Experience and revelation

I submitted the following to our Editor Julie, having read from the original "Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer" and not the amplified one. She pointed out to me that the pages references were different. I have now clarified the matter to my own satisfaction, and can tell you that this whole experience is amplified on the pages 32 to 59.

On pages 42-44, we are told of what Mrs. Eddy later described as “the falling apple” in her development towards the discovery of the Science of Christ. The account here is of a healing she accomplished when she treated people with the homeopathic method. Eddy prescribed unmedicated pills (the patient was unaware that they were unmedicated) and the patient was healed. She explained the experience as being “the enlightenment of the human understanding”, whereas, in contrast, the discovery of Christian Science in 1866, she described as “the revelation from the divine Mind” (ibid; see also p. 59).

Ed. The authors here clarify the situation for the reader: "Two facts had become clear as a result of this cure of dropsy: first, the same remedy that had been impotent when administered by the physician became effective when she prescribed and administered it; second, the unmedicated pills were as effective as the medicated ones. She saw that both the thought of the physician and the thought of the patient were the determining factors in the case, to the exclusion of matter" (p. 44).

On pages 56-59, we learn about a major healing of her own. Eddy later declared that with this experience came the discovery of Christian Science. The healing came about in two stages. 

Firstly, when she read from Mark about the healing of the withered hand on the Sabbath, a “change passed over us; the limbs that were immovable, cold, and without feeling, warmed; the internal agony ceased, our strength came instantaneously, and we rose from our bed and stood upon our feet, well” (p. 56). (The end-notes tell us that this is from Science and Health, third edition (1881), p. 156.)

The second stage occurred when the doctor’s “disbelief seemed to strike at her and she felt suddenly weakened and could no longer stand” (p. 57). She then turned to the ninth chapter of Matthew and “Jesus words, 'Arise, and walk' spoke to her across the centuries” (p. 58). She rose again and the claim of relapse was banished.

Joyce Voysey