The Lifting of the Veil: “The Obstacles to Peace” [AUDIOSTR]

Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

In 1985, as one of its early publications, the Foundation issued a tape album of recorded classes on The Obstacles to Peace. Several years ago, we discontinued the album and decided to record a workshop on the same topic, but with a greatly expanded discussion of the obstacles and related themes. Thus, we are pleased to present a new treatment of this highly important group of sections from Chapter 19 of the text of A Course in Miracles. These sections together comprise an excellent in-depth summary of the entire thought system of the Course, integrating its major themes. They range from the concept of God not creating the world and the body—knowing nothing of them at all—to the teachings on guilt and projection, and their undoing through the practice of forgiveness in our special relationships. There are also beautiful and thought-provoking passages where Jesus speaks of himself and the projections that have been cast upon him, with emphasis on the important role the ego has given him in its thought system. This distortion is corrected by his making clear the nature of the role he has in his thought system: undoing the ego through helping us change our minds about what we think and perceive. This 1999 workshop, held at the Institute and Retreat Center in Roscoe, NY, combined a line-by-line exegesis of these sections and extensive discussion of how our experiences in the world, especially our relationships, are rooted in these obstacles and in our resistance to getting past them.