Allan Ramsay
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​What Do ACIM and SciFi Have in Common?

1/5/2017

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​Visionary fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts. Anyone who studies the course knows: ACIM asks us to study and learn many “imaginative concepts.” For instance…


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  • That our earthly lives and everything we perceive are illusory. 
  • That what we project upon the world makes our perception. 
  • That we can learn true forgiveness by not-judging and "looking past" what only seems to be. 
  • That our bodies are but an illusory "proof" we are separate from one another and from our Creator. 
  • That ego is the devious master planner blocking us from knowing What we truly Are. 
  • That sin, guilt and fear need not rule our lives. 
  • That our Right Mind is the patient, mostly silent gift our Creator left within each of us to discover, even while we dream we are separate from Him. 
  • That we each can choose in every moment to think with our Creator from our Right Mind.

Any one of those, and certainly all of them taken together, challenge us. It takes years for those ideas to become our dominant ways of thinking. So why not use a little visionary fiction dressed up as sci-fi to (a) promote the Course, and (b) to ease the learning process? I wrote Computing Love with those two goals in mind. 

First, to Bring More People to the Course and Its Teachings
About twenty percent of the U.S. population reads science fiction. Computing Love uses sci-fi to attract those readers. The novel tells a fascinating story replete with quantum super computer technology, dark matter, dark energy, mystical events and a futuristic setting…perfect topics for sci-fi enthusiasts. As the story unfolds, it presents and explains the Course's core principles in ways that are easy to understand and assimilate. The sci-fi genre serves to attract readers while the story itself introduces readers to those “imaginative concepts” the Course teaches. 

For those who want to learn more, the Afterword section of the book points them to online and in-print resources for learning more about the Course. Thus, I hope, Computing Love will join the many other wonderful videos, books and training programs that each help spread the word of A Course in Miracles to new students.

Second, to Simplify the Teachings
How can Course principles be better understood than by watching characters flounder through life's challenges as they work from their egos…but then find real solutions by embracing what the Course teaches? The story shows what forgiveness is in concrete terms that can't be misunderstood. It demonstrates the unity of all people, of the Sonship. It shows the undoing of the ego, movement to  Right Mind thinking and the effect it has on people and the world. It portrays the atonement in clear and powerful scenes that, according to some readers, trigger powerful emotions. 

Will You Help?
Writing ACIM-inspired fiction is just one more small contribution to helping spread the word. Let's hope it does. The more people learning what the Course teaches, the sooner the entire Sonship can begin experiencing the "happy dream" that leads to Knowledge and the Atonement. Please add your support to this novel so people who might never know ACIM even exists can discover its wisdom and all the wonders it holds. Thank you!

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Why Feel Insulted? Why Judge? They Were Only Words.

6/2/2016

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We may not notice it consciously, but events reported by the news channels usually point to the insanity, the upside down nature, of human thought. It's because most human thought spills forth from the ego mind. Here's a case in point from one of today's headline news stories…

First, take a look at June, 1915; the World War I era, more than one hundred years ago. These things happened…
  • US government mints the first $50 gold pieces.
  • Denmark amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage.
  • Germany's 1st Zeppelin air raid over England.
  • The Ottoman Empire rounded up, arrested, and deported more than 200 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to Ankara, Turkey. The majority were eventually murdered. The killing continued during and after World War I, which ultimately led to the death of between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians. An "ethnic cleansing."
According to History.com, "Today, most historians call this event a genocide–a premeditated and systematic campaign to exterminate an entire people. However, the Turkish government does not acknowledge the enormity or scope of these events. Despite pressure from Armenians and social justice advocates throughout the world, it is still illegal in Turkey to talk about what happened to Armenians during this era." 

Fast Forward to the Insult

Now, in today's news of June 2, 2016, Germany just passed a resolution declaring the Ottoman Empire conducted genocide. Within two hours, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany for consultations and summoned a top German diplomat to the foreign ministry in Ankara, according to officials.

Turkey's official rebuttal claims that "This decision which is against history and the future will no doubt have an impact on German-Turkish relations and will damage bridges of friendship between the two countries." (How strong could these "bridges of friendship" be? They sound more like what a special relationship would value).
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What Can We Learn from This?

The Course constantly reminds us that we project our thoughts to create our perception of the world around us. (Immanuel Kant proposed the same idea in the 18th century).

Perhaps not so strange as it might first appear, most of what governments do is based on ego thinking as well. How else could it be, considering that governments are built from people who think with their ego minds? One government projects its thinking on another, "solidifying" its perception of, in this case, a past event. The government so accused responds with a defense it judges appropriate to the degree of insult or attack.

But the Course reminds us of the futility of judging anything!

From Lesson 151: All things are echoes of the Voice of God. 
No one can judge on partial evidence. That is not judgment. It is merely an opinion based on ignorance and doubt. Its seeming certainty is but a cloak for the uncertainty it would conceal. It needs irrational defense because it is irrational. And its defense seems strong, convincing, and without a doubt because of all the doubting underneath.

How can you judge? Your judgment rests upon the witness that your senses offer you. Yet witness never falser was than this. But how else do you judge the world you see? You place pathetic faith in what your eyes and ears report. You think your fingers touch reality and close upon the truth. This is awareness which you understand and think more real than what is witnessed to by the eternal Voice of God Himself. 


From Lesson 153. In my defenselessness my safety lies. 
You who feel threatened by this changing world, its twists of fortune and its bitter jests, its brief relationships and all the "gifts" it merely lends to take away again, attend this lesson well. The world provides no safety. It is rooted in attack and all its "gifts" of seeming safety are illusory deceptions. It attacks and then attacks again. No peace of mind is possible where danger threatens thus. 

Was Germany's resolution an attack? Perhaps. But a resolution is really nothing more than words, ideas and ego-based thoughts.

Did Turkey perceive the resolution as an attack? It seems so.  Would their choice to become defenseless bring a different outcome? Absolutely.

Ah, the news. Sadly, there's nothing "new" about news. Each day replays the same insanity. It's a testament to what's upside down on Planet Earth. May we instead choose to avoid judging and see each seeming attack as a call for love. A call we can meet with love instead of defense.










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​One Little Idea: Facebook vs. Conservatives

5/19/2016

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A little disturbance began last week when a Gizmodo article accused Facebook editors of suppressing news articles that reflect conservative viewpoints. Facebook denied the charges. Not to allow such a revelation to expire under its own weight, the U.S. Senate is poking into the matter. Now, Mark Zuckerburg has met with Glenn Beck and other conservative thinkers to discuss the issue.

No surprise there. A day can't go by without conflicting beliefs clashing and careening across the news pages. But it's all noise. It's distraction from what's Real. Here's what the Course offers about so many things we project upon others, then perceive, then judge.


You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. You are not misguided; you have accepted no guide at all. Instruction in perception is your great need, for you understand nothing. Recognize this but do not accept it, for understanding is your inheritance. Perceptions are learned, and you are not without a Teacher. Yet your willingness to learn of Him depends on your willingness to question everything you have learned of yourself, for you who have learned amiss should not be your own teachers. ACIM OE T.10.VIII.76

Your view of the world is yours. Mine is mine. Our respective beliefs may correlate perfectly, or they may be diametrically opposed. It doesn't matter because beliefs are simply thoughts the ego has claimed as its own that, over time, congeal into one's personal world view.

Our opinions and perspectives on any topic are the result of our childhood upbringing and education. The influences from books we've read, movies we've watched. Ideas and beliefs we picked up from our parents. From our culture and society at large. Our beliefs are the result of the nearly uncountable things we have learned. Nothing more. The Course reminds us of our learning disabilities.


There are areas in your learning skills which are so impaired that you can progress only under constant, clear-cut direction provided by a Teacher Who can transcend your limited resources. He becomes your resource because, of yourself, you cannot learn. The learning situation in which you placed yourself is impossible, and in this situation you clearly require a special Teacher and a special curriculum. Poor learners are not good choices for teachers, either for themselves or for anyone else. You would hardly turn to them to establish the curriculum by which they can escape from their limitations. If they understood what is beyond them, they would not be handicapped. ACIM OE T.11.VI.47

The picture of your brother you see [—based on what you've learned to project upon him--] means nothing. There is nothing to attack or to deny, love, or hate, or to endow with power or to see as weak. The picture has been wholly cancelled out …The picture of your brother that you see is wholly absent and has never been. ACIM OE T.27.IV.31

There can be nothing more joyous than seeing with God's vision as we look upon the world. True vision shows us the beauty and wonder and love rather than the ego's version that shows danger, hate and fear in every moment. Direct experience of God gives us far more than learning ever could.

Facebook? Conservatives? May you be well. May you come to understand that all your controversy is nothing more than what ego demands when it entices you to “Seek but do not find.” The Real answers, the ones that bring peace, joy and love—may you find they don't lie in the world of form. Instead, may you seek and find what's True.

Photo credit: Flickr. g d tошиѕнеиdе. Creative Commons.
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