Brother Burt,

Question: Do you have any articles on the schism as mentioned in ACIM. By schism I mean the fall or tiny mad idea that caused the illusion of separation? My interest is, Is the dream of separation really an error as ACIM explains or is it Gods plan (game) in order to know itself as most Non dual teachers explain? Or is it both?

Your student S.

Dear S.,

To answer your question — God never makes mistakes and therefore the duality was not an error but what must be for evolution of consciousness to take place. You see, in order to see clearly from your own unique expression as S. there has to be an experiencer. This experiencer is necessary in order to experience anything. However, this experiencer (ego) only sees from its own vantage point and therefore sees limited. Initially it only sees its own thoughts and emotions and all life is colored by these personal feelings. However, there comes a time when an experience becomes so full, so all-encompassing that the experiencer ‘disappears’ and all that's left is the pure experience. This is known as unconditional love. For example, let’s say you love dancing and one day you start dancing to music that you love so much you forget you are dancing — you become the dance! This pure experience of ‘just dancing’ eliminates the experiencer because the two become one. Here’s another example, let’s say your wife has just given birth and you hold your son in your arms for the first time, your experience of your son becomes so all-encompassing that there’s only the son and ‘you’ disappear to yourself. This all-encompassing experience is pure experience of unconditional love. Thus the two — experiencer and experience have become one.

Now, God intended that all life is a daulity (experiencer and experience known as separation)Êuntil such time when LOVE flowers where both experiencer and experience become ONE. Becoming ONE is enlightenment. Jesus said, “When two become one you are in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Separation (experiener and experience) is not an error but a ‘learning device’ so that eventually even the experiencer disappears within the pure experience of love and all that remains is the real YOU! It is in this knowing that you discover yourself to be LOVE and have always been love.Ê

With love,

Burt