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.
These facts are vital to Christian healing, for they indicate that what is needed in any untoward circumstance is not a change of matter or environment, but a change of consciousness from the unreal to the real. One need never look outside his consciousness for the solution of any problem, for God makes man in His likeness, and His likeness is complete. Christ Jesus said (Luke 17:21), "The kingdom of God is within you," and we find heaven when we put off the false sense of self for the true.
To get rid of mortal consciousness and its ills, one needs to understand its nature as a state of self-delusion, as a type of hypnotism which has no Principle, but is supposedly self-created. Matter and its conditions, then, are nothing more than the mental pictures which the carnal or mortal mind hypnotically produces. Christian Science heals sickness and other discords by dispelling the spurious consciousness in which these mesmeric illusions seem to appear. It awakens individuals gradually out of the dream of mind in matter into the realm of Spirit, where concepts are harmonious and immutable and man is known as God's idea.
If one's conscious sense of existence seems to include an enemy, let him exchange that consciousness for the divine, wherein man is seen as Godlike and perfect. If his sight or hearing seems to fail, due to the deterioration of false material consciousness, let him turn from that consciousness and seek sight and hearing in Mind, where man's senses are indestructible faculties of fadeless Spirit. If he suffers poverty or limitation, let him become conscious of his true existence in Soul, whose resources are infinite. If death threatens, let him demonstrate his immortal life in undying Principle.
Evil beliefs, appearing as matter and mortals, disappear in the measure that the consciousness which includes them is understood to be nonexistent. It is from the standpoint of the knowledge of divine Mind as the only consciousness that one is enabled to face the hypnotic action of evil mind and deprive it of any ability to form discordant conditions in human experience. The Master was never concerned with the physical symptoms of those he healed. He dealt with the states of consciousness which produced them, and destroyed them on the basis of the allness and goodness of God, Mind, and the nothingness of all that contradicts His will. He asked (Matt. 12:29), "How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?"
Christ Jesus taught the Christian lesson of real consciousness by expressing only good, and he proved his ability to dispel the self-imposed hypnotic consciousness, which would suggest that man is a mortal, conditioned by hate, lust, fear, and ignorance. He fully demonstrated his true identity to be conscious of God and His creation, and of nothing else.
In her article "Pond and Purpose" (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 203–207) Mrs. Eddy explains three types of baptism, all dealing with states of consciousness which are necessary to salvation. The first is the baptism of repentance, that state in which the human self becomes aware of material falsity and begins to forsake it. The second is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, whereby human thought is uplifted and refined. The last is the baptism of Spirit, in which human consciousness yields fully to the divine and every element of mortality disappears. Here our Leader says (p. 205), "After this, man's identity or consciousness reflects only Spirit, good, whose visible being is invisible to the physical senses: eye hath not seen it, inasmuch as it is the disembodied individual Spirit substance and consciousness termed in Christian metaphysics the ideal man—forever permeated with eternal life, holiness, heaven."
This was what our Master accomplished—final immersion in Spirit, whereby God is known as the only consciousness and man as His expression of it. Christ Jesus' faithful demonstration of God as one Mind and creation as Mind's idea made this glorious demonstration possible. His insistent clinging to the one Mind through temptation, aggressive suggestion, danger, persecution, crucifixion, and even entombment, gained the reward of dominion over counterfeit consciousness and of complete ascension above it. The light of real consciousness, which he maintained, outshone the darkness of a suppositional mind that is not God, and the illusion of life in matter disappeared.
We have our individual demonstration of real consciousness to make, and through obedience to divine Principle and the rules of Christian practice revealed by divine Science we are enabled to follow the Master into the kingdom of heaven, where man is conscious of Mind and its creation alone.
