Skeptics - Just How Thirsty For Knowledge Are They?

“Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger

of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding generation . . . 

Learn from science that you must doubt the experts. 

As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: 

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
~ Richard Feynman

Regarding skepticism, The Risen notes:

"Some people are Skeptics with a capital S. These Professional Skeptics feel it’s their job to remain closed in their minds and hearts while retaining the right to question anything. Many of them include scientists, who represent a very small minority of humanity on earth, but have been placed on pedestals that raise them above the majority. This misapprehension disempowers the majority, disabling them from assessing their own valid experiences of personal reality. Science has given us brilliant advances in many aspects of human living, but not without a lot of trials and errors. The facets of truth that science presents as dogma are often successful in creating distractions from those with alternate viewpoints. Yet scientific history consistently reveals the inevitable result of radical exchanges of such dogma. Former universally accepted and supposedly proven axioms are continually replaced by new discoveries, which are then made formal by a collective agreement of this minority. Such has been the course of mainly Western science as it has evolved on earth. This is finally changing as science rediscovers the idea of the energy we call spirit. Science is wonderful, amazing, and necessary, and can provide a certain amount of insight into our existence, but not all. Given the amazing changes in our scientific world-views over the past one hundred years, can we truly think we can now put a cap on what is to come in the next hundred? (p. 27)

"And yet, we do need skeptics. There are scientists who maintain a healthy measure of skepticism about skepticism, and remain open while questioning. This openness has led to emerging, revolutionary scientific models, such as R. A. White’s Experiential Paradigm. Inspired in part by psychologist Abraham Maslow’s classic work on cognitive-being and his insights from what he called exceptional “plateau” or “peak” human experiences, White asserts that there’s a form of knowing that can only come from having been immersed in a particular experience. This means that the worldview of a medium can only be objectively analyzed after the analyzer has also subjectively experienced it. Mediumistic experiences often take place outside the constraints of space and time and therefore may pose serious challenges to those scientists who have always relied on such matrices in their laboratories. (p. 33)

Spiritual awareness, like science, requires diligent questioning and participation. Simply accepting something because one is told to believe it is not equal to experiencing it. But once we experience something, we have begun to know it. Upon greater and fuller experiences of experiential knowing, we begin to have faith. From there, wisdom arises from the event and this faith becomes an integral part of our present awareness. (p. 33)

While giving due credit to the necessity of healthy skepticism, this book does not address the needs of professional skeptics.  As Tim has pointed out, it has been orchestrated by many, many Risen Ones to evoke and inspire various levels of resonance and deeply intuitive responses from the reader, skeptic or not. This will be especially effective for those who are either working through or have worked through their fears and doubts, and feel drawn to the subject in some way, however slight, however wary. A scientist and a non-scientist may not think they’re looking for the same thing, but the shared desire to understand will likely bring them into contact with one another in some way." (p.34)

We had informed Tom and Lisa Butler about Dr. Eldon Taylor's upcoming radio show at Hay House with Dr. Kevin Nelson, to see if they had anything to share about yet another Professional Skeptic's assertions that "spirituality is not much more than a throw-back to superstition." The Butlers are the Directors of Association Transcommunication, (see their interview with Mike Tymn). Tom responded:

"We like to model consciousness with the analogy of a multifunction phased array radar (see video at the National Severed Storms Laboratory for a brief introduction of the concept.) While the brain images the physical world via the five senses, its "radar" aspect images consciousness. The resulting sense might be more akin to the imaginary space of fractal theory. (See here for a not-so-brief discussion.)

"It would be very difficult to know what the display of any radar means without knowing the geography of the space it is scanning. In the same way, looking at the 'display" of how the mind images consciousness without having at least a passing understanding of the nature of such concepts as transcommunication, psi functioning, super-psi and survival hypotheses, and the attendant research concerning intentionality, it would be difficult to develop a reasonable understanding of the data Nelson is so proud of.

"In effect, he is saying that turning off the radar turns off the display, and therefore, that which is displayed is also turned off. Nelson is already vested in the skeptical community and there would be no benefit to our community in giving him further attention."

Thank you, Tom for your kind permission to share this fascinating response here with others. What is so synchronistically (we use that word a lot here, don't we) interesting here is Tom's referral to fractal theory, as we often use fractal/mandlebrot imagery here for visual representations of various, complex spiritual issues (see the last 3 posts). Tom also references the term "geography" -- which we use quite a bit in The Risen. We mentioned in the last posting that we're interested in healthy skepticism, and are capable of supporting it. But we also agree with Tom Butler that it is not our job to lead a horse to water, especially if it's not truly thirsty.

Your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated here. In essence, is it really worth it engaging with the scientific likes of Dr. Nelson's work? August has ordered his book and may report on it at some point.

Connecting the Dots

~ Katsushika Hokusai's woodcut "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" compared to a fractal wave ~

When we ask, "What is reality?" we are not so much looking for an ultimate definition as stating our willingness to be taken somewhere beyond the boundaries of our previous experiences.
Starhawk

Regarding Madame de Monsier’s and my recent comments about “fundamaterialists” and “fundamentalists, synchronistically enough, we just received an invitation from Dr. Eldon Taylor, who had August on his radio show, Provocative Enlightenment, at Hay House Radio last year. He’s asked us to submit some question for his upcoming guest, Neurologist Dr. Kevin Nelson, scheduled for March 15. Dr. Nelson, a near-death experience skeptic, claims that his new book – The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist's Search for the God Experience – is the first comprehensive, empirically tested, and peer-reviewed explanation of the biology behind near-death experiences. Eldon tells us that by using brain scans, Dr. Nelson claims he has mapped the borderlands of consciousness concluding that spirituality is a part of our biology  – nothing metaphysical going on, just strictly a biological phenomenon like any other. As such, he argues that spirituality and religion are not much more than throw backs to superstition.

Eldon was glad to follow through with my suggestion that he ask  Michael Tymn, and Robert McLulhan for their questions as well. Mike Tym recently interviewed Robert about his recent book, Randi’s Prize – What Sceptics say about the Paranormal, Why They are Wrong and Why it Matters. As well, we asked him to consider contacting Dr. Bruce Greyson, and Tom & Lisa Butler.

Of course we'll be submitting a few Risen-inspired questions. But rather than reacting from an ego-mind stance of defense/attack/debate, right-or-wrong, we will strive to join with Dr. Nelson's own processes as a pioneer in exploring and uncovering only more mystery, which then reveals yet more mystery. This response is from Authentic Self.  Melvin Morse, Tim and I (August) had a long conversation today about the many and various "skeptical neurobiologists" who, while presenting their assumed new-found wisdom as evidence that there is nothing after biological functions cease, i.e., "death", are actually to be supported in their endeavors, regardless of whether or not we might think they're wrong or misguided. Melvin is delighted that "someone is doing something." When seen from a greater perspective, we talked about how everyone involved is "connecting the dots" in some way, slowly revealing a picture that helps us understand a little bit more about our multiverses.  With this in mind, Tim and I  are interested in Dr. Nelson's dots, and how they look added to everyone else's dots. We're not interested in fruitless conflict or debate, for that is to let ego-minds engage in posturing simulated aspects of life. Rather, we wish to acknowledge that everyone is at their own dot, on their way to the next dot, all dots being valid. As we move through our uncoveries, our understanding changes, we change, validity changes, authenticity arises. Therefore, we bless everyone's endeavors toward . . . whatever It is we're being drawn toward.

In The Risen, we conceptualize connecting the dots as "weaving a tapestry":

"Keeping the Risen concept of weaving in mind, what we have before us, and are integrated in, is a Supreme Tapestry. There appears to be a Very Grand Design which we all follow, either in awareness or not, co-creatively or not— “creatively” again meaning “with fun.” The Grand Design is a work of perfection intermingled with imperfection, solutions with problems, brilliance with faux pas, and stillness within movement. As we weave we are free to make it up as we go along in any way that pleases us, while simultaneously staying within the Grand Design as imagined by Higher Imaginals, of whom we are an inseparable part. The Higher Imaginals are many things, but for our purposes here it suffices to say that they are unimaginably advanced, evolved individuals—or Most High Selves of Authenticity. Because It is infinite in concept and execution, it’s not possible to stray from the Great Design—so it’s not possible to be judged for appearing to do so, or even for wanting to.

"Although provocative in an illustrative way, the idea of a tapestry is a limiting concept and can be misleading. An earthly tapestry is a two-dimensional representational projection onto a three-dimensional object, used to portray three- and four-dimensional worlds—the fourth dimension being time. With the mind’s eye, it is possible to expand this concept by seeing a tapestry as woven not in a flattened manner, but as interwoven from all directions and by all beings, simultaneously. Picture this happening as guided by some kind of Great Designer who is presently unknown to us from within our limited dimensional awareness. Proceed further by seeing the interweaving occurring within different kinds of time, which gives rise to movement, which is change. We begin to comprehend the idea of a living work of art, which is Life as we know it, and as we don’t know it. Lastly, imagine that we are each a Great-Designer-In-Progress.

"Our individual lives are collectively woven into Living, as imagined by Higher Imaginals, and by the greater world-spheres of individuals with whom some of us may identify as our Higher or Authentic Self, Higher Power, a Creator Deity, the Universe, God, and so on. In turn, their world-spheres are simultaneously interwoven into greater, expanded experiences of Living by yet greater awarenesses, forever without end. Or as Tim likes to say, infinooty." (pp. 119-120).

As an aside, August was scheduled for a second show with Dr. Taylor this January, but it was canceled due to scheduling issues. If you would like to listen to the archive of that show, go here. If you would like to let Dr. Taylor know that you would like him to have August return for another show in the near future, feel free to contact him. Other archived radio shows with August can be found here.

New Review

Mandelbrot Flower Blue - by Duncan Champney

We thank Richard for his warm and supportive review of The Risen at Amazon Books.

The Distortion of Skeptics: recent Mike Tymn Interview

Mike Tymn interviews British journalist Robert McLuhan about his book, Randi's Prize, which discusses how debunkers and pseudoskeptics twist, distort,and manipulate the facts to avoid the truth.

Robert mentions how some skeptics responded to events around Raymond Lodge's after-life communications, suggesting "they unconsciously strip out the paranormal element, so that they literally can’t see what the fuss is about." This is something that we refer to as "psychospiritual amnesia" and devoted a chapter to in  The Risen. We noted that the effects of this ego-mind aspect are so strong that even when someone is talking about a numinous experience, the listener literally can't hear it.

On "change"

Le Chateau des Pyrenees, by Rene Magritte

Years and years ago, there was a fantabulous occult bookstore — Samuel Weiser's, in Greenwich Village. It was there, in my early 20's, that I came across the works of Gurdjief and Ouspensky; it was the latter's works that first produced sufficient "shock" to propel me to a new and higher octave of internal living. The following is from one of Ouspensky's students, Maurice Nicoll, and which strikes me as appropriate regarding the idea of self change which has been cropping up here more and more.

The universe is intelligent in so far as we are intelligent. It becomes what we think and feel about it—what we make our own. The universe is infinite response. Mentally understood, it is all possibilities. Every point of view is possible, and because it ‘exists’ it is right. But it will give us what we make of it. One last word must be said about this response. The response is more than what we furnish to produce this response. To everything that is genuine and real in us, to everything that we really think from ourselves, the universe gives more than we give—‘full measure and running over’. It is not simply by reaction in a mechanical sense. The mechanical law of action and reaction does not apply where the mind and heart are concerned. Because response is more, negation is dangerous. This is why, when we give up trying to understand anything, we do not merely halt but begin to die. And this is why, in the other direction, if we struggle to create a special understanding of life, something begins to assist us. The universe undergoes a significant transformation for oneself. The universe is a series of possible mental transformations, one way or another. It is useless to try to settle, at the outset, whether the universe is good or bad. It is useless to start from any point outside oneself. All the standpoints that all human people reflect form a minute part of the WORLD. The universe is universality, and therefore is AllOne. So it is indifferent, neutral—that is, perfectly balanced. Only when one begins to change oneself does the universe change. That is the secret.
Maurice Nicoll, Living Time and the Integration of Life, p. 234-35.

 

Is change from The Risen typical?

Richard, a reader, recently commented:

"August, from a very young age I've sensed that I was more than just my physical body. This has led me on a wonderful journey of discovering different spiritual understandings. A mutual acquaintance living in England mentioned he had received "The Risen" from you so I purchased it. I am currently on chapter 10. I feel like I’m going through a type of inner realignment as I read, digest and assimilate the information. My guess is that this is typical?"

Richard - you've arrived at Chapter 10, a truly amazing juncture in book -- welcome! It sounds as if you're experiencing some vibrational changes. Is this "typical"? I don't know, but it is intended. There has been a lot of silence from readers since The Risen was published. I often wonder if this is because they're still puzzling it out, or have given up.

In Chapter 2, Tim advises:

“One of the main purposes of this book is to assist others in enabling themselves to realize contact with the Risen. Many readers will probably try to start with just any chapter or pick selections at random. This approach might give one some interesting thoughts, but resonance will not be affected sufficiently to enable the increase in the vibration levels needed for Risen contact. Every chapter, page, and sentence has been exquisitely orchestrated in a particular Risen manner that will lead one through carefully simplified ideas—guided suggestions, really—and on through to deeper, higher vibrating concepts. Most readers will not even realize this happening, and so it is strongly recommended that they begin at the beginning and not worry about it, just as August and I did."

Thanks for sharing this -- we hope you will continue to share more about what you sense is happening, if you can find words to put it in!

[youcantseethis]

My attempt to convey a noumenous experience in the lingua of phenomena of what it's like when Tim and I are joined, via the spiritual bridges of love that we become and are, along with knowing that some — perhaps many — readers of The Risen find important parts of it difficult to understand, leads me to wonder if it's possible to convey, through indirect means, much of anything. It's quite clear that a book orchestrated by 1,500 non-terrestrial entities is not "Astral Spirituality 101"or "Mediumship for Dummies", and those who have been investigating such matters for many years have a much better time with it, such as Mike Tymn, who noted in his review of The Risen:

"Had I started reading this book 20 or so years ago (assuming it had been written and published then), when I was just beginning my serious metaphysical studies, I probably would not have gone beyond the first few chapters, as the material would have far exceeded my boggle threshold. I likely would have tossed the book aside as just so much fantasy.

"However, with those 20 years of metaphysical study behind me, I quickly became engrossed in the book. Not only were the "dialogues of love, grief, and survival" (the sub-title of the book) consistent with the most credible testimony relative to life after death that I have encountered elsewhere but the dialogues helped me make sense out of a number of things which I had previously struggled to grasp."

Perhaps it explains my earlier question about why mediums never say much about their own internal processes, and why others around them avoid asking. The answer, from an Authentic Self perspective, is that simulate selves are trained by the ego-mind toward such avoidance. To tread such paths is to open the channels that become a living bridge to other dimensions, thus proving immortality and frustrating death, and loosening the ego-mind's grasp on one's mind. It's often said in many different ways in The Risen that each of us is "the way": the bridge, the door, the path to other-dimensional geographies of existence. These are not metaphors, but actualities. Perhaps quantum mechanics will end up explaining it best to our earthly minds, although, as Niels Bohr said, "Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood a single word." Apparently, The Risen is not shocking enough!

Synchronistically, I came across this passage during my current re-reading of Maurice Nicoll's, Living Time and the Integration of Life. I'm not saying it will explain the actual noumenon, but it may enlighten a few about what I was trying to convey regarding my recent experience with Tim. I will let it stand by itself while ending this bit of blog:

"It is impossible for me to say that I know anybody, and it is equally impossible to say that anybody knows me. For while I see all your bodily movements and outward appearances so easily and have a hundred thousand visual impressions of you that do not exist in your mind, and have seen you as part of the landscape, part of the house, part of the street, and have a knowledge of you that you always wish to know about —what impression you make, how you look—yet I cannot see into you and do not know what you are, and can never know. And while I have this direct access to your visible side, to all your life as seen, you have direct access to your invisibility—and to your invisibility only you have this direct access, if you learn to use it. I and everyone else can see and hear you. The whole world might see and hear you. But only you can know yourself.

"Now to the reader all this may appear obvious, but I must assure him that it is not at all obvious. It is an extremely difficult thing to grasp and I will endeavour to explain why this is so. We do not grasp that we are invisible. We do not realise that we live in a world of invisible people. We do not understand that life, before all other definitions of it, is a drama of the visible and invisible. . . . We think that only the visible world hasreality and structure and do not conceive the possibility that the psychological world, or inner world that we know as our thought, feeling and imagination, may have also a real structure and exist in its own 'space', although not that space that we are in touch with through our sense-organs.

" . . . I believe that we never understand anything about the 'invisible' world if we do not grasp our own invisibility first . . . we can never realise the existence of another person in any real way unless we realise our own existence. The realisation of one's own existence, as a real experience, is the realisation of one's essential invisibility." (pp. 3-5)

From The Archives: There is a Heppy Lend

  First posted 1/7/06

"There is a heppy lend — fur, fur awa-a-ay."
— Krazy Kat*

E.W. wrote:

"The diakka . . .. (is) an exuberant post, but I must say I have some trouble assimilating the subject, partly because I can't wrap my mind around why someone would even go to the trouble to perpetrate such a "hoax"; or rather I can understand why someone would do it (basically for the reasons you give), but the whole subject kind of twists me up inside and makes me feel about 200 lbs heavier and 80 shades of grey dumber. But I'm glad you're willing to take on the topic! It does sound like a fascinating place to visit; maybe I've even been there. Do you equate it with Summerland?"

The reply to E.W.:

"It's definitely a Summerland, one of countless. Freud (the author) wouldn't call it a hoax, that's too common. He really believes in its goodness, as a theory and experiment. A main point is "belief" and the power of it. He also just lets people assume Jesus wrote it, really makes him giggle. Obviously insane on a certain level. ACIM is brilliant, also obviously his tour de force. What's ironic is he's actually being manipulated on a much more complex level by much more brilliant comics.(Have you ever tried to read the damn thing? An excellent answer to insomnia, I keep it right in the drawer next to my bed for this purpose.)

E.W. then asks:

"So how far does this hierarchy of comics reach?I have always (just) leaned toward the laughing-face view of things . . . (E.W. later defines "laughing-face view as 'You know, the two theater masks, one with a long frown, the other with a big ole grin.'" )

The reply to E.W.:

"I have to take my cue from some of the (Risen) theoretical material on reincarnation on 'where it all ends' (anything = it): infinooty."
__________________________________________

This calls for a pot of lapsong. I'll be mother.

Thanks, E.W., for the pleasant exchange. First, Tim and I feel that because we have said from the start that most probably Freud is the Diakka architect of ACIM, but as he has not admitted it, we'll just use the i.d. "Agent F" for now, as a kind of "probability label."

Second, and before anything gets out of hand (should anyone else besides E.W. read this sorry boring blog,) it must be stated quite plainly that ACIM is not a hoax per se; not so much banana oil as, or more succinctly, re-presented truth. Everything in the ACIM is quite true if perceived and understood correctly, however it directs perception in such a way that it does exactly what it claims to undo (remember the mirrors?).

With the caveat that I'm not a scholar of ACIM (and although ACIM seems to downplay any kind of community development, it has generated a large community of mega-scholarship /pseudo-scholarship /fake-scholarship -- something ACIM's designers actually intended):

Regard ACIM's very last Lesson Summation from the Workbook for Students:

LESSONS 361 - 365


"This holy instant would I give to You.
Be You in charge. For I would follow You,
Certain that Your direction gives me peace."

The Risen suggest the following three-fold re-presentation of their own process (thus inverting it once again, or setting it back upright, Risen-style.) Note the Risen game-like response of word substitution and removal, like some kind of cipher or puzzle. It's not so much as three-fold, but three-unfold. Or unravelling.

1)
"This holy instant I AM.
I AM in charge. I AM follows I AM,
I AM's certain direction gives I AM peace."


2)
"I AM this holy instant.
I AM in charge.
I Am certain peace."


3)
"I AM Now.
I AM Here.
I AM Peace.
I AM."

When the ego self—the simulate self, as the Risen call it—is in charge, the experience is from a deep sleep of non-consciousness—or "underconsciousness" in Risen terms—where awareness is of and through only memories, which are essentially a dream state. The memories easily meld and intermesh, and expand to seemingly include and be all of one's known experience of time—past, present and future. Although one might be born awake, this is very rare and still one will—usually—and quickly fall asleep into the dream state; one usually falls asleep in the womb, "waking" into ancestral dream memories already surrounding the embryo.


When the Self is in charge, awareness is through the Self, which is unconditionally present to Itself, and the experience could then said to be "awakened." The body—that is, the experience of embodiment—does not—usually—end, and so there remains the matter of "cellular ancestral memories"—more widely known as "the collective unconscious"—which keeps the illusory bodily perceptions intact. This is not a spiritual emergency. As the Self awakens, the body remains but perception changes, so therefore the world changes. One continues on in in a particular intimate way with the material body until it terminates as directed by the collective unconscious plan. Transition to a new body of spirit then ensues, perhaps as Risen, or in another astral-etheric realm.


Realize that there is no "you" or "me"—only I AM. It seems pretty clear that ACIM does not utilize or introduce the notion of I AM (unless I fell asleep during that part.) The main motivation of ACIM appears to be to help us awaken to this realization by becoming aware that:

• Whenever you are for giving, (forgiving) you are giving you to your Self (the non-ego, or "Self").
• Whenever you are for getting, you're forgetting to give to your Self.
• In order to give to your Self, you must be completely open and accepting.
• Being open and accepting is the Original State.
• The Original State cannot be undone, so it hasn't been undone. The bottom line is, there is no "death."
• If you're in a posture of for getting, you can't be accepting. If you pretend you can be both, the illusion has to be manifested that the duality exists.
• This duality is the "film of consciousness" that has been referred to in some of the offshoot writings of ACIM. It's opaque enough to appear solid and is the veil between states of awareness, including awareness of those who are Risen.

"Realize" doesn't mean "to make real," because reality can't be made, it already is. If we are "making real", we are manifesting aspects of reality. "Realize" means to real-ize, that is, to comprehend completely or correctly, to bring into focus in such a way that the awareness of complete comprehension is Now. This is Reality.

Can the above points, which seem very simple, be real-ized by devoting one's self/Self to ACIM? Mmmmaybe. But then why does ACIM have to be so complicated? Because it's a game.

Are we having fun yet?

It's knowing how to read between the word symbols, which this team of Diakka egos has brilliantly interwoven in a loop-de-loop kind of manner, resulting in a presentation of several similar or even opposing thinking directions that appear to be whole—that is, as nondualism, which is what ACIM insists it's teaching. Think of a sweater knitted or raveled in complex patterns, woven from one continuous string, but looped and knotted in many directions, resulting in one final objet that appears whole and congruous (because it is) and—hopefully—beautiful. This is ACIM.

This string we speak of here as a singular thing is not really singular, but a composition of multiplicities that can be reduced to something that is neither one or many. If it's a strand of yarn, that yarn is woven of several twisted strings, each of which may be formed by finer strings, which can be unraveled. Even when there is finally only one perceived remaining thread, that thread can be undone into its finer fibers; each fiber can be undone into its own finer components, until the molecular level is reached. The molecules can be separated on down to the atomic elements, which can be separated further on down into their vibrations of light and sound. Where is the sweater? Where was it?

". . . keeping the Risen concept of weaving in mind, perhaps at this point it can be sensed that what we have before us, from which we are inseparable and as reflected in this book, is a Supreme Tapestry. There appears to be a Very Grand Design which we all follow, either in awareness
or not, co-creatively, or not — recalling that “creative” means fun. As we weave we are free to make it up as we go along in any way we please, simultaneously staying within the Grand Design as imagined by Higher Imaginals, of whom we an inseparable part. The Grand Design is a work of perfections intermingled with imperfections, solutions with mistakes, and stillness within movement. The Higher Imaginals are many things, but for our purposes here, it suffices to say that they are very advanced and evolved individuals, or Higher Selves."
(from The Risen: Dialogues of Love, Grief & Survival Beyond Death; Chapter 13, Mundus Imaginalis, p. 165)

The best way to really see the incredible complexity of this miracle macrame is from an expanded, enlarged perspective from the sense of I AM.


Be aware that this is a game designed on a very high order. Although it's totally harmless, it takes a lot of everyone's time. The Diakka, like the Risen, have a different experience of time than do those Earthers struggling to comprehend ACIM. But because the Diakka believe they are not immortal, psychologically they want more time, which they believe to be valuable, as do most Earthers, in order to keep on keeping on. Where better to get the illusion of time, then, than from a bunch of shills new in town and looking for a "good" time (good as in not evil) for some diversion? ACIM provides puh-lenty of diversion through a psychological sleight-of-hand, a challenging mental cat's cradle of "now take this string (of thought) from me and loop it over your mind's fingers like this."

Now are we having fun?

This more or less answer's E.W.'s consciously aware question, "Why?"

And to the unasked question, "Why is AICM so serious?" Because not everyone has the same sense of fun. Thank God.


And yet, there are lovely things and places to be found therein:

"In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive the cause, and looks not to effects." (Text, Chapter 27, "Healing of the Dream")

Words to the wizened: **

"Although psychoanalysis has a variety of views on when ego psychology began, most who identify with the ego psychological school place its beginnings in Sigmund Freud's 1923 book The Ego and the Id, in which Freud introduced what would later come to be called the structural theory of psychoanalysis. The structural theory divides the mind into three agencies or structures: the id, the ego, and the superego." (from the current entry-in-progress at Wikipedia, 1/06.)

Note "divides." ACIM utilizes not only the analytical style of Freudian theory, it utilizes Freud's style of practice. It is patronizing, charming, seductive, disarming. It smiles knowingly, but never laughs out loud. It is addicting. Put the book down and step away from the podium.


Agent F has over-written and drawn out the story with all the nagging drip-drip-drip-drip of Chinese Water Torture. Agent F makes the simple complex while claiming the opposite. Agent F has an exquisite masterly grasp of Freudian theory and practice. Agent F assumes a place of power from behind the couch, where the analysand lies -- unable to see the analyst while having to learn to listen for "a voice," to learn how to project that which the analyst suggests is on the blank screen before the patient; the blank screen is also a suggestion of the analyst. This also sounds like hypnosis techniques (which The Risen explores in depth regarding reincarnation.)


Agent F is extremely fond of iambic pentameter, which is soothing and hypnotic — the "sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care." (And it works splendidly for my insomnia, as I remarked to E.W. earlier.) Helen Schuchman was very fond of Shakespeare. And Shakespeare has his own game going.*** Another funny, odd co-inkydink which Agent F has knitted into his garment of gamedom.


We'd like to suggest that Jeshua said what he needed to say already. As noted somewhere in The Risen—don't ask me exactly where off the top of my head, I just discerned the damned thing—The Creator Source got It right the first time; It doesn't have to do anything ever again. In fact, the designers of ACIM must have got a kick out of directly cluing in the reader about this from the very beginning — and note the word "simply":

"This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way:
Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God." (Introduction, ACIM)

Jeshua delivered his best, and then got on with his Life. One wonders if he would need to come back and 'splain it all again. Or to send salespeople back to knock on our doors to present us with the "new, improved, updated version, now on DVD." Especially folks that say "J. sent me."

J. is kicking back in his version of The Summerlands, for a well-deserved rest. If others have wanted to re-present what Jeshua said, or didn't say, obviously they will. Occasionally he turns on the set and watches when he's in the mood for a reality show. Which probably isn't all that often.

All this being said, or blogged, I must add that ACIM has amazing and even delightful things in it to lead one a-pondering and a-wandering. There are very profound bits. My favourite in The Workbook is Lesson 129, "Beyond this world there is a world I want." Which I interpret as, "There is a heppy lend — fur, fur awa-a-ay."


We would like to let this particular curmudgio go now, rather than generate any further issues around it. But it's been fun. Famous last words. Our next post may examine Mundus Imaginalus.


Look, really look (that is, observe from a Reality perspective) at what you think you see for yourself, as your Self. Ponder K.'s suggestion to accept no other authority than one's own (the I AM).


And that truth is a pathless land.


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* "When Krazy Kat is at the apex of his happiness, perched on a rock, gazing toward the heavens, he always sings 'There is a heppy lend--fur, fur awa-a-ay.' The phrase comes to be a sort of refrain for the strip, indicating that all this brick-throwing strife is transformed by the pure soul of Krazy Kat into the harmony of the cosmos. Krazy Kat is incapable of seeing meanness or hatred." (John Bloom, 2003)
** "Wizened" has nothing to do with wisdom. Look it up.
*** This link is in honour of G.Q.