A recent science fiction film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, portrayed what one capsule movie review described as "mankind's first contact with a vastly greater extraterrestrial intelligence." ^{The Christian Science Monitor, January 13, 1978;}

Human thought has always reached expectantly upward, outward, and beyond itself in the hope of finding a greater intelligence and power that can transform life. Christian Science provides a spiritual basis, a scientific explanation, that justifies such hope. What is more, Science reveals that this transforming power is present here and now, that it is the intelligence of God, infinite Mind, which is forever revealing the ever-presence of the supernal realm of Mind.

As Christian Science is understood, it fulfills our hope. It brings the light by which we discover the reign of peace and dominion eternally within. Our hope cannot be fulfilled by matter, achieved within the scope of the physical senses. Harmony is found in true consciousness bestowed on us by the power and intelligence of omnipresent divine Mind. It is the Christly consciousness of which Christ Jesus spoke when he said, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." ^{Luke 17:20,21;}

This consciousness of spiritual reality is God's gift to man. It is realized through the understanding and demonstration of divine Science, in which the human yields to the divine, the belief that intelligence and power reside in matter yields to the truth that power and intelligence belong wholly to God. The hope that is within is fulfilled through divine Mind's own self-revealing power. Our need is to understand the nature of this Mind, feel its presence, and submit to its activity and power.

In Close Encounters a young child responds quite fearlessly to the presence of an extraterrestrial intelligence. He runs toward it in wonderment and joy. And he returns from his encounter unharmed. We shouldn't, of course, naively embrace every new attraction that appears on the horizon, but this illustration can remind us of the value of a childlike receptivity to new spiritual ideas, fresh glimpses of Truth. We all need such receptivity in order to become conscious of spiritual reality. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes: "Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, —this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 323-324;}

We do not need to be transported to some distant planet in order to experience the beauty, the magnificence, the bliss, the infinitude, of Mind. The need is not for physical transportation but for spiritual transformation of thought. The realm of Mind is right here. It is the only realm there really is. We perceive this realm and enjoy its harmony only as we exchange a terrestrial for a celestial point of view. Study of the Science of Mind spiritualizes our consciousness, enabling us to become more and more aware of the presence of Mind and of the wisdom and love with which it governs its vast universe.

The film referred to is not defining spiritual reality, but doesn't it point to the expanding of human thought? It reminds this viewer of Mrs. Eddy's statement, "It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophesying thus: The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, exchanging it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness." ^{ibid., p. 531.}

In reality, man is not a mortal, living on a material planet, searching for some Shangri-La. He is the reflection of all-knowing Mind. He is conscious now of his all-spiritual and all-perfect identity and individuality, conscious of dwelling in the ever-present realm of infinite Spirit. He knows that he possesses, as reflection, the unlimited intelligence, wisdom, and dominion of Mind. This is the man we are in Science. This is the truth of man and the universe that we can understand and demonstrate right now.

What we might call the superterrestrial intelligence of Mind is ours today—intelligence above the limitations and imperfections of materiality. From this divine intelligence is derived the solution to every problem that confronts us. We can express its might to unscramble the intricacies of modern living and thereby help to transform human thought from doubt, frustration, and restriction into the joyful realization of Mind's supremacy, the supremacy of good. We can prove that the present fact of our being is Mind's reflection and that the spiritual realm of Mind is here and now, not a distant Utopia.

The kingdom of Mind is a subjective state of spiritual consciousness in which man reflects the beauty of holiness, the inspiration of Love, the bliss of Soul, the eternal harmony of Life. We experience the joy of living in this kingdom as, through the revelation of Christian Science, terrestrial hope is fulfilled in celestial understanding.