The intention with this article is to show one of the most extreme examples of what I have called The 666 Conspiracy. It is called A Course in Miracles. The Course claims to be The Third Testament. In the following I will show that if it is indeed the third testament then it is the Testament of Satan. So, if people want to call it "The New Age Bible" instead, I´m not surprised.

Ok, this might sound like a Christian fundamentalist speaking. I´m not. I´m not even Christian, but I will claim that I have some good arguments.

I have connected the Matrix Conspiracy with three other known conspiracies. Note that though there might exist groups/societies with these names then I don´t concretely refer to these (The bilderberg Group does exist). I use the names as metaphors for tendencies in the postmodern popular culture, which otherwise would be very difficult to explain.

Also, I don´t think there exists any organized control coming from without; that is; secret societies, or groups of people who are speculating in what I here present. The control is coming from within; it is coming from individuals who share the same ideas, namely that they are free and authentic humans, who help other people to become free and authentic humans (about this illusion: read my article Self-help and The Mythology of Authenticity).

The three conspiracies are:

1. The Bilderberg Group

2. Illuminati

3. The 666 Conspiracy

Read my article The Matrix Conspiracy for a description of the two other conspiracies. Here we will focus on the 666 Conspiracy.

This conspiracy is about Evil´s plot against mankind. Is the third Antichrist among us, and will our worship of him be a sign of Judgment Day? (In my article The Four Philosophical Hindrances and Openings I have investigated the 666 turn in depth). 

The relevance of this conspiracy has five aspects:

A) That some of the subjectivistic and relativistic theories on the universities, which seek to undermine truth (and for instance philosophy and science) are so absurd, that there is nothing behind them than chaos (see my articles Constructivism: the postmodern intellectualism behind New Age and the self-help industry, and The Sokal Hoax).

B) That ideology is a malfunction in the human mind (see my article The Difference Between Philosophical Education and Ideological Education).

C) That there is introduced a false spirituality where the main worship is the Ego, contrary to the traditional spiritual directions, where the main goal is the elimination of the Ego (see my article The Ego-inflation in the New Age and sSlf-help Environment).

D) That occultism within New Age creates spiritual misguiding, often with deep spiritual crises as a result (see my article Spiritual Crises as the Cause of Paranormal Phenomena).

E) That the Ego-extreme according to the true spiritual traditions will be contrabalanced by the laws of energy (hybris-nemesis, karma, the will of God, etc.) This will happen through crises, illness, natural disasters, etc. – see for example my articles What is Karma? and Humanistic Psychology, Self-help, and the Danger of Reducing Religion to Psychology.

In the following I will show that A Course in Miracles is the ulmitative example of the 666 Conspiracy, since it deals explicit with a direct turning the teachings of Christ upside down. Ultimately, since it it does this in the most ingenious way I have encountered until now. I will also suggest that this could be due to the possibility of the involvement of especially two spiritual crises:

1. Channeling. The ability to make contact with divine creatures and levels of consciousness, which is thought to possess informations of spiritual value for people, and through the body mediate communication from these levels.

2.  Possession states. An experience of, that your mind and body (it can also be things or places) have become invaded and are controlled by a being, or an alien energy, which can be of divine or, most known, demonic kind. Often with inexplicable bodily manifestations.

A Course in Miracles is one of, if not the, most popular spiritual texts of The New Thought tradition (see my article The New Thought Movement and the Law of Attraction). Essentially A Course in Miracles is claimed to be the words of an inner voice, given to Helen Schucman. Schucman believed that voice to be the voice of Jesus.

The Course or Course-inspired views of spiritual life have come into mainstream popular culture, particularly through the writings of contemporary spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson. Those ideas have now extended to a new generation of spiritual teachers, particularly strong in what’s known as the spiritual but not religious community of seekers in North America. It is an idea which can´t be understood without an understanding of the anti-intellectual clima in USA (see my Matrix Dictionary entry on Anti-intellectualism and Anti-science). But as anything coming from USA, it is being taken at face value all over the globe.

I have encountered ideas who have their roots in The Course (and certain strands of New Thought theology more broadly) constantly in my philosophical counseling practice. Overall what I see are Course ideas and beliefs creating endless problems for practitioners. An interesting thing about New Thought and the Law of Attraction devotees is the use of testimonials. Group meetings tend to proceed as testimonials of the miracles. But you never hear about the problems, which I, and other non-initiated, constantly hear about, or directly are confronted with. This is due to that thought distortions such as selective thinking and confirmation bias paradoxical enough is a part of the teachings.

The back story of the writing of the text is a bit complex and quite fascinating actually (see history here). But I will give a few trail markers.

A Course in Miracles [ACIM] is the name of a book, allegedly dictated by Jesus to Helen Schucman (1909-1981), a research psychologist. As the critical thinker Robert Carroll says: “ACIM is Christianity improved: Jesus wants less suffering, sacrifice, separation, and sacrament. He also wants more love and forgiveness.”

ACIM is a minor industry. To find out what Jesus really had in mind when he came to save the world, you can buy ACIM or one of a dozen similar books from the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP). About 1.5 million copies of ACIM were sold worldwide between 1976 and 2002. FIP also sells audio and videotapes, and conducts workshops, seminars, and discussion groups. Its sister organization, The Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM), has an academy where you can get the Holy Spirit to help you understand the real message of Jesus. You may then return to your everyday life situation with a deeper appreciation for the difference between appearance and reality, illusion and truth. The academy is known as "The Institute for Teaching Inner Peace Through A Course in Miracles" (ITIP).

So, ACIM as it is commonly abbreviated, is a supposedly channeled book-set comprised of a 669-page Text, a 466-page Workbook (with 365 daily lessons), and a 92-page Teacher's Manual (that's 1,227 pages in all). It is promulgated in a few thousand study-circles around the USA and many parts of the world as a spiritual psychotherapy self-study course. The 3-volume ACIM bookset is based on an earlier "UrText" (some 48,405 words longer, containing some interesting material on Freud and sex), which in turn is based on shorthand notes claimed to have been "dictated" by Jesus and "scribed" from 1965 to 1972 by Helen Schucman, a non-observant, extremely agnostic Jew intermittently involved in Catholic devotion who late in life cursed the ACIM as the worst thing that ever happened to her (I will return to this important aspect later). Over 2 million copies of ACIM have been sold and it exists in more than 20 languages with further translations underway.

ACIM as a thought-system can be categorized alongside the teachings of the "New Thought" cluster of quasi-Christian church groups founded in the late 19th century descending down to today (including Unity School of Christianity, Church of Religious Science, Church of Divine Science, et al.). ACIM itself is not organized centrally into a religion or a church but functions more like a movement. 

That numerous readers of the ACIM books have experienced a "miracle" in the ACIM's broad definition of that term: any change of a mind away from fear and separation towards love and unity. The “miracles” can broadly be said to be the placebo effect of being told [by Jesus?] that all suffering, negativity and evil are an illusion you don´t have to take seriously (see my Matrix Dictionary entry on Spiritual Placebo).  

In my article Paranormal Phenomena Seen in Connection with Channeling I have examined the channeling phenomenon, and the problems involved. In this article I won´t go into the thought distortion Truth by Authority and the spiritual fact that nobody can tell other people about their karma. The problems I want to investigate below is especially connected with ACIM as an example of the 666 Conspiracy.

To begin with: ACIM is a piece of pseudohistory.

Pseudohistory is purported history such as Afrocentrism, creationism, holocaust revisionism and the catastrophism of Immanuel Velikovsky. Pseudohistory should be distinguished from the ancient texts it is based on. The sagas, legends, myths and histories, which have been passed on orally or in written documents by ancient peoples are sometimes called pseudohistory. Some of it is pseudohistory, some of it is flawed history and some of isn´ t history at all.

Pseudohistory should also be distinguished from historical fiction and fantasy. Anyone who cites a work of historical fiction as if it were a historical text is a practicing pseudohistorian. There are also writers of historical fiction who intentionally falsify and invent ancient history. A technique to do this is to claim to find an ancient document and publishing it in order to express one´ s own ideas. An example is The Celestine Prophecy, and The WingMakers Project (see my article Time Travel and the Fascism of The WingMakers Project).

A variation on this theme is to claim that one is channeling a book from some ancient being, e.g, The Urantia Book and Bringers of the Dawn. 

A Course in Miracles is precisely the name of a book, allegedly dictated by Jesus to Helen Schucman. The book explains what Jesus really had in mind when he came to save the world. The popularity of Schucman´s book gives testament to the attractiveness of New Thought´s revisionist biography of Jesus as wanting more love and forgiveness (positivity), and less suffering and sacrifice (negativity). In looking at the suffering in the world the Course says that this world cannot be created by a God. Heaven awaits us all and there is no hell; that is: the prompting to deny and ignore suffering and negativity. This is probably the best trick an Antichrist could impose in us: that hell and evil don´t exist. An example of the paradoxical nature of the Devil´s game, which I have investigated in my book Lucifer Morningstar – a Philosophical Love Story.

Website: https://acourseinmiraclesnow.com/

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