Our chairperson for the evening gave us this topic last week when she said her struggle to find the healing Truth in a business problem was blocked by her core issues. She just couldn't seem to get beyond huge waves of anger over all facets of the situation, which she concluded must be freighted with a lot of historical baggage — i.e., her core issues.

We took some time to get clear what "core issues" are. It's a term used mainly by psychologists for the deepest psychic impairments to which most if not all surface debilities can be traced.

The concept can of course be bridged over into Christian Science if we understand core issues as the fundamental facts of being. As one Internet friend put it, "At the core we are all divine. Therefore the only possible core issue is to recognize our divinity. Dealing with any other core issue is not dealing with the core issue..."

The Readings included the ending verses of Psalm 91, as presented in three translations.(We have included only the King James Version here). A couple of members erupted at this point into such impassioned denunciations of the Old Testament that another suggested they had hit a core issue or at least a very hot button right here. It needed immediate soothing. Another member pointed out that we're dealing with the Lord God in the bulk of the Old Testament and cannot expect unclouded bliss in the hands of such a matter-based deity. It's always a fluctuating rendition of the true God in Genesis I. Kind of like parents or other mortals we have to interact with.

The chairperson then described her work on the business problem during the week. New difficulties arose and she spent one full day raging in every venue she has access to. She did feel better by nightfall and was beginning to get a scope on the childhood neglect and humiliation issues fueling the fury. She quoted this from a self-help book: "If it's hysterical, it's historical."

We went into a discussion of anger. A new member said it's a feminist issue: women are trained to shunt anger off into sadness and weeping. She's glad to have good access to her anger and lets it lead her in many circumstances.

Several members felt anger is illegitimate in Christian Science. One said we must impersonalize it and work to heal the situation seeming to cause it.

Another told of her recovery from paralyzing anger which seemed to spring from a sense of victimhood — both parents abandoned her as a baby — and powerlessness. She has worked assiduously to make real the Father Motherhood of God in her life. This needs constant attention; and for instance she has started studying the Christian Science Quarterly Weekly Bible Lessons again. The story of Joseph in Genesis is a beacon for her well-being.

A member now decided to talk of some recent revelations about his core problem of feelings of unacceptability and fear. He was the eldest of three children — a veritable King Baby for about five months, until his mother started to withdraw into a second pregnancy. The mother was manic depressive and the father sought sexual pleasure with his son, our member, who as a budding homosexual and a smarting "dethronee" responded with glee. This mutual accommodation went on for several years until a little sister arrived and the father was able to shift attention to someone more appropriate to his native heterosexuality. Our member is not clear as to whether sexual acts occurred and is OK with the Freudian notion of infant sexuality, building the whole thing up in fantasy. The tragedy is that no one then or even now is equipped to salve this situation on a psychological basis. The good news is of course that Christian Science can and will do the work.

He began the work at the meeting. He said he was glad to have his story so plain to him now. It's like the myth of Jesus or Osiris. These very human, material, earth bound god figures are language for the absolute Christ or sky god Re. Just as Genesis II can be said to depict in matter the absolute Truth of Geneses I. His own myth has behind it his own absolute Truth which will heal him.

Two members chose to keep their core issues private and work on them from that standpoint. One of these offered to describe what he saw of the other's major issue, but the intervention was refused as probably unhelpful.

One last member did describe his core issue which he called "lifelong feelings of unworthiness". These have been controlled by psychotherapy, pharmaceutical preparations and now spiritual means. He learned only a few years ago from his aged mother that his parents had intended to abort him — quite illegal at the time — but lost their nerve at the last moment.

Other members offered spiritual help. One said, "My problems are psychological, but the solutions are spiritual." Another recommended studying the Joseph story referred to earlier, to get clear that he's here by divine will, not the will of mortals, "...It was not you that sent me hither, but God." (Genesis 45:8)

Some additional healing incidents were reported.

1) One member lost much of her business and had to sell off possessions after 9/11. She has made quite a comeback based on Christian Science treatment. This week a client gave her a computer.

2) Another member has continued to work on fantasy scenes with his sex therapist. This week they acted as old man/young man lovers. They awaken with young man in a state of arousal demanding satisfaction from old man, who rallies, at first yawningly, to accommodate. They end with a brief nap, their bodies entwined. "Jung might refer to this as massaging the senex-puer axis but ultimately it's what Mary Baker Eddy says, 'Principle and its idea is one...'" (Science and Health, p. 465:17).

3) Another member tripped over a mammoth handbag thrown carelessly in the aisle of a cafe and plunged his hand into a pan of boiling water in an attempt to steady himself. He let out a shriek and yelled several times, "You narcissistic bitch!", looking at the offending owner of the bag. The manager came running to ask our member to pipe down or face the police. Cold water was requested for the hand and our member initiated prayerful treatment. The hand now appears normal and he is working to get some insight into where the statement he shouted at the cafe came from. Could it be mother? He's not sure yet.

We decided to go forward with Core Issues for another week — giving us a chance to work through more fully the stuff stirred up this week. Additionally some members want to give prayerful consideration to core issues in the present international situation, homeland security and investor confidence.