So I just covered those spit-up places with paper towels for my son-in-law to deal with when he got home.

I tried to get Pneuma to eat by putting some candy in his dog food. Maybe a little sweet taste would tempt him. Not so much. He walked away from his food dish.

Then I woke up. I realized that the trouble was not in the dog. It was in me. Instead of loving the dog, I was resenting him. I had been deceptive, trying to trick him into eating. I had selfishly left the clean-up duty to my son-in-law. And I was leaving this loved pet out of my prayers. This had to change! I vowed to embrace him in my daily spiritual study and prayer, and I began changing my attitude.

While I rocked the baby, I patted Pneuma on the head and my compassion for him deepened. I filled his dog dish with his favorite food and left it up to him to eat or not. And, I cleaned up after him, much to my son-in-law’s relief.

As I opened my spiritual guide-book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, I remembered it had something to say about the Bible term wind (pneuma in Greek). It is defined, in part, as that which indicates “the movements of God’s spiritual government, encompassing all things.” (p. 597).

It was a nice, sunny, breezy day so I grabbed a blanket, Pneuma, and the baby, and went outside to sit under a tree. I wanted to feel the gentle breeze and to ponder the spiritual meaning of wind (pneuma). I thought, God’s government surely is harmonious, orderly and just. It is perpetual and uninterrupted. It embraces each of us, governs all of us. I thought of Pneuma the dog as God’s perfect, spiritual creation, completely in His control. I felt a wave of assurance that all was well.

The next morning, when I came downstairs, Pneuma was standing in front of the dining room window, the sunlight filling the room. He looked like one of those scrawny, dying cows that one sees in photos of drought or famine. I thought: “Humph, that’s just a picture of death. It is not dog!”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus taught his disciples to heal with “Yes” and “No” thoughts – that is affirmations of God’s true creation, and firm and forthright denials of what has nothing to do with God’s good creative work (see Matthew 5:33-36). My prayers did just that. I recognized and affirmed the perfection of Pneuma as under the perfect control of God, and I saw perfectly clearly that disease had no part of God’s idea of a dog.

Pneuma began to eat that very day. He quit spitting up and quickly returned to normal health.

God loves every part of His spiritual creation. And when we reflect the love of the divine Love that is God, we become witnesses to pneuma, to the powerful healing government of God, that leaves no one and nothing out.

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How do I love me?

10/24/2012

A blog reader (and patient) who will remain anonymous has been encouraging me to write a post on the importance of loving oneself. A couple of days ago, she wrote me an email explaining how important this concept has been to her in recent days. I asked if she was willing for her thoughts to be shared on the blog. Her reply? "Of course." So here you go!

From an email dated Saturday, October 20, 2012:

The injunction "Love thy neighbor as thyself" has been popping into my mind for the last few days, and I’ve been giving it a lot of thought.

I think most of us would find it not too hard - at least in most cases—to maybe not love, but at least like our neighbor. But us? Love ourselves? Even like ourselves? No way!

Once I asked a dear friend if she loved herself and she looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t even know what that means.” And she was love itself, a church-goer, generous to a fault, devoting all her time to helping others. How could she not know what that meant? I think lots of people would throw up their hands in horror if asked the same question. Yet all through the Bible, the subject is God’s great love for us.

So I was asking myself, what's wrong?

In the Bible there is a lot of talk about self-abnegation, self-sacrifice, and selfless love. Also, original sin. And to me, it’s this notion that we are basically sinners and worthless, therefore unworthy of love, that seems to have gotten the upper hand.
So the idea of loving oneself has become twisted into being irrelevant or into seeming like an ego trip of self-absorption or self-indulgence, to be rejected entirely by anyone seeking salvation. And then appears the natural extension of this neglecting to love oneself - self-hatred.

I think we have the wrong idea of love and of Love. And it is a better understanding of Love, of God as an unchanging Principle, teaching us to love even ourselves, that makes Christian Science revolutionary.

In Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Art thou unacquainted with thyself? Then be introduced to this self. Know thyself!”

Over these past several days when you have been working for me, I have begun to understand that knowing myself has to do with loving myself. That is, to know myself, and love my real self, I must see myself as Love sees me. And “love is patent, love is kind.”

So a healing has come. I can see that because God says I am loved and loveable, it’s being said and done and can’t be contradicted. I can yield, accept. Understanding this has overturned all the bad I’d been told about myself ever since I was little. And the baseless anger that had been eating at me for several months has just dissolved. I have become more patient and kind. I have totally quit bashing myself for anything and everything. And I have decided to love no matter what. Me. Others. Often expressed in just a smile, or even merely a pleasant expression. And in return I’ve had such blessings.

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The woman

5/18/2012

"And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.”

But Jesus turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” At once the woman was made well."

(Matthew 9:20-22 NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE)

Moses did the strangest thing. Or was it?

3/21/2012

Stirring the pot is good when the goal is a delicious soup or stew. Sometimes the best stuff tends to sink to the bottom. It needs to be brought up from time to time and mixed in well to bring out the yummy flavor.

Lively discussions are good when they stir deep thinking about prayer, bring up spiritual facts, and result in a greater expectation of healing.

Yesterday's post - Q&A on the professional side of Christian Science practice - produced some lively conversation. I responded to further questions on Facebook and in direct emails.

One question started out with "So how do u suggest handling..." To that I respond, I can't suggest. I wouldn't presume to. I am just answering the questions posed to me as a practitioner. Every practitioner prays to discern how to handle his cases in order to do what is best for his patients.

The majority of readers of this blog are those learning about Christian Science for the first time. Quite naturally, questions arise about my practice and how it works. These often reflect the questioner's experience with only one model of care - medical. Hence, I take every opportunity to touch on the point that symptoms of disease do not dictate the prayer, nor do they have to influence the length of time for treatment of a case. A spiritual understanding of God and man is always the subject of healing prayer. Spirituality, never time, is the condition for healing.

Nothing can deter you from healing

An inside look at Christian Science treatment

Bow down to disease or bow before good?

Dump the anger, heal the pain - Podcast sneak-peak of part of new lecture

VIDEO: Healing through prayer of a broken toe

Reaching someone who seems beyond help

Nothing left out - a guest post by Kay Olson, CSB

How do I love me?

The woman

Moses did the strangest thing. Or was it?

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