In this program, Kenneth focuses on what is ultimately a very empowering thought, that each of us chooses our own death. But that choice is not made by the dream figure we think we are, but by our unconscious dreaming mind whose power to choose we have deliberately denied from our conscious awareness in order to protect our individual separate identity. To accept this power, we must be willing to acknowledge that sickness and death are not thrust upon us against our will—a major premise of our ego defenses—but come at our own invitation. Kenneth emphasizes that there are two and only two purposes for that invitation: the ego’s purpose, which keeps this power out of our awareness in order to protect and maintain our special self as a victim, and the Holy Spirit’s purpose, which asks us to look beyond the specialness of our own physical death to the joy that is ours when we no longer desperately seek to keep our specialness and our illusory individual identity alive. Bodily death then simply becomes just another step on our journey back Home to the Life that has always been awaiting our return.

The Course tells us that what we view as the death of the body is in fact only a shadow of an illusory thought of death we cling to in our mind. And we have chosen that thought as part of a clever ego strategy to protect our identity as an individual self, bought, the ego tells us, at the expense of God’s death. All this remains unconscious and so it is the Course’s purpose to help bring our decision for the thought of death, which underlies all its various expressions in our lives, increasingly into our awareness. Only then can we make a meaningful choice to the question, "To be or not to be", with a clearer appreciation of what it means to be in the ego’s arena of existence, and what it means to be in the Holy Spirit’s realm, reflecting our reality as pure Being. Kenneth takes Hamlet’s dilemma to a much deeper level, clarifying what the choice is really about. He emphasizes the role forgiveness and healing play in that shift, leading then to a very different perception of the body’s death and our life beyond it.

Near the beginning of this five-day program, Kenneth makes the perhaps startling statement that we can see our study of the Course as preparing us for our own physical death. There are many layers to uncover to appreciate fully just what Kenneth means by this opening observation, and he takes no time in beginning to lay out the metaphysical foundation for understanding the ego’s purpose for death, which is part of its deliberate strategy to make the thought of separation both real and serious. With this understanding, the only way out of the ego’s trap becomes clear: recognizing that we are minds, not bodies, who have mistakenly chosen to believe in separation and death. This shift in identification from the body to the mind cannot be forced, Kenneth emphasizes, but will be acquired gradually through the practice of forgiveness with every aspect of our lives, big and small, under the guidance of our inner Teacher. The program’s length provided ample opportunity for audience questions, many focused on the theme of death and dying.