Does the Mad Idea Repeat?
The Course makes this profound statement:
“What God and His Sons create is eternal” T-8.VI.3
The Course though makes a distinction between “create” and “make.” It tells us that creation applies to things that are eternal and are a function of heaven, whereas that which is made applies to what we try to create in this world, which are temporary things.
The interesting thing about the “mad idea” of separation is that it was conceived by the Son while he was yet in heaven, before the making of the ego or of this world.
That would give an eternal quality to the manifestation of the idea if executed as indicated here:
“Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects.” T-27.VIII.6
So, this tells us the mad idea was conceived in “eternity” which made it “possible of both accomplishment and real effects.”
Notice that nothing attributed to this world or the ego is said by the course to have any possibility of “real effects.”
The only way the idea could have real effects, as “real” is defined by ACIM, was if the mad idea was executed by the Son in union with the mind of God in heaven.
This the Father could not allow for it is written:
“You were at peace until you asked for special favor. And God did not give it for the request was alien to Him, and you could not ask this of a Father Who truly loved His Son.” T-13.III.10
The Son did not take this rejection for an answer and manifested the mad idea the best he could in a separated state out of heaven. All this from beginning to end was said to take place in an instant.
An instant in the course can occur in a second or flash of time, or in heaven it can cover from beginning to the end of our whole world which lasts billions of years to us. Here it refers to the event of separation
“The tiny instant you would keep and make eternal, passed away in Heaven too soon for anything to notice it had come.” T-26.V.4
So, all of our time in the world of separation is only considered a “tiny instant” from the view of eternity.
Yet even though it has passed away in heaven it is still “an instant that is relived again and again and still again.” M-2.3 Thus we find ourselves reliving an instant that is no longer recognized in heaven.
All the instants originating in heaven are considered holy for “The holy instant is this instant and every instant.” T-15.IV.1 The Holy Instant we experience here on earth is a reflection of instants in heaven
Speaking of the holy instant available to us it says:
“the whole of Heaven lies in this instant, borrowed from eternity and set in time for you.” T-17.IV.11
The instant involving the separation was an event concerning “the original error that shattered Heaven” T-18.I.12 so the Course calls it an “unholy instant,” even though it also maintains that all instants are holy. I suppose we can conclude it was a holy instant used for an unholy purpose.
Even so, it was still an instant that took place in heaven and “the whole of heaven” was within it and the Sonship used this instant to create a world after his own desires and make it real.
He did this using the divine power that given to him by God. Concerning this it is written:
“This is the little part you think you stole from Heaven. Give it back to Heaven.” T-18.IX.1
Why does heaven want the stolen thought or “spark” from this instant in heaven?
Because each instant in Heaven has “the whole of Heaven” within it and everything in heaven is eternal including our thoughts. Each instant is eternal and the timeless present are always associated with an instant:
“the holy instant is eternal” T-16.VII.7 “Give the eternal instant, that eternity may be remembered” T-15.I.15 “the instant of peace is eternal.” T-15.II.2
Obviously, the instant where the separation occurred would have also contained “the whole of Heaven,” for “The holy instant is this instant and every instant,” T-15.IV.1
and thoughts from there would have eternal consequences.
But how can this be when all things we see in this world and the visible universe are not eternal, but have an end? All the bodies of living things disintegrate at death and even the earth, sun and the universe itself will have an end someday.
Where is eternity manifest in the creation/making of this world by the Sonship?
Answer: That which is temporary repeats and the repetition can last forever. If that which is temporary repeats eternally then it has an eternal aspect to it. This eternal aspect will apply until all of the Sonship give back the stolen power to heaven.
The repetition of the mad idea is clearly enunciated here:
“Time really, then, goes backward to an instant so ancient that it is beyond all memory, and past even the possibility of remembering. Yet because it is an instant that is relived again and again and still again, it seems to be now. … The world of time is the world of illusion. What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open; yet to be made. What has been learned and understood and long ago passed by is looked upon as a new thought, a fresh idea, a different approach.” M-2.3 & 4
Time (which would include the separation), it says, goes back to an “instant” that “is beyond all memory, and past even the possibility of remembering.”
So, how far back would that be? Well, if celestial beings cannot even find the beginning of the separation then it has to be further back than humans can discover.
And what have they discovered?
By examining the memory clues built into the universe scientists have concluded that our current universe began 13.8 billion years ago.
That is one whopping long period of time, but it is within the built-in memory of the universe.
The Course says that the original separation occurred way beyond “even the possibility of remembering.”
When would that be?
It could only be concerning a universe that existed before this one or perhaps many universes ago.
Many scientists are now theorizing that our current universe is only one of a long series of them. This agrees with many of the spiritual teachings of the east which says that there were many universes before this, and like the Course says, the beginning is beyond the possibility of any memory.
The quote continues saying that the original separation where time began “is an instant that is relived again and again and still again, it seems to be now.”
That statement makes it pretty clear that the effect of the original separation occurs “again and again and still again.”
And it makes clear it is not talking about the minutes, days or hours of our lives for it says “What happened long ago seems to be happening now. Choices made long since appear to be open.” That “long ago” instant was way back in time beyond the possibility of remembering and “Choices made long since appear to be open.” Think for a moment. How can what happened billions of years ago appear to be happening now? Brushing your teeth in the morning just doesn’t cut it for an answer. One of those choices was the separation itself indicating that the Sonship can choose a separation for a second time or more.
The conclusion we derive so far is this:
[1] The idea for the separation occurred within an eternal instant by the Sonship while in yet an awakened state where all creations are eternal.
[2] Because the idea of separation, time, form and space originated in eternity, and borrowed an eternal thought, it has an eternal quality to it.
[3] Because that which is manifest through the idea is unreal or temporary the only way eternity could manifest is by repetition. Time, space and form can manifest “again and again and still again.”
[4] The original separation is much further back than most students realize, far beyond “even the possibility of remembering,” indicating it is further back than the age of his universe which is calculated to be 13.8 billion years.
[5] The idea of the separation is repeated “again and again and still again.”
The question then is this. The Sons of God have free will, so why would Sons willingly repeat the separation when the Course calls such an experience a “nightmare?” After all, it says that there will be no call to return, so what is the explanation of the Sonship reliving the mad idea many times?
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