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Her experience must have roused incredible wonder and joy. It must have felt like stepping out of the grave as it were, and into a new life. And even, then, the 'magnitude' of that new life unfolded gradually. There were two short relapses, with a quick recovery in each case. Both relapses were in response to changing mental environments when an intense probing by the medical professionals began. However, soon, her convictions became firmer, and the scientific facts became solid, and very shortly thereafter these facts were provable in many ways with a near absolute certainty.
The next nine years of Mary Baker Eddy's life can best be described as an awakening. We are told that for some years before her healing she began to write down the result of her Scriptural studies, and circulate them to friends. Now the work had a far greater scope, and was planted on a much more deeply scientific foundation, that included not only reason, but proofs, and universal practical application through teaching and healing.
She wrote about her struggle to clarify what she had perceived: "The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter; (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life. - The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist and cooperate. Only one of the following statements can be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that everything is Mind. Which one is it? Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to the other in its very nature and essence; hence both cannot be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only by understanding that there is but one power, - not two powers, matter and Mind, - are scientific and logical conclusions reached."*(Science and Health 269:29)
As already indicated, Mary Baker Eddy involved herself not only in fundamental research, but also in corresponding public healing and teaching. Already, before even a year had passed since her dramatic healing, she was engaged working with a physician, a Dr. H.S. Crafts, whom she taught the new Science, and supported by taking the difficult cases herself. She was also summoned by friends, for healing. The healings that are reported from those days are in many cases no less remarkable than her own.
One notable case involved the healing of her sister's daughter, Ellen Pilsbury, who was dying of enteritis. The case had been given up by three doctors. For weeks, people entering the patient's room had to step softly, for even the vibration of the floor caused her pain. Mary Baker Eddy,*(Her name at the time was Glover. The name was reverted to after her divorce from Dr. Patterson, in honor of her first husband, George Glover, who had died in 1844) entered the room and stood at her bedside. After ten minutes she asked her to rise from her bed and walk, which she did. Prior to this moment, the patient could only be moved on a sheet, from bed to bed. Now she walked freely. As she walked, she was urged to stamp her feet strongly on the floor, which she did without any pain. The next day she was up and dressed, and on the fourth day she took a hundred mile journey by automobile, which was no trivial exercise in the 1860s.*(Mary Baker Eddy, The Years of Discovery - Robert Peel. - Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1966)
Many more such healings are described in Irvin C. Tomlinson's book: Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, published by the Christian Science Publishing Society. So many were the healings that she brought about in the early years while living in Lynn Massachusetts, that she commented decades later that the city once resounded with her cures.
One such cure was the case of a four and a half year old boy, the son of one of her students. The child had died. The boy had been seriously ill of a brain fever, and had died in his mothers arms as she brought him to Mary Baker Eddy's home. Mary Baker Eddy told the mother to leave the boy with her, and not return for an hour. According to her own account, her heart went out to God, and very soon the boy sat up in bed. She told him to jump down and come to her. She declared silently to herself that he is not sick. The boy made a fist and struck her, "I is tick, I is tick." He struggled in her arms, but love prevailed and he was soon at play with some spools and a darning needle. As she continued treating him, he struck her again, saying: "I is tick, I is tick," and then fell limp and lifeless at her feet. She took him up in her arms again, and reached out again to God. The boy became conscious soon, and was ready to play once more. When the mother returned, she nearly fainted to see him alive. The little boy talked of God on the way home, and of how good God is.*(Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy p.48)
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