As you know , Gary, I have read your two best selling books- “Disappearance of the Universe” and “Your Immortal Reality” and have attended several of your Seminars. I have enjoyed what you have had to say, immensely. It has been both fun and enlightening. However, for those of our readers who have never heard of your books, or “ A Course in Miracles” upon which your books are based , can you describe the meanings of the book titles and their underlying themes?

A Course in Miracles is a modern spiritual classic that was published in the early 1970’s. It is a channeled work that was given to Helen Schucman, a research psychologist in New York City. The “Voice” that dictated ACIM is Jesus. Helen heard the voice over a period of seven years and would take it down in shorthand. Then she would read it to her colleague, Bill Thetford and he would type it up. In the Course, Jesus clarifies his original teaching that has been distorted over the years. A Course in Miracles is not designed to bring forth a new organization obsessed with changing the world of dreams instead of the mind of the dreamer. It is a self-study, one-on-one metamorphosis into Christ that is done at the level of the mind between you and Jesus or you and the Holy Spirit if you prefer to think that way. Either one will do. This puts you in the fortunate position where you can learn much more from the master than you could have two thousand years ago.

My books are a continuation of the teachings of the Course and also a clarification. A Course in Miracles is beautifully written, much of it in Shakespearean blank verse and can be quite a daunting challenge to read and understand. My teachers wanted to present the Courses’ wisdom in an absolutely clear and unmistakable way. I have spoken with so many people who tell me they had been studying ACIM for twenty or thirty years but it wasn’t until they read The Disappearance of the Universe that it all finally made perfect sense. It’s very gratifying for me to see what a change these books are making in people’s lives in a very real way.

One recurring theme in your books and seminars is the importance of “ Forgiveness” in our lives. Can you describe how the forgiveness described in your books differs from the “ Forgiveness” found in the Judeo-Christian ethic?

The new kind of forgiveness that is taught in A Course in Miracles says: “Forgiveness does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin, and in that view are all your sins forgiven”. I might add that only in that view are all your sins forgiven, because ACIM also says “As you see him, you will see yourself.”

This is not your parent’s spirituality. This is more in keeping with the new physics, which tells us that everything is connected and we are not separate from each other.

The world that we are seeing is a projection that is coming from our own unconscious mind, and it is actually symbolic of the idea that we’ve separated our self from our Source. With forgiveness, we undo that thought of separation by forgiving people because they haven’t really done anything, and in that view, forgiveness is justified.

Your natural inheritance is nothing less than the kingdom of heaven and being one with God. That is the greatest experience that you can have, and it is possible to have that experience even while you appear to be living here in this world. True Forgiveness is the key.

Another recurring theme is the concept of love vs. fear. Can you tell our readers what this inner conflict is really all about?

A major teaching of A Course In Miracles states: “Love is the opposite of fear but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite”. Love is the thought system of the Holy Spirit and fear is the thought system of the ego and is not real. Love alone is real and it’s our job learn how to remove the blockages to the awareness of love’s presence. Real love is not the conditional love of this world which the Course calls “special love”. The love of the Holy Spirit is quite a different thing. Our one remaining choice in this world is to decide which thought system we want to follow. Do we choose Love and the thought system of the Holy Spirit or do we choose fear and remain under the false thought system of the ego?

All of us have “special relationships” in our lives. Could you tell us why we seem to have so many “challenges” surrounding these relationships? They seem to be a focus of many of our inner fears and loves. Where is this inner conflict coming from?

Our special relationships with our partners, parents, children, co-workers and others close to us are here to help us choose forgiveness and awaken from this dream of duality and separation that we feel as a deep inner longing to return to our loving Source. No one can push our buttons like those closest to us. Through practicing true forgiveness we can get to a point where instead of reacting to others “out there” we can remember who we really are which is pure spirit and chose to forgive instead. I’m not saying it’s easy, it’s not. It’s hard to forgive others when blame them for causing us pain and suffering. But with practice we can learn to see everyone as they really are which is also pure spirit. We learn the truth that how we see our brothers and sisters is how we will come to see ourselves. If they’re guilty then we’re guilty but if they’re innocent then we’re innocent. Over time, this practice removes the unconscious guilt in our minds and we become aware of Love’s presence. We are more able to hear the Holy Spirit’s guidance and experience an inspired life of peace and joy.

In your books you have extensive conversations with your enlightened masters, Arten and Pursah, who suddenly appeared to you in your living room. These masters have been through many incarnations. Since we are all one spirit, really, do these incarnations have any real meaning? If so, please explain.

My Teachers appeared to me as people because they wanted our conversations to be human. They knew that if they looked like normal people to me then I would be able to accept and understand their teachings and that the books that came from our conversations would be understandable to others. Their bodies as such we no more real than any other bodies because anything that can be perceived is a projection coming from our unconscious mind. We project the world we see and then react to it. But the Holy Spirit has a use for everything we think we see, and that is to use it to get us home. So yes, in reality we are all one spirit but is that how we actually experience life? What we long for is the experience of oneness with God. The Course says: “yet there is no answer; only an experience. Seek only this and do not let theology delay you.”

How has your life changed since you suddenly became a best selling author? What advice would you give to our readers who have aspirations of becoming best selling authors, also?

My life has changed dramatically. I travel more than 100,000 miles each year and speak to hundreds of people nearly every week of the year at seminars around the world. In the last 3 years I’ve been to nearly every state in the US, all across Canada, Australia and Europe. The Disappearance of the Universe has already been translated into 16 languages and I just moved from the East Coast where I’ve lived all of my life to sunny Southern California. I’m in the new movie Living Luminaries: The Serious Business of Happiness that will be out this summer on Spiritual Cinema Circle and I’m working on a third book and a screenplay for The Disappearance of the Universe. So far, it’s been a wild ride!

It’s hard for me to give advice to aspiring authors because I had a ridiculously easy time getting my first book published. I started out with a very small publishing company but within a short period of time, The Disappearance of the Universe came to the attention of Hay House, the largest publishing house for spiritual titles in the world and they now publish my books. So my advice would have to be: learn True Prayer. Practice it every day. You will be guided very specifically as to what you should do. But you have to practice!

By Stephen Jay Smith

Stephen Jay Smith is editior of The Guide to Health and Healing. Steve is also the Founder of The Miracle Fund was founded in 1994, after the founder and director, Dr. Stephen J. Smith first visited the Guatemalan Tomorrow Fund Project known in the Kekchi Indian language as "Ak Tenamit" (The Village), in 1993, to help set up a dental clinic in the jungles of Guatemala. The clinic would serve the Kekchi Indian people who had been displaced by the genocide of the 1980's to the far reaches of the jungle on the Rio Dulce River. As a result of Dr. Smith's experience there, he decided that the best way to fund these ongoing efforts was to set up a nonprofit organization whose purpose would be to support the Guatemalan Project as well as other similar worthwhile projects like The Guide to Health and Healing nonprofit magazine.