These two levels of dreams; the dream of the wrong mind and then the dream of the world;
they're referred to in this passage I'm going to read to you as "the secret dream" or "the
first dream;" that's the ego's dream and then the world's dream. What's important about
what I'm going to read to you is that it makes it very clear about the purposive nature of
the world's dream, and that's really what I think is so important to understand. Because
if we understand that the purpose of the world's dream is to keep us mindless and to keep this
dream hidden, then we'll understand why we do the insanely, wacky things we do as bodies,
even...or even especially when we've studied this course for a while and we know exactly
what we're being asked to do and we go right ahead and do the exact opposite, and there's
a reason for that. And it's the same reason why we all as one Son made the world and,
again, why we continually judge and continually hold onto tales of victimization and experiences
of victimization. So that's what I want to read to you. The first passage is from near
the end of Chapter 27, page 584, paragraph 11, and we'll start in the middle of the paragraph,
sentence 4. "The gap between reality and dreams lies not between the dreaming of the world
and what you dream in secret. They are one." In other words, there is no gap between mind
and body. The dreaming of the world is the body and the secret dream is the mind; they
are the same. Why are they one? because "Ideas leave not their source." There's no gap between
mind and body. The gap is between reality and dreaming; that's the gap. That's what
this vertical line represents; the tiny, mad idea. That's where the problem is, that we
listen to the ego tell us that the tiny, mad idea is a fact, which we accepted and then
forgot we ever accepted. And next thing we know we're in a world, being born into a body
with no memory of this mind. So there's no gap between the secret dream of the wrong
mind and the world's dream, because it's the same dream. "The dreaming of the world"...again,
that's our lives here. "The dreaming of the world is but a part of your own dream you
gave away, and saw as if it were its start and ending, both." "The dreaming of the world"...our
physical and psychological experiences as bodies in this world is but a projection of
our secret dream, which we gave away. The giving away is the projection. So our world's
dream and the individual dream that we call our personal life is the projection of the
secret dream, all right? So, "The dreaming of the world is but a part of your own dream
you gave away, and" now you saw the world's dream "as if it were its start and ending,
both." Once we make up this world we project the secret dream out and then forget we've
done so, we think life begins and ends in the world, in the world's dream. This world
is the start and ending, both. When the fact of the matter is, as we'll see in a moment,
is that the start of the world's dream is the secret dream, and the ending of the dream
is in the secret dream, namely in the mind; the decision-making or dreaming mind. So the
world is but a subterfuge; it's a camouflage; it's a gigantic smokescreen that conceals
from us the fact that there is no world; there is only a mind. And so once again, keep in
mind that the-pardon the pun-that the purpose of the world and our being born into the world
and being so identified with the world and its problems and our personal problems is
to keep us in a perpetual state of mindlessness; that's the purpose. Remember, purpose is everything.
So ask the question, "What is everything here for? What are my relationships for? What are
my sicknesses for? What are my problems for? What is my life for?" And the answer is to
keep us mindless. If I am mindless-if I'm a mindless body-this decision-making part
of my mind is kept vacant, and if it is vacant I could never change my mind; that's the purpose.
So that's what this is saying. "Yet was it started"...yet was the world's dream started
"by your secret dream, which you do not perceive"...that's why this workshop is called "The Unconscious
Mind." We're not aware we have a mind. The world's dream-both the cosmos as the collective
dream and the individual dream of our personal lives-was started by the mind's dream; the
mind's decision to be an ego, which we do not perceive, which we do not recognize, which
we do not remember "although it"-the secret dream-" caused the part you see and do not
doubt is real." You could see what a brilliant plan this is and, again, it's fooled practically
everybody. We think this world is real. We don't doubt that this world is real. "Course
in Miracles'" students don't doubt that this world is real; they believe this book is real.
They argue about what the book says. Smart? That's not smart; there's no book! What are
they arguing about? They're arguing about that they're smarter than God; that's what
they're arguing about. But they don't know that this is happening in their mind because
they think that they're bodies. Everything in this world is caused by the secret dream
that we have forgotten; that's why it's unconscious. So to quote Freud again, the goal of psychoanalysis
is to make the unconscious conscious, okay? Jesus says in the Course in effect, "The goal
of this course is to make you aware that you have a mind; to make the unconscious mind
conscious, so you know you have a mind." And we are not aware of our steadfast resistance
to knowing we are minds; that's why we always interpret, which means misinterpret the Course
to be about us, because we want the body to be real. We do not want to doubt the body
as real and, as I was saying this morning, what better way to prove the body's real than
to have Jesus be involved with it, or the Holy Spirit be involved with it, or God to
be involved with it. Or did Jesus have some great plan that includes me-in fact I'm the
center of the stage, of course (everyone's the center of the stage); as some great plan
as a body to heal other bodies using another body called "A Course in Miracles" to heal
them? Not realizing that all of this is being played out seemingly in the world but really
being played out in the dreaming mind that doesn't know it's dreaming. That's why you
must never leave the metaphysics of this course too far behind you when you are reading this
material and applying it. If you do not understand what this is saying about the mind and body
and reality you will misinterpret everything. That's why passages like this are so important.
The purpose of the world's dream is to conceal the secret dream, and the purpose of the secret
dream is to keep the dreamer's identity hidden. Remember, when we chose the secret dream of
the ego, we forgot we were decision makers. This circle was already empty, and then to
ensure that we never got anywhere near it the ego made up a world, and before it made
up a world it had to make up that whole insane story of sin, guilt, and fear and God's punishment
so that we'd be motivated to leave the mind and continually choose to leave the mind.
This was not a one-shot thing; we are choosing this over and over again. What is now in Chapter
4 was an answer to a question that Bill Thetford raised while the Course was coming through
Helen, and he asked Helen to ask Jesus, "How did the separation happen?" And the answer
was, "Why are you bothering to ask about...wonder why something happened long ago when you're
still choosing it now?" Now that did not address the question, but it made it impossible to
ever ask that question again, all right? Jesus is no dummy. Why wonder about why something
happened seemingly long ago when you're doing it right now? That's the answer to your question.
"Why am I choosing the separation? Because I like being an 選';" that's why. I like
being an individual self, and to ensure that I never change my mind, I make up a world
and body and then problems here that rivet my attention externally so I never go back
within. "How could you doubt it"...how could you doubt the reality of the dreaming world-the
body-"while you lie asleep, and dream in secret that its cause is real?" In other words, we're
always choosing the ego's wrong-minded dream-the secret dream-that continually causes the world
but not being aware that we're causing it. We think this is real because we're still
asleep and we're dreaming, and we don't understand that the cause of the dream lies in a mind
that is repressed, that is unconscious.