"Liberation!"

With the first sky-brightening bursts of bombs in Baghdad most Americans could be heard saying things like: "War is so painful! I hate war! But on the other hand I really, really, really would love to see the Iraqi people liberated!"

To explain such mixed feelings some psychologists might use the concept of instinct. They would say that even mothers of little children, loving care providers whose primary value is nonviolence, "instinctively know" that the pain of war is far less than the day to day, year after year misery and spiritlessness of living under a socialist dictatorship ... especially a secret police regime like the Baath Party rule in Iraq which flaunts their murders on television as a mechanism for maintaining control through terror.

An advanced Christian teacher in answering such psychologists might say: "It has nothing to do with instinct. It is the Holy Spirit who tells us whether the pain of war is less or more than the pain of a terrorized people living under a death-worshipping political system. It is the Holy Spirit who tells us when a regime has warred against its people so thoroughly that an undoing has to happen to restore peace and freedom, even if the undoing appears violent."

A really enlightened spiritual teacher of any tradition or culture sees a far, far broader picture than human vision shows and knows only too well that the world human beings see, the world of seeming separation, can never be totally at peace. Spiritual vision shows that conflict is guaranteed the moment the world is first seen. But even more importantly, spiritual seeing shows that one who originally and continually initiates violence is forcing the issue, speeding up the inevitability of war as a natural equal and opposite reaction to bring about liberation.

Of course one with spiritual vision knows that political liberation is relative. Even in democracies political liberation will only be short-lived as long as the belief systems of human beings allow for the form of slavery called "mandatory taxation" or the form of tyranny called "majority rule." Government based on spiritual inner hearing and paid for by voluntary donations might be sometimes talked about by utopians, but total political liberation is nowhere on the horizon at the current stage of human consciousness.

In fact, if total political liberation is ever to happen for any population, there would first have to be the liberating experience of spiritual enlightenment. Due to the fact that our outer world reflects our inner state of mind, political liberation can only be a reflection of spiritual liberation. The faster a large number of individuals become enlightened spiritually, the sooner a true and lasting political liberation will happen for everyone.

Obviously in this context spiritual liberation has nothing to do with religion. Indeed, religions have all too often oppressed people, not freed them. The history of mankind has shown us horrific reigns of terror in the name of one religion or another. On the other hand, spiritual liberation ultimately frees us from all fear, pain, and guilt forever. If your heart jumps with joy at the prospect of political liberation, you will want to follow the advice of Jesus: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well." (Matthew 6:33)

The good news is that widespread political liberation must be waiting not too far over the horizon because widespread spiritual liberation is clearly starting to happen. Jesus has answered the desperate prayers of the 20th century. He understands the urgency and has given to earth a marvelous preparation device: A Course in Miracles.

Heading into the 21st century, groups training with A Course in Miracles have sprung up all over the world and are more numerous than groups the news media tells us are training in terrorist camps. The minds of those learning to release pain, fear, and guilt for the world are assured of victory over the ego's last frantic attempts to terrorize. (Although for the time being the movement toward freedom enjoyed by many ACIM groups cannot yet be seen as any kind of advanced spiritual enlightenment because group members are still approaching the Course with the same old habits of thinking and learning they have used in the world.)

But sooner or later the Course works its miracles, habits of mind are finally altogether undone, and an experience begins to expand which is thoroughly different from anything previously experienced in earth life. At that point, new kinds of Miracles gatherings begin to form where brothers join beyond intellectualizing, beyond studying, and beyond working on themselves. Instead of continuing ego habits there is a continual surrender of all mental activity to the Holy Spirit and an entering into the glory of Jesus Christ.

These new non-doing Miracles gatherings tremendously advance the experience of enlightenment for those who are ready. The most famous of these is the gathering at Endeavor Academy in Wisconsin, where many enlightened teachers have been introduced into the glorious experience.

Ironically, there has been a reactionary movement, a minor war of sorts (at least a bombardment), waged within the Course in Miracles movement against the teachers of Endeavor Academy. Combatants who still operate in human perception, continuing to teach themselves that all their judgments are false, have sometimes seen Endeavor Academy "in the eyes of the beholder," so to speak. We all know what that means.

As luck (or the Holy Spirit) would have it, various Endeavor teachers are now offering real time webcasts of their sessions and you can now tune in on the Internet so you don't have to listen to Miracles war propaganda but can see for yourself what the freedom of Endeavor Academy looks like. Their webcasts can currently be accessed Thursday and Saturday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Central Time by clicking: Endeavor Academy Broadcasts

But the Wisconsin gatherings are not the only wonderful gatherings of brothers who have accepted the transformation and are experiencing liberation. Our group in Salt Lake City has progressed far beyond the early "looking at oneself" ACIM groups. As time progresses, brothers will join in bright light gatherings everywhere. The entire world's liberation is proceeding at a rapid pace.

As the world gets lighter and brighter resulting from spiritual liberation, populations will no longer be able to live under oppression. The outer appearance of liberation may seem to take almost any form: a relatively painless coup in the former Soviet Union; a war in Afghanistan or Iraq, a free port or free trade zone in Somalia, a Free State Project in the United States. We cannot judge the form. It's all a result of spiritual liberation and the world's spiritual progress.

This month the Christian world celebrates Easter, commemorating resurrection and liberation from all pain, suffering, and death ... our spirit rising up from the dark days of winter in our souls. At the same time we can celebrate the raising up of the human condition in the world from the 20th century's oppressive darkness when time and time again the spirit by which men and women live was almost extinguished under socialist dictatorships ... only to rise again in glory.

As we enjoy the glowing new Spring dawning of this Easter month, let's also enjoy the fun of allowing our minds to be brightened and renewed as we remind ourselves of this wonderful spirit-expanding truth: