A Course in Miracles (ACIM)

& 12 Step Recovery:

How are they the same, how are they different?

(by Tim W.)

Having spent many years in 12 step recovery programs & also having studied and practiced and shared  A Course in Miracles (ACIM) for more than 35 years, I would like to offer some of my thoughts about these two most powerful spiritual influences of the 20th and 21st Centuries… and how they both can lead us to a profound relationship with the God of our understanding.

But, I believe, in different ways.

My experience with the 12 Steps has taught me that there are three basic fundamentals to its process:

1 ) Step One…The Problem: That left to my self and my own isolated power, I am powerless over behaviors and attitudes in myself and others that are extremely self destructive.

2) Step Two… The Solution: That there is a potential relationship with a power greater than me (God) that can help restore me to peace and sanity, which helps me let go of my investments in those self-sabotaging behaviors in myself (and also let go of trying to fix them in others).

3) Steps 3-12… The How-to’s: That there are steps that I can take to work on my relationship with that higher power to help me to do just that, i.e. be restored to sanity and peace.

My work with A Course in Miracles has shown me the non-dual nature of our one true being (unconditional Love)…

by working the three steps of forgiveness outlined in the Course:

1) The Problem: I believe I’m always upset for the reasons I think (that there are things and people, external to me, robbing me of my peace of mind)… but what if that’s simply not true.  What if, “I’m never upset for the reason I think.” (ACIM Workbook Lesson #5) What if it’s coming from me (internally in my mind) and not something ‘out there.’

2) The Solution: I could and can, with Jesus’ or the Holy Spirit’s help (a higher power), not only let go of blaming others. but let go of blaming  myself … and see us with peace instead of condemnation and judgment…  “I could see peace instead of this.” (ACIM WB Lesson #34)

3) The Result: And then, I will experience in my awareness in my mind that the true identity of others and myself as one innocent Son of God… is still intact, in spite of what we did or didn’t do behaviorally.  “I am not a body, I am free. I am (we are) still as God created me (us).” (ACIM WB Les.# 201-220)

So where do these two incredible approaches to our spiritual enlightenment overlap, and how might they be different?

I think in terms of sameness, the the first two steps in each process are basically identical.

The first step in the 12 Steps says simply I’m crazy insane, doing really self-destructive things, and I can’t stop.

The first step in the Course says ‘there must be another way,’ because the way I’m seeing and thinking  is just not working or helping (similar to Einstein’s definition of insanity: we keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result). I actually believe I am upset for the reason I think. What if that’s just not true? (ACIM Lesson # 5)

The second step in 12 Steps expresses the hope that, there is a power greater than me that can restore me to sanity. 

And in the Course, step two is that with help, “I could choose peace in my own mind instead of this insanity.” (ACIM Les. 34)… i.e. the insane way I see you, and the insane way I see myself.

However after those first two steps in each process, I believe that the two paths become markedly different in terms of approach. The reason is the way each process teaches and show us how to have a relationship with God. I think the Twelve Steps are about changing our behaviors, and doing very specific things, especially in steps 4 thru 9.

A Course in Miracles is about changing our perception, the way we see ourselves and each other. In my experience both work. Both can and will develop and enhance my relationship with God, myself, and others.

So, in framing the differences, the remaining steps 3-12 of the Twelve Steps are… things we do to accomplish our release from our obsessive behaviors and thinking, in the world.

The Course process is aimed at changing… how we see and judge things (what is our perception of others and ourselves and God in my mind).

The Twelve Steps have us do very helpful behavioral how-to’s, to release our motivation to hurt ourselves and others…. get a sponsor, write an inventory, make amends, learn how to meditate, etc….. basically changes in our personalities and bodies moving thru a world of time and space.

The goal of the Course (forgiveness) is always achieved by asking Jesus or the Holy Spirit to help us perceive others and ourselves the way he does, without judgment and condemnation, all taking place internally in a “place” ACIM calls the mind (not to be confused with our brains). He’s not asking us to give up  or sacrifice any particular behaviors…  though those destructive things we do to ourselves and others begin to “fall away” as we practice the Course and develop a new way of seeing each other and our self.

Granted… there are 365 lessons in the ACIM Workbook that could be viewed as 365 specific “steps” we take. However their emphasis is always about changing the way we see or experience ourselves and others, and always with Jesus or the Holy Spirit’s help (in the 12 Steps it’s similar to having a sponsor and a higher power.)

The Twelve Steps on the other hand, especially steps 3 thru 12, are very definite concrete things we do… to let go of our addictive behaviors and grow in our relationship with our higher power.

 I think ultimately the Twelve Steps and ACIM will take us to the same place, the same experience of oneness with God Our Father and  with all our brothers. Both spiritual systems are great. Both work. The deciding factor is to do one, or the other, or even both (but probably not both at the same time by mixing them together).

In 12 Step meetings I try to talk about the steps and how they work and have helped me let go of my self-destructive behaviors (including co-dependency)…. at the level of the world.

When I go to Course meetings, I try to talk about  the change in my own perception of who you and I are, through the Course process of forgiveness of laying down my judgements about us…. at the level of my own mind.

————————-

I think it is helpful and advisable to keep in mind how ACIM and the Twelve Steps are the same, and also how they are different… because each system is effective and complete in-and-of itself, without mixing it, or watering it down with another process. There are many paths up the mountain, but we can’t and shouldn’t take more than one path at a time. That would be silly and would simply work against the desired outcome. (One foot on one path and one foot in another… we will eventually trip and fall down, or just roll backward .)

Another way of saying this is that the 12 Steps are about letting go of addictions of the body and personality, whereas ACIM is about letting go of being addicted to believing we are a body in the first place, and recognizing and seeing (experiencing) who we truly are as God’s Son.

——————–

In choosing which of these two approaches (or any really) to spiritual growth, the question ultimately becomes… what do I feel drawn to do in my heart? What do I honestly think is the best approach for me now?

Certainly take whatever approach you think is best for you. As Ken Wapnick, my favorite Course mentor and teacher used to say…  it would be silly not to.

And, as always… ask Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, or our higher power…  for help to see each other peacefully, while doing whatever it is we are doing.

Class Video Replay

from School for a Course in Miracles…

on moving from believing in an identity of weakness and hopelessness…

to experiencing our True Identity of strength and hope:

click here