Once, while newly exploring a ski area alone amid a snowstorm, I ventured to the mountain’s summit and found myself engulfed in a complete whiteout. Disoriented, I had no clue which was the right way to go downhill or where the ski lift was, and with no other skiers in sight, panic set in. I felt unable to think logically or intelligently.
You may have experienced occasions like this when it feels as though you’ve lost control of your thoughts and a solution is elusive. At such times, is there a way to regain our mental equilibrium and move forward?
When considering this question, there’s a statement in the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, that carries immense weight: “The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness” (p. 536). At its core, it’s a restatement of the bold declaration in the book of Isaiah of God’s allness and supremacy: “I am the Lord, and there is none else” (45:5). Christian Science teaches that Mind is a synonym for God, indicating that Mind, or God, is the sole source of understanding and reason – the only consciousness that exists.
Reconciling this powerful assertion with the erroneous perspective of the material senses – namely, what appears to be the reality – is impossible. These senses may insist we are experiencing a turbulent state of mind. Or perhaps intense pain that prevents us from praying as we would like. Yet Scripture tells us there is but one God, one Mind, and therefore one harmonious consciousness.
Given this fundamental truth, it stands to reason that the belief in any other consciousness, or mind, must be a dream of the material senses. Jesus exposed the fallacy of this mortal dream when he spoke of his inseparability from the one consciousness, or Mind: “I and my Father are one,” he declared (John 10:30). In other words, “I am at one with God, divine Love, infinite Mind. Whatever divine Mind is knowing, I know, and there is no other Mind.” As God’s reflection or idea, each one of us is at one with this Mind, or true consciousness.
Our present and only state of consciousness is the cognizance of spiritual reality. The belief in another reality – the erroneous concept of a mind or consciousness apart from God that can fear, panic, or feel pain, requires a dreamer. But there is no dream, and no dreamer, in the consciousness of divine Love. There is no alternate reality, no confused mind, or misperception of what is real and true.
Refusing to be a dreamer caught in a flawed mortal dream of life in matter, and claiming no other Mind but God, brings our human experience in line with the harmony of divine Life, or the spiritual reality.
When I became disoriented on that ski slope amid the whiteout, the idea that came to me was that statement from Science and Health, “The divine understanding reigns, is all, and there is no other consciousness.” I claimed that this consciousness was my own. The only veritable “event” going on right then was the consciousness that I was, and only ever could be, in the presence of divine Love.
I reminded myself that even on those snowy slopes, I was safe in the harmony of divine Love, the only place I ever could be. I could never be abandoned by Love’s care. I was the expression of divine intelligence, the reflection of peace and calm, therefore I had dominion over the hypnotic state of panic and fear. There never is a dreamer to dream of panic and confusion. There is no place in God’s allness for a dreamer.
A wave of peace washed over me, and a thought emerged: Stand still and patiently wait.
After I listened in stillness for some minutes, some snowboarders passed by who appeared to know the way down the slope. I instantly followed them until they disappeared in the whiteout. I waited quietly again until more snowboarders passed me. Continuing like this, I was eventually able to make my way down the mountain.
Experiences like this, as difficult as they may seem, are invitations to demonstrate our dominion over the belief that we have a mind apart from God. The truth is, man is the awake, alert, aware idea of divine Mind – conscious only of what this Mind is thinking. We express, right here, right now, what this one consciousness is knowing and continually revealing to us.
Adapted from an article published in the May 2026 issue of The Christian Science Journal.
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