Prequel To The Dreamworld

People may disagree about many things, but we should all agree that an opposite to Truth can only be illusion or fantasy! A world arising from sensory perception and interpreted from beliefs uses mythological symbolic language to make — illusions  —- not reality.

Many who have accepted this fact, including scientists, philosophers and other “scholars” have concluded that if our experience is an illusion—- so-be-it. In other words it doesn’t matter whether we call our experience reality or illusion. It is our experience, and we must respond to it regardless of how we define it.

Caveat! If you interpret your illusions as if they were real, your response will be inappropriate to reality as it is but not to your perception of it. And the results will be anything but ineffectual. It would be a mistake not to acknowledge the distinction between an illusory experience and an experience that is real. To mention just a few:—- Illusions or dreams are images projected from the dreamer’s (our) mind. They are “our protest against reality.” They don’t happen to us—— they come from us. We are cause and not effect.— Perhaps the most important distinction between reality and illusion is that our dissociated mind is not a tabula rasa, a blank slate,—- it has baggage. And that is why we are not free to construct the world we want, at least not the world we say we want. There is a prequel to our dream, a back story which was the motivation for our dream.

The motivation for our dream arises from an unbelievable belief that we somehow  separated from a unified state of being to a dualistic state. The purpose for the dream is to take the place of our reality thus proving the separation is real. This is tantamount to believing we attacked God, which the ego (our belief) calls sin, and will be punished accordingly. In order to escape the guilt resulting from this belief the ego projects these fearful wrong-minded thoughts onto a dualistic dreamworld. And so from the ego’s perspective the world we experience is the world we want. —-To paraphrase Shakespeare, it is a tale told by idiot— (the ego, our alter self),—full of sound and fury—- (reflecting our guilt for what never happened)—signifying nothing.—- But to those of us who experience the world and believe the ego tale, there is no escaping its fearful sounds and fury. We do not even suspect it is not real. —-You do not realize the magnitude of that one error. ³It was so vast and so completely incredible that from it a world of total unreality had to emerge. (ACIM, T-18.I.5:2-3)

This “world” is not outside of our mind, it was made by our mind and remains within it. Therefore the dissociated mind, the mind we identify with, “enters” the world one hundred percent guilt in tack——it is not a blank slate. That is why we must realize “that all of our fears and hatred are in our mind and not outside.” Dissociation is the decision to forget!—-A split mind is endangered, and the recognition that it encompasses completely opposed thoughts within itself is intolerable. ⁴Therefore the mind projects the split, not the reality. ⁵Everything you perceive as the outside world is merely your attempt to maintain your ego identification, for everyone believes that identification is salvation. (ACIM, T-12.III.7:3-5)

In addition to understanding the motivation for our dream it is important to understand the structure of our dissociated or split mind. The process of dissociation made it possible for our mind to maintain two opposing thought systems. The ego made one, our wrong-minded or false perceptions; and Spirit maintains the other, our right-minded or true perceptions. Since our true perceptions are fearful to the ego, it makes every effort to keep them hidden from our awareness. What is hidden is still there and we have the means to experience it now. ——- Dissociation is a distorted process of thinking whereby two systems of belief which cannot coexist are both maintained.⁴If they are brought together, their joint acceptance becomes impossible. ⁵ (ACIM, T-14.VII.4:3-5).

Without awareness of this back story or “secret dream,” we can but delude ourselves into thinking we are free to make up any dream or construct any story. Although the dream has many forms, their content or purpose never changes nor ever will. The purpose for every dream is to reinforce belief in the separation.  It is no accident the dreamworld is always one of pain, suffering, loss and death. Given the ego’s purpose this was inevitable. —- A madman thinks the world he sees is real, and does not doubt it. ⁶Nor can he be swayed by questioning his thoughts’ effects. ⁷It is but when their source is raised to question that the hope of freedom comes to him at last. (ACIM, W-132.1:5-7)

Therefore we must shift the purpose of our interpretation of the dreamworld from false perceptions to true perceptions. ——When you make a decision of purpose, you have made a decision about your future effort; a decision that will remain in effect unless you change your mind. (ACIM, T-4.V.6:10-11)—- Our right-mind holds all the corrections to our mistaken thoughts. We are not the effect of the world, we are the dreamer of the world. Such a shift in purpose, from false perception to true perception, cannot occur slowly.—-It would not be kinder to shift the goal more slowly, for the contrast would be obscured, and the ego given time to reinterpret each slow step according to its liking. ²Only a radical shift in purpose could induce a complete change of mind about what the whole relationship is for. ³As this change develops and is finally accomplished, it grows increasingly beneficent and joyous. ⁴But at the beginning, the situation is experienced as very precarious. ⁵ (ACIM, T-17.V.5:1-5)

Learning how to react to the world from the perspective of our right-mind or true perception is a process. This change, and this is very important, does not eradicate the world from our awareness. Until our dissociated mind is healed and we no longer identify with the ego, we still must respond to the many situations and circumstances we experience. What does and must change is how we interpret our experiences:—-from the perspective of our wrong-mind or false perceptions to the perspective of our right-mind or true perceptions.—see model of mind chart.

The world is false perception. ²It is born of error, and it has not left its source. ³It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished. ⁴When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish.⁵Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well. (ACIM, W-pII.3.1:1-5)

Dreams are illusions of what is; Perceptions are distortions of what is; Both reflect belief of what is; Reality IS what is!

In Faith, Gratitude and Peace,

Caryl

As always, please reach out to me directly with any questions or comments related to this essay or any of my essays at: carylbrowne@gmail.com