Retracing Your Steps

A Course in Miracles teaches that you have to retrace your steps back to God. The descent from God began with the idea of God’s opposite that is perceived as real within itself. The part of God’s Mind where this occurs is called the “Son of God” in the Course; this is the dreamer of the dream of separation from God. This one mind projects the world that you perceive. Part of its projection is billions of seemingly-individual minds (personal selves) that it made in the image of its own split mind. Each of these minds also projects onto the world. Where the one mind provides the “what” of perception (the world), individual minds provide the “how” of perception (interpretation). Retracing your steps, then, means your identity goes in reverse: From a personal self, to the dreamer of the dream, to God. So the first step in returning to God is undoing your personal projections. Though the world was made to be a place of separation from God, it has no meaning in itself. As a personal self, you give it the meaning that it has for you. You only have two choices for meaning: The personal mind’s perception that separation from God is real, or the Holy Spirit’s perception that only God is Real. The personal mind emphasizes form because form is separate and diverse and seems to prove its point; the Holy Spirit emphasizes content because all form, despite appearances of diversity, is really all equally nothing. When you recognize this, you forgive appearances, and supply Real Content to your perception by perceiving the Love in your mind beyond all appearances.

As you learn that every situation is the same because you supply the content all the time, you experience the world less and less as a place where you are, and more and more as a perception in your mind. Here you begin to realize that you are not just a figure in the dream; you are the dreamer of the dream. Now you recognize that you are also responsible for the “what” of perception. At this point, the personal mind will tempt you to manipulate what is appearing for its own glorification. If you forget that all appearances are really nothing and get caught up in “manifesting” or “attracting” appearances, then you will get lost again. You will be confusing cause and effect. The world is an effect of your mind; if you try to manipulate it to satisfy perceived needs, you are saying that it causes your experience, and you are reinforcing your perception of yourself as a personal self.

You cannot choose God until you accept that you are the dreamer of the dream. Otherwise, you think that the world is done to you, and you cannot see that you have a choice. When you are ready to accept this, you have to confront and undo your guilt. Look at what you have made! It is so unlike God in every way, how can you not be guilty? (My next two articles will be about facing this guilt). When you have completely learned that guilt is only a concept that you made up in the dream, and that God is not changed in any way by your perception of separation from God, then you will be free to choose God.

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Read The Message of A Course in Miracles: A translation of the Text in plain language at www.themessageofacim.com.