When I lived in Oregon, a message from a member of the digital version of our local permaculture group said “I am God”. Someone had apparently had an awakening of sorts, or at least a glimpse, and interpreted it as “I am God”.
It’s not wrong. In a sense, it’s literally true.
And yet, to me, it seems far more accurate to say that everything and everyone is God and that what I am is God. We can also find other ways to talk about it, for instance – in the words of Carl Sagan – we are the local eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings of the universe.
Why this distinction? Because saying “I am God” can easily be interpreted by the person saying it and others hearing it to mean “this sense of separate self is God”, and that is an unhealthy delusion (inflation).
Yes, this sense of a separate self is one of a myriad of manifestations of the divine. It’s the divine locally and temporarily taking itself to be a separate self. And yet, that’s it. Any sense of separate self comes from a temporary and local delusion. It’s very far from our true nature waking up to itself as what allows any and all experiences and is any and all experiences.
It’s safer and more accurate to say everyone and everything is God, and a temporary and local sense of being a separate self is the play of the divine.
So what if someone assumes that “I – as this separate self – is God”? Then that too is the play of the divine. It’s part of the process of that particular awakening. And it’s a reminder and reflection for all of us. Somewhere in our own process, and also right here and now, we can find it in ourselves.