Around the Block:
Spiritual Healing - 1988-89
The Portable School was birthed in Billings, MT, in 1988. While attending Unity of Billings, the idea of “spiritual healing” was bandied about sufficiently for us to offer to present a seven-week program for the members. The seats (a hundred or so) were full during the series. Each week, a new topic essential to the idea was presented in the likes of Energy, Body, Mind, Consciousness, Spirit, Health and Healing. The sessions were much more than lectures, but opportunities for people to share and learn from each other based on specific principles. Musical contributions were made to the program thanks to Steve Bergquist.
A few memorable moments stand from the first Spiritual Healing series. But let’s begin with the session devoted to Mind. Early on that evening, I asked participants to discuss famous quotations, chosen from a circulating list, which spoke to the power of Mind, as the Builder. People who picked the same citation grouped together to consider their quote plus another which read, “Jesus Christ was a carpenter.”
There was one quotation which remained entirely unchosen. So, I said I would work on it while the groups conferred. A young man came forward and said that he wanted to share that job with me. The quote was somewhat abstruse and we didn't get far with it. But we did better with the idea that “Jesus Christ was a carpenter.” Much better. My partner, Sid Ayers, was himself a carpenter. He shared with me how a carpenter designs a plan and uses tools to create something new and valuable out of raw materials. Sid then suggested how the Christ Consciousnes was working even at the present moment to build us into new and better beings.
His words were so poignant that I asked him to share with the larger group. Sid resisted doggedly. He claimed to be shy and afraid to speak in front of a crowd. He told me how embarrassed he had been at a meeting he attended with his woman friend where she forced him to stand up and speak.
Nonetheless, I “dogged” Sid and gave him the choice of talking from his chair in the audience or standing with me at the lectern. When his speech was made and the audience had applauded for his efforts, I suggested that the group had just witnessed an effort at building and a moment of healing. Sid was building with ideas and courage and making it easier to express himself of things he valued in the future. Quite interestingly, his woman friend’s last name was Carpenter.
When we came to the session on Body, I had typed one-liners onto slips of paper. They were in the likes of
• My body is a vehicle for my expression and transportation.
• My body is a hank of hair and a bag of bones.
• My body is my home away from home.
• My body is the slave of my mind.
• My body is on duty 24/7 even when I am not.
• My body is one of my greatest teachers.
• My body has all sorts of lessons to share when I am ready to learn.
• My body is my playground and classroom, prison and hospital all in one.
• My body is the perfect expression of my consciousness.
• My body is a great gift of a loving God.
• My body is holy temple.
The invitation was made for volunteers to come forward. A number of participants, mostly women, smilingly stepped up one at a time to choose a phrase at random, read it to the audience, and explain what the words meant to them.
In my experience, such exercises always hit the nail on the head. But, volunteers are at the same time not always able to see themselves as they really are and/or bring forth suitable words to fit the occasion. I had to preface the operation saying that I wrote the notes, but it was not mine to explain what they meant for any individual.
The first couple sayings were handled fairly easily. But, then it got harder when a retirement-age woman came forward. Phyllis was a sparkly sort of woman sporting a smart golden permanent. She was slim, active, tidy, engaging, and always snappily dressed. When she read, “My body is a hank of hair and a bag of bones,” she was almost struck dumb. She still tried to smile while soon returning to her seat with the simple words, “Well, I’ll be.”
A younger woman came forward. She was new to the church and had tagged along for an evening or two with her husband who was working to build a Stress Management training program in which he wished me to be involved. Pam was all smiles, at least until she read her line: “My body is a perfect expression of my consciousness.”
Pam was a large, buxom woman and on the overweight side of the scales. She was much in the same state of speech as Phyllis except that she wanted me to interpret for her. I demurred saying, “I wrote it, but you picked it. If you continue with the Spiritual Healing sessions, I expect you will begin to understand the meaning of the words.” Pam returned to sit next to her husband for the evening, but did not come back for later meetings.
–––
Spiritual Healing continued through five more series in smaller and smaller groups and eventually were “ported” into homes. The meetings were then cozier and more family-like. Thereafter followed a lull in TPS actions for a few years with a few exceptions. One was a short-lived Earth Church.