JEFF: Hi Nate. So, your talk is going to share a “Christian Science” perspective. Can you clear the air a bit on that phrase? There are many misconceptions.

NATE: Absolutely. First, it’s not Scientology. I know many Californians have made that mistake. I’m not a scholar of Scientology, so I won’t try to explain their faith.

    Christian Science, however, is a spiritual “Science” that’s laser-focused on one thing: learning to heal by gaining the mindset of Jesus. Christian Science churches are, in a sense, centers for spiritual learning. But Christian Science isn’t confined to the walls of a church in the same way that biology is not confined to walls of a scientific institute.

    And if you take the phrase itself, the word “Christian” evokes a savior. The word “Science” is about knowledge. So, you couple these terms together and you get the knowledge—or the knowing—that saves us from life-errors and brings health and freedom. Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32) and Christian Science shows us how to make that statement practical in everyday life.

 

JEFF: Now, you didn’t grow up in Christian Science. How did you first come across it?

NATE: My mom was kind of church shopping when I was young, so I got to attend several different Christian churches that all had their own spin. In my teenage years, I drifted away from Christianity and became interested in non-dogmatic spirituality through meditation techniques and other Eastern approaches. I was so fascinated with spiritual experience that I studied religion in college with a focus on “perennial philosophy.” I was looking for the universal principles behind spiritual experience. I wasn’t expecting to find any one particular religion to be the end-all for me. But my whole life changed when I read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the textbook of Christian Science, written by Mary Baker Eddy..

    After reading Science and Health, a cascade of healing followed: a long-standing shoulder injury from my youth disappeared, my dad gave up alcohol after years of trying everything and failing, and a chronically ill woman who I did personal care work for was up out of her bed taking dance and art classes in a matter of months. I believe that all of those healings were a direct result of Christian Science prayer.

 

JEFF: And do you think it’s possible to heal contagion through prayer too? I know that’s on many people’s minds right now.

NATE: Absolutely! I’ve seen it many times. In fact, I’ve heard from several people that flu or Covid-19-like symptoms have disappeared recently while listening to one of my lectures or other Christian Science publications online. In fact, I had an experience myself with flu-like symptoms at the beginning of the Covid outbreak. After a night of prayer, the symptoms— beginning with the fear—disappeared and never returned.

    The discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, had a lot to say on the topic of contagion. In fact, her article Contagion (which has been recently translated in many languages on ChristianScience.com) has this line in the first paragraph: “Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe, and say what others say” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 228). In the lecture, I will question a lot of the materialistic assumptions that we’ve been inculcated in since birth. I’ll talk about the spiritual perspective that Jesus had and how it can untether us from any limiting beliefs about physicality governing us. This wholly spiritual perspective can reliably release us from fear and negative sensations in the body.

 

JEFF: I love recalling how Jesus healed many forms of contagious disease and also said that everyday people who followed his teachings could do the things that he did—and even greater.

NATE: Exactly. Jesus healed contagious diseases, including the most feared disease of his day which was leprosy. Mary Baker Eddy, following in Jesus’ footsteps, was recorded healing many forms of contagious disease, including diphtheria, tuberculous and membranous croup.

    In the lecture, I’m going to talk about two points that are often absent in the public conversation about contagion. Firstly, the mental nature of contagion. And secondly, how a spiritual mindset can not only mitigate the effects of contagious disease, but can actually prevent and heal them.

    To that first point, it’s easy to yawn when others yawn, cry when others cry, laugh when others laugh. It’s easy to be moved to experience the beliefs and sensations of others—good or bad—unless we defend ourselves mentally from other’s beliefs. I think this is commonly accepted, but I think this truth runs much deeper than we assume.

    I was once called to visit a man dying in a hospital from what the doctors and family believed to be demonic possession. He lived halfway around the world in a culture that believed in demonic possession as much as the current western mind believes in the inevitable effects of certain drugs. I didn’t buy into the contagious narrative that everyone was believing about this man because I don’t believe in the reality of demons, even though they are experienced as real as anything else in some cultures. I think of demons—and other unGodlike beliefs—as errors analogous to mathematical errors like 2+2=3. Obviously, you could see and experience an error like that just like you could represent a truth about math. But the error actually has no cause, origin or “God.”

    In this case, I rejected this man’s belief of demonic possession as an erroneous belief made manifest on the body. I prayed from the basis that this man was God’s image and likeness as it states right at the beginning of the Bible. And I held mentally to a God-like conception of his identity until I was filled with wholly spiritual sensations of peace and love. Well, that man recovered shortly after that prayer in a way that appeared miraculous to onlookers. But it was a divinely natural experience that was profoundly logical to me.
I will share this account more in depth in the talk.

 

JEFF: That’s beautiful, Nate. Let’s pivot to talk a little bit about what’s in the news. We hear a lot from our political leaders about how they are going to follow “the science” in making decisions regarding this pandemic.  Can you explain more about how Christian Science differs from “the science” they are referring to?