In her explanation of real being Mary Baker Eddy uses the Latin Ego, or I, as one of the terms for God. A dictionary definition of "ego" which conforms to her usage is "the conscious and permanent subject of all experience." And to expand this definition one finds "subject" meaning "the thinking agent; the mind, ego, or reality of whatever sort, which supports, or assumes the form of, mental operations."
Christian Science, lifting such definitions to the ultimate, or absolute, sense of Ego as God, shows divine Mind to be the knowing subject and its universe of spiritual ideas to be the subjective state of the Ego, Mind's subjective experience, or reflection. God's ideas, His sons and daughters, then, have no will, no volition, of their own, but exist in the one infinite Mind as its obedient concepts. Man, as an idea, is not a mind, but is the effect of Mind's knowing, the expression of the divine character, the embodiment of Spirit's faculties and forces. He is Mind's individualized expression of consciousness, just as he is Love's expression of goodness, Soul's expression of spiritual sense, Truth's expression of truthfulness, Principle's expression of order. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 281), "The Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine Principle."
Individual man, your true selfhood or mine, is not self-existent but is dependent upon the one Ego, his source, for existence and consciousness. This accounts for the perfection of man, the truth upon which Christian Science bases its demonstrations of health and harmony. This explains man's unity with the one Ego, a relationship which human beings bring to light by adhering, through positive goodness, to real consciousness. It was to this inseparable unity, rather than to sameness, that Christ Jesus referred when he said (John 10:30), "I and my Father are one." Cause and effect are distinct in office, though one in relationship. Mind is forever Mind and idea is forever idea. The wonder of the relationship of Mind and man lies in the fact that it is through man that the divine nature is manifested. In individualized goodness, wisdom, intelligence, and joy the character of the Father is unfolded through the activities of His divine children.
