Man in Science, man the idea of God, neither eats to live nor lives to eat, but is already and forever at the point of perfection. It was helpful to keep this reality of being in thought as we considered Food, which is so much a part of our everyday lives and so rich in meanings beyond its nutritive role.

Some of our members are prone to overeating and carrying extra weight: this problem was the origin of our interest in the topic. One of these members had saved and brought in two copies of the Christian Science Sentinel, dated September 8, 1997 and March 30, 1987, addressing diet and exercise. In both cases through article and testimony the points are driven home that satisfaction, health, beauty and well being derive from God. The work in Science is to take the little book (see Science and Health, p. 559) and eat it rather than engage in rigorous dieting; to exercise our divine authority to reflect satisfaction and so forth.

Another member described his journey through Weight Watchers and Overeaters Anonymous to let go of seventy pounds and then keep it off for 23 years. A great deal of emotional release was necessary to stave off nervous munching and of course practical food choices were essential. In neither program was there ever any push to diet — the whole emphasis was on learning to live with food on a daily basis, making use of it but not being its slave. Christian Science brought serenity and satisfaction to this project.

Several members said they did not relate to food as an addictive substance, but one allowed that he had a voracious appetite for men and cruising. He could understand the draw food had for the others in terms of his own desires. A member familiar with Freud's work pointed out that oral drives are mostly displaced into other areas of our lives — for instance in curiosity, acquisitiveness, hunger for knowledge or power, and as we see here, in cruising for someone to incorporate. Another member told us of seeing a man at the gym just this week and feeling literally salivary attraction to him. In reverie later he realized it didn't have a sexual feel to it at all — it was an oral thing. He recalled a remark by Jung that Eros wants feeding with feeling and care, not just sex.

We discussed briefly the more negative displacements of oral energy — anorexia, sarcasm (i.e., biting), and contempt (i.e., spitting out). But whether one acts directly on his food drives or through displacement there is healing in Science. A member pulled out his Christian Science Quarterly to read us these verses for the responsive reading part of the Lesson on "Doctrine of Atonement":

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever" (I John 2:16,17).

In the present context he read these as directing the sufferer to pull back all the projections he's making ("the world") and live them in their non-dualistic form ("the Father" or "will of God").

Regarding famine, there is a kind of argument traveling through economist circles that the developed world should not help those caught in a famine since such help only promotes indolence which leads to further calls for assistance and so on. Perhaps something can be done to both assist and promote self-reliance, but in Science we saw that whether we seem self-reliant or indolent, in reality it is infinite all-present substance that supplies all needs. The only Self that is reliant is God, reflected by all.

Devouring mothers or organizations were discussed. The Science beneath such horrors — angels entertained unawares — was beautifully expressed by Meister Eckhart in his German Sermons and Treatises: "The bodily food we take is changed into us, but the spiritual food we receive changes us into itself; therefore divine love is not taken into us, for that would make two things. But divine love takes us into itself, and we are one with it...".

The religious symbolism of food came up. The bread and wine, Jesus saying he is the bread of life (John 6: 35) — that sort of thing. We talked of god-eating ceremonies in several religions — e. g., in the pyramid texts the dead king is instructed to eat all the gods in sight to assure his immortality. We marveled at the symbol of Christ Jesus which brings together not only the vegetative gods like Osiris, Ceres and Demeter but also the solar gods like Ra and the Aten. He is both absolute (Christ) and practical (Jesus) as is his modern equivalent, Christian Science.

We rejoiced in having access through Christian Science to the absolute vision of man as the reflection of God — this is the truth behind food and eating. And we also acknowledged the needed hard work of "..striving to assimilate more of the divine character...until we awake in His likeness" (Science and Health, p. 4: 20-22).

For next week we want to look at the other end of the alimentary system, its symbolism and displacements, in the light of Science. Our topic will be Elimination.