Straight Talk about Illusions - From "Disappearance of the Universe"

Before the beginning, there was only an awareness of unflawed oneness and nothing else. There was and is only God in reality—which we will refer to as Heaven. For just an instant, a very small aspect of Heaven appears to have an idea that is not shared by God. It’s kind of a “What if?” idea. An innocent wondering in the form of the question, “What would it be like if I were to go off and play on my own?”

Now something different seems to be going on. There seems to be God and something else. This is the beginning of the split mind. The first division in the mind was consciousness, “making the mind a perceiver rather than a creator.” In order to have consciousness you have to have separation. You’ve got to have more than one thing. You have to have something else to be conscious of.

Because of this, for the first time, you have a conscious choice to make. Before that, there was nothing to choose between. But now there are two possible responses to this idea of separation. One choice is the memory of your true home with God, symbolized in the Course by the Holy Spirit.  The other choice is the thought of separation from God, or individuality, symbolized in the Course by the ego.

If, at this point, you had chosen to believe the Holy Spirit’s interpretation, or response, to the separation instead of the ego’s, then your little dream adventure would have been over. But, the ego had a selfish yet tantalizing response of its own.

If you continue to believe in the separation, it offers you your own individual identity—separate from God, very special and uniquely important. You choose with the ego so you can see what it’s like to be special and apart. Your choice for the ego instead of the Holy Spirit has made the Voice for God almost completely inaudible to you. You’ve chosen with the ego, and now you’re identified with it. You look to it to explain to you what’s going on, and the ego has a message for you. The message is this:

You’d better get the hell out of here, pal. Then it proceeds to give you some reasons. In your confused state of mind, these reasons sound pretty damn convincing in their logic. “Don’t you know what you’ve done?”—the ego asks in our metaphorical story—“You’ve separated yourself from God! You’ve sinned against Him big time. You’re in for it now. You’ve taken paradise—everything He gave you—and thrown it right in His face. You’ve ruined everything; you’re so guilty. If you don’t haul ass out of here right now, it’s gonna be worse than death!”

Oh my God,  you think in response to the ego. What have I done? You’re right—I’ve ruined everything and attacked Heaven! But where can I go? What can I do? I can run, but I can’t hide. There’s no place I can hide from God Himself!

“Well, that’s not exactly true,” says the ego, “because I’m here to help you. I’m your friend—and I have an idea. I have somewhere we can go together. You can be your own boss and not have to face God at all. You’ll never see Him. He won’t even be able to get into this place!”

Really? you ask. That sounds pretty damn good to me. Let’s go!

So the ego uses the ingenious but illusory method of projection to hurl the thought of separation out  of your mind, and you—or at least the part of you that seems to have a consciousness—appears to be projected right along with it. This instantly causes what is popularly referred to as the Big Bang, or the creation of the universe. Now you appear to be in the universe, while you do not realize that you are actually quite literally out of your mind.

Now, as the crowning achievement in its grand scheme, the ego makes—drum roll, please—the body. This allows the ego to permit into your awareness, almost exclusively, only those things which testify to the reality of its cherished illusion. This universe, the world, and your body give form to a defense structure in which you hide from your imagined sin, guilt, and the resulting fear of God’s vengeance. The ego has a method firmly in place to deal with this now-unconscious sin, guilt and fear—by projecting it onto others.

Of course everything the ego is saying about God and what’s happened is not true. God would never do anything except love you. It’s here that you need to know just a little bit more about how the mind works. Because of the power of the mind, you need to appreciate the power of your belief.

It was your belief in the idea you could be separate from God—your taking it seriously—that gave it so much seeming power and realism.

Once you’ve chosen to listen to the ego’s temptations to be a separate individual, your belief in the reality of the separation begins to cause some very serious problems for you. God now seems to be outside of you, and everything you experience tells you that you’ve separated yourself from Him. That’s a problem you still have this very second, even though it’s unconscious to you.

As long as you believe in the reality of the physical universe, then everything you perceive will be a constant, unconscious reminder to you that you’ve committed the act of separating yourself from God.