A Tale Told by an Idiot: Macbeth, Guilt, and “A Course in Miracles” [VIDEOSTR]

Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

Seen from the perspective of A Course in Miracles, Shakespeare’s Macbeth presents an incisive portrait of the split mind and the world that arises from guilt. Macbeth’s famous speech, which lends this workshop its title, is a powerful rendering of the ego and its insane and futile world, represented in the Course in the well-known passage from the text: “The world is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt.” The characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth bring sharply into focus the nature and consequences of the choices offered by the ego, culminating in Macbeth’s tortured despair and Lady Macbeth’s obsession with her blood-stained hands. The play ultimately is about everyone who carries the burden of guilt and chooses not to listen to the voice of sanity within, knowing the dire consequences of such a choice. This May 2003 workshop focuses on a reconsideration of Macbeth’s decisions in the light of the Course’s teachings. Beginning with the authority problem and the principle of one-or-the-other, the discussion moves through the ego thought system to the Holy Spirit’s healing perspective of forgiveness, which sees everyone as sharing the same interests and needs.