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If you read Part I, and you should before you read this one, you will remember that the first step in the process of learning was Unconscious Incompetence -- the place where you don't know you don't know.
No one today, even the least educated, can question the fact that the world (Earth) is a round planet and that it revolves around a central body in our Solar System that we call the Sun. But it was only around 400 years ago that not only did the majority of the world believe the world was flat, but that NOT believing it was heresy. Think about it. There have been those who believed the world was round since Aristotle, around 350 BC, Pythagoras, around 6 BC, and of course Galileo, around 1600 AD.
Now you might ask why a scientific idea like a flat or round world even became a point of contention for a religious body. And if you haven't, maybe you should? It all started with the theological idea that Man was the center of a God-created universe. And that God created man in His image and likeness (or was it the other way around?). And since Man lived on Earth, therefore Earth had to be the center of the God-created universe. I find it quite interesting that while we knew that the Earth and Sun went around each other, one way or the other, why did we didn't we all pick up on the round world idea right away?
Bottom line, it all came down to programming. The populous, not having access to an education in any form, was at the mercy of the powers that be, who were in a position to keep you totally ignorant of facts that they already knew, and fed you enough information to keep you in line. Does this sound just a bit and all too familiar? The media controls the masses. At that time the media was the church. Today, it's form is innumerable. But the effect is that we live within, and only within, the scope of our programming. At least until we revolt. At some time we look at what we are being taught and come to the conclusion...this is a bunch of crap!
Believe it or not, it is at that moment you have opened yourself up to the realization, you did not know you did not know. All the scientific minds that came before us got their inspiration from the same place...Spirit, Reality, God, call it what you will. Something in their mind led them to believe something different, and dared to take a stand, no matter the cost. They believed when there was no proof that anyone would believe, and even placed their academic standing, and in some cases their lives, on the line for what they believed.
Perhaps this was an early application of Occam's Razor - a principle urging one to select among competing hypotheses that which makes the fewest assumptions and thereby offers the simplest explanation of the effect
So here we are in the second millennium still with a flat world mentality. How many things are we hearing today of what might be, that we completely ignore since that is not what we now believe.
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[Continued from the newsletter]
Maybe it is time to at least move into the step of Conscious Incompetence and just accept the possibility that there are things we do not know we do not know. In the most obvious of categories, do you have any idea how much our government is NOT telling us about almost everything? Is it because they think we are too stupid to understand, or we would be too fearful to believe or understand, or simply to stay in office beyond the point we realize they have been lying to us forever...about everything? So I ask myself, who is really being the most fearful, me or those that think I would fear?
How does all this tie in to "A Course in Miracles", you ask? Because there are things about God (or a more accurate understanding of God) that we did, or do not know. There are things about this world we still do not know. And to make the process of learning more difficult, all our past programming makes the belief of anything new extremely fearful. And fear is the biggest and most effective tool of the ego to maintain the status quo. That idea applies to everything...no exceptions. "No exceptions" is an idea that the Course is absolutely adamant about and if we are to survive in what appears to be a world out of control, so must you be.
Our image of ourselves comes more from the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel, than Reality. Yes, God did create man in His image and likeness (forgive my use of the masculine), but not in an anthropomorphic sense. The image on the chapel ceiling is really a presentation of how we created God in OUR image. We made God to be a Super-man, an all intelligent, all powerful, all omniscient being that looks just like us. God is not . God is Spirit, or Spiritual Energy, and so are YOU. And ONLY Spirit. You are NOT your body, never have been, and never will be. ( A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 84, Text Chapter 25 Introduction )
And to further dramatically express the potentially unbelievable idea...There is no world. ( A Course in Miracles Text Chapter 12, Section III, Paragraph 6, ACIM Workbook Lesson 132, ACIM Manual for Teachers Chapter 27, Paragraph 6 )
That said, you are probably having one of three reactions to these ideas.
1) "This guy is nuts." (But what if you don't know you don't know?)
2) "Hmmmmm. Maybe there is something to this after all." (The open door to Conscious Incompetence...the willingness to question.)
3) "So what else is new? I have known this forever." (Which can represent either of the last two stages of learning, Conscious Competence or Unconscious Competence, depending on your current level of belief, or understanding of any subject at hand. But there is a big caution here. What you don't know you don't know, holds more than what you currently think you know. If you or I really knew it all, we would not be here..literally. This level of apparent existence is only a place of learning...but what are we still here to learn?)
Continued in "The Next Step"
TO BE CONTINUED................
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Robert Sears has been a student of A Course in Miracles since 1990. He came to ACIM after years of following a very convoluted religious path, and sometimes refers to himself as a CathoBaptiMethoCostalScientist, which explains why some call him a Spiritual Mutt.
Bob experience the healing power of miracles by stopping two heart attacks in their tracks simply by applying a deep understanding of the content, meaning and values of Lessons 1 and 2 in the workbook. "All I needed to do was to realize the meaning I was giving to the symptoms of a heart attack were purely mine. I withdrew MY meaning...and poof!"
Bob is also familiar with several of the Eastern Philosophies but now finds himself most comfortable sharing and teaching ACIM. Bob is also a non-practicing Reiki Master preferring to focus entirely on the Course.
Once led to eng age in full time ministry as a Course teacher, Bob opted to become and independent non-denominational minister so that he could teach a pure version of ACIM without the need to satisfy any particular denominational tenets. Bob, originally from NY, now resides in Southern California where he teaches in churches and home settings. More on,or from, Bob can be found on his ACIM teaching web site...www.rdsears.com
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Robert D Sears
www.rdsears.com
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Course In Miracles Society
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