To me, the purpose of everything is to prove that my illusions about myself are real. It is for this purpose that I attempt to use everyone and everything. It is for this that I believe the world is for. Therefore I do not recognize its real purpose. The purpose I have given the world has led to a frightening picture of it. Let me open my mind to the world’s real purpose by withdrawing the one I have given it, and learning the truth about it. (W-55.5:2-7)

The ego uses everything that seems to happen in the dream to try to make the illusion seem real. It is almost as if it is saying, “Try not reacting to this.”

What is temptation but a wish to make illusions real? (T-30.VIII.3:1)

By reacting to people and situations in the present, we are making them real and therefore the separation real. Reactions are never about the present. Never. The remedy is not to deny or behavior modify the reactions. We can learn not to play the ego’s game by using the world and its seeming happenings to practice forgiveness. Part of my forgiveness practice is to take my reaction to the past where it can be undone. I go to my childhood, where the ego was made, and see the pattern of my upset there. I am not going there to fix a problem, but just to see the real reason for my upset. This loosens the grip the ego has on me. If I can see it is a childhood pattern it is more difficult to make the present day reaction real.

When we take reactions, upsets, grievances and even positive judgments back to our childhoods, we are practicing going in, which is the way home. Going out, making it about the present, will always get us more of the same. It is the wrong direction. Tell the ego NO! I am not going to make this about the present. The ego wants no part of this. If we realize that all upsets are about the past, then the reality of our personality self as an adult operating in the present is in question. I am just a child dressed in an adult suit running around trying to get all my childhood needs met? Getting that this is true, goes a long way in having the personality self disappear.

Through Him you learn how to forgive the self you think you made, (not make it real) and let it disappear. Thus you return your mind as one to Him Who is your Self, and Who can never sin. (W-121.6:4-5)

When we learn that all of our upsets can be traced back to the child character self we made, we can then begin to take our upset back to the separation story where all the original guilt is. The childhood reactions are always shadows of the original separation upsets. So if you are making anything in the present real, including seeming worldly events, try taking the reactions to the past and finding out where the upset really is and where it can be undone. Practice going through your childhood and potentially on to the separation story.

Here are two great forgiveness practices. Take It to the Past or TIP. No. I am not going to react to this in the present because my reaction, which is perceptual, is about some past event from my childhood and further back about the separation. It cannot be undone in the present. Then there is Ask, Listen and Follow the Holy Spirit or ALF. Practicing ALF is not for the purpose of finding the right thing to do in the dream. The purpose of ALF is to practice acknowledging and listening to another voice and embracing the possibility of another way. We reflexively listen to the ego’s persuasions, to its directions. We turned the illusion over to the ego, the wrong-mind and now we are going to take it back and give it to the Holy Spirit to get us home. We will learn to make all decisions with the Holy Spirit as long as we think there are decisions to be made.

A third forgiveness practice might be Simulation, Avatar, Deception or SAD. Practice saying to yourself. “This is a simulation, a computer game in which I, as mind, made up an avatar which I have come to think I am. Anything that makes me think the game or the avatar are real such as sickness, pain, special relationships, emotions, physical sensations, ad nauseam infinitum are deceptions being used by the great deceiver to keep me choosing to believe that all of this is real.”

For those of you interested in trying out tipping (taking it to the past) an example might be: I am fearful of the virus. The fear is not about the present. Write down all of the thoughts about the virus. All your feelings and upsets. Be specific. I have no power. I am a victim. Something larger than myself is in control. I am at its mercy. Does that upset remind you of a childhood experience? As a child my father would rage at me. Those feelings about the virus remind me of that. Then try to take it back to the separation story. The virus could represent God. He is out to get me. I have no power. He is invisible. He could strike at any time. You just have to see, with the Holy Spirit, if you can get any of the feelings to match up. Once you experience an actual undeniable release through this process you will want to do it again and again. When you realize that everything you do, think, say and feel with your personality self is programmed, you will throw-up, be shocked, be terrified, be horrified and then you will laugh.

Tipping (taking it to the past) is NOT about making the illusion real and then making it seem better. It is about realizing that all responses are about the past. They are programmed and not real. They are part of the great deceiver’s arsenal to keep us believing that all of this is real and therefore believing that the separation story is real. If the Holy Spirit advises, give it a try. You might be surprised!

Forgiveness is a much more complex process than we think. The process of learning to overlook illusions and look beyond to the light, which deals with our unbelief, must be paired with an undoing of error. The undoing of error deals with our choosing to believe in our miscreations as real. Our problem is not the separation but our acceptance of it as real.

No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. We are ready to look more closely at the ego’s thought system because together we have the lamp that will dispel it, and since you realize you do not want it, you must be ready. Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. The “dynamics” of the ego will be our lesson for a while, for we must look first at this to see beyond it, since you have made it real. We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth. (T-11.V.1:1-6)

The purpose of the Atonement (an interlocking chain of forgiveness) is to dispel (cause to vanish) illusions. Illusions or miscreations seem to be there because we deny reality, the truth, God and because we choose to believe illusions are real. Forgiveness is a process of denying the denial of truth and God and allowing the Holy Spirit, through reason, to induce (persuade) us to give up our miscreations by realizing that they are not real.

All I can say is, we can be thankful that the Holy Spirit is in charge!