In 1992, two beings appeared to Gary Renard, told him they were ascended masters, and, over a period of years, gave him their interpretation of A Course in Miracles, later to be published in his book The Disappearance of the Universe. The Course is a profound work, almost 1,300 pages, poetically expressed and difficult to understand, which was spiritually dictated by Jesus to a psychologist, Helen Schucman. It enables a person who studies and practices its teachings and mental exercises to gradually eliminate the ego.
In spiritual teachings, the ego is one’s false sense of identity, of who and what one really is. It is like a collection of related thoughts that arises from and includes the basic, underlying thought that we are separate from God. It keeps one oblivious of the fact that they are standing in the presence of God. It causes us to believe we are limited, mortal beings, instead of unlimited, eternal Spirit, one with God.
From the ego arise guilt, fear, attachment to the body, selfishness and suffering. God and our true identity, the immortal Self, are blocked from our awareness. The purpose of the Course is to dissolve the ego and its false ideas so that we can directly experience God, God’s extension as Spirit (also spoken of as the collective Son, the Self, or Christ), and Heaven. The Course contains many powerful declarations about the nature of God, Spirit, and their creations, and the truth that the seemingly separate Sons of God are divine, created in the image and likeness of God. These declarations help to dissolve the ego and its illusions and lead us toward direct knowledge of our reality as Spirit.
In the Course, Jesus speaks of God as being transcendental, beyond form and duality, in other words, beyond the world, or universe, as we perceive it. In order to dispel our illusions and heal our minds, God created the Holy Spirit to work with us in the world, guiding and inspiring us through the “inner voice” and through divine messengers. The Holy Spirit leads us out of darkness into the light and love of the Christ. When all our illusions are gone, we are filed with love and light, and realize our eternal oneness with God.
