As anyone who has been a student of A Course in Miracles for any length of time knows, when it comes to the body, it doesn’t exactly beat around the bush.  That is, it doesn’t hold back when it tells you that the body is merely an illusion.  All bodies – yours, mine, everyone’s and everything’s  – aren’t actually there.  At no single instant does the body exist at all (T-18.VII.3:1).  Not before, not now, not ever.  Just like the figures we see in our dreams at night, so too are our bodies  nothing more than the images being projected by a mind that is itself asleep.  

While this may initially sound pretty radical, the idea that the lives we think we are living are just a dream isn’t exactly a new concept.  Other spiritual disciplines such as Buddhism and the Vedanta contain similar teachings.  And many of the world’s brilliant writers, philosophers and contemplators of life’s great mysteries have come to similar conclusions.  Who could forget Shakespeare’s famous line, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”.  Or, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep”.  And for anyone familiar with the works of Rumi, “This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real”.

There is no disputing that we think we are bodies, so when we hear concepts such as this, where exactly does that leave us?  If we are not the bodies we thought we were, then who are we?  We are the mind that is doing the dreaming; we are the dreamer of the dream.  Think of it like this.  You are dreaming in your bed at night and in your dream there appears to be a main character.  This character may wander in and out of various scenes and scenarios, and as they do you feel the things they feel, and experience what they experience.  In your sleeping state, you think this character is you.  But then your alarm goes off, you wake up and you realise you were just dreaming.  It wasn’t real.  You no longer identify with yourself as the character in the dream because you know that’s not who you are.  You know you made them up.

We are in a dream state, and the body that we think we are is just a figure in that dream.  While we are still asleep we think this figure is who we are, because we don’t know any better.  The dreamer of a dream is not awake, but does not know he sleeps (T-28.II.6:7).  But when we wake up – when the alarm finally goes off – we will remember that this body isn’t who we are at all.  We will remember that we are the mind that was dreaming the body up.  From this perspective of being the dreamer of the dream and not the dream figure, the idea of bodies doesn’t seem so serious anymore.  In fact, it all seems a bit silly.

No other section in the Course details the absurdity of our belief in the body quite like the chapter The Hero of the Dream.  It says – The body is the central figure in the dreaming of the world.  There is no dream without it, nor does it exist without the dream in which it acts as if it were a person to be seen and be believed.  It takes the central place in every dream, which tells the story of how it was made by other bodies, born into the world outside the body, lives a little while and dies, to be united in the dust with other bodies dying like itself (T-27.VIII.1:1-3).  And that is all the body is – a story we are telling ourselves, and not a particularly pleasant one. 

We actually believe that this short lived and fragile container is who we are, and we centre our whole lives around it.  Its safety is its main concern.  Its comfort is its guiding rule.  It tries to look for pleasure, and avoid the things that would be hurtful (T-27.VIII.1:5-7). Think about all the activities we engage in over our lifetime.  As babies and toddlers we learn to move and use our bodies so we can interact with the world and other bodies.  We go to school to learn how to get jobs that will provide us with the money we need to feed, house and clothe these bodies and the bodies of our loved ones.  We do things to try and ensure the body’s health while seeking to avoid illness so that it may live a little longer.  And we seek for other bodies as our friends and enemies (T-27.VIII.1:4), so that our own will feel special and loved.  What do we do all this for if not the body?  The body’s serial adventures, from the time of birth to dying are the theme of every dream the world has ever had. (T-27.VIII.3:1)

If our whole lives have been based around fulfilling the needs of these illusory bodies, then what do we do now?  How do we live our lives here as the dreamer rather than the dream figure?  We are still going to see bodies.  We will still have to take care of their needs, and we are going to keep identifying with them while we practice letting this identification go.  But we now turn our focus away from the body we thought we were, and back to the mind that we really are.  We then use this mind to choose to see our bodies and lives differently.  We choose forgiving dreams instead of dreams of fear and separation; dreams that reflect truth instead of dreams that perpetuate illusions.   As we do this, we begin to experience that we are not a body at the mercy of a world outside of it, because what we thought was outside is actually within.  We then turn within where our real power lies –  the power to change our mind.  The body is released because the mind acknowledges “this is not done to me, but I am doing this.”  And thus the mind is free to make another choice instead (T-28.II.12:5-6).  As we do this, we gradually begin to see and experience the body and our lives in a very different light.  

Some people may erroneously think that because the Course is saying that bodies don’t exist, then that means that we don’t exist.  But it doesn’t end there.  There is another Self, a real You, that definitely does exist!  And this real You is more pure, perfect and whole than any bodily image you could ever possibly dream of.  The right part of our mind – the Holy Spirit – teaches us how to remove the veils blocking our remembrance of who we are, thus freeing us to experience this truth within ourselves and everyone else.  It is only this experience that will really give you the conviction that the body is not who you are.  As the Course explains, you need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind.  You need to feel something to put your faith in, as you lift it from the body. You need a real experience of something else, something more solid and more sure; more worthy of your faith, and really there (W-91.7:2-4).  For those who have chosen the Course as their path, practicing its teachings and listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is the pathway that leads you back to this experience of your true identity.

If you really understand just what the Course is saying – that the ‘you’ who you think is reading these words, the ‘you’ who you think is in this body, doesn’t actually exist – then this can be a horrifying thought.  But in reality, there is nothing more liberating.  Why would you not be overjoyed to hear that this fragile and fleeting form, powerless in all the universe and existing but for a moment, is not who you are?  Why would you not be overjoyed to know that this vulnerable shell that suffers and dies is not who your loved ones are?  But we are not overjoyed.  We are utterly terrified.  But this is only because in our current awareness we are so far removed from our true identity, that we cannot see how lovely and perfect the truth of us actually is.  If we could remember this for even an instant, then we would have no problems laying our belief in the body aside and instantly abandoning all our fears.

The Course asks us, “How willing are you to escape effects of all the dreams the world has ever had?” (T-27.VIII.5:1).  We need willingness to look beyond the illusion of the body to the truth of what we are.  In fact, we need a whole ton of willingness.  The resistance to giving up our individual identities is enormous, and our ego’s investment in our bodies is strong.  But there is a way to turn the tables on the illusion and use our bodies in the service of truth instead.  Where our bodies were designed to keep us asleep, we can now use them as a tool for awakening instead.

Read on to the proper use of the body, to learn how we do this.