A course in nihilism

Me and one of my collegues (Happy Chappie, remember?) simply couldn't believe our eyes when we came across the ACIM on the web, more specifically the "daily lessons". We printed them out, put them up at the distribution center where we work, laughed at them, and so on.

I mean, the ACIM is more ridiculous than Prem Rawat or The Secret!

And then, maybe not so ridiculous. Maybe these ideas are dangerous.

The whole point of the ACIM is that this world is an illusion. Evil and suffering in particular are illusions. Everything is Love. This may sound like a splendid idea, until you reflect more closely on it. In fact, the ACIM is so naïve and simplistic, that it's difficult *not* to see the negative consequences of these ideas. For instance, if we hear about a war on TV or in the newspapers, we are supposed to repeat to ourselves: "This war does not exist. These bombs do not exist", and so on. Auschwitz, Hiroshima, Vietnam? That didn't exist?!

Nor, apparently, does anything else exist either. In another exercise, if somebody calls us, we are supposed to lift the telephone, place it on some distance from our ear and imagine that it, too, doesn't really exist...

Its obvious that this philosophy, if taken to its logical extreme, is entirely nihilistic. Worse, its sociopathic. If you start to treat your friends, family, children and neighbours (or victims of war in distant lands) as if they didn't exist, you probably need advanced psyhcotherapy ASAP.

Of course, I doubt very much that those who practice the ACIM exercises really are consistent. The author of the ACIM, Helen Schucman, sure wasn't. When a competing religious group published their own edition of the ACIM, Schucman's group quite simply sued them for copyright violation! Apparently, Dr. Schucman is convinced that at least copyright exists. Not to mention revenue from copyrighted books. In plain English, she and her followers were being hypocritical. Is anybody surprised?

Of course, the philosophical concept behind this kind of sollipsism isn't very convincing either. If everything is Love, and if we are all God, how can even the *illusion* of separation and suffering exist?

Personally, I think ideas like these ones can be used as a convenient way for privileged middle class people to find an excuse for not doing anything about the wrongs of our present society. If everything is an illusion, why bother with it? Of course, such people will be very selective in exactly what they percieve as "illusion" (world hunger? the plight of the spotted owl? lack of medical coverage for the poor?) and what they accept as real, say, the value of their house, or the possible revenue from selling a copyrighted book. Well, let's at least hope that these people percieve child abuse, rape or burglaries in their gated communities as real.

Don't count on it, however.

"A Course in Miracles" is a course in destructive nihilism, disguised as Divine Love.