The Direct Occurrence of God

           Questions about a direct occurrence of God (Reality beyond consciousness) that I’ve described have been coming up with clients and readers lately, so I will write about it again here.

The first direct occurrence of God here was when I was first a student of A Course in Miracles forty years ago. (It’s possible I had one as a child—something happened that was profound and shocking and to which ego had a powerful opposing reaction.)  It was shattering and it took about a week for this mind to go back together. And it was months before I could even acknowledge it happened. My last was in 2007. Each time one occurred, however, I was better able to tolerate it.

In the past, I have mistakenly called a direct occurrence of God a revelation thinking this was the word the Course used to describe it, but it turns out it defines a revelation as a direct communication with God, which means something that happens in consciousness. I don’t know that what I call a direct occurrence of God is described in A Course in Miracles.

I used to use the word experience instead of occurrence, but that is not the correct word. Something occurred that is remembered here but cannot be recalled and certainly cannot be conveyed so now I just use occurrence. Now word really works. It’s even hard to place when a direct occurrence of God occurs in time because it is wholly outside of time. At some point it is remembered that one has occurred…recently. And then it is in the past as far as time is concerned. It would also be accurate to say that a direct occurrence of God is always here because it is outside of time. The veil of time parts and here is God.

God is not consciousness (perception, awareness) existence, or experience, so there are no words that work because all words are in and about consciousness. In God there is only God. There is no differentiation. God is not aware of God because that implies a subject and object. The Course uses the word Knowledge for God to distinguish God from consciousness (perception). But this is also not the kind of knowledge we experience in consciousness. It always comes back to…in God there is only God. When the word Oneness is used to refer to God it means the Onlyness of God.

It would also not be correct to say that “I” had the…occurrence (for lack of a better word). It certainly wasn’t ego that had it, but it also wasn’t consciousness. God is wholly different from consciousness, not only in magnitude but quality. God is Glorious beyond description. God’s Glory is beyond anything wonderful in consciousness, again, not just in size but quality. There is nothing like It in consciousness. What always followed a direct occurrence of God was a sense of “coming back” to consciousness after having been “away.” So, as Spirit bridges consciousness and God (Reality), I think of it as Spirit on the other side of the bridge. And consciousness registers this but did not go There itself.

Notice it is easier to say what God is not rather than what God is because there is no way to convey what God is in a state that is not God. The closest I can come to saying what God is, is to say God is Whole beyond any kind of wholeness in consciousness, which is always relative—a contrast to lack. God is so whole that the idea of lack is not even in God. The ideas of consciousness and a world are not even in God.

What can you take from this if you have never had such an occurrence? That the contrast between consciousness and God is such that it is laughable to think that anything in consciousness affects God at all. This entire play of ideas that is consciousness has nothing to do with God (Reality). Seeing this is the forgiveness that the Course teaches. If you have not glimpsed or sensed this, then try to imagine this. What relief! 

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