The Victory Over Addiction, Part 2

My last post on the temptation of addiction generated many emails, sharing heartfelt stories of challenges, fresh spiritual insights, and victories. Thank you for sharing…I am deeply touched.

Addiction comes in many forms, some subtle and others not so subtle. Regardless, to begin to demystify the temptation is to grasp the idea that the attracting power or pull is not in the thing – matter. Why? Because the ‘thing’ in and of itself doesn’t have any power…we give it the only power it has! The only, always power of life is divine Spirit, the all-embracing God. This spiritual power felt in the smallest degree gives one dominion over the temptation, no matter what the situation.

One reader wrote: “It dawned on me that the entire human experience is about addiction because everything I see, hear, feel, taste or touch tries to convince me that matter is power…I have a tendency to worry about finances, which is believing that security is in matter! I need to know I can’t be addicted, or surrender my thinking, to matter being a power in any form.”

In my spiritual healing practice, I have witnessed victories over addiction, the temptation to believe that life and intelligence are in matter. The following healing is one I shared at Harvard Medical School’s symposium “Spirituality & Healing in Medicine.”

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When Paula graduated from college she was five feet eight and weighed just 100 pounds. After graduation she traveled through Europe for several months, returning home weighing even less. She was drinking excessive amounts of water. Her parents were very concerned. They took her to a nutritionist for advice about eating. Her water consumption continued to increase, and her food intake continued to decrease. Eventually her weight dropped to 79 pounds. At that point, her parents decided to admit her to a clinic specializing in eating disorders.

Paula and her parents asked me to pray for her. The staff at the clinic recognized the effectiveness of Christian Science treatment. They agreed that this treatment should be continued instead of drug therapy. The physician in charge was very receptive to spiritual healing.

Here was a young woman who felt desperately alone, disconnected, out of control. There were periods when Paula needed constant reinforcement through prayer. During these crucial times she would sometimes call me hourly, and I prayed continually for her. During those calls I reassured her of God’s undiminished love for her and of the relationship she had to God right at that moment – she was inseparable from this divine power!

In my practice it is essential to understand that God is the only power. It is also necessary to understand that the patient is not vulnerable, not a victim. This conviction and assurance of the patient’s God-given value and uncontaminated worth helps patients feel stronger. And it frees their thought, enabling it to yield to God’s power, to begin to feel His unconditional love. This ‘reformed’ thought aids in finally breaking the hold of compulsive behavior.

Ultimately, the spiritual energy or regenerating activity of God governs action, and it can correct a life out of control.

One especially challenging day, I remember asking Paula to think of herself as being like someone on a staircase. She could either step up or let herself be pulled down. Where is her thought taking her?

When Paula grasped this point—that she could let God lift her consciousness up, or she could turn from Him and mentally be pulled down—the change was significant. She saw something of her spiritual dominion. From that time on, her weight steadily increased, and soon she was able to go home.

One morning shortly thereafter she woke up and said, “I have to eat.” She felt free of the desire to drink water constantly, and her appetite returned to normal and has remained so. The physician later told Paula’s parents that her compulsion was equal in severity to a cocaine addiction, and that if she had continued on this path, it would have led to her death by self-starvation.

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This healing occurred several years ago and Paula is now a mother and a schoolteacher of learning-disabled kids. I love this healing example! It is indisputable proof of spiritual dominion that breaks the hold of addiction and provides complete restoration.

One reader wrote of her daily prayers in support of the high-school across the street from her house: “I pray to support students, teachers, community leaders, parents, and residents. My approach has been to declare and know that their only spiritual substance is soul-filled which satisfies completely! I love thinking about God as divine Soul and all of its infinite qualities. Soul sings. Soul flows. Soul inspires. Soul ascends. Soul laughs and dances. Soul is never diverted. Never divided. Never deteriorated. Never contaminated. Never abused.”

The first chapter in Science and Health  is all about healing prayer and includes The Lord’s Prayer from the Gospel of Matthew. Author Mary Baker Eddy writes, “The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material sense.” She then amplifies the prayer with her spiritual understanding, finishing it with the assurance of inevitable victory over temptation of every kind: 

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.”

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Virginia Harris is a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science spiritual healing with an office in Wellesley. She was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s symposium ‘Spirituality & Healing in Medicine’ and today is a public speaker to medical audiences. More from Ginny at www.VirginiaHarris.com.