"These conventions are giant infomercials — bloated extravaganzas of hype, falsehood and jingoism."

"There's a lot of posturing and harrumphing around, but I found myself somewhat inspired by some of the Democratic show."

"One thing about the Republican Convention that stood out to me is their trick of using a few catch phrases based on black-and-white thinking. It's mesmeric — if you say something enough times, people believe it, whatever the facts might be."

"It's like what happened in the stock market in the late 90's; just because a stock was said to be good, it was, and went up! Eventually the vacuum beneath came to light and the floor dropped out. I just hope the Democrats and the liberal press are strong enough and calm enough this time to counter the hypnotic spell, without resorting to the same tactics."

"We need to support their efforts with what we know about mesmerism from Christian Science — its deleterious nature and ultimate nothingness before the Truth that's God."

"The media have been doing a pretty good job of debunking or at least bringing to light some of the lies. I heard several sources undercut Zell Miller's wild accusations about Kerry's votes against weapons systems. Apparently Cheney as Defense Secretary in the early 90's had already ruled them out!"

"Oh and I listen to Air America where I heard about the woman giving the convention invocation on Wednesday saying, in her prayer no less, that families of Gay people who support them are bound for hell."

"That Zany Zell diatribe was meant to be the keynote speech. Remember Barrack Obama's keynote for the Democrats, reaching out to all segments of America? I bet Zell's abomination lost votes for the Republicans."

"Years ago I was walking with a friend who looked around and said, 'You know, it's all animal magnetism.' I always think of that when I need to be vigilant and keep myself in the Truth. And basically anytime I think I can just drift along on beliefs I need to steer myself back to the Truth."

"We're always having to deal with illusions, or the misperceptions of the five senses. It helps me to remember these senses are out to ensnare us and do us in."

"I wonder if it's the senses or the stories we tell ourselves behind the senses, which then dutifully hallucinate examples of what we've told them to expect."

"But aren't even the stories activated by expectation? If we live a life founded on dualism or material belief, won't we dream up any number of scenes of turmoil?"

"And in turn the dualism and stories are probably rooted in unconscious stuff — in other words, stuff we're completely unaware of. Was poor Zell Miller suffering from a poor Oedipal adjustment — trying to keep the Republicans from castrating him? He managed to escape the Garden intact, but then had to tangle with Chris Matthews."

"Convention-speak certainly promotes overstatement. What does Mrs. Eddy say about audible prayer? Here: 'Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary solemnity and elevation to thought.' (Science and Health, pg. 7:8) And, 'The motives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of applause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment.' (pg. 7:14)

"I found it hard to listen to more than a few minutes of either convention, but particularly the Republican one. There was just so much, uh — conventional thinking. And, as you said, such a level of hypnotic code-word repetition."

"Here's what I did. I looked at the convention, the media and the demonstrators outside as a dualistic representation of an underlying divine idea. It's the oneness and wholeness — the infinity of being, seen through a glass darkly. Mrs. Eddy talks of the man in Science — well, this is the convention in Science."

"You reversed the error."

"I guess, although I've never been clear what that means."

"Like birth and death being opposites — that helped me see my mother's ongoing existence when she passed away. She wasn't caught in that conventional way of depicting life — and we're not, either."

"That's good. I cracked open the conventional belief about conventions, and seeing Christ in the midst, could feel the city foursquare."

"When I was growing up the Bible was used on me — and everyone — as an instrument of torture, because it was read and applied literally. Now that I'm studying Science, I appreciate the Bible, and see the same old texts coming to life inspirationally, providing health and joy."

"It's sad but the Christian Science periodicals which used to be so healing and radical have retreated into conventionalism. I'm reading Association addresses from the 30's nd 40's to get some insights and inspiration."

"That reminds me about the article in the June 21st Sentinel on same sex marriage. It's a reprint from the Monitor, so it had wide distribution. It isn't bad — perhaps a bit stiff and condescending — but there are two glaring problems. First it recommends we self-immolate (see Science and Health, pg. 1:6) — not exactly the way to approach an abused minority. And then it pulls a Carl Rove with a quote from Miscellaneous Writings, saying we should 'knock instead of push at the door of human hearts,' omitting the rest of the sentence: 'and allow to each and every one the rights and privilege that we claim for ourselves.'" (Miscellaneous Writings, pg. 303)

"Talking of Carl Rove, one of the TV stations exposed three examples of his rumor-based methods of promoting George Bush. He launched rumors that Ann Richards is Lesbian, that John McCain has a black child and that John Kerry didn't deserve his military medals. It's all dastardly of course, but look how he plays on our own conventional bigotries. Maybe he's doing us a service by exposing our gnarled souls. If we buy into these fantasies, we desperately need healing."

"I'd like to report an interesting demonstration this week. At the end of an acting class, I was thinking how I'd like to sign up for another, but just didn't have the money right now. As I walked home, this thought suddenly came through: 'I should have the money for that class — it's only right.' Instantly I looked down and there was a $20 bill on the ground. I looked around, no one was there, so I picked it up. Then a man emerged from the shadows and proclaimed, 'God bless, God bless.' It all makes me feel like I can trust God to supply my needs and I think I'll sign up for the class."

"I've also got something to report. I was very upset about the police throwing nets over demonstrators and hauling them in. They're being held without arraignment in an abandoned bus depot which has grease and oil on the floor. I decided to write both the mayor and the police chief about the situation."

"I think we'd all like to hear what you get back from our officials, but in the meantime let's work in Science on this."

"Here's something a friend of the group told me. He was a bit bedraggled over people with cancer and AIDS he sees daily in his massage practice at a hospital. Finally a scientific perspective took hold and he's able to bring to each situation his understanding of oneness and perfection. Isn't that wonderful?"

"Well, you know it's conventional wisdom that there's no healing going on today in Christian Science, but I heard three magnificent demonstrations of healing recounted yesterday at a testimony meeting. Here's one. A Christian Scientist was talking to a friend on the phone. The friend had to hang up quickly because of a disturbance in the next office. She called back a few minutes later to say a workman had sliced off part of his hand with an electric saw, but she'd sent for an ambulance and the workman was on his way to the hospital. The emergency medics had greeted the situation with very negative forecasts. The Christian Scientist immediately knew the Truth — that accidents are unknown to God and that man is never separated from God. It came to him to ask his friend, 'who was not a Christian, much less a Christian Scientist,' whether she'd be up to collecting the severed digits and rushing them to the hospital. She said yes and did so. When she called back several hours later, the parts had been re-attached successfully. He then shared with her some of the ideas he was seeing in Science, worded appropriately for a non-Scientist. The testifier said that now, a few weeks after the incident, the workman's hand was recovering well and appeared set to be completely normal."

"Wow! That's a case of breaking with conventionalism or going along with the material program!"

"Time's pretty much up. Let's get over to the restaurant so we can watch Bush's speech. Does anyone have a topic for next week?"

"I heard on the news that Bush will speak on promoting worldwide freedom."

"Do we have enough 500 pound bombs for that?"

"So you're asking us to look at Freedom?"

"Yes."

"OK, everyone?"

"OK. Sure."