The Gary Controversy Revisited

... those who seek controversy will find it. (ACIM:C.in.2:1)

From a recent post on Gary's site, I take it the controversy surrounding him is still being fed by some, apparently including the originators of it, the MPM-trio (Mundy, Perry, Mackie), as I deduced from the appearance of an article on his site by Dr. Michael Mirdad.

Since my book relies on Gary's work, I wanted to add a clarification of my own. Gary is irrelevant. I repeat that: Gary is completely irrelevant to the whole conversation. There is the simple matter separating the message and the messenger. If Gary blew it in your mind, or you don't like his looks, or his eyes, or his new Hollywood hairdo, so be it - forgive him already. Don't believe or disbelieve his work either because anybody says so, even Gary, or tells you not to, like the MPM-trio. The Course indeed is not a religion, there is no pope of the Course, though periodically some appear to be running for the job, but there is no such position available, since it is a self-study program. How you learn the Course is up to you, so it's your own decision if you find Gary's writings helpful or not. I could put that a different way. If you find yourself to sometimes feel like a fool, like Gary, who needs all the help he can get to learn the Course, slips on every available bananapeel the ego throws you, crawls back up, and yet realizes (like the little children of Lake Wobegon) that he has an above average ability to remember who he is in truth, perhaps you will identify with the story, and it can be helpful to you. If you don't, it won't, so don't bother.

Indirectly I address this issue also in my discussion of the "Pursah version" of the Thomas Gospel in Closing the Circle. Other than to note that it makes a lot of sense, the same goes here: you are entirely on your own in deciding if it is credible or not. Don't believe me either. Follow your heart. As I've pointed out in the book, Pursah just happens to make a lot of sense, and tangentially, it would seem pretty hard to make such a thing up, even if some of the edits Pursah offers seem quite compelling on close scrutiny. To think of them on your own, without any real guidance, would seem impossibly hard to me. Thus I think it is with this material much like it is with the Course, if it works for you, use it. And if it doesn't, don't bother. No harm, no foul.

In case of doubt about the above, the reader may note that Gary's books even says so. In particular on page 378 of Disappearance, Gary says to Arten: '... I always have to be reminded--and you're not just talking to me ayway, are you? And Arten responds: 'You got it, buddy.' And if you think about it, that says in two lines, what I just argued in this post. The books stand on their own. Take them or leave them, but their value to you is up to you, and is independent of anything else Gary says or does, and of whoever likes him or does not like him, or his books.