Gary R. Renard - The Disappearance of the Universe: Straight Talk About Illusions, Past Lives, Religion, Sex, Politics, and the Miracles of Forgiveness

W HEN Gary Renard contacted me about getting a professional assessment of the manuscript that would become this book, my initial responses were perfectly sensible. First, when Gary told me that his manuscript was 150,000 words long, I told him that no publisher in his right mind would produce such a book in one volume. Hed either have to split it into two books, or better yet, have it edited down into one manageable project under 100,000 words. That much I could tell him without even seeing the manuscript.

Gary said he didnt think that either approach was possible with what hed written, but hed think about it. In the meantime, would I take a look at this project, largely comprising a series of extended conversations with two ascended masters?

Thats when I had my second perfectly sensible response, which I didnt share with Gary: Oh no , I thought, another long-winded manifesto of spiritual claptrap written by some poor sap who thinks the voices in his head are manifestations of something divine . In almost two decades of working as a journalist, reviewer, editor, and publisher in the field of alternative spirituality, I had seen more piles of such dreck than I cared to remember. I couldnt help but recall a quote from St. John of the Cross, complaining of deluded scribes in his own day: This happens very commonly, and many persons are greatly deceived by it, thinking they have attained to a high degree of prayer and are receiving communications from God. Wherefore, they either write this down or cause it to be written, and it turns out to be nothing, and to have the substance of no virtue, and it serves only to encourage them in vanity.

But this Renard fellow was willing to pay for a full critique of his work; that got him on my good side. Id learned from writing scores of literary assessments that one can always find something helpful to say about a writers work, some kind of constructive criticism that will do more than encourage an aspiring authors vanity. So I said sure, he could send me his wannabe-book and Id do a courteous and thorough examination.

I was not far into this manuscript before I was glad I hadnt shared my second, private response with Gary, because that meant I wouldnt have to eat my words. As bizarre as his story appeared on the surface, it was nonetheless surprisingly readable, even captivating. The conversations that Gary had recorded with his unexpected and most unusual spiritual instructors, Arten and Pursah, were smart, funny, and free of the unctuous pseudo-profundity that Id come to expect from so-called channeled material. Moreover, the work did not seem to do much in the way of encouraging Garys vanity. In fact, his otherworldly companions ribbed him mercilessly about being a slacker and a smart ass, although they also gave him a lot of caring encouragement about the spiritual discipline in which they were urging him along.

Readers will soon discover that this discipline is the one known to millions worldwide through the modern spiritual guidebook called A Course in Miracles (ACIM). No doubt Gary contacted me because of my published work regarding the Course, including The Complete Story of the Course, a journalistic overview of this teachings history, chief teachers and popularizers, as well as its critics and a few controversies it has spawned. It was also possible that Gary contacted me because he had an unconscious recognition of our psychological similarities. While I am by no means a slacker like Mr. Renard, Ive certainly got my share of smart-ass tendencies.