Virtual Christian Science Practitioner Office
What is Christian Science?
"Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, defined Christian Science as 'the law of God, the law of good . . . ' (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 1). She’d learned that God is infinite Love, and completely good. A clear glimpse of this through prayer has power to heal and transform anyone.
Mary Baker Eddy was a lifelong student of the Bible. And she’d always wanted to find solutions to human suffering. When she was critically injured in 1866, she turned to God with her whole heart. While reading accounts of Jesus’ swift, powerful healings, she experienced a new sense of God. She saw that God, Spirit, is the only reality. And she was completely healed. She wanted to understand what happened, so she studied the Bible and found universal and dependable laws of God. These laws are the foundation of Christian Science.
Since then, many have found that when they better understand their relationship to God through this Science of Christianity, their health is restored and character transformed. And each healing inspires a heartfelt desire to help others know and experience how loved we all are by God."
- christianscience.com
If you have additional questions about CS theology and beliefs, you can find the full description and teachings by reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. This book is meant to be read along with the Bible. Inside this book, you can also find the tenets of Christian Science which will give you the most to-the-point brief description, or you can look at a longer, summarized description of CS theology.
How can I find healing?
The best way to learn about Christian Science is by reading an "authorized version" of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy as a "key" to the Bible, to Scripture. This book illumines the Bible, it does not replace it or contradict it. Having both books via electronic copy or physical copy is most ideal. Working with a Christian Science Practitioner aids in spiritual growth. If you feel inspired to further your study, you can also take Christian Science Primary Class Instruction with a teacher of Christian Science. Find links to all study resources in the "resources for spiritual study" tab of this site.
How does it work to help someone prayerfully?
If you had a friend that was crying, what would you do? Would you pray to fix the tears, or would you show them love and maybe give them a hug? Of course, the latter...Praying to make tears go away would be silly. A loving hug is what shifts thought, and then, therefore, stops the tears. Giving someone a hug (for example) stops the thoughts that produce the tears. If someone has an ailment of some kind, we don't pray to make it go away but to acknowledge the power and presence of Divine Love in their life. Our prayerful study unveils the power of Love and our oneness with Love-- That's the healing prayer that feels almost like a warm hug! Working along these lines uproots underlying fear, and its manifestation on the body. Our thoughts and our experience are connected. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health that "Mortal mind and body are one." (177:8)
To clarify what I mean by prayer, I don't mean necessarily sitting with your eyes closed and hands clasped. It's definitely not about praying to a corporeal guy in the sky. Rather, "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." (Mary Baker Eddy, SH 1:1–4) This is about the understanding and acknowledgment of divine Love as a power, accessible and here for all. It's about how YOU are included in this Love, how you have "dominion" (Gen. 1) over any challenge, and how you're included in Love's infinite blessings. These truths found in the Bible and Science and Health applied correctly, blesses our experience and heals.
I remember the first time I worked with a Christian Science Practitioner. This individual prayed for me on their own, but during our calls or appointments, we'd discuss a little bit about what was going on. The Practitioner would guide me to helpful inspirational ideas that helped me feel much better about whatever issue we addressed. It was nice to have someone I could reach out to whenever I needed help. Not only that, but I was cured of issues (physical and mental) that I didn't even know could be permanently healed. I could ask for help from the Practitioner about any challenge because the work with any Practitioner is always in strict confidence. Above all, I always felt loved and supported. This individual supported my spiritual growth through Christian Science treatment. The experience of working with a Practitioner is invaluable and transformative.
How is this study relevant today?
I read the other day on a Lululemon bag, that "99% of all illness is stress-related." In Christian Science treatment, an important element of treatment is removing fear (or stress). Not because it's necessarily the cause for a disease, but fear can seem to retard healing. (If you are looking out at the sun, you won't see the sun when there is fog on the window. Removing the fear is like wiping off the fog so we can have a more clear view of reality.) However, Christian Science is not about managing or coping with fear by human will, but it's about learning more about God's will for his creation and how it's our divine right to experience mental peace--As that's a gift we have from God, divine Love. God is love, not fear. You are (not God but) God's expression and reflection.
There was a Netflix special on healing recently. It wasn't about Christian Science, but the documentary's message was about how medical did not need to be the only form of health care. A woman on the show had a rash, which was said to have been incurable and stress-related by the medical field. Instead of putting steroids on the rash, she calmed her thought. She found that the solution was not in fixing the skin with a million lotions, but shifting her thought. She realized in her spiritual discovery that she needed to forgive her sister, and this pent up hatred towards her sister had her holding onto a lot of fear. Once she forgave her sister, the rash was gone. Now, that's not necessarily Christian Science as CS is a prayer-based Science and an established practice, but this example only hints at the vast possibilities of spiritual healing.
Christian Scientists respect medical doctors and all they do to help others. There is no rule against doing something medically. However, from my own understanding, most people that study Christian Science find they don't need to handle things with medication, herbs, pills..etc. because they already find healing first in their practice and study of Christian Science.
Who is the author of this textbook on healing?
Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866. Mrs. Eddy found we all can find healing today, not just in Biblical times. She wrote a book all about the Science behind Christ Jesus' healing ministry. (Note that Christian Science is not Scientology.) Christ Jesus said, "The works that I do, he will do also, and greater works because I go unto my Father." Christian Science is all about primitive Christianity, it brought back Christianity's lost element of spiritual healing.
Mary Baker Eddy's book is available to study today and it's titled, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. For me, this book opens up the Bible and teaches that healing is not only natural, but practical. As a figurative key to the Scriptures, one learns about God as Love that is spiritual, available and present, rather than a man far away up in the sky. God is a power rather than a person...Father and Mother, expressing both masculine and feminine qualities of love and protection.
Although Mrs. Eddy was (and is) a loved and respected leader in spiritual healing, Christian Scientists do not deify or idolize Mrs. Eddy as a person (which is just one of the many reasons why Christian Science is definitely not identified as a religious cult). The teachings of Christian Science are bible-derived and follow Christ Jesus' example and mission. Christian Science is a religious practice. There is one Mother Church of Christ. Scientist and there are branch churches around the world. There are also many people curious about CS that study CS at home, without joining a church. Although the church welcomes all, it is a practice that many people (of varying religions) like to study.
Why do you love CS?
I love Christian Science because this practice promotes spiritual growth and develops one's understanding of Love, God. As an outcome of this study, people find health, freedom, and peace. Following the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule "Love your neighbor as yourself" and having a strong moral character are important values for those who study Christian Science. In addition, this study answers every hard question about life (or even about after this experience) with sturdy and reliable clarity. CS and this inspired and uplifting study of the Bible brings peace and comfort... There are no man-made, willful, scare-tactics that often scare people away from religion altogether.
Christian Science has been in my family for four generations, but as a teen I didn't want to believe something only because my family believed it. As a young girl, I was diagnosed with an issue that would cause bodily pain for the rest of my life. The doctor said that there was nothing I could do to cure it, but I could manage stress and that would help. Even as a young teen, the idea that removing stress or fear from my experience could actually aid my health, was profound. I eventually had a permanent healing in Christian Science from that diagnosed physical challenge- Meaning complete freedom and no more pain. Completely gone. Really? Done. Really gone forever? ...Yup. If you talk to others who have taken up this study, you'll find that they study this because they have had wonderful healings, too. So, this study became real to me in my own study, and I love that Christian Science study puts emphasis on "self-government," and rejects human influence, proselytizing and personal opinions.
In addition to that healing, here is another one. As a young girl up until my senior year in highschool, I struggled with a diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and agoraphobia fear of leaving the house). This kept me in and out of school and I was also homeschooled for a year. I decided as a teen that I had enough with the mental turmoil and decided to make Christian Science my own, and study it. I worked with a Christian Science Practitioner, read Science and Health from cover-to-cover and had a permanent healing. I went to a psychologist again to confirm that I was un-diagnosed. There is no trace of these challenges or any physical manifestation.
After this healing as a teen, I was so taken with Christian Science that I took Christian Science Primary Class Instruction, which is a course on healing for the public and also a prerequisite to becoming a Practitioner. After this, I had many more healings and found Christian Science to be the most reliable and most safe way to find healing. (Pneumonia, swine flu, salmonella poisoning, fractured bones, infections, relationship challenges...etc.) After so many remarkable healings I thought, how could I not want to rely on divine Love when a challenge arises?! Rather than seeing these things as miracles where God sweeps down and graces us for a second, I began to see health, peace, joy and love as divinely natural. This came with the study of Christian Science.
It is very difficult to think about where I would be without Christian Science, so I don't think about it. :) All I know is I am most grateful.
Why do you do this work?
I have always loved Mary Baker Eddy's words that this "field of labor, has been to prevent suffering, not to produce it." (SH 457:10) To prevent suffering, is why I have always done this work. After Love has reached me in some pretty challenging times (through prayerful study and working with a Practitioner), I found that we can each find true freedom from suffering. Showing others how they can do this too, is the very least I can do after these profound lessons and healings.
We all deserve to know our spiritual importance, that we are loved and to receive "Christian encouragement" (SH 367:3) when a need arises. It is a joy to support the demand to "work out your own salvation" (Phil. 2:12) in a non-judgmental atmosphere of love.
In addition, Eddy writes, "Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching." Then, she goes on to talk about "right motives." (SH 454:17–18) Right motives and love are paramount. Rather than asserting oneself between another and their access to God, a practitioner supports the individual and their ever-existing relationship to God and acts as a "transparency for the divine Mind" (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 59:27–28).
It's never about a personal healer or a person. It's about prayerful support and understanding more about God, Love. I have had the great pleasure of watching individuals find their mental footing in their divine right to health, self-respect, peace, and joy. "Moral progress" naturally unfolds as well.
This is a study all about Love. I love witnessing others' healings in their study. I am so grateful to be a student and practitioner of Christian Science.
How can I make a donation?
While I am sincerely grateful for the thoughtfulness behind requests to donate to cover overhead costs for this website, the purpose of this site is to give back; to share a study that has given me so much. So, I do not take donations but do charge for practice work, needless to mention. I appreciate your generous spirit of giving.
If you would like to give in some way, my recommendation is to donate to The First Church of Christ. Scientist, Boston, MA. "The Mother Church"
See options for how to donate to TMC here
Logistical Questions: What are your rates, when should I call, do I need an appointment, what is your office address, how does treatment work?
I answer questions like this in the Patient Portal tab of this website. Prospective and current patients can request the entrance password via email. It contains answers to questions and necessary information, all in one place for your convenience. Those new to working with a Practitioner can learn more as well. It is also efficient for me, removing the need to repeat the same information again to various people.
In this tab, patients can also make easy invoice payments through almost all major online payment platforms (this includes an electronic payment option for those who are wiring internationally).