The writings of Ms. Beals focus on how to use the healing power of prayer in Christian Science. Many books and papers expand on the metaphysics found in Science and Health and offer profound insights into them. But how to make such understanding your own, how to pray effectively, has not been too well explained. The concept of treatment that Mrs. Eddy gave her students and her instructions on handling animal magnetism need to be better understood, and these writings are especially useful on how to do this work.
Ann Beals is a life-long Christian Scientist. Her family came into Christian Science through a healing she had before she was a year old. Doctors could not diagnose the illness or cure it. She seemed about to pass on when her mother called in a Christian Science practitioner who prayed for her until she regained consciousness. Within a short time she was completely healed. Her parents then took up the study of Christian Science and the family attended First Church of Christ, Scientist in Louisville, Kentucky. During her early years she had several healings of extremely serious illnesses through reliance on Christian Science. In time her father, Harry Smith, became a Christian Science teacher and lecturer.
After serving in the branch church in Decatur, Georgia, in different functions, she became a Christian Science practitioner, listed in The Christian Science Journal. She also contributed articles to the Christian Science periodicals.
Early in her practice work, she realized the need for writings that explained more fully how to demonstrate Christian Science. As she watched the steady decline of the Christian Science Church, her concern for the future of the movement led her, in 1974, to publish independently of the Church organization her booklet Animal Magnetism.
She moved to California in 1977. In 1980, she started The Bookmark with the conviction that the time had come when deeper writings on Christian Science had to be published and made available to everyone. For nearly forty years she published and promoted many works on Christian Science.
