The Four Levels of Spiritual Consciousness: Science itself, divine Science, absolute Christian Science, Christian Science

1. BIBLE—TEXTBOOK—CHART
Reduction of Being to root-notions
The Chart: a model of Being. Our subject is the one Being. Its symbolic presentation is the Model of Being [View Model of Being], and whenever this is referred to it will be called "the Chart." The Chart symbolizes the nature, the interrelations and the whole dynamics of spiritual Being: it is a model of divine cybernetics. But how is it possible to describe on one single printed page such an all-embracing subject as the nature and operation of the infinite One? A reasonable answer can only be given if thought is first led, step-by-step, to the standpoint of the Chart; only then can its inner meaning be interpreted rightly and fully, and so be comprehended in its vastness.

Reduction of the infinite. From time immemorial, the one spiritual, divine Being has been the central theme of spiritual seekers and visionaries; whole libraries could be filled with books on this subject. The message of the biblical writers alone needs approximately 3000 printed pages. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, subsequently referred to as the Textbook, which presents to our age the nature, essence and wholeness of infinite Being in much more abstract concepts than are given in the Bible, needs only about one fifth of the number of pages. On the Chart, the same subject is further reduced to only one page! In this extreme reduction of the infinite to a few root-notions and its presentation in a system of interrelationships lies a method of teaching which translates the infinite to simplicity without taking away anything from infinitude. When understood, this one page comprising the Chart speaks volumes. But in order to understand its message, its language must also be understood. Therefore it is necessary to touch briefly on the subject of terminology.

Fifteen root-notions. The Chart needs a vocabulary of but 15 terms! It speaks an extremely simple language. It embraces the 7 synonymous terms for God (Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love), the 4-fold operation of God (Word, Christ, Christianity, Science) and the 4 levels of spiritual consciousness (Science itself, divine Science, absolute Christian Science, Christian Science). With these 15 terms the whole range of spiritual Being can be symbolized from the infinitesimal to the infinite, from the absolute to the relative levels of thought. Rightly understood, the Chart answers all questions regarding the one Being.

Religion and Science. The language of the Chart knows no sentences. By arranging words to make a sentence only one thought can be expressed; a sentence is limited to only one meaning. But Being is infinite in meaning. If one would try to convey the infinitude of meanings through sentences, infinite sentences would be necessary; whole libraries would be insufficient to contain them. A sentence brings certain words into one definite relation to each other. If these words are freed from the limitation brought about by the structure of a sentence, they are no longer bound back to just one expression and the "religare" (= to bind back to), from which the word "religion" is meaningfully derived, falls away. In the Chart, the 15 root-notions are no longer bound into sentences, but each term can freely be brought directly or indirectly into relation with every other and thus blended to new and ever-developing combinations. As a consequence, thought is turned away from reading a certain text again and again, from "re-legere" (= read again) from which the word "religion" is also derived, and thought is impelled to creative thinking, i.e. away from a religious to a scientific approach. The Chart does not appeal to the "reader," but to the creative thinking of a scientist.

Abstract symbols. The Bible speaks through innumerable symbols in order to acquaint the thought of the reader with infinite Being. The Textbook "contains the entire truth of the Scriptures … In addition to this, Christian Science presents the demonstrable divine Principle and rules of the Bible, hitherto undiscovered in the translations of the Bible" (My. 299). In spite of this additional presentation given by the Textbook, it has a considerably shorter text than the Bible because it uses much more abstract symbols. As thought rises spiritually the symbols become fewer and simpler, more abstract and more exact; the more exact they become the more they lend themselves to new combinations and finally are adapted to illustrate the infinite divine computations of being. The simpler, the more abstract and precise the symbols become the more powerful is their meaning.

Bible, Textbook, Chart—one book. Just as the Textbook contains the whole truth of the Bible and, in addition, the Principle and rule of its demonstration, so also the Chart contains the whole truth of the Textbook (because it has evolved from the Textbook), and at the same time the method of creative, scientific thinking. Thus, the Bible, the Textbook, and the Chart are complementary forming a unity, one statement, one book.