Christian Science teaches that mortals need regeneration but man, or God's conscious self-experience, does not. To be regenerated, reborn or renewed we have to focus on and live out from the facts of being and not treat ourselves and others as mortals seeking (and even achieving) improvement. Either improvement or deterioration may be the appearance, but it is mortals who see it.

The underlying meaning of regeneration is to be reborn, to find new parentage. This is an old Christian belief, but it can be put to use in Science as well, for it points to our true source, Spirit. Birth, death, the after-life and reincarnation seemed to us more acute forms of the basic quest for rebirth or an attempt to come to grips with the truth of eternal Life, in and of the Spirit. The student of Christian Science will translate these concepts into the spiritual reality, and live it

One member, taking the tack that problems are an indication that God would not allow us to remain satisfied in a material sense of existence, said " God must really love me, for me to have all these problems." He went on to show us how he was working in Science to lift himself out of fluctuating mortal models, by discerning the divine ideas emerging in the seeming problems. A couple of interesting tools in the form of statements a member heard on a Margaret Laird tape then came up. Here they are: 1) "As subject, I'm unaware of myself as object." 2) "In order to drop conditioned thinking (i.e., mortal mind) do unconditioned thinking (i.e., divine Mind)." Faithful practice of these techniques, our member felt, would promote rebirth and agreeable appearance shifts.

A member brought the following statement from Science and Health to our attention: "The verity that God's image is not a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God, constitutes the underlying reality of reflection" (p. 305:13-15). He then substituted the words "lover" and "Love" for "creator" and "creation". We toyed with other concepts as well — any human concept could be handled in the same way, even "church". This approach takes these desirable objects out of the hands of duality and lets them flow from God alone.

Recent elections in Russia and Taiwan and visits by the Pope to the Middle East and the President to South Asia were seen as chemicalizing or regenerative events. As Scientists, we took the further step to see them as perfection coming to light — or better, as perfection being all there is.

Likewise the rather confused "60 Minutes" segment dealing with Medicare for Christian Scientists in sanatorium care. Was this merely a hatchet job or a deeper issue emerging? Some of us felt its insulting tenor could spark a revolt against the basically medical notion of collapsing into a government financed stupor.

We spent some time on Elian, the Cuban boy in Miami. A great deal of passion arose, much of it expressed in the language of the current political scene. One visitor questioned where all this energy was coming from and our resident Jungian quickly sprung into action to point out that our child archetype, buried in the unconscious, had seized us by the throat. We could be of no help while under the influence of this dualistic control mechanism. But the energy now boiling up could be put behind the Science of the divine child idea, expressed throughout Scripture, for instance as follows: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). "Are we still searching diligently to find where the young child lies, and are we satisfied to know that our sense of Truth is not demoralized, finitized, cribbed, or cradled, but has risen to grasp the spiritual idea unenvironed by materiality?" (Miscellany, p. 122:18-22).

These healings were reported:

1) Part of last week's healing of a member's dog came to light this week. A much beloved dog had died some years back from a disease which his present pet seemed to be exhibiting. As our member thought about the healing he realized that each dog was an individual idea of God, unlinked by any mortal beliefs.

2) A member's boss suddenly unleashed a lot of anger on him. He was able to keep steady, loving vigil as the abuse unfolded. He did not react but went on about his duties. A little later the whole thing had blown over and the boss was proclaiming what a good employee he is.

3) Two members contacted each other as the Nasdaq stock market fell into a swoon on Thursday. They shared the facts about the divine economy being the only economy there ever was or could be. It's Love in action, or omni action, ordered and controlled by God, Principle, alone. The stock market is an indicator of the health of the economy. What is the health of the divine economy, and therefore its indicators?

We ran out of time as a member was ready to tell us of his sexual healing through love, or was it Love? Anyway, we decided to take this as our topic, Love and Sex, for next week.