It came pointedly to my attention this week how a medical view can sometimes not see spiritual healing happening right under its nose.
I was reviewing a major healing that happened in my practice years ago. It involved a pregnant mother who was diagnosed with a toxic blood condition deemed potentially fatal to the baby. The woman’s doctor wanted to take major medical action to alleviate the condition, including blood transfusions. I don’t believe the doctors considered the condition curable, but saw it as manageable.
The mother chose to treat the condition through Christian Science, and together we worked for a spiritual healing, which did occur and magnificently so.
However, during the five months of the pregnancy we prayed together and demonstrated safety for the baby and mother, it seemed the doctors never could accept in their mind that a healing could or would happen. They had predetermined the outcome as not good, and all ensuing evaluations, predictions and prophesies were based on that opinion. They saw what they expected, yet they didn’t, because healing was happening all along. It was an ironic twist. It wasn’t until the baby was born, examined thoroughly and then seen to be in perfect health that their mind changed about the condition and all their fears disappeared.
One lesson to be learned from this is how important it is to not let medical views taint our perspective, for if they do, we see things medically, and it often is not good and can hinder our seeing things spiritually which is what brings healing.
But another lesson came out of this for me. It has to do with people who practice Christian Science and are married to a spouse, or related to someone close, who does not practice Christian Science and has strong medical views.
I’ve seen where the practicing Christian Scientist goes into agony about how to deal with the person who doesn’t understand the spiritual approach. They fret and worry, and maybe even feel under attack by the medical view.
It’s important for the practitioner of spiritual healing to find peace about this so thought can be wholeheartedly focused on the truth that heals and not on distraction that doesn’t heal.
In these situations, I find it helpful to accept that the medical view generally doesn’t understand how spiritual healing happens, and so, essentially, just doesn’t get it. I don’t mean this in a negative way, but in a matter-of-fact-way.
Even when healing is happening, the medical view often doesn’t see it, as if it isn’t even happening. It’s only when some outward evidence is so blatantly obvious that they can’t deny it anymore that a transformation in attitude may occur--or may not! Even when a healing happens they may still deny God’s hand at work and say “Oh it would have happened anyway.” My point here is not to argue or agitate about it, but to illuminate what is happening in the mental atmosphere so the metaphysician can more readily deal with it.
Jesus constantly dealt with people who didn’t understand what he was all about or teaching. He was patient with them though, continuing to explain truth over and over again, hoping and praying that eventually they would get it. But in the meantime, he did not let the ignorance and denial stop him from progressing. He knew the human mind was not an obstacle to his individual success in turning to God and finding the help he needed. He stayed in a pure consciousness of Love, stayed true to God, and prospered all the way.
We can do the same. No one ever stands in our way of making a spiritual demonstration. Success depends upon what God is doing for us, not upon what someone who doesn’t understand is not doing for us.
Keep moving ahead with your prayers and demonstrations despite antagonism you may feel from certain quarters. It’s just an opportunity to love more and let your example of spirituality shine forth brighter than ever.
Showing posts with label medical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical. Show all posts
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Friday, September 4, 2009
What about Christian Science and doctors?
Christian Scientists are characterized in many different ways in the public mind, some positive, and some very negative. One of the more pernicious, and unhelpful characterizations, is a common assertion that “Christian Scientists are those people who don’t go to doctors.”
Christian Science is a glorious teaching in that it does keep one out of the doctor’s office. It gives one spiritual medicine to heal health problems, and spiritual truth to keep one healthy and well. Lived rightly, it’s the best healthcare practice on the planet earth today.
Jesus Christ was the ultimate Christian Scientist. He demonstrated the power of Love to heal metaphysically without exception. He was successful in all cases.
However, Jesus was the Master! He was the Messiah, the promised one, and had a special advantage over the rest of us in possessing the knowledge, understanding and power to heal spiritually. But he promised that we could learn to heal as he learned. Through prayer and fasting, and steady and constant spiritual growth and increased understanding, thousands, millions, I suppose, have healed to a degree as Jesus taught.
Christian Science, as explained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, explains how to heal spiritually as Jesus healed and the Bible promises is possible. It sets forth the ideal, the highest standard, and gives us the footsteps to follow to get there.
Because I have so much to learn, I think of myself as a student of Christian Science. Anytime an antagonist to my study of Christian Science tries to give me a hard time and imply that I should be performing cures at the same level of ability that Jesus did, I reply, “I’m working on that. I see healing everyday, much of which you would probably call miraculous, but I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not. I consider myself a student of Christian Science, and I keep growing and learning everyday, and becoming a more effective healer step by step, lesson by lesson.”
When someone asks, “Are you one of those people who don’t go to doctors?” I reply, “Christian Science is not about what you don’t do. It’s about what you can do. Christian Science explains how to find healing through prayer, through turning direct to God for help.” And I might add, “If you could turn to God in prayer, and find healing for what ails you, without using any medicine and not suffering from any of its negative side effects, do you think that would be a good thing?” And they usually nod in the affirmative. And I continue, “Christian Science teaches you how to do that, to find healing solely through your prayers. And it works.”
This unfortunate notion that “Christian Scientists are those people who don’t go to doctors,” is harmful not only for the public to hold in thought, but for any student of Christian Science who may heed to it. It does not characterize the practice of Christian Science.
Christian Science is about living the laws of spiritual harmony. It‘s a purely spiritual practice of keeping thought in harmony with truth and love, and working out the problem of being to the best of one’s understanding at the time. It’s not a human-willed position of “I don’t…,” but a spiritually inspired position of “I do….”
Many students of Christian Science, over years of practice, have taken a “suffer it to be so now,” medical step to alleviate extreme material circumstances. Perhaps they had a broken bone set by a surgeon, or some medical intervention during delivery of a child, or visited a dentist, an optometrist, or had heart surgery, or, who knows… They did what they thought was best under the pressing circumstances of the moment in order to keep going and growing. If they held in thought the mortal weight of “Christian Scientists don’t go to doctors,” they might find themselves unnecessarily struggling with feelings of guilt and condemnation about such temporal steps. And that would be totally unfair to them and to the world.
Christian Science is not about not going to doctors. It’s about living in harmony with God’s laws. And the laws of God are always in operation. No one is ever separated from them, ever.
There isn’t a single human act anyone could ever commit to separate them from God and the love of God that sustains all being. The pathway to discovering this truth fully is not always smooth and easy, but it’s for certain.
To take the position of “I never go to doctors,” is to take a human-willed and even prideful position. And that can be blinding to sound and sensible reasoning and perspective, which is not helpful in facilitating humble prayer that heals spiritually.
Having said all that, it’s seems imperative to mention that Christian Science is up to meeting all human needs, and thousands have proved in varying degrees, in different ways, and in all different types of situations. Putting faith in God’s ability to heal is sensible and most reasonable, and brings its rightful reward. Many students of Christian Science have gone decades without taking a single medicine and not visiting a doctor once, and remained in good health.
The better characterization of those who practice Christian Science might be, “They are those people who study how to pray and find healing.” I like that! It sounds so much better, and it’s a standard any student of Christian Science can live up to.
It doesn’t matter if progress comes in fits and starts, has its ups and downs, off days and better days. It doesn’t matter if we do it all perfectly from day one. I don’t know anyone who has done that, except for Jesus Christ. What matters is the progress one makes, the growing faith, the increased understanding.
Step by metaphysical step, we’re all going to get to the same place—a complete understanding of spiritual reality where all sense of sin, disease and death are no more. Christ gets us there, and no one will be left behind, no one, regardless of what happens in the human meantime.
God loves us all, and that never changes.
Christian Scientists are people who love the promise of spiritual healing, and turn to God in prayer, expecting to find it, and then trust the divine grace to lead them from there to what will continue them down the pathway of progress for the benefit of their own edification and for those around them.
Christian Science is a glorious teaching in that it does keep one out of the doctor’s office. It gives one spiritual medicine to heal health problems, and spiritual truth to keep one healthy and well. Lived rightly, it’s the best healthcare practice on the planet earth today.
Jesus Christ was the ultimate Christian Scientist. He demonstrated the power of Love to heal metaphysically without exception. He was successful in all cases.
However, Jesus was the Master! He was the Messiah, the promised one, and had a special advantage over the rest of us in possessing the knowledge, understanding and power to heal spiritually. But he promised that we could learn to heal as he learned. Through prayer and fasting, and steady and constant spiritual growth and increased understanding, thousands, millions, I suppose, have healed to a degree as Jesus taught.
Christian Science, as explained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, explains how to heal spiritually as Jesus healed and the Bible promises is possible. It sets forth the ideal, the highest standard, and gives us the footsteps to follow to get there.
Because I have so much to learn, I think of myself as a student of Christian Science. Anytime an antagonist to my study of Christian Science tries to give me a hard time and imply that I should be performing cures at the same level of ability that Jesus did, I reply, “I’m working on that. I see healing everyday, much of which you would probably call miraculous, but I’m not going to pretend to be someone I’m not. I consider myself a student of Christian Science, and I keep growing and learning everyday, and becoming a more effective healer step by step, lesson by lesson.”
When someone asks, “Are you one of those people who don’t go to doctors?” I reply, “Christian Science is not about what you don’t do. It’s about what you can do. Christian Science explains how to find healing through prayer, through turning direct to God for help.” And I might add, “If you could turn to God in prayer, and find healing for what ails you, without using any medicine and not suffering from any of its negative side effects, do you think that would be a good thing?” And they usually nod in the affirmative. And I continue, “Christian Science teaches you how to do that, to find healing solely through your prayers. And it works.”
This unfortunate notion that “Christian Scientists are those people who don’t go to doctors,” is harmful not only for the public to hold in thought, but for any student of Christian Science who may heed to it. It does not characterize the practice of Christian Science.
Christian Science is about living the laws of spiritual harmony. It‘s a purely spiritual practice of keeping thought in harmony with truth and love, and working out the problem of being to the best of one’s understanding at the time. It’s not a human-willed position of “I don’t…,” but a spiritually inspired position of “I do….”
Many students of Christian Science, over years of practice, have taken a “suffer it to be so now,” medical step to alleviate extreme material circumstances. Perhaps they had a broken bone set by a surgeon, or some medical intervention during delivery of a child, or visited a dentist, an optometrist, or had heart surgery, or, who knows… They did what they thought was best under the pressing circumstances of the moment in order to keep going and growing. If they held in thought the mortal weight of “Christian Scientists don’t go to doctors,” they might find themselves unnecessarily struggling with feelings of guilt and condemnation about such temporal steps. And that would be totally unfair to them and to the world.
Christian Science is not about not going to doctors. It’s about living in harmony with God’s laws. And the laws of God are always in operation. No one is ever separated from them, ever.
There isn’t a single human act anyone could ever commit to separate them from God and the love of God that sustains all being. The pathway to discovering this truth fully is not always smooth and easy, but it’s for certain.
To take the position of “I never go to doctors,” is to take a human-willed and even prideful position. And that can be blinding to sound and sensible reasoning and perspective, which is not helpful in facilitating humble prayer that heals spiritually.
Having said all that, it’s seems imperative to mention that Christian Science is up to meeting all human needs, and thousands have proved in varying degrees, in different ways, and in all different types of situations. Putting faith in God’s ability to heal is sensible and most reasonable, and brings its rightful reward. Many students of Christian Science have gone decades without taking a single medicine and not visiting a doctor once, and remained in good health.
The better characterization of those who practice Christian Science might be, “They are those people who study how to pray and find healing.” I like that! It sounds so much better, and it’s a standard any student of Christian Science can live up to.
It doesn’t matter if progress comes in fits and starts, has its ups and downs, off days and better days. It doesn’t matter if we do it all perfectly from day one. I don’t know anyone who has done that, except for Jesus Christ. What matters is the progress one makes, the growing faith, the increased understanding.
Step by metaphysical step, we’re all going to get to the same place—a complete understanding of spiritual reality where all sense of sin, disease and death are no more. Christ gets us there, and no one will be left behind, no one, regardless of what happens in the human meantime.
God loves us all, and that never changes.
Christian Scientists are people who love the promise of spiritual healing, and turn to God in prayer, expecting to find it, and then trust the divine grace to lead them from there to what will continue them down the pathway of progress for the benefit of their own edification and for those around them.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Do doctors know everything?
While flipping through a newspaper this week, I glanced through an ad for losing weight written by a clinic of doctors who specialized in treating obesity. Half-way through the text I stopped reading, a bit dazed by one of their assertions.
The ad stated, “Only a doctor can help you.”
I know millions of people put total faith in doctors, but I hadn’t read such a wide-sweeping and absolute affirmation by doctors for faith in their own expertise.
The motive of this group of physicians was obviously to build business, and bring profit and customers their way. But the assertion that only they could help seemed over the line to me. I know many people, including myself, who have successfully lost weight without any help from a doctor.
I saw the ad as a blatant and aggressive form of mental manipulation that needed to be guarded against.
My spiritual sense of things rebelled and protested, “Where is God in all of this?”
Doctors have done, and are doing, much good for humanity. The doctors I know are wonderful people, caring, unselfish and truly committed to alleviating suffering and pain the best way they know. But there are many other people in society who do wonderful good for humanity too. And then there is God as well.
When I read the words, “Only a doctor knows best,” what I really saw was, "A doctor is god."
Because of this aggressive mental suggestion that a doctor, and only a doctor, can address health needs, I welcome all signs of God and prayer getting back into the sick room. People suffering from obesity, or any claim of disease, need more than physical change. It’s typically a deep moral and spiritual transformation that truly meets the need. Experience proves that the outward man reforms as the inner man reforms. Spiritual healing facilitates this kind of improvement, and long lasting positive results come, not from a scalpel or pill or procedure, but from genuine spiritual growth, humility, and increased spiritual mindedness.
The ad would have served its constituency better if it had stated, “Only God knows best.” And then went on to explain how workers at the clinic prayed first to know how to help their clients. This possibility probably didn't cross the minds of those who wrote the ad, but I can say that I would trust a doctor more who started his practice from a basis of humility and meekness, rather than the position of "I know everything."
The ad stated, “Only a doctor can help you.”
I know millions of people put total faith in doctors, but I hadn’t read such a wide-sweeping and absolute affirmation by doctors for faith in their own expertise.
The motive of this group of physicians was obviously to build business, and bring profit and customers their way. But the assertion that only they could help seemed over the line to me. I know many people, including myself, who have successfully lost weight without any help from a doctor.
I saw the ad as a blatant and aggressive form of mental manipulation that needed to be guarded against.
My spiritual sense of things rebelled and protested, “Where is God in all of this?”
Doctors have done, and are doing, much good for humanity. The doctors I know are wonderful people, caring, unselfish and truly committed to alleviating suffering and pain the best way they know. But there are many other people in society who do wonderful good for humanity too. And then there is God as well.
When I read the words, “Only a doctor knows best,” what I really saw was, "A doctor is god."
Because of this aggressive mental suggestion that a doctor, and only a doctor, can address health needs, I welcome all signs of God and prayer getting back into the sick room. People suffering from obesity, or any claim of disease, need more than physical change. It’s typically a deep moral and spiritual transformation that truly meets the need. Experience proves that the outward man reforms as the inner man reforms. Spiritual healing facilitates this kind of improvement, and long lasting positive results come, not from a scalpel or pill or procedure, but from genuine spiritual growth, humility, and increased spiritual mindedness.
The ad would have served its constituency better if it had stated, “Only God knows best.” And then went on to explain how workers at the clinic prayed first to know how to help their clients. This possibility probably didn't cross the minds of those who wrote the ad, but I can say that I would trust a doctor more who started his practice from a basis of humility and meekness, rather than the position of "I know everything."
Friday, November 14, 2008
The preponderance of medical thought
Yesterday, I received a glossy, professionally produced booklet in the mail from one of three hospitals in my community. No expense was spared in the production of this brochure.
As I glanced through the stories and figures included, I was stricken by how deeply embedded into my community fabric the activities of this hospital had become.
On top of the $245,000,000 in assets they own, and the large facilities and sponsored clinics being built near and far, they claim to serve 175,000 patients annually and have 1500 workers on their payroll. Many of these employees are highly paid professionals, hundreds being doctors and nurses.
My community is not very large! Richland has around 50,000 residents. The region boasts 175,000 residents or so, but there are two other hospitals nearly as large as this one in the area.
I am grateful for the care, love and interest the hospitals have in alleviating suffering and helping people find better health. My family certainly was blessed to use their services in the delivery of our children.
What alarmed me was the huge quantity and preponderance of community thought and attention being focused on seeking medical relief, as opposed to finding help through spiritual means.
Christian Science is all about finding strength, health and well being in Spirit. Faith in matter works against faith in Spirit. The student of Christian Science has to actively guard his or her thought from the influence of matter-based thinking to succeed in spiritual healing.
Mary Baker Eddy understood the downward pull of matter-based thinking and its detrimental effect on spiritual healing when she wrote,
The universal belief in physics weighs against the high and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This erroneous general belief, which sustains medicine and produces all medical results, works against Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease.
With 1500 doctors, nurses, aides, and administrators daily working in my little city to promote and advocate medical procedures, prescriptions and methods for my neighbors, a student of Spirit-based healing may feel a bit out numbered!
But numbers mean nothing in Science. The number One is all that counts, and that means one God, one Mind, one power.
One with God is the majority. But to experience the spiritual benefits of being at-one with God, one must fervently and vigilantly defend his mental space from antagonistic intrusion and not be unwittingly or unconsciously pulled in the opposite faith-sapping direction. It can be a very subtle temptation to lose faith in Spirit because of feeling other people's faith in medicine all around.
"Come out and be separate," Paul counseled.
Christian Science is the best healthcare system on planet earth today!
As I glanced through the stories and figures included, I was stricken by how deeply embedded into my community fabric the activities of this hospital had become.
On top of the $245,000,000 in assets they own, and the large facilities and sponsored clinics being built near and far, they claim to serve 175,000 patients annually and have 1500 workers on their payroll. Many of these employees are highly paid professionals, hundreds being doctors and nurses.
My community is not very large! Richland has around 50,000 residents. The region boasts 175,000 residents or so, but there are two other hospitals nearly as large as this one in the area.
I am grateful for the care, love and interest the hospitals have in alleviating suffering and helping people find better health. My family certainly was blessed to use their services in the delivery of our children.
What alarmed me was the huge quantity and preponderance of community thought and attention being focused on seeking medical relief, as opposed to finding help through spiritual means.
Christian Science is all about finding strength, health and well being in Spirit. Faith in matter works against faith in Spirit. The student of Christian Science has to actively guard his or her thought from the influence of matter-based thinking to succeed in spiritual healing.
Mary Baker Eddy understood the downward pull of matter-based thinking and its detrimental effect on spiritual healing when she wrote,
The universal belief in physics weighs against the high and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This erroneous general belief, which sustains medicine and produces all medical results, works against Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease.
With 1500 doctors, nurses, aides, and administrators daily working in my little city to promote and advocate medical procedures, prescriptions and methods for my neighbors, a student of Spirit-based healing may feel a bit out numbered!
But numbers mean nothing in Science. The number One is all that counts, and that means one God, one Mind, one power.
One with God is the majority. But to experience the spiritual benefits of being at-one with God, one must fervently and vigilantly defend his mental space from antagonistic intrusion and not be unwittingly or unconsciously pulled in the opposite faith-sapping direction. It can be a very subtle temptation to lose faith in Spirit because of feeling other people's faith in medicine all around.
"Come out and be separate," Paul counseled.
Christian Science is the best healthcare system on planet earth today!
Monday, December 11, 2006
God as a first resort
This weekend it hit me how foreign the concept of turning to God first in times of emergency is for many people.
I was filling out a medical release form to allow our daughter to attend a trip away from school.
The first blanks on the form were devoted to listing doctor contact information, health issues and drug prescriptions. Family contact information was asked for at the end of the form.
When I finished, I thought, “Isn’t this backward?” Shouldn’t family be the first to be contacted in times of emergency?
I had answered “doesn’t apply” to several of the medical questions, had explained that my daughter was a practicing Christian Scientist, and that family should be called first in times of emergency. I expect they would do this anyway. But after filling out the form I couldn’t help but think how medical oriented our society has become.
Schools need these forms filled out to help their students. I understand that need. But isn’t the process and expectation illustrative of a larger frame of mind in society that automatically defaults to a material option when trouble hits?
God is an ever-present help.
After a moment of prayer, one may decide they need medical help, but an initial divine petition can work wonders in establishing peace of mind, calming thought and body, and opening the door to quicker relief.
I was taught from a young age to turn to God first for help in any situation. It became a natural reflex for me during my growing up years, and has continued to this day.
Many times, on the farm in particular that I grew up on, when accidents and injuries occurred, God was the only immediate help. And God gave me the help I needed.
One time, my son was keeled over in extreme pain, and our joint prayers brought him back to normal in 15 minutes. It would have taken much longer to get to a hospital, and the results would not have been as unintrusive.
Spiritual truth is powerful medicine and instantly available.
I will still fill out medical release forms when requested and needed, but I pray that more people glimpse God as a first resort for help in times of emergency.
The call is easy to make, and there’s always someone on the other end to answer!
I was filling out a medical release form to allow our daughter to attend a trip away from school.
The first blanks on the form were devoted to listing doctor contact information, health issues and drug prescriptions. Family contact information was asked for at the end of the form.
When I finished, I thought, “Isn’t this backward?” Shouldn’t family be the first to be contacted in times of emergency?
I had answered “doesn’t apply” to several of the medical questions, had explained that my daughter was a practicing Christian Scientist, and that family should be called first in times of emergency. I expect they would do this anyway. But after filling out the form I couldn’t help but think how medical oriented our society has become.
Schools need these forms filled out to help their students. I understand that need. But isn’t the process and expectation illustrative of a larger frame of mind in society that automatically defaults to a material option when trouble hits?
God is an ever-present help.
After a moment of prayer, one may decide they need medical help, but an initial divine petition can work wonders in establishing peace of mind, calming thought and body, and opening the door to quicker relief.
I was taught from a young age to turn to God first for help in any situation. It became a natural reflex for me during my growing up years, and has continued to this day.
Many times, on the farm in particular that I grew up on, when accidents and injuries occurred, God was the only immediate help. And God gave me the help I needed.
One time, my son was keeled over in extreme pain, and our joint prayers brought him back to normal in 15 minutes. It would have taken much longer to get to a hospital, and the results would not have been as unintrusive.
Spiritual truth is powerful medicine and instantly available.
I will still fill out medical release forms when requested and needed, but I pray that more people glimpse God as a first resort for help in times of emergency.
The call is easy to make, and there’s always someone on the other end to answer!
“I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” Psalms
Monday, August 28, 2006
Drug ads sell disease
Check out an insightful csmonitor.com article on how drug ads sell sickness to promote their products.
The article reports that in the effort of pharmaceutical companies to create new disease markets, they’re frightening people into taking more prescriptions than they may need. "We're increasingly turning normal people into patients," said Dr. Lisa M. Schwartz of the Dartmouth Medical School. "The ordinary experiences of life become a diagnosis, which makes healthy people feel like they're sick."
Here’s another interesting development I didn’t realize:
The article reports that in the effort of pharmaceutical companies to create new disease markets, they’re frightening people into taking more prescriptions than they may need. "We're increasingly turning normal people into patients," said Dr. Lisa M. Schwartz of the Dartmouth Medical School. "The ordinary experiences of life become a diagnosis, which makes healthy people feel like they're sick."
Here’s another interesting development I didn’t realize:
“…more than 200 medical school professors recently called for an end to prescription drug ads….” This is cool!We may have healthier airwaves yet!
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Medical mistakes run rampant
A new report states:
- A hospitalized patient is subject to at least one medication error per day.
- 1.5 million Americans are injured from medication mistakes every year.
No one is claiming health-care professionals are intentionally making these errors, but alarm bells are heralding a need for reform and fewer blunders.
Perhaps there’s a larger lesson to learn?
Is it time to value the merits of spiritual treatment where there is no opportunity for medication missteps?
Christian Science is the ultimate form of health-care. It doesn’t rely upon drugs. It doesn’t subject one to human opinion and medical guessing. It relies upon the infallible power of Mind to produce a cure, and it’s been proved by countless thousands over the last century to work.
Applying Christian Science is not as simple as popping a pill. It takes study, faith, prayer, commitment to Truth, and growing spiritual mindedness to obtain results. But most things worth having require work. That’s nothing new.
The long term benefit of practicing Christian Science include freedom from bondage to prescriptions, huge medical bills, focus on the body, and fear about health. Christian Science lifts thought to the higher realm of Spirit where Truth is the most powerful medicine and Mind the most effective physician.
Christian Science works. Give it a try.
Learn all about it in Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
You’ll never fear being victimized by a medical mistake again.
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Disease-mongering
Have you noticed how pharmaceutical companies market disease to prompt people to buy their medicines?
Actors and actresses in ads sneeze, cough, writhe in supposed pain, and put on a show of utter misery to catch viewer’s attention. Then a drug is promoted that is claimed to reverse the symptoms of suffering.
The Washington Post recently reported on television ads that graphically depict restless legs syndrome. The article tells of concerns by experts who believe viewers will start believing they have a disease they don’t have if they experience some of the symptoms they see in the ads. And there may be nothing wrong with them at all.
The article states, “The debate has focused attention on what some have dubbed ‘disease-mongering’—taking something that is within normal bounds and labeling it a disease needing pharmaceutical treatment.”
“We’re increasingly turning normal people into patients,” said Lisa M. Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical School. “The ordinary experiences of life become a diagnosis, which makes healthy people feel like they’re sick,” Schwartz added.
It’s time to rise in spiritual rebellion to the marketing tactics of Madison Avenue!
If we wish to stay healthy, we mustn’t be sponges soaking in every bit of information we see on television or reported in the press.
When we see advertisements for disease, we can block the pained pictures out of view and thought. We don’t have to carry mental impressions of suffering around in our mental household.
Images of love, truth, and life are better suited to maintaining a happy healthy existence.
Actors and actresses in ads sneeze, cough, writhe in supposed pain, and put on a show of utter misery to catch viewer’s attention. Then a drug is promoted that is claimed to reverse the symptoms of suffering.
The Washington Post recently reported on television ads that graphically depict restless legs syndrome. The article tells of concerns by experts who believe viewers will start believing they have a disease they don’t have if they experience some of the symptoms they see in the ads. And there may be nothing wrong with them at all.
The article states, “The debate has focused attention on what some have dubbed ‘disease-mongering’—taking something that is within normal bounds and labeling it a disease needing pharmaceutical treatment.”
“We’re increasingly turning normal people into patients,” said Lisa M. Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical School. “The ordinary experiences of life become a diagnosis, which makes healthy people feel like they’re sick,” Schwartz added.
It’s time to rise in spiritual rebellion to the marketing tactics of Madison Avenue!
If we wish to stay healthy, we mustn’t be sponges soaking in every bit of information we see on television or reported in the press.
When we see advertisements for disease, we can block the pained pictures out of view and thought. We don’t have to carry mental impressions of suffering around in our mental household.
Images of love, truth, and life are better suited to maintaining a happy healthy existence.
