Question 25 from
The Most Commonly Asked Questions About 
A Course in Miracles

By Gloria and Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

 

Chapter 3: APPLICATION AND PRACTICE


25) If all this is a dream or an illusion, does that mean that the abuse I suffered as a child is unreal and should be denied or ignored? 

Following from the answer to the preceding question, one can understand that childhood abuse, or any victimization, is part of a larger script that came into existence with the original thought of separation, which then shattered into billions of fragments. The "me" that I experience as myself, as well as all the experiences of the life I call my own, are but one aspect of the larger script of the decision maker. Indeed, all ego scripts are but projected dreams of a world of opposites that results from the belief that we (the victimizers) could banish God and His unity (the victim) from our minds. Thus, any part of our individual lives is a congealing in form of the ego script of victim-victimizer. Moreover, I must accept responsibility that my decision maker has written a script where I would experience the pain of abuse so that I could prove that God was wrong and I was right. In other words, there is no unity of the Sonship because the thoughts of separation and victimization actually occurred. Until I can accept this fact of my dream, I will not be able to accept the correction and healing of the Holy Spirit. Most importantly, people should never deny what seems to be happening to them in their dreams, for these events become the means of helping them to awaken from the dream. Rather, they should pay careful attention to such experiences and then ask the Holy Spirit for help in becoming a happy learner, and accepting His happy dreams of correction to replace the nightmare dreams that their egos had made. 

For example, if one suffered such painful abuse as a child that all memories had been repressed and therefore rendered inaccessible to correction, some form of therapeutic intervention that allows the person to recall the early abuse can often be extremely helpful. If this is not done, the thought of fear that "protects" the thought of victimization is accorded power, and indeed continues to exercise this power in the service of maintaining the ego's thought system of separation and pain. Therefore, as A Course in Miracles repeatedly emphasizes, a happy dream of forgiveness must precede the ultimate awakening, in which -- still within the context of the dream of separation -- a person is able to look with Jesus at the bitter symbols of the dream's past, open them to re-examination and therefore correction. This is the meaning of the following all-important passage from the text that conveys the gentleness of Jesus' corrective and healing love: 

Nothing more fearful than an idle dream has terrified God's Son, and made him think that he has lost his innocence, denied his Father, and made war upon himself. So fearful is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without the sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream preceded his awaking, and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken him; a gentler dream, in which his suffering was healed and where his brother was his friend. God willed he waken gently and with joy, and gave him means to waken without fear (T-27.Vll.13:3-5).
And so, any intervention that allows individuals to gain access to their fear thoughts so that they can be looked at through the eyes of Jesus' forgiveness -- a vision of non- judgment -- is of help. That is why Jesus dictated to Helen the pamphlet "Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process and Practice." Though it clearly occurs within the ego's dream of separation, psychotherapy can nonetheless be redirected by the Holy Spirit to serve His holy purpose of undoing the dream -- through reversing the dynamics of denial and projection -- by reflecting in therapist and patient the joining of God and Christ that is the only truth. 

As we have stated previously, it is indeed true that metaphysically speaking one's early childhood abuse (or anything within a dream) is an illusion, but as long as one believes it did indeed happen -- otherwise there would be no fear, denial, anger, or pain -- then help must be reflected in the form the person needs. To dismiss a problem as mere illusion when one still believes one is a body and personality is simply silly, and not a legitimate spiritual practice.  Such practice in denial clearly serves no one well, and Jesus did not give us a Course in denial, but one in its undoing. 

Reproduced with the kind permission of Gloria and Kenneth
Wapnick and the Foundation for A Course in Miracles
 

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