The Mary Baker Eddy Library

oOoOO, I'm not religious in any way, but the Mapparium at the Christian Science Mary Baker Eddy Library is impressive, inspiring, and dazzling. It's not preachy in the least. You enter across a glass bridge into the interior center of an enormous, illuminated stained glass globe of the Earth, with countries delineated and defined as they were back in 1937, when it was constructed.

Upon entering the "room", you discover that your voice whispered on one side of the bridge can be heard clearly by someone on the opposite side, and words uttered in the center echo back to your ears in surround sound - a surreal and super cool experience!

The stained glass covers every inch, and is lit from behind with many lights. The doors close, and you are treated to a 15-minute light show, with the lights behind the colors shifting and highlighting different areas of the globe, while the calming narration and environmental sounds of birds, water, children playing, etc., thrill your ears with the story of our species' progress in the area of human rights, environmental awareness, and triumphs of modernizations to help mitigate poverty, hunger, child labor, and other social ills.

Again, all spoken in a very inspiring and encouraging tone, not at all proselytizing. Very well done, speaking to all humans.

Admission was extremely reasonable - $5 or $6 for adults, and even cheaper for students - all students, not just college students. And the employees and docents here were all so friendly and cheerful - especially the gentleman who sold our tickets to us, and was soooo friendly and kind!

This place is definitely worth a visit. The entire complex of church, library, reflecting pool, and library, together are such a tranquil and transcendent center.

PS - BONUS! The bathroom seems to be designed by the same people who created the Overlook Hotel!