Mistaken Identity

"The whole separation fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do anything. The ego is fearful to you because you believe this. Yet the truth is very simple: All power is of God. What is not of Him has no power to do anything." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section V, 3:3-7

"Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and the unreal. This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the Reality of all things, brought to Light. God's ideas reflect the immortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, erring, and finite are human beliefs. Therefore matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real entity. Understanding is a quality of God." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Pages 505-506, Lines 21, 26-30, & 3-5

On one of the many e-mail lists I subscribe to, I encountered this thought: that all seeming tests in the external world are actually simply mistaken identity, or self-doubt. This simple statement condenses the essence of all our struggles and ills in the world... we are not who we think we are. How delusional we are... and how mistaken to entertain the imaginary fears of a delusional thought system. As A Course in Miracles puts it, "When we look at the ego, we are not considering dynamics but delusions. You can surely regard a delusional system without fear, for it cannot have any effects if its source is not real." (ACIM; Chapter 11, Section V, 4:1-2)

Self-doubt is a big part of this delusional thought system. We are never sure of ourselves, because the sane part of our true Mind knows we are not a separate, ego self. The attempt to split our Self into self and other is the source of the entire delusional world. "The ego's goal is quite explicitly ego autonomy. Its purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself, and independent of any power except its own." (ACIM; Chapter 11, Section V, 4:4-5) And because there really isn't any power apart from God, this is a very doubt inducing predicament, no matter how delusional the mind, no matter how enamoured of illusory power and ego-control one becomes. It's an endless bad dream, with many detours and false perceptions that we choose over and over again. Such is the world of individual false identities.

So how do we Awaken from the dream of a false and separate self? How do we remember Who We Are? ACIM says that the way to undo the illusion of a separate ego is merely to recognize that it is not natural. "Yours is the independence of creation, not of autonomy. Your whole creative function lies in your complete dependence on God, Whose function He shares with you. By His willingness to share it, He became as dependent on you as you are on Him. Do not ascribe the ego's arrogance to Him Who wills not to be independent of you. He has included you in His Autonomy. Can you believe that autonomy is meaningful apart from Him? The belief in ego autonomy is costing you the knowledge of your dependence on God, in which your freedom lies. The ego sees all dependency as threatening, and has twisted even your longing for God into a means of establishing itself. But do not be deceived by its interpretation of your conflict." (ACIM; Chapter 11, Section V, 6:1-9)

Mistaken identity and self-doubt. The dynamic duo that produces a dream-world of seeming suffering and separation. You can easily see then that all of this stems from mentally dissociating from Self, from not loving Self. Whatever seems to separate us from God is always and only this dissociation, which masquerades as fear in one form or another. "Whatever seems to separate you from God is only fear, regardless of the form it takes and quite apart from how the ego wants you to experience it." As we admit to ourselves how alien and unnatural this state of consciousness is, we discover that "if you overlook love you are overlooking your Self, and you fear Reality because you have denied your Self." The suffering, the struggles, the pain... all the delusion of false identity and self-doubt.

The good news is that there is no power in Reality to do any of this. It's all a story, all made up... who you think you are is just a constellation of concepts and judgements held loosely together by the desire to experience the story. It's a bad dream, and has no real power to change anything Real. "If the ego's goal of autonomy could be accomplished, God's purpose could be defeated, and this is impossible. Only God's purpose can be accomplished, and it is accomplished already." It IS. We Are as God created us, forever One, Whole and United in purpose and in peace. No dream of mistaken identity can change what Is.

"You will awaken to your own call, for the Call to Awaken is within you. The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has no size and no measure." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VI, 9:1 & 10:6-7