"I just wanted to look at why people say we get our needs met, but not our wants. That goes against Christian Science — desire is prayer!"

"Yes, but she also says divine Love meets every human need."

"Don't we get both our needs and wants taken care of with Christian Science? Of course without Science, it's just a crap shoot."

"Needs are basic. There's no limit on wants!"

"Exactly. Needs are the mother's realm — food, diaper changes, like that. When the kid is ready to explore his wants the father should take over and lead him or her out into the world."

"That's very old fashioned...."

"...and sexist!"

"Okay, right. I'm talking energies, not actual people. The so called mother could do the same thing if she accesses her inner male, father, sky god or whatever you want to call it."

"You know we're a young country, so mother's still in charge."

"I don't see that at all. But anyway, we still have to face wants as unlimited and unconstrained."

"So, what do we do about it?"

"Mrs. Eddy gives us her recipe in that statement of page one of the texbook. We have to let God, divine reality, mold the desire. I'd say both needs and desires have to be elevated to the spiritual."

"Remember that business in 'The Secret' about wanting? If we don't realize what we already have, we'll just keep on wanting and not having."

"Oh, 'The Secret'! I have a car — I have a car! It's crazy!"

"Sure — but it gives us a hint. If we need or want a car, we could understand our actual omnipresence. We're already completely satisfied, completely everywhere. It's quantum physics."

"I don't see that getting me a car."

"You should get whatever truly supports your mission."

"Sounds like a good vision to have if you're going to a showroom."

"Also it might be helpful to get the appropriate spiritual idea before going anywhere."

"I got something along those lines from the Lesson ' God the Only Cause and Creator'. In Section 2 we confront the belief in the material origin of man. For instance there's 'Know ye not that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves.' [Psm 100:3]. Then from Science and Health ' All things are created spiritually.' [265: 5-6]. So we have to translate all concepts back into the spirtual ideas they counterfeit."

"I was interested in that section too as it relates to all the controversy over where being Gay comes from. Is it genetic or psychological or maybe it's a choice? That's fine for the general public to grind along on that level but for students of Christian Science — who're charged with leading thought — wouldn't we want to find the spiritual antecedents and stick with these?"

"So you're saying keep the focus on the spiritual idea being identified there and don't get too wrapped up in the appearance."

"Pretty close. I'd add it's okay to look at the so called human appearance — just deepen the focus and be assured the divine idea is right there and shining through."

"Oh good. You made it. How was the trip?"

"It was filled with demonstrations but I don't want to interrupt the proceedings. What are you on, needs and wants?""Right."

"Look, we've done a lot on the topic. I'd like to hear about your demonstrations."

"Well, first let me show you all something I discovered in the Portuguese version of the responsive readings for ' Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?' Here's the quote from the King James: 'I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee' (Job 42: 2). Now here's my translation of the Portuguese 'I know well that you can do everything, and not one of your plans can be thwarted.' To me it's God saying 'Stand back! I'm doing it all!"

"That's terrific. If God's doing it all, then actually He's being man and the universe. So, where’s the need? Where's the want?"

"They're non existent or fully supplied depending on your point of view."

"Whew! Now that we've solved that, let's hear some demos!"

"Okay. I lost my cell phone the first day I was there and it was activated for calls at $2 per minute. I panicked when I discovered it was gone but eventually I got some prayerful thought going and was able to see how dualistic I'd been when I arrived. You know, just drifting along as the typical tourist, without any sense of infinity or perfection. Once I saw this, the divine idea waiting to be identified came roaring through. The cell phone counterfeits infinite intouchment..."

"Intouchment?"

"That's the word that came with the feeling of being in touch with everyone. The next morning the driver of the limo I'd hired to get me into town brought the phone back to me. I'd left it on the seat!"

"That's like — here—'The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind' (S&H 162: 9-11)."

"That's good — I was certainly stirred up to the point where I had to find spiritual harmony — and that brought out a human healing."

"Have you got another one?"

"I've got a whole string of them, but let me give you one more. It taught me about true communication. I was having trouble understanding people when they spoke Portuguese fast. One on one, I was fine but in groups I found the speed picks up, statements overlap and slang takes over. I was getting very frustrated. Finally I called a practitioner and we saw right away that there's only one Mind doing all the communicating. Over the next few days things flowed much better. Verbal communication is evidence of spiritual at-one-ment."

"Again terrific! I've got something I’d like to report. I was in a coffee shop with two friends the other day and they got into a discussion of some personal matters that left me sitting there like a bump on the log. I got pretty steamed up but at last I had the sense to pull out my notebook and start writing about how I was feeling. I felt neglected, abused, angry and so forth. But suddenly something clicked and I thought what a beautiful opportunity to do some work in Science. I prayed, wrote, thought — it was wonderful. I beheld in Science the perfect man!"

"Excellent. We have to end now. Any requests for a topic?"

"I just saw 'Waiting for Godot'. The issue it raises about how we delay living our life might be interesting to take on here."

"Sounds good. Put it in a topic form."

"Well, 'When do we start living?'"

"Great. Two weeks."