My Ego Is a Master Illusionist
I'm doing it to myself
May 30th, 2009
In heaven Christ’s thoughts simultaneously create wonderful, joyous effects.
But for an instant I wanted more than that; I wanted to separate from God and run my own show, an absolute impossibility. So to bring about the experience I wanted, I fell asleep and dreamed it. In that instant my mind made the world; and God placed the Holy Spirit in my mind so that, when I wanted to, I could remember who I was.
Inside my belief that I separated, however, I felt terribly guilty about usurping God and feared He was angry enough to kill me if ever I came back. Desperate to hide, I repressed my memory of God and turned my mind over to the ego thought system. Now I identify with the ego. The ego’s purpose is to keep me believing that I am a separate person in the world. While perpetuating my dream, the ego has to deal with my feelings of fear and guilt.
The Five Levels of Mind
Summarizes separation and forgiveness
May 28th, 2009
I have uploaded David Hoffmeister's chart of the Five Levels of Mind, which shows the structure of the ego mind.
I have also uploaded a chart showing how the ego develops the illusory world in which we believe. It also shows how God’s Answer, the Holy Spirit, corrected it through the process of forgiveness and miracles leading to the Atonement.
Tags: Ego Forgiveness
What is a Miracle?
updated
May 28th, 2009
Cause in my mind
A miracle springs from a state of miracle readiness, which includes the awareness that:
Tags: Miracle
A Guilty Dream
My mind training must be working
May 23rd, 2009
I rarely remember dreams but early this morning I dreamed that a friend asked me to shoot someone for him because no one would suspect me. So I did it, partially reasoning that there was no life in bodies. It turned out the victim was a vice presidential candidate. I was able to pass through security in a hallway without arousing suspicion. But later I kept finding that I was holding a large syringe that belonged to my friend, no matter how many times I got rid of it. A woman seemed to be catching on to me, and then she had me cornered as I crouched by a table under which I was hiding a syringe. She came up to me in shorts and, to throw her off the murder possibility, I bit her on the thigh. [Hilarious now] Then I woke up feeling terribly guilty about committing murder and trapped. I was very relieved to find that it was only a dream.
For a year now I’ve been going deeply into the Course and into my mind, apparently with no strong protest from my ego. I am pleased to have had this dream because to me it shows that my ego is beginning to feel the heat from my strengthening Self, and it is becoming more desperate in trying to make me feel guilty.
What is Wrong-minded about "Good”?
Forgiveness is relinquishment of all judgment
May 20th, 2009
At the Camp for Miracles David Hoffmeister pointed out the need for forgiving the good. He said, “Further into the Course we learn the ego projected out the cosmos and with it came a mechanism of rank ordering things into hierarchies, of judging, of dividing things up. This judgment mechanism of the ego keeps the illusion in place.”
So I looked in the Workbook and found:
Tags: Ego Forgiveness Judgment
David Hoffmeister’s Gathering
May 11 in Manchester, New Hampshire
May 15th, 2009
David Hoffmeister held a gathering at the Manchester, NH ACIM group’s Sunday meeting on May 11, 2009. David answered questions about the Course and its practical application for experiencing miracles. It was a lively discussion punctuated by plenty of laughter.
Here is a transcript of the gathering.
Tags: Miracle
What is “light”?
What is “vision”?
May 13th, 2009
What is “light”?
Abstract light in the Course is a metaphor.
Light is the Holy Spirit’s purpose of forgiveness.
Light is miracle-readiness.
Light is the resolution, born of peace, of all your conflicts and mistaken thoughts into one concept which is wholly true.
True light is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. And thus what is the same is seen as one, while what is not the same remains unnoticed, for it is not there.
Light comes from within. W-108
God put light in me.
Light is God’s strength in me that overlooks past appearances.
Light is truth.
Light is a reflection of God’s Will and mine.
Light is the extension of peace from my mind to another mind.
Light is my awareness of being one with the unified Christ Mind.
Miracles are seen in light.
Idols and Needs
There is no ambiguity in the Course
May 03rd, 2009
While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is, in fact, the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in. Until the "separation," which is the meaning of the "fall," nothing was lacking. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. You act according to the particular order of needs you establish. This, in turn, depends on your perception of what you are. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. T-1.VI
"Self-esteem" in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality. Appetites are "getting" mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. The ego tries to satisfy itself through the body. T-4.II Your mission is very simple. You are asked to live so as to demonstrate that you are not an ego. T-4.VI
Tags: Ego Forgiveness Guilt
