Last week’s testimony meeting started with a testimony about the healing of a pulled muscle which reminded me of a healing I had a few years ago. I was relatively new to Christian Science, but I read Science and Health and tried to put it in practice wherever I could. On a hiking trip, I also pulled a muscle in my neck, and every tiny move was followed by a sharp pain. As I lay on the floor of the hut where we spent the night that day, I started thinking of what I understood in Science about the situation. I knew the pain cannot be real, but it surely felt very real. I assumed that it must be a mental effect, and that it stems from fear. I also understood that whenever you thought is in the wrong, you have to lay the axe at the root of it (as Mrs. Eddy writes it often about error). This meant for me, that I have to catch my wrong mortal thought at its appearing, before I let it grow stronger. First I could not detect this thought, but then as I was watching myself, I suddenly saw it: sure enough, it was hiding as a tiny fear morsel. I realized that every time before I moved my head – just a fraction of a second before it – I feared. I expected the pain the appear. It was such a nuance, but it made me realize that it is not the body that pains, but it is mortal mind and fear that is the exciting cause. So I decided to dissect this momentary expectant thought and declare against its power to create the pain. It took only a few minutes, and it disappeared. Mrs. Eddy says somewhere that (paraphrase) error detected, is two-third destroyed. This was clearly the case. I am so thankful to God that He didn’t just create us, but also gave us a tool – Christian Science – so that we can discern at our actual level of understanding what He wants to express and maintain through us.
(Other related quotes: “Watch, and pray daily that evil suggestions, in whatever guise, take no root in your thought nor bear fruit.” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 128.) “Remove error from thought, and it will not appear in effect.” (S&H 40:1) “Sickness, disease and death proceed from fear.” (S&H 260:21) “Have no fear that matter can ache …. our body would suffer no more from tension …than the trunk of a tree which you gash…were it not for mortal mind.” (S&H 393:18), “The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance or sin.” (S&H 411:20) About mortal mind being the exciting cause of all suffering: (S&H pp. 230, 393, 178) About the need to allay fear: (S&H 411:27), and several mentions of laying the axe on the root of error/evil in Prose Works.)