Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Some of the cosmology in "Experience.." is really challenging to me. If we already dreamed the whole thing already, why should I try to do anything to grow or change or improve me or the world? I don't have any motivation.....

hi Lucy. was thinking about what u said about no motivation. so sharing something from my book which may or not be helpful. anyway, I think where you might be at now, is a temporary state. hope you like what I've written. maybe you can give me ideas to follow. feel free if so.

Was there a reason to remain in the body after the children were grown and no ambition was embraced? I felt so finished. I had closure with family and there was no karma to burn. My children, not without their own precognitions picked up that their mother studied life and death issues. They knew I did soul retrievals but didn’t understand them. They had seen me in their vision standing in line awaiting my turn to enter a structure set up for convenience of laying the body down, rather than choosing a messy accident or lengthy illness. Society had sanctified the sovereign choice to be allowed to depart Earth and still be considered sane and the people who stood in line  were not chickening out. Earth had turned into a vacation site where spirit used a body as a vehicle for self expression and experience gathering and when vacation was over you took it off like you would an overcoat. What was the reason for this acceptance of death without fear? The shift in consciousness had occurred massively. We now knew there was no annhiliation of our individuality and no need for heroic efforts to keep blood pumping through a dead brain. The dead sometimes returned to life complaining loudly against it. We just told them to get over it. It was funny; it was like we were saying, “and where do you think you’re going so soon? Give us your insurance card first and ask your family if you can go.”  Daughter Michelle would turn to her sister questioning my decision; “Shall we attempt to change her mind, and does she know what she is doing?” Dana would answer “She knows what she’s doing, let her be, she’s happy.” My girls had learned to release me; no small task is letting go of Earth living. This merging place or shift in consciousness could be what spiritualists called ascension; something I’d thought impractical. It was not what I expected. In the now moment there was nowhere to ascend to. A better word for ascend I decided was to merge or emerge.  I was reminded of a voice speaking within a dream question and answer period regarding ascension as being the purpose of my children and I. We had already agreed upon it in some eternal locale.  I would choose to see the changes I observed as an increase in the frequency of positive thought patterns according to what I wished to focus on...not what was presented to me in my bulk folder. All of life became a commercial and there was not enough time to pay heed. This peace descending might rub off if I could be of service while not disrupting what was already perfection happening for other.

Alysia:

In his third book Robert Monroe speaks of a creator.  This creator created everything according to a plan, and makes adjustments according to need.

My feeling is that the imperfections we experience while in the physical are an intentional part of the grand process that enables us to become the wonderful multifaceted souls we eventually become.  Our experiences enable us to bring gifts when we rejoin God.

ACIM has shades of Vendanta. Vendantic gurus tend to believe that there is the illusion of this physical world, the Self as pure consciousness, and that's about it. Apparently they seem to lack knowledge of the many levels of existence. Don't ask them about the disc theory, because as opposed to trying to explain how the creative process took place, they dismiss it as illusion. It is much easier to explain things in such a way, rather than coming up with the details.

My feeling is that the different levels of existence are all made of the same energy, it is just that at some levels energy vibrates faster and with fewer restrictions. To speak of this energy as nothing more than illusion is comparable to calling consciousness and love illusions.

Just because energy vibrates at a slower rate here in the physical, and resultantly people aren't as aware of the spiritual nature of things, this doesn't mean that God isn't here.

Regarding the unreality of time, as long as the end result is real and wonderful, everything that leads this end serves a purpose and is pervaded by the grace of God.

LaffingRain wrote on Jul 17^th, 2006 at 5:15pm:

yes the issue of how the universe got created is one I wish we could talk about more. I'm not familiar with Vendanta, so this might be a good place for me to start looking to understand this better. Recoverer how much of ACIM have you read to feel that it sounds like Vendanta?

Curious that Cristianity and that migth be tied up together in the COurse.

The problem is that I reject much of current Christianity (and have for years) so I find this book intriguing.

There are parts of the illusion argument that I find compelling.

Also as the person says in the introduction, whether the cosmology is correct is a separate question from whether the use of Forgiveness as described in the Course works.

Of course, the book "DIsappearance..." is intriguing because it is based on the application of something we would normally just find in science fiction...the warping of time as we know it. The author writes a book inspired by someone who wouldn't have influenced him if he didn't write the book in the first place....not possible in time as we know it! pretty interesting proposition.

I think the illusion of linear time is the first allusion to consider in ACIM or Disappearance of the Universe. just this morn was thinking how when you get in a space ship, you can go up there and a few years pass. you come back to earth and your wife has gained 25 years, and you've gained only a fraction of that, if you can call years passing a gain. is linear time passing dependent on the rotations of the planets? if so, then time slowed down for the spaceman or he stepped outside the laws of the Earth into a space where time doesn't matter. maybe matter, substance, only exists in similar planets as this one. thats why ACIM says linear time is an allusion.

been thinking about this a lot. for more than 2 years. about time; how we buy time from each other. time is money..etc...time to do this, to do that..regulated time, stock market timing..we are run by clocks, as in appointments, its all orderly (although me daughter is always a day late and a dollar short   )

all that preoccupation with timeliness and buying other's time and selling our time as well, all that will disappear when we step into the other dimensions of life. we need not fear this transition I say.

hugs, alysia