Audrey
[Second in a series]
Seeds for this article were planted last summer at a Christian Science camp reunion in Maine…during a pandemic…
The author and Audrey Davis at camp reunion September 2021
Since Christian Scientists are not known for taking vaccines (essentially they don’t believe in assigning power to any physical medicine) my radar was buzzing. As the conversation grew around this topic of vaccines, my friends around the picnic table started to disclose their vaccination status seemingly in a whisper. I was looking over my shoulder.
On one hand, you wanted to make each other feel comfortable. On the other hand, you didn’t know who was still practicing the religion. We didn’t want them to be outed with the possibility of being judged as a bad Christian Scientist. At least that was my take. In my experience growing up, judging others was a sport for many in the church and perfection was the bar.
During this vaccine conversation, a friend spoke about a time that he was forcibly vaccinated during the polio outbreak at my high school. My jaw fell and time stood still. First of all, how had I never heard about this major incident at my high school just seven years before I arrived?! And second of all, there’s no way that would fly today in the wackadoodle political climate.
Audrey Davis is a good friend of mine who happened to be at that camp reunion AND had lived through that outbreak at school. I was eager to hear her point of view. We spoke earlier this year by zoom and in person, in southern California (where the wild parrots came to life!) -CR
I was 12 and had just started the 8th grade in September 1972.
How did you wind up at Daycroft?
We’d been living in Brookfield, Connecticut on Candlewood Lake (NE of Danbury).
I must have been in the 7th grade when my mother caught me hitchhiking home and I was smoking. She said, ‘That’s it!’
Audrey, as a tween, looking like she may have taken the cookie from the cookie jar
How did your family get into C.S.?
My mom’s mom was a Scientist, Helen. Her mom was one of the first practitioners in Vermont. Grandpa wanted nothing to do with C.S.
Audrey’s dad got into the religion for her mom, while she and her two brothers were alternately in and out of Sunday School.
How did you first learn about the outbreak on campus?
I heard my parents talking about it. They were house parents (f1) in the boys dormitory and talking about travel arrangements for the boys. “Some boys had to leave.”
Could you describe the atmosphere?
A Sort of Hush
All you could tell is, you could feel something had happened.
[Video Transcript: The atmosphere in school in the Fall is filled with excitement and everyone’s expecting a great year. I think it’s a happy time, but things got solemn, quickly, and quiet. There was just sort of a hush. Nobody was really talking about it. But you could feel there was something tense in the atmosphere. That’s when I started listening to what the adults were talking about.]
The Zack Incident
How this reached me on a personal level was I went over on a Saturday morning to pick up my brother and take him to breakfast. He’s a little guy. He wasn’t in his bed where I usually found him.
Audrey found her 6-year-old brother Zack in their parents’ bed. He was scared and crying. He had no feeling in his body from his neck down. He was surrounded by his parents, the headmaster Cobbey Crisler and a C.S. practitioner (f2).
My father may have used the word polio. I asked what I should do and they told me to go back to my dormitory and do some metaphysical work. I was in the 8th grade, so I don’t know how effective that was, but I returned to my room and tried to keep my thought clear.
State Health Authorities did an investigation afterwards and traced the onset to the fruit punch cooler in the gym basement…Do you think Zack contracted it there?
He spent a lot of time in the gym. That makes perfect sense that’s where he contracted it.
What was Ed and Marsha’s (Audrey’s parents) relationship with medicine at this time?
My older brother Sam and I were inoculated. I’m not sure about Zack. But at the dorm, these were all her boys. This was hard for her. She had to hold firm to the understanding of Christian Science. As a parent you’re fearful. Just get the vaccination for everybody. Ed was new to Science. He wasn’t raised in it. He was prepared for most things presented to him, but this one, he was unprepared for this.
In the meantime, their dad wanted to get out of the apartment, get some air and remove themselves from the atmosphere, so they put Zack in the back seat of the car and drove while their mom read from the Science and Health (the C.S. founder’s interpretation of the Bible), praying the whole time.
At dinner time, I decided to see what happened while I was away and found my brother in full control of his body. Zack had all his feeling back. He was standing. Any evidence of the previous issue had disappeared, and he was 100 percent. He went to dinner with me that night. He had no repercussions. It was over.
In speaking with my brother, years later, he doesn’t remember the incident. He doesn’t recall that day, but I do.
Zack admitted his memory of being 6 was fuzzy, like most of us. He said the polio incident was more of a story that was told to him. It’s not that Zack doubts the words, it’s just that it’s really his sister’s story, not his. And he wondered if there were some scientific explanation for what happened.
Impact
You would have to really understand Christian Science, and the power and ability of prayer to solve physical issues. But…
[Video Transcript: …this was an astounding thing for me to watch. A Christian Science healing is what I attribute it to, what I stand by today and what I witnessed with my eyes. Through prayer and metaphysical work, I believe my brother was healed.
How did that affect your relationship with God and religion going forward? Did that change at all?
If anything, it fortified my belief and supported my understanding of what I was learning in Christian Science. And to witness something like that, of that magnitude, is pretty amazing. Honestly. I know that Christian Science when rightly applied could heal polio.]
Over the last 50 years, dozens of people have testified that they have been healed of polio in the C.S. publication, the Christian Science Sentinel — a thin weekly magazine launched by Mary Baker Eddy in 1898. It includes articles, editorials, and accounts of healings from a Christian Science point of view.
Remnants
Eventually some of the afflicted children came back to Daycroft. Most had spent time at home addressing their situations with their families.
Some trickled back to school. For the most part, we got beyond it and school got back to normal and things were fine, but you did, you saw remnants of what happened. And some kids never came back.
David Kennedy was in a wheelchair; Larry lost use of his arm; Beth Inman had walking aids and had mobility issues. That senior class was just… (trails off).
I remember Larry was this big football player. We had a pretty good team. I remember seeing him on campus afterward. He reminded me of Andre the Giant (celebrity professional wrestler), a sweet guy. I remember feeling like he was broken, defenseless. Then you had Kennedy who was popping wheelies in his wheelchair. It was seeing those boys come back that struck me. And I was close to the whole Inman family. I knew them all and that affected me too.
I remember talking to Kennedy in his wheelchair when he came back to school. I said, ‘Hey David, are you going to have a healing?’ He said, ‘Fuck that. I got a problem now.’ He was quick to own it.
Quarrantine
As a student it was intense. Our field hockey field was right at the edge of the school where you entered campus.
So Audrey would be practicing with the field hockey team while helicopters flew overhead and reporters with camera crews clamored at the campus front gate for a word.
We were instructed not to speak to them, not to give them anything to talk about or answer any questions.
In the basement of the girls dorm, we were watching television and I remember (news anchor )Walter Cronkite talking about it on the evening news. I was like, ‘Wow, this is a big deal.’ Mostly, I remember the hovering helicopters.
What were your views of the headmaster (Cobbey Crisler)? Did your parents have a good relationship with him?
Daycroft headmaster B. Cobbey Cristler and Football Coach Victor Crump
Mr. Crisler was respected and revered. I have only good things to say. He was a metaphysician and a Harvard scholar. In the polio situation, he maintained calm and handled it well. Parents felt they were in good hands with him. He worked with those who needed to know.
The C.S. Response
Audrey recalled an assembly where the headmaster Cobbey Crisler spoke about maintaining calm and keeping thought in a good place…
…which means highlighting man’s perfection and seeing through the illusion of the disease. We basically weren’t supposed to talk about it or give it power. We were supposed to keep our thinking positive and uplifted, but they said don’t elaborate, don’t sit around and dissect it. Keep your focus on school and good things.
As far as today’s Church response goes, the manager of Committee on Publications Kevin Ness said:
Because you are writing about something that took place 50 years ago, and there isn’t anyone working at The Mother Church currently who was working here at that time, we don’t have specific information or perspective to offer.
A Christian Scientific View
How would a Scientist refer to this disease?
Animal magnetism. They would think of it as an aggressive mental thought more than a physical manifestation. So you pray to control your thought and not let in the illusion of disease.
To Vax or Not to Vax
We were instructed by the CDC that we all would have to be vaccinated. We were required by law to do this. So in compliance, we were all vaccinated. Part of the religion is to be law-abiding. We’re not anti-vaccers, things like that. We’re instructed to comply with the law. (The Christian Science Committee on Publications which handles media inquiries has a policy position statement on their website regarding vaccines.)
Mr. Ness, told me this way:
To us, it’s an honest and heart-felt statement of the values that the practice of Christian Science genuinely stands for. This includes respect for each individual and family making the health care choices they feel are best for them. And certainly the health and safety of each individual — of course including children — is of the utmost importance to us.
Our hearts sincerely go out to all those who are reflecting and thinking deeply about these important topics, which we are too.
What do you think of mandated vaccinations?
I have my card and COVID shots. Whatever your religious beliefs, there’s a bigger group of people at stake. You’re part of a community.
A lot of kids at Daycroft didn’t want to get any shot. I didn’t feel like that. Whatever de-escalates this, was my thinking. Nobody likes needles, right? Nobody wants to be the test rat either, right, regarding COVID? But polio vaccines had been around awhile.
How do you reflect back on the experience now?
I’ve been interested to talk with current students and faculty on how they viewed it. I witnessed a healing. I believe my brother was healed completely. Another student who played the organ got paralysis in his arms and had a complete recovery through prayer too.
It would be interesting to get a roomful of people together of who was there and work through it. Instead, we’ve had to figure it out on our own. I wish there was more support.
The crazy thing is, as a family, we weren’t invited to our aunts and uncles that Thanksgiving because we had been exposed. So we just did our own thing in Canada that year.
Footnotes
House Parents
You had “house parents” in the boys and girls dormitories watching over about 60 boys and 60 girls each. There were two sets of house parents on each floor, one on either end. They looked out for trouble, but students always flooded their apartments, making brownies, watching Monty Python, listening to CSNY, or just hanging out and gabbing because the students were bored. It was a FULL-time job.
2. C.S. Practitioner
A Christian Science practitioner is essentially a metaphysician who treats maladies with prayer. They are certified by the church after attending special instruction, providing references and a verified healing from prayerful treatment.