 The ego is a belief that there is no God, or the ego is a belief that love is impossible. So it's kind of like when you see it, when there's an eclipse and the moon just kind of disappears. The brightness of the moon isn't behind a planet or there's an eclipse that occurs where the light is blocked out. It's really the ego is like a blinder to the light that's already there. And so the ego doesn't have a real existence, it doesn't have a source, it doesn't have a creator and therefore it never was created. The way Jesus says in the Course, he says, you made the ego, he doesn't say creator, he says you made the ego by believing in it and you can dispel it by withdrawing your belief from it. So it's like a line spot, it's like a figment of imagination and it's literally behind a big bang that seems to be this cosmic explosion that seems to be time and space. The ego is the big bang and there is a light behind this veil of separation that we could call God. And in order to experience that, we have to let go of our investment in our mind energy being given over to the ego belief. So in the back of the Course, in the clarification of terms, Jesus says, ego will ask many questions that this Course has no answer for. How did the impossible happen? To whom did the impossible happen? And many other forms. And he says, there is no answer, he's meaning like there is a theological answer or no conceptual answer. But he does say an experience will come to end your doubting and to really seek for that experience. So that's why when you're working with the Course, it's so important to keep in mind that you're going for an experience. You're not going for another theological system or another set of concepts. You're actually going to be carried beyond the theology of the Course, beyond the concepts into an actual living experience. So that's one of those trick questions that's best to say, okay, I'll step back on that one for a while and just ask the question. Because I just think the ego itself says, oh well, God, this must be all unintended consequences. We're all suffering from various expressions. He didn't mean us to do it, we've done it towards ourselves. But that sends you around in all kinds of circles. Yeah, there's a line in the Course that says, I have done this thing and it is this, not what I'm doing. So just like in 12-step programs, the mission that there's a problem is essential. If an alcoholic stays in denial, then there's no healing. And similarly, I've said many times, like the Course of Miracles groups, you could kind of go around and instead of saying, hi, my name's So-and-So and I'm an alcoholic, you could say, hi, my name's So-and-So and I have a perceptual problem. Because even in that sense, it takes an admission that you have to have an admission and you have a perceptual problem before the Course can work for you. As long as you remain riveted and got relationship problems and finance problems and health problems and sexual problems and on and on and on, then the problems have been defined inside of the dream world. And the dreaming is completely forgotten. It seems like there's all these separate problems, many problems, and there's no solution at that level. But once you start to go back deeper and get in touch with that belief and separation, which is a core, is the error, then you can have it solved. And that's why people pray. That's why they meditate. That's why all the spiritual traditions talk about going inside the Kingdom of Heaven is within. They all send us in. It's not in our bodies. So we have to even learn what that end means. And it's quite covered over. It's quite guarded. I've seen a couple of people expressing everything in my life seems okay, except there's one person in this one situation and that just brings up so much in terms of anger. The trigger. That's the trigger we have. It seems frustrating and you can see we have so many aspects of your life going on and there's this trigger that even stands out even more because of what seems to be a fairly stabilized life. The trigger is there. And it's like a trigger that's saying you haven't gone back inside your mind far enough or deep enough because the triggers will keep reoccurring in form as long as we haven't got inside, we haven't got beneath or underneath the ego. So when we talk about unplugging from the ego, we talk about completely unplugging. That's another thing that's like, oh no, my life's too busy. I can't completely unplug. I'll give you 10 minutes a day or 45 minutes a day. I can squeeze you in there into my calendar. And God's like, that approach is not going to work. We have to be ready for, I think the phrase was in some of you might have seen Tom Cruise's movie, Vanilla Sky, a revolution of the mind. You have to be ready for a total revolution of the mind. That means if everything's been upside down, everything has to be turned right side up. And we just have the willingness to allow that process. I'm going to feel however I feel. It's going to look however it's going to look. It's like healing. I have a desire for healing and to say to the Holy Spirit, and I don't care what it seems to cost or I don't care what it takes. Okay, I'm going to go for the healing. And then that tends to stir things up in a major way. We were talking yesterday and Suzanne was feeling maybe about a year ago or a year and a half ago that it was like, I could die. It's almost like if you have to have that in the context of healing, okay, I want healing and I want healing no matter what. And, huh, I could die. Yeah, I could die to my old perception of myself. I literally, you know, that's part of the same Francis prayer, you know, to die when you're born again. In reality, you know, it's just a re-translation and it's a reorientation of your mind toward God and towards your true identity. So nothing's really dying and nothing's ever really lost, but there's a reinterpretation that has to occur and the ego is dead set against that reinterpretation. Because if you allow your mind that reinterpretation, you will accept the Holy Spirit and the ego is no more. You know, there's no ego that continues on after that reinterpretation. There's a part in the Course where it says you will believe this Course entirely or not at all. So I think anyone who gets into authentic spirituality needs to be aware of how important that line is. It's not like, okay, I'll go and I'll make it 80% or 90%. There's really a sense of funality. There's a sense of it being completely non-compromising in a glorious way, in order to have total joy, peace, freedom, love. That means you cannot be willing to compromise with the ego. And sometimes people will say, how do I defeat the ego? The ego loves it when the mind puts it into a contest, you know, or like a war. You know, people say, I'm going to kill the ego. It's going to pay for what it's put me through and I'm going to crucify the good. And the ego is like sitting there, good. Love with fights. Nothing more wonderful than a fight. Because the ego is the belief in competition. It is the belief in war. With all the wars we've had throughout human history and it's interesting that Jesus says, the war against yourself is almost over now. We're able to come here to this center in Crow's Nest and talk about exposing the ego and royally exposing it. I mean, really exposing it. That's a wonderful acknowledgement to our mind that the war against ourselves is almost over now. In fact, some of you might remember John Lennon and Yoko. Oh no, back in the day, they rented, they spent tens of thousands of dollars to rent billboards all over the place. A lot of them were in New York City, but all over. In giant, bold, black letters, war is over. And then in small letters, if you want it. And that was the course of miracles. They were spending all these tens of thousands of dollars to publish the course of miracles teachings on these billboards. Now war is over if you want it. If you want no coercion, nothing's forcing us to end the war. It's just our desire for peace is growing strong. We're outgrowing the religions now. We're outgrowing the theologies. Even the techniques, the formulas, in the end it's our desire for peace that will bring it back into awareness. There's not going to be any formula or theology. Even the theology of the course of miracles has to be grown and transcended because it's speaking as if there's linear time. It's speaking as if we're dealing with bodies and private minds and private thoughts. And most of the course is written right at that level. And yet it's a beginning and not an end, like the workbook says. This is a beginning and not an end. If you get through the workbook, that's what's going to be waiting for you. Henceforth, listen to the voice of God within your mind and it will direct all subsequent lessons. It can actually reach a point where we have to practice it and really fully apply it without exception. And the words and the lessons and everything, they were like the trampoline. It gets you springing and bouncing a little bit. But they're not meant to forever bounce on trampoline. They're meant to spring and spring and really take the leap and go for it. And that's what makes all the difference in the end. And we're here to encourage each other with those leaps.