I flew to Victoria, Canada, yesterday to give a talk on why we can trust Christian Science for healing. During one flight, I sat next to a talkative middle aged-man who asked what I did for work. When I mentioned spiritual healing he immediately launched into his own recent experience with medicine and prayer.

He said his body had been suffering intensely for months from strain and stress. His doctor had been prescribing different medicines to relieve the pain, but none of them worked. Every month the doctor would give him a different pill to take, but every month he’d return with no relief. After several months of persistent failure, he finally told his doctor that all the medicine he’d been taking was junk. It was useless and did not work. To his surprise, the doctor agreed. After a long pause, the physician told the man to see a psychiatrist or psychologist. From which the patient retorted, “You mean it’s all in my thinking?” The doctor said “Yes.”

“Well, I don’t need to see a psychiatrist to get my thinking straightened out,” the patient protested. I can do that myself. Chagrined that he had wasted all those months on useless medical remedies, and impressed that he could heal himself by changing his thought, he went home and began his own prayer program. Soon the pain was gone, the stress relieved, and the whole problem became history.

He enthusiastically told me that as soon as he realized the suffering was mental, he could find relief. As long as he thought the pain was physical, healing had eluded him.

This man does not follow any particular religion or want a church telling him how to live, but he does believe in a spiritual power and presence. He finds this divine presence in quiet moments, in the wilderness, under a tree, video-taping wildlife in the North Pole.

I enjoyed sharing a brief explanation of Christian Science with him because Christian Science is what he was practicing in his own simple way. Christian Science is not a church or a bossy institution. Christian Science is universal Love active at all times and in all places. It is the one Mind in operation that gets our thinking straightened out when needed.

Prayer brings us closer to this one Mind, and allows healing to take place through the uplifting effect it produces on our thought. It doesn’t matter if we call ourselves a Christian Scientist or not, the healing power is the same, and it produces a universally good effect.