Hold thought steadfastly

Thank you for sharing that Judy it was much appreciated.
Linda

Thank you Linda for your thank-you! 😀

Here’s today’s experience from . This is an excerpt - to read the whole article, just click on the title.

You can imagine how, when I first read it, it reminded me of my experience on the underground. However, I only had 6 people being disruptive – a bit more daunting with nearly 100! But, at the end of the day, the “problem” comes to us at the point of our consciousness and it’s in our own thought that we heal, not 100 or more problems!

[url] To break the hold of addiction[/url]

On one occasion when I was a chaplain for a homeless shelter, I was asked to visit an agency where the reception area was chaotic. Close to 100 people milled about, swearing, shouting, sleeping in drunken or drug-induced stupors, cramming every seat and corner. Prostitutes and drug dealers plied their trade more openly than I could have imagined. It was a place where addictions and the effects of addiction were unmistakably on display. No one wanted to talk to the chaplain (me), so I searched for an empty seat to quietly read and pray. But the din was so distracting that I couldn’t concentrate.

I closed my eyes to tune out the visual chaos. I stopped listening to the myriad conversations by ceasing to be interested in or appalled by them. Then I tuned in to God. For me, tuning in to God means thinking deeply about spiritual truths regarding the Divine. I might consider that God is all-powerful or that divine Spirit is present everywhere. I might ponder the meaning of God as good, the Creator of only good. In this case, I tuned in to God by affirming that the law of good was operating and that the Christ was there. Right where out-of-control behavior was, right there the Christ was in control.

The Christ is the divine message bringing salvation and healing to all human-kind. The Christ rescues what is good and removes whatever is unlike good—in other words, evil. The mere presence of the Christ results in the destruction of evil. Now, I wasn’t expecting the man Jesus suddenly to appear in the middle of the room, although that would have been rather thrilling. The Christ is the divine healing and saving power that Jesus preached and lived on earth. Jesus, as the Son of God, embodied and demonstrated the saving Christ. He preached to those who followed him that they also could rely on and apply the healing Christ to save them and others: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

As an ardent believer of Jesus’ words and works, I began silently affirming that “the Christ is here.” At first nothing happened. Hardened human habits don’t always yield with the first mental prayer. But every prayer has a healing effect. So I persisted, sticking with the same spiritual fact, becoming increasingly certain that the Christ was present, active, and saving right there.

Within a few minutes, a man loomed in front of me and yelled to quit whatever I was doing. I looked up a little startled, since all I was doing was silently praying. Then I began to smile as I realized the hammer of the Christ, Truth, was beginning to break the hold of addictive thinking in human consciousness. This man had felt the Christ and didn’t like it! Before I could say a word, another person told him to leave me alone. The man stalked off.

A few minutes later a woman announced that I was ruining her business (prostitution). I simply looked at her and silently declared, “The Christ is here.” She walked out of the building. The room became quieter. The swearing stopped. People began to leave. A man sat next to me and asked for the Sentinel in my hand, and started to read it. In less than half an hour, everyone remaining in the room appeared awake, quiet, and respectful. I hadn’t said two sentences. The staff told me it was miraculous.

The Christ was there. The law of good was in operation. It takes only one individual holding thought steadfastly to this spiritual fact to break the mesmerism for everyone in a room. I’m not implying that all those people became clean, sober, and moral in that half-hour. But the impact of my mentally affirming the Christ-power and Christ-presence was evident.

John's healing

Actually, his name wasn't John, but for his family's sake, I don't want to name him.

My mother was rung in the middle of the night. It was the atheist, abusive, obscene and alcoholic husband of one of her church friends. John had been an asthmatic all his life, but had had an instantaneous healing once when he had an attack on a London street, right in front of a practitioner's home and his wife had taken him in to see her, however, he went back to his old ways of thinking and it all returned. I remember being quite afraid of him when teenager and shocked at his obscene language. He used to get violent under the influence of alcohol too and when they were small, his wife moved back to England (we were in the tropics) to protect the children.

Anyway, he was very poorly when his wife left to go to London and she said to him "If you get desperate, ring (my Mum)." So my mother had this call at about 1am - John didn't tell her what the problem was, just asked her to pray for him as he didn't think he'd make it through the night. He said he'd been calling the doctor out every three hours to give him an injection, but he felt he must let the poor man get some sleep.

When she put the phone down, my mother thought "How on earth can I pray for someone I loathe?" then she thought about it and asked herself what she loathed about him and realised it was his (seeming) lack of purity.

She prayed all night to establish his innocence and purity in her own thought and when he awoke in the morning, he was completely healed of the asthma - never had another attack, but that wasn't all.

Before he went to work, the servant used to bring him a double scotch and a cigar. He found they both tasted like poison. But he told the servant to leave them there and for three days, he kept on and on trying to drink and smoke and finally rang my mother and shouted at her "How dare you heal me of smoking and drinking - I didn't ask you to do that!" Mum replied it was nothing to do with her, that God had done the healing and he became a changed man - gentle, loving, funny and kind, He joined the church and he and his wife and family (and his work colleagues) had a new husband, father, boss and friend.

Love and peace,

Judy

The urchin and the light

I've saved my favourite for the end.

Here, a change in the author’s perception helped to free the individual she was concerned about to connect to his real spiritual selfhood. He didn’t have to be taught by humans the difference between right and wrong (though not in a moral sense in this case) his communication was from the divine Mind.

When we turn away from what the material senses are telling us, and go to the divine Mind, Love, for our information instead, harmony reigns. Last night I was watched my recording of Slumdog Secret Millionaire (so moving)
and this wonderful experience came to mind.

The writer was living in an area of the ‘Near East’ and was troubled by the state of poverty and hopelessness she saw there. She daily saw a little urchin boy, dirty and penniless who was constantly asking for a job, but she knew that in his dirty state no-one would give him one. She felt that the few pennies she gave him were so inadequate. Then one day, she remembered Mary Baker Eddy’s wonderful description of how Jesus healed:
[COLOR="Blue"]
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. (Science and Health p 476:32)

She realised that Jesus must have come across many people much like this young lad (this was in the same area of the world) She began to consider what Jesus would have done about this situation, how he would have thought.

“Surely he did not stand helpless, offering a few coins, mentally listing the human things that needed correction and searching for a means of communicating the truth. Instead, he turned completely from the picture before him and spiritually beheld man as he is, in all his beauty and cleanliness and health............”

“And suddenly there was light. There was nothing but light - the light of spiritual reality. So bright was the light that she was no longer aware of the boy or the place; she was not aware of saying goodbye or walking away from him. She was aware only of God's presence and of His spiritual, perfect universe.”

For a few days, she forgot all about the lad and then, when she next saw him, she was amazed. The sores that had been on his face were gone and everything looked new and clean. Clean clothes, body, teeth, hair.…..

“In her delight she exclaimed excitedly over his changed appearance and pointed to his clothes. “New!” “No new,” he said. “Wash.”

The words came out: “Who? Who told you to do these things?” It took him a moment to answer: “No man. No man tell.” Then, still searching for words, he looked upward, his gaze slowly following a great semicircle above. Then suddenly, joyously, he explained, “I” - and he pointed, not to himself, but upward - “I! I tell me.”
From “Spiritual Discernment” Christian Science Journal January 1954

This boy soon afterwards got a job and his whole life turned around.

So, don't be overwhelmed by what the mortal senses are shouting, go up higher. Separate evil from the individual, see everyone as the beloved idea of God, perfect, whole, innocent and pure and expect awesome results! 🙂

Love and peace,

Judy

Stand porter at the door of thought

Hello again!

Though I said the street urchin was the last on this thread, I've decided to add a physical healing to it. The three experiences above deal with “holding thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true” when confronted with what our material senses tell us about sin (behaviour that misses the mark, that does not work, because it promotes a sense of duality, of being separated from God, good.) But this works not just with human behaviour, but with disease, injury and disability as well.

One section of the chapter Christian Science Practice in Science and Health is especially helpful. Here is a link to [url]S&H 390:4[/url] where, if you read on to page 393:15, you will come to this, where Mary Baker Eddy explains:[COLOR="Blue"]

The physical affirmation of disease should always be met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is produced on the body, must be expressed mentally, and thought should be held fast to this ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that consumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to the development of that thought in the form of what is termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take.

Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. (Science and Health 392)

Now I want to share a wonderful experience that shows how holding our thought to the true spiritual facts and shutting out fearful images can have a dramatic effect. Injuries often have quicker healings in healing than do diseases, or other conditions, especially chronic. That’s because people grow to identify themselves with their long-standing or chronic conditions. They talk of "my cancer," "my arthritis," "my depression" etc. They mentally accept that this is part of them, whereas with an injury, because it is so sudden, it’s very clear that it is not part of them, their identity does not include broken or hurt bodies.

Jesus promised us:
[COLOR="Purple"]
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. (John 8)

And the great news from Mary Baker Eddy is that:
[COLOR="Blue"]
Truth has a healing effect, even when not fully understood. (Science and Health 152)

During WWII a woman received a call from a military hospital. Her brother was serving in the Merchant Marine. She was told that her brother had sustained a crushing fall from the highest point of his ship but they wouldn’t say anymore but requested that she come immediately to the hospital.

She was a very new student of Science and Health and had only read through half of the book. As she felt panic rising inside she thought "What does the book say I should do?" The answer that came from her simple understanding of what she had read so far was: "What you don’t take in (into consciousness), you don’t have to get out!" (Here of course, we are talking about the mortal consciousness, which must be exchanged for the Christ consciousness, in order for harmony and healing to be brought to light.)

During the hour’s drive to the hospital, she just held to that thought, "What you don’t take in, you don’t have to get out!". She refused admission to fear. She understood that this was not an exercise of human will, but held instead to a prayerful acceptance of the All-ness of God’s perfection, the Christ consciousness, which fills all space. This was not a mind-over-matter denial of the material "facts” but instead, a refusal to even allow them in to disturb the thought and a steadfast yielding to and holding onto the perfection and All-ness of God, good.

When she saw her brother it was a dreadful picture. He was unconscious, he’d fallen feet first and his legs and lower spine were crushed. He was not expected to live.

This is the point at which we have a choice to make. We can either accept the human verdict and suffer its consequences, or we can turn to the divine Mind for our information and insist on the truth of the Allness of God, good, and the inseparability of our relationship to God as HisHer image and likeness, spiritual and perfect, in whom we “live and move and have our being.: (Acts 17).

This woman chose the latter. As her husband drove her to a nearby hotel she just was determined not to dwell on what she had seen that evening. She refused to give evil any power. She didn’t go to bed as she was afraid of being assaulted by the memory and mental picture she’d seen at the hospital, so stayed up all night reading Science & Health, "steadfastly keeping her thought centred on Truth and her brother’s infinite status as a child of the ever-present, infinitely caring Father-Mother God. Regardless of what she had seen and heard, she instinctively knew that man, as the spiritual creation of this all-powerful, loving God, has total exemption from harm of any kind."

She held to these truths all night and in the morning when she returned to the hospital, she found several doctors arguing in her brother’s room and heard one of them say "Who in the world let this man in here, when there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him?" (The hospital was overcrowded and short of beds) Her brother told her that he had to get back to his ship immediately.

"To this day, the thing she remembers most about this incident is watching her brother running to meet his ship and jumping up and down to wave goodbye to her on those VERY SAME LEGS that had been crushed the day before." Needless to say, this woman then became a Christian Science practitioner and devoted the rest of her life to helping others understand and be healed by the Truth that had restored her brother.

From the Nov 15th 1993 Christian Science Sentinel "A grain of Christian Science does wonders".

Love and peace,

Judy

Very interesting statements Judy, and I'm glad your not Sick to Death anymore over a bit of snow in your town, as you stated a few posts back. Meta

Hello Judy,

I realise I'm coming a bit late to this discussion, but it's one that's worth reviving - our world needs this kind of healing thought so much!

The first experience that you posted reminded me of something that happened to me just over three years ago. It was late at night in suburban Melbourne, and I was heading home from a Wednesday evening testimony meeting at my church. The scene in the carriage was pretty typical for a Melbourne train: none too clean, quite crowded, and given the the time of night, unusually noisy. This wasn't an atmosphere I'd usually find inviting, much less inspiring - but this time, something felt different.

It might have had something to do with the fact that earlier that day, I'd had my third session of what's called Christian Science Primary class instruction. This is a 12-day course that goes to the heart of what Christ Jesus and his followers proved to the world - the all-healing power of God. I remember how great an emphasis there was on living the two great commandments Jesus gives in the Bible - love God supremely, and love your neighbour as yourself (see Mark 12:29-31) - and on learning how lovable every individual on earth truly is, as the child of a God who is Love itself.

In any case, I clearly recall that as I stepped onto that train, I felt just as secure as I would have in my own living room (and I normally shy away from crowds, especially noisy ones!). Soon after I sat down, I realised where the main commotion was coming from. A few seats away, one man was trying to pick a vicious verbal fight with all the passengers around him. He was apparently well under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, and was swearing liberally.

Despite all this, I didn't feel a twinge of fear or disgust. What now felt like a deeper instinct kicked in. I launched silently into prayer, holding steadfastly to what I'd been learning in class: none of this disturbed and disturbing behaviour could be any part of God's man. There was nothing I personally could do, or needed to, to change the situation. I knew I was simply bearing witness, as best I knew how, to what was already true of this man and all others as God's own likeness (see Gen. 1:26, 27) - regardless of how unsettling this scene I was seeing and hearing seemed to be.

Soon another man came up and very firmly but patiently tried to placate the belligerent one. "Shhh, mate. Shhh," he told him, then added warningly: "Or I'll punch your lights out." (I quickly affirmed that God's man doesn't do that either.)

Before long, I became aware that all the yelling had quietened down, leaving nothing but a peaceful atmosphere in the whole carriage. Striking up a brief, friendly conversation with the passenger opposite me, I enjoyed the ride home.

I almost didn't think of the earlier disturbance again until, some 15 minutes later, I reached my home station. Getting up to leave, I noticed that the man who'd been giving so much trouble and the man who'd threatened to punch his lights out were now sitting opposite each other, chatting perfectly amicably.

The whole incident felt so natural that it wasn't until the next day, back in class, that I realised how significant it was. Again, not that it was anything I or anyone else had brought about ourselves. To me, this was simply a precious - and awe-inspiring - glimpse of the truth that I'm convinced all humanity is gradually waking to learn: the sinless, lovable perfection of each one of us as the child of God.

All love, Charis

Thanks for sharing your experience too Charis! Very special, but also very natural, as you say.

Boy, you've been busy here today! I'm so glad you found HP - it's been a bit lonely here for the past couple of years! 😎

Love and peace,

Judy