When awakening is scary
- Alison Sarah
- Aug 4
- 5 min read
Understanding the resistance to the truth of dreams
An ancient, but radical truth
That the world is an illusion, a projection, or a dream is not a new idea.
In the Chandogya Upanishad it is said:
“The world is only the reflection of Being.”
Plato, in The Republic , describes the allegory of the cave: chained men see only shadows, believing them to be reality.
The Tao Te Ching states:
“The world is a dream. It is waking up that is a mirage.”
Ramana Maharshi said:
“This world never existed. It is like a dream seen in sleep.”
And A Course in Miracles simply concludes:
“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.” (T-in. 2:2-3)
These traditions do not tell us about an imaginative world .
They tell us about an imaginary world , projected by a separate mind that believed itself to be alone.
But as long as this idea remains in the mind, it remains harmless.
It is when she begins to experience herself internally that everything falters.
When we begin to glimpse the dream...
Something is cracking.
Reality seems… strange.
We feel that objects, people, events... are not as solid as we thought.
We begin to perceive that what I see is not what is , but what I believe.
And there a deep tremor begins:
If this world is just a dream… then nothing ever happened .
Not just wars.
Not just trauma.
But also the most beautiful moments, the beloved faces, the moments of grace.
And that… the mind resists hearing it.
Why the mind rejects the idea that 'nothing ever happened'
Because it turns everything upside down.
If nothing happened, then:
Who am I, if my story is imaginary?
Who are my parents, my wounds, my children, my choices?
And why did you suffer… for nothing ?
But it is not " for nothing".
It's to wake you up .
To choose another teacher .
The Course does not say that your experience has no value.
He says that your experience is not reality .
And that its only function… is to lead you to a forgiveness so deep that it dissolves even the idea of having been hurt.
The most common resistances
or: how the ego diverts the light
Existential Panic
“I’m stuck. I can’t get out anymore.”
This is the first reaction: a feeling of inner dizziness.
You no longer see a dream, but a trap.
A mental world with no exit, where nothing is stable anymore.
The Course says it clearly:
“The ego tells you that you are stuck in the dream and there is no way out.
The Holy Spirit shows you that it is just a dream, and therefore that you are free." (T-27.VII.13)
Panic does not come from the truth.
It comes from the ego's interpretation : a version of the dream without love, without light, without exit.
Fear of nothingness
“What if there’s nothing after?”
This is a subtle and profound lie.
The ego tells you:
“If you let go of this world, there will be nothing. You will disappear.”
But this “nothing” is him.
God is not nothingness .
God is fullness. Pure love. Absolute unity.
The fear of nothingness is just the fear of losing the ego .
And as long as you identify with him, letting go will feel like dying.
But it's not you who dies, it's the illusion of you .
Mental saturation
" I don't understand. "
The mind doesn't know how to deal with this information.
He wants to analyze , understand , integrate ... but the truth does not enter through the head .
She enters through silence.
And so the ego saturates. It repeats:
“It’s too abstract. It’s too vague. It’s not for me.”
But it is not knowledge that you seek.
It's a look .
Spiritual Guilt
"So it's all my fault?"
The ego uses the Course to accuse you:
“If you planned everything, then you are responsible for everything… and therefore guilty.”
But the Holy Spirit said:
“You are not responsible for the dream,
but you are responsible for the one you choose to follow." (T-21.V.2)
You are not judged for dreaming.
You are loved within the dream itself .
What you can do now is choose to watch with Him .
Attachment to the world
"But I love my life. I don't want it to disappear."
This fear is sweet, but deep.
It is believed that to recognize the illusion is to lose what we love.
But what you truly love cannot be lost .
For what you truly love, tenderness, beauty, peace,
does not come from the world.
That's what you are .
Recognizing the dream does not destroy what you love.
This makes him pure , free , without attachment .
Spiritual flight
"I have to wake up. I have to escape this dream."
The ego disguises itself as a seeker.
He makes you believe that you have to meditate, align yourself, purify, work on yourself... to get out of the dream .
But wanting to escape is believing that the dream is real.
And if you believe it, you can't get rid of it.
The solution will never come from an effort to escape the dream , or to find the truth within it .
Because it maintains the idea that the dream is real .
Peace returns when you stop searching , and look with Innocence .
With the awareness that you have never left the Source .
You're just dreaming: And you're safe
You can't force an awakening.
You can't force love.
But you can open up.
You can say:
"What if this was just a dream? What if I wasn't in danger?"
You can choose, today, to stop fighting.
And to look at the world
with tenderness , even if you don't understand it.
Why maintaining the dream is more “useful” to the ego than waking up from it
Recognize that the world is a dream…
It is also recognizing that everything comes from me .
Not of this separate “me,” but of the dreaming mind .
And that is unbearable for the ego.
Because as long as the world is real:
there are culprits,
there are bad guys,
there are injustices.
And this allows us to project the fault:
"If I suffer, it's because of the other."
"If I'm afraid, it's the world's fault."
"If I am not free, it is because the system prevents me from being free."
But if the world is only a dream... then there is no outside .
And so no one is guilty anymore.
No more external cause.
No place to run.
And this idea is dizzying:
Because everything I blamed, everything I hated, everything I wanted to “change on the outside”…
was inside .
This is why the war continues.
Not because humans are bad.
But because the ego needs the battlefield to survive.
He wants enemies, reasons to defend himself, opportunities to justify his separation.
If war does not exist,
if all this is only a reflection,
then guilt can no longer be projected.
She must be recognized… and returned to love.
And that is what the ego refuses at all costs.
He prefers a world of chaos to a moment of truth.
Bottom line : you never left home
You are not asked to understand.
It's not even asked that you believe.
But only this:
that you are a little less certain that you are right.
May you be a little gentler with what you see.
And that you open yourself, even for a moment, to the possibility that…
This world is just a dream.
And in this dream, you were never alone.
You are still at home.
The fear will pass.
The confusion will subside.
And what remains… is what never left Love.
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