The Illusion of the Atonement

             Only God is Real.

This has been, for me, the central teaching of A Course in Miracles. It was also my experience of direct Revelation of God.

Yet, lately I have explained consciousness and time as the Atonement (correction of the perception of separation from God) in my writing and mentoring. The risk of writing and talking about an illusion is that it can seem to reinforce it as reality rather than as something that is not really here.

But even in the illusion, we talk about things that are not there but seem to be all the time, don’t we? Once at a holiday gathering, my (now) ex-wife was passionately telling a friend what he needed to do with a character in a role-playing game they were in together. My father overheard this in passing and said, “Wow, she’s bossy! Listen to her tell him how to live his life.” I had to explain to him they were only discussing a game.

An illusion is something that seems real but is not. If you were not deceived by it, you would experience it as a passing story, not to be taken seriously. An impossible idea seeming to unfold over time—a story—is all the Atonement/consciousness/time is.

After I shifted consciousness, I read of others who shifted consciousness and were aware of the appearance before them as an appearance but did not know what it was an appearance of. But I had the answer before I had formed the question. I very quickly came to understand that what was unfolding before me in consciousness is the Atonement. God is not absent anywhere. This is what turns an impossible idea (not-God) into a story of undoing (Atonement). Time/consciousness/Atonement has been an expression of Spirit from the start.

There have been many theories about consciousness. The duality idea is it was an option of sin offered and accepted by “God’s children” who must now make themselves worthy again of God. This implies God is cruel, testing his children, whom he must have made lacking, as they made a choice other than God. He then punishes them, or makes them work to make themselves worthy of him, when they accept the temptation offered.

For those who see consciousness as God, they may say God was lonely, so made something to be Its companion. That is us, collectively, but we got lost and don’t see ourselves correctly as God’s creations. Or consciousness is God wanting to learn or play or experience.  These all imply that God lacks, which is impossible for That Which is All.

God, being All, must contain the idea of Its Own Opposite. But, being All, God cannot have an opposite. Consciousness/ is an expression of that moment. It has no intention or purpose. It just is, as God just is. It is not a necessary or purposeful process of learning or attainment—these occur as expressions of the Atonement, because the Atonement is an expression of lack fulfilled (“healing”). In other words, lack fulfilled is the theme of the story of consciousness.

Consciousness is not something God is passing through. Rather, it the impossible idea that passed through God. God is here before, during, and after the idea, and wholly untouched by it.

The inevitable question is, where am I in this? As God’s Extension (Creation/Christ), you are the Mind through Which the impossible idea passes. Part of that passage is its seeming-reality. And while it still seems real (is an illusion) to you, learning, growing, and attaining are meaningful for you. And that is natural! That is the Atonement manifesting through you. (If you do not learn and grow, that is an expression, but not a manifestation, of the Atonement). Whether your mind goes beyond consciousness-as-reality (illusion) to consciousness-as-story (realizing the Atonement) depends on how the Atonement is expressed through you. But all expressions of the Atonement are equal and maximal as expressions of one, whole story. However the Atonement is expressed through you, it is whole and perfect. And, most importantly, it is never you. It is only a passing experience.

This article is an expression of the Atonement. If you have questions, feel free to ask, and let me know if you want it answered in this newsletter/blog. If you do not understand, or if it is helpful to you, that is also part of the Atonement.

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If you have a question the answer to which you feel may be helpful to others, send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and I will answer it in this newsletter/blog.