Q: AniMag

Please take my Blog Reader Project survey.

A reader wrote asking why I don’t talk about animal magnetism that much. And it turns out I do actually talk about it frequently, just not in those exact terms.

Usually when I’m addressing some topic where the unreality of it needs to be exposed, I label it with the AniMag del.icio.us tag at the bottom. You can see all those entries here:

AniMag

Basically, to me animal magnetism is anything evil or bad or unlike God. So when I’m writing about combating fear, or sin, or depression, or pain, rather than start whole new topic on those subjects (which are kind of negative), I’ve put them all in the AniMag category.

So my question to my blog readers is, do you want me to talk about evil more? Would that be helpful? I hate to emphasize it or to make it more real than it is. But I’ll cover it more if you want. Also, please feel free to send me any specific question you’d like discussed. If I don’t have something meaningful to say, someone else in our little community might.

Just let me know! (And take the Blog Reader survey if you haven't already.)

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Tell me about yourself

Hi, everyone! I found out yesterday about the Blog Reader Project, which is trying to understand blog readers more thoroughly. Here's what they say about their study of blog readers and writers:

We seek new metrics to understand the humans who have fled odorless, sterile manufactured media for the lush continent of their own construction. What makes blogs uniquely powerful is NOT that individuals are buyers of toaster ovens and cell phones—they undoubtedly are—but that they are hubs in new universes of social and intellectual connections.

Wow, who'da thunk it? :) Okay, so, I'd love it if you'd take the survey they've prepared. I took it yesterday for another blog, it's easy and fun. I even enjoyed answering "do not drink" to all the questions in the alcohol section at the end, because at least then my abstinence was being counted.

• Please take my Blog Reader Project survey.
  

Once enough of you have taken the survey, I can tell you how my blog readers stack up. I can't wait to find out more about you!

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Q: Thoughts on depression

This heartfelt comment came in yesterday:

Thank you for continuing your inspiring blog. Could you please write a post about depression (anxiety)? I have been really struggling with being consistently good, but something comes up, and then I'm in bed all day and accomplish NOTHING. Sometimes I really just feel like the world would be better without me. I just can't seem to think clearly at ALL sometimes, and just want to sleep all day and do nothing at all. Please, please, please... if you have anything to share about the growing problem of "depression" to share with the world, it could really help some people (me especially). Thank you very much, and I really appreciate everything that you have written.

Thanks, dearest, for writing. Please know that we're here for you, and stay in touch.

Like I think almost everyone has, I've dealt with depression throughout my life. Mine is mostly situational, meaning it comes from being unhappy with a situation I'm facing. When I'm depressed, that usually means I'm lying down in front of the situation and letting it roll over me. When I start coming out of it, I take the reins and reverse the feeling of being a victim.

I know that's not the same for everyone. Depression can mean different things to different people. One idea that's been enormously helpful to me is something I read a few years back, I think in a magazine article about depression. It was a doctor saying something like, "The opposite of depression is not joy. The opposite of depression is having an appropriate emotional response to a given situation."

This really relieved me! I was feeling guilty for not feeling joy every minute, no matter what. But it's actually normal and appropriate to have a negative emotion about certain things—like if a loved one dies, or a friend is in trouble, or a child is going astray. These are not times to be flippantly joyous. But they're also not times when we need to slide into the pit of despair. An appropriate response might be concern, levelheadedness, and taking action to help.

So healing of depression might not necessarily look like abundant, over-the-top joy. It might instead look like being able to have an appropriate response to circumstances. In other words, it's okay to be sad sometimes.

Now, how can one go about not letting the sadness take over? This, too, would be different for different people. But for me, I try to remember a few simple facts.

1. God likes me. Sure, I always know that He loves me. But the fact that He *likes* me is comforting in a different way.
2. There's always a tomorrow. There will never *not* be a tomorrow. So I always have another opportunity to live a happy day. Maybe today is a struggle. But tomorrow the sun will dawn and I can start fresh.
3. Even on the days I'm struggling, I can still do good for others. I can still make a difference in another's life. Sometimes by thinking about others I snap out of it quicker.
4. God made me joyous. Joy is a permanent part of my being. Anything unlike joy is a function of this material existence, so is only temporary. I may have a temporary situation to get through, but my joy I always have with me.

I don't always get this right away. Depression can sneak up on you, can feel like a growing gray cloud that deserves to be there for some reason. As soon as you recognize that cloud on the horizon, though, you can shine the light of Truth on it. Sometimes it takes discipline, sometimes it takes unselfishness. But you have the tools.

I would love to have everyone's thoughts on this, both to help the comment writer and to help me. How do you deal with depression?

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Wedding bells

Okay, the wedding was AWESOME. It went off perfectly, with yours truly only making one unnoticeable blocking error and one much more noticeable but funny slip of the tongue right during the vows. “Place the Bill on ring’s finger…” But everyone had been laughing a lot already since Bill and Joe’s personal vows brought down the house. So I just laughed and started over.

Anyway. The music at the ceremony was heavenly, with so many of their incredibly talented friends singing and playing for us. Younger relatives read moving poetry selections. My four-minute comments went over well (see below), everyone thought I was actually a minister. And some asked if I do weddings regularly! Maybe a little side business? Haha…

My daughter and I went to the reception, where we danced for four hours. The entire event was so filled with love and joy, I’m floating on it. It was a celebration of friendship and family and community and love. I wish everyone could have such an amazing wedding.

I thought I’d share what my comments were in here.

My heart is filled with gratitude today that my dear friends Bill and Joe are entering this most mysterious of realms—marriage.

There are many kinds of love in the world—that of a parent for a child, that of a friend for a friend, that of a student for a teacher.

Then there is the love when two people so need each other that they willingly choose to bind their lives together and to cherish and support, withholding nothing. The profound and irresistible nature of this love receives its sanction and society’s support in the institution of marriage.

These two have chosen to marry because they know they can do more together than they could do apart. They are agreeing to partner to achieve a third thing—the strong, happy marriage that blesses not only them, but their friends, their families and their community.

And it is my hope that they will find through this new commitment that secret place only marriage can provide. Marriage gives a special opportunity like no other for growing closeness, for progressive unity. To know, really know, that your chosen one will be there for you always, that the commitment is mutual and permanent, allows you, in the safety of this sacred space, to bring a trusting openness to all that closeness has to offer. How often in life are we truly able to be open? How often is it in our power to love unconditionally? Today marks a new beginning for our friends Joe and Bill, as they embark on this adventure of total openness and trust.

As you may know, these two have been together for eleven years. They’ve grown in grace together, supporting each other’s dreams and working through the hard times that threatened to tear them apart. They both made the choice that this relationship was the one they wanted—this is the love of their life. Choosing to place their relationship before all else, making it their shared priority, has brought them before us today.

Bill told me when we were discussing the ceremony that marriage is something he never thought he’d have. He said, “All through my teens when I was struggling with orientation, part of the sadness was I thought I’d never be able to get married. Now that I can, it fulfills that desire I had long ago to find someone and get married and spend the rest of my life with him.”

Joe shared with me his concept of marriage. “It's a commitment of two souls,” he said. “It's the good and the bad, taking care of each other when ill, struggling through when poor. It becomes more important to you when it’s something you've been denied—you don’t take it for granted. With our marriage, we’re saying to the world that we’re ready to be acknowledged as being together. Marriage is knowing that I can grow old with someone who will always be there for me. I don't have to go looking for someone to share my hopes and dreams and fears with, someone's going to be there with me to do that.”

As we heard in the readings from I John, “God is Love.” The divine Spirit, who fills all space and created us in His image and likeness, is the originator of all love. There is no love that is not sourced in the Divine. There is no love that is not sanctified by the Divine. All love is sacred, all love is holy. Where there is love, there is the divine spark that animates and sustains.

And here, my friends, we have love. We have the love that Joe has for Bill, the love that Bill has for Joe, and the love we all feel for the two of them. This sanctuary is filled with the holy light of divine Love, we are resting in it and moving through it.

Today, as Bill and Joe take each others’ hands in marriage, we can join with them in acknowledging that love. From this day forward, we can picture them, moving forward together in Love.

Let’s take a moment to silently rejoice in our friends’ new life in Love. Hold them in thought as surrounded by Love. Keep this understanding in mind whenever you think of Bill and Joe in the years to come.

There was a few moments of silence, then we recited the Lord’s Prayer.

After the vows, I got to say the pronouncement: “And now, by the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you legally married.” Very poorly concealed glee in my voice, that’s for sure. And they then got a standing ovation.

*Sigh.* I’m oh so happy for my friends this morning. May you have as much love in your day today.

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Q: Selective specificity

As promised yesterday, here are some thoughts on how to selectively explore specific elements of spiritual reality in order to zero in on outgrowing circumstances we no longer want to experience—i.e., healing.

“Pondering”’s comment asked how it was I had healed my finger of an infection through knowing my own perfection, yet I still wear glasses. And the basic answer is, the finger was painful enough that I was motivated to selectively focus and learn what I needed to learn to heal it. The glasses I’ve worn since fourth grade and have grown accustomed to—they’re normalized into my human life to the point where I don’t even notice them anymore.

Yes, I could selectively focus, so to speak, on healing my vision. In fact, I’ve done so on occasion and my vision improved permanently. But to be honest, there are other things at this point getting my prayer attention. Glasses don’t heal the problem, but they do allow me to function normally, for which I’m grateful. They’re not invasive or obnoxious. So I deal with it even though I know I could heal it if I gave it the focus it would require.

We make these choices all the time. What needs immediate healing today? What will take longer term consecration of effort? Often I’m not motivated to pursue healing until something is sufficiently uncomfortable to make me work for it. It’s the discomfort that motivates me. I can relate to Paul when he says, “I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (II Corinthians). The infirmities motivate us.

Which brings me to my next point. In healing, it’s been my observation that you need to be specific. When facing a particular problem, use the specific spiritual counterfact to combat it. A friend once told me to use the problem’s opposite to find the spiritual law governing the situation.

As a total hypothetical, if the problem is blurred vision, you might be inspired to focus thought on clarity and understanding, and your inherent ability to discern the Divine. I say “total hypothetical” because it may be different for different instances. I’m not suggesting that every case of blurred vision should be combated with those spiritual concepts. But you get the idea.

Use your prayer time when facing an issue to open thought to what the specific spiritual counterfact is in your case. I know I’ve hit on a healing truth when 1) it feels like a new idea (even though I may have heard the idea before), 2) it makes complete sense to me and 3) it brings a feeling of peace and conviction. This adds up to an “aha” moment of illumination that removes my fear and eradicates the problem.

So to tie up this entry, what I was doing with the finger was applying the specific idea about perfection to combat the false belief of infection. The vision situation has and will require other specific ideas to heal it. It is possible, I just haven’t done that homework yet! I think selective healing allows us to take on mortal existence in bite-sized pieces, rather than the whole chunk at once. We can then chip away at unreality bit by bit, expressing dominion as we go.

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Q: Illusion and reality

First off, wanted to report that yesterday was phenomenal. The day just flowed. I completed projects, had several meetings, organized my life, and even worked out and watched some TV with the kids. Time was not an issue. Joy and expectancy of good made the day work. So just wanted to share that update.

This below came in as a comment on one of my older posts:

Dear Laura,

I am struggling to put this all together and would greatly appreciate your understanding in explaining some of this further. From what I have read, I am gathering that in Christian Science, denying the material world of reality will aid us in overcoming physical challenges and illness etc. In Christian Science, if matter and this material world is seen as an illusion, then may I ask, where this illusion originated from? And if it is an illusion, then how is it that we as people, see the illusion in the same way...meaning, how can I look at anything like a picture someone paints, and see the exact image they painted, if this material world is an illusion? I'm sure that doesn't make any sense :)

You have shared some very interesting testimonies. May I ask you why you were healed of an infection in your fingernail, by seeing God as the starting point and all perfect, but yet you still wear glasses?

I guess I am struggling with the idea that this world that we touch, smell, see and feel, is not real and is an illusion. Could not God create a spiritual realm and a physical?

Thanks for your explanation!

Pondering in Utah

I love questions like these!!! Hearing them asked always reveals to me that the person is getting some traction in their study of Christian Science. I don’t know anyone who’s explored Christian Science who doesn’t ask these questions, or some form of them. And amazingly, to dig deeply into Christian Science is to discover the answers. So, “Pondering,” you’re not alone, and you’re definitely making sense. I’ll give some thoughts, but I’m also rejoicing that in your journey you’ll discover the answers for yourself.

Where did this illusion come from?
I’m going to start with an illustration. You know how when scientifically advanced people meet up with more primitive cultures, and they do something like light a match? And the primitive people are amazed and think it’s magic? This to me captures somewhat the feeling of undiscovered reality that is actually already all around us.

The potential for invention, manufacturing and lighting a match is available to anyone; the primitives just didn’t know about it yet. So, was their needing to generate fire through rubbing twigs on stones an illusion? No, those were just the tools they knew about and maximized. However, once they acquired some matches, how fast do you think they would abandon the twigs/stones thing?

For me, figuring out the illusion isn’t really the point. It’s learning about the reality. Once you know about the reality, the past phases you went through just drop away. Once you truly understand universal Love, for example, how long do you think you’ll hold onto racism or sexism? The latter will drop away. At that point, do you really need to dwell on where racism or sexism came from? To my mind, no, you don’t. Once they’re gone, there’s no point to figuring them out further, unless it’s to help someone else out of them. But even then the more direct approach might be to teach them about universal Love.

So, I guess I don’t emphasize in my spiritual practice attempting to see through things that are very real to me at the moment. I love a sunny day, a brilliant smile, a warm hug. Instead, I strive to fill my thought with the reality that is beyond what I can see—Life, Truth, Love, Spirit. The more I know about the Divine, the more I experience the falling away of the grown-beyond.

It’s not cut and dried illusion versus reality. It’s where are we on the learning curve, and are we learning more each day? Bit by bit we’ll inculcate that which is real and the false will fade out.

So, in “Pondering”’s question about seeing the painting someone else painted, find the reality in that painting. What does it express? What goodness, light, color, creativity, glory is it showing to you? Rejoice that you can see these things with the painter, but also from your own perspective.

Check this out from Mary Baker Eddy (she did Q&A, too!):

Is it correct to say of material objects, that they are nothing and exist only in imagination?

Nothing and something are words which need correct definition. They either mean formations of indefinite and vague human opinions, or scientific classifications of the unreal and the real. My sense of the beauty of the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is something to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief, of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and earth, the harmony of body and Mind.

Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the grandeur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmosphere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal environment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue temporal sky.

To take all earth's beauty into one gulp of vacuity and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature God's creation, which is unjust to human sense and to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: "I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail conception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind." Mis 86:9-14 np

I’ll talk more tomorrow about how we can selectively explore specific elements of spiritual reality in order to zero in on outgrowing circumstances we no longer want to experience—i.e., healing.

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Always abundance, never lack

Have you ever heard the phrase “an embarrassment of riches”? That’s where I am today. I have so many wonderful projects to work on and fabulous people to connect with that I’m hitting what appears to be the limit of that most precious of resources—time.

So now what? Do I crank and crank, filling every moment with non-stop activity trying to get it all done? Where’s the time for contemplation in that, for rest, for rejuvenation? Do I rev up the pace, accomplishing things faster for the sake of getting them done? Will quality suffer if I take that tactic? And when do I get to play with my doggie?

I’m wondering now about how material existence works. When you have too much of one thing, do you automatically have too little of something else? Too much work, not enough time. Too much attention, not enough privacy. Too much activity, not enough rest. Is that really how it’s meant to be?

I think not. Today I need to take a stand for the spiritual fact that when there’s an abundance of good, there’s no commensurate lack. Good is spiritual, so it’s actually infinite. It can be nothing else. It’s not just relative abundance, but constant infinitude I’m seeing in my life. And if that’s the case, there can be no lack.

Huh. This is a new idea for me. How can abundance cause lack? That is pretty much impossible, isn’t it? So it’s time—haha, no pun intended—to commit to that idea, and to demonstrate it in my life.

Today, then, is a good day.

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Q: Port-a-temple

Here’s that second question from yesterday:

How do [you] explain the passage from St. Paul when he talks about the body being a temple of the Holy Spirit?

I wasn’t sure but I thought perhaps this inquiry was meant to question Mary Baker Eddy’s conclusions about the body. Meaning, if the Bible says the body is a temple, how can it be bad? So I’ll answer it from that basis.

To my mind, the Biblical writers, especially a poet like Paul, often used metaphor to get their point across. Here are Paul’s actual words:

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (I Corinthians, chapter 6)

Elsewhere in Corinthians (chapter 3), Paul compares spiritual teachings to milk and meat, our spiritual lives to a field of grain, and Jesus Christ to the foundation of a building. Clearly these things are not literally what the metaphors are claiming. The metaphors serve to illuminate certain aspects of the objects so that we can learn from them.

The key in the temple metaphor is the conclusion: glorify God with your body. Don’t do things with it that are ungodlike, and don’t let into it things that degrade or mortify.

Basically, even though the body is purely temporary, it’s what we have to work with right now. So use it appropriately, care for it tenderly, and let that discipline shape you spiritually.

Later, in Revelation, we read that there are no temples in the divine, holy city.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: … And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (Revelation)

MBE explains this passage with great clarity:

There was no temple, — that is, no material structure in which to worship God, for He must be worshipped in spirit and in love. The word temple also means body. The Revelator was familiar with Jesus' use of this word, as when Jesus spoke of his material body as the temple to be temporarily rebuilt (John ii. 21). What further indication need we of the real man's incorporeality than this, that John saw heaven and earth with "no temple [body] therein"? This kingdom of God "is within you," — is within reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God. (Science and Health)

Once total spiritual understanding is reached, we will no longer need any sort of material structure to worship God because we will be conscious of our oneness with God. How cool will that be?

Thoughts?

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Q: The "m" words in Christian Science

This question came in to me on Facebook from a college student friend:

Can you explain what Mary Baker Eddy meant by the terms "mortal mind" "mind" "matter" and "mortal man?" I need some clarification on what she meant when she uses those words.

Also, how do explain the passage from St. Paul when he talks about the body being a temple of the Holy Spirit?

Thanks for the question. Below are some passages from Science and Health that use these terms and show the relationship between them, along with some commentary by me.

MIND. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God, of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined. (p. 591)

When “Mind” is capitalized in MBE’s writings, she means Mind as defined above—God, Spirit. When it’s not capitalized, she means human consciousness or mortal mind, the mind we think we have that is distinct from Mind. Divine Science reveals however that we have no such lower-case mind—there is only one Mind, and that is God.

Here’s how matter and mortal mind relate in Christian Science:

It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter. (p. 80)

[Christian] Science shows that what is termed matter is but the subjective state of what is termed by the author mortal mind. (p. 114)

Matter and mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body, are false representatives of man. (p. 293)

What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind: all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real. (p. 311)

Interesting—according to MBE’s statement above, mortal mind is dependent on matter for manifestation. That clarified some things for me this morning as I did this research. You can tell if it’s mortal mind if it needs matter to be actualized. That makes it easier!

And here’s some flat out definitions from the Glossary. You can see how mortal mind, matter, mortality, nothingness, mythology, etc., are woven throughout both terms. In many ways, they’re interchangeable, and simply indicate what MBE said above, different strata of the same false belief.

MATTER. Mythology; mortality; another name for mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death, and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the opposite of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees, feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief. (p. 591)

MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something, for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other errors; a suppositional material sense, alias the belief that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless; a belief that life, substance, and intelligence are in and of matter; the opposite of Spirit, and therefore the opposite of God, or good; the belief that life has a beginning and therefore an end; the belief that man is the offspring of mortals; the belief that there can be more than one creator; idolatry; the subjective states of error; material senses; that which neither exists in Science nor can be recognized by the spiritual sense; sin; sickness; death. (p. 591)

Some defining ideas about mortal man can be gleaned from these passages:

The Science of being reveals man and immortality as based on Spirit. Physical sense defines mortal man as based on matter, and from this premise infers the mortality of the body. (p. 191)

Mortal man is the antipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in his relation to God. (p. 215)

Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is immortal. (p. 478)

Science and Health attempts to describe for us nothingness, that which has no reality, so that we can learn to recognize the unrealities and see through them. MBE had to invent terms that came closest to what she saw as the different phases of nothingness, but it’s all nothingness. When reading Science and Health, I’ve found it helpful never to forget that.

It’s also important to remember that the nothingness terms are zero, and the infinite terms are infinite. Meaning, to my mind we need to be sure we’re spending a proportionate amount of prayer time on the infinite, rather than dwelling too long on nothingness. Nothingness in all its forms is to be dismissed. The infinite—Love, Mind, Truth, Spirit—is to be glorified and magnified in our thought so that nothingness is dispelled naturally.

Dwell with the somethingness of Spirit, and the rest of this becomes clear.

I’ll address the question about being a temple of the Holy Spirit tomorrow.

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Q: Prayer and medicine? Part II

I really hope everyone will read the comments after yesterday's post—very insightful.

Jumping off on some of those ideas, I'll just elaborate a bit on praying for someone while they're seeing a doctor, vs. treating them in the same circumstance. (Emily gave some great thoughts on this as well.)

When a practitioner, medical or otherwise, takes on a case and gives treatment, they're taking responsibility for the healing of the condition. Whether a patient chooses spiritual or physical treatment, that same responsibility is implied. So, even as you wouldn't want two doctors with differing opinions working in opposite directions on your case, neither would you want a spiritual practitioner and a medical practitioner taking responsibility for the cure at the same time. When the treatment methods contradict each other, you're not getting the best of either.

On the other hand, general or directed prayer that declares the presence of harmony, peace, and love in any circumstance may not conflict with physical treatment. Helping someone reduce their fear with spiritual truth before a procedure or relieving stress with confidence of Love's tender care can be quite beneficial. You're not trying to cure the condition. Rather, you're inviting a higher sense of harmony to the entire situation.

This might not be Christian Science treatment per se, but it can improve conditions and decrease suffering. It can open thought to the idea that what we think does affect the outcome of even physical conditions, and thereby bring the person that much closer to reliance on Spirit.

Thoughts?

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Q: Prayer and medicine?

This question came in awhile back:

One of your posters (Emily, I think) had reported that a practitioner had explained (in essence) that the reason the practitioner couldn't prayerfully support a patient who was also using a doctor was because then neither method would work. I've had practitioners tell me the same thing (not you, obviously!): that combining prayer with medicine renders both methods to be ineffective.

So here's my question: if using medicine renders prayer (God) to be ineffective in healing, doesn't that mean that medicine is more powerful than God? Is God all-powerful, or isn't He? Isn't the Truth true? It's sure not too reassuring to know that "omnipotence" can fail in some circumstances! And how does that jibe with the first commandment?

I have never understood this, and I was so interested to read that the same argument had been used to others—almost word-for-word with what had been "explained" to me. (Maybe it was the same practitioner!)

I'll just share here my approach to this issue, and see if that clarifies. There are probably a million different answers depending on the practitioner.

First of all, to my mind you won't see God engaging in battle with medicine to see who's stronger. It's not a fight between the two. It's important to remember that whatever it is that needs healing exists only in belief. There is no "real" sickness that God or medicine is fixing. It's not a contest to see which one is more effective at eradicating that which is not real to begin with. To God, sickness is non-existent. Period.

Medicine takes the opposite view, of course. Sickness or disease is something real to be fought and conquered. Medicine doesn't render God ineffective by any means. It is, however, using a different strategy for fixing the problem.

When I'm working with a patient who is also seeing a doctor, I consider several things.

First, is the doctor's treatment intended to heal the problem? Or is it rather providing the ability for the patient to cope while the healing occurs outside of the doctor's influence? If it's the latter, I feel completely comfortable giving the prayer assist because there's no conflict with where healing is actually happening—within thought.

Next, is the medical procedure simply adjusting something mechanically (i.e., surgery)? Mary Baker Eddy talks about surgery being the "branch of [Christian Science] healing which will be last acknowledged," and she talks about confining the spiritual healing work then to reconstruction and inflammation, etc. To my mind, if the patient feels the mechanical fix of surgery is the best option for them at this time, then I'm right there with them supporting harmonious action and quick recovery.

Finally, is there an understanding that the drugs involved are not the true source of the relief the patient might be feeling? This is where things get tricky. What I haven't been able to do as a prayerful practitioner is pray for drugs to work. I'd rather see the patient off the drugs and understanding that harmony comes from their divine connection to Spirit. I wouldn't want to interfere with the patient's chosen healing process, however, so if ongoing drug use to cure a problem is involved, I'd most likely opt out.

But remember, if combining prayerful treatment with medicine renders both ineffective, that's not a statement on either God or medicine. It's a statement about the conflict within the patient's thought. It's like a tug-of-war game where the sides are pulling the person in two different directions. In that scenario, you can see how the person would wind up standing still.

Would love to know anyone else's thoughts on this!

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Busy-ness

I get this crazy e-newsletter from "the Universe" that comes to my email box every day. They're little spiritual messages of encouragement. A friend recommended it to me, and I subscribed just to say I did, thinking it would probably be wacky and I'd unsubscribe shortly thereafter. Instead, months later, I keep reading the things, and they always make me smile.

Yesterday's was this:

Often, Laura, the very most spiritual thing one can do, is get busy. Physically busy. Hoeing, chopping, planting. Connecting, moving, grooving. Dipping, swirling, twirling.

Especially dipping, swirling, twirling.

2, 3, 4 -
The Universe

Of course, the night before I had been contra-dancing, so I laughed. But also, my to-do list has just been stacking up lately. And stacking up. And stacking up. So this message encouraged me to just dive in. And I got a lot done yesterday.

Today promises to be another crazy day of meetings and tasks. But I like the idea of approaching the "doing" from a spiritual perspective, like I'm riding a wave of divine energy that is empowering me to accomplish many things. After all, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

How do you handle busy-ness?

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Q: Celebrating Life

This question came in from John:

Being new to CS, I'm wondering how Christian Science handles death, funerals, memorial services, etc.? Does it acknowledge death at all? How does it comfort family and friends left behind?

I've often really appreciated the Christian Science perspective on Life when faced with the passing of someone. To know that Life is God, that all expressions of Life are eternal, and that nothing that ever lived can ever die has been a huge comfort.

Since there are no rituals or ceremonies in Christian Science, there is no specific set of things to do when someone passes. Yet, people often want to celebrate and/or mourn when someone leaves us. I've seen a wide range of acknowledgements among those who study Christian Science, from the very quiet to the full blown. The most moving to me have been the large gatherings, a few weeks after the passing, that celebrate the person's life and allow an outpouring of appreciation from friends and family.

A few years ago, I attended the memorial service for a friend from church. She had been a single woman, never married, and I had thought we were close and that I knew a great deal about her. Yet at this service, stranger after stranger stood up to give their gratitude for how she had touched their lives. She was apparently the kind of person who constantly did the "little things," like help a neighbor with their garden or shop with an elderly friend. I was amazed at her goodness, and she seemed very much alive to me.

That goodness, I knew, had not died. While my friend had moved away to a place where I will move someday, too, the goodness she'd given the world remained and was in fact continuing to spread as all these people shared it with each other.

I love this passage from Science and Health, speaking about Jesus:

Through the magnitude of human life, [Jesus] demonstrated the divine Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness, seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified example introduced.

In a sense, we celebrate how a particular individual emulated Jesus in our memorials to their human lives. The earth receives the harmony each of us introduces with our day-to-day goodness. When someone passes, we may feel in our grief that we've lost that harmony, yet it remains, continuing to influence and grow.

So, to address John's question, to me Christian Science comforts those left behind with its teaching of eternal Life, unending goodness and universal Love. Christian Science allows us to adjust our focus from grief over mortality to the celebration of Life.

Please share your stories about this as well.

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My friend's wedding

Yesterday I went to the Sunday service of the Arlington Street Church in Boston—a majestic historic house of worship with glowing Tiffany stained glass windows.

We were there because my friend and his partner will be married in the church in a few weeks. They've asked me to officiate and wanted to show me the church. (Here in Massachusetts, you can get a one-day license to perform a marriage.)

The ceremony will be filled with music, including selections with the Boston Gay Men's Chorus (which my friend belongs to), and my address as officiate will be short so I only have to be profound for about five minutes. And, I finally figured out what I’m going to wear. I can't wait!

Yesterday's service included the Unitarian Universalist Affirmation and Covenant, which I thought I'd share today:

Love is the spirit of this congregation,
And service is our gift.
This is our great covenant:
To dwell together in peace,
To speak our truths in love,
And to help one another.

Simple, to the point. I liked it.

So much of the spiritual journey is taken up with internals—discovery about who we are and who God is. The flip side of the coin, I believe, is how we express what we've discovered to others. Do we love as we are loved? Do we accept as we want to be accepted? Do we serve as we'd like to be served?

I can't always answer "yes" to all those questions. On a good day, though, I know I've tried.

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The vast motion picture

Blog reader Norman sent me this excerpt from Paramhansa Yogananda's book, "Autobiography of a Yogi," that I agree with so completely I wanted to share it here.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

In 1915, shortly after I had entered the Swami Order, I witnessed a vision of violent contrasts. In it the relativity of human consciousness was vividly established; I clearly perceived the unity of the Eternal Light behind the painful dualities of MAYA. The vision descended on me as I sat one morning in my little attic room in Father's Gurpar Road home. For months World War I had been raging in Europe; I reflected sadly on the vast toll of death.

As I closed my eyes in meditation, my consciousness was suddenly transferred to the body of a captain in command of a battleship. The thunder of guns split the air as shots were exchanged between shore batteries and the ship's cannons. A huge shell hit the powder magazine and tore my ship asunder. I jumped into the water, together with the few sailors who had survived the explosion.

Heart pounding, I reached the shore safely. But alas! a stray bullet ended its furious flight in my chest. I fell groaning to the ground. My whole body was paralyzed, yet I was aware of possessing it as one is conscious of a leg gone to sleep.

"At last the mysterious footstep of Death has caught up with me," I thought. With a final sigh, I was about to sink into unconsciousness when lo! I found myself seated in the lotus posture in my Gurpar Road room.

Hysterical tears poured forth as I joyfully stroked and pinched my regained possession - a body free from any bullet hole in the breast. I rocked to and fro, inhaling and exhaling to assure myself that I was alive. Amidst these self-congratulations, again I found my consciousness transferred to the captain's dead body by the gory shore. Utter confusion of mind came upon me.

"Lord," I prayed, "Am I dead or alive?"

A dazzling play of light filled the whole horizon. A soft rumbling vibration formed itself into words:

"What has life or death to do with Light? In the image of My Light I have made you. The relativities of life and death belong to the cosmic dream. Behold your dreamless being! Awake, my child, awake!"

One day I entered a motion picture house to view a newsreel of the European battlefields. World War I was still being waged in the West; the newsreel recorded the carnage with such realism that I left the theater with a troubled heart.

"Lord," I prayed, "why dost Thou permit such suffering?"

To my intense surprise, an instant answer came in the form of a vision of the actual European battlefields. The horror of the struggle, filled with the dead and dying, far surpassed in ferocity any representation of the newsreel.

"Look intently!" A gentle voice spoke to my inner consciousness. "You will see that these scenes now being enacted in France are nothing but a play of chiaroscuro. They are the cosmic motion picture, as real and as unreal as the theater newsreel you have just seen - a play within a play."

My heart was still not comforted. The divine voice went on: "Creation is light and shadow both, else no picture is possible. The good and evil of MAYA must ever alternate in supremacy. If joy were ceaseless here in this world, would man ever seek another? Without suffering he scarcely cares to recall that he has forsaken his eternal home. Pain is a prod to remembrance. The way of escape is through wisdom! The tragedy of death is unreal; those who shudder at it are like an ignorant actor who dies of fright on the stage when nothing more is fired at him than a blank cartridge. My sons are the children of light; they will not sleep forever in delusion."

Although I had read scriptural accounts of MAYA, they had not given me the deep insight that came with the personal visions and their accompanying words of consolation. One's values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture, and that not in it, but beyond it, lies his own reality.

Mortal life is that movie. We don’t need to make the movie perfect—we need to leave the theater.

Related blog entry: Death never wins--Life is Spirit

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Just back from the funeral...

Just got back from my friend’s son’s funeral. Very sad. I attended the open casket wake last night as well.

The funeral was a Catholic mass, all in Spanish. So many mourners, very emotional. Watching the family walk in with the casket, seeing the holy water sprinkled, hearing all the music—it was all so moving. I know people find comfort in these rituals. They tie you to a larger purpose and history that extends beyond one’s own life. I hadn’t been to a service with incense and communion for many years, so it was instructive to see it in action again.

My friend got up to speak about his son. I’d never heard him speak in his native language before. He was so strong, commanding even. When I talk with him, there’s often a language barrier, although I know he’s very intelligent and an astute businessman. I gained a new appreciation for him seeing him speak so fluently and expressively through his pain. He was clearly giving a direct message to his family and friends in tribute to his son and about the value of strong relationships.

Fellow blogger Chris shared a poem yesterday I’d like to put here as well, because it’s so apropos:

Death is nothing at all
Henry Scott Holland 1847-1918, cannon of St Paul’s Cathedral

Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together
is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort,
without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you,
for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.

All is well. God bless, everyone.

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"I do not die"

We’ve had a highly publicized death recently in our community—that of an Iraq veteran, 24, who survived his tour of duty only to be killed in a car accident while finishing college in Florida. He happens to be the son of one of my colleagues in my networking group. Today’s the wake, tomorrow the funeral. I post this poem in honor of him. [To read about this poem and see different versions of it, click here.]

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

Much love to the family of Jeovanni Lopez.

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Doggie heaven

Good morning! I haven’t told everyone yet about the new man in my life—Max, the rat terrier.

This is a huge departure for me, an avowed non-animal-cohabitant. But a friend was rescuing a doggie from a relative with mental problems, and it—oops, he—needed a home fast.

And he’s strangely perfect for me in every way. Compact, short hair, frisky, eager to please, intuitive, funnier than all get out. My mom and I just laughed and laughed at his antics all last week. He’s just a hootenanny.

So, tell me, everyone, what can I expect from this new relationship? Any words of wisdom? What’s the spiritual connection? How do you pray for your furry companions? New doggie mommies need to know!

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Q: Praying for those who have passed

new picture, how do you like it?

Dennis’s follow-up question to Friday’s post moved me as well:

Can we pray for those who have passed on, seeing them as in God's love and care?

I think this is a great question—it really touches on the nature of reality.

Christian Science has taught me that death is not an end to the individual. I believe that the thing that makes us who we are, our consciousness, continues after the material body that housed us dies. I also believe that consciousness is the emanation of the one divine Mind, which unifies all creation in its play of ideas. We are one in Mind.

So therefore, yes, I believe we can and should pray for those who have gone through the transition we call death. By “pray” in this instance, I mean what Dennis is implying—holding them in thought as one with God’s love and care. We may not be able to do what we’re often tempted to do here in this experience, which is to pray for a specific outcome for them, since we don’t know specifically what’s going on with them. But we can know their completeness, our completeness, our continuing relationship with them in Mind, and that universal harmony is theirs where they are now as it was when they were here with us.

I remember an article once from the Christian Science Sentinel, by a woman who lost her mother. She worried that her mother might be lonely and afraid on the other side, perhaps confused and disoriented. So she prayed to know that all was well with her mother. She received a lovely influx of inspiration that comforted her, and helped her get over her own grief. (Sorry to not remember any more details, this was many years ago.)

I’ve done something similar since reading that article whenever I hear of someone’s passing. I acknowledge that they are moving along in harmony with creation and that they have all the love and comfort they need. I place them in the realm of light, knowing that they now know more than I do—they know for a fact that death is not real. Even the most hard-bitten or troubled learn this one great fact when they cross over, and I can only imagine the impact this has on their understanding of reality.

I also have to say that it’s my conviction that we will see each other again and will then be able to compare notes on our progress. I’ve got some special stories saved up for my grandma, I can tell you.

I heard this at an association address last year: “Death is not the experience of the individual, but the verdict of the onlooker.” We can also pray to have our own verdicts be more accurate, relying on spiritual sense testimony about the loved one rather than what the physical senses are telling us.

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We never lose anything

Dennis left this comment yesterday:

In thinking over my mourning over the loss of my dad, I think what I am mourning is the loss of what could of been. My dad had mental issues that hindered [him] from enjoying life as he could have. I know he loved me and was proud of me, but he had problems expressing it. He had a problem where he withdrew so much that he just barely tolerated life especially in his later years.

There were things I wanted to do with him, but he just [could] not enjoy much. He would engage me in conversations once in awhile, but on the whole was incapable of intimate interaction.

I think this is what I mourn. It is the "if only's" that bring me grief.

Dennis, my heart just went out to you when I read this. It mirrors some things in my own life so closely I felt like we were kindred spirits. And it’s calling on me to gain a higher perspective, for both of us.

When I’m thinking clearly, and not dwelling on what might have been that I missed, I realize several things:

• The people involved might have been incapable of expressing love humanly, but they’re not incapable of it spiritually. If I define them in my mind as trapped in their human personality, I’m consigning them to perpetual inability. But when I remember that all creations of Spirit embody all aspects of Spirit, like the rainbow includes all the colors, I can at least acknowledge that these dear ones on a spiritual level *do* express Love and Truth fully and completely. It’s only a limited sense of personality that keeps me from seeing it. I may never see any change humanly, but that sense is temporary. Freed from the mortal, complete expression is possible, indeed inevitable.
  

• All happiness and joy are mental. If I can imagine a perfect scenario, I can have it. The qualities that I’m experiencing in thought are just a real as those I experience physically—perhaps more so. My conviction is that we can experience anything that we can hold in thought. So, if we have a hope in our heart for a perfect relationship, by thinking it we call it forth. It may not manifest in specific interactions with a particular individual, but it’s just as real when it comes from all around us. I experienced this with my children. Things I had wanted expressed to me I was able to express to them, and thereby I experienced these things. They are now mine, even though they didn’t come from where I would have liked them to come humanly.

• The people in our lives who disappoint, who show a lack of capacity to give us what we think we need, are not who we think they are. They are instead glowing children of Light, complete, radiant, inextinguishable. Breaking free from the limitations of physicality, our relationship with them is one of joy and giving and appreciation and play. It’s the lie of mortality that makes us think the relationship is flawed, incomplete. The immortal relationship, the one that truly we’ll spend all eternity enjoying, is all that we can hope for it and more.

Dennis, you and I will have all that we’ve ever hoped for. We have lost nothing. It exists in thought, therefore it exists spiritually, and we will experience all the wonders we can ever have imagined.

We have nothing to fear when Love is at the helm of thought, but everything to enjoy on earth and in heaven. --Mary Baker Eddy

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Divine law of mourning and comforting

I asked Mom yesterday for a spiritual idea I could share on the blog, and she replied with, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

She’s been thinking about this a lot lately. A loss in her life caused her to feel a sense of mourning, but when she opened her thought to God’s presence, she began to see evidence of being comforted every day. Little things would happen or come to her to bring her peace. Eventually she could let go of the sense of loss and instead have only the comforting.

So we talked about the nature of mourning and comforting. Isn’t all of spiritual progress out of material existence the letting go of things we’re attached to? And isn’t mourning simply a feeling of transition from one state to another? I found this intriguing. If we never got attached to things physical, we’d never mourn.

For it’s only ever the physical form that we lose. A house, a job, a dear loved one. It’s only the physical form that is lost. And you know, that’s a good thing. Anything that forces us to think in more spiritual terms is good. The fact that materiality is impermanent, transitory, is the one thing that makes us seek the Divine.

The essence of the object of our love, be it the comfort and peace of home, the energized activity of a job, or the affection of a loved one, is spiritual. When we see that these are spiritual, we can never lose them. It is the fallacy of attaching them to their physical forms that causes us grief, and we mourn their supposed loss until comforted by the realization of Love’s ever-presence.

I love this equation. Mourning of things material leads to the comfort of a growing understanding of Spirit. It’s divine law, isn’t it? They *shall be* comforted—inevitable, reliable, permanent.

Maybe the Beatitudes are more than promises—maybe they’re divine laws. I’ll be thinking more about this.

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Never cut off

Mom and I talked about an issue over dinner that I’ve heard from a few people lately—the misapprehension that if you’re doing something wrong (i.e., sinning), you’re cut off from God.

The usual list of habits many consider “sins” generally comes out in this discussion: smoking, drinking, swearing, gambling, sex, etc. The belief is that if you’re indulging any one of these things, you’re cutting yourself off from God and you shouldn’t even bother praying until you stop.

But I just have to say that has not been my experience. First of all, sin often includes things you don’t recognize as sin yet, such as being judgmental or gossiping or having a temper or hating another ethnic group. If prayer were only reserved for those who are without sin, no one would ever pray.

Second, often praying about one area cultivates a receptivity to spiritual growth for another area that needs improvement. So if you’re feeling poorly and you turn to prayer and experience healing (as can happen no matter what your “sin” status), it could be that this gives you the needed boost to turn to Spirit for issues you’re having trouble giving up.

Paul basically says we’re all sinners. Mary Baker Eddy writes, “The belief of life in matter sins at every step.” I actually find this encouraging, because it levels the playing field. We're all in the same boat.

As long as we’re laboring under this misapprehension that we’re material forms, we will take a limited approach to existence and consequently misstep. Until the higher consciousness is reached, that consciousness that does not include physicality in any form, we can be sure we’ll have things to learn. That’s all sin is to me—something I haven’t learned yet.

So at what point on this learning curve are we expelled from turning to Spirit for inspiration, for guidance, for healing? Never! Spirit is right there, ready to scoop us up, put us on its lap and explain how to free ourselves from limitation.

You can turn Spiritward any time, like the newly blooming bud curves to the sun. Spirit’s rays are always there, ready to bless you and make you grow.

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Mommy's coming

The sun is out, the birds are singing, and my mommy’s coming for a visit today. Yay!

Mom lives across country, near to where I grew up. I haven’t seen her since September although we talk all the time.

We’re very different people. She’s quiet where I’m outspoken, bookish where I’m out dancing. But one thing we share is a deep and abiding love for Christian Science.

We share our stories of spiritual growth with each other, our insights, our conclusions. And it’s almost like her experiences happened to me, and vice versa. She used to laugh and say she was living vicariously through me. Which to me is how it feels when you share a spiritual story—you don’t have to experience it directly to get the benefit of the insight. A much more efficient way of learning!

She’s been the quiet presence of unconditional love in my life from day one (of course). With my already bizarre life fraught with missteps and drama, I can’t begin to imagine how things would have turned out if I hadn’t had the support of my faithful mother. It’s a support I can only return by paying it forward to my own kids, as I try to do as best I can.

So I’m eager for the trip to the airport this afternoon. You may be hearing Mommy stories all week.

A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties. --Science and Health

Thank God!

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