Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy has literally saved my life after being diagnosed with terminal cancer at the age of 27. Previously I had studied Zoology at Imperial College and appreciated science and would not just believe something because someone has told me or that it is convenient at a particular time. I like proof and I like to understand what and why something has happened. When I was diagnosed and given a very poor prognosis, one of the hardest things for me to understand was the whole concept for me about the ability for one's body to destroy itself and work against the mind in sickness did not make sense to me. The very mind that your body and the sickness couldn't even be perceived or have knowledge without in the first place. The so called fact that a person along with all their life experiences and amazing qualities can be destroyed by a few cells mutating did not make sense to me. Neither did the assumption that thought can control the body, inner muscles and bones when it tells it to walk, jump, dance but this rule does not apply to other parts of the body such as the Immune system. What is it then in these parts of the body that change from one to the other allowing one to be controlled by thought and the other not to. Most of the time I asked people why this is meant to be the case they said "because it just is". Well, I wasn't happy with that. I wanted to know and Science & Health answered these questions and healed me by showing us the reality of man and his capabilities through being governed by a Spiritual Law which sustains us and not weak forms made of blood bones, DNA which can be destroyed by mutated cells. This book can not be read quckly, cover to cover and the content is, in no doubt, radical and could put off readers on the offset BUT if this book is read with an open inquisitive mind and the ideas are really thought about your start to get a few pieces of the 'life puzzle', and then a few more and then a few more and it's effects can be wonderful on the person spiritually and physically. Mary Baker Eddy is not telling you to take on her 'religion' as to do exactly what she says. This book starts you off, and guides you through your own insight into the real, spiritual, harmonious Man. The real Man which is free from disease, unhappiness, trauma. The book is just telling us something that is true for all men and right here for us to see right now. If you get a glimpse of this and you gain more pieces of the puzzle, certain passages of the book that did not make any sense before jump out at you and seem perfectly clear because as you read and ponder this new way of thinking, your thought is changed. The human limits start to go somewhat and you can accept more ideas. This is why I think some of the context of this book cannot be understood. As I said before it has to be read slowly and the ideas must be allowed to sink in. I started this book thinking that I could never manage it and had to refer to my dictionary at least every paragraph!! I still do need my dictionary but now I see where Mary Baker was going, that she had such inspirational ideas and insights that come only through deep contemplation and commitment to finding the true 'meaning of life'. Christian Science and this book are only showing people what is there already and everytime I read it, I admire the time spent and how diligent Mary Baker Eddy was in putting this knowledge down on paper for the good of all of us. She is taking our thought to a more limitless place where you begin to see these ideas as understandable but this understanding come from our spiritual self, not the human mind. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone. What I have learnt has healed me in so many situations since, physical and emotional. It is a treasure.
Jo Harris
