Jon is a full-time Christian Science healer and an international speaker. In this lecture he shares his understanding of this reliable method of spiritual healing.
In Step Out of Your Story and into Healing Jon discusses the necessity of letting go of a sense of our own personal history – our sense of ourselves as flawed mortals – to find our true spiritual identities and in doing this healing is realised. His explanations are clear and logical and his presentation dynamic and engaging. Click here to listen.
When she had nowhere else to turn, Stormy turned to God in prayer – a God she did not know very well, whose existence she had often doubted and who now was the focus of her anger.
She studied the Bible and the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and learned that God was Love; God did not send sickness. As her understanding of God grew her health improved. She learned that there were divine laws that sustained and maintained man. As she learned to apply these laws she was restored to perfect health.
Stormy is now a full-time Christian Science healer and teacher. She has travelled the world sharing what she has learned about spiritual healing.
The Christian Science Church – a part of the Canberra community. Members share testimonies and talk about their lives as Christian Scientists.
This article, A Prayer and a Cat, is by Debbie who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She describes how her prayers for the world also resulted in healing for a friend’s cat.
I would like to share a healing that happened some years ago but it’s one that has meant a lot to me.
At the time I was working as a teacher in a local primary school. There was one particular colleague that I sat with sometimes at lunch; she often talked to me about her cat, Hershey, who seemed to be a big part of her life. However, at this particular time much of her conversation was about her upcoming trip to the US – a holiday for which they had been saving for a long time.
One day I walked into the staff room to find this friend crying gently while she ate her sandwich. I sat with her and asked what had upset her. She said that Hershey was sick and the vet had said he would die any day. She was supposed to leave for the US in a few days and no cattery would take a cat that was about to die. The kindest thing to do, the vet said, was to put him to sleep before she left.
My friend couldn’t bring herself to put her beloved cat down and felt guilty that she was leaving him when he was so ill. Yet the holiday couldn’t be cancelled at this late date.
Without thinking too much I said: “Would you like me to mind Hershey?” Immediately she jumped at this idea and within the minute it was settled. She said she understood that he would not be alive when she returned but that at least he could go in his own time and in comfort. I agreed.
Two days later Hershey was delivered to my place. I admit I was not prepared for the sight of him. He lay motionless in his basket; he was skin and bones with dull tufty fur and sore spots; his eyes remained closed. I was informed that he needed his own quiet, dark room with no interruptions except for his medication. I had not considered the issue of medication. He had so many! She explained that Hershey had an immune deficiency condition – a cat’s version of AIDS she said. We installed Hershey in his room and she said her good-byes.
For two days I tried to give Hershey his medication but it seemed to cause him so much stress. I couldn’t see the point so I stopped. I had been brought up in Christian Science and had always solved problems quickly through prayer. Prayer for me was not a passive asking God for help but an active change of base in my thinking and spiritual reasoning.
There had been a lot of news coverage at this time around the issue of AIDS and I had been praying about this. In my reasoning I went back to my basic beliefs: I believed that there was a controlling order or principle to the universe and that principle was Love – another name for God. A God of love I reasoned could not make a dangerous universe; that a God of Love protected creation, it didn’t expose it to harm. I had proved many times that holding to spiritual truths, even in the face of evidence to the contrary, resolved inharmonious situations.
Now I applied this reasoning to Hershey. He was part of Love’s creation and I knew this Love was a powerful force for good. In the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes: You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness (p208) so I embraced Hershey in my thought in this way. I didn’t dwell on him, but I held to this idea every time I did think of him. I felt safe that he was safe.
Very quickly he began to respond. In a day or so he was up and walking about his room; another day or two he was out and exploring the house.
At the end of two weeks my friend returned and phoned to see how things had gone with Hershey. She was very surprised to hear that he was ready to be picked up. When she arrived to collect him he was sitting on the back of the lounge in the sun looking out the window. He was plump and healthy, his fur was flawless and sleek and shiny, and he had a playful sparkle in his eyes. He was very glad to be going home.
Sometimes when I pray for the world I am tempted to wonder: Are my prayers doing any good? This experience with Hershey gave me further proof that spiritual truths are powerful, more powerful than material evidence, and that prayers are effective in bringing about harmony in any situation – even those given up as hopeless. I continue to be grateful for all that I am learning in my on-going study of Christian Science.
The Christian Science Church – a part of the Canberra community. Members share testimonies and talk about their lives as Christian Scientists.
My name is Jen and I am a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. I love learning about other people’s religions – I hope that some of you will love learning about mine.
Although Christian Science is very much based on what Jesus taught us, I often describe it to atheist and agnostic friends as a blend of Buddhism and Quantum Physics. This is because it has a focus on overcoming a material view of the world, and understanding God as a spiritual life force. It also presents us with a set of rules that we can use to understand God and His relation to man: spiritual laws that are the basis of reality.
So what does this mean for me, as a Christian Scientist? It means that I work every day to bring spirituality into my experience, and have seen healing as a result. I lived in Indonesia for a year and attracted a lot of attention as a fair-haired, blue-eyed foreigner. I developed anxiety during my time there due to the constant staring, catcalling and sexual harassment. When I came home to Australia, I struggled to shake the anxiety, which made me incredibly tense, neurotic and irritable. It took me a couple of years of prayer to overcome my anxiety: it was clear that I was safe, but I was facing mental suggestions that I should hold onto fear to protect myself.
I had the choice of turning to a powerful God who created me free of fear, to a God who made me feel unsafe and fearful, or to no God at all. I chose the first, as praying to know that I am the spiritual creation of a loving God has brought me healing in the past. I had a major light-bulb moment in this case when I realized that the opposite of anxiety is expecting good. I replaced thoughts of fear and anxiety with thoughts of safety and optimism, knowing that an All-Powerful God would always protect His creation. This allowed me to free my thought from fear, and I have felt relaxed and protected ever since.
This is a testimony of how I understand God and myself, and also of how I use Christian Science prayer in facing the challenges in my life. I use the laws that Jesus taught us to overcome limited views of myself, and rid myself of fear in living a peaceful life.
The Christian Science Church – a part of the Canberra community. Members share testimonies and talk about their lives as Christian Scientists.
This article, Gratitude for Healing – Headaches No More, is by Barbara who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She relates how she has found permanent freedom from headaches through prayer and spiritualisation of thought.
Recently I read a beautiful expression of gratitude from a student of Christian Science who related how he had been healed of headaches.
It reminded me that I too had been healed of headaches so many years ago that I had really almost forgotten about it, and that healing has been permanent.
I was a fairly new student of this Divine Science at the time, and had never before experienced an instantaneous healing. My job was such that I was continually dealing with the public, and it was important to be pleasant and attentive at all times. That is not easy with a throbbing head.
I thought about God, the one and only power, and asked myself if I thought that He could have a headache. The answer was no, I did not believe He could. So then I asked myself again if I could possibly have something that God did not have, and certainly could not give me, and remain pure and loving. The answer was still no, and at that moment I was entirely free of any pain. That freedom has been mine for more than fifty years now.
Having said that, I cannot claim that the feeling of a headache coming on has not knocked at the door of my consciousness, but it has gained no admittance. I have confronted it in various ways, such as “get thee hence, Satan”, to use the words of Jesus (Matt 4:10). Satan is a Hebrew word signifying an adversary, an enemy, an accuser; or simply I would say, “I don’t do headaches” which is not very scientific, but I know that I do not have to cover the same ground again, and what God has done is done forever.
In obedience to the teachings of Christian Science I take the advice given in the textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy where Mrs Eddy says, “Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realised in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously” p392: 24-27. Similarly, to quote the Bible again, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).
Through the study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook I am assured that ‘with God, all things are possible’.
The Christian Science Church – a part of the Canberra community. Members share testimonies and talk about their lives as Christian Scientists.
This article, A Quick Healing of a Turned Ankle, is by Julie who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She describes how she prayed when she sprained her ankle at work.
I work in a large, busy primary school. The week before last while rushing around in the morning organising relief staff for the day at school I rolled my ankle. Immediately I held firmly to the idea that God is always in control and that He loves me and protects me; that I was actually safe in His care. I went about my day joyously running between classrooms working with teachers and students.
However, by mid-afternoon I realised that I couldn’t walk. My ankle was swollen and throbbing. I felt that I couldn’t think. My colleagues became very concerned for me and wanted to take me to the hospital. I told them I was fine. I held to what the Bible tells me about man in the first chapter of Genesis: that I was made in the image and likeness of God – even though in the human sense I was in excruciating pain. I had to attend professional learning that afternoon so my colleagues lovingly drove me to and from the workshop. Things were so busy all afternoon I felt overwhelmed and couldn’t find any quiet time just to listen to my beloved Mother-Father God.
I arrived home after 7pm. Friends called and insisted that I elevate my ankle and apply ice. I lovingly told them that I would do so to alleviate their fears. I knew that I just wanted to have time alone. While having a hot shower I was earnestly praying to God and I realised that God’s love was law and it would adjust any inharmonious situation. I knew I had to be joyous. With that instant thought I walked out of the shower knowing all was well. I felt joy just bubbling out of me as I knew I was walking normally.
I arrived at school the next day just after 7am to begin yet another busy day. My colleagues, one by one throughout the day, approached me see how I was. They were amazed that I was about my usual busyness. They couldn’t believe I was running, skipping and walking everywhere across the school. They wanted to know what happened. I told them I just needed to pray. Some looked at me oddly. I said that I hadn’t been to a doctor for over 20 years. I just prayed when any health issues arose in my life. Furthermore, when any challenge ever arises in my human experience I just pray to God. I frequently ring a practitioner and they support me with prayer until there is harmony.
For some of us it’s a big jump to conceptualize that changes we want to make don’t start “out there” but in our own thought. This is clear to me as I listen to my diverse range of friends, many of them of retiree age, over catch-up coffees and lunches.
All of my friends are beautiful people but there are marked differences in their attitudes towards ageing, and in particular how they talk about themselves. For some the state of their body is front and centre of their thinking and their conversation is peppered with comments such as: “Oh well, what can you expect at our age.”
While other friends never mention health or age. They are full of the adventure of life – of the joys of retirement or the fulfilment and challenges of a long working career. Listening to these friends it’s clear they are less impressed with how their body is doing and more engaged with expressing the continuity of activity, progress, growth, energy, renewal, vigour, buoyancy.
These qualities start in our thought, and could be described as coming from a universal Mind. Mary Baker Eddy, one of my favourite authors on ageing, wrote in her primary text, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness (p208).
She goes on to say: Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God.
God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis (p258).
Her premise is that our life reflects our thinking. In Science and Health again she writes: Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take. … Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously (p392).
Choices are important in shaping our experience and so my personal challenge moment by moment is to choose these qualities of life, and then look for them in experience. It certainly makes for livelier catch-up coffees with friends!
This article was submitted by Deborah Packer of Canberra.
Here in Canberra winter is now upon us. The yellow and gold trees have given way to bare branches and we have already had our first frosty mornings.
Many of us who have lived in Canberra for a while have come to love this climate and its four distinct seasons. With each there are certain expectations: the regenerating bloom of the spring heralded by the brilliance of the wattle; the long dry heat of the summer and trips to the coast; the vivid colours of the autumn and the swirling brown leaves.
The crispness of winter, the clear blue skies and trips to the snow are often accompanied by calls to be wary of colds and flu. TV commercials remind us of the available remedies and we are sometimes tempted to wonder whether we will ‘go down’ with something this year, or will we be lucky?
Nowadays there is a strong body of evidence that attests to the influence of one’s thought on health. For over 100 years now we have been aware of the placebo effect: the apparent strong positive effect of sugar pills and non-medicated treatments on patients who believed them to be remedial agents. These experiments alone must ask us to question the nature of the effect of thought on the body. To question how the quality of our consciousness and our belief systems can affect our wellbeing? There is also growing evidence to suggest that spirituality, our natural attraction to the good and the true, has a positive impact on physical resilience and recuperation.
About 150 years ago Mary Baker Eddy investigated this link between spirituality and health. Her experiments and study culminated in her textbook: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. In it she states (p208): Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. … You embrace your body in your thought, and you should delineate upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness.
She goes on to say (p392): The physical affirmation of disease should always be met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is produced on the body, must be expressed mentally, and thought should be held fast to this ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack from that source. … If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take.
Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.
Let’s determine this winter to hold thought to the higher qualities of Truth and Love, of wholeness and harmony and turn away from contemplation of disease, and so build our spiritual immunity.
This article was contributed by Deborah Packer of Canberra.
To purchase a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy click here.
The issue of violence is prominent in our community conversations at the moment. Terrorism, drug-related violence, domestic and institutional abuse, and even road rage are insistently crying out for our attention and solutions.
Despite serious efforts over many years to prevent violence, to deal with its effects and to punish the perpetrators, there’s now general agreement that violence will continue to escalate and to propagate fear in the community until we find and treat the real causes.
Fundamental beliefs that underlie and perpetuate all kinds of violence are: that humans have an animal nature prone to competition, self-preservation and aggression; that certain brain-based dysfunctions may be the root of addiction and violence, aggravated by abuse or neglect during childhood; and that there are deeply rooted social and cultural patterns, leading to a distorted sense of manhood and womanhood, that may take generations to change.
However, there’s evidence that these beliefs may be just that …. either long-held or fairly recent beliefs that need to be revised.
Drugs and alcohol are often associated with violence. People working in the police and community services speak of how addiction and abuse reoccur from generation to generation, and there is now general realisation that special attention needs to be given to the families involved.
However, there is some progress as communities work together to fight apathy and educate each other that this cycle can indeed be broken.
A retired commanding officer in the police force shared one such approach: “…anytime I knew I was going to a call related to domestic conflict or violence I would pick up the local pastor.” Often they were able to provide a spiritual viewpoint and connection that would later solve the problem.
It is often acknowledged that recognising a man’s spiritual nature has a healing effect.
Significant psychological research studiesfind that spirituality is not only helpful to, but integral to mental health. This is an important point in considering individual and whole-society wellbeing.
We may need to adjust our thinking about our real nature.
Another long-held false belief will be overturned by realising that the spiritual qualities generally attributed to women – such as care for others, gentleness, forgiveness and patience – and those qualities attributed to men – such as wisdom, truthfulness, tenaciousness and strength – are innate in both men and women.
Jesus’ ability to express both the fatherhood and motherhood of the divine set the benchmark for us. And like him, we’re actually “tuned in” to hear spiritual intuitions that will prompt, direct and uplift thought, although we may choose not to listen.
Knowing that no-one can be excluded from hearing and acting on divine thoughts can help to overcome violent impulses and begin to heal the culture of violence.
A pioneer in investigating the effects of our thoughts on our health, Mary Baker Eddy, recognised this voice as the ever-appearing of “the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness.”(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)
When Susannah (not her real name) moved out of home and obtained a copy of that book, she just loved the way the author described the divine power that governs the universe as Father-Mother.
Her family had suffered violence at the hand of her father for many years. To think her father could be capable of reflecting the gentle motherhood of God seemed absolutely impossible. However, she decided to stop wrestling with this idea and worked hard to try to see him as reflecting this tender divine nature; learning that he wasmeantto be nurturing, gentle, tender.
Susannah was listening for the divine message, which replaced the macho view of her father and other men, with this new view of men. Her thought and experiences gradually began to change.
As the weeks went by, she learned that her parents had not had a fight in months and her father was treating her mother and sister with new tenderness. Eight years on, this is still the case.
A scientific approach to thought and prayer in this way does not whitewash evil deeds; rather it exposes the mistaken beliefs and causes them to be discarded.
Further changes in thinking about her own spiritual nature, meant that Susannah no longer saw herself or her mother as survivors of mental, verbal or physical intimidation, but as well-adjusted and balanced individuals.
She had no lingering emotional scars, but had learned truly to love and see the undamageable good in herself and her mother.
As Australian of the Year and domestic violence survivor, Rosie Batty, advocates, Susannah truly took responsibility for her own life, bringing vital change to those around her in the process.
Such approaches hint at the possibilities for healing the culture of violence in ourselves and in the community.
Love – the Fulfilling of the Law– Readings from the Bible and the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p454)
Every Wednesday at 6.15 pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science Church in Canberra. Each meeting begins with readings selected from the two books designated as the Pastor of Christian Science: The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesby Mary Baker Eddy. A new topic for the readings is selected each week.
At the conclusion of the short readings the congregation is invited to share thoughts on this topic and relate how they have used the principles of Christian Science to solve life’s problems and bring physical healing.
If you are in Canberra on any Wednesday please join us. Everyone is welcome.
This recording represents the readings on the topic: Love – the Fulfilling of the Law.
Step Out of Your Story and into Healing a lecture by Jon Benson. ![article.271029.large[1]](https://christiansciencecanberra.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/article-271029-large1.jpg?w=238&h=317)
In this hour-long lecture,
This article, A Prayer and a Cat, is by Debbie who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She describes how her prayers for the world also resulted in healing for a friend’s cat.
My name is Jen and I am a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. I love learning about other people’s religions – I hope that some of you will love learning about mine.
This article, Gratitude for Healing – Headaches No More, is by Barbara who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She relates how she has found permanent freedom from headaches through prayer and spiritualisation of thought.
This article, A Quick Healing of a Turned Ankle, is by Julie who is a member of the Christian Science Church in Canberra. She describes how she prayed when she sprained her ankle at work.
For some of us it’s a big jump to conceptualize that changes we want to make don’t start “out there” but in our own thought. This is clear to me as I listen to my diverse range of friends, many of them of retiree age, over catch-up coffees and lunches.
Christian Science Canberra 