NO matter how long we may imagine we are suffering from the distress of an unpleasant dream, it ceases instantly with our awakening from that dream. If we took the time, immediately upon awakening, to dwell on the fancied experience, we might well wonder how we could have been deceived by anything so unreal. Usually, however, we dismiss the illusion from further thought, and the dream slips completely from memory.
Through the study of Christian Science we learn to see that a discordant condition is no more real than a dream. Whatever the inharmony may seem to be, its very existence depends upon someone's believing in it. This is not to say that a Christian Scientist eliminates a physical problem simply by refusing to believe in it or by just ignoring it. That would be as futile as trying to light a room by ignoring darkness. Darkness is dispelled only by the entrance of light.
This analogy cannot be carried too far, since it is not possible to make a full comparison between the finite, or material, and the infinite; but it has some interesting aspects. For example, to illuminate a room, no one would think of attempting to club the darkness or push it back in order to rid the room of it. One simply introduces the light, and the darkness is not.
