The images we used to get a spiritual handle on the Internet were Jesus and the disciples at the sea of Tiberius, the Prodigal Son (see the readings from Miscellaneous Writings and the Bible) and some figures from Greek mythology.

Like everyone else, our members are fascinated and excited by the overwhelming presence of the Internet — and concerned if not appalled at some of its excesses. One member, trying to be helpful to an attendee who has no access to the internet, asked him to bear with us while we delved into it, but was met with the response that he was very much interested in it since it affects everyone, with or without direct access.

The member who suggested the topic last week noted then that it's a symbol for the divine Mind. This week we quickly agreed it's also a symbol for mortal mind. Indeed, a better way of seeing it is as a human invention, which together with other human inventions, hints at the facts of being. These can be stated as the oneness and allness of God consciously apprehended as man.

Mortal mind's communication skills expressed as movement, speech, writing with all their electronic means of amplification have now evolved into the internet, where potentially everyone is in touch with everyone else. As with all things human this unfolding process has brought much clarity and joy to humanity but also uncertainty and gloom.

There have been a miraculous upsurge in communications between individuals — most notably among the cut off like Gay teens, elders and physically impaired — and information facilitating scholarship. Businesses have been able to reduce costs by comparison shopping and manage inventories optimally. But there have also been troubling increases in faulty data, underage romantic entanglements and hate materials.

Furthermore, the collapse of many dot-coms and their shaky business plans have left employees, investors and now many hardware and software companies stranded. Lately the general economy seems at risk. The passage quoted in the readings from Miscellaneous Writings (the member who brought it in changed the word "net" to " internet" as he read it) depict well the turmoil but also the potential spiritual triumph.

"What on earth were we thinking with all the hype and those outlandish stock prices?" sighed one member. "And all the elitism and arrogance as we saw our businesses or stock quotes climbing and thought ourselves geniuses?" Here the Prodigal Son story could give some comfort. Not only was the son who went away to wreck his life brought back into alignment with the one I or Us, but his brother too had some growing to do — out of passivity and envy into a fuller appreciation of his at-one-ment with the Father.

This was the point in the meeting where we looked at some mythological figures to see whether there was any benefit in the experience of leaving our cushy home in Spirit to establish a human sense of accomplishment before returning to the fold. We looked first at Icarus and Phaeton, both of whom died for their hubris. Then Prometheus, who stole fire for mankind and was punished, but eventually reconciled to Zeus, without having to recant his infraction. Was there a hint in his unselfishness? Yes, we thought — particularly as we looked at Jesus and Mrs. Eddy, both of whom could easily have foregone human activity and personality to be "spiritual" but chose to venture forth into humanhood and risk all for the betterment of mankind. Can we be forgiving of ourselves and others caught in the internet craze and simply revision the whole thing as a needed venture unto "... the ever-agitated but healthful waters of truth"? (Science and Health, pg. 254:27)

There is much still to be accomplished by the internet and we need clear-sighted Christian Scientists and others to help guide the next jump in bandwidth. Eventually our meetings will be available for instantaneous electronic attendance, first with cameras, then perhaps through holography or teleportation. We speculated that delivering products themselves — and even people — depends on the breadth of bandwidth. How could we predict this? Because the Science is clear: each person, place and thing is already an infinite eternal divine idea and the internet will stumble along rendering ever clearer versions of this fact. (One member pointed out that the components of the word internet have these meanings: Inter has three meanings — between, in the midst of, and mutual; net's roots are about binding or tying).

Our Christian Science group got online in 1997 and started putting meeting notes up on the site right away. We always wanted more people at the meetings, but found over time that our best number is 6 or 8 people. This gives everyone an opportunity to share and we can go fairly deep with our topics. Our internet initiative then allows us to share our findings, to encourage others to start and keep going with groups like ours. High emotions often erupt at the meetings and we enjoy letting this be seen in all its discomfort.

As some of us bemoaned our stock market losses, one member told of his decision to shift his entire portfolio into CD's last year just before the Nasdaq cracked, based on some kind of inspiration he could not fully explain. He says he'll be ready to move back into the market when he "feels" the inspiration. Jaws dropped — but one enterprising member recommended we (why not he?) set this member up as a subscription-only investment guru. Now let's see — newyorkchristiansciencestocksdotcom....

Next week we'll work on Normality — admittedly a stretch.