Every once in awhile we get a clear look at how “healing” is done, and it is usually when we are not looking for it or trying to do it.
One evening I attended a small dinner party to which a young child had been brought. He was in pain, with an ear infection. Everyone gave his opinion as to what was wrong with him, what kind of medication he should be taking or should not be taking, and what the reaction might be. They talked in front of the child until he was clearly distressed and ran to hide in his father’s knees.
I just observed without having an opinion one way or another. I remembered something that Mrs. Eddy had said about allaying fear — don’t talk disease in front of the patient! I hear doctors and nurses and well-meaning friends do it all the time, usually putting the ·patient into worse anxiety than before, and all with the intention of trying to help.
There is only one thing that someone can do in the face of distress. That is to just Be, just to subjectively be there without any opinions, just observing, and taking responsibility for the situation as it is. In Science I have heard that you should not treat someone unless they ask for it. This is really ridiculous because regardless of the fact, whether they asked for it or not, you would be your innate mind Self.
So while everyone was making a fuss over the child and building up the disease belief, I just sat there loving the child and appreciating him as he was — “To love ls to be happy with.” I just loved him in his sickness, without any interest to try to change it into wellness. After while he came over and sat in my lap, I being a total stranger to him – something that children don’t always do. He seemed not to resist me at all, and we played a little hand game.
As we sat there, the others around the table were curious about the love that developed between myself and the child. He conjured up in me feelings of my own son when he was that age, and I remembered the times when I was worried about my own children and the fearful symptoms they developed from time to time. I also remembered how I tried to be faithful to the teachings of Science and rely on God for healing when I really did not know who or what or where God was, so it was quite “hit and miss” healing fraught with tension and anxiety. I didn’t want to admit that I was one of those of “little faith”. I also would rely on practitioners to do “the work” for me.
I was not clear as to what they did when they “worked” for me but I just felt that it was a secure thing to have a practitioner working for me.
Needless to say, the child was healed, that is, relieved of all symptoms of distress. And this observation is also nothing to be pleased about the coming and going of disease. It is nothing to divine Mind who knows nothing about such a human concept.
You could never really heal – take away something that exists throughout eternity, so all we ever do ls rejoice in what really ls. This is our declaration of independence from having to depend on a God for healing, that he could not do because he never made such a thing. “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, where sinning mortals behold sinning mortals.” (Science & Health)
The healer beholds in knowledge the perfect man, which is the perfect expression of knowledge. Man ls consciousness, not physique. Love would not make an individual that could be sick all of the time, and be subject to accidents, etc. God beheld his creation and “behold, it was very good”. God’s creation could only be made out of God, It could not be made out of some other substance.
Werner Erhard, in his gift book to the graduates says, “Perfection is a state in which things are the way they are and are not the way they are not. As you can see, this universe ls perfect. Don’t lie about lt.”
- Nena Spencer
In her 1968 Evanston seminar, Laird mentions hearing people talk of their ills. “Oh, we start with the symptoms…. I am sick, I’ve got this, or I’ve got that. Have we? Or, have we an uncovering of what we believe we’ve got?”
Evanston 1968
