There is a difference to be appreciated between taking a pill to find relief, and growing in one’s understanding of spiritual reality to find relief.
When one finds relief from taking a pill, faith has increased in matter. That person has put their faith in that pill, has put mental effort into believing that pill, or item of matter, is going to bring them relief, and then allowed their thought to accede control to that belief. In the end, physical relief may be found, but the person’s belief-system is more entrenched into believing matter controls them than before, and to the same degree, possesses less faith that Spirit is in control.
With spiritual healing, a person’s faith moves, in a degree, from matter to Spirit. They are looking to Spirit for health and harmony, they find it in Spirit, and experience more harmony in their life because of their thought growing closer to Spirit. They are not only relieved physically, but also improved morally, mentally and spiritually. They become a better person from the inside out, and any benefit received is permanent.
There may be times when people feel they have no choice but to take a medicine. And that is fine in that they need to act to their highest sense of right under the circumstances they face, and no one else should judge that decision, for it’s between them and God. But it’s helpful to remember, that in the long run, the best healing and freedom is always going to come from growing closer to Spirit and finding health in Spirit, for real health is spiritual.
The temporal effects of pills wear off over time and leave one either wanting, or ever more enslaved to matter-based systems. But the effect of Spirit-healing endures forever. It has a permanent effect and keeps thought moving ever closer to entering that doorway titled, “Life in Spirit,” which is heaven.
“All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and follow the leadings of truth”
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 151.
Evan, your very clear comments regarding pill-taking remind me of the deepest, or highest?, reasons for choosing God for my healthcare. Even though of “mature years” I am free of prescriptions and have been most of my life. This I attribute to my study of Christian Science, the basing of health on spirituality, the spiritual nature of God’s universe of ideas. Though being medication-free (for which I am immensely grateful) has been a matter of course for me, it is I think part of my duty to understand the process of pill-taking and to know the truth as part of my prayer for the world. I also love that as you point, we can remain judgment-free.
Spirit is Truth, the all-Life of God.
Any material evidence of harmfulness in life is error, for there’s no harmfulness in God.
We wouldn’t expect a pill to solve an error in math or to eliminate errors in our music playing. Only applying the principle diligently will do it. And when we do, look, we progress! and the music played is beautiful for all.
The medicine we need to get rid of the error of believing we’re unhealthy, uncomfortable, unloved –, is truth!! We’re forever the beloved, perfect image of God and we have the Mind that knows it!.
Science and Health says,”The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.” Not a little bottle of, but FLOOD-TIDES!
Thank you Evan for this very clear distinction between the enslavement by mortal illusions and the freedom of “knowing” the Reality of God’s Creation, which when revealed heals the lie.
Thank you also Diane for stating what our medicine is: Unbelieving the lie, restoring our mind to what already IS. [Restore; Return to its Original]
I love how you explained that we become more entrenched in matter through putting belief in medicine. I appreciate your clear explanation of the permanency of spiritual healing. Also, how important it is to not judge. Thank you.
The clarity between what we put our faith in is so helpful. Thank you, Evan and fellow SpiritViewers. And I might add after ads for this or that ailment, there is always a long list of side effects, which oftentimes are worse than the ailment itself. With spiritual healing, the only side effects are wonderful proofs of God’s care, a deeper understanding of Truth and a more expansive Love.
Well said, Evan.
This is a great piece to share with friends who ask about Christian Science and the use of medicine.
A scientist friend of mine told me that scientists who used to be atheists now believe in God because among each person’s individual DNA within each cell in our body is a unique “God DNA” that is in every living cell – the same “God DNA” that is in every human being is in every blade of grass and has even been found in stardust, thus proving to them that there is one creator of all – the at-one-ment. Growing in the understanding that the presence and power of God is in control of all is, simply, wisdom based on Truth.
Thank you Evan and all. I am so grateful for the comments and truths expressed. May your day be filled with God’s infinite blessings. Ll
Wonderful post from Evan & fellow followers.
All three points of Evan’s blog were well-stated by
Libby, & Carol’s note about “the side effects,” & Lisa’s about DNA…all terrific. Many thanks.
Lovely! I experienced another wonderful healing just yesterday and SO VERY grateful for Christian Science!
I like this post as well. It follows closely Science and Health pages 443-444.
I agree with this, and I think it is true in the absolute sense. I do want to add something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. Mrs. Eddy talks about music and how it can demonstrate harmony. Music can show the skill of the composer. She also made sure that the architecture of the Mother Church demonstrated the skill of the architect and the ideas of strength, stability, and beauty. Her book, Science and Health, conveys her ideas in a form available to our minds.
I think a pill can be seen as a work of art. In the same way S&H is a material artifact which conveys God’s healing truth, I think a pill can function as a vehicle of God’s truth, the same way a beautiful melody or towering skyscraper can. The pill represents the intelligence of the scientists, the cooperation of the lab workers, the compassion of the nurses, the wisdom of the doctors, the professionalism of the pharmacists. If we look beyond the pill, we can see much of God’s truth.
If I take a pill and think that it is the material pill itself which heals me, then, yes, I am trapped in matter. But if I know that it’s the Idea behind the pill, God’s healing truth, which is actually healing me, then the pill can lift my thoughts to the Truth. A pill is like a symphony, a building, a book–things created by human hands to demonstrate a truth beyond matter. As I grow in faith, I can hear the music beyond the symphony and the truth beyond the book–and the healing truth beyond the pill. But I might need the painkiller to clear my mind of fear, as Mrs. Eddy suggests.
Paul says, “For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience? If I partake in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” And I think that’s true of pills as well. When I take my pills, I say, “I love you for your promise.”
Just my opinion! 🙂 I’m still emerging gently.
Keep emerging!! And the quicker the better… 🙂 Mrs.Eddy learned through her homeopathic experiments, that any effect from a pill was all mental. Having seen that, she took the next logical step, which was to dispense with the pill entirely and rely upon the source of all healing, which is divine Mind. Her practice of healing was purely honest then. The deception of believing something was happening, where it was not happening, was eliminated, and the effect on the patient was much better in the long run.
The other side of the coin of believing a pill can help is to believe it can destroy. Millions of people feel addicted to pills and drugs that they’d like to stop taking, but feel they can’t stop taking them, and they suffer horribly as a consequence. For instance, getting addicted to painkillers. The more one puts faith in divine Mind from the beginning, and demonstrates spiritual healing, the less liable they are to get caught in the web of believing one is helplessly and hopelessly at the mercy of a pill.
You are correct, that people need to follow their conscience, and their decisions are between them and God. But I pray everyday that people can find the health their looking for directly from God. Spiritual healing has such a positive and uplifting effect in a person’s life. And enables one to skip the pills!
Love your deep and honest thinking, Ashpenaz….as well as your interesting Name! I think one of the wonderful side effects of studying Christian Science is Physical Healing. But as Mrs. Eddy herself says so succinctly in Science and Health (but is so often overlooked by people who just want physical healing) healing sickness is just the bugle call in C.S. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of Sin! (My paraphrasing….) Getting close to God, even if we need to take a pill along the way, is really the purpose of Christianity and Christian Science!
I absolutely agree! What is healing me is God’s truth–the pills I take have absolutely nothing to do with it. But is the fastest way to getting rid of pills to think of all the evil they can do, to make them the enemy which must be thrown out as soon as possible? Or is it to see them for the Truth they embody? To love them for the intelligence, hope, and skill they represent?
I’m never going to give up pills if I look at them with fear and anger. But if I keep loving them, and seeing the Truth behind them, eventually the Truth will take over and the pill will disappear.
Well-reasoned. What we resist, persists.
My thanks as well for this very clear explanation of the difference between putting our faith in inanimate matter and faith in Spirit. Thank you, too, to all for very helpful follow-up comments.
Thank you, Evan!! Once again..this subject is so needed…to be presented. Talked about…written about…and definitely PRAYED about.
Thanks to all, and especially Evan for bringing up the subject. To see that matter cannot hurt or help us as it has no intelligence or power, and that Mind, God, is the only power and that power is always good, and that we are governed by Mind only, is what helps me meet the belief of pain. Mind, God, is the victor and wipes out any possibility of pain..
If you trust in a pill then you are accepting that you are an imperfect mortal needing something to change you into a more perfect or harmonious mortal. Christian Science teaches that we are spiritual and perfect now made in God’s image already whole and complete and always governed by God. We are awaking to this fact and gaining a deeper understanding of our oneness with God. This is how Christ Jesus healed and he told us to do likewise. The pill is perpetuating the dream in matter and it seems to me that they don’t always deliver- sooner or later we all will need to turn to the only lasting source of health. The sooner the better. Christian Science is the best preventative as well as curative agent on the planet!
Masking the pain of mortal experience [fear, resistance] is not healing it. Mortality includes within it’s belief system the belief that we are material and therefore live in a dual universe – ie: there are opposing forces creating fear & resistance.
God, our true Parent Mind has no opposite and is not defined by the illusory construct of matter that the so-called mortal mind dreams in. God’s “Man” is free of that belief system and cannot “know” it because God does not “know” it.
I love the deepening of thought this open conversation inspires.
As we dig deeper, we go higher.
Am so so very grateful for the total clarification of this topic up here.
Only Christian Science is completely healing us. Am grateful for the proof of it!
I have been blessed my whole life with not responding well to medicine in any form. It does not mean I have not used it but that is beside the point.
The real healing is understanding the truth, God , and who we are. If we treat the symptom of our lack of understanding, we only compound it. If there is no dis-ease then taking a pill confirms that I am effected by matter, I am matter, and somehow imperfect. You can’t have it both ways. I may not take pills but I have for a long time had one foot in the truth and one foot in matter.
This is my big lesson ,I feel ,which has taken baby steps, is I am spiritual and I am not touched by error which is material. It has to be authentically understood not just applied and practiced,similar to taking a pill and thinking that will do the work.
Thank you very much Evan, this post is very helpful and healing in Christian Science makes us feel a sense of freedom.
Very insightful Evan. Thank you. I have been so obedient in shunning the false belief of pill taking to ease what I’m deeming as pain. Although I am still working to understand Truth and how to overcome some things “pain related”, I am not masking anymore or running to something which has been so temporal in relief. I am now pausing and being still. And, recognizing that at that moment, I have a choice in what direction the thoughts will go in. So far, so good. I have been tempted. And, my higher thoughts have prevailed.