Mind Resurrection: The Message of the Crucifixion with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles

In this YouTube video, Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles read portions of “The Message of the Crucifixion (ACIM, T-6.I) from the text of A Course In Miracles and review the Course’s interpretation of both resurrection and crucifixion. The meaning that ACIM gives to these words differs markedly from most religious and cultural interpretations of those “loaded” words, particularly in the Western world. ACIM’s curriculum – always and only about the mind – also takes the Eastern concept of illusion deeper. It explains that not only is the world of space and time a misunderstanding of our shared eternal reality, but our real All-Inclusive Innocent Identity is eternally safe from misunderstanding, denial, and our resistance to accepting the peace that it provides when we resurrect our minds (with help from our Inner Kindness Teacher a.k.a. Holy Spirit) from the correctable self-imposed dungeon of ego’s secret dream of crucifixion.

Here are the paragraphs we read and discussed from “The Message of the Crucifixion” (ACIM, T-6.I)

4. Assault can ultimately be made only on the body. ²There is little doubt that one body can assault another, and can even destroy it. ³Yet if destruction itself is impossible, anything that is destructible cannot be real. ⁴Its destruction, therefore, does not justify anger. ⁵To the extent to which you believe that it does, you are accepting false premises and teaching them to others. ⁶The message the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of assault in persecution, because you cannot be persecuted. ⁷If you respond with anger, you must be equating yourself with the destructible, and are therefore regarding yourself insanely.

5. I have made it perfectly clear that I am like you and you are like me, but our fundamental equality can be demonstrated only through joint decision. ²You are free to perceive yourself as persecuted if you choose. ³When you do choose to react that way, however, you might remember that I was persecuted as the world judges, and did not share this evaluation for myself. ⁴And because I did not share it, I did not strengthen it. ⁵I therefore offered a different interpretation of attack, and one which I want to share with you. ⁶If you will believe it, you will help me teach it.

6. As I have said before, “As you teach so shall you learn.” ²If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution. ³This is not a lesson a Son of God should want to teach if he is to realize his own salvation. ⁴Rather, teach your own perfect immunity, which is the truth in you, and realize that it cannot be assailed. ⁵Do not try to protect it yourself, or you are believing that it is assailable. ⁶You are not asked to be crucified, which was part of my own teaching contribution. ⁷You are merely asked to follow my example in the face of much less extreme temptations to misperceive, and not to accept them as false justifications for anger. ⁸There can be no justification for the unjustifiable. ⁹Do not believe there is, and do not teach that there is. ¹⁰Remember always that what you believe you will teach. ¹¹Believe with me, and we will become equal as teachers.” (ACIM, T-6.I.3:1–6:11)

“11. You are not persecuted, nor was I. ²You are not asked to repeat my experiences because the Holy Spirit, Whom we share, makes this unnecessary. ³To use my experiences constructively, however, you must still follow my example in how to perceive them. ⁴My brothers and yours are constantly engaged in justifying the unjustifiable. ⁵My one lesson, which I must teach as I learned it, is that no perception that is out of accord with the judgment of the Holy Spirit can be justified. ⁶I undertook to show this was true in an extreme case, merely because it would serve as a good teaching aid to those whose temptation to give in to anger and assault would not be so extreme. ⁷I will with God that none of His Sons should suffer.” (ACIM, T-6.I.11:1-7)