METAPHYSICAL MEETING, November 16, 2009

Topic

How can we become better healers?

Call to the meeting

On Monday, November 16, we will be discussing the second portion
of our exploration of the topic outlined in the "Historical Sketch":

At a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, April 12,
1879, on motion of Mrs. Eddy, it was voted,--To organize a
church designed to commemorate the word and works of our
Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its
lost element of healing.

Our October meeting dealt with the significance of primitive
Christianity. The next meeting will focus on its "lost element of healing."
During the next four weeks, let's sincerely pray to become better healers.
At our October meeting, we had a short discussion about what we might
study and it was suggested that we read the chapter "Prayer" in Science and
Health and take note of two important aspects of healing:

1. What allows healing to take place or what are the prerequisites for
healing?

2. How do we heal or what specific rules or methods can we
identify?

In preparation for the meeting, let's answer the question, "How can
we become better healers?" In addition, share with us how you have
applied elements of your study.

Happy discoveries!

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Opening readings and meeting topics

John 1: 12, 13 as many
John 15:  1,2, 5-8
Acts 8:  5-25
S&H 588:  7
S&H 351:  8
S&H 496:  15
S&H 251:  15-24
S&H 192:  4-9
S&H 249:  6-10
'01 9:  22-26
Heal. 8:  17-2 n.p.
Mis. 114:  21-16
Mis. 180:  21-26
Mis. 181:  3-8
Mis. 185:  2-26

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Discussion topics

Rather than each indiviudal presenting their contribution, the meeting consisted of discussion on the following questions:

1.  What is our purpose for being here?

2.  Is the practice of Christian Science for everyone?

3.  What is the path to becoming an effective healer?

4.  What resistance is there to healing and how do we negate it?

5.  Have you experienced healing or applied any concepts learned as a result of your study of this topic?

6.  Have you found any study aids particularly helpful to your progress?

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Member contribution A

The expression of divine Love heals.  We are expressions of divine Love, therefore we are healers.  We are either expressions of Love or we are not; there is no middle ground.  There is no such thing as an irresolute healer, because there is no such thing as dualistic man.  A ray of light beams constantly.  We are each continuous, vibrant, and powerful forces for good, because we shine by borrowed light, not of our own.   In awakening to this real nature, we will naturally heal.  It’s in the exercise of spiritual sense that we heal; the mimicry of human imagination and will are incapable of adopting immortal consciousness and incapable of healing.  The human mind must yield up all notions of a selfhood apart from God .  In an article titled, “The Way” in Miscellaneous Writings (p. 355), Mary Baker Eddy illustrates three stages of growth through which this yielding occurs:  self knowledge, humility, and love.  Spiritual growth leads naturally to healing.  Whatever detracts from this development is animal magnetism, the belief in a mind and life separate from God.

We should set course due north and never look back.  Though we encounter storms, countervailing currents, swells, shoals, and hazards of our own making, we circumnavigate them and in expectancy, raise our studsails, and gather momentum.  The chapter on “Prayer” emphasizes that there are certain preconditions to becoming effective healers.  We have to unearth and polish certain qualities which reflect the Christ and bring healing, such qualities as unselfed love, gratitude, a longing to be better and holier, a willingness to become as a little child, and trustworthiness.  We also have to develop certain patterns of behavior, such as trusting God with our desires, purifying our motives, expressing gratitude, being guided by spiritual sense, examining ourselves, and living consistently with our prayer.  These endeavors are not confined to the realm of philosophy; Paul reminds us that “…it is God which worketh in [us] to will and to do of His good pleasure.”  The dynamic and ever-present Holy Ghost or Comforter is here and active within us, opening up increasingly expansive vistas of who we are, and this naturally brings healing.

So then, when do we begin to heal?  Should we stand on the sidelines and wait until we develop these Christly qualities and patterns of behavior?  God would not have us miss out on any play in the bountiful game of Life. We become better healers through the practice of healing.  To have a caring heart engaged in unselfish thoughts and deeds and not to be enriched thereby is impossible. “The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained now.  This point won, you have started as you should. You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your advancement.  Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way.  "Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?" (S&H 326:16)

Whatever we can do to commit ourselves to practicing Christian Science keeps us honest and ensures progress.  In reading the amplified edition of Christian Healer, I’ve been so impressed by Mrs. Eddy’s emphatic approach to healing.  In response to Mrs. Eddy’s triumphant return home from a visit to a home where a ailing toddler had been given up by physicians, a father was confined to bed with rheumatism, and a daughter was deaf, all of which were healed in a very short time, a student, Miss Nemi Robertson, asked her:

“When will we be able to do work like that?”  Looking off in the distance, Mrs. Eddy replied, “It is Love that heals, only Love!”  The student repeated the question, “But when will we be able to do such work?”  This time her teacher looked directly at her and said quietly, “When you believe what you say.  I believe every statement of Truth that I make.”

May we all be on that path to believing emphaticallythat God is infinite, All.

 

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Member contribution B

I’ve been asking myself this question for quite some time, in a different form: How can I learn to heal like Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy? In all the recorded cases but one, Jesus healed instantaneously. Reading the new amplified edition of Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, which contains every documented healing she performed, we learn that she usually healed instantaneously, but that occasionally a second treatment was given or the treatment took a short period of time.

I took this topic up as my annual study project, which I always start about August 1st, by looking first at the accounts of Jesus’ teaching and healings in the Gospels. I’m part way through Mark and on schedule to finish by July 31st.

What have I learned so far? Two things: 1) Challenge conventional laws, and 2) Don’t wait for the “big” problems to practice Christian healing.

Jesus made a practice of challenging conventional laws. It appeared to get him into hot water, but it was always a progressive step toward his final demonstration that the apparent death of the body is not true. A good example is the account of the woman taken in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees were looking for an excuse to accuse Jesus of disobeying the law. If he agreed with Mosaic law, she would be stoned to death. It didn’t seem to matter that they weren’t obeying the law by neglecting to accuse her partner, also punishable by death, and to call witnesses. They didn’t want Jesus’s interpretation of the law; they wanted to entrap him. When he stooped to write on the ground, he was refusing to acknowledge their spurious question. Still being pressed for an answer, he stood and turned the tables on his accusers, by asking the one without sin to throw the first stone. Jesus went beyond the literal interpretation of the law to a higher understanding of it - that God’s law redeems from sin. In this case, not only was the woman saved from death, but demanding this higher sense of law saved her accusers from participating in someone’s death. He told the woman not to sin again.

Isn’t this what material laws try to do? If you get your feet wet in the winter, you’ll catch cold. If you eat or don’t eat certain things, you’re more likely to develop certain diseases. If you live a so-called stressful life, other diseases may result. Don’t plead guilty. There’s another way to look at it. You can’t ever be outside of God’s kingdom. He is caring for you, maintaining your health and well-being, sustaining you. You are spiritual. Conventional, material laws have no power over you for good or evil results. Your well-being is guaranteed by God, because you are His reflection. It takes great discipline, perseverance, and persistence to challenge every material law, and sometimes we forget. But, that shouldn’t stop the overall effort. We pick up where we left off and keep working on it, which leads me to my second point.

Don’t wait for the “big” problems to practice Christian healing. For most of us, life is pretty good. We have few challenges day-to-day, and many of those we can apparently ignore or let work out themselves without too much inconvenience. It’s pretty easy to live this way and you don’t have to be a Christian Scientist to have a pretty good life. However, it is not the path to becoming a successful Christian healer.

Let’s take the example of a computer booting up. It’s not exactly something I feel impelled to pray about every day. I pretty much know that my computer is reliable and will boot up, but it always seems to take longer than I think it should. So, do I sit there, drumming my fingers, waiting impatiently, thinking, “Why does this always take so long?” and “Couldn’t they have improved this on the last software update?” or do I use the time productively. Being impatient for a few minutes every day certainly isn’t expressing God to the highest. So, maybe I don’t specifically pray about by computer, but there is always something that can be prayed about, and I’m improving my time and my healing ability while doing so. It could be something as simple as reviewing the upcoming activities and knowing that they are under the control of God and are harmonious. It could be simply listening for God’s guidance for the day.

In Mrs. Eddy’s Message for 1900, I think she answers our question for tonight: “The song of Christian Science is, ‘Work — work — work — watch and pray.’” “When a man is right, his thoughts are right, active, and they are fruitful; he loses self in love...He improves moments...” To me, this is how we become better healers

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Member contribution C

I’m currently reading the Amplified Edition of the recently released book, Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer. I was struck by a statement early in the book that the purpose of Mrs Eddy’s teaching of students was not to promote her theology, but specifically how to heal. That emphasized for me the significance of today’s topic. The healing work is what differentiates Christian Science from all other religious approaches.

The chapter on Prayer in Science and Health gradually advances to a higher understanding of what prayer is. It does begin with an elegant statement about effective, healing prayer being “an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, and unselfed love.” However, there is a lot of ground to be covered, or should one say uncovered, before that absolute faith is realized.

The chapter uncovers a lot of the traditional concepts of prayer that are not so helpful in healing work, such as audible prayer, pleading for more, petitions, giving information to God or advising Him, using prayer to cancel sin, asking God for forgiveness, eloquent, wordy prayers, and so on. On the other hand, it gradually casts these things aside, bringing out the mental processes that elevates us to a more absolute thought needed for healing: understanding God as Love; God’s work is already done; practising goodness; loving one’s neighbor; striving to maintain what is spiritually true;

Towards the end of the chapter, it asks the question, “What is this healing prayer?” There is more to Christian Science than is contained in this chapter, but it does introduce some of the critical points, especially the statement, “God is Love. More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.” It is clear that Mrs Eddy’s prayer was often simply loving, the appeal to divine Love, seeing only Love’s presence and action. This has been something I have been specifically working with lately. It’s analogous to seeing nothing but what God sees. After all, we are God’s expression, so a key approach for healing is to acknowledge nothing else but what God sees and does. This is Christian Science.

The conclusion of the chapter cannot be overemphasized, i.e. the spiritual interpretation of The Lord’s Prayer. After all, it is introduced with this statement: “Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord’s Prayer, and which instantaneously heals the sick.”

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