Notes on the Text of A Course in - Stephen Wingate

Main Theme: The holy relationship, the right
minded vision of the Holy Spirit.
Introduction: This chapter addresses the importance
of purpose: the ego's purpose of the body and world,
and the Holy Spirit's purpose of the body and world.
There is also an increased emphasis on the power of
the mind to choose.
We will begin by looking at the notion of sin as an
adjustment (a change) from oneness to separation.
The first adjustment is the thought of separation in
the mind; the second adjustment is the experience of
separation in the body.
•
No adjustments or defenses are required in the
Knowledge of the truth of who we are as Christ in
Spirit, but adjustments are required to experience
ourselves as something we are not — a separate ego
in a body. The adjustments that the ego makes are its
defenses against the Atonement. First, that separation
from God is a sin that is real, evoking guilt, and
ultimately will be punished by an angry God. The
next adjustment is the making of the body, the world,
and our special relationships onto which the ego
projects its sin and guilt to "get rid" of its sin and to
maintain its innocence in the eyes of God.
•
The "stranger" in the Son of God's mind is the ego,
who fears the Son will choose the light of the Holy
Spirit as his guide which will lead to the ego's
demise. The darkness of the ego is dispelled in the
light of the Holy Spirit. The one wild thought is the
"tiny mad idea" that we actually separated from God
and are on our own as a separate ego in a body; and
it is to this tiny mad idea, the ego, that we (the Son of
God) turn to for guidance, until we realize our
mistake and choose again. The ego looks upon the
Son of God as a guilty sinner.
•
The Son of God as the decision maker has given the
ego all the power it has. When the Son withdraws his
belief in the ego, the ego is left powerless, lifeless
and it dissolves instantly. The ego uses all the power
the Son has given it to maintain its existence by
keeping the Son identified with the body, distracted
by the world and special relationships, and out of his
mind where he could exercise his power to choose
against the ego.
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE VISION OF HOLINESS
70
•
The Son of God in his true Identity with Christ is
invulnerable. When he decides to identify with a
separate ego in a body, he makes himself appear
vulnerable and experiences himself as he believes he
is. All power in the world is given by the Son. The
Son has the power to believe that the world is all
powerful, and that he is a powerless victim of an all
powerful world. And this is the world you made.
•
We believe we are the original murderer as we
believe we killed God and crucified His Son. Our
guilt over that gets projected out and becomes the
fear of punishment. The original sadness is of our
separation from the love and joy of God in our
Identity with Him. The ego adjusts to the sin, guilt
and sadness of murder by making a world and
projecting it onto others in our special relationships.
•
The sickly picture we made of our self is referred to
in the Course as a parody and a travesty of the truth
of who we really are. The truth is we have the power
in our mind to choose how we perceive ourselves
and the world. Either we choose to perceive
ourselves as victims of a merciless world, or we
choose to perceive the truth of who we are as the Son
of God, the decision maker and dreamer of the
world.
•
Hallucination is a psychiatric term that refers to the
experience of seeing, hearing or otherwise sensing
something that is not there in the "objective" world
of consentual reality. People who are deemed
schizophrenic or psychotic have hallucinations and
experience their hallucinations as real. The Course
expands the definition of the term "hallucination,"
saying that we all hallucinate because we are literally
experiencing a world that has no independent
existence, no real being. The entire world, the entire
universe is a projection of a thought in our mind.
Once the original thought of separation is believed in
the mind and gets projected out making the world,
we experience ourselves and the world as if they are
an objective reality apart from our mind — our
separate bodies and the entire world are our
hallucinations. We are literally seeing, hearing and
sensing something that is not out there, which is the
essential symptom of psychosis and schizophrenia.