Money spent for a fruitless experience with a healer is another negative factor. Christian Science A number of religious sects favor prayer over medical care. Christian Science is probably the best known of these groups and is the only form of faith healing that is deductible as a medical expense for federal income tax purposes. Christian Science contends that illness is an illusion caused by faulty beliefs, and that prayer heals by replacing bad thoughts with good ones. Christian Science practitioners work by trying to argue the sick thoughts out of the person's mind.
Consultations can take place in person, by telephone, or even by mail.
Individuals may also be able to attain correct beliefs by themselves through prayer or mental concentration. Two weeks of class instruction are required to become a practitioner. During the past few years, believers have claimed that prayer has brought about recovery from anemia, arthritis, blood poisoning, corns, deafness, defective speech, multiple sclerosis, skin rashes, total body paralysis, visual difficulties, and various injuries. Most of these accounts contain little detail, and many of the diagnoses were made without medical consultation. As far as I know, no systematic, medically supervised study of the outcome of Christian Science healing has ever been performed.