“It still is true that nothing is without. Yet upon nothing are all projections made. For it is the projection that gives the ‘nothing’ all the meaning that it holds.” (A Course in Miracles, FIP ed., T-20.VIII.9)
This quotation is a cogent statement of some of the theology of A Course in Miracles. It states, without saying so, that everything that we look upon is a hallucination, that there is nothing outside of us. This is somewhat like the medieval preoccupation with wondering how many angels could balance on the tip of a needle. Our projections from within make the illusion – dream – hallucination that we see. And it is only what we are imagining within that makes this outer manifestation.
This interpretation from ACIM of true reality is not understandable to the finite mind. Not understandable, but we can get a glimmer of the truth, and in that glimmer we can make huge advances. When our minds change from egoic preoccupation, then we project something better so that the illusion or hallucination loses some of its terror for us. We have an improved experience in our world.
How can others exist independently of us, if we are projecting the illusion? The bottom line is that they and we are really One; we are joined as One being, there being no difference between us. That is the primary reason that forgiveness is so necessary to us; we are really forgiving ourselves, and our projections are being healed.
When we have reached Awakening, will the real world also be a hallucination? I think not, though I don’t find the metaphysical underpinnings in ACIM that would support that belief. Mainly I don’t want to think that we are forever lost in illusion, but I want to believe that there is a way to reality, true reality, the real world.
Perhaps the real world is only the intangible, positive traits of God: the love, joy, harmony, peace, etc., that comes upon us in good moments in this world, and then depart, mysteriously, when we fall into fear, attack, planning, and judging. These harmful states of mind keep us from ultimate salvation in Awakening. We would do well to eliminate all aspects of fear in our world. Then we stand a chance of sustaining Awakening.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 
There is an ancient sanskrit mantra that says: “Om Asatoma satgamaya. Tamasoma iyotir gamaya. Mrityorma amritam gamaya” which may be translated as “Lead me from the Unreal to the Real; from darkness to light; from the fear of death to the knowledge of immortality.” I say this as part of my daily spiritual practice and understand it to mean what ACIM is also telling us – that what we see and know is unreal. This mantra has helped me to know that eventually we will be led out of the illusion and into what is real and true. It is a comfort to me that this idea has been around for many centuries. It seems that all mystics know the same truth however it came to them.
What a beautiful mantra!! Thank you very much, Linda. Love, Celia