James K Anderson

How about Global Thermonuclear War?

The collective mind of the Son of God is many orders of magnitude smarter than any of us individually. This collective mind of ours has created an amazingly complex scenario designed to keep us here to experience a life of specialness and lack, without God. By keeping us separate from each other, it limits our ability to come together to figure this out, and it uses our separateness to convince us that this is what we are–humans; tiny, dumb, helpless, victims of a ruthless world, disempowered and alone, powerless to go beyond this. No matter how you look at it, it's up to you to see something beyond your humanity. It's up to you to figure it out and relentlessly search for yourself.

Imagine this:

This universe we have created is an incredibly complex, three‑dimensional, multi‑sensory, full immersion video game. And just like any video game, we made it so we could experience something other than our usual life. Winning this game is a complicated process because it is a very clever game. The first step is to figure out that you're even playing a game! This game is not real, but accepting that is a very difficult hurdle, because all of the players have had their memories erased as to who they really are; that they're really living in an entirely different and perfect world while just imagining they're in a game. When we play a video game, we can immerse ourselves into it to the point where we will give up all food and drink and just about everything else. But we are always aware that it's a game and that's because we remember another life beyond it that we can come back to. Not in this game. We don't even know we're playing. We have put the controller inside of the game and severed our contact with everything outside of the game.

After taking the first incredible step of realizing that this is a game, the second step is the conscious understanding that winning this game means ending it, rather than like a normal game, where the goal is to win something within the game. We don't even know why we're playing, so discovering the "why" seems to be a reasonable goal. Also, this game is designed to keep going as long as you keep playing. Our focus on and belief in the game is what creates it and perpetuates it. In order to create something with your mind, you have to concentrate on it. This game will go on as long as you believe it has credibility, reality and purpose: keep playing and it keeps going.

The third step is to take action; we have to take the necessary steps to end the game. The only way to do that is to stop playing. You learn when you meditate, that in order to hold a constant image in your mind, you have to constantly re‑create the image. The present moment is all there is, so in order for the image to always remain in your mind's eye, you have to re‑think it, re‑think it, re‑think it over and over again to keep the image, because that image only exists right now, in your mind. The second you let your mind wander into memories or future worries, your mental image goes away and is replaced by whatever has grabbed your attention. What we are doing as the Son of God to create this world is to focus on it so completely in every moment that it has become real to our subconscious minds, and so we project it constantly. It is what we have decided to believe is real. In order to end the game, we have to focus completely and intensely outside of the game, knowing there is something else beyond the game. We must focus so intently that we can break the spell of the collective mind until our proper vision begins to return.

Like the movie War Games, every move is a losing move and the only way to win is not to play. We need to learn the futility of this life. But unfortunately, to learn that, we first have to play every move we can, until we realize that none of the moves really work. Nothing in this world is ultimately satisfying. Eventually, everything gets old and tired and frustrating here, but the only way to know that is to find out for yourself. We will not stop playing until we know that, because this world is so compelling.

If we are here to "figure it out," and you are having difficulty accepting this world as a dream, then consider this: for centuries, our current way of thinking hasn't been able to figure anything out. We are all still pretty much guessing about life. A huge percentage of the world population is religious. We have widely different practices and views about life and God, most of which amount to superficial rituals, judgment, anger, violence and groveling. The same as it's been for centuries with minor adjustments. A spiritual, non‑religious approach may seem more natural but in general, spiritual people have just as much trouble with this world as everyone else. Most people are trying to win something inside the game. Doesn't that tell you right away that in order to figure it out, we have to approach this world in a different way?

How long will we continue in the same direction before we realize we're no further along with real answers? We are doing everything we can to fix ourselves by manipulating the things in this world. We think very hard about the right way to proceed, and we create more and more clever drugs, but we always come up against more and more clever diseases. We go to workshops and seminars and learn what we need to know. We diet and exercise. We believe in "spiritual places" and a million other things within this world that have some special power. We never stop looking for our completion within this world.

So, how do we stop playing the game? We have created this game in a way that allows us to reincarnate over and over again, to be rich and poor, healthy and sick, gay and straight, white and black, living as many different scenarios as it takes for our individual souls to suddenly get it and say, "Hey, none of this works!" Other players may tell you that, but you won't believe it until you experience it for yourself. We have to withdraw from it, one step at a time. We have to give up the imaginary bodies, the drama, the money, our careers, personalities, all of the things our imaginary five senses tell us we desperately need and seem inextricably attached to. But most of all, we have to give up the fear. If we really tried, we could hear our Mother gently calling us to give up the game and come and have some dinner. We also have to give up the guilt of playing the game so long and letting go of our real life, and ignoring our Mother. We have to give up the fear of what She will do to us for playing the game, even though She is unbelievably nice and would never think to punish us in any way or even make us feel bad about our little indulgence..

That last step is the most difficult, because this game seems to be the only thing that exists, so giving it up seems to mean giving up everything with nothing to replace it when we stop, because we have had our memory erased, and we fear that annihilation thing. Also, how does one stop playing when the game keeps going? The game won't stop until we stop it, but we won't stop playing until it's over but it's not over until we stop... Whew! The ego has designed this world with all of the exits seemingly closed. But God has given us a way out, and until we recognize that, we will not understand how to stop the game.

Vigilance

Because we have made it so clever and all‑consuming, and because we forgot everything about ourselves, we have convinced ourselves that this game is extremely important somehow. As a matter of fact, it is everything to us. It is the only thing. The only way for us to see the alternative, that is, the real world of God, is to withdraw our attention from this illusory world. But how do we do that?

It takes as much vigilance to turn off the world as we currently expend energy in creating it. To break its hold on us, we have to keep our minds focused on God more than we focus on this world. We create this world by living in it, participating in it, believing in it, focusing on it. We want to be in this world. To turn it off, we must put as much energy into letting this world go, while striving for another one.

That means you have to stop wanting it.

You have to drop out of this life more than 50% of the time, and give yourself over to God's world. And that's only to get started! Are you discouraged yet? These ideas are not for people who still love this life because giving up this life means trying to grasp another, more real world that currently exists beyond our comprehension. We have very little understanding of a world without form, without specialness or judgment, where perfection is as normal as it is impossible here on earth. We have no idea what it means to be a non‑self. It is also why many people have trouble with the Course. They simply cannot see giving up this life, and they make many different excuses for not only modifying what the Course says but modifying the words of all the great teachers who have come here with the same message. This is not who you are!

We are here to wake up. Nothing more. You must realize that your ego is enticing you to believe something that isn't true. All of the resistance you feel right now to these words is your ego trying to stay alive. The ego's self‑imposed, and only, job is to keep this world going, and to maintain the tiny, mad idea. A Course in Miracles says that we have to be vigilant for God and His kingdom, just as we are vigilant now for the illusion. We trick ourselves with our egos into looking for stability in this chaotic world, and into thinking stability can be found in consistency, or lots of money–which we equate with security–or a good job, or raising a family, or whatever else we put importance on. And those things only work for a while–until they inevitably stop working. Just because the ego wants and justifies everything here, it doesn't mean those things are true or worthwhile or valuable.

Think of all the things you used to want. Think of all the crazy things you hear people say about what they want and believe. Every wacky idea ever accomplished or attempted by every single human who has ever lived, has been justified by them, and eventually, those desires all fade into nothingness by their very nature. The Course says that we, as humans, believe we have to give up everything to gain nothing, but in truth, we are giving up nothing to gain Everything.