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While 'natural' spontaneous remissions have been observed in some types of cancer, - in a few isolated cases the remissions are even relatively dramatic and occur quickly in the space of a few days to several weeks and last for months, in some cases up to a lifetime, - the rate of such remissions that is observed, is extremely low. According to medical statistics, natural remissions occur on the average once in 80,000 cases, across all forms of cancers.*(Health magazine April 1992 p.43) The real figure may well be much higher as spontaneous remissions are being masked by hastily initiated treatments. None the less, they are rare and cannot be induced at will.
Compared to such statistics, Christian Science healing, as Mary Baker Eddy called her healing work, stands in a class of its own. Something else is at work in this healing process that is not a fringe phenomenon, but results from an underlying principle being utilized. The metaphysical healing that was becoming a rather common occurrence in those early days, under the name of Christian Science, was more in line with that experienced by the celebrated Servite monk Peregrine Laziosi, of the thirteenth century, who was healed over night of an debilitating and unsightly cancer in his foot. He had simply, prayed.
Prayer can have a scientific basis. There is a unique type of 'prayer' involved in Christian Science, which rests on a scientific platform. This prayer does not aim to alter reality, but aims at aligning thought with the actual spiritual reality of being for the purpose of bringing the human experience into line with Truth. Here, the human thought pleads the case for Truth, and for the rights of man as the manifest reflection of Truth.
A woman from Fort Worth, Texas, reported that she was healed in 1887 through Christian Science treatment, of a cancerous growth that had grown to a weight of fifty pounds, which had hemorrhaged for eleven years. The healing was accomplished by the woman's own work in Christian Science. This scientific metaphysical work is frequently referred to as prayer.*(See Science and Health 603:20)
It could be argued that a special personal healing magnetism is involved in cases where scientific metaphysical healing is claimed. This could be argued to have been the causative agent by which the crippled man, mentioned before, was healed. It may be argued that the healing was brought about by a rare kind of mental force that Mary Baker Eddy has attained, that could even be passed on to others through teaching. Except, should such an argument be more logical than the argument that metaphysical healing results from a profound perception of truth, as Christ Jesus has indicated? Against the argument of privileged personal powers, stands the case of the woman who had healed herself by scientific means. Nor is her case in any way unique. Rather, it is a part of a unique body of evidence that must be considered in judging the processes of metaphysics demonstrated in Christian Science healing. According to the woman's testimony, she was healed by merely reading the textbook on Christian Science, by Mary Baker Eddy.
Mary Baker Eddy made a breakthrough discovery by which the ancient Christ healing was being re-instated. No personal Christ was required to effect the healing, but a basic understand of divine Truth. Mary Baker Eddy gave her Science the most logical name that would draw together the scientific knowledge that Christ Jesus had evidently attained, and the renewed practice of this knowledge in the lives of Christianity. She called it: Christian Science.
Some years after her breakthrough discovery, after clarifying her perception and demonstrating the principles involved, she documented her findings in a book, and founded a church on the principles so discovered. The book became widely known as the Christian Science textbook, with the title, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Some decades after its first publication, sometime after the turn of the century, a final chapter was added to the book containing a hundred pages of testimonials of healing that came about exclusively by the study or mere perusal of the book.
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