Nancy Berggren

Move over Daniel Webster!

Surely, you meant well with your definition of the word "amazing", but the true meaning of this word has recently been uncovered.  The true meaning of this word is Rev. Nancy Berggren!

She was barely out of diapers when her mother discerned a southern accent in her speech and took her to acting classes. Nancy began working as an actress in film and television at two and a half years old - and retired just a few months ago, at the age of 90!

The Herald Examiner newspaper gave her the prestigious title of "Best Actress in Southern California" at age four - when Nancy was a veteran actress (ha!).

She met a nice guy during a screen-test at MGM in 1951. And, while neither of them got a film contract, they agreed to a lifetime contract when they married in 1952. Dick was her first Science of Mind Practitioner, and they enjoyed 50 years of love and spiritual growth, in addition to raising four children.

Nancy grew up on Oahu, where her father was stationed at Pearl Harbor, so hula was a natural part of her repertoire. She was in a professional Polynesian dance troupe in the 1960s, performing all over Southern California for 6 years. “I LOVED it!” she says. Nancy is a Pearl Harbor survivor: she was just six years old and watched the attack from her upstairs bedroom window.

She left her acting career to raise her children, and to become a Science of Mind minister. She was Senior Minister at the Fallbrook (CA) Church of Religious Science from 1994-2004.

In her spare time, she found time to write and publish, ”Life Is A Game, and You Can Play It.”

Nancy taught classes for two summer conferences in Russia, supported by United Church of Religious Science. Following that, her book was translated into Russian and more recently, into Ukrainian.

She was a contributor to a book that will be published this fall,  "Spinning Mistakes Into Gold.” It’s all about mistakes that you may have made and what you learned from them. Nancy authored another book, "To Hell With Old Age,” which will be released on Kindle before Christmas.

During a morning meditation at an Asilomar retreat in 2000, Spirit announced that she was going to do a One-Woman Musical Show. Her response: "Oh, no! I don't know how! No. It's Impossible!"

Then it all came together like magic - and she was committed. It took nine months to birth her baby, called To Life, with Love, in which she played 10 characters, changing costumes on stage for each one. She sang, danced, and jitter-bugged for two fantastic performances at the Fallbrook Center for Spiritual Living, where she was the Senior Minister. She even wrote a song for it!

Does the word "Amazing" begin to creep into her description?

When asked, ”What would you say has been the mantra for your life?”, her face lit up as she said, "Life just works better when you smile".

And now you can readily understand why we can correct the erroneous definition after the word  “amazing" in Webster’s Dictionary.  We can make sure that it reads: "Rev Nancy Berggren.”