If you
think that work exciting, try "A Course In Miracles", copywritten 1975, by
Foundation For Inner Peace.
This
work constitutes the most enlightening and meaningful ideas on mind vs. brain
you'll ever encounter, and you won't need scientific evidence to convince you
of its perspective because truth resounds as self-evident once it is felt deep
down.
The
Course maintains from the outset that mind is totally in control of brain, and
not the reverse--as so many want to see it. Not only is one drawn to the
beautiful presentation of ideas, which can be likened to Shakespeare for
both richness and because so much of it is in iambic pentameter, but the
answers to the most important questions we have in life are, for many like
myself, satisfactorily answered. Why we are here, what is important, what is
real and what is not.
If I
may, I'd like to quote from the preface: (Please read on-I know this is going
to be offensive to some, and the masculine use of the word God is not anything
but convenience for agreement of pronouns)
"Nothing
real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
"This is how A Course In Miracles begins. It makes
a fundamental
distinction between the real and the unreal:
between knowledge
and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the
law of love
or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and
unambiguous. It can
be unrecognized, but it cannot be
changed. It applies to
every-
thing that God created, and only
what He created is real. It is
beyond learning because it is beyond time and
process. It has no
opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely
is.
"The world of perception, on the other hand, is
the world of
time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is
based on inter-
pretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and
death, founded
on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death.
It is learned
rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases,
unstable
in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.
"From knowledge and perception respectively,
two distinct
thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In
the
realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from
God, because
God
and His Creation share one Will. The world of
perception,
however, is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills,
in
perpetual conflict with each other and with God.
What percep-
tion 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.
"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..."
I hope
that those God words didn't offend the scientifically minded as much as they
once offended me, and I hope that the "offensive" words were substituted with
Creation, Source, Goddess, or whatever name you'd care to give to the
oneness that is Life. This is not a book on a new religion, it is not
religious, yet is intensely spiritual and metaphysical, and the best
psychologist a person could have. It may have been written by another
so-called prophet, but was actually delivered to a Professor Helen
Schucman of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in
New York City, and she was anything but spiritual.
Whether
it was related to her by a divine source, or whether it is the work of another
savant with schizophrenia is irrelevant. What is significant to this
little note is the content, which I see partially being
pursued today in science, medicine, quantum physics, etc. To cite the
example of positive behavioural reinforcement on an individual's neural
pathways, with the actual effect of physically changing the old pathways
that took challenged people down roads of tortured thought. Well, I've worked
for many years with people with mental illness. Change how someone sees
things, not behavior so much, but get them to recognize a universal truth. I
know that if most had not been thinking or forced to think along the
pathways of fear and defensiveness when growing up, their propensity for
mental illness would not have had such a jump-start, and these very
pathways could have developed physically differently. Perhaps 85% or more
patients suffered extreme physical, emotional or sexual abuse in their
first homes. Those with whom I had contact were almost at the 100% figure
for abuse.
The
New York Times recent papers on origins of the universe, big bang theory,
accelerated expansion of same, all seem to be drawing conclusions you can find
in the Course, such as we are the creators of the physical universe, by virtue
of Free Will.
We are
free to experiment with all forms of illusion. We are dreaming the universe
collectively, and at night each one of the fragmented parts of the collective
soul that participates in the dream, dreams their very own dreams which only
they will experience, yet believe to be true because of the source of their
creation. Tell yourself to be afraid, and you will be. Tell yourself the
nightmare is unreal, and the dream changes usually to happier events. Whatever
you wish or feel will occur. On a larger scale, collectively as the one
creation of a Creator, in the realm or mindspace in which we never actually
could leave the source, both God and Heaven are unaware of anything being
prayed for in a realm that does not really exist.
Prayer
is for guidance, but mostly a song to your fellow-human to wake up to Heaven
that is possible now. One has but to change one's mind. Forgiveness is the
key--and that is what the miracle is. It is the closest thing to real love --
which scientists will eventually learn is the only real force that exists --
we will experience on Earth.
Check
it out! No books but one, a course in how to unlearn what you were
taught badly, no gurus, leaders, no sacred places or things to buy to help you
in your journey. This path is not for everyone, it remains one of
many.
