By an anonymous Ex-Christian Scientist Group contributor.

A lot of us were indoctrinated into Christian Science basically from the point of birth. I often wonder why my mother fell in with it, though. She was in her thirties when she became a Christian Scientist. In the end, the only thing I can think of is that she enjoyed the feeling of exclusivity, the knowing something that few other people know. And, like in most cults, she genuinely believed that it was giving her mastery over something few other people had mastery over. Back in the day, I would have said she was an intelligent woman, but on reflection I really don’t know if I still think that. She certainly thought she was intelligent, as they all do. I’m not sure that’s the same thing.

My mother and her Christian Scientist friends—one of whom was a Christian Science practitioner— hoped that I would become a practitioner as well, and there seemed to be some preliminary discussions as to where the funds would come from for me to leave the UK to go to Boston to ‘train’. These discussions didn’t last very long, as naturally God was expected to provide the funds when needed. I’m glad I wasn’t relying on these people to fund me through real university.

Throughout my adolescence, there was a vast amount of cognitive bias forced on me to justify their perception that I would be a great Christian Science healer, which left me very confused for years and was actually terribly difficult to deal with when I had to face up to the fact that I did not have these latent abilities and never had. Later in my childhood, at about 12 years old, I was treated with frustration for my laziness in not ‘achieving more’ with Christian Science.

Coming to terms with our Christian Scientist parents is difficult. Sometimes my mother was loving, thoughtful and great. At a lot of other times, she was a massive Christian Science d*ckhead and I won’t ever really be able to understand her actions. I could understand it if she had been a stupid woman, but the truth was quite the opposite, as is generally the case for Christian Scientists. Ironically.