Several things happened instantaneously and simultaneously in response to the misdirected use of creative Power by some of the Children of the Divine.
A. The Split Mind
First, the minds of the projectors or makers of this world, which includes all those who believe themselves to be in it, became split into two parts. One is the part that will always be eternal and can never be outside the Presence of its Creator. This part of the mind that didn’t fall asleep into the dream of this world is called the “spirit” in the Course. The other part of the mind that did split became temporal and fell asleep into this projected world. This part of the mind is called the “split mind” in the Course.
This split of the mind occurred as a result of two related Divine Laws. The first is that the Children of the Divine must always remain perfect as they were created, and must always be in the Presence of their Creator in their true Home (known as the “Realm of Heaven” or simply the “Realm” or “Heaven” in ARCIM, rather than the “Kingdom of God” or the “Kingdom” of ACIM). The second Law is that nothing false can ever enter into or be in the Home of the Divine and of Its Children, because if that could ever happen then this Home would turn into something that it is not, and Truth would become false, both of which are impossible. Because something false was temporarily in the minds of those Divine Children who made this world of illusions – namely the falsity of the line of thought that prompted them to project a world outside of themselves – while concurrently they remained in their true Home as they were created, their mind became split between its true part, which remains forever in the Realm of Heaven and has never changed, and the false part, which projected this world and fell asleep into it.
The split mind, rather than the dream world that appears to be outside of and happening to us, is the source of all that appears to be wrong with life – e.g., lack, loss, sickness, suffering, death, etc. – because it is the source of these wrong ideas, while the dream world that appears to be outside of us, including the ego, is just a symptom of that source.
Those suffering from the split mind are called the “separated ones” in the Course, because they believe that they are separate from their Creator, from their true Home – the Realm of Heaven – and from each other. They remain asleep in this world of illusions, though believing themselves to be awake, until they awaken from the nightmare they have projected, through realizing that they never “sinned” and that this world doesn’t exist in Reality. To fully awaken, they first shift from this nightmare world to happy dreams of a miraculous world – the real world – and from that world they will desire rather than fear to awaken from all dreams entirely. And what they desire or will is always given them.
B. The Creation of the Holy Spirit and the Healing of the Dream of Separation
“(The Holy) Spirit came into Being with the separation as a Protection that assured that no Children of the Divine could remain separated forever, and inspired the Atonement at the same instant.” The instant that the split mind took place in some of Its Children, the Creator understood what had happened, and instantaneously created the Holy Spirit as the Guide to lead the separated ones to awaken from the dream they had fallen asleep in. In that exact same instant outside of time the Holy Spirit healed what had happened, and the gap between the Eternity before this event and the Eternity after this event was so small in comparison to Eternity Itself that it is as if the event, the dream world and every aspect of it, including all of time, never happened. “You were freed the instant you dreamed you had deserted the Divine. Everything you made in the detour into fear has never been . . .”
Though the Holy Spirit was created to heal the separation, that will not be Its Function in Eternity. “When the Atonement is complete in time and the whole Divine Family is healed, there will be no further need for a Call to Return, yet what the Divine creates is eternal, including the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will remain forever with the Children of the Divine to bless their creations and keep them in the Light of Joy.”
C. The Making of Perception, the Ego, Time, and Bodies
The instant that the separated ones fell asleep in the dream of this world, the world of perception was made by them as replacement for the way the Children of the Divine relate to each other and to their Creator in the Oneness of Heaven, which is through knowing one another and all things directly, called “Knowledge” in the Course.
In order to act in the world of perception, we projected the split part of the mind into the world to play the role of our self in this world. This projected pseudo-self, the ego, is not to be confused with the word “ego” as used in some psychological and spiritual contexts to refer to the self. The ego, or pseudo-self, that we made for ourselves in the separation is the character we believe acts as us in the dream world that appears to be outside of us. In this role it becomes the actor in all our mis-projections, and, because of our Power as creative beings, it seems to take on a life of its own though it is simply a misthought or mistaken frame of mind that doesn’t exist in Reality.
“All that the ego is is an idea that it is possible that things could happen to the Children of the Divine without their will, and thus without the Will of their Creator, Whose Will cannot be separated from their own. The ego is the replacement of the separated ones for their true will, a mad revolt against what must forever be. The ego is the statement that they do have the power to make the Divine powerless, and so to take their will from themselves, and leave themselves without what the Divine has willed for them. This is the mad idea the separated ones have enshrined upon their altars, and which they worship. And anything that threatens this seems to attack their faith in what they made. For here this faith is invested. Think not that you are faithless, for your belief and trust in this mad idea are strong indeed.”
In essence the ego is simply our split mind acting as if it is helpless because we are afraid to take responsibility for our own creative Power. “Yet the ego’s existence is dependent on your mind, because the ego is a belief. The ego is therefore a confusion in identification. The ego never had a consistent model, and never developed consistently. It is the distorted product of the misapplication of the Laws of the Divine by distorted minds that are misusing their own Power.
“It is imperative, therefore, that you not be afraid of the ego. The ego’s existence does depend on your mind, and as you made it by believing in it, so you can dispel it by withdrawing belief from it. But to do so you cannot fear it or fear punishment for the mis-projections the ego has made. Do not project the responsibility for your belief in the ego onto anyone else, or you will preserve the belief. When you are willing to accept sole responsibility for the ego’s existence in yourself, you will have laid aside all anger and all belief in attack, and counterattack in the name of self-defense, because these come from an attempt to project outside of yourself responsibility for your own errors. Once you have accepted all your errors as yours, do not keep holding onto them. Give them over quickly to the Holy Spirit to be undone completely, so that all their effects will vanish from your mind and from the Divine Family as a whole. Spirit will teach you to perceive beyond belief, because Truth is beyond belief and Its Perception is true.
“The ego can be completely forgotten at any time, because it was and is always a belief that is totally incredible, or without credibility. No one can keep a belief they have judged to be unbelievable. The more you learn about the ego, the more you realize that it cannot be believed. Because the non-credible is unbelievable it cannot be understood. The utter meaninglessness of all perception that comes from the unbelievable must become apparent, even if it is not beyond belief because it was made by belief.
“The whole Purpose of this Course is to teach you that the ego is unbelievable and will forever be unbelievable. You who made the ego by believing the unbelievable cannot make the shift to Sanity alone. By accepting the Atonement for yourself, you are deciding against the belief that you can be alone, thus dispelling the idea of separation and affirming your true Identification with the whole Realm as literally part of you, as you are Part of It. This Identification is as beyond doubt as It is beyond belief. Your Wholeness has no limits, because Its Being is in Infinity.”
The belief in time and bodies also began in the instant that the mind split. “The instant that the mad idea of making your Relationship with the Divine unholy seemed to be possible, all relationships were made meaningless. In that unholy instant time was born, and bodies made to house the mad idea, and give it the illusion of reality. And so the idea seemed to have a home [the body] that held together for a little while in time, and then vanished in ‘death.’ For what could house this mad idea against Reality except for an instant?”
Because all creative activity of the Divine Children is honored by their Creator, even their miscreations, all results of the split mind became blessed by Spirit as a Path leading back to Knowledge through awakening. “You have interpreted the separation as a means that you made for breaking your Communication with your Creator. The Holy Spirit reinterprets the separation as a means of reestablishing what has not been broken, but has been made obscure. All things you made have use to Spirit for Its most holy Purpose.”
“Defenses, like everything you made, must be gently turned to your own good, translated by Spirit from means of self-destruction to Means of Release from insanity and Preservation of Sanity. (Spirit’s) Task is mighty, but the Power of the Divine is with It. Therefore, to Spirit this Task is so easy that It was accomplished the instant It was given It for you.”
“The body was not created by Love, and therefore it was not created at all, which is clear because it is not eternal. But Love does not condemn the body, and can use it lovingly, respecting what the Children of the Divine have made, and using it to awaken them from illusions. Would you not have the instruments of separation reinterpreted as means for awakening, and used for purposes of Love?”
“The central awakening lesson regarding the body is always this: that what you use the body for it will become to you. Use it to perpetuate separation, or for attack, which is the same as separation, and you will look upon it as flawed and unholy. Because it is looked upon as flawed and unholy it will be perceived as weak, and being weak it will suffer and die. Use the body to bring the Word of the Divine to those who have It not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is merely laid aside, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are responsible for the body’s condition. Yet the teacher of the Divine does not make this decision alone. To do that would be to give the body another purpose than the one that keeps it holy. The Divine’s Voice [the Holy Spirit] will tell the teacher when they have fulfilled their role in a body, just as It tells them what their function is. The teacher does not suffer either in remaining or in going. Sickness is now impossible to them.”
Thus perception, the ego, time, and bodies are now blessings on the Path of awakening as we allow Spirit to bless and transform these for us. As we clear our perceptions from their distortions so the Light of the Divine can shine through them unobstructed, perception becomes freer and freer from illusion until it reaches the state of seeing, at which point we are at the Gate of Heaven. Spirit uses the ego, the complete opposite of the miracle, as a teaching device, a profound contrast to help us learn what we do and don’t want. Time has been transformed by Spirit, becoming the time we need to learn our lessons of awakening and return Home. And using our bodies solely as a means of true communication allows them to be helpful to Spirit in the process of everyone’s awakening.
D. The Creation of the Plan of Atonement
“The separation and the Atonement began at the same instant. When the human being made the ego, at that instant the Divine placed in them the Call of Joy [the Holy Spirit].”
In the instant that the split mind occurred at the beginning of time, each separated one’s awakening from the dream of this world, and how each one’s awakening works together with everyone else’s to assure everyone’s awakening, was instantaneously planned in detail and completed by the Divine through the Holy Spirit. “We merely accept our part [in the Plan of Atonement] assigned long since, and fully recognized as perfectly fulfilled by Spirit, Who wrote awakening’s Script in Its Creator’s Name, and in the Name of Its Creator’s Children.”
The totality of how each one’s awakening from all illusions and error throughout all of time contributes to everyone else’s is known as the “Plan of Awakening,” the “Plan of Atonement,” or simply “(the) Atonement” in the Course. The instantaneous creation and completion of Atonement was possible because the Holy Spirit operates both outside and inside of time. The completed Atonement Itself therefore stands outside of time. It will be completed inside of time when every human being has awakened from the dream of this world and taken their rightful Place as Cocreators of Perfection in Eternity again.
“As long as there is need for Atonement, there is need for time. But the Atonement, as a completed Plan, does have a unique relationship to time. Until the Atonement is finished, Its various phases will proceed in time, but the whole Atonement stands at time’s end. At the point of time’s end, the Bridge of the Return has been built and completed.” “The Atonement is just the way back to what was never lost.”
The Atonement, along with freeing us from all effects of all our and everyone else’s mistakes throughout all time, and thus moving us from the world of illusions through the real world to Heaven, is closely related with recognizing our Invulnerability from any possibility of actual harm to our true being. “That is why the Recognition of your own Invulnerability is so important in the Restoration of your Sanity. For if you accept your Invulnerability, you are recognizing that attack has no effect. Although you have attacked yourself, and very brutally, your Invulnerability demonstrates that nothing actually happened. Therefore, by attacking you have not done anything except waste time. Once you realize this, you also realize that there is no sense in attack, for it manifestly does not work, and cannot protect you. But the recognition of your Invulnerability has more than merely negative value. If your attacks on yourself failed to weaken you, then you are still strong. You therefore have no need to attack your sisters and brothers to ‘equalize’ their strength with yours by attempting to make them weak like you thought yourself to be.”