ACIM Journal

[Anderz]

During the recent press conference with Trump one reporter "asked the Q", meaning asked about Trump's connection to QAnon. Well, the reporter only asked (from about 12 minutes) if Trump agreed with the statement that QAnon is worth listening to. Trump didn't answer the question directly, lol, but he did say that (the statement about QAnon was from someone he previously called a future Republican star) "absolutely, I did congratulate her [about her tremendous victory]."

Trump also mentioned a few things about FBI corruption in the beginning. I think that the FBI is innocent, but the DNC might be corrupt as hell, we will see. 

[Anderz]

If the devil is simply the energy field that contains conflict, then what does A Course in Miracles say about the devil? I found this passage:

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"The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful, and this belief is the "devil." 2 It is powerful, active, destructive and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. 3 Look at your life and see what the devil has made. 4 But realize that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its foundation is a lie. 5 Your creation by God is the only Foundation that cannot be shaken, because the light is in it. 6 Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. 7 Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. 8 Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in conflict. 9 You have not yet gone back far enough, and that is why you become so fearful. 10 As you approach the Beginning, you feel the fear of the destruction of your thought system upon you as if it were the fear of death. 11 There is no death, but there is a belief in death." - ACIM T-3.VII.5.

That sounds similar to Leo's definition of the devil! And indeed, it also fits the idea that the devil is the energy field that contains conflict. Then what about the belief in the devil as some real separate being? Is that only childish superstition? Only at a surface level since an energy field can be interpreted as being a being. And going even deeper there is only one being! The whole process of life is a single "being".

What does ACIM mean by Beginning in the quote? To me it means that we need to go back to the beginning of creation to find the connection to everything. I even think of biological evolution as basically being the "devil", haha. Because it's a struggle between seeming separations. A necessary struggle for growth and development but one that we are meant to evolve out of into a higher stage of earth as a single holon.

[Anderz]

There is ONLY God's will. So the devil is God's will in action, albeit at a low developmental level. Some, or almost all Christians may disagree with that claim. But actually it says in John 1 in the Bible that the Word has created everything. So the Bible already says that the Word of God has produced the devil and everything the devil has created.

And I think it says somewhere in A Course in Miracles that there is only God's will and I may even have posted a quote about that earlier. I can't find that exact statement now but I found another verse that says the same thing:

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"Remember, then, that God's Will is already possible, and nothing else will ever be." - ACIM T-9.I.14:1

That's similar to, and in my opinion exactly the same as, the Word has created everything, which in turn as I interpret it is the same as the will of God.

So the ego is totally the will of God. Everything is! It's "just" that we need to transcend the ego/devil stage.

[Anderz]

The ego is the will of God, and so is a parasite. Everything is the will of God. Or, from an atheistic perspective, everything is the expanding graph in the Wolfram Physics Project. It's the same thing. It's one whole and unified process of life.

And in this new video Paul Hedderman compares the ego to a parasite. Eckhart Tolle I think has said something similar, about how we have become possessed by our minds and believe that we are our thoughts. We are our thoughts since we are everything, but that's not what those teachers are pointing to. They are pointing to the mistaken belief that we only are the parasite, the thinking mind, separate from everything else.

 

[Anderz]

The "spiritual" slogan "die before you die" is an ego trick! It's only the ego who believes in death so it just fools itself into a spiritual belief and goes on dying anyway. What a loser! The victorious one in the Bible is the deathless one, the one that lets the dead bury the dead.

The ego is so certain about inevitable death because it lives among other egos with the same delusion. Nobody has ever died. Because all the past is only now, so how can for example Napoleon Bonaparte have died in some past? He couldn't! Because Napoleon exists now and only now.

[Anderz]

If there is only now, then when did I for example post my previous post? The answer is that I posted it now.  This is a radical change of perspective compared to the usual way of thinking of the past. All the past is now, from the beginning of time to what is manifested now. I found in A Course in Miracles the same claim! 

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"he Holy Spirit would undo all of this now. 2 Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. 3 There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching out into the future. 4 Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present. 5 And the present extends forever. 6 It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. 7 No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now." - ACIM T-15.I.8.

ACIM says that "the Son of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends forever." I interpret the Son as the manifestation of the Word of God, which is all of creation and in the beginning the Word was God (John 1:1), and then the Word became manifest in the form of the Son.

The Son is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13). And both the beginning and the end exist now and only now! The Father has no end, God the Father, the umanifested, the form of the emptiness, Brahman, is infinite and so the Father is always greater than the Son (John 14:28).

Then what about the claim in ACIM that the past and the future don't exist? My interpretation is that ACIM means that there is no past stretching away from the now, nor is there a future away from the now. This is tricky but I think I can make it consistent with my view which is that there is no past outside of the now and the future is infinite potential not manifested yet.

The Word became flesh (John 1:14) which surely must mean the birth of Jesus Christ. BUT, Jesus said that before Abraham was born, he is (John 8:58). This means that Christ existed before the birth of Jesus. I haven't studied the Bible in detail but to me this means that Christ represents the entire manifestation of the Word of God, the way and the truth and the life!

Notice that Christ being all of the manifestation includes the devil and wars as well as the flowers and the rainbows.

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"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." [my emphasis] - Revelation 19:11.16

 

[Anderz]

I got an idea about the nasty energy field Brad Johnson talked about. When we are in ego consciousness the energy field we resonate with is full of conflict. And higher being can feel attacked by it.

What will happen when we ourselves transcend ego consciousness? Will we too feel attacked by energy from people who are still in ego consciousness? No! Because that's different than for another being outside of the collective ego field. The ego field is connected so when we transcend it we rise above the whole collective field. So the nasty energy from other people will be neutralized. Well, that's my idea anyway.

[Anderz]

Each person is a unique perspective of this same reality. And the perspective is a no-thingness. That's how I see it but it's just a model, an intellectual idea. In her new video Anna talks about the actual experience of this.

 

[Anderz]

If everything is already in perfect order and controlled by infinite intelligence as I hypothesize, then why is the world in such a mess? And why do people suffer so much? Heck even myself I have tons of suffering to resolve. So the actual situation actually looks like a falsification of the view that reality is already perfect.

One idea is to expect things to sort themselves out perfectly and that we are at the moment just experiencing birth pangs of our whole planet. But then what about thousands of years of human suffering with natural disasters, famine, wars, disease, death and violence? My answer is that all of that is only information in the now. Yes, the past is real, but the past is only now. Nobody has actually suffered in the past!

Nobody has ever suffered in the past? That claim might sound outright insane, but it's a consequence of the present moment being all of reality. So for example when we think about a past personal experience where we have suffered, our mind retrofits memories into that experience. There is in fact no evidence for past experiences being anything other than memories being experienced in the mind.

[Anderz]

One Advaita teacher said that the whole world is an ego/shadow. So my idea about the whole world being in ego consciousness is not new. And when I think about it, it even says in the Bible that the devil is the prince of this world. And of course A Course in Miracles thoroughly bashes the current condition of our world, and so does for example Shunyamurti, and even to a large extent Eckhart Tolle and J. Krishnamurti.

So one can use that idea in relation to suffering. I will experiment with practicing mindfulness of suffering in the present moment. And examining whether that suffering is the result of my mind retrofitting memories in the form of inner conflicts. That's probably what happens! At least there is some nasty ego projection going on in my mind. That's the "normal" condition for all people in ego consciousness.

And also, Vernon Howard talked about some of this several decades ago:

 

[Anderz]

Oh! There is a huge problem with integral spirituality as it often is presented, including things like Spiral Dynamics. The world is taken too much as being rational when in fact it's totally in a delusional ego condition. A similar problem with for example lukewarm and mainstream Christianity. There is a tendency of dismissing miracles and a clinging to mainstream science.

There is also a ridicule of conspiracy theories. I'm convinced that Jordan Maxwell is more correct when saying "Nothing in this world works the way you think it does." And by being too rational, too scientific and too much trusting mainstream authorities integral teachings are built on a false foundation of reality. And that's just the surface level! Even biological evolution is basically a cosmic trick I think.

At the same time integral teachings have a necessary component in my opinion in the idea of transcend and include. Somehow integral spirituality itself needs to be transcended and included. Holistic spirituality might be a term for that, but even that sounds too limiting. Tricky.

[Anderz]

I don't want to become homeless, but I'm considering stop caring about money. There is something ridiculously childish about money and at the same time it's connected to death I believe. The whole world is in a silly ego state which is also like a horrible trap.

It may actually be that the coronavirus crisis is a true sign of the end of the world ego state. The ego condition has gotten worse and now people are even physically isolated from each other and from their environment.

From A Course in Miracles perspective the whole situation today is based on fear and that's a false state. I still believe that there is a lot of value in our civilization but a transformation is necessary, a transcend and include that transcends the ego structures and preserves what is valuable.

[Anderz]

Have I become brainwashed by A Course in Miracles and other spiritual teachings? No, I don't think so. It's more like the feeling when growing out of playing with toys in a sandbox. The world at the moment feels like a sandbox for children to me. It can be fun to follow what happens in the news and so on, and it's important that things improve on that level, but the whole foundation of society is false.

I guess an integral approach will be best, and to still be concerned about what happens in the world and at the same time expect a radical shift. It may be a slow and gradual shift yet short from a historical perspective because of exponential evolution. And I feel that we need to move out of the sandbox and proactively aim for a way out.

[Anderz]

I came to realize that not caring about money is the wrong approach. Because that's still an ego strategy which only cements the inner conflict subconsciously. The correct approach is to be mindful of all the trickery of the conditioning of conflict within the mind and body.

Jesus talked about this:

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"“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:25-34

And Jesus talked about the heart in relation to this:

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"“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." - Matthew 6:19-24

And you can't argue with the Bible!  Well, you can but I see that there is logic to what Jesus said from a holistic perspective. Reality is a wholeness in motion so the ego has a mistaken perspective of believing itself as being a separate doer having to manage things as a fragment in a struggle with the rest of reality.

[Anderz]

I like to repeat explanations, because those can evolve and also for my own practice it helps me to recondition my mind. And by posting it in a journal like this makes it easy to make sure that my ideas become more solidified and coherent.

So what is God? From a nondual perspective I think of God as the infinite intelligence of the process of reality. So God is not some separate being or even a process by itself. God is an aspect of the process of reality. And nonduality means changeless or there would be a duality where one thing controls another thing. So not even God has free will. God is not some boss separate from us.

God is the only will. And thus even the ego is acting according to God's will. The ego is a necessary development in order to produce individual personalities. And the thinking mind is a higher state of development than animal existence without the intellect. The nasty thing with the ego is that its thinking is fueled by suffering. Therefore I will use Gurdjieff's intentional suffering practice and focus on the suffering instead of the thoughts! That is not going back into animal pre-intellectual consciousness. Instead it's a meta perspective above thinking. The purpose of which is to identify and resolve the conflict-ridden habit of the ego's thinking.

[Anderz]

This is just my amateur guessing, and I could be making a fool of myself here, haha. It seems to me that Wall Street is a silly playground for mindless speculators. As a case in point, Apple is today valued at almost two trillion dollars. That's an insane overvaluation. Apple can't even manufacture it's own hardware and Huawei's Mate X launched in early 2019 is years ahead of what Apple even has today.

My second guess is that China already has superior semiconductor technology. What we see today on the public market is old stuff from China and they wait with playing their strongest cards as a part of a long term strategy. Wall Street is just like a mad dog in comparison able to make short-term predictions based on a delusional belief in western superiority, and not much longer term sight than that.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Anderz

[Anderz]

I found it useful to be mindful of suffering instead of on thoughts. An even better method I discovered is to be mindful of pleasant feelings instead of thoughts. That's a bit trickier because it's suffering that fuels thinking so suffering can easily be found even when it's hidden at first.

Pleasant feelings without artificially inducing them through drugs, food or entertainment etc may be absent at first. And then being mindful of suffering can be used until pleasant feelings start to replace the suffering.

[Anderz]

Here I found a new scientific result done with actual experiments:

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"A laboratory demonstration of the classic “Wigner’s friend” thought experiment could overturn cherished assumptions about reality ... Now Tischler and her colleagues have carried out a version of the Wigner’s friend test.

... you must either give up locality, accept that measurements do not have a single result that observers must agree on or allow superdeterminism.

... Fans of retrocausality, such as himself, have already made peace with superdeterminism: in their view, it is not shocking that future measurements affect past results." - Scientific American, Aug 17, 2020

With confirmation bias I pick ..... superdeterminism!

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"In quantum mechanics, superdeterminism is a loophole in Bell's theorem, that allows one to evade it by postulating that all systems being measured are causally correlated with the choices of which measurements to make on them.[1] It is conceivable that someone could exploit this loophole to construct a local hidden variable theory that reproduces the predictions of quantum mechanics. Superdeterminists do not recognize the existence of genuine chances or possibilities anywhere in the cosmos." - Wikipedia

In nonduality superdeterminism is a result of reality as a whole being the cause. So there are no separate causes, neither from the past nor from the future. And the new scientific experiment is consistent with this and even says that superdeterminism is a possible candidate.

[Anderz]

One problem with superdeterministic models is that they are not falsifiable.

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"The implications of superdeterminism, if it is true, would bring into question the value of science itself by destroying falsifiability, as Anton Zeilinger has commented:

[W]e always implicitly assume the freedom of the experimentalist... This fundamental assumption is essential to doing science. If this were not true, then, I suggest, it would make no sense at all to ask nature questions in an experiment, since then nature could determine what our questions are, and that could guide our questions such that we arrive at a false picture of nature.[7]" - Wikipedia

But it's still possible to compare them with other models. For example one expert said that if precise enough instruments make it possible to take a whole series of measurements in a row, very close to each other in time, then that will test the randomness of quantum mechanics. If it turns out that QM isn't really random then that points in the direction of superdeterminism.

And the recent science article I posted showed experiments that rule out several possibilities yet does NOT rule out superdeterminism. So that also points in the direction of superdeterminism. And by adding more pointers like that superdeterminism becomes a stronger candidate even though it isn't falsifiable.

[Anderz]

Teachings that say that "you are not the doer" might be useful at some point in spiritual development, but really it's an ego trap. It's like saying "don't think about a pink elephant." It fortifies the idea of being a separate doer.

A better and the correct approach is to say: "you are the doer" and then go on explaining what the doer is. In nonduality the doer is the totality. And our past memories need to be seen from a true perspective which is that the "me" as a doer in personal memories in reality is the totality as the doer. Everything is the totality as a doer.