"Let's be clear — we're not talking about objective body appearances tonight; we're talking about our own internalized body image."

"OK. Appearances and inner images can be quite different. Many people carry around terrible images of themselves but are actually quite attractive. One member last week mentioned looking at pictures of himself from years back and thinking how cute he was; but he also recalled thinking of himself as unattractive when the pictures were taken."

"Is that low self esteem?"

"I guess. And it's said to have many causes — from browbeating parents to nasty peers."

"All those Olympic bodies give me a 'plex."

"Yeah, but if you get into the action and achievements, the perfect bodies seem more like vehicles for divine qualities."

"I can't imagine anyone wanting to be with me for sex or romance. I just don't have the right package of alluring attributes."

"But men and women come on to you all the time. They love your charisma and humor, not to mention your ways with song and dance."

"Yes there are some turn-ons, particularly if we broaden the topic to include feelings of mental and spiritual self worth."

"Well, you've hit on an area where I'm shaky. I often withhold my comments in political and intellectual discussions. And I almost never share Christian Science with newcomers for fear of being seen as a fool."

"How would you work to heal that?"

"Well, I can remember handing out fliers to a church lecture once. I was embarrassed at first, but then I let Spirit lead and not only did it become an easier task, but people actually responded with interest."

"Maybe we could let the same kind of spiritual surrender happen in ordinary mental and even romantic outreaches. I mean let those be God's business too."

"A couple of friends shared interesting experiences with me during the week. One has a poor body image based on some excess weight, but he was at a hotel which had a pool, so he bought a bathing suit and dared to prance about in all his glory. I think it was liberating for him. The other friend said he's learning to pay attention to how he feels in the presence of various people — how they relate to him and he to them. When he feels good, he moves closer. When he feels something amiss, he moves away."

"Let's get some ideas working to heal poor body or mental self images."

"I'd say we need to keep the focus not just on ourselves — as they say in most 12-Step rooms — but on our divine selves. And not only our own but everyone's divine selfhood."

"The readings from Genesis really moved me. I've heard them a million times but this time I was stunned to realize how shallow my understanding of humankind has been. We're the image and likeness of God — His full expression. I'd like to really embody what I've talked of many times — intimate infinity: to have it control my motives and actions."

"Do the newcomers have something they'd like to say?"

"Yes, thanks. I got into Christian Science in college but later spent most of my energy practicing Hinduism and Buddhism — particularly Tibetan. They're wonderful and opened my understanding, but eventually I came back to Christian Science as the highest teaching."

"What brought you back?"

"I guess I always had an intellectual understanding of God as Spirit, but just couldn't get why there was matter and suffering. The Eastern religions helped me deal with that question and showed me how to be compassionate with suffering even as I knew its unreality. Ultimately, for me, Christian Science promised a logical way out of matter and suffering. When I came back I particularly studied the Glossary definitions of God, Christ and Adam in Science and Health. Suddenly one day I had a revelation, at the gut level, of the allness of Spirit and the nothingness of matter. I saw clearly that the impact of matter or Spirit on us depends completely on our point of view. They coexist — and we have the choice: hell or full salvation now. If we choose hell — well, no matter — a minute later we can choose Heaven instead."

"What are some differences between Christian Science and the Eastern religions you participated in?"

"Christian Science sees us as individual. Also integration of the divine and the human is different. The human is not an illusion in Christian Science."

"And our other newcomer?"

"Well, I'm interested in exploring reincarnation and past-life experiences through Christian Science."

"Classical Christian Science denies reincarnation but that may be because of Mrs. Eddy's strong Christian background and the prejudices of her times. She has some pretty awful things to say about other religions in the textbook, and we just pass them by today."

"Well, reincarnation makes logical sense — it would help us understand other ways of being. If I was a man in the last life and a woman this time — a white person this time and a black one the next — it'd open my feelings to others and their way of seeing things."

"What if I came back as an ant?"

"You just do the best you can."

"Who can say what mode of belief mortal mind might come up with? The process of growth towards our full fledged divinity might include that."

"I've been studying a paper by Bicknell Young demonstrating that we have the same body forever. Body is being, identity, activity. If we look beyond fading finite forms we find that man is body."

"Can we get a copy of that paper? I'd like to put it up on our site."

"Yes. I'll send it to you."

"It's an odd thing but I still think of myself as a fat person even though it's been 25 years since I took the weight off. It's a kind of embedded body image."

"You might be able to dislodge that image with the passage on page 424 of Science and Health about accidents — in this case, fat — being unknown to immortal Mind. We have to 'leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.'"

"Do you feel better about yourself as a slender person?"

"Sure, but you know I'd developed a coterie of fat-worshippers back then who fled as the pounds dropped off. I was angry and sad but it forced me to come to grips with losing and keeping the weight off for me — not for some illusive 'them.'"

"I've got a friend who seems interested in Christian Science when we talk about it — but he's not into reading. How can I help him along?"

"What's his current religion?"

"He's Catholic, but sees the church as a kind of gangster organization."

"Does he still believe in some of its tenets?"

"Yes, he showed me his Catechism last year and read me some very scientific things from it."

"Well, here's a suggestion: take one or two of its fundamental beliefs and deconstruct them in Christian Science. Like the virgin birth or divinity of Jesus."

"Mrs. Eddy did honor the virgin birth — but wasn't that a mere concession to the age? As for any divinity of Jesus, that would not be Science."

"Good. That's a start. But you could take it much deeper. Virginity is emptiness or the void through which the body of God can appear. Jesus is the body of God — as are we all. The presence, power, knowing and action that constitute Deity is the I that is Us."

"Whoa!"

"That's quantum physics — no?"

"Yep, that's where we're all heading — science and religion, one."

"Most people don't see God the way we do — as totally good."

"No, at least not initially. But the logic of Science is irrefutable. Could a partially evil God maintain a universe that didn't quickly grind itself into chaos?"

"I was hoping to get something from the meeting to help me evaluate my feelings when I'm attracted to someone. Is it spiritual or material?"

"I think it could be either — or both. It all depends on your standpoint — or let me say, our standpoint, because I'm in the same boat."

"One safe thing to do is to seek the divine idea which the attraction hints at. Is it oneness, wholeness? Or perhaps it's some intermediary step like a part of myself inaccessible in any other way than through an attraction to someone out there?"

"As I've grown in my understanding and practice of Science I've come to realize that a romantic attachment without a strong spiritual element wouldn't work for me. It'd fall apart right away."

"Our meeting needs to end now — but I think I hear a topic emerging for next time."

"Celibacy?"

"How about the more general theme of Attraction — in all its manifestations, including celibacy for those who wish to explore it?"

"OK."