I have been healed of so many things by studying and practicing the teachings in that remarkable book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by the Leader of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy. Having been a student of the Science of Christ now for many years, always relying on God and His law for healing, I put the following experience on record, trusting it may help others.

About nine years ago, I lived alone in our old family home. My first realisation that something was very wrong with me was on finding myself standing in the kitchen with a jug of boiling water in my hand and not knowing what I intended doing with it. Similar incidents had been happening for quite a while, but it was the first time I was worried by it and questioned it.

Transportation difficulties had kept me from attending church services, but now I commenced avoiding people and stopped answering the telephone. Yet I did one thing that I now consider was a life-saving habit: I continued to read the Bible Lesson, found in the Christian Science Quarterly, as well as I could. I might forget what I had read soon after, but in a simple way it was my daily prayer.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Desire is prayer,” and that was so true for me. The entire passage reads: “Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds” (Science and Health, p. 1).

Those days were very misty to me at the time, but later events indicate that I must have contacted a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. Apparently Christian Science treatment by prayer must have been given on my behalf, although I was unable to acknowledge it, as by that time I was quite inarticulate. I shall always be most grateful for the patience and loving care that my family showed toward me during that very trying time.

My happy childhood had been spent near the sea. Now, sensing that my present atmosphere was all wrong, I was constantly dreaming of those days. Then, one day, I quite unexpectedly rang a real estate agent I knew and asked her to sell my home and rent me a flat for six months near the beach. That was the first indication that I was responding to the Christian Science treatment I was receiving. And it was a big step forward, for I was thinking about my future and doing something about it of my own accord.

There was a practitioner in my new location who had been a friend for many years. I’m so grateful that she was willing to take my case when she saw the condition I was in. I thoroughly understand that because of the steadfast love and faithful prayers of the two practitioners who helped me I am able to write this testimony today.

It was another five or so years, however, before the healing was complete. I would have quite lucid and normal periods for weeks at a time and then lapse into a vague dream world. But there was always progress, and I continued reading the Bible Lesson.

In moving I came across my case containing cassette tapes of the whole volume of Science and Health, along with my old tape recorder. My health was steadily improving, and from then on I would endeavour to play one tape each day—and I still do.

The next step toward my healing occurred on a bus. I was not going anywhere in particular, but because I did realise the danger of shutting myself off from people, I would take a bus to the end of the peninsula and back almost every day. One day the woman sitting beside me opened a conversation with a little small talk. Then, as if she couldn’t contain herself any longer, she poured out her whole sorry story. She said that her mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and that her brain was slowly deteriorating. Her mother wouldn’t let anyone into her house save her daughter. So every week for some years this daughter had made a two-hour journey to reach her mother. She was worn out and didn’t know how to carry on any longer.

I knew from my own experience that the mother was frightened and confused and very lonely. I told the daughter that and added, “She needs to know that you love her.” I told her God loves us all, and the sharing of His love with each other can work wonders. When my new friend left the bus she said to me, “You have given me hope for both my mother and myself.”

Later on, thinking about this incident, I had to admit to myself that all the symptoms the daughter had described of her mother’s illness were the ones that had been troubling me. I also saw that it was all false—impossible within God’s infinite love. My recognition of this fact was another major step in my own healing.

Since childhood I had been aware of the Bible’s promise “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And I had always longed to follow Christ Jesus’ footsteps. The following statement from Science and Health was the first prayer I consciously recognised and retained during this trial: “The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being” (pp. 40–41).

Before I left the rented unit, when we were considering what I should do next, my daughters suggested I find a permanent home in the area. The very next morning I went to the local real estate agent to see what was available. He took me around to show me the unit that I’m now living in. I loved it and purchased it immediately. By then it was becoming quite natural for me to begin to handle my own affairs again.

I’m now able to attend church each Sunday and on Wednesdays as well. And I have been giving testimonies on healings I’ve had in Christian Science.

I have been completely lucid, with no lapses since late 1994. Truly, “My cup runneth over” (Psalms 23:5).