This was our first meeting at the remodeled Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Center on West 13th Street. In its beautiful and luxurious recreation, it barely hints at the austere spaces we left for temporary quarters three years ago.

The topic Destiny arose last meeting as we considered the move back to 13th Street. It's a dressed-up form of such rejected possibilities as Homecoming and Destination, which continued to exert their own gravitational pull on our study and practice.

Our readings clearly show the depth Christian Science brings to the biblical concept of predestination, a subject Mary Baker Eddy, raised a Calvinist, knew well in its deleterious classical form. (The Britannica says it's the "doctrine that God has eternally chosen whom he intends to save and whom to damn.") It's hardly stretching the truth to say that her recovery from a life of invalidism resulted from throwing off this belief in favor of the fact that man is the full reflection of God, good.

A couple of members pointed to an interesting wrinkle here. Yes, man in Science is perfect, therefore beyond any need for salvation. The mortal belief about man — or his fictional rendition, where most of us still think we live — is in desperate need of being saved or transcended. The quote from Science and Health, p. 428:22-28, in our readings artfully weaves back and forth from the divine to the human, indicating our absolute destiny but also the scope of the problem getting there. So we have to be frank in assessing how we're living ourselves and careful about where absolute statements of Science are coming from — our true self or its material counterfeit.

This carried us into a discussion about the emphasis in Christian Science on the Ten Commandments. The religion's origins are in the 19th century and Mrs. Eddy was touchy about charges of immorality by her critics, but as we thought about how we'd feel as the victim of theft, murder, misjudgment, envy and adultery, this simple code drew much less flak. Jesus and Mrs. Eddy boiled the commandments down to two — to love God supremely and our neighbor as our self. (See Matthew 22: 35-40 and Science and Health, p. 340: 15-29).

One member observed that the sins proscribed in the commandments arise from a dualistic "take" on life, where all sorts of problems can and do come up. We need to keep ourselves aligned with divine facts to avoid a sinful mindset.

Another member said we were veering way off topic with all this talk of sin, but it was soon apparent that sin and eternal damnation are important aspects of any discussion of destiny. And it's not just a concern of the orthodox. We recalled this statement from Science and Health: "Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self." (p. 296:6-9) Most felt we'd experience both suffering and Science in working out our salvation.

A member then brought up how much our lives seem to be at the effect of material determinism. For instance genes, upbringing, race, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, birth religion. Our human destinies are hugely affected by the law operating in these and so many other areas. We even touched on astrology, numerology and other arcane systems.

One member says he uses what Mrs. Eddy says of astrology and spiritualism to debunk material laws, where appropriate. Here's a quote: "Astrology is well in its place, but this place is secondary." (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 334: 5-6) Thus genes, race, sexual orientation — or say, weather or stock market forecasts —  are well in their place, but they are effect, never cause, of my at-one-ment with Deity.

A couple of absolute statements of destiny emerged:

1) My destiny is to live in belief, as I do in fact, my true Selfhood — or rather be lived by it: never influencing or being influenced by anyone or anything, but including all — as they include me — as divine idea.

2) Christian Science is the actual experience of reality; it's not a philosophy about or search for reality. Pain and problems are dualistic modes of identifying that I'm here and functioning. Just eliminate the dualism from the experience and there'll be healing.

A member made an interesting point about age. He held up his hand and asked how old it was. He then said that as matter it's as old as the universe and as divine idea it's as old as God.

Two healings were reported:

1) One member experiencing erratic income flow discovered that if she would stand before a mirror and give herself a treatment, there was a far greater effect than when she merely sits with her eyes closed in prayer. She recalled Mrs. Eddy's illustration of the Christian Science teaching on reflection. Here man before a mirror takes various actions which are reflected exactly in the mirror. Thus the action of God is reflected by man. (See Science and Health, p. 515: 25-8). This technique was endorsed by another member who had the healing of a tumor as he wept and prayed before his mirror some years ago. It occurred to another member that this way of praying would be helpful for those who were narcissistically wounded as children, receiving inappropriate or insufficient mirroring from parents.

2) As a member walked through a park recently he saw an ex-lover absorbed in reading and passed by unnoticed. A few moments later he asked himself why he hadn't said hello but quickly realized there was nothing to do now on the superficial social level. He also realized that the healing from this relationship was virtually complete — all the pain and turmoil were gone; but there remained one grand step to take. He now needed to retire the projected divine energies he had allowed to remain "in" this person. As he did this, feelings of joy, forgiveness and infinity rose from deep within and he was free.

For next week we fished a bit for a topic but finally settled on Demonstrating Love.