Penny Sarchet doesn’t think of herself as a detective, but she’s been acting like one. She recently received a prize for her science essay on the nocebo effect, one of the winning entries in a writing contest sponsored by the Wellcome Trust in association with theGuardian and The Observer, who have been on the lookout throughout the UK for the next generation of outstanding science writers.

Like any good detective, Sarchet carefully examined the evidence, the scientific research, on nocebos (harmful effects linked to a harmless substance — the opposite of placebo effect). This led her to some compelling observations about the link between a negative mental state and physical suffering.

She saw that in a doctor-patient relationship the patient’s belief makes a world of difference as to that person’s health. What a doctor says and what the patient believes may be more closely tied to the patient’s outcome than what the doctor does physically.

If a doctor’s warnings about possible negative side effects increases the likelihood of the patient experiencing pain or suffering, as research consistently suggests will happen, the leading culprit is the patient’s mental state. Fear or a deep pessimism that they won’t get better can be the underlying enemy to health. Sachet concludes: “As scientists begin to determine how the nocebo works, we would do well to use their findings to manage that most 21st century of all diseases — anxiety.”

The flip-side of the belief coin is the health benefit linked to a positive mental state — the placebo effect.

According to a landmark review published earlier this year, positive expectations are associated with better health. Science Daily reported that the reviewers of more than 160 studies on the mind-body connection were shocked by the consistency they saw in the data. Over and over the evidence showed that a person’s positive beliefs are a strong influence for good on their health.

Exploration of a mind-body connection has a rich history, even crossing into other disciplines. I recently reviewed the research and medical experiments conducted in the last half of the 19th century by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church. Her conclusions parallel what today’s researchers discover as they connect the dots of a placebo and nocebo effect. She noted: “The physical side of this research was aided by hints from homeopathy, sustaining my final conclusion that mortal belief, instead of the drug, governed the action of material medicine.” She wrote in greater depth about her research and the connection she saw of a patient’s belief to his or her health in her book Science and Health.

What’s the bigger picture here? The sleuth instinct in us may sense a need to revise our fundamental assumptions about health and rethink our health practices.

If the root driver of the body’s health (good or bad) lies in what’s occupying our mind, we should be much more alert to what’s tugging at us for attention.

Most people don’t question how often they hear, read, ruminate on and talk about unhealthiness. They take for granted that the risks, symptoms, aches and pains they hear about and are familiar with are involuntary. Since they don’t question such thinking they don’t realize the good effect that comes from reversing it. And that they can.

Why not seriously explore what adds to hope? Find out what builds confidence. What thoughts and conversation about health counteracts fear rather than adding to it? Learn how an increase in spirituality — compassion, prayer, forgiveness and the like — grounds us in positive expectations and purges negative ones, which could have a positive impact on our health.

Sooner or later we’ll see for ourselves what Penny Sarchet and countless others have uncovered — that what we take in, what we believe, has a correlation to our health. The days of thinking that the body operates independent of our beliefs about it are fading away.

The rising tide of health information — from advertising, studies, statistics, media reports, personal advice and professional opinions — has reached flood level. As anyone who has experienced a real flood will tell you, the challenge is keeping your head above water and not getting swept away by rushing currents.

And it’s not just the sheer quantity of information that’s worrying, it’s the questionable quality as well.

Drs. Jerome Groopman and Pamela Hartzband, co-authors of “Your Medical Mind,” have seen the conflicting medical research, the sometimes dangerously misleading drug advertisements, the professional disagreement among physicians regarding tests, diagnoses and appropriate treatment, and in their book they ask the obvious question: “How do you know what is right for you?”

Experts and authority figures may not have the best answer to that question, they say, but there are ways to cut through the confusion and make wiser individual health care choices.

Think carefully about your choices before making them, for one thing. Don’t back down from the decision-making process. Patients make clearer choices if they’re aware of the biases and influences that obscure their thought.

Some doctors, too, recognize that individual patients may not be best served by routinely applying the clinical model that guides physicians. The best choice for the patient may be for the doctor to do nothing. Dr. Danielle Ofri wrote in a New York Times piece that “while insurance companies won’t reimburse for deliberation, and report cards pointedly penalize, it’s interesting to consider that there are many patients who may have been saved by inertia.”

Most people will tell you that doing nothing, physically, isn’t exactly doing nothing. The body may be stationary while the mind is as active as ever. Someone’s whole life can change for the better simply as a result of a burst of inspiration or a sudden change of attitude.

Those who make it a practice to set aside quiet time to connect spiritually — to pray, to watch for wisdom, to nurture compassion, to shut out distractions and fight off fears — describe the experience as quiet outwardly but freeing mentally. They feel an inner peace and often a renewal of energy from a divine source. They also talk about feeling healthier as they overcome limitations and anxieties and stop relating to the steady stream of at-risk scares that drug advertising sends their way.

It’s empowering to discover how positively the body responds to a fearless mind — to a more spiritual state of consciousness. Even a majority of doctors in the U.S. recognize the benefits of spirituality in health. It’s a completely natural way to improve health and well-being, and we all have the ability to exercise it right now.

Who knows, maybe the Psalmist who said “Be still and know that I am God” also learned the physical as well as mental benefit of having quiet time and space in which to feel the presence of the Divine. In any case, it’s ancient wisdom that may be coming to our rescue in the surging waters of today’s health care information.

Around the country sportsmen and sportswomen are diligently preparing for the London Olympics.

Everyone wants to do the best they can and, if possible, perform better than they ever have before. Most are committed to competing and winning fairly although a few might be struggling with the temptation to take drugs to enhance their performance.

But what if we find ourselves pressed up against a limit we are apparently unable to get beyond, whether in sports or in our day to day routines? Is that the end of the story?

An experiment recently conducted by Northumbrian University Head of Sports Medicine and Exercise Science suggests it might not be.

The research was focusing on the influence of deception. However, the results also illustrate how physiological limitations we have come to accept for ourselves might not be as final as we believe.

Dr Kevin Thompson and colleagues had nine male cyclists pedal the equivalent of 4,000 meters on stationary bikes. In front of each was a screen showing two computer-generated avatars. One represented the speed of the cyclist himself, the other avatar was going at a pace he was told represented his baseline performance, which had been previously measured over that distance.

Without letting on to the cyclists, the second avatar was actually programmed to ride faster than the cyclist’s best time by using two percent more power. That represents an increase in speed sufficient to make the difference between first and last place in a 4,000m race.

Despite the second avatar’s added power the cyclists kept pace all the way to the finish line, each significantly bettering their previous best.

In an interview with The New York Times Dr. Thompson said the improved results observed in his experiment are “not just day-to-day variability, but a true change in performance.”

How could that occur?

The survey concludes that cyclists are operating with something in reserve even when they are stretched to the limit and “this reserve can be accessed following deception.”

If there is still something in reserve when we are tricked into believing we can perform better, what might it take to access that extra capacity without being duped or taking steroids and other banned substances?

Not just athletes but people in all walks of life use the “believe in yourself” approach to help push their performance boundaries. Others take a different approach by focusing on spiritual values like gratitude, calmness and joy to identify, challenge and overcome limitations.

An inspiring example of the latter is Punjab-born Londoner Fauja Singh. He recently completed the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 3,850th place after eight hours, 25 minutes and 16 seconds, ahead of five other competitors.

Not the greatest result? Not bad for a centenarian, though! Mr Singh’s 100th birthday was in April this year.

Said the retired farmer: “‘The secret to a long and healthy life is to be stress-free. If there’s something you can’t change then why worry about it? Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”

Could the real issue of deception perhaps be a question of self-deception? Are we often being duped into taking on board limitations we don’t have to?

No doubt research will continue to probe this and other possible implications of experiments like the Northumbrian study and performances like Mr Singh’s.

In the meantime perhaps the rest of us can take heart from these pointers and challenge some of the limitations in our lives.

Follow Tony Lobl on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@tonylobl

The article can be found at: Huffington Post UK

The “Healthy Living” section at Aol’s internet newspaper carries a timely article by Russ Gerber titled, Better Leisure Time, Better Health.

It contains an unusual definition of “leisure” by German philosopher, Joseph Pieper, whose modern thought was deeply rooted in the venerable teachings of Plato and St. Thomas Aquinas.

“Leisure is the disposition of receptive understanding, of contemplative beholding, and immersion — in the real.” Joseph Pieper

Gerber amplifies this definition by telling us that,

“This reality we’re to immerse ourselves in transcends the ordinary stuff of the world that we hold in our hands and see with our eyes and that we’ve been taught is foundational to existence. What we can experience during periods of stillness, when we contemplate the nature of things, is a glimpse of life as it really is.

Our thought is drawn to the idea that life is spiritual. Instead of thinking of time away from routine obligations as merely escape, think of it as the freedom to contemplate the nature and harmony of the things of the spirit, and to experience the rewarding effect such a state of thought can have on your attitude and health.”

Great to know that modern thinkers…and bloggers….are tapping into some ancient wisdom from the world’s best thinkers and translating it into modern modes of healthy thought.

Worshipping Prozac

 -          Our mission was to clarify what is Christian Science healing – in the vernacular of Christian Science jargon “Knowing the Truth.”

-          The discovery of Truth led us to the seven synonyms for God which open the full spectrum of how we pray in Christian Science. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Prayer in Christian Science is discovery not recovery and is based on a desire to let God’s ever-presence be realized – and knowing that God is always good in evidence of peace, joy, health and holiness.

-          Christian Science prayer is healing through turning to God for solutions to any and all human problems. It is not blind faith, will power, mental suggestion, or mere positive thinking. It is understanding God in demonstration of reflection as created in His image and after His likeness. We discover this reflection in the spectrum of light, revealed through the seven synonyms for God – Mind. Soul, Spirit, Principle, Life, Truth, Love and experienced by our divine coincidence with Truth. Our discovery and understanding of God reveals our identity and individuality in consciousness which is thus reflected in being – the Truth of our image, our identity (oneness) with God and of our likeness, our individuality (sameness) with God.

-          Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health “Mankind will improve through Science and Christianity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weakness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it ‘every whit whole’” (page 371). What does alterative mean? The dictionary suggests it is “the act or choice, likely or able to produce a change or modification.” It is important to also remember that the all powerful and always present sunlight of Truth invigorates and purifies our human experience in many important ways!

-          Each of us have our own epiphany in Truth discovery and I loved Bob Vessel’s comment in further discovery of his freedom – he writes: “Your opening statement about knowing the truth shall make you free is on the wall at a Christian Science church that I have the pleasure of visiting from time to time as it is on the walls of many Christian Science churches. So over the years I have seen it a lot. But at this particular church in Saratoga Springs the statement took on special meaning for me. As I sat down in this church several weeks ago I looked at the statement which is on the left hand side of the wall in the front of the church. I thought to myself —What is this truth that will set us free? I found the answer to that question on the wall in the middle of the church. ‘God is Love’ Clearly that is the truth that will set us free! Then I thought to myself — Well how will that freedom be manifested in our human experience? I found the answer to this, my final question, in a statement on the right hand side of the wall of that church.  ‘Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need’ (Science and Health p.494:10).  I feel certain that the statement about truth setting us free will take on special meaning to me from now on, and as I have been pondering this I thought of Mrs. Eddy’s statement: ‘The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough!’ (Science and Health p. 510:3-5) ‘Free at last. Thank God I am free at last.’”

-          In opening the view to our seven synonyms – windows to Truth, Mary Baker Eddy writes in her work entitled, No and Yes, “True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us. Prayer begets an awakened desire to be and do good. It makes new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before, what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows us what God is” (p.39).

-          “If the kingdom of God is understood as the consciousness of divine Truth-of the infinite, divine Principle, Love-then healing is indeed an evidence of the appearing of this consciousness in human experience. As individuals, we all still have a great deal to learn as to how to demonstrate more effectively the infinite power of good, or God. But the way has been made clear, and we can rejoice for the progress already made as well as the boundless possibilities ahead” (Christian Science: A Sourcebook for contemporary materials p.125-126).

Note: The blog intends to move on with application of our Truth discovery to healing impositions on Christian Science – relevant to today’s specific challenges to humanity – TruManity – be there!

(1)   Hebrews 11:1

The following guest post by Bob Vessels, CS, Christian Science Practitioner, is his testimony to the last blog post “The Truth – Seven Smooth Stones”:

“Sometime ago I found myself spending a great deal of time pondering the significance of what Mrs. Eddy had written on page 151 of Science and Health where she tells us that: ‘Fear never stopped being and its action. The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do with Life, God. Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no control over God’s man. The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness. The human mind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Paul declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal.’ I took portions of this statement and thought about them a great deal; they became what I called ‘ponderables.’ I thought of the significance of the statement that ‘Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind’ (Science and Health p. 151). I realized the significance of the statement that when the divine Mind made man and than said OK lets see what you can do with what I have made. No you see that same Mind maintained what was made in a state of perfection so that it could be a continuing part of God’s ‘very good’ creation. At the time when I was pondering all of the powerful statements on page 151 of Science and Health I didn’t realize that I was busy polishing one of the seven synonyms for God because I was going to need  it to destroy a Goliath that was about to challenge me in combat. When this Goliath straight at me my ‘stone,’ Mind was already polished so I would be victorious. What was that Goliath you might ask? Well here is your answer. My wife woke me up late at night before we were going to go on a trip indicating she was passing out. I got up and went to her in the bathroom as she passed out in my arms. I thought do I call 911 and realized that I already had an immediate answer for this emergency, Goliath, in what I had been pondering, polishing, so I used each and every one of the facts about Mind that I had thought about for weeks. My wife responded to me with a statement about expunge and turned, expelled a golf sized object from her mouth into the toilet. She than tells me she is OK and went to bed. I continued to pray before I went back to bed. Needless to say we left for our trip as we had planned on the next day. [More details about this healing can be found on pages 58 & 59 of the March 1997 Journal] Some would say that I was prayed up. I believe I had polished an important stone in our arsenal for destroying false beliefs. Am I done polishing this stone? No way this is a continuing lifetime process. What I know now about the unfathomable Mind and it’s expression is way beyond what I new on the night that I was called on to bring healing to a discordant condition that had tried to disrupt my life.  I am in the polishing business and Paul’s Blog has got me busy working with a very important Goliath destroying stone, Truth. In closing let me urge you to keep polishing!”

Mary Baker Eddy gives us some polish when she writes in Science and Health “MAN. …the full representation of Mind” and “MIND.  The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; …or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression;” (p.591).

The magnificent Seven – ponderables!

(1) Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p.591

Bob writes, “The story of David killing Goliath with just one of five smooth stones suggests to me that the Goliaths of today — dementia, Alzheimer’s, cancer etc — are ripe for destruction. You see we have a greater arsenal than David did. We have seven stones — Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind, Principle — available to us. (Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health defines these terms as synonymous for what is God). What we need to do is make certain they are made smooth by an enlightened understanding, and demonstration. Like David we really only need one smooth stone to do the job, but we are better prepared to do battle if all seven of the stones in our possession are smooth. As I thought about this I felt blessed by the recent postings on the ‘Know the “Truth”’ blogs. They provided very effective ‘polishing agents’ for helping me smooth my concept of Truth as an important stone in the arsenal for destroying the Goliaths of today. Truly ‘… Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free’ from each and every argument being used to convince us that we are less than the image and likeness of God.’”

In a talk entitled “It shall be the duty …” given by Jack Hubbell, CSB, on November 10, 1996, he recounts that in an article in the New York Times in the early Fall of 1996 entitiled “The Spin Doctors,” it discusses the placebo and nocebo effects. Now how does this relate to our seven smooth stones. Jack goes on to say that first, a placebo is a false drug – such as a sugar pill – that contains no medicinal ingredient. The belief of its curative benefit is it’s so called medicinal ingredient. Nocebo is the opposite of placebo. It is a belief in sickness through a mental catalyst an aggressive mental suggestion. Mary Baker Eddy depicts this nocebo effect in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “A man was made to believe that he occupied a bed where a cholera patient had died. Immediately the symptoms of this disease appeared, and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient had been in that bed … where did the symptoms come from?” (p. 154) Jack’s talk states that Robert Hahn, an epidemiologist at the center for disease control, wrote in a paper given at a nocebo conference “beliefs can make us sick as well as healthy. The nocebo phenomenon is a little – recognized facet of culture that may be responsible for a substantial variety of pathology throughout the world.”

Now where is this leading us!

The Pharma industry has embraced the “nocebo phenomenon” as central to their marketing model – to communicate and sell the belief of a specific sickness or disease – i.e.: the nocebo – and then to provide the medical equivalent of “a placebo phenomenon” in the form of an FDA approved drug solution, affirmatively entitled by a doctor prescribed controlled process. This Pharma model, nocebo/placebo, is in my opinion equivalent to the anti-Christ – a belief in the power of an aggressive mental suggestion.

Enter today’s David’s with seven smooth stones – Life – our eternal being as created in the image of God; Truth – our spiritual reality resulting in living as the likeness of God; Love – our ever-present unconditional goodness as the enlightened reflection of God; Mind – our infinite intelligence as manifesting the divine cause and effect; Soul – our expressed identity and individuality as being one with the creation of God; Spirit – our spiritual substance as reflective of ever-present Life, Truth, and Love; and Principle – God’s Law in operation, demonstrating His omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent scientific presence, here and now. These seven smooth stones, munitions of Truth, are synonyms for God. “The Great I Am; the All knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all wise, all-loving, and eternal” (Science and Health p. 587). Jack Hubbell concludes, in essence, that a placebo or nocebo belief can have no effect in a consciousness that knows that which is and a consciousness that knows that which is, is a consciousness imbued with the Christ. Being conscious of reality – being conscious of ourselves as we really are – is knowing the Truth that makes us free – not a question of changing reality but of discovering it – The antidote to the anti-Christ!

As Bob Vessels’s expressed it “’polishing agents’ for helping me smooth my concepts of Truth.”

The suppositional belief systems employed in the use of a placebo and nocebo pharma model are not solutions to sin, disease, and death, as is confirmed by empirical medical science in the observation that these beliefs mutate and migrate to new resistant forms of material expression that compromise health and well being which require ever changing Pharma solutions. Mary Baker Eddy speaks to this in Science and Health with the marginal heading “advancing degrees,” “Evidences of progress and of spiritualization greet us on every hand. Drug-systems are quitting their hold on matter and so letting in matter’s higher stratum, mortal mind. Homoeopathy, a step in advance of allopathy, is doing this. Matter is going out of medicine; and mortal mind, of a higher attenuation than the drug, is governing the pellet” (p.158). She states “Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the next stately step beyond homoeopathy. In metaphysics, matter disappears from the remedy entirely, and Mind takes its rightful and supreme place …Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging that the divine Mind has all power” (p.156-157).

The Goliaths of today, aggressive mental suggestions, which are masked and armed in their assault on our consciousness through directed messaging and imposed solutions – dissipate forever when impacted with any and all of the seven smooth stones – confirming the presence of the Christ and polished by the grace of God.

Healing with scientific certainty
By: Christine Driessen, CSB

Wonderful quote in the last blog post from Archibald McLellan about the exactness of this Science and the need to follow it exactly!

Christ Jesus said that anyone who followed his teaching would be able to heal as he did and do even greater works than these, but not without absolute obedience to the law of God, Spirit–recognizing and obeying only one power, Spirit; and not worshipping, fearing or obeying matter gods.  In his beloved Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) Jesus said that we have to first “Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these other things would be added unto us.”

Today many of our dictionaries have replaced traditional definitions with more secular ones.  For example, “righteousness” is often defined today as “doing what you think is right”–meaning each person can redefine “right” anyway they want.  And then people wonder why prayer doesn’t seem to work!   If we think “righteousness” is something we can redefine according to the beliefs of a particular period, then when we appeal to divine law in our prayers, we may think mistakenly that prayer doesn’t work. And yet a law is not “law” unless it is enforceable and reliable.

However, consider this definition from the dictionary of Mary Baker Eddy’s time, because it’s taken right from the original Greek meaning of this word.  Definition of righteousness (Noah Webster, 2nd ed., 1852):

“Conformity of heart and life to the divine law, the active and passive obedience of Christ, by which the law of God is fulfilled.  Purity of heart, rectitude of life.” “Rectitude” is defined as “exact conformity to truth, or to the rules prescribed for moral conduct, either by divine or human laws.”  “Exact” means “precise, strict, careful, not negligent.”

I also find this passage in Science and Health, 327:17, with the marginal note ‘Peremptory demands”, very interesting:  ”To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian Science seem peremptory; but mortals are hastening to learn that Life is God, good, and that evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or the divine economy.”

The word “peremptory” is defined as “Express; positive; absolute; decisive; authoritative; in a manner to preclude debate or expostulation.”

Divine law is absolute, allowing no debate or challenge, but that is what makes it so reliable and scientifically certain.

The Bible says the “science of God” (Rom. 11:33) is perfect (Job 37:16) and is found in the secret of the Christ (Col. 2:2-3).  Prov. 1:7 says that the “fear (obedience, love, trust) of God is the beginning of science.”  Those who only read an English translation of the original Greek may never realize that the word “knowledge” is being used instead of science, since “science” means knowledge, but a science is so much more than human knowledge. Translations such as the French use the actual word “science” in these biblical passages and they give a much clearer sense of the meaning.

We don’t ever have to fear obeying God’s will because the Bible shows repeatedly that God is Love itself, merciful, forgiving, healing, redeeming all of us from suffering (Ps. 103:2-4, for example).   Gen. 1 says that everything that God makes is very good and Deut. 32:4 says His work is perfect, and Ps. 18:32 says God makes our way perfect, so we do not need to fear God’s law or His will.  It is always good.  God causes us to succeed and prosper and to be in safety and in good health (Gen.1:28) because health and peace are natural to God’s creation.  Understanding this Science, which teaches that Spirit is the only Mind, creator, power or reality of existence, opens our eyes to our inherent wholeness right now.

Mary Baker Eddy explains in her textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, that it is possible for anyone to learn to heal with “scientific certainty” through the Christ Love demonstrated by Jesus (496:15).  But she was not referring to a human definition of love which changes with every new philosophy or fad.  She was referring to the two great Commandments found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam:  1) Love (obey) God, Spirit, supremely and have only one God.  2) Love your neighbor as yourself (as Christ Jesus demonstrated).  Absolute obedience to these two laws is what enables people to understand and demonstrate the Science of the Christ by healing sin, disease and death.

Sometimes people today say that “heal” means simply to give someone a sense of peace as they are dying or struggling with long-term illness.  And yet there are over 50 uses of the word “healing” in the four Gospels alone.  Not one of those times did the word “healing” mean accepting suffering and death peacefully.  Every single time, Jesus cured the people of their diseases–the blind saw, the lame walked, the deaf heard, the sinners stopped sinning.  Even long standing conditions were instantly healed: hemorrhaging for 12 years, deformity of the back for 18 years, paralysis for 38 years.  And Jesus even raised people from death:  Lazarus had been in the tomb 4 days already, but Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me shall not see death”; and Lazarus immediately returned to normal life.

When we are absolutely obedient to the law of mathematics, then we are able to work out mathematical problems with mathematical certainty!  To the degree that we diverge from the laws of mathematics, to that degree our work fails to demonstrate the exactness of that science.

Eddy uses the phrase “in proportion to” or “in proportion as” almost 60 times in her writings, each time indicating that it is only to the degree that we are obedient to God’s law and faithful to His Science, that we are able to demonstrate the divine Principle of this healing Science.   The Science of God and His Christ is an exact science, and we will begin to discover the exactness of this divine Science–and find that prayer is effective, reliable, scientifically certain– “in proportion to” our exact obedience and fidelity to God’s law.”

Thank you Christine on behalf of the New York Committee.