Many poignant poems, lingering lyrics and emotional essays convey our longing to live in a world devoid of pain and suffering, where we all lived in harmony with one another, and peace was more than just a dream.—- Where, as John Lennon imagined—- “we all lived as one.”

A state of Oneness is our reality! It is the only state where truth and peace are possible. It is the only state an all Knowing, all Powerful, Loving God could have created. Only a Unified Mind can experience living as One, and that is what we are in truth. A state of peace is no dream, it is our reality. It is the perceptual world that is a dream, in need of constant defense.

It was our insane desire to be separate that caused the dissociation and the fearful dream we now experience. The Course is teaching us how to heal our split mind and experience the peace and love we seem to have lost. Dissociation was the decision to forget our reality; forgiveness is the decision to correct this choice. Through forgiveness we experience what the Course refers to as “the real world.” It is this world forgiven of all the guilt we laid upon it, restoring truth and peace to our awareness. Thus will the world reflect God’s Love and Perfection.

Lesson 325 is a clear statement of how the dreamworld we perceive arose in our mind and how to let it go.—-This is salvation’s keynote: What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. ²From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. ³These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own. ⁴From insane wishes comes an insane world. ⁵From judgment comes a world condemned. And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth, —(ACIM, W-325.1:6)

Once this is realized the purpose of the world becomes crystal clear. We projected the guilt from our dissociated mind onto a dreamworld in the mistaken belief we could magically escape the guilt. The world is literally a pictorial representation of the guilt thoughts in our mind. Therefore, we can use our experiences in the world to correct these mistaken thoughts and heal our mind. The ego thought system is an illusion and the world it made is a illusory dream in our mind. As long as we choose to identify with the ego, we will suffer its fearful, illusory effects, but only then.

In a previous essay, “Contradictions,” I posed the question: If the world and body you experience were proven to be an illusion, a dream, and you are the dreamer, how would you feel? — I am not asking you to believe the world is a dream, but I would like you to observe your feelings about such an idea.— The very fact that we experience the world indicates we are still identified with the ego and therefore would feel threatened if its beliefs were questioned. It is therefore important to be aware of any hidden biases we have against accepting “a truth we do not want.”  The ego depends on our belief the world is real, and because that is not the truth, needs a strong defensive system to uphold this belief.

All perceptions in the phenomenal world we experience need constant defense because they are interpretations of what we believe, not the truth. Truth needs no interpretation!  We therefore have the insane task of justifying what only a severely split fearful mind could fail to perceive as completely unjustifiable, such as:

—The belief in gods that are feared, jealous, vengeful, and punishing; demanding sacrifice, suffering and ultimately death.

—The belief “nature” produces life forms that must conflict with one another, struggling everyday to stay alive and prey on other “life” forms for food and survival———- kill or be killed is its motto.

—The idea that “natural selection” seems to favor fitness over truth.

— The experience that what is not destroyed by wars and violence, “natural disasters” or illness will.

We not only defend these ideas, we convince ourselves and “others” of their rationality.

Only a fragmented, fearful mind could defend these and many other irrational  indefensible beliefs, because only a tormented guilty mind would have need of them. —- ²Forget not that the witness to the world of evil cannot speak except for what has seen a need for evil in the world.(ACIM, T-27.VII.6:2)——As the Course reminds us “defenses do what they would defend.” They establish the reality of sin, guilt and fear by the very need for a defense. Their purpose is to hide mind and therefore truth from our awareness. If we want to live in harmony and peace, where we all live as one, we need only accept the truth of who “we” are and what the world is. We can never change our reality, but we can deny it, and as long as we choose to do so our nightmares will persist. ——How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? ²Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do? (ACIM, T-27.VIII.5:1-2)

No one understands the negative psychological impact the ego has on our mind, better than Jesus. Having perfectly accepted the Atonement for himself he recognized the world was a dream and completely overcame his ego.—— The name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. ²But it stands for love that is not of this world. ³It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray (ACIM, M-23.4:1-3)

Having joined with Spirit, Jesus overcame his ego and his Course is designed to help us do the same. You can’t ask for a better teacher to lead us out of the darkness we made than Jesus. —-We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want. (ACIM, T-12.II.10:1)

“A journey from  yourself does not exist.” The separation means that mind is split or dissociated from itSelf. “We” split off to an illusion we call the ego in an attempt to forget our reality. —-⁴That is why you must choose to hear one of two voices within you. ⁵One you made yourself, and that one is not of God.⁶But the other is given you by God, Who asks you only to listen to it. ⁷The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. ⁸His is the Voice that calls you back to where you were before and will be again. (ACIM, T-5.II.3:4-8)

Whenever you meet anyone always remember it is a holy encounter!!! ²As you see him you will see yourself. ³As you treat him you will treat yourself. ⁴As you think of him you will think of yourself. ⁵Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. (ACIM, T-8.III.4:1-5)

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

As soon as you open A Course in Miracles, right in the preface is a very succinct and powerful summary of the Course, giving the reader a sense of the magnitude of what they are about to encounter. Upon first reading, if you were like me, you knew that you just read something very powerful, yet somehow also sensed you did not fully understand it. Many of the Course ideas were familiar to me, however, and this is why one must work with the entire Course, it is designed to give us an experience that is beyond anything we could have imagined.

There are things we think we know, things we do not know, things we do not know we do not know—- and —-the cause of all suffering—- the things we do not want to know—- such as reality, who we are and what the world we perceive is? In other words anything that would point the way to Truth. —-No evidence will convince you of the truth of what you do not want.

The world, an ego illusion, was made to take the place of Reality or God’s Creation. And if you examine the facts carefully the evidence is overwhelming. The ego thought system, following precise mathematical laws, made a simulated physical phenomenal world. It is this world that scientists explore, using abstract concepts like numbers and equations to quantify, analyze and study the behavior of the world, saying nothing of its origin. A distinguished physicist, Max Tegmark, proposed an hypothesis suggesting that “The universe is a mathematical structure, not just described by one. Our physical reality is a mathematical object and everything within it, including the human body and consciousness, must also be a part of that structure.”

The body and the world are mathematical objects designed to make them seem real.——-Here is an image that you want to be yourself. ⁶It is the means to make your wish come true. ⁷It gives the eyes with which you look on it, the hands that feel it, and the ears with which you listen to the sounds it makes. ⁸It proves its own reality to you (ACIM, T-24.VII.9:5-8).

This is a Course on how to know your Self, which explains why the ego, our illusory alter self, goes from suspiciousness to viciousness when you begin to work with it. The ego, a post separation state, does not know what our reality is, but it does realize that the mind that made it can let it go. Everything made by the ego is an illusion, a dream, and if you identify with the ego you will believe you are a figure in its dream.The ego’s mode of thinking is perception not knowledge. It is based on interpretation of what is believed not on facts, not on reality.——What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real.(ACIM, Preface.4:4-5).

How can a fact be fearful unless it disagrees with what you hold more dear than truth?  (ACIM, T-21.VI.6:7-8)—-What you hold more dear than truth is the belief you are a separate independent individual, free to decide the kind of “life” you want to live. —— “Who is the you who are living in this world?” —-When examined, this very important question reveals that you are not an independent individual but the dreamer of the ego’s secret dream of separation. As such you will fulfill the ego’s purpose, not Your Own. In your dissociated state you will never make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. —-For they are made with idols or with God. ⁹And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do. (ACIM, T-30.I.14:7-9)

There is no freedom from what must occur. If you choose the ego or anti-Christ you will experience a world of pain, suffering, loss and death. —Be not deceived by all the different names its roads are given.⁸They have but one end. ⁹And each is but the means to gain that end, for it is here that all its roads will lead, however differently they seem to start; however differently they seem to go. ¹⁰Their end is certain, for there is no choice among them. ¹¹All of them will lead to death. ¹²On some you travel gaily for a while, before the bleakness enters. ¹³And on some the thorns are felt at once. ¹⁴The choice is not what will the ending be, but when it comes. (ACIM, T-31.IV.2:6-14) ——If this were the real world you should be afraid.

Thinking positively is very helpful when dealing with reality, however, when misapplied to an illusion or a denial of reality, positive thinking can be counterproductive and genuinely harmful. In this scenario, it becomes a form of self-deception that actively delays necessary corrective action. By focusing on a falsely positive outcome based on a lack of understanding or refusal to accept facts, individuals may fail to address the root cause of a problem. Ultimately this  allows the situation to worsen and the negative consequences to compound over time. Instead of listening to the Voice of reason, we attack those who would attempt to introduce evidence, scientific or otherwise, that would challenge our beliefs. It is no accident that we continually ignore simple resolutions to all of our “problems.”—-  “The world was made that problems could not be escaped.”

Our goal should not be to defend a particular belief but to discover the truth behind our experiences.  Although illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth; their effects disappear when their illusory nature is revealed. We are not trapped in the world we see because its cause, a mistaken belief in the “separation,” is literally a nightmare from which we must awaken. This awakening is a process whereby we go from the fearful dream we made to a happy peaceful dream; from darkness to light.

So fearful is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without the sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream preceded his awaking, and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken him; a gentler dream, in which his suffering was healed and where his brother was his friend.⁵God willed he waken gently and with joy, and gave him means to waken without fear. (ACIM, T-27.VII.13:4-5)

The year 2026 will either be another year you reinforce the belief you are the effect of the world you perceive, or an opportunity to learn the truth.—-The knowledge that illuminates not only sets you free, but also shows you clearly that you are free. (ACIM, T-2.I.4:9)—-Your part is only to offer Him a little willingness to let Him remove all fear and hatred, and to be forgiven. (ACIM, T-18.V.2:6)

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

This year teach only Love for that is what we are! —-What is one cannot be perceived as separate, and the denial of the separation is the reinstatement of knowledge (ACIM, T-12.VI.7:1 )

In Peace, Love and Gratitude,
—-🙏—-

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

When you have attained true perception through forgiveness you will experience what the Course refers to as the “real world” or this world forgiven. And you will experience that there is only one problem shared by all, and one solution for that one. Attainment of the “real world” is the goal of the Course because it is the attainment and the keeping of a state of peace which is as far as learning can go.—- This course will lead to knowledge, but knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum. ²Nor is there any need for us to try to speak of what must forever lie beyond words. ³We need remember only that whoever attains the real world, beyond which learning cannot go, will go beyond it, but in a different way. (ACIM, T-18.IX.11:1-3)

Let’s begin by looking at the role Myths have on how we perceive the world and ourselves. Myths are entirely perceptual, and so ambiguous in form and characteristically good-and-evil in nature that the most benevolent of them is not without fearful connotations. (ACIM, T-4.II.8:12)——- Because myths are usually related to the ego, most mythologies begin with the fundamental dualistic belief we are a body living in a material world. We perceive ourselves to be the effect of this world, experiencing many problems within it.

Myths and magic are closely associated, since myths are usually related to ego origins, and magic to the powers the ego ascribes to itself. ²Mythological systems generally include some account of “the creation,” and associate this with its particular form of magic. ³The so-called “battle for survival” is only the ego’s struggle to preserve itself, and its interpretation of its own beginning. ⁴This beginning is usually associated with physical birth, because it is hard to maintain that the ego existed before that point in time.  (ACIM, T-4.II.9:1-7)

Jesus, having overcome his ego completely, knew, experientially, that there was “another way” and his Course teaches us how to attain it. He was very clear that consciousness was the domain of the ego. —-Consciousness, the level of perception, was the first split introduced into the mind after the separation, making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator. ²Consciousness is correctly identified as the domain of the ego. ³The ego is a wrong-minded attempt to perceive yourself as you wish to be, rather than as you are. (ACIM, T-3.IV.2:1-3)

Because he completely overcame his ego, Jesus became a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. His Course is a non-dualistic metaphysical system with a profound psychology that teaches the world is our dream. This fundamental shift in perspective reduced seemingly endless problems to one! —So why are we not jumping for joy? —- The ego-body-world experience depends on our belief in problems. They assure us there is an objective world.—- but this comes at a very high cost.—   Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. ⁶Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. ⁷As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. (ACIM, T-2.III.3:4-7)

Jesus, the preeminent psychiatrist, needs our willingness, signifying our readiness to work with his Course. Realizing there is no hope of finding peace in the world as we perceive it, we are willing to look for “another way.”—--All must reach this point, and go beyond it. ⁸It is true indeed there is no choice at all within the world. ⁹But this is not the lesson in itself. ¹⁰The lesson has a purpose, and in this you come to understand what it is for. (ACIM, T-31.IV.3:6-10) —-As you work with the Course you will realize, as have I, that this was your greatest moment!—— ⁸For from this lowest point will learning lead to heights of happiness, in which you see the purpose of the lesson shining clear, and perfectly within your learning grasp. (ACIM, T-31.IV.4:8)

Different experiences lead to different beliefs, and with them different perceptions. All that is required is a little willingness to experience the world differently.—-I (Jesus) am leading you to a new kind of experience that you will become less and less willing to deny (ACIM, T-11.VI.3:4-6).——The Course not only describes what the world is, more significantly it is the only spiritual path I am aware of that describes the motive behind the ego thought system. When the world is understood as a projection of the ontological guilt in our mind, we  can use our experiences in the world to heal our mind.  We quite literally see our own split mind everywhere we look. Until forgiven, nothing can be understood. —-An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true. ²The mind is closed, and will not be released (ACIM, W-pII.1.2:1-2).

All material frameworks, be they religious or scientific, have left unsolved the same fundamental problems that have plagued us throughout recorded history. And they will remain unsolved because “the world was made so problems could not be escaped.”—- You have never given any problem to the Holy Spirit He has not solved for you, nor will you ever do so. ²You have never tried to solve anything yourself and been successful. ³Is it not time you brought these facts together and made sense of them? (ACIM, T-16.II.9:1-3)

All of our seeming problems are not in the world, they are in the mind (not brain) of the dreamer. When there are competing explanations describing our experience, one should prefer the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions and provides solutions to problems the other perspectives have failed to meaningfully address. This is often referred to as “Occam’s Razor” or the principle of parsimony. The Course does provide a solution for every “problem” we experience!

The Course is “the other way.” Spirit looks upon all of our “problems” but sees them as motivation to experience a shift in perspective, a “miracle.” —-Your part is merely to apply what He has taught you to yourself, and He will do the rest (ACIM, T-27.V.10:2)

From the Course’s perspective you will experience there is only  one problem: the world is a dream. —Therefore, the obvious solution is: wake up! —-  You cannot wake yourself. ³Yet you can let yourself be wakened. (ACIM, T-29.III.3:1-3)—-You cannot get more parsimonious than that!

In Gratitude and Love, 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

Death is a choice and not a fact! If you identify with the ego you will experience death because the ego is a dream of death, but you will not die.—- You are not sick and you cannot die. ⁴But you can confuse yourself with things that do.  (ACIM, T-10.V.8:3-5)

We never respond to anything directly, only to our interpretation which Is based on our belief. Such is the nature of perception and it has profound implications in our daily experiences. The purpose of this essay is to bring to our awareness the fact that different interpretations, even regarding pain, suffering and death, result in different experiences. Through the application of the Course’s teaching in all aspects of our perceptual life, we will discover that we have two basic choices when responding to anything. Simply stated we can choose to identify with the ego/body thought system  or spirit/mind thought system and our experience will reflect the choice we make. By choosing the former you will reinforce your belief in illusions and dedication to death; by choosing the latter you demonstrate your dedication to life.

If you perceive yourself being attacked and experience fear, remember that your reaction was based on your interpretation of what happened, not what actually happened. Did you choose your ego interpretation or Spirit’s interpretation? They are fundamentally distinct and that is why people who are confronted with the same situation, in terms of form, respond very differently. Awareness of this fact is the difference between experiencing peace or fear.

The Course is very practical—“ It emphasizes application rather than theory, and experience rather than theology.” — You can debate whether what the Course is saying is true or you can apply it to every aspect of your life and let your own experience tell you. The truth is obvious never circular and never self defeating. I thank God I am more than the ego I made, and that I am as God created me. The Course is an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program designed to guide us through the darkness of our dreamworld to what it refers to as the “real world.” This is not our reality, it is this world forgiven.—-When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. You cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper. It is the function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit, to mediate between the two worlds. He can do this because, while on the one hand He knows the truth, on the other He also recognizes our illusions, but without believing in them (ACIM, Preface.5:1-5)

What are the odds that “we” could be wrong about everything we perceive in the world? And I mean everything: pain, suffering, loss and even death.—- My ego didn’t hesitate for one second: one in a bazillion! it exclaimed.—A still quiet Voice calmly replied: I’ll take those odds.

Why? —-In the perceptual world, before you can say whether something is true it has to be considered within a framework that allows for something to be true.— Spirit knows the ego is an illusion and the world we believe in is a dreamworld not a real world. It is only our belief in and identification with our dream figure that makes the experience of death seem real. Within the framework of the dream, the ego’s thought system is logically consistent and seems true. However, from Spirit’s or Jesus’ perspective, “outside” the dream, it would be obvious that everything you thought was true was just a dream an illusion. Within their framework everything you thought was true was never true.—-Death is a decision!  No one dies without his own consent! ——Salvation is the recognition that the truth is true, and nothing else is true (ACIM, W-152.3:1)

Either God or the ego is insane. ²If you will examine the evidence on both sides fairly, you will realize this must be true. Neither God nor the ego proposes a partial thought system. ⁴Each is internally consistent, but they are diametrically opposed in all respects so that partial allegiance is impossible. ⁵Remember, too, that their results are as different as their foundations, and their fundamentally irreconcilable natures cannot be reconciled by vacillations between them. (ACIM, T-11.in.1:1-8)

Think for just a moment about how you judge: —-²Your judgment rests upon the witness that your senses offer you. ³Yet witness never falser was than this. ⁴But how else do you judge the world you see? ⁵You place pathetic faith in what your eyes and ears report. ⁶You think your fingers touch reality, and close upon the truth. ⁷This is awareness that you understand, and think more real than what is witnessed to by the eternal Voice for God Himself. (ACIM, W-151.3:7).

Please consider the profound logic presented in Lesson-163!—-For death is total. ³Either all things die, or else they live and cannot die. ⁴No compromise is possible. ⁵For here again we see an obvious position, which we must accept if we be sane; what contradicts one thought entirely (death contracts life entirely) can not be true, unless its opposite (Life) is proven false. (ACIM, W-163.6:2-5)

If you want to be “right,” you will attempt to prove that death is real.—- Swear not to die, you holy Son of God! ²You make a bargain that you cannot keep. ³The Son of Life cannot be killed. ⁴He is immortal as his Father (ACIM, T-29.VI.2:1-4) — Please do not make the mistake of thinking the Course is saying—- do not die. It says do not swear that you will die, for you make a bargain that you cannot keep because you are not a body. —-The fear of God is fear of life, and not of death (ACIM, T-23.IV.1:2)

When your body and your ego and your dreams are gone, you will know that you will last forever. ²Perhaps you think this is accomplished through death, but nothing is accomplished through death, because death is nothing. ³Everything is accomplished through life, and life is of the mind and in the mind. ⁴The body neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life. ⁵If we share the same mind, you can overcome death because I (Jesus) did (ACIM, T-6.V-A.1:1-5

In Gratitude and Love, 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

Be of good cheer!!! The peace and happiness we have been waiting for is not in our “future,” it is awaiting our acceptance now. —However, there is a problem. —Within our current perspective our so called future is merely a continuation of past experiences. Sure it is the ego does not want you to experience the present. The ego does not exist in the present, its whole seeming existence stems from the belief we separated from God: a past illusion; —confirmed by our psychological experience of guilt: remembering this past illusion;— and fearful of future punishment for this past “sin.” We but relive an ancient memory that was over long ago.— ²The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful.³Remember that its emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present. (ACIM, T-13.IV.4:2-3)

Only the past is held in memory as you make use of it, and so it is a way to hold the past against the now. (ACIM, T-28.I.6:1-7) —-  In our dissociated state of mind our now moment is when we (observer/dreamer) make the choice to listen to the ego’s script or Spirits correction. —see model of mind chart—- We think of memory as a past occurrence but it is a skill that can remember now. ——³You are so long accustomed to believe that memory holds only what is past, that it is hard for you to realize it is a skill that can remember now. ⁴The limitations on remembering the world imposes on it are as vast as those you let the world impose on you. ⁵There is no link of memory to the past. ⁶If you would have it there, then there it is. ⁷But only your desire made the link, and only you have held it to a part of time where guilt appears to linger still. (ACIM, T-28.I.4:3-7)

If the idea of remembering the present sounds counter intuitive it is only because you have chosen the wrong voice to listen to. To the ego the present, where truth abides, is dangerous. But to Spirit the present is all there is. That is why I speak so often about the structure of our dissociated mind. A split mind means that you have two fundamentally different ways of perceiving every experience you have: Spirit or the ego.  -— you cannot make decisions by yourself. ⁴The only question really is with what you choose to make them (ACIM, T-30.I.14:1-4)—-Without this understanding, the powerful experience of remembering the present will not be understood.

We remember what we dissociated to, a body, but not what we dissociated from, Spirit. —- At no single instant does the body exist at all. ²It is always remembered or anticipated, but never experienced just now.³Only its past and future make it seem real. ⁴Time controls it entirely, for sin is never wholly in the present. ⁵In any single instant the attraction of guilt would be experienced as pain and nothing else, and would be avoided. ⁶It has no attraction now. ⁷Its whole attraction is imaginary, and therefore must be thought of in the past or in the future. (ACIM, T-18.VII.3:1-7)

All teaching in the world reflects the ego purpose of keeping truth from our awareness.—-The ego “protects” us from the truth! —Yes you read correctly.— The ego thought system is based on perception, belief and faith, not truth. And so all learning in the world teaches that absolute truth, at best, cannot be attained, and at worst is dangerous and to be feared. Therefore, Spirit must introduce the simple truth into a thought system which has become so twisted and so complex you cannot see that it means nothing. ³He merely looks at its foundation and dismisses it. (ACIM, T-14.I.5:2-3) —-⁴The truth is simple. ⁵Yet it must be taught to those who think it will endanger them.  (ACIM, P-2.V.2:4-6)

The world we believe in was made by the ego, our substitute reality. It is the result of our desire to have an individual existence, separate from our Self and God. This is our secret dream that led to the space-time world dream, a place we could project our guilt onto in the belief someone or something else would suffer and not ourselves.  With this as the ego’s purpose for the world, peace is impossible.— ⁵Seek not escape from problems here. ⁶The world was made that problems could not be escaped. (ACIM, T-31.IV.2:5-6)

You do not realize the whole extent to which the idea of separation has interfered with reason. ²Reason lies in the other self you have cut off from your awareness. ³And nothing you have allowed to stay in your awareness is capable of reason.⁴How can the segment of the mind devoid of reason understand what reason is, or grasp the information it would give?⁵All sorts of questions may arise in it, but if the basic question stems from reason, it will not ask it. (ACIM, T-21.V.4:1-5 —-Reason will tell you that denial of truth must lead to illusions and that is exactly why the ego is “protecting” us from the truth.   Most people, including scientists and theologians, believe the world is real, while  paradoxically acknowledging that Truth cannot be attained. When they speak of “our” survival, they mean survival of the body and its environment, which really means survival of the ego. Look carefully at the ego’s “logic” which they espouse, and you will notice the lack of reason and disregard of truth:

—Natural selection drives truth to extinction. First recognized through evolutionary game theory and later affirmed through rigorous mathematical proof. It is therefore, assumed that both God and Nature want to “protect” us from truth.

—“Cognitive biases exist because they have been shaped by evolutionary forces to optimize (ego) survival and reproductive success over the truth. —-In other words, according to this view, organisms may develop perceptual or cognitive biases that are more useful for navigating their environment and ensuring survival and reproduction, even if these biases distort their understanding of reality.”

—“Entropy, the natural state of the universe to dissolve into disorder, decay, and death, appears to be the dominant force in our reality. Life is fleeting and often a struggle for most animals and other life forms. Survival means struggling, competition can be brutal, we all grow older, weaker, and more fragile over time, and death is inevitable. Nobody actually knows why life is like this; it just is. We may ask God to come down here and explain the mess He has created, or point fingers at fate, karma, a cosmic governance, absurdism, aliens, or any other idea or concept you can come up with to explain how life works, yet the fundamental truth remains: life just is. Until it isn't.” (thephilosophyforum.com Martijn 27)

When superficially looked at the ego’s space-time universe is quite impressive: believed to have existed for billions of years, with billions or trillions of stars and galaxies evolving, somewhat inexplicably, from inanimate to animate living organism such a ourselves. Yet for all of its wonders, it is lacking in an important detail: namely its inability to discern its origin, much less our’s. Nor, as noted above, can it explain why the creator designed a destructive world with so much suffering. — Let not the dream take hold to close your eyes. ²It is not strange that dreams can make a world that is unreal. ³It is the wish to make it that is incredible. (ACIM, T-18.II.8:1-3)

All of our strategic plans for attaining sustained peace and happiness have never been successful throughout history! These strategic plans are based on our fundamental assumptions about the nature of the world. Since, after thousands of years of trying, none of our strategies have been successful, is it not reasonable to assume that the problem lies not in our strategic plans but in our fundamental assumptions upon which our strategies are based? I have stated many times the importance of our desire to “see things differently.” If we want to be deceived, the ego is happy to accommodate us; that is why we made it. No evidence will convince us of a truth we do not want.”

Consider what the ego wants defenses for. ²Always to justify what goes against the truth, flies in the face of reason and makes no sense. ³Can this be justified? (ACIM, T-22.V.2:1-3)  —-Many years ago I realized this world made no sense and could never reflect the Truth. I was determined to see things differently, even my long held beliefs about the world and myself. Years later, as the world judges time,  the Course literally turned my world upside down. I went from being the effect of the world to being cause. I realized that in my dissociated state I only remembered what I separated to, a body, and forgot what I separated from, Spirit. By forgiving my past mistaken beliefs, I literally experienced a whole new perspective about everything. This shift in perspective occurs when we (observer/dreamer) make the decision to listen to Spirit’s Voice. —-⁶Two ways of looking at the world are in your mind, and your perception will reflect the guidance you have chosen.(ACIM, T-12.VII.5:6). ³Whose manifestations would you see?  If you choose Spirit you will experience a shift in perspective, a miracle, which undoes the past, in the present,— now—- and thus releases the future.

The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. ²Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. ³And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there. (ACIM, W-pII.13.4:1-3)

In Gratitude and Love, 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

Perception is a choice and not a fact. ⁸But on this choice depends far more than you may realize as yet. ⁹For on the voice you choose to hear, and on the sights you choose to see, depends entirely your whole belief in what you are. (ACIM, T-21.V.1:6-9) ——-Based on our current perception, we do have choices, however, —what we are— is not one of them. Our experiences largely seem to be circumstantially derived. Simply stated: the world is cause and we are its effect—-  or so it seems.—-In this world the only remaining freedom is the freedom of choice; always between two choices or two voices (ACIM, C-1.7:1) —-In this essay I would like to share my experience of accessing these two voices and identifying  the voice I am listening to at any given moment.

The Course brought to my awareness the idea that my thoughts were not emanating from an organ in my body, but from an abstract unbounded dissociated mind. And further that this mind maintains two mutually exclusive, fundamentally different thought systems referred to in the Course as the wrong-minded ego and the right-minded ego or Spirit. —In this essay I will just use the terms ego and Spirit. —On the one hand the former teaches that I am a body living at the effect of a physical world; on the other hand the latter teaches that the world is a dream and I am the dreamer or cause. This was a major insight for me. I literally have access to two ways of perceiving the world and myself. My perceptions are a choice, not a fact and I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt! These are not just concepts, they are my experience.

We have the capability of distinguishing between being our thoughts —-and experiencing or observing our thoughts. Thinking is of the mind not the brain. When most people, including scientists, use the word mind they are referring to the brain. Neuroscientists see the brain as the organ of thought and emotions and can observe brain activity that is associated with mental states, experience, or behavior.  Some even believe consciousness arises from brain processes. However, what they are observing are correlations between these events and brain activity  demonstrating a strong relationship between them, but they do not inherently prove a causal relationship. The Course points out that when we have entered the world of perception, we have entered a dream state. Since we have erroneously identified with our dream figure, not the dreamer, we believe our organ of thought is the brain. Spirit teaches we are the dreamer and our thoughts appear as images projected from the dreamers abstract dissociated mind. These images appear to be physical forms because, by identifying with the dream figure, we have reified our thoughts. Both thought systems represent very different perspectives about who we are and what the world is. The ego’s perspective is within the world; Spirits perspective is about the world itself.  The latter leads to a fundamentally different perception, a perception not possible from the ego perspective. Therefore, it is what the Course refers to as a miracle!

In our dissociated, dualistic dream state, before we become aware of anything we must, either consciously or unconsciously, choose between two interpreters: Spirit or the ego.— Awareness is interpretation. — As you begin to observe your thoughts rather than being your thoughts, you will become aware, based on how you feel, of the choice you made that led to your perception. If your choice did not lead to peace, you unconsciously chose the ego and can make another choice. As I began to envision this structure of my mind, the impact on my experience was staggering. To give you a sense of how I envision mind, please refer to a graphic I designed called “Model of Mind.” —- I designed this graphic after working with the Course for a few years. It was particularly helpful when I was working with individuals and groups studying the Course.

Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers. (ACIM, M-12.6:5-6) Without this awareness the aforementioned distinction between being your thoughts and observing your thoughts will be obscured. When our emotional state is not peaceful we believe that we are not peaceful—-we are being our thoughts. However, if we pay close attention, we will realize that our mind can just observe or listen to our thoughts before reacting to them. While our emotional state may seem to be triggered by situations or circumstances that appear to be outside of our mind, they are not caused by them. The cause is the voice we chose to interpret our perceptions. If fear was the result, then we must have chosen our ego. The very fact that we are not peaceful tells us this must be so. This very important insight applies to every thought that we have. Whatever form our perceptions take: something personal, financial, or bodily sensations; our experience will reflect the voice we are listening to, not the situation or form.  The ego’s voice, being made by us to still Spirits Voice, always speaks first. If we made a mistake by choosing the ego, we can consciously choose Spirit’s correction before responding out of fear. Of course there will be times we have already projected our fears. We now have an opportunity to look at our guilt and forgive ourselves and whoever or whatever we projected onto. Thus do we learn we have the power to decide the kind of day we will experience, not in form, but content or meaning.

I have never been drawn to long periods of meditation as such. I consider every day to be a meditation in the sense that it is my intention to observe what voice I am listening to throughout the day. When I am uncertain I think: “does that sound like something Spirit would say, not just in words but intention and purpose .” In most instances the answer comes within seconds. If I experience any hesitation it is always because I am resisting looking at my hidden guilt which caused my projection. Once this is recognized, I forgive and invite spirit to enter. And so is every experience an opportunity to accept a loving thought or forgive a mistaken fearful thought. If I feel any doubt I ask Spirit to look at the situation with me and judge it for me.

People have often shared that they only apply Course ideas in certain circumstances: when meditating for a certain amount of time or when participating in Course groups. The Course’s corrective teaching is only needed by a dissociated mind which perceives a dualistic dream-world. It is the answer to our desire for “a better way.” Therefore, it is meant to be applied to all situations we perceive. To do otherwise means we want to keep some dreams uncorrected. ——.  ⁵The choice is not between which dreams to keep, but only if you want to live in dreams or to awaken from them. ⁶Thus it is the miracle does not select some dreams to leave untouched by its beneficence. ⁷You cannot dream some dreams and wake from some, for you are either sleeping or awake. ⁸And dreaming goes with only one of these. (ACIM, T-29.IV.1:5-8)—— I trust Spirit’s interpretation will be the most helpful for all involved in any situation. Such a judgment would be impossible from the ego’s limited perspective. We are incapable of being the arbiter of truth.  Unless we choose to listen to Spirit’s Voice in all situations we will allow the ego to bring truth to its illusions for interpretation.

Over time, a lesson that I have accepted as the truth is: L-284—- I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. Loss is not loss when properly perceived. ²Pain is impossible. ³There is no grief with any cause at all. ⁴And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. ⁵This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. ⁶Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth. ⁷I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. ⁸And I would go beyond these words today, and past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them (ACIM, W-284.1:1-8)

At first glance this lesson may not be a welcoming idea and in fact a bit overwhelming. If that is the case it is because we are interpreting our experience from the ego’s perspective. Our mind is profoundly split. We see ourselves as separate individuals which always means we are identified with a dissociated mind. Dissociation is the decision to separate and go from a non-dualistic reality to an illusory dualistic dream-world. Once we can accept that we are experiencing a dream-world, not a real world, the above lesson becomes an easily accepted and welcoming fact. Until the dissociation is totally healed we will continue to experience the ego and therefore must be vigilant against our temptation to join with and act out the ego script. Remember, the ego always speaks first and the temptation to react from our ego is a challenge we face everyday. If we feel guilty we are definitely not correcting our error but reinforcing it. Always be gentle and loving with yourself and everyone you perceive. How we see our brothers is how we see ourselves. Our day does not arise at random, it is determined by the voice we choose to listen to. We are cause and not effect of the world. The meaningless forms of our experience may remain the same but the content, or meaning, depends on the voice we choose to listen to. A miracle is a shift in perspective from the ego’s erroneous illusions to Spirit’s corrections.  As you work with the Course remember that whenever you are afraid it simply means you have been mistaken and then choose Spirit as your Guide. All effects of your mistake will be transformed.

When you experience Spirit’s Voice, think of it this way:——-It is your voice to which you listen as He speaks to you. ²It is your word He speaks. ³It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of unity of will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the single Mind of Father and of Son. ⁴In quiet listen to your Self today, and let Him tell you God has never left His Son, and you have never left your Self. (ACIM, W-125.8:1-4)

In Gratitude and Love, 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

When you are caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. And that realization changes everything! All perceptions involve form at some level. It is the perception of form that blinds us to the Truth. It is the perception of form that makes the world seem real. To further strengthen our belief in the perceptual world, the ego, who we made to replace our reality, established laws explaining the behavior of phenomena in the universe such as “human” behavior. —-²These would include, for example, the “laws” of nutrition, of immunization, of medication, and of the body’s protection in innumerable ways. ³Think further; you believe in the “laws” of friendship, of “good” relationships and reciprocity. ⁴Perhaps you even think that there are laws which set forth what is God’s and what is yours. ⁵Many “religions” have been based on this. ⁶They would not save but damn in Heaven’s name. ⁷Yet they are no more strange than other “laws” you hold must be obeyed to make you safe. (ACIM, W-76.8:1-7)

The Course points out a very interesting fact about laws:—laws are set up to protect the continuity of the system in which the lawmaker believes. ⁵It is natural for the ego to try to protect itself once you have made it, but it is not natural for you to want to obey its laws unless you believe them. ⁶The ego cannot make this choice because of the nature of its origin. ⁷You can, because of the nature of yours. (ACIM, T-4.I.5:4-7.)—-It’s time we brought these laws into question for what they govern is not our reality. The ego does not know what reality is, but it does know that the mind that made it can choose to let it go.  A fact that makes the ego very fearful. Withdraw our belief in the ego and its cause is gone along with its effects.  Therefore, the ego’s thought system is designed to make sure we will never make that choice. The impact this has on our daily experience is shocking!

Until our mind is healed and we no longer identify with our dream figure, the space-time-dream-world will continue to be our experience. Therefore, at this stage of our learning it would not be helpful to simply deny the worlds seeming reality, indeed it would only result in increasing our fear. This must be understood. The ego would love if we did not take medication that we believe we need, or stop eating etc..   As long as we identify with the figure in our dream and not the dreamer, we will be subject to the effects of the ego’s laws.  As we work with the Course and begin to perceive the world from a different perspective our experience will change along with our beliefs.  —-  ²Perceptions are built up on the basis of experience, and experience leads to beliefs. (ACIM, T-11.VI.1:1-2) —- Since perception is interpreted based on our beliefs, we must have new experiences.——  ⁵For perceptions are learned with beliefs, and experience does teach. ⁶I (Jesus) am leading you to a new kind of experience that you will become less and less willing to deny. (ACIM, T-11.VI.3:5-6).

Eventually we will experience what the Course refers to as the real world, not Reality, but this world forgiven. Until such time, however, we must be vigilant to give all negative fearful thoughts to Spirt for reinterpretation. The only way we can be certain we have done this is if we are peaceful. If we experience any uncertainty we can be sure we are listening to the wrong-minded ego. As we apply the Course to our daily experiences, our understanding will increase. Jesus completely overcame his ego and therefore understands the truth behind all of our fears. His Course is designed to guide us while we are still dreaming.— We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want. ²He knows what to do with it (ACIM, T-12.II.10:1-2)-

As mentioned above, the ego dream-world follows certain physical laws, many of which have been discovered by scientists. In fact some scientists think of the universe as a mathematical universe because it obeys precise mathematical laws. Since we all believe in this world these laws are very important and should not be ignored. They have allowed scientists to understand the behavior of the universe which evolved over “billions” of years. They are called the physical laws of nature because only the physical can be measured, ergo reality must be physical.  That perceived assumption has blinded them and ourselves to Reality.  Despite the amazing technological advances over the past 100 years, science can only reveal knowledge about the behavior of the universe not its origin or reality. In fact as mentioned in previous essays, nature obscures truth and reality from our awareness.—see: (An opposite to truth does not exist & How could science be different?)

Under close examination and from a much larger perspective, the Course takes us beyond the behavior or effects of the phenomena we perceive, to the underlying cause of our perceptions. With this shift in perspective our story is quite different. —-What I see reflects a process in my mind, which starts with my idea of what I want. ²From there, the mind makes up an image of the thing the mind desires, judges valuable, and therefore seeks to find. ³These images are then projected outward, looked upon, esteemed as real and guarded as one’s own. ⁴From insane wishes comes an insane world. (ACIM, W-325.1:1-4) —-Christopher Isham, a distinguished theoretical physicist at Imperial College London once commented that— “science is a self-consistent cult: we first assume the world/reality is physical and everything must be consistent with this belief.”

We must go through the darkness that we made before we can return our mind to the light of Truth. Although the darkness is only a dream, to the believer illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. Every negative emotion, without exception, has its origin in our belief in the ego’s dream of separation. As mentioned above, the ego’s thought system is designed to assure we never stop believing in or even doubt the ego’s illusory world. How is this accomplished? Since our reality is one of ideas which can never be threatened; the world the ego made up is one of form or images which are in constant conflict. Belief in a  fragmented world of form relies on everything we fear, everything we hate, and everything we think of as evil, to be believed.  It requires the sacrifice of Love, Peace, Joy and Happiness for pain, suffering, loss and death. Please consider the following question to discover why this is so. What are the experiences you would not be willing, or at least would strongly resist, taking responsibility for?  Are they not experiences of fear, pain, suffering, loss and death. Is it not these experiences that must be caused by something other than yourself? Without experiences of pain, suffering, loss and death, the ego-body-world illusion could never be believed. Without seeing ourselves at the effect of the world, which symbolizes and validates our belief in separation, all fearful negative experiences would disappear. —-²Forget not that the witness to the world of evil cannot speak except for what has seen a need for evil in the world. ³And this is where your guilt was first beheld. ⁴In separation from your brother was the first attack upon yourself begun.(ACIM, T-27.VII.6:2-4)

A loving, omnipotent God would not and did not create a perceptual world of form.—-The world of perception, is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real. (ACIM, Preface.4:3-5)  —-All who follow this website and are students of the Course, have in one way or another, expressed the now familiar thought: “There must be a better way.” An inevitable thought that must occur to every mind that experiences the world. Philosophers such as Socrates and Plato, leading scientists who gave us quantum mechanics, such as Planck, Heisenberg, Schrodinger and Einstein and countless other curious, albeit, not necessarily famous people, such as ourselves, entertained such a thought. —- ¹Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which ego thinking is capable. ¹¹That is because it contains a hint of recognition that the ego is not the Self. (ACIM, T-4.II.4:10-11)

If you experience strong resistance to questioning the validity of the ego thought system, Spirit will wait till you are ready. Truth can not be forced upon us, it must be freely chosen by us.  Both the Course and this website are for those willing to question the reality of the dualistic perceptual world of form, and to support one another in overcoming the range of emotions that will arise as we do so. Alone we can do nothing, but if you are willing to envision that we are in truth joined as one mind, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. By doing so we are merely acknowledging the true state of our being. When Jesus said that we were with him when he overcame the world, he meant it literally. ——Minds are joined; bodies are not. ²Only by assigning to the mind the properties of the body does separation seem to be possible. ³And it is mind that seems to be fragmented and private and alone. ⁴Its guilt, which keeps it separate, is projected to the body, which suffers and dies because it is attacked to hold the separation in the mind, and let it not know its Identity. ⁵Mind cannot attack, but it can make fantasies and direct the body to act them out. (ACIM, T-18.VI.3:1-5)

Dreams are projections of denied thoughts. They were made in the hope of escaping the guilt caused by our belief in the separation. By projecting these guilty thoughts onto a dream-world the guilt appears to be outside and not within our mind. In the world of form or perception seeing is believing. It is impossible not to believe what you see. But as the Course correctly points out, it is equally impossible to see what you do not believe!  That is why we must seek another way of perceiving the world and ourselves. Our attempt to get rid of guilt through projection does not work, we still feel guilty but don’t know why. —-Any attempt to deny what is must be fearful, and if the attempt is strong it will induce panic. (ACIM, T-9.I.12:1)——

You might well ask how the voice of something that does not exist can be so insistent. ²Have you thought about the distorting power of something you want, even if it is not real? ³There are many instances of how what you want distorts perception. ⁴No one can doubt the ego’s skill in building up false cases. ⁵Nor can anyone doubt your willingness to listen until you choose not to accept anything except truth. (ACIM, T-8.VIII.8:1-5)——Perception is the perfect mode of thinking for deception.  The truth cannot be perceived but only known. Before accepting illusions instead of truth remember King Lear’s advice: “That way madness goes.” The dream-world we experience is a reflection of the guilt in our mind and if we let Sprit or our right-mind use it on behalf of healing we will be free of guilt. There is only one problem and it has but one solution.—- Problem: the denial of the truth of our reality and belief in the separation; Solution: deny the denial of truth: the separation never occurred! —-The ego brought truth to illusions; are you willing to bring your illusions to the Truth?  When brought to the light of truth a shadow world disappears. Be joyful that we are not a shadow briefly laid upon a dying world! Grant your willingness and the process of dislodging your ego from its fixed position has begun.

By realizing we all share one purpose: healing of the mind of Gods Son, Spirit will enter all of our relationships and Guide our experience. —-What has been given you? ²The knowledge that you are a mind, in Mind and purely mind, sinless forever, wholly unafraid, because you were created out of love. ³Nor have you left your Source, remaining as you were created. ⁴This was given you as knowledge which you cannot lose. ⁵It was given as well to every living thing, for by that knowledge only does it live.

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

Does the sky begin where the Ocean ends?

From a certain perspective it would appear to be true. However, unlike reality, appearances change according to our perspective.  Generally speaking a perspective is formed through a combination of individual experiences, beliefs, values, and social influences.— NOT REALITY!  And so it is with everything we perceive in the physical phenomenal world. To be clear we are not free to change reality, but we are free to deny reality and once this occurs we will perceive a substitute ego illusion. When we made the ego, a god more to our liking, to replace God, we entered the world of perception. We were granted a separate existence where everyone was different, with different thoughts and desires. The world of perception is a dreamlike state, it is a world of time, a process that did not exist until the ego dreamt it up, along with space. Once believed, the ego idea of separation spiraled into chaos and massive dissociation. All hell broke lose.  It turns out that with everyone having their own beliefs and desires what you get is chaos, mistrust, winners and losers, the latter being disproportionately greater, or perhaps 100%. And to make matters even worse, which seemed impossible, the ego convinced us we were no longer a mind. We are a body using artificial intelligence called the brain, programmed by, what else, the ego, aka the wrong mind. As things currently stand we find ourselves at the effect of a space-time dream-world with little control over our “individual” figures.

Now this may not seem like a big deal, but the decision to identify with the ego and deny we are an idea in the mind of God,  a decision we all made as one mind, left us at home in God dreaming of exile. We are a victim of our own dream, which we now believe is our reality. — What’s wrong with that, the ego whispers. — To our ego-alter-self things couldn’t be rosier. It sees itself as the greatest leader ever to exist.— Really???— We went from total knowledge to fragmentation; from vision to perception; from reality to a dream and from a God of Love to a god of fear. —Our dedication and purpose is no longer to extend love, our purpose is survival of the ego thought system we made, which means continued belief in the dream of separation. And should that purpose be best accomplished through experiences of pain, suffering, loss and death— so-be-it!

The ego is no dummy, insane yes, but not stupid. By rendering us mindless, our belief in the ego’s separation story and the whole brain-body-world idea, stands uncorrected. And that, fellow dreamers, is exactly the ego’s plan. Unlike our home in God which is Love, the ego maintains its thought system through the attraction of guilt and fear. Guilt, which arises from the belief in sin, an act so insidious it can never be corrected, validates the world is real. —    Remember when we attacked God and replaced Him with the ego? —No! —  Sorry, denial doesn’t really work. Whenever you deny anything you merely choose to forget. Stay with me here because when you attempt to forget and not correct a fearful thought, the fear remains, you just don’t remember what caused it. And herein lies the ego’s purpose for the world. Projecting the resulting guilt from our mind to the world did prevent us from remembering the true cause of our guilt, but not from feeling its effects. Voila, mission accomplished!——Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. ⁵Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. ⁶This is how all illusions came about. ⁷The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. (ACIM, T-27.VII.7:4-7)

Take a close look at the world and you will discover a one to one correspondence between the origin of guilt: the belief we destroyed God, and the form our problems take in the world. From such an egregious belief there would be nothing we would not accuse ourself of. Every perception of the world would symbolize our sin. The specific form our guilt takes varies greatly because individual dissociated aspects of mind differ, but the underlying reason or content for every form of upset is the original guilt over belief in the separation. Some forms our guilt takes in the world are racial, religious, political, sexual, cultural or even our own body in the form of illness. Since the world is simply a reflection of the guilt in our mind, we will perceive everyone and everything as symbolizing evil. Sometimes, we take the role of victim; at other times we are the victimizer. Governments and other authority figures, including our parents, are favorite targets of our condemnation. Seen from this perspective it should be of no surprise that the world is and has always been chaotic.—- ²When you feel that you are tempted to accuse someone of sin in any form, do not allow your mind to dwell on what you think he did, for that is self-deception. ³Ask instead, “Would I accuse myself of doing this?” (ACIM, W-134.9:2-3) —The Course never speaks about behavior, but do look at the meaning you ascribe to the behavior.

The ego, being an illusion, must always defend its insane thought system. It demands total obedience, punishing all who would oppose it.—- So much for individual freedom.—- It seeks to control every aspect of our lives to assure we will never question its thought system. —-⁶The ego will attack your motives as soon as they become clearly out of accord with its perception of you. ⁷This is when it will shift abruptly from suspiciousness to viciousness, (ACIM, T-9.VII.4:6-7) ——The Course is leading us to a new experience facilitated by a complete thought reversal.—Be assured the ego will not take this lightly, it is suspicious when we just mention the Course. It moves to viciousness when we actually study the Course.—-  Once while writing these essays my computer started to delete the text and I had to shut the computer down—-(my immediate reaction was not exactly right-minded).

The means for the Course’s shift in perspective is forgiveness. It is through forgiveness that your thoughts about the world will be reversed. That is why forgiveness offers everything you, though not your ego, wants: true justice, peace, love, joy and happiness. Justice within the Course’s framework must be that no one loses; the antithesis of the ego idea of justice where there are winners and losers: a zero-sum-winner-take-all-game. Forgiveness is the trim-tab that miraculously and effortlessly turns the ship of state around. ——The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. ³It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. (ACIM, T-28.II.4:2-3

The miracle, in A Course in Miracles, is a fundamental shift in perspective. It is as if you were lifted above the battleground and could see the truth behind appearances. The whole is different from and greater than the sum of its parts. The idea of Unity is the elephant in the room the ego never wants you to experience. We are the same, not different! —-Only the different can attack. ²So you conclude because you can attack, you and your brother must be different. ³Yet does the Holy Spirit explain this differently. ⁴Because you and your brother are not different, you cannot attack. ⁵Either position is a logical conclusion. ⁶Either could be maintained, but never both. ⁷The only question to be answered in order to decide which must be true is whether you and your brother are different. ⁸From the position of what you understand you seem to be, and therefore can attack. ⁹Of the alternatives, this seems more natural and more in line with your experience. ¹⁰And therefore it is necessary that you have other experiences, more in line with truth, to teach you what is natural and true.(ACIM, T-22.VI.13:1-10)

To see yourself as cause and not effect is transformative:  a lucid dreamer is aware that what he is experiencing is his own dream. Therefore, any attack would be an attack upon himself. We are not joined together in illusions but in Thought.  We are an idea in the Mind of God. It is very important to realize that any concept we have as to what this means is based on perception, and totality cannot be perceived. Totality is completely beyond the ego’s range for meaning. There is no way that our fragmented mind could know what totality means. Unity and Oneness are not made of separate parts. Any thoughts we have about reality are illusions because that is all the ego can perceive.The ego, being an illusion, is afraid of any thought that contradicts its belief that you are an effect of the world and cannot be its cause. —-Thus are you not the dreamer, but the dream. ²And so you wander idly in and out of places and events that it contrives.³That this is all the body does is true, for it is but a figure in a dream. ⁴But who reacts to figures in a dream unless he sees them as if they were real? ⁵The instant that he sees them as they are they have no more effects on him, because he understands he gave them their effects by causing them and making them seem real. (ACIM, T-27.VIII.4:1-5)

Please consider carefully the following four question!!!

Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me?

Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless?

Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin?

And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth? (ACIM, T-21.VII.5:11-14)

The attainment of peace is not a function of time, it is a function of your acceptance. Peace and truth are one idea, one cannot be experienced without the other. The ego god, being illusion, demands blind obedience and rules through fear. God, being Love, awaits but our acceptance of His peace. —-Salvation is rebirth of the idea no one can lose for anyone to gain. ²And everyone must gain, if anyone would be a gainer.³Here is sanity restored. ⁴And on this single rock of truth can faith in God’s eternal saneness rest in perfect confidence and perfect peace. (ACIM, T-25.VII.12:1-4)

In Gratitude and Love, 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

We are looking for love in all the wrong places.

Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping of the state of peace. (ACIM, T-24.in.1:1)

Beware: the title of this essay is an oxymoron. Only a very severely limited perceptual mind could ever conceive of a substitute reality. Reality is not arbitrary, there can be no substitute for what must be true forever. It is changeless, formless and eternal. (See essay Illusion Masquerading as Reality) Any substitute for reality must be an illusion. And that is exactly what the ego is. Please think very carefully about this. By identifying with the ego we have actually convinced ourselves that ideas such as reality, truth, totality, unity, and oneness, are dangerous. And from the ego mind’s perspective that would be true. But we are not the ego! Our job is not to defend a particular belief about the world, it is to discover the truth behind our experience, whatever that is and wherever that may take us.

All learning of the world is built upon a concept of ourself, an image we made to take the place of our reality. Concepts are learned, they are not natural. The concept of ourself was made to fit the ego dreamworld’s reality, not Our Reality. Being an illusion the ego can only make other illusions. It arises from the belief we have separated from our reality. We have somehow done the impossible! We have split off from a unified formless state of being to a dualistic physical state of being. The ego arose from the belief we triumphed over and separated from God. Thus the ego is our “substitute” reality. In an attempt to escape the guilt over the separation, the ego projects the guilt onto an imaginary spacetime dreamworld. Every problem we perceive in the “world” is literally a projected image reflecting the guilt in our dissociated mind. The history of the world depicts the form our guilt took. We see our own split mind everywhere we look and the forever wars we fight are wars against ourself. That is why we never hate a brother for his “sins” only our own.—-Do you realize that the ego must set you on a journey which cannot but lead to a sense of futility and depression? (ACIM, T-12.IV.4:1)

As the dreamer, we are outside the space-time dream.  Look carefully at this world and you will see what this belief is costing you, not in reality but in your perception of reality. Perception is perfect for those who want to be deceived. And if you will examine the nature of perception you will see this is so. —-What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defense precisely because it is not real.(ACIM, Preface.4:4-5)

The following is from a Google AI generated response to my query about perception:

Defining cognitive dissonance: “When presented with information that contradicts our beliefs, we might experience discomfort and actively try to reinterpret the information to fit our existing framework.”

Defining confirmation bias: “the tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs while dismissing contradictory evidence further reinforcing our perceptions.”

The above describes why our ego trained perceptual mind actively resists what the Course is teaching. It is an example of both “cognitive dissonance” and “confirmation bias,” simply dismissing contradictory evidence that is inconsistent with the ego’s framework. To the ego what is not within its framework is automatically rejected. However, if you work with the Course you will experience there is another framework, another perspective in our dissociated mind that does reflect our reality. The Course is affording those who want to learn the truth of who we are a different experience, an experience that will show you a world more real than what you now see, a world redeemed from what you thought was real. The Course is leading us to an experience of “the real world.” It is an experience of this world completely forgiven. This course will lead to knowledge, but knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum. ²Nor is there any need for us to try to speak of what must forever lie beyond words. ³We need remember only that whoever attains the real world, beyond which learning cannot go, will go beyond it, but in a different way (ACIM, T-18.IX.11:1-3)

The Course shows us what the world is, how it came about, the structure of our dissociated mind and how to access Spirit’s Voice within us, our Guide to peace. How simple is the obvious and how easy to do. —- Well, not exactly. Changing our mind turns out to be a bit more difficult than first appeared. The ego, made out of the belief we separated from God, has a stronger grip on our mind than we realized. Which brings up some interesting questions. Who is the me/we who made the ego and where are we? These questions sound simple enough, so what’s the problem? The problem is that we are addicted to the ego’s  narrative that we are a physical body living in a physical world, and are afraid to question that belief. —-Although we can question anything within the material ego framework, we vowed never to allow the truth, the idea of union, to be seriously considered.—- This is the darkest veil, upheld by the belief in death and protected by its attraction. ²The dedication to death and to its sovereignty is but the solemn vow, the promise made in secret to the ego never to lift this veil, not to approach it, nor even to suspect that it is there. ³This is the secret bargain made with the ego to keep what lies beyond the veil forever blotted out and unremembered. ⁴Here is your promise never to allow union to call you out of separation; the great amnesia in which the memory of God seems quite forgotten; the cleavage of your Self from you;—the fear of God, the final step in your dissociation. (ACIM, T-19.IV-D.3:1-4)

Herein lies the greatest gift of A Course in Miracles. Yes it is true, we are experiencing a world of pain, suffering, loss and death. And we must deal with it. But it is not real, meaning our experience is not occurring in a real world outside of our mind. It is a dream, an illusion and the Course is teaching us how to use this experience to heal our mind. Like any addiction, and to be sure this is the strongest addiction experienced by all who experience the world, we need help from outside the ego thought system we are addicted to. Asking the ego for help is like asking the drug dealer to help rid you of your addiction.

How long will it take for the Course to work? That is up to you! How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? ²Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do? (ACIM, T-27.VIII.5:1-2)

We are looking for Love in all the wrong places. Looking for Love simply means you do not know who you are. There is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this:

⁷I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself

⁸Yet in this learning is salvation born. ⁹And What you are will tell you of Itself.

(ACIM, T-31.V.17:7-9)

Jesus assures me the war against myself is almost over. And since my purpose has shifted to forgiveness and toward peace, the real world seems well in reach. With Jesus as my Guide, what could go wrong? ——If you are laughing remember Jesus did not die and by teaching this you demonstrate that he lives in you! ——Teach not that I died in vain. ⁴Teach rather that I did not die by demonstrating that I live in you (ACIM, T-11.VI.7:3-4)—-That is a tall order and one well worth devoting our lives to “while we abide where we are not at home.”

In Gratitude and Love, 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

In the epilogue of the Workbook it states: The Course is a beginning, not an end. —-And now I place you in the hands of the Voice for God and for your Self, to be His faithful follower, with Him as Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you may think is real. ²Nor will He give you pleasures that will pass away, for He gives only the eternal and the good.³Let Him prepare you further (ACIM, W-ep.4:1-3)

Spirit’s Voice is the Voice for our true Self! The other voice is the false ego self we made in our dissociation.—As I have mentioned in previous essays, unless we consciously choose Spirt’s Voice, the default is the ego’s voice, maker of the dream. That was our original choice after our belief in the  separation. Therefore, our ability to recognize what voice we are listening to at any given moment is of paramount importance. Perception is a choice and not a fact. But on this choice depends far more than you may realize as yet. ⁹For on the voice you choose to hear, and on the sights you choose to see, depends entirely your whole belief in what you are (ACIM, T-21.V.1:8-9)

The Holy Spirit is your Guide in choosing. ²He is in the part of your mind that always speaks for the right choice, because He speaks for God. When you chose to leave God He gave you a Voice to speak for Him because He could no longer share His knowledge with you without hindrance. ⁷Direct communication was broken because you had made another voice.

(ACIM, T-5.II.5:6-7)

Once our mind is sufficiently trained to think along the lines the text sets forth, we should have accepted, at least conceptually if not experientially, the Voice for God and for our Self as a trusted Teacher within our mind. Mind is not the brain, it is not physical. ——The Holy Spirit seems to be a Voice, for in that form He speaks God’s Word to you. ⁶He seems to be a Guide through a far country, for you need that form of help. ⁷He seems to be whatever meets the needs you think you have (ACIM, C-6.4:5-7).

We also should have accepted, at least conceptually, that we are dealing with a dream-world not a real world, and that we are the dreamer. —-When the mind elects to be what it is not, and to assume an alien power which it does not have, a foreign state it cannot enter, or a false condition not within its Source, it merely seems to go to sleep a while. ³It dreams of time; an interval in which what seems to happen never has occurred, the changes wrought are substanceless, and all events are nowhere.⁴When the mind awakes, it but continues as it always was. (ACIM, W-167.9:1-4)

Until I accepted the idea I was the dreamer of the dream, that the “world” was my projection, I did not understand the role of forgiveness in the Course. Forgiveness as the Course uses it does not mean that we forgive what has really happened. That would be unjust indeed! The truth is that at the moment I am upset I believe the separation is real, experience guilt which I then project onto the dream-world. Forgiveness removes the projection from the world to my mind where it can be corrected. And in that holy instant my experience shifts from fear to peace regardless of the outcome of the situation in the dream. I cannot prove this to you, but you can prove it to yourself.

By carefully monitoring our thoughts we learn to recognize which voice we are listening to. Before doing or saying anything ask yourself: What is my purpose? What is it for? Notice if peace is in your awareness and always remember you are never upset for the reasons you think.  This does not mean we should pretend we are not upset when we are, however, it does mean we should never justify any negative or fearful experiences. All fearful emotions, a ho hum or rage, anything other than peace, is the sign guilt has entered our mind.

By correctly identifying  the voice we are listening to, all fearful experiences become opportunities to heal our mind and lead to peace.——Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you (ACIM, T-31.VIII.3:1) ——If you do not experience peace it can only mean you are afraid to listen to Spirit’s Voice.  “Do not fight yourself in this.” (ACIM, T-30.I.1:6)  This awareness will be helpful because you realize you can change your mind when you are ready.

To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. ²Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. (ACIM, T-24.in.2:1-2) — That level of commitment indicates you are willing to challenge your long held beliefs and simply want to know the truth. The Course only seems radical because it is presenting ideas that are in sharp contrast to our long held beliefs. Today, it is so obvious and clear to me that what it is saying is true.  It seems impossible I ever thought otherwise. The section of the preface called “what it says” is a summary of the whole Course. I have read it countless times. Upon first reading, I new it was incredibly powerful and I also knew I did not fully comprehend all it contained. As I worked with the Course my resistance diminished and my experience deepened. I began to realize the magnitude of my mistaken thoughts: Quite literally I realized  that “Everything I  thought I knew was never true!”

The more you experience Spirit’s Voice, the more you will be comforted by it. It is your voice to which you listen as He speaks to you. ²It is your word He speaks. ³It is the Word of freedom and of peace, of unity of will and purpose, with no separation nor division in the single Mind of Father and of Son. ⁴In quiet listen to your Self today, and let Him tell you God has never left His Son, and you have never left your Self. (ACIM, W-125.8:1-4

As we are motivated to move from fearful dreams to  happy (forgiven) dreams,  we can be of good cheer for we are not alone. Now you walk with Him, as certain as is He of where you go; as sure as He of how you should proceed; as confident as He is of the goal, and of your safe arrival in the end. (ACIM, W-ep.4:6)

In Gratitude and Love, 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

Belief is powerful indeed. ⁴The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth. ⁵A 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-132.1:1-7)

We all share the same fundamental problem, the insane belief we separated from our Source our Self, leading to what I call the Dystopian Dream Disorder. The idea of separation is encoded in, and maintained by the ego’s DNA (Do Not Accept the Atonement). I first heard this acronym while listening to a talk by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick who worked closely with Helen and Bill. I am personally very grateful to Ken for his numerous, in-depth, extremely helpful workshops, and at times quite humorous comments. (Contact FACIM for copies of Kenneth Wapnick’s  numerous lectures, and books.)

The Course is addressing the mind of the dreamer. Yes, I mean you and I, a non material, now massively fragmented, dissociated aspect of mind, reviewing in memory a dream that was over long ago. As such we are “outside” of the space-time dream, the one observing the dream and deciding whether to review the fearful wrong-minded ego narrative or the corrected, peaceful right-minded ego narrative. The ego or alter self, though unaware of Spirit, is aware that the mind that chose the ego can choose to let it go. This is the ego’s greatest fear, so the ego tries to obliterate mind from our awareness.  The dreamer, sometimes referred to as the observer, is the aspect of the dissociated mind that can learn and as it taught itself the wrong-minded narrative it can unlearn or reverse what it taught itself. —-The miracle does nothing. ²All it does is to undo. ³And thus it cancels out the interference to what has been done. ⁴It does not add, but merely takes away. ⁵And what it takes away is long since gone, but being kept in memory appears to have immediate effects. ⁶This world was over long ago. ⁷The thoughts that made it are no longer in the mind that thought of them and loved them for a little while. ⁸The miracle but shows the past is gone, and what has truly gone has no effects.⁹Remembering a cause can but produce illusions of its presence, not effects (ACIM, T-28.I.1:1-9)

Perception is a limited mode of thinking used by mind caught in a dream. It is our interpretation based on what we, the dreamer, want to believe. The ego, or substitute reality, is the insane idea we separated from and thereby killed God and made a dualistic illusory form filled dream-world. A world made up of idols to convince us the separation is real. Therefore, everything we perceive as separate forms or bodies will be interpreted as proof the separation has occurred. This sets the stage for the dream’s storyline which follows the ego’s tale of sin, guilt and fear. Our sin of separation in the past caused the psychological experience of guilt in the present and fear of future punishment. While the form our individual guilt takes is different, the content, fear, is the same for all fragmented aspects of the dissociated mind. It is our shared wish to be separate individuals that produced a fearful dystopian dream-world!

Key ideas in the ego’s playbook are perception, space-time and as mentioned above, sin, guilt, and fear. Perception is the process of receiving sensory information which is then given meaning based on subjective beliefs, not objective facts.  Space is defined as the experience of relationships between things in our perception and Time is the experience of relationships between events in our thought. Time creates the illusion of cause and effect relationships. This deceptive use of time sustains the ego’s destructive thought system and the anxiety prone Dystopian Dream Disorder suffered by all of the ego’s disciples, a.k.a the dreamer. By judging the present in terms of the past, the “future” merely becomes a continuation of the past. True change can only occur in the present, free of past reference.

Within the dream we experience a phenomenal world, a world known through sense perception and interpreted from beliefs the dreamer wishes to be true. Science is the study of this phenomenal world or dream. Despite the amazing breakthroughs scientists have achieved in both the physical and biological sciences there are many foundational questions that remain unanswered, such as how did the universe come about and what is consciousness? These and many other ontological questions remain largely unexplored because they cannot be addressed within the limits of their current perspective. (see my essay How Could Science be Different?) The operative phrase is “limits of their current perspective.” Change the perspective, which the Course in teaching us to do, and we will experience the world fundamentally transformed. Not just something better or different than before but qualitatively distinct. This takes no time because this transformation is inherent in the new perspective. A fearful world perceived to be real, ceases to be fearful when perceived from the perspective of a dream. Again this shift in perspective is not a function of time! Choose Spirit as our teacher and our perspective will shift from being an effect of the world to being cause, and in that instant the cause of our fear is gone. “The world contains no fear we laid not upon it!”

It is only our resistance to making this shift in perspective that causes delay! Caveat: Denial of this resistance is a potent ego defense that we must actively guard against. Our resistance  simply stated is that we do not want to believe the world is a dream. Were it not for this fact the evidence on its behalf is overwhelming. Every major concern, be it political , social, psychological, personal, environmental etc., can be easily understood and corrected within the framework of a dream. Conversely, history demonstrates that within our current real world framework there has never been and can never be meaningful resolutions to any problems. See my essay Contradictions for further details.

How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had? ²Is it your wish to let no dream appear to be the cause of what it is you do? (ACIM, T-27.VIII.5:1-2) —-These are two very important questions to seriously consider. We would be at the effect of a dystopian real world, but a dystopian dream world is our choice. Therefore, we can choose to see it from the perspective of cause.—-The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is. ³It teaches you there is a choice of dreams while you are still asleep, depending on the purpose of your dreaming. ⁴Do you wish for dreams of healing, or for dreams of death?  (ACIM, T-28.II.4:2-5)

If we choose healing, the body will no longer be experienced as an “engine of destruction” but a communication vehicle for healing. We need only demonstrate the willingness and desire to see things differently. —-  Health is the beginning of the proper perspective on life under the guidance of the one Teacher Who knows what life is, being the Voice for Life Itself (ACIM, T-8.VIII.9:9-10)——The Dystopian Dream Disorder we all suffer from is easily remedied if we are willing to let the Voice for Life teach us the right perception of the body and world.

As noted in Lesson132 mentioned above:  You cannot be swayed by questioning your thought’s effects. It is but when their source is raised to question that hope of freedom comes to you at last.—- The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. ²Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. ³And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought was there. (ACIM, W-pII.13.4:1-3)

In gratitude and Love, 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

I’m starting this essay with a very important question for you to carefully and very honestly think about: If the world and body you experience were proven to be an illusion, a dream, and you are the dreamer,  how would you feel?

—Quietly observe your response before continuing —

“No evidence will convince you of a truth you do not want!

Shortly after I began studying the Course, I experienced a period of discomfort and actually put the Course aside for a while. At first I was not clear as to the cause of my discomfort, but I was quite certain the problem was not an error in the Course’s teaching. Rather it was a fearful thought that I was denying and afraid to look at.  I realized that I did not want to believe the world was a dream despite the fact that all of my studies, in various disciplines,  pointed in that direction. And the Course, with flawless reason, assured me it was so. Finally, I asked for help:—-  take this from me and look upon it, judging it for me. Let me not see it as a sign of sin and death nor use it for destruction. Teach me how not to make of this an obstacle to peace, but let you use it for me to facilitate its coming. T-19.IV-C

Spirit’s Guidance helped me dispel my fears the only way one can, by looking at them! By facing, not resisting my ego-based fearful thoughts, I discovered their baseless foundation. A world that I felt to be incomprehensible, finally made sense! I am greatly relieved to realize that the world I perceive, a world rooted in suffering and mass destruction, is, indeed, a dream whose only purpose is literally Self deception. The ego or false identification, is afraid of our true identification and by identifying with the ego, the ego’s fear is our fear, not in truth, but in our illusions of ourself. This was a major step in my healing process and just one of numerous examples where my fearful thoughts, seen in the light of truth, transformed to peace. Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. ⁵Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. ⁶This is how all illusions came about. ⁷The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. (ACIM, T-27.VII.7:4-7)

A workbook lesson that was very meaningful to me was: “above all else I want to know the truth.” This had been a guiding principle for me long before I studied the Course. And, no doubt, my faith in this idea led me to the Course. I realized there is only one way truth could ever be unknown to me.  Desiring something I held more dear than truth.  My desire to identify with a false illusory self I made. Wait/What!!!  Although I thought the “world” was insane and there must be another way of understanding the world, I did not think “I” was insane! —-Until, that is, I realized, at first conceptually and then experientially, I had two identities: one that is Real that I did not create; and one that was false that I made. The former is abstract (non-specific) a very beautiful Idea in Mind; the latter is a perceptual concept, an image of myself. All who experience the world identify with a body or ego self. We hopefully would all agree that to identify with an illusion of yourself; and deny your true Self, is to be, as they say: out-of-your-mind or insane. We have conflicting goals because we have conflicting identities, only one of which is real. — This leads directly to dissociation, for it represents the acceptance of two goals, each perceived in a different place; separated from each other because you made them different. (ACIM, T-12.VII.7:6-7)

The separation is merely another term for a split mind. The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace. (ACIM, T-5.III.9:3-6) —  How could we have goals that are not in our own best interest? The ego tells us we do not correctly understand the situations and circumstances within which these goals are set. However, the problem is far greater than that! The real problem is: whose goals and for what purpose?  Again, we have conflicting goals because we have conflicting identities.—-You perceive the world and everything in it as meaningful in terms of ego goals. ²These goals have nothing to do with your own best interests, because the ego is not you. ³This false identification makes you incapable of understanding what anything is for (ACIM, W-25.2:1-3)

What do you mean false identification—you exclaim!! The contradiction between what we say we want and what we experience, is a function of, you read correctly, false identification. The impact this has on our dissociated mind is staggering! As ego we want only what is best for its survival, and that is pain, suffering, loss and death because that is what assures us the body and world are real. If we want peace, which is synonymous with truth, we must confront a powerful contradiction in our thinking. —- ⁶When you think you are projecting what you do not want, it is still because you do want it (ACIM, T-12.VII.7:6)

On the one hand we believe we want peace, and a life free of pain, suffering, loss and death. However, as long as we believe we are a body, separate from our brothers who are one with us, we will follow the dictates of our ego. We will be attracted to pain, suffering, loss and death because they establish the body’s reality. And it is this we will defend, at the cost of everything we say we want. In Chapter 19, The Obstacle to Peace, the Course helps us to see that we do not want peace, and that we are attracted to pain, suffering and death. Clearly our experience attests to this fact! Our dedication is to the ego dream figure we made, not to peace, love and unity of purpose. Those attributes are inherent in the Self we are denying, in Spirit: the truth of Who We Are.

The Course helped me look at the truth behind the ego myth of being a separate, independent individual. By examining my experience carefully I realized, contrary to being independent, I have been the willing slave of the ego which I made and now believe made me. My “individual” self is an illusion, a dream figure acting out the script written by the voice I chose to listen to.  (See model-of-mind chart) Denying we are the dreamer of the dream, we now believe we are the victim of our own dream. The “world” is cause and we are its effect. —-The slave of idols is a willing slave. ²For willing he must be to let himself bow down in worship to what has no life, and seek for power in the powerless. ³What happened to the holy Son of God that this could be his wish; to let himself fall lower than the stones upon the ground, and look to idols that they raise him up? ⁴Hear, then, your story in the dream you made, and ask yourself if it be not the truth that you believe that it is not a dream (ACIM, T-29.IX.1:1-4)

Within the dream there is another Voice that we, observer, can listen to.—-⁷You will not make decisions by yourself whatever you decide. ⁸For they are made with idols or with God. ⁹And you ask help of anti-Christ or Christ, and which you choose will join with you and tell you what to do. (ACIM, T-30.I.14:7-9). — The only freedom we have in the dream-world we experience is the choice between dreams of slavery or freedom; fear or peace. The Course is teaching us how to access the Voice for peace within us and hear Its script which leads to peaceful, loving experiences. The situations and circumstances may appear to be the same in form, but their meaning, and therefore our experience, will be very different.— You will first dream of peace, and then awaken to it. ²Your first exchange of what you made for what you want is the exchange of nightmares for the happy dreams of love. (ACIM, T-13.VII.9:1-2)

The Course, though simple, is not easy. It has the difficult task of teaching our fragmented mind what we do not want to learn.   —.  How simple is salvation! ²All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be. ³The impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects. ⁴And that is all. ⁵Can this be hard to learn by anyone who wants it to be true? ⁶Only unwillingness to learn it could make such an easy lesson difficult (ACIM, T-31.I.1:1-6)

Perception is a choice and not a fact!! —Loss is not loss when properly perceived. ²Pain is impossible. ³There is no grief with any cause at all. ⁴And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. ⁵This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. ⁶Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth. ⁷I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. ⁸And I would go beyond these words today, and past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them. (ACIM, W-284.1:1-8)

If we can’t trust the truth, what, dear friends, can we trust, surely not illusions!!!

In gratitude and love,

Caryl

PS: I highly recommend Foundation for Inner Peace new audio experience of ACIM. Download the APP and give it a go! And 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.