Two weeks ago yesterday, I got a headache and started to feel ill in a short period of time. I squeezed in a bit of prayer for relief, amidst all my other praying, but the suffering intensified. After a while, I stopped what I was doing, felt a bit flustered by the on-going pain, and retorted, “What is going on here?”
As if a person was standing in front of me and practically yelling in my face, I heard the clear cut words, “You are going to get sick!!!”
I was startled because the declaration of evil was so explicit and bold.
I slumped back in my chair to understand what was happening.
The first lesson I learned was how the experience graphically illustrated a main point in Christian Science that all illness starts as suggestion. It does not start as a physical condition in the body. It starts as suggestion and strives to get the ear of the target with the intent of convincing the target that the suggestion is a necessity.
I decided that the aggressor was not succeeding by being subtle with me this time, so ramped up its tactics to see if I could be intimidated into submission through forceful verbal articulation.
Too often, people listen to evil suggestions without censoring them; accept them into human consciousness as legitimate, and then see the suggestion manifest in the body. They don’t notice what is happening until a physical symptom appears. And then, because they never understood the mental nature of disease, believe the problem is physical. And it never was. It was suggestion that started the illness, not a germ, virus, or poison. And that was exactly what was happening to me. Evil was not successful with a subtle, “You are going to get sick,” so it tried to influence me with a super-loud-in-your-face attempt to convince me.
Even though I felt physical pain, I did not try to heal the pain any longer. I knew the trouble was not physical. It was an outside mental influence trying to mesmerize my thinking into accepting several days of sickness as necessary. The outside voice needed to be refuted, rejected, denied and silenced. And that’s the direction I focused my prayers.
There were other suggestions to refute like the fear that other people around me were sick and I was feeling the effect of contagion. Also the strong suggestion that I was in the season to get ill like millions of others around the country. But after hearing this voice, “You are going to get sick!” speak so positively in my thought, I knew any sickness was not physically produced. It was pure suggestion.
Obviously I had believed the suggestion to some degree because I was feeling the beginning stages of what appeared to be several days of suffering in the offing. But I decided evil also was losing hope of convincing me because it was working so hard to overwhelm my attention. And I wasn’t going to be convinced!
“Resist the devil and he shall flee from you,” Paul instructed.
I affirmed my wellness as a child of God. I declared my health to be spiritual, permanent, built into my being and never lost. I knew disease was unreal, unnecessary, and unimpressive. I knew evil had no influence over my thinking, body or experience. I knew I was God’s health manifest. I knew my spirituality was immunity from materiality and all suffering. I could not get sick anymore than wet could be dry.
After a few hours of quiet, steadfast, assiduous prayer, along with other projects I was involved with, I suddenly felt a major change in my mental environment. Even though there was still some pain, all the turbulence, turmoil and grief evil had been trying to stir up in my mental home, vanished. Calm permeated my thought. The storm was over. A rainbow of hope and promise lit my mental sky. I felt the aggressor had given up its arguments and vacated the premises. I knew the physical healing was very near.
I laid down for a good night’s sleep, fell asleep quickly and woke in the morning at 100%. There has not been a hint of illness since that time. And I am very grateful.
Showing posts with label suggestion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label suggestion. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Times Square
Have you ever been to Times Square at night? In the last few years, that is?
After Kathy and I took in “A Chorus Line” on Broadway, we walked back to our hotel which took us through the Times Square area at 11 o’clock at night.
Coming from rural Washington State, experiencing this part of NYC is like being transported to another universe! I’m telling you, I’ve never seen anything like it.
High rise buildings lining the street for a mile or more leading up to Times Square are plastered with flashing, pulsating, blinking, bright electronic billboards advertising messages, playing videos, and selling countless wares and services to titillate the senses.
Talk about sensory overload!
I’m not talking about 2 or 3 electronic displays here and there, but about every available inch of space for one to two hundred feet straight up and in all directions flashing every possible color, picture or graphic display Madison Avenue could think of to grab attention and push a message on unsuspecting wayfarers.
The sidewalks were jammed with hordes of people walking in all directions. Stores were open and packed with customers. The atmosphere was like a carnival. It was hyper. And the pace was just starting to pick up. In the minds of most, the night had just begun.
As Kathy and I weaved our way through the masses of bodies, I thought about the choices we make in life and the effect they have on our well being.
To the physical senses, the glitz, brightness, and lighting schemes on that street, the immense crowds, and the noise from it all could be mesmerizing. It was so materially intense and the messages and advertising so extremely aggressive it was easy to lose yourself and get mentally absorbed into what was being thrown at you from all directions.
You don’t have to be in Times Square to have a similar experience. The aggression of mortal mind comes in many different forms. For instance, a suggestion of disease can be as assaulting. A picture of conflict, an empty bank account, or feeling of failure, can feel as overwhelming.
But we have a choice, I agreed, while thinking this all through and computing the massive assault on my senses from around me. We don’t have to become a victim of mortal mind suggestions.
And that’s what I saw in Times Square. Suggestions!! All those flashing billboards and video displays were suggestions. I could accept the suggestions and get sucked into where they wanted to take me, or I could reject them and walk on without paying them any heed.
I practiced turning the physical senses off and on to prove the point.
I would stop looking up at the signs, quit listening to the entire ruckus around me and tune into Truth. I would search for Love, and as soon as I felt totally at peace with God, I would look up again at the signs and take in the sensual sights.
As the physical senses filled up with all the noise and clamor, I’d instantly stop it all by tuning it out again and go back into my secret place with divine Love. I did this a few times and it felt terrific!
I felt control rather than being controlled. It was a simple exercise to demonstrate my dominion over the aggressiveness of mortal mind and prove a bit more to myself that I am never helpless.
No matter how convincing mortal mind tries to be with its aggressive suggestions, they are not convincing to the spiritually minded perspective.
In my right spiritual state of mind, I could walk down that noisy, loud, blaring street oblivious to all the material commotion and totally aware of God’s omnipresent Love. It was a choice I could make and follow through with.
It’s a choice we can all make no matter what form “Times Square” may be taking in our life at the moment.
After Kathy and I took in “A Chorus Line” on Broadway, we walked back to our hotel which took us through the Times Square area at 11 o’clock at night.
Coming from rural Washington State, experiencing this part of NYC is like being transported to another universe! I’m telling you, I’ve never seen anything like it.
High rise buildings lining the street for a mile or more leading up to Times Square are plastered with flashing, pulsating, blinking, bright electronic billboards advertising messages, playing videos, and selling countless wares and services to titillate the senses.
Talk about sensory overload!
I’m not talking about 2 or 3 electronic displays here and there, but about every available inch of space for one to two hundred feet straight up and in all directions flashing every possible color, picture or graphic display Madison Avenue could think of to grab attention and push a message on unsuspecting wayfarers.
The sidewalks were jammed with hordes of people walking in all directions. Stores were open and packed with customers. The atmosphere was like a carnival. It was hyper. And the pace was just starting to pick up. In the minds of most, the night had just begun.
As Kathy and I weaved our way through the masses of bodies, I thought about the choices we make in life and the effect they have on our well being.
To the physical senses, the glitz, brightness, and lighting schemes on that street, the immense crowds, and the noise from it all could be mesmerizing. It was so materially intense and the messages and advertising so extremely aggressive it was easy to lose yourself and get mentally absorbed into what was being thrown at you from all directions.
You don’t have to be in Times Square to have a similar experience. The aggression of mortal mind comes in many different forms. For instance, a suggestion of disease can be as assaulting. A picture of conflict, an empty bank account, or feeling of failure, can feel as overwhelming.
But we have a choice, I agreed, while thinking this all through and computing the massive assault on my senses from around me. We don’t have to become a victim of mortal mind suggestions.
And that’s what I saw in Times Square. Suggestions!! All those flashing billboards and video displays were suggestions. I could accept the suggestions and get sucked into where they wanted to take me, or I could reject them and walk on without paying them any heed.
I practiced turning the physical senses off and on to prove the point.
I would stop looking up at the signs, quit listening to the entire ruckus around me and tune into Truth. I would search for Love, and as soon as I felt totally at peace with God, I would look up again at the signs and take in the sensual sights.
As the physical senses filled up with all the noise and clamor, I’d instantly stop it all by tuning it out again and go back into my secret place with divine Love. I did this a few times and it felt terrific!
I felt control rather than being controlled. It was a simple exercise to demonstrate my dominion over the aggressiveness of mortal mind and prove a bit more to myself that I am never helpless.
No matter how convincing mortal mind tries to be with its aggressive suggestions, they are not convincing to the spiritually minded perspective.
In my right spiritual state of mind, I could walk down that noisy, loud, blaring street oblivious to all the material commotion and totally aware of God’s omnipresent Love. It was a choice I could make and follow through with.
It’s a choice we can all make no matter what form “Times Square” may be taking in our life at the moment.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The devil can only talk
I attended a Christian Science lecture by Ryder Stevens a night ago, and I’ll never forget how he described evil’s tactics to influence the human mind.
He said something similar to, “Evil can’t make us do anything. It can only talk at us. If the devil had power, it would have pushed Jesus off the pinnacle rather than ask him to jump.”
Isn’t that helpful!
Evil has no power to make us do anything.
Jesus taught, “The devil is a liar and the father of all lies.” In the human experience, evil appears real and powerful at times, but what we see is what we believe. Evil has no power to stop Life or interfere with the good God has built into our spiritual being. Evil never reaches us, as children of God.
It makes lots of suggestion to the human mind! But they are only suggestions. They are never truths, realities, or imperatives.
Evil has no power to “push us off the pinnacle.” If we jump, it’s not because we had to.
He said something similar to, “Evil can’t make us do anything. It can only talk at us. If the devil had power, it would have pushed Jesus off the pinnacle rather than ask him to jump.”
Isn’t that helpful!
Evil has no power to make us do anything.
Jesus taught, “The devil is a liar and the father of all lies.” In the human experience, evil appears real and powerful at times, but what we see is what we believe. Evil has no power to stop Life or interfere with the good God has built into our spiritual being. Evil never reaches us, as children of God.
It makes lots of suggestion to the human mind! But they are only suggestions. They are never truths, realities, or imperatives.
Evil has no power to “push us off the pinnacle.” If we jump, it’s not because we had to.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Watch out for the killer biscuits
This story is so funny, I wanted to share it with you…
According to Snopes.com, this story is not true, but evolved from a comedian’s routine many years ago. It’s still a blast to read though, because it points out how absurd human mind conclusions can be when drawn from physical sense testimony.
While most of us would likely not repeat the above scenario, how often have we repeated the act in different situations, and with more serious consequences?
I’m thinking of the recent spate of flu cases across the country. How many people have caught the flu, not through material contagion, but from seeing it in others and believing they’re going to catch it too?
Like the Pillsbury dough container exploding with great noise, the media advertises the flu with great ado, and if one hasn’t avidly protected their thought from the mental contagion, they might at some point believe they’ve been “shot in the back of the neck” too and start manifesting the same symptoms.
The physical senses can be so misleading at times. They cannot be trusted.
Jesus Christ instructed, “Watch!” And he meant watch for spiritual truth so one doesn’t get tricked by the human mind into drawing erroneous conclusions.
God created us spiritual beings governed rightly by spiritual sense. When we listen to spiritual sense and not to physical sense testimony, we draw the right conclusions about our health and well being and spare ourselves much grief.
Watch out for those "killer biscuits!"
Killer biscuits wanted for attempted murder
Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego, was visiting her in-laws and while there, went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up, her eyes closed with both hands behind the back of her head. One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car.
He noticed that Linda’s eyes were now open, and she looked very strange. He asked her if she was okay, and Linda replied that she’d been shot in the back of the head, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour. The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head.
When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head.
When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid.
According to Snopes.com, this story is not true, but evolved from a comedian’s routine many years ago. It’s still a blast to read though, because it points out how absurd human mind conclusions can be when drawn from physical sense testimony.
While most of us would likely not repeat the above scenario, how often have we repeated the act in different situations, and with more serious consequences?
I’m thinking of the recent spate of flu cases across the country. How many people have caught the flu, not through material contagion, but from seeing it in others and believing they’re going to catch it too?
Like the Pillsbury dough container exploding with great noise, the media advertises the flu with great ado, and if one hasn’t avidly protected their thought from the mental contagion, they might at some point believe they’ve been “shot in the back of the neck” too and start manifesting the same symptoms.
The physical senses can be so misleading at times. They cannot be trusted.
Jesus Christ instructed, “Watch!” And he meant watch for spiritual truth so one doesn’t get tricked by the human mind into drawing erroneous conclusions.
God created us spiritual beings governed rightly by spiritual sense. When we listen to spiritual sense and not to physical sense testimony, we draw the right conclusions about our health and well being and spare ourselves much grief.
Watch out for those "killer biscuits!"
Monday, February 18, 2008
Vigorous denial works
It was the oddest experience I’ve had in a long time.
Two nights ago, I looked at a part of my body and blinked twice, because conditions didn’t look normal. I thought, “No, this can’t be.” I blinked again, and the situation just wasn’t right.
Horrible images of what might be wrong started erupting in thought.
“You have a disease!” Mortal mind was yelling loud.
In my healing ministry, I hear dozens of descriptions of disease every week, often associated with names people dread. It is my practice to remain unimpressed and immediately know the spiritual truth about the person voicing the error. This has not been hard for me to do.
At this moment, though, descriptions of a particular disease I had heard about many times from patients came to the fore, and I started wondering if I had it.
This type of thinking was so Not Me! But nonetheless, it was happening.
Fear was knocking hard at my mental door.
It was time to go to bed, so I went to the bedroom, but I did not go to sleep. I vigorously defended myself from these very aggressive suggestions. And that is exactly how I viewed the situation—as aggressive suggestion.
The condition looked very physical, but Christian Science had taught me to view physical conditions as suggestions only, never as fact.
If one thinks a problem is physical, he or she might lose hope, because it’s sometimes hard to see how prayer can change a physical condition. But if one sees the condition as suggestion, logic follows that suggestions can be rebutted, denied and silenced.
It took me several hours of vehement and constant rebuttal to silence the error and quiet the fear. But eventually, the voice of error died down, the suggestion disappeared and I fell asleep in peace.
When I awoke in the morning, it wasn’t until later that I remembered the struggle I had gone through the night before. There was no more evidence of a problem. I was fine.
From this experience, I can see how one symptom can lead to another if a person let’s their imagination run wild with fear. Thought will start to outline its growing fears on the body. But, thanks to Christian Science, these symptoms can be checked and prevented from growing into something worse. Or, if they seem to have grown worse, they can still be checked, for every condition, no matter how physical it appears, is still suggestion. It’s never reality.
I’m grateful for the quick moving through this experience to a right outcome. It reinforces what I’ve learned over the years that denial of a lie, affirmation of Truth, and sticking to our arguments of Truth until the error fades, works.
Two nights ago, I looked at a part of my body and blinked twice, because conditions didn’t look normal. I thought, “No, this can’t be.” I blinked again, and the situation just wasn’t right.
Horrible images of what might be wrong started erupting in thought.
“You have a disease!” Mortal mind was yelling loud.
In my healing ministry, I hear dozens of descriptions of disease every week, often associated with names people dread. It is my practice to remain unimpressed and immediately know the spiritual truth about the person voicing the error. This has not been hard for me to do.
At this moment, though, descriptions of a particular disease I had heard about many times from patients came to the fore, and I started wondering if I had it.
This type of thinking was so Not Me! But nonetheless, it was happening.
Fear was knocking hard at my mental door.
It was time to go to bed, so I went to the bedroom, but I did not go to sleep. I vigorously defended myself from these very aggressive suggestions. And that is exactly how I viewed the situation—as aggressive suggestion.
The condition looked very physical, but Christian Science had taught me to view physical conditions as suggestions only, never as fact.
If one thinks a problem is physical, he or she might lose hope, because it’s sometimes hard to see how prayer can change a physical condition. But if one sees the condition as suggestion, logic follows that suggestions can be rebutted, denied and silenced.
It took me several hours of vehement and constant rebuttal to silence the error and quiet the fear. But eventually, the voice of error died down, the suggestion disappeared and I fell asleep in peace.
When I awoke in the morning, it wasn’t until later that I remembered the struggle I had gone through the night before. There was no more evidence of a problem. I was fine.
From this experience, I can see how one symptom can lead to another if a person let’s their imagination run wild with fear. Thought will start to outline its growing fears on the body. But, thanks to Christian Science, these symptoms can be checked and prevented from growing into something worse. Or, if they seem to have grown worse, they can still be checked, for every condition, no matter how physical it appears, is still suggestion. It’s never reality.
"Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them." Mary Baker Eddy
I’m grateful for the quick moving through this experience to a right outcome. It reinforces what I’ve learned over the years that denial of a lie, affirmation of Truth, and sticking to our arguments of Truth until the error fades, works.
