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Val Kilmer: Hollywood Icon’s Faith and Battle with Illness
Renowned Hollywood actor Val Kilmer’s passing at 65 due to pneumonia triggered an outpouring of sadness from colleagues and admirers. The star’s death followed an eleven-year struggle with throat cancer, an ailment he initially kept private while navigating a challenging health journey influenced by his Christian Science beliefs.
Kilmer’s Christian Science Faith
Throughout his health challenges, Kilmer found comfort in Christian Science, a 19th-century American religious movement. This doctrine posits that ailments originate in the mind and prioritizes prayer as the primary method of healing, often instead of conventional medical treatment.
Upon his cancer diagnosis, Kilmer initially adhered to his faith’s principles, seeking recovery solely through prayer. However, he eventually opted for medical intervention for the well-being of his children, undergoing a tracheotomy, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.
In 2017, years after his diagnosis, Kilmer publicly disclosed his cancer fight, attributing his improved health to ‘love’ and ‘prayer’.
The Tenets of Christian Science
Founded in Boston in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, known to Kilmer as ‘Mrs. Eddy’, the Church Of Christ, Scientist, centers on specific beliefs. Eddy’s foundational text of Christian Science asserts, ‘Sickness is a belief, which must be annihilated by the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the body.’
Criticism and Controversy
The Christian Science belief system has encountered considerable debate over time. Mark Twain, one of Kilmer’s admired figures, was a notable critic of Mary Baker Eddy. Kilmer was so fascinated by their conflict that he developed a stage production exploring their relationship.
Twain critically assessed Christian Science, describing its central writing as, ‘For of all the strange and frantic and incomprehensible and uninterpretable books which the imagination of man has created, surely this one is the prize sample.’
Faith vs. Modern Medicine
While not completely forbidding contemporary medicine, Christian Science generally discourages it, advocating prayer as a more desirable alternative for healing.
The faith faced public scrutiny following the 1937 death of actress Jean Harlow at age 26 from kidney failure. Rumors falsely circulated that Harlow’s Christian Scientist mother prevented her from seeking medical care.
Kilmer’s Upbringing and Personal Grief
Born in 1959, Val Kilmer was raised in suburban Los Angeles by devout Christian Scientist parents. He maintained his adherence to the religion throughout his life.
Kilmer’s faith provided solace during personal tragedies, including the grief he experienced after the death of his younger brother Wesley, who suffered from epilepsy and died by drowning at age 15.
Turning Point and Medical Intervention
Kilmer recounted a transformative experience at 24, claiming to have had a vision of an angel replacing his heart with a larger one.
Throat cancer was initially diagnosed in 2014, with speculation regarding his condition arising the following year.
It was in 2017, during a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ session, that Kilmer publicly confirmed his ‘healing of cancer’.
Subsequently, it became known that he had undergone medical treatments—a tracheotomy, chemotherapy, and radiation—despite his religious convictions.
Post-treatment, Kilmer relied on a tracheostomy and feeding tube and experienced speech difficulties, humorously comparing his altered voice to that of a ‘pirate.’
In 2023, Kilmer revealed his initial plan upon cancer discovery was to collaborate with a Christian Science practitioner for prayer-based healing to address his physical suffering.
He changed his approach for his children, daughter Mercedes, 33, and son Jack, 29, with former wife and Willow co-star Joanne Whalley, who were concerned about his well-being.
Mercedes and Jack, not Christian Scientists, worried about their father foregoing medical treatment, leading him to consent to surgery.
‘I just didn’t want to experience their fear, which was profound,’ Kilmer stated to the New York Times. ‘I would’ve had to go away, and I just didn’t want to be without them.’
Recovery and Reflections on Faith
During the 2017 Reddit AMA, when asked about his experience for his fans, Kilmer emphasized ‘prayer’ and ‘love’ for his recovery, notably omitting mention of his medical treatments, though he acknowledged his doctors’ participation in prayer.
‘People that know I am a Christian Scientist make the assumption that I have somehow endangered myself,’ he commented.
‘But many many people have been healed by prayer throughout recorded history. And many many people have died by whatever was modern medicine.’
He then recalled a conversation with Dr. Bernard Lown, the developer of the modern cardiac defibrillator.
Kilmer recounted asking Lown about ‘the most important thing for a doctor to do when a patient fears for their life.’
According to Kilmer, Lown responded emotionally, saying, ‘”Fluff their pillow. That what I tell all the interns. LOVE. Love heals. More than any other skills, I urge them to LOVE the life they are entrusted to save.”‘
The Power of Love and Prayer
Kilmer asserted that Lown’s emphasis on love aligned with ‘Mrs. Eddy’s understanding of the teachings of Jesus,’ and shared his own experiences of ‘hearings thru relying solely on prayer,’ even during times of doubt.
Love, he wrote, represented ‘an unspeakable sense of universal support’ during his hospital stay. ‘Even 2 of my doctors mentioned praying with me, for me.’
He acknowledged negative perceptions surrounding his beliefs: ‘Sometimes people are surprisingly mean about this sort of talk. Maybe they mix it up in their minds with extremists. People screaming with signs in front of Planned Parenthood or something.’
Kilmer clarified his perspective: ‘Thats not my sense of Christianity. Or most peoples regardless of their religion. Any more than a Muslim identified themselves with the madness of a suicide bomber spreading fear in the name of Allah…’