And Then There Was One . . . .

We are the collective experience of an ego-world. The world of the ego is a make-believe world; a seeming state of logical chaos whereby certain predictions can be made within "reasonable" limits. In this "world" we hold certain beliefs based on a system of thought we call, memory. That is, a part of the physical body we call the brain holds the means to store and recall experiences of our "past". It is in this process of recall that a form of explanation is offered to our consciousness and tends to become our "reality", giving rise to what we believe to be the "present", or "now".

This "reality" is experienced against the background of a phenomenal collection of symbols and sensory data that needs interpretation by the "master" of this universe - The Ego! It tells us in language that only ego-creatures understand; with paradoxical standards and concepts that are well respected and accepted in this vast history of what we have come to know as the human experience.

Life in the phenomenal world is an experience that begins with an idea - an idea of phenomenal proportion in the intellect! We are "born" into a form that sits well within the cradle of space and time. This form occupies space in a physical sense and is placed without delay on the treadmill of time to mark finite experiences with beginnings and endings, creating for us that state of mind we see as urgency.

Next, cob-webs of emotions tangle us between opposites where all that we perceive as good or bad can be experienced in other than what we believe to be its present state. A world of duality where the singular experience of love is lost to fleeting moments of fear and the reality of beauty, lost to interpretation in a field of illusory opinion.

It is a world of finiteness, change, and form where perfection lasts only as long as the prevailing opinions remain constant in a world that has but one "real" constant - the speed of light, and even that may be an illusion!

But, one might ask, What about the physical universe? We have such intricate demonstrations of reality in this world of solid facts and incontrovertible evidence of a physical universe. If we were to rest our case on the physical world being proof of reality and the opposite was demonstrated to be a fact, i.e., that the physical world was an illusion, what then?

First, let's take a look at The Premise we all believe in:
1. The physical world is reality and the laws that govern this world are considered truths that command our attention and govern our lives. The physical world is with form, changes, and everything in it that has life, dies. Nothing is everlasting!

2. Virtually an inescapable phenomenon takes place whereby our brains assimilate the real world for us, usually meeting our expectations. We manifest the un-manifested.

3. Studies of the metaphysical, on the other hand, including religious and spiritual thoughts, we consider to be beliefs and accordingly not part of the real world - with any truth ascribed to them based on one's faith in those beliefs.

4. In effect, we believe we are separate minds in separate bodies and completely on our own. We see ourselves with agendas that work within a system of scarcity and fosters competition for a limited amount of available things. It is driven by fear.

5. We look at the concept of time as linear, i.e., having a starting point separate from its ending - along a continuum that fosters a notion of past, present and future.

Now, let us take a look at the premise of "A Course in Miracles":
1. The Physical World is illusory and nothing is going on. This includes what we call the Universe and all attendant thoughts. We see the concept of time as also illusory, but within the illusion in the concept of a spiral where everything happened at once and was healed by God, rather than linear. The concept of space is also one we would relegate to a physical world and unnecessary in Heaven.

2. The one reality in this world is our access to the Voice of God, "The Holy Spirit". This may be interpreted and used interchangeably with a further illusion we can identify with, Jesus, as the Manifestation of The Holy Spirit, since it is his thoughts that reach us through the "Course". Jesus holds himself out to us as our elder brother and not as Divine.

3. Reality, or the Real World of Heaven, is of the Spirit whereby God Is and nothing outside of God can be that is not the reality of God and God's Creations. Attributes of God, and therefore His World, are Formless, Changeless, and Everlasting.

4. God Created one Child, known as The Christ. As an extention of the Father (God), The Christ is made of the sameness; the likeness we call Spirit! We are Love. We are that Christ!

5. The population of the illusory world, - humans, are fragments of a consiousness that until trapped in the world of the Ego shared a common mind with one another in that state of Spirit known as the, Christ.

A. Conscious thought invades the dream-world of the Illusion, but not Spirit.
B. That conscious system of thought is ego dominated and therefore fragmented and separate from the truth.
C. A constant struggle to know Self goes on in the "Batteleground" of the illusion, with the ego sharing one part of a split mind and the Holy Spirit the other.
D. In this world of illusion, the ego is the default system of thought, i.e., perception, and can only be diminished by availing one's self of the Holy Spirit's thought system - by an act of voluntary will - by choice.
6. In summary, the course says:
"Nothing Real Can Be Threatened.
Nothing Unreal Exists.
Herein Lies The Peace Of God."

Can these two premises be reconciled? Can we say without doubt which premise is the ultimate truth? Without equivacation, I believe the answer to the first question is "yes". Look around you: Is not premise number one not what we believe? Is premise number two not what we, as adherents to, "A Course in Miracles" believe? Of course!

As to the second question concerning ultimate truth, we can leave that to a discovery yet to come while we measure its promise in the now. While the course considers itself to be an illusion, it promises a chance for peace through the miracle of shifting one's perception, as well as collapsing time for us all. Between believing in the illusion and the removing of this erroneous thought of separation from Heaven and the, Father, a shift must take place.

Exploring, A Course in Miracles By G.P.W., Jr.