In order to gain an adequate understanding of God as divine Mind and of creation as the universe of ideas, it becomes necessary to examine the word "consciousness." '"Consciousness," as commonly used outside of Christian Science, relates exclusively to the human or so-called mortal mind; it deals wholly with the categories of a counterfeit or supposititious mind, which we learn in Christian Science not only is not real, but can take no cognizance of reality: it is in fact nonexistent. Accordingly, then, the state of this so-called mind termed consciousness is a myth, since it can have no knowledge of reality, or spiritual truth. Furthermore, since God ' is infinite Mind, consciousness—that is, divine consciousness, which is the state and quality of Mind—is likewise infinite. It follows that God is conscious of all that exists, of all that is real; and, manifestly, there can be no reality, no existence, apart from divine consciousness, which is infinite.
The query arises, Of what is God conscious? What is held by divine Mind in its state of infinite consciousness? The answer is, All reality, the entire universe of ideas. The manifestations of Mind are ideas, divine thoughts, infinite in number, ranging from the least to the greatest, "from the infinitesimal to the infinite" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p.336). The subjective state of divine consciousness consists of the thoughts or ideas of which divine Mind is conscious. And since these thoughts exist subjectively and continuously as entities in divine consciousness, these ideas or thoughts are not the result of a mental process, as are the thoughts of mortals; and since they are never out of consciousness, no more are they recalled through the exercise of a faculty termed memory.
That all reality consists of Mind and its ideas is the paramount fact which Mrs. Eddy sets forth in that extraordinarily succinct statement known as the "scientific statement of being" (ibid., p.468). The manifestations of infinite Mind must of a necessity be thoughts or ideas; for, because of its very nature, Mind has no other method of expressing itself. Furthermore, Mind never loses consciousness of its ideas, for Mind to be infinite must be conscious of all reality, of all its thoughts. Nothing exists or has reality outside of, or in addition to, divine Mind and its manifestation of perfect ideas.
