Article February 20, 1995 Issue

You are not in the dream

Karen Craft

I Remember one night, during a particularly challenging experience, I telephoned a Christian Science practitioner who had been helping me—the line was busy. I tried calling again in a few minutes—the line was still busy. I phoned a close relative—no answer. So I phoned a good friend—and was told she had just gone out. Totally frustrated at my failure to reach anyone, I leaned my head against the phone trying to think whom else I could call for help, when this thought came: "You are not in this dream, you know." I'll never forget it. It got my attention immediately. In a way, it woke me up. A dream—that was exactly the right way to describe the whole experience.

In the middle of a dream, once we wake up the dream has no more power to influence or frighten us. In the same way, any experience that is not evidence of God's all-harmonious presence and power is no more real than a dream and has no power to influence us once we awake to that spiritual truth. Confusion, unhappiness, injustice, and pain are not God's plan for anyone. That evening I really understood that; I accepted it and trusted it. God has never placed me or anyone in any circumstance other than one governed by divine Love, by God Himself. It was a turning point for me, resulting in spiritual progress and healing.

The Bible reveals that man is one with God as His complete and perfect expression. Man is not in a mortal body, a mortal home, a mortal relationship, or a mortal experience. Man is always immortal, like God. His existence is deathless, like divine Life. His joy is forever; his harmony is assured. Knowing this to be true of God's idea, man, and to be true of ourselves as that man, is what helps us to understand why we are not in any nightmares or any mortal dreams at all. We need to face fearlessly all beliefs that we are mortal, and see them as aggressive lies. They cannot hinder our peaceful, spiritual progress when seen to be the illusions, or dreams, they really are. We need to wake up and face firmly all mental fear with an unwavering trust in God and in His complete control over all. A wonderful passage in Psalms encourages us: "Leave it all quietly to God, my soul, my rescue comes from him alone; rock, rescue, refuge, he is all to me, never shall I be overthrown" (62:5, 6, James Moffatt, The Bible: A New Translation).

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