I entertained a mortal mind suggestion that came on suddenly and lasted for several months. I have no idea what it was. All I know is that for a number of weeks one side of my body was very painful, whether raising my arms, walking, sitting, or sleeping. A good bit of the time it kept me awake nights, since I couldn’t find a comfortable position either lying down or sitting up. 

I engaged one practitioner, then another. Both practitioners shared the most inspiring ideas with me and clearly did very good work, holding firmly to the truth. Both turned me to the fact that God is doing everything and doing it perfectly. I am what God is doing, and I cannot be an impediment to God’s activity. I found it especially helpful to let the Ego go to the Father, the great and only I AM, the one and only Cause and Creator.

I needed to see that it had never happened. Instead of being influenced by what the mortal senses were screaming, I needed to realize more of what God was doing. And I needed to gain a better grasp of what the Christ is doing as it comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error. I needed to understand that right where the lying senses say there is error, the Christ consciousness is lifting thought above their false pictures. 

True spiritual growth resulted as I worked more earnestly. Once I started paying more attention to what God was doing with His spiritual idea than to the suffering that mortal mind was suggesting, there was a healing, i.e., I saw more clearly that there never had been anything to be healed, that the condition was simply mesmerism from which I needed to awaken. 

Then the whole suggestion suddenly left, even as it had suddenly come. I was once again able to rest at night and function normally during the day. This included ushering at church and walking to attend the Reading Room, which I had continued doing throughout the period of suggestion, although for several months both activities had been extremely painful. 

Another thing that helped immensely was broadening my treatment to include all mankind, seeing that since God is no respecter of persons, what is true for me has to be true for all others. All of us have just one Mind, so there are not many conflicting mortal minds. We are all embraced in God’s universe, in the one and only universe—the kingdom of heaven, where Love is supreme. In this infinite universe, there are no terrorists, no villains and no victims, no one who is impoverished or starving, no economic meltdown, no deteriorating environment, no place where God is not.  

Mortal mind’s misconception of the universe needed handling. I had to be consistent in my thinking and not admit the false suggestions of sin, disease, and death at any level, including worldwide. Nothing of the kind is going on in God’s eyes, so how could I, as God’s idea, entertain such suggestions? Of course, this meant watching thought very carefully, despite being continually bombarded with reports of discord, conflict, and suffering from the media. I’ve been learning to do this whether it is about political, economic, social, religious, psychiatric, or medical beliefs; also whether it is about The Mother Church or the Christian Science movement as a whole.There’s plenty to keep one on his (or her) metaphysical toes!

I had a second healing at roughly the same time. Several years ago I went to the optometrist to have new glasses fitted. He insisted on a thorough physical examination of my eyes. As a result, he said that I had cataracts and that I had better give them attention and report back to him very soon. I found that indeed things in my eyes were jumping around and shifting to the sides quite a bit. 

Well, I did give them attention, but not in the way he meant, and I did not report back. I got really serious about understanding what constitutes sight and vision, about me as the very reflection of the all-seeing Mind, or God. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says that eyes are spiritual discernment. I was determined to discern more clearly God’s nature and ever-presence as Spirit, and my nature as His spiritual idea, a perfect reflection of the Mind that is God. (I also mentioned this false belief to the practitioner, who would have been working faithfully about it, not accepting that I was in any way in a mortal dream.) 

Very soon after I began this work, I had no more cataract effects. Now I continue to work to see that I am not dependent on glasses or any form of matter for what is considered normal, 20/20 vision. Instead, sight and insight come from God alone and cannot be impaired. 

Recently, I’m feeling more of God’s grace, more gratitude, more joy, and more humility, knowing that I can of my own self do nothing—that it is God who is doing it all and doing it well.