Ever sit through a long, long, long sermon? One that you`re praying will end but goes on and on until, if you`re still awake, your mind has turned into mush and words have lost their meaning?
Those who enjoy that sort of experience are encouraged to listen to Marianne Williamson`s ”A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of `A Course in Miracles.` ” Those who don`t should stay far away from the 2-hour, 39-minute tape (Harper Audio, $16, abridged).
Which is not to say that Williamson, who officiated at the Liz Taylor-Larry Fortensky wedding, has no message.
Indeed, she has. It is a simple, basic one that is repeated with great regularity from pulpits all over the world. It is that God is love. Williamson`s variation goes as follows: God is ”the love within us. . . . Whether we think with love is entirely up to us. . . . When we turn away from love, the pain sets in. . . . When we think with love, then life is peaceful.”
Invite the Holy Spirit into your life, she says. Learn from Jesus, Buddha and other great teachers; be as receptive as children, she suggests.
Now, apply all of the above to, say, dating, and throw in pseudo-psycho-spiritual babble and you`ve got the woman who recently left Oprah Winfrey ga-ga. It was Winfrey`s recommendation of Williamson`s book that sent sales soaring.
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The weird thing about the tape of ”A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of `A Course in Miracles` ” is that there is not one word among the zillions that Williamson speaks about Helen Schucman, who wrote ”A Course in Miracles.” It is all left very vague, which is probably the point.
Maybe if you have to ask, you`re doomed to a life of rationalism. Still, it would be nice for Williamson to tell those of us who have not been exposed to the ”Course.”
For the record, Schucman`s ”A Course in Miracles,” a three-volume work, was written in the 1960s. A psychology professor at Columbia University who died in 1981, Schucman is said to have maintained that the work was dictated by Jesus.
In any event, Williamson has spewed out her endlessly repetitive thoughts on the matter. Even those who think there is much more to God than she presents have to give her this much: She is not preaching hate; she is not calling for people to become so wrapped up in themselves that they become apathetic to the world`s problems.