Didn’t you say somewhere that you found Christian Science as an adult? As a child who grew up in Christian Science, I have to say that this is not true.
Or rather, it is partially true, but needs further clarification. Some parents are not very deeply entrenched in the religion, and those parents don’t have a problem using medical technology. Most parents will bring their child into the emergency room to have their arm put in a cast if it is broken. With older children, such as teenagers, parents may ask the child what they would like to do.
But as a young child, no, you don’t have much of a choice. My sister once had something wrong with her eye for a couple weeks, we never found out what exactly, but I remember her sobbing in pain so loudly and for so long (I think around 45) that I left the house, and I could still hear her sobbing from outside on the sidewalk. Did my parents get medical attention? Of course not. Though now that I think about it, I wonder if that had anything to do with her being legally blind now.
Lots more where those come from. The common thread is DOCUMENTED deaths of children who died/were allowed to die by parents who believed in the power of prayer. Children who otherwise would still be alive, had their parents chosen appropriate, modern medical care.
How on earth can you claim that little kids are choosing the best medical treatment for thermselves? That’s a…an insane claim. Little kids, toddlers, babies. They can’t choose. Hell, the vast majortity of adults are medically ignorant, myself included. But in a crunch, I’ll take the advice of a doctor over the advice of a random religious [del] nut [/del] believer.
Seriously - if you’re an adult, go ahead and decide what medical care is best for you, more power to ya. But little kids?! Your own babies?
I can’t imagine what sort of rationalization you’ll come up with for this.
Mark Twain once referred to her as “the Queen of Frauds”.
It appears that Mrs. Eddy was a morphine addict for most of her adult life.
In her later years, she attributed many of her disabilities to “malicious animal magnetism”-I take it that “MAM” was some kind of voodoo-like harm, inflicted by the actions of evil people.
My question: to CS practicioners also ward off “MAM”? Is it something that happens to ordinary people?
Well - when God can document as many lives saved as modern medicine (through vaccinations, meds, penicillin, surgery etc) as doctors, I might buy it.
It would be just lovely to believe that praying and faith can overcome cancer and broken bones - but it doesn’t and it won’t. Otherwise Mary Baker Eddy would have made it to 90 years old, at least - but she didn’t. I know two atheist smokers older than her.
Her reference to MAM seems to be describing the effect that people with Narcissistic Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorcer can have on others. It is a form of hypnotism. It allows those who practice it, like former Governor Rod, to influence the minds of those around them to do things or not do things that they would otherwise not do or do.
I am not a psychologist but think what is now described as psychological projection could also be defined as MAM.
Eddy used morphene in her final years as she describes in the textbook, Science and Health, to dull pain so she could focus mentally and prayerfully on ailments. She never made any secret of it, and there are no reports of her using it earlier. i am not sure it was even known or available during her earlier years.
She never told people not to use medical technology, she thought she had discovered a better way, a method of thought and understanding that would let those who used it connect with the Divine Comforter, which Jesus said he would send after he departed this experience as an apparent human being. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit. In its presence, disease cannot exist.
I wish I could find a way for the skeptics on this thread to experience what I have experienced. One of the reasons I have kept posting is that it seems like an opportunity to spread the Good News, as the New Testament is often referred to. IMHO, CS is what Jesus was really trying to teach and explain.
Brief recap:
There is a God who is all powerful and created everything. He is a spirit, not a wise human. We all existed as intelligent self aware spiritual entities before coming into this experience. We will continue to exist after we seem to depart via what is termed death. God is Pure Undonditional Love. If we all followed Jesus teachings we would have Heaven on Earth.
The reason spiritual healing can instantly change apparent physical reality is because apparent physical reality is merely a projection of our beliefs. CS’ers have a handy acronym: FEAR = false evidence appearing real.
Our beliefs are so difficult to see and understand, and the interaction of them with daily living creates such an amazingly large number of possibilities, that connecting with the source, the Divine Comforter, is the only practical way to get around their occcasional bad effects. It is also a very effective way to experience good in our lives.
After seeing some of the posts yesterday, I was tempted to follow this advice from Matthew 7:6 - neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
Fortunately the Internet now provides a way to cast pearls without being in the physical presence of the swine, and the swine can only rant and rage, they can’t actually trample and rend.
The Christian Science Statement of Being, which is read at the end of the Sunday Service says:
There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.
All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.
Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error.
Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.
Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness.
Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.
As she said numerous times: “There is no matter”
I will be hearing it later this morning as I attend my local CS Church.
This was attributed to Twain by his biographer Albert Bigelow Paine:
“Of course you have been benefited. Christian Science is humanity’s boon. Mother Eddy deserves a place in the Trinity as much as any member of it. She has organized and made available a healing principle that for two thousand years has never been employed, except as the merest kind of guesswork. She is the benefactor of the age.”
It seemed strange, at the time, to hear him speak in this way concerning a practice of which he was generally regarded as the chief public antagonist. It was another angle of his many-sided character.
So, by this logic, the morphine that Mrs. Eddy took (being material) was not real.
So how could it have eased her suffering?
I admit I am confused by this line of reasoning.
If the material world is an illusion, than how can a substance of the material world cause you any harm (or benefit)?
I think CS says that the influence of material things are the result of universally shared beliefs on our human experience. We can’t escape being human and having to deal with it as long as we are in this human experience.
I want to say that the answers I have been giving are my own interpretation. I have studied it a lot, and been able to do things I never imagined any human could do, but am not a Practitioner or Teacher.
There is no actual set of formulas, and Mrs. Eddy forbad them, saying they would lead to ritual and ceremony, which she thought prevented the connection with the Holy Spirit which would allow healing and control over the apparent material world.
Healing results in the expression of perfect normalcy, which is the true conditon of God’s creations when it is not influenced by false beliefs.
She said the only way to knowledge and the ability to heal was a personal connection with God, The Comforter, The Holy Spirit. She wrote a lot on how to do it and how not to, but the only way to demonstrate it is to do it yourself, or hire a practitioner to do it and try to show you how.
As Jesus is reported to have said:
Matt 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Luke 11:9
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
These reinforce my personal belief that we are living in a virtual reality game. Its purpose is unknown to us, but we can make it heaven or hell, or just drift and let it kick us around.
I personally am convinced that there is a God, and that he is most accurately described by the writings in the New Testament. He deliberately sent Jesus here to give us a message.
Those interested in this thread might also find this interesting: Answers to FAQ, Page 1
As do I: but this is a very sore subject with me, I’m afraid. First of all, please remember there are at least two different types of diabetes. In some people, type 2 can be managed with diet and exercise, which may look like a cure.
The child spoken of upthread, as well as our beautiful 12 year old daughter, have/had type 1 diabetes, in which the pancreas stops producing insulin. I would much rather see my child go through a lifetime of having to take insulin than to see her die needlessly. There has been no proven cure for diabetes.
I believe in God. I also believe that certain people were given the ability and the desire to learn medicine. I believe God would want me to take her to the doctor and do everything possible to manage her diabetes than to take her to a faith healer and watch her die.
If you saw her dying, or even being damaged while under the treatment of a faith healer, you would be making a huge mistake.
There are a number of accounts in the literature of people studying CS while they were dealing with illnesses, and found themselves healed as they continued in their studies. If you are healed, the physical indications will show that you are normal, if it doesn’t then you are not healed.
Medical technology is likely to find ways to restore normalcy to diabetes victims during our lifetime.
I do think CS can heal it, but would not recommend doing it and you would probably not find a Practitioner who would take the case. When your daughter is older, if she wanted to study it, she might find herself healed, and she would be managing it with medical technology during her studies.
