In working with our topic Oneness, our intention was to get beyond the scrim of duality which so roils the world to the underlying levers of power and perfection resident in and as the one Ego or God.

It was difficult to get the meeting started. Our chairperson designate was unable to attend and we needed to select a stand-in. Then a newcomer had to leave suddenly for physical reasons. After he left, we engaged in some discussion and work as to whether we had done all we could, particularly since most of us are students of Christian Science. One member quickly pointed out that here was a golden opportunity to practice our oneness with all good. We could do this just as well after the man's departure as before. By seeing ourselves as infinite divine idea we include all others in the same light. (Another member added that we had given him a Christian Science Journal on his way out and that he was taking care of himself in the best way he knew how.)

After the readings we had a brief exchange on oneness which might be summarized this way: The diversity of mankind is the way the infinite individuality of God, the one Ego, is seen by the human senses. This diversity will be disturbing, perhaps dangerous, until the oneness of being it represents is understood and lived.

Several members were bursting with healing reports, so we cut right to these.

1) One member had three outstanding healings during the week. First she told us of a man who used to sing loudly in a drunken state under her window. She often talked to him of his spiritual nature and recommended he go to AA. He disappeared for three months. This week she saw him; he's sober, clean, cheerful. He has been to rehab and is attending AA meetings.

Second, she has had a problem for years with the Christian Science understanding of God as Mother, because of her own upbringing with an abusive and finally abandoning mother. This week she read an article in one of the periodicals about the motherhood of God. It had such a healing effect on her that she now feels she can at least countenance God as Father-Mother.

Third, she got a bill from the IRS for past due taxes. This was serious enough to warrant a whole day of prayer. Next day she called them up and got a very kind and helpful agent on the phone. The conversation ended with him saying, "The Lord will help you. I'm giving you an extension till January."

2) Another member needed a series of adjustments from a chiropractor. The cost was beyond his means; so he prayed. When he discussed the situation with the chiropractor, the latter immediately reduced his rate to accommodate his capacity to pay.

3) Another member struggled with severe muscle pain during the week. He prayed to understand his divine substance. Once he saw it clearly, he was able to thank God for His perfection, before there was physical evidence of healing. His gratitude overruled any sense testimony. Very soon there was no pain.

4) Another member talked of what he called his "troubled containers" — whether seen as his apartment or body or relationships. As long as they are seen merely as matter-based there is trouble: e.g., smoke and cooking gases from nearby restaurants, water leaks from upstairs, body pain, cloudy friendships. As he sees the "containers" as divine ideas, problems fade and clear up.

5) Another member said he has now ended his "summer project" — i.e., running in the primary for the state senate. He had proved his point — or was it really His point? The district had come to life, constituents were roused, the seed has been planted for other minorities to run in the future. On a more personal level his name is now well known in political and legal circles. Those who have followed his campaign through our notes know of the many spiritual breakthroughs accomplished as he brought Christian Science to bear in the political arena.

6) Another member talked of his course through the Christian Science movement. Nearly two decades ago he had to proclaim his chastity in order to secure class instruction. After much suffering and growth he is now at the place where organizational back up is not needed to further his understanding of at-one-ment with God.

We had some time left to talk more directly of oneness.

One member had done Christian Science work on Lebanon, the Koreas, Zimbabwe, Israel/Palestine and the so-called Benes decrees which haunt Czech relations with Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. He found an article in the San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal (Issue 4 of 2002) by Thomas Singer helpful in getting at the mythology underlying conflict between cultures and peoples. It's often based on the same archetypal defenses that individuals deal with. In this case the Kouretes dancing about the baby Zeus protect him from being devoured by his father Kronos but they end up keeping him in an undeveloped, infantile state. Which is a fair representation of most of these festering international problems. What may at one point have been life protective can become an ingrained way of viewing and dealing with others.

Whether individually or collectively, ongoing problems based on historical trauma need the most radical — "rip up the roots!" — Christian Science treatment. "The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged." (Retrospection And Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 22:1) Anything less will prevent the Self (Zeus in the story) from being operationally what it is in fact, God.

The oneness of God-man and man-man is a tricky aspect of Christian Science. But through suffering and practice we can learn to tell the difference between ego humility in the face of God's all power and mere ego inflation. This is an individual and infinite quest.

Our topic for next week should help us feel our way to helpful discernment here. It's "To Let" — the human belief of itself letting the one Ego, God, have its all harmonious way.