"I still don't get the topic."

"I sort of do. It asks Love or God to give us enlightenment."

"Why Love?"

"Mrs. Eddy calls it the truest and most powerful synonym for God. And why? Because it not only evokes an image or feeling of a loving parent perhaps or friend but also because it's profoundly scientific. It's about the oneness of being — God actually being man and the universe."

"Like we're extensions of Him."

"If we can get that, we've transcended dualism."

"Why are you always talking about dualism?"

"I just use it as a synonym for matter. Anything that can flip from good to bad. I could also use words like belief, fantasy, myth, fiction, mirage, hallucination."

"What's the deal on flipping from good to evil?"

"If we rest on a material sense of good we're in trouble. It's like ' Wow — I've got one million dollars! Oops, I just lost it in the stock market.' It's Jesus' illustration of things that can leave us through robbery, rust or moths — or some hussy stealing my boyfriend."

"How would you protect what's yours?"

"See all that I have and all that everyone has of good as based in divine idea — not dualism or belief. Be sure to include everyone in this."

"To keep it on topic — that'd be shining a light through material belief to the real substance."

"How do you explain evil?"

"I'd rather handle it than explain it."

"How would you do that?"

"There are lots of strategies but bottom line evil is unreal. You could dismiss it as an attempted impersonal imposition upon reality."

"I sometimes see through evil to reality by evaluating it as a counterfeit of God. When I got all snarled up in post office red tape around renewing my p.o. box, after initial anger and frustration, I realized I was dealing with a seemingly all-powerful organization which was a counterfeit of the real Power. As I surrendered human commotion to understanding the presence and power of the One-All, things cleared up right away."

"The Cedars Notes points out in Christian Science we reason from cause to effect. If we do it the other way around we risk endlessly processing the problem."

"Spinning in dualism!"

"Of course the real recovery or healing is in monism — one God as All, including my mind or really Mind with a capital 'M'. Being this, I can worship at any shrine. We're always in church, and everyone else is too. Catholic church, right wing rally, medical facility — does it matter, if we are in our office of Christian Science practitioner?"

"You'd go into any ghastly scene and call that church? You'd better be on your toes."

"Look — everyone is seeking harmony, no matter the apparent incantations or hoopla. So, give them their harmony! We're Christian Scientists — we dispense harmony."

"Based on the ever-present facts of being."

"Exactly."

"This discussion reminds me of Deepak Chopra's analogy that we are like light — both particle and wave at the same time. If we place ourselves in time and space we're concentrating on the particle identity, which I see as a wasting, wearing-out belief. We need to stay in the wave as much as possible."

"Where we're infinite and eternal, right?"

"That's our Christ identity."

"But, we're students of Christian Science — so we need to be aware of being both wave and particle. Christ Jesus could be renamed Wave Particle — and that's us too."

"So, how was the conference?"
"We hit new levels of metaphysical insight — and in deluxe surroundings."

"How many were there?"

"I'd say 30-35. Some new people and several non-Gay folks. Many of the people you know."

"Such a comfort to be with old friends as we encounter eternity."

"We had workshops on Mrs. Eddy's 1888 Chicago speech and what's up with the treatment of homosexuality in the Bible. The presenter debunked all the mostly misunderstood ancient musings. We also worked on how to share Christian Science and how to address the suicide problem among LGBT youth. I have some information on the Trevor Project which works to prevent such suicides."

"How was the keynote?"

"It certainly lived up to its title ' Ye are the light of the world'. She pointed out that no one is excluded from church, the ' structure of Truth and Love'. We can all claim it and be it.. What makes a Christian Scientist per Mrs. Eddy's own words is reflected in the Rule for Motives and Acts, in the Church Manual. Here:

'Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.'"

"I'd like to rewrite that! 'Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment does anything. Everyone is the reflection of God, Love. So there's no sin or lack of love, and no need to forgive what never even occurred in reality. We all have to daily evaluate prophesy, judgment, condemnation, counseling, influencing or being influenced from the standpoint of Science."

"Excellent! Our keynoter also called on us to drop all guilt and self-righteousness. These keep us from seeing the man in Science, which heals."

"Read that — it's from page 476."

"OK. 'Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.'"

"She gave us some wonderful ideas about practicing Christian Science. For instance Mary Magdalene is the practitioner in the scene where she enters and washes Jesus' feet with her tears. That shows the magnitude of the yearning we need as we approach the Christ. Contrast that with the Virgin Mary's quiet receptiveness, awaiting God's entry."

"So the Magdalene is a power bottom — going in there and getting what she wants. The same for Mary Baker Eddy!"

"There's an interesting passage in Science and Health about the three Marys. It underlines the importance of the feminine principle in our practice. Here: 'Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;"as much as to say in meek penitence, "Neither man nor God shall father my fault."She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to manifest the deathless man of God's creating. This enabled woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.'"

"Anything else from the conference?"

"We had some great sharing at meals and between presentations. Emergence is financially stable. Next year will be in Seattle."

"How was the Sunday service?""Wonderful! The Bible readings were from The Message and had us laughing when we realized what the same passages from the King James actually meant. There were some fine testimonies too — and abscessed tooth healed and the Second Reader's voice recovered just hours before the service."

"Can we talk a bit about this week's Lesson on Adam and Fallen Man?"

"Sure — let's do it."

"I like the way there are healing Bible quotes, quite aside from Science and Health, in each section dealing with the problems of Adam and Eve."

"For me any real healing of the Genesis II miasma — which we all seem to live in — is in Mrs. Eddy's statement (here) that this second account of creation "is a picture of error throughout". It's based on a faulty god image called the Lord God or Yahweh which is obviously a dualistic mix of evil and good. So what do we expect?"

"So any attempt to be upbeat and positive is pointless?"

"Wouldn't it depend on what you're basing the positivity on? If it's merely pleasing a Lord God or one of his offspring — in other words mortals — or conforming to some material supposition, it's dangerous."

"Ah, but then as the bottom falls out, we might just have to find reality."

"One hopes that's what would happen. As always, it's suffering or Science. Can't we just base everyone and everything in absolute good, the real God?"

"I changed my schedule around this week. I'd been getting up, putting out resumes on employment sites and waiting for responses which haven't been coming. I was getting more and more depressed. So, I decided to start the day by getting out of the house for a walk. On Tuesday I dropped in at the Reading Room and did the Lesson. Whew! What a relief! That afternoon I got a call from a head hunter and had an interview on Wednesday, which went very well. We'll see what happens next."

"Keep doing the Lesson!"

"Right! And aside from the glimmer of hope on the job front my mood's a lot better."

"I've started dating a guy and I need help on romance and sex. There's got to be a better way than the 'just suffer it to be so for now' approach one gets hit with from most Scientists on a topic like this. Isn't there a Science of sex and romance?"

"There'd have to be, but who's discovered it?"

"Well Christian Science has given us the tools. We should be able to come up with something — shine a light in a dark corner."

"We're getting way off the beam! Sex is a mortal belief that needs to be healed. I've risen above it!"

"And we're happy for you, but some of us haven't. We're still in the game and we'd like some scientific light."

"If you walked into a men's room and a guy was on his knees servicing three other guys, would you be able to come up with the Science of that?"

"It's a pretty extreme example!"

"I'd get pee lock — I'd have to go on to another rest room."

"The Science there is simple. All four men are seeking joy and satisfaction. As a Scientist I can give it to them. Freely you have received — freely give!"

"What! You'd give it to them?"

"Well, maybe it'd be better to say I'd realize, based on Christian Science, that they are already fully joyous and satisfied."

"Wouldn't you say something or report them?"

"I don't know — that'd depend on what unfolds. My duty as a Scientist is to be the Truth in a situation, not to engage in self-righteousness and guilt dealing. If the Truth is properly seen and applied, I'd think the situation would then resolve itself harmoniously."

"What about my dating situation?"

"Based on what we've just seen, I guess you go into it fully aware of your preexistence and that of your new friend and all others in complete joy and satisfaction. Let the romantic and sexual details flow from that."

"Thanks — that's excellent!""This Lesson on Mortals and Immortals — how easy it is to bobble between a spiritual view of things and the material."

"St. Paul says it all — ' I delight in the law of God after the inner man. But I see another law in my members... bringing me into captivity to the law of sin.' He then goes on to add that the solution is through Jesus Christ, in other words recognition of the divine-human coincidence."

"The whole Lesson seems to be about making sure our human sense of things is based on Spirit."

"I love the way Jesus says Jairus' daughter ' shall be made whole implying a divine-human at-one-ment that heals."

"The thing to guard against it seems to me is trying to force in belief — in other words matter — what hasn't been seen and firmly established in Spirit. Hitler tried to conquer the world because he hadn't seen the already established infinity of everyone including himself. We're all infinite — we interpenetrate. Wouldn't that reality, seen and accepted, tame hungry, fearful egos?"

"As victims of crazed egos, couldn't we neutralize their effect by seeing just what you've laid out?"

"Good point. Knowing how crazed my ego can get I should be able to have some compassion for other inflated egos."

"Let's pick a topic for the next few meetings."

"I think we should work on Politics. Things are really getting horribly stuck."

"I like the idea. Doesn't 'politics' come from something about cities, like 'polis'?"

"Yes — it's about a fortified citadel."

"Hopefully not a crazed ego — but more like the City of God."

"Well, isn't that the dichotomy we'll have to work on?"

"So I take it we have a topic. Let's go with 'Politics'."