I’ve considered myself somewhat of a “Course Nerd” since the mid-1980s, which for me combines two primary interests, both growing steadily over a half-century (including explorations in nascent forms leading to their current and evolving status):
- A Course In Miracles
- using technology (particularly computers) to support everything worthwhile – more recently dabbling just a tiny bit with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
For the past couple of years using the web edition of ACIM – kudos to Felix Alcala and all the folks at FIP!!! – I’ve been inspired to explore more interactive and integrating online tools to assist in making the Course accessible online to the entire planet. Now that’s what I call appropriate technology!
Earlier this year, I had my first go at playing around with Dall-E 2 and generated some interesting images. I also thought I’d give OpenAI’s other online app a whirl; and was even more impressed – not bad for a first-pass summary! At first, I hesitated to publish this, thinking that it might give the impression that Ken Wapnick wrote this, although anyone familiar with his work would immediately recognize the discrepancy in style and voice as well as his policy to not endorse other works, which included my 2nd book when I sent a draft for his review over a decade ago and he politely – through his colleague Rosemarie – declined, consistent with his policy to not endorse any specific works. What better egalitarian way to put the kibosh on specialness than to encourage and support everyone equally without favoritism:
“The specialness of God’s Sons does not stem from exclusion but from inclusion. ⁶All my brothers are special.” (ACIM, T-1.V.3:5-6)
Here is my first experiment on January 26, 2023, with ChatGPT; my input:
Write a response from the perspective of Kenneth Wapnick of FACIM.org to this article: https://www.acimblog.com/platos-cave-allegory-confusing-symbol-with-source-sfacim-class-conversation/
Here is ChatGPT’s response (which took about 10 seconds for the automated system to write. PLEASE NOTE that these are not my words, but ChatGPT’s fabricated automated response to what I typed into the program above. The “I” that is agreeing with the sentiment, etc. is AI software-generated text, not comments from Ken Wapnick or myself! I want to make that very clear! Please do NOT copy the quote below without this disclaimer!
“As the director of the Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM), I agree with the sentiment expressed in this article that the Cave Allegory of Plato can be confusing when taken out of context. The allegory is often interpreted as a metaphor for the human condition, with the prisoners in the cave representing our limited perception of reality, and the outside world representing the true reality. However, this interpretation is problematic because it implies that there is a duality between the world we perceive and the true reality, when in fact there is only one reality.A Course in Miracles teaches that the world we perceive is a projection of our own mind and that true reality is the non-dual experience of the oneness of God. In this context, the Cave Allegory can be understood as a symbol of the mind’s tendency to mistake its own projections for reality. We are all prisoners in the cave, believing in the reality of our own thoughts and perceptions, rather than recognizing that they are just fleeting images on the screen of our mind.It is important to remember that symbols and allegories are not the source of truth, but are only helpful in pointing to it. The true source of truth is found in the non-dual experience of the oneness of God, which can only be realized through the process of spiritual awakening.In short, I agree that the Cave Allegory is a powerful symbol that can be confusing if taken out of context and it should be understood as a metaphor for the mind’s tendency to mistake its own projections for reality, rather than as a representation of duality between the world we perceive and the true reality. The true source of truth is non-dual experience of the oneness of God which can be realized through spiritual awakening.”
Not bad for a first experiment! Now if I can just remember that everyone’s ego – including my own – is completely made up and part of the larger “artificial intelligence” or an attempted substitute for the genuine understanding we restore to our minds as we ask the Holy Spirit for help and practice true forgiveness. No matter how sophisticated the cybernetics – including the biological variety we call human brains – it will fail miserably without the guiding light of our Inner Kindness Teacher; peace will seem elusive until we tap into that direct source in our Mind and let all our “software” (be it organic or electronic) respond to that wisdom, absolving us from the tyrannical dualistic thought system of sin, guilt, and fear. We need the Holy Spirit’s help to reverse the ego’s reversal of Cause and Effect, which provides the realization that a world made by unconscious, unfounded guilt can never bring happiness because its cause never appeared in Truth. Yet our real Cause (our Creator) doesn’t need or recognize our dualistic endeavors which is the foundation for lasting happiness when we relinquish our futile attempts to make our artificial egos seem intelligent, regardless of the seeming sophistication.
Why? What is it for?
Another crucial idea I try to keep in mind with any project is the rhetorical question: “What is it for?” If there is any element of specialness, or making differences real, important, and worthy of fueling feuds, then I can be sure I’m betting on the wrong – and imaginary! – thought system. To return to peace, my motivation must pass the tests of not having hidden (or blatant) agendas to defend my perceived individuality or attack any other, not project my conscious (or more typically unconscious) guilt for any variation of the dream of an impossible crime, and not be tainted with any nagging hint of martyrdom or victimhood. Any of these giveaway signs of ego infiltration are indicators that my “intelligence” is really ego’s artificial authority and a desperate attempt to cover up the utter inadequacy of every dualistic dream. Put another way, I just need to keep asking Holy Spirit to look at my mind with full decision-maker cooperation and make sure the “why” doesn’t include the sabotage of the peace that’s possible in every moment.
Here is another ChatGPT experiment (using some custom code written in Python to interface that AI system) by fellow “Course Nerd” Abelardo Ramirez; thanks, Abe!
py3 try_chatgpt.py
User input: what are the key ideas in the book “A course in miracles”
Enter temperature (in range 0.0 – 1.0)ChatGPT:
“A Course in Miracles” is a spiritual book that presents a unique approach to spirituality and personal transformation. Some of the key ideas in the book include:1. Forgiveness: The book emphasizes the importance of forgiveness as a means of releasing negative thoughts and emotions and experiencing inner peace.
2. Love: The book teaches that love is the essence of our being and that all healing and transformation come from a place of love.
3. Perception: The book suggests that our perception of the world is shaped by our beliefs and that changing our beliefs can lead to a shift in our perception and experience of reality.
4. Miracles: The book defines miracles as a shift in perception that allows us to see the world in a new way and experience healing and transformation.
5. The Holy Spirit: The book suggests that we can access a higher power or guidance through the Holy Spirit, which can help us to experience greater peace, joy, and fulfillment in life.
Overall, “A Course in Miracles” offers a unique perspective on spirituality and personal transformation that emphasizes forgiveness, love, and a shift in perception as key elements of spiritual growth and healing.
Thanks to Dave Van Dyke for alerting me to this thoughtful discussion of both the promise and potential pitfalls of A.I.: The A.I. Dilemma – by the same folks that made a similarly revealing documentary “The Social Dilemma.“
Like anything else, the “what is it for?” question applies to the “why” of every moment we either dedicate and devote to ego’s divisive duality or our Inner Kindness Teacher’s healing acknowledgment of inclusive innocence beyond the perception of form as we look with patience and gentleness at our own projections.
The documentary explores the new classification of A. I. systems referred to as “Gollums” Generative Large Language Multi-modal Model (GLLMMs) or Gollem-class AIs.
The Smeagol/Gollum character in Lord of the Rings shuns both light and being seen with its “precious” ring of invisibility; every ego seems to thrive in the oblivion of mindlessness; the antithesis of lucidity about our identity as either separate or whole. We must consistently ask Holy Spirit in our mind for help to just look at ego without judgment, see it as wanting but silly and forgivable. Left in the dark, it will fester and it’s laughable premise will remain in force, projecting the unconscious, unfounded guilt onto a dreadful world that could just as easily be a happy dream:
“No one can escape from illusions unless he looks at them, for not looking is the way they are protected. ²There is no need to shrink from illusions, for they cannot be dangerous. ³We 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. ⁴Let us be very calm in doing this, for we are merely looking honestly for truth. ⁵The “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. ⁶We will undo this error quietly together, and then look beyond it to truth.” (ACIM, T-11.V.1:1-6)
When I googled the “difference between Gollum and Smeagol” I found this helpful answer:
“Gollum and Smeagol are two names that refer to the same character in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” series, but they are used to represent different aspects of his personality. Gollum is the darker, more twisted side of the character, while Smeagol is the original, hobbit-like persona that he had before he became corrupted by the influence of the One Ring.”
In prior conversations with Dr. Bob Rosenthal – who worked with DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder or split personality) patients, he posited that the Course’s metaphysics is well-represented metaphorically by all of us as we have fragmented our true Identity into billions of silly, seemingly separate selves. While we may not be “clinically psychotic” we’re all having schizophrenic hallucinations on an unimaginable scale which we don’t even question for the most part, because we’re convinced that the world we make up moment-to-moment is our reality.
The excellent NOVA documentary “Your Brain: Perception Deception” reminds us that our entire experience in this world is based solely on interpretations of so-called objective reality. Modern physics also leads us to consider this, as the material world cannot be disconnected from the mind. The whole world is “inside our head” or more precisely, the mind’s interpretation of the ego’s sensory limiting, distorting, and manipulating program that runs 24/7/365.
Also interestingly, a golem – in Jewish legend – is a clay figure brought to life by magic. “My precious” hip autonomous silly seemingly separate (sinful substitute special) self traffics in every sort to magic to make the 3D high-production value holographic mental projection we call spacetime seem staggeringly real; so much so we scarcely ever stop to question that premise, let alone that the purpose for that magic is throwing the unexamined guilt over the fence into everyone else’s mental back yard.
Back to The A.I. Dilemma …
Since my vocabulary was expanded from the quote below, I’ll use an online definition of the word agentic which is described as an individual’s power to control his or her own goals actions, and destiny. It stems from the word agency, which Webster’s Dictionary defines as the capacity, condition, or state of acting or of exerting power.” (a.k.a. the authority problem in ACIM.)
About 17:42 into The A.I. Dilemma I heard this quote about the unintended consequences of A.I. which really could apply to the (allegedly) unintended consequences of any ego approach to resolving the problems made up by ego in the first place:
“these inanimate objects that suddenly gain their own emergent capacities that you didn’t bake into the inanimate clay that you would might have arranged, not saying that they are agentic, are doing their own things out in the world, have their own mind, having their own goals, but that suddenly this inanimate thing suddenly has certain emergent capabilities.”
The following quote, while focusing on love, can really be generalized to anything we hope will provide happiness in this world or “magic” we employ to try to improve the world, forgetting that the problem isn’t what we (as egos) think, the problem is that as egos we think we can think:
“Yet the ego, though encouraging the search for love very actively, makes one proviso; do not find it. ⁴Its dictates, then, can be summed up simply as: ‘Seek and do not find.’ “(ACIM, T-12.IV.1:3-4)
A.I. is just one more specific in our ongoing dream saga of specifics that can be used either to reinforce the belief in separation (sin, guilt, and fear) by appearing to carve a separate self out of unity … or to heal that misinterpretation by gently forgiving ourselves for what others seem to be doing to/at us, including the artificial identity we refer to as our “own self.”
It is such a relief to know that each of our seemingly separate inner Gollem/Golem/Gollum characters will inevitably find salvation (correction) from practicing Holy Sprit’s true forgiveness practice, leading us out of the darkness of dualistic dreams, even if we’re all basically clueless about how this all will work, because the divided (artificial) “reality” we made up – and continue to fabricate at a staggering pace – is nothing but a forgivable dream of needless suffering:
“Sit quietly and look upon the world you see, and tell yourself: ‘The real world is not like this. ²It has no buildings and there are no streets where people walk alone and separate. ³There are no stores where people buy an endless list of things they do not need. ⁴It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. ⁵There is no day that brightens and grows dim. ⁶There is no loss. ⁷Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever.’ ” (ACIM, T-13.VII.1:1-7)
We’re given pep talks throughout ACIM’s curriculum to remind us to patiently, gently, and persistently continue to question ego’s A. I. (Absolute Insanity) and trust Holy Spirit to lead us out of our Gollum caverns:
“O my brothers, if you only knew the peace that will envelop you and hold you safe and pure and lovely in the Mind of God, you could but rush to meet Him where His altar is.” (ACIM, C-4.8:1)
The featured image for this post was inspired by the title of a program “A Light of Laughing Flowers” from FACIM and used this input to Dall-E 2: “a cartoon of laughing flowers”
… with another experiment being “a vase of lilies on a circuit board”
