What consciousness is, whence it comes, and where it goes are questions which have puzzled thoughtful men for ages. The materialist, believing only what the physical senses tell him, concludes that consciousness originates in brain and that matter controls its conditions and existence. False theology holds that it is a personal bestowal of Deity, that birth marks its beginning, and that it must rest in a state of suspension after death until some future resurrection of the dead. But Christian Science reveals God, divine Mind, as the only real consciousness and the source of all conscious goodness. Mary Baker Eddy states in "Unity of Good" (p. 24): "All consciousness is Mind; and Mind is God,—an infinite, and not a finite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual consciousness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind." And she continues, "There is no really finite mind, no finite consciousness."
These truths are of tremendous importance to humanity. They base the compassionate healing ministry of Christian Science and are destined to liberate men from the frustrating, mesmeric thrall of mortal existence. They not only explain true consciousness, but expose the unreal nature of the material consciousness, which Paul named the carnal mind and described as enmity against God. They point the way for those who love good to abandon the consciousness of matter and evil for the individual reflection of Spirit, which includes only good.
Consciousness, humanly considered, may be defined as a mind—the totality of conscious states—or it may refer to the faculty of being conscious of something, especially of something within oneself. This definition has special meaning for the Christian Scientist, for Science explains the cognition of anything as comprising its very existence. Mrs. Eddy says (ibid., p. 8), "What you see, hear, feel, is a mode of consciousness, and can have no other reality than the sense you entertain of it." To become conscious of the divine concepts which God evolves, one needs to achieve a change of consciousness — to demonstrate his real identity as the object of God's knowing, as Mind's expression of consciousness. He needs to understand that as the reflection of the one infinite consciousness he embodies every quality of character and every spiritual concept that Mind knows. One's spiritual identity includes within itself the nature, talents, functions, and even the experiences which God outlines for it, and it unfolds eternally as Mind's expression of conscious existence.
