School for A Course In Miracles

"The universe of learning will open up before you."

School for A Course In Miracles

“The universe of learning will open up before you in all its gracious simplicity.” T-14. II. 6:4
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On a lighter side: Excerpts from The Ego’s Workbook for A Day in Hell…

Excerpts from The Ego’s Workbook

for A Day in Hell…

(by Tom D.)

Lesson 5  ~  I am never upset for the reason I think, but I know it has something to do with you.
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Lesson 10 ~ My thoughts do not mean anything, but neither do yours. Na, na, na, na, na, na.
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Lesson 14 ~ God did not create a meaningless world, so, sensing a wonderful opportunity, my friends and I created one for Him.
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Lesson 24 ~ I don’t know what anything is for, particularly most of the apps on my phone.
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Lesson 32 ~ I have invented the world I see, but a lot of other people already have a patent on it.
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Lesson 34 ~ I could see peace instead of this, but I kind of like being depressed and angry.
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Lesson 65 ~ My only function is the one God gave me, but I’ve also thought up a lot of other really neat stuff.
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Lesson 71  ~ Only God’s plan for salvation will work, but let me just try this one other little thing.
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Lesson 129 ~ Beyond this world, there is a world I want, but a new Mercedes would work for now.
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Lesson 135 ~ If I defend myself I am attacked, but it seemed like such a good idea at the time.
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Lesson 151 ~ All things are echoes for the voice of God, therefore God must be into yodeling.
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Lesson 130 ~ It is impossible to see two worlds, unless you get banged on the head real hard.
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Lesson 328 ~ I choose the second place to gain the first, but who’s on first now anyway?
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Lesson 335 ~ I choose to see my brother’s sinlessness when I’m damn well good and ready.
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more on the ‘lite’ side…

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On… Jesus (Jim Gaffigan):

https://youtu.be/ReBWsf8CWxA

——————

On… It just doesn’t matter… (Bill Murray)

https://youtu.be/e9mf3Bypyk8

—————-

On…. “Stop it!” (Bob Newhart)

https://youtu.be/jvujypVVBAY

 

—————-

On…. “Queen for a day”… the ego loves to be a victim. (Mont Python)

Our Ego Need to Believe That Innocence is Slain…

With the recent shootings in the States, and the killing and displacement of families in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and Iran,

and all the seeming horrendous death and destruction happening now in the world everywhere… how do we approach this apparent senselessness from a Course point of view, and how do we deal with that and any worldly turmoil… internally in each of us ?

Here are  a couple SFACIM video replays on what our invulnerable true innocence looks and feels like as One Son of God…. and the ego’s bottom line need to believe we crucified our own true innocent Identity.

We then discuss… how that plays out in the world, and how do we recognize and then let go of our belief in our ego need for enemies, murder and judgment? (Ch. 23, Sec. III & IV, in the Text)

——————–

 

Happy Thanksgiving: Be grateful! Our sinlessness is an… “Already-Done-Deal !”

 

Our own redemption is already at hand, and unless you give all that you have received you will not know that you have awakened with him, your brother… already.        

(Text p.209, par. 9)

One of the striking differences between ACIM and traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and most New Age spiritualities is that…  A Course in Miracles takes an ‘already-done-deal’ approach.

Most western religious and spiritual paths assume something is really wrong to begin with, and then go about trying to fix it or evolve beyond it. To them, sin and separation are devastatingly real. The Course specifically sets up its version of the Atonement (that nothing happened), right in its Introduction to the Text on page 1.

This Intro immediately spells out that this is not a course about love, loving, or evolving somehow towards love, or even making the world a better place in which to live… but on letting go of our own judgements of others and ourselves which block our awareness that we are still beings of Love:

 

“The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim however at removing the blocks to the (our) awareness of love’s presence, which is our natural inheritance.” (Text, p.1)

So then, this is simply a course about undoing those blocks, in our minds, to realizing that love is already a done deal, and our true Identity is still part of that Love… period. We are God’s children, always have been, always will be. The Course shows us how to stop pretending that we’re not eternally part of God’s Love… insisting in our criticizing, fixing, and sometimes even ‘helping,’ that we are not ‘still’ as God created us.

“But when I willingly and gladly go the way my Father’s plan appointed me to go, then will I recognize salvation is already here, already given all my brothers and already mine as well.” (Les.#317)

So what’s my Father’s plan? In the Course’s 1300 plus pages, Jesus is always encouraging us to look at each other differently by asking the Holy Spirit for help ‘to see beyond the veil,’ see beyond the differences we think we see and even cherish. Early on in the Course he also states that this course is not about behavior (Text p.29, par.2-3). It is not about what we do or don’t do, but about how we “see” each other.

And more to the point: with whom are we seeing or perceiving… our ego or the Holy Spirit? Jesus tells us we have this internal place called the mind, where we are constantly choosing between one of these two teachers or inner guides. (NB: This internal place is not what the world calls our brain, but a deep place within us the Course describes as the ‘mind.’) When we choose the ego as our teacher, we see separation and blame. When we choose the Holy Spirit, we experience the Atonement, that nothing happened and our true Identity is still intact.

Problem is, when we are choosing the ego, we’re not really conscious of that choice… but we do feel its effects. We are irritable, judgmental, and certainly not peaceful. We are quick to point out that our discontent is not our responsibility, but we easily finger-point the culprit as something or somebody else. It’s amazing when we go thru the course of our day, and begin to realize… how many times each and every day we are blaming, and how much we are on high alert to find a new drama where we can find and accuse others of robbing us of our peace.

However, choosing to ask the Holy Spirit to perceive and experience people and things differently is a very conscious and vigilant effort. We first honestly look at how hateful our thinking and seeing is, and even tho we believe we are right, we admit how painful it is to hold onto that righteousness. (Would I rather be right or happy?) This becomes the motivation to hope that ‘there must be a better way,’ and I begin to be a little more willing to find and try that ‘better way’. The better way for Course students is the Course’s process of forgiveness, ie. learning to ‘see’ differently. We forgive, or let go, of our way of viewing the world full of victims and victimizers. Then we allow, or let, the Holy Spirit’s vision, of what we truly are, take its place.

(Lesson Titles #31-35)

Forgiveness in the Course is a return to the awareness of the “Done Deal.” Whatever our eyes might be telling us, we ask for the Holy Spirit’s gift of vision to see/experience that our brother’s innocence (and ultimately our own) is still intact… already there and present, no matter what they are doing or not. This doesn’t mean, in terms of behavior, that we don’t do the next appropriate and helpful thing. But it does mean that while we are doing whatever our chosen behavior is, in our heart of hearts, we come to know we are each already ok, already saved, and already God’s one Son.

This is not some pie-in-the-sky made up fantasy. For those of us who have practiced the Course’s forgiveness, we experience that this is the reality behind all the seeming facades that ’cause’ us to blame and condemn. We actually begin to feel and know, about ourselves and others, what Jesus consistently tells us in Lessons #201 thru 220:

“I am not a body. I am free. I am still (already) as God created me.”

Thank you Jesus!

and Happy Thanksgiving!

Replay of video from SFACIM on a discussion of “gratitude”:

click here

Also a five minute youtube clip on Ken Wapnick speaking about our gratitude to Jesus for giving us his Course in Miracles:

Click here

 

 

Coming soon…

Five Month Online

The Immersion 2026

click here for info

 

Rosemary Stevens: Our True Friend… always and in all ways!

….and dearly beloved sister of Jesus, made her transition into Jesus’ loving arms on Tuesday Nov. 4th, 2025.

 

 

 

 

Abby Steven’s (her blessed sister) comments:

Hi Tim,

Dropping you a line to let you know that yesterday, Rosemary passed peacefully and with lotsa love surrounding her.
She had had a diagnosis in 2020, of pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease, for which there is no cure.

As a 30+ year student of the Course, she had ALMOST all of Ken’s CDs, cassettes and many of his books…
Actually that was all she read, and that constituted her entire “library”.

Hugs 🫂 & Blessings 🙌🏻 as always, Abby❣️

Almost a year ago now, and highlighting Rosemary’s lovely dedication to Jesus and his Course, and Ken and his teachings, and also her wonderful sense of humor…

Rosemary lead this class on WB lessons 343-349 on Dec. 4, 2024:

https://tinyurl.com/28m4j3mt

 

 

Musings… The Atonement: What’s that?

ATONEMENT ?

In traditional Christian terms, atonement is the reconciliation of God and humankind through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ (usually perceived as needed because… due to Adam & Eve’s sin, mankind was forced out of Heaven).

But Atonement in A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is something totally different. Atonement in the Course is ‘waking up’ and realizing that sin (separation from God) couldn’t happen, and never happened, and God’s Son never separated from His Father.

Early on in the ACIM Text, Atonement is first mentioned and described in Chap. One Sec. I, in the fifty Miracle Principles (#25, 26, 33, 34, 37, 44).

Jesus says this in principle #25…  Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement. (Text, p.4) Forgiveness in the Course is always referred to as an opportunity to let go of our belief that someone is guilty or sinful, including ourselves.

Jesus then goes on to talk about and use the word Atonement more than 250 times in the Course.

Ken Wapnick, in his Glossary-Index for ACIM, calls the Atonement… the Holy Spirit’s plan of correction to undo the ego and heal the belief in separation. The idea of Atonement came into being after our seeming separation from Oneness, and will be completed when every separated Son has fulfilled his part in the Atonement thru total forgiveness. Its principle is that the separation never occurred.

Emphasis then is on the last sentence. Since the separation from God never happened, the Atonement becomes a series of wake-up experiences (the Course calls them miracles) to the inevitable understanding that this is true. We never disconnected from our Father in Heaven or separated from each other. The tiny mad idea of separation was just that… It was tiny and made-up, not to mention crazy, but ultimately just silly.

Another way of defining Atonement is that ‘nothing happened,’ i.e. there was no separation.  Jesus uses that phrase a number of times throughout the Course:

—————-

Nothing happened!

“Nothing unreal exists.” (Text Intro, p.1)

11 “The ego can accept the idea that return is necessary because it can so easily make the idea seem difficult. Yet the Holy Spirit tells you that even return is unnecessary, because what never happened cannot be difficult. However, you can make the idea of return both necessary and difficult. ” (Ch. 6, sec II, par.11. p.98)

“Such evident inconsistencies account for why no one has really explained what happens in psychotherapy. Nothing really does. Nothing real has happened to the unhealed healer, and he must learn from his own teaching. His ego will always seek to get something from the situation.” (Ch.9, sec V, par.5, p.172)

“… recognize that what has no effects does not exist. Laws do not operate in a vacuum, and what leads to nothing has not happened. If reality is recognized by its extension, what leads to nothing could not be real.” (Ch.11, sec V, par.2, p.203)

“For if you accept your invulnerability, you are recognizing that attack has no effect. Although you have attacked yourself, you will be demonstrating that nothing really happened. Therefore, by attacking you have not done anything. Once you realize this you will no longer see any sense in attack, for it manifestly does not work and cannot protect you.” (Ch. 12, sec V, par. 2, p.203)

4 “Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep, and dreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself, and but a part of someone else’s dream. The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is… The miracle does nothing but to show him that he has done nothing. What he fears is cause without the consequences that would make it cause. And so it never was.” (Ch.28, sec II, par. 4 & 7, p.593-594)

1 Today we will anticipate the time when dreams of sin and guilt are gone, and we have reached the holy peace we never left. Merely a tiny instant has elapsed between eternity and timelessness. So brief the interval there was no lapse in continuity, nor break in thoughts which are forever unified as one. Nothing has ever happened to disturb the peace of God the Father and the Son. This we accept as wholly true today.” (Les. #234. p.409)

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Jesus also repeatedly tell us…

 The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. (Ch.2, sec V, par.5, p.25)

The teacher of God takes accepting the Atonement for himself as his only function.  (Man. #22 par.1, p.55)

 

If thats true , then how do each of us go about accepting and implementing  in our own lives this plan of Atonement? Two key elements of the process are pointed out here in sec IV of Ch.9… The first is our willingness to let go of our judgements of each other and ourselves, and the second is to ask the Holy Spirit for help to see beyond those judgements and have a different experience of all our brothers and ourselves…

 The Holy Spirit’s (Atonement) Plan of Forgiveness…

in Chapter 9:

1 Atonement is for all, because it is the way to undo the belief that anything is for you alone. To forgive is to overlook. Look, then, beyond error (judgment and condemnation) and do not let your perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds (sees). Accept as true only what your brother is (a guiltless Son of God), if you would know yourself. Perceive what he is not (a sinner) and you cannot know what you are, because you see him falsely. Remember always that your (True) Identity is shared, and that Its sharing is Its reality.

2 You have a part to play in the Atonement, but the plan of the Atonement is beyond you. You do not understand how to overlook errors (your judgments), or you would not make them. It would merely be further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you can correct them without a Guide to correction (Jesus or the Holy Spirit). And if you do not follow this Guide, your errors will not be corrected. The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. This sense of limitation (the tiny mad idea of separation) is where all errors arise. The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you. (sec IV of Ch.9, par.1-2, p.168)

 

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 Atonement in the Course is not the atonement definition for many new age thinkers, where atonement means at-one-ment. The Atonement in the Course however is a process of waking up. It is realizing that we can and will forgive our brothers and ourselves… not because our sins are real and need to be forgiven. But we begin to see and experience the unreality of those sins and let go of our need for retribution. (At-one-ment in the Course would be the experience of our Oneness in Heaven that is our True Identity… which is what we return to when we complete the Atonement process of forgiveness in the Course.)

This profound process of moving through the three steps of forgiveness outlined in the Course is the way to fulfill God’s Plan of Atonement in our lives. We atone for our own seeming sins and the sins of others, not through martyrdom or sacrifice, but by having the very real experience that all our innocence as One Son of God is still intact, no matter what we or others seem to have done… this is not a whitewashing of sins, but simply a realization that ‘nothing happened. Our true AT-ONE-MENT is still who and what we are in Heaven. Our ‘job,’ our only function, is to stop insisting that that is not our true reality…

 

Check out Lyn’s Video on

“Whispering to The Atonement”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRza8PlK4dc&t=15s

 

Ken Wapnick’s 5 min. description of  “Atonement:”

 

 

Ken’s Seminar on “Atonement without Sacrifice:”

Atonement without Sacrifice [MP3]

click here for Mp3 download

Six Month Course Immersion One Program

(especially designed for both beginning and ongoing Course students)

Online… using free Zoom app

January- June 2023

(click here)

Musings: The Seven “Rules” of Decision Making

From ACIM Chapter 30, Sec. I

Text p.625-628:

RULES FOR DECISION

1. Upon waking think about the kind of day you want. The outlook starts with this: “Today I will make no decision by myself.”

 

2. Throughout the day reflect upon the kind of day you want and say, “If I make no decisions by myself, this is the day that will be given me. ”

These two procedures, practiced well, will serve to let you be directed without fear, for opposition will not first arise and then become a problem in itself.

 

3. When you have judged already (be certain this has happened if you feel yourself unwilling to sit by and ask to have the answer given to you), you need a quick restorative before you ask again. Therefore say, “I have no question, I forgot what to decide.” Try to observe this rule without delay, despite your opposition.

 

4. If you are so unwilling to receive you cannot even let your question go, you can begin to change your mind with this: “At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now.”

 

5. Continue with: “And so I hope I have been wrong.” This works against the sense of opposition.

 

6. You are not coerced, but merely hope to get a thing you want. And so you say in perfect honesty, “I want another way to look at this.”

 

7. The final step is but acknowledgement of lack of opposition to be helped. It is a statement of an open mind, not certain yet, but willing to be shown: “Perhaps there is another way to look at this. What can I lose by asking?”

 

“It must be clear that it is easier to have a happy day if you prevent unhappiness from entering at all. But this takes practice in the rules that will protect you from the ravages of fear.”

(Text p. 628, par. 13)

RULES FOR DECISION

( how to stop investing in my judgments)

… paraphrased:

1. Today I will make no decision (judgments) by myself…

I will ask now the Holy Spirit to help me see you and me and others… the way He does.

—

2. When I make no decisions or judgments by myself,

this is the peaceful day that will be given me.

—

3. When I get ‘crazy’ again, I have no question…

I forgot to decide  (to ask the HS to be my Guide in my perception).

—

4. At least I can realize and admit I do not like the way I feel now.

—

5. And so I hope I have been wrong.…  because leaving the HS out did not help.

—

6. I still really do want another way to look

at this situation or person that is bothering me.

—

7. So… perhaps, there is another way to look at this,

What can I lose by asking HS to help me see you and me the way He does?

(… and then ask.)

GUILT, Part One: What is it, and Where is it ??

On Guilt, Part One:

“Do not be afraid to look within. The ego tells you all is black with guilt within you, and bids you not to look. Instead, it bids you look upon your brothers, and see the guilt in them. Yet this you cannot do without remaining blind. ” (Ch.13, Sec. IX)

 Guilt !

Why is the word guilt used and talked about in the Course almost 700 times?

Why does the Course insist we have to look at it, admit it, and let guilt go, if guilt isn’t real in the first place??

What is guilt anyway, and where and why is guilt hiding???

The good news: there’s only one internal kind of guilt in our minds that all external behavioral guilt is a reflection of… and it’s not real.

The bad news (from the ego’s point of view): there’s only one internal kind of guilt in our minds that all external behavioral guilt is a reflection of… and it’s not real.

What does that mean? All seeming guilt in the world, whether it’s your guilt for what you did, or it (maybe sometimes) is my guilt for what I did… has nothing to do with what and where the “real” guilt is lurking. The “real” guilt is always in the mind, and we feel it because we have chosen the internal teacher of separation (the ego) rather than the Voice for forgiveness (the Holy Spirit). Instead of admitting that, we then project that guilt (we call it blame, resentment, anger, whatever) onto other bodies, or our own. It is always simply a distraction from the actual source of guilt in our own mind for choosing to listen to the voice for separation, and then quickly forgetting we did that. So believing now we are bodies, we wind up thinking we don’t feel guilty, but the other guy certainly should, because look at what he did. I may not be aware of my own guilt, but I definitely see yours.

It is the Holy Spirit’s job (and His only) to help us look at this process and realize what we are doing. Then He helps us let that internal guilt go by seeing we made it up… it’s not even real. However, don’t try to do this by yourself…  cause we can’t.

We need to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. We need Him to help us ‘step outside the box’ of believing we are bodies at the mercy of the world, and look at our identity as decision makers in our mind, choosing guilt or choosing forgiveness.

For the Course’s answers to the above questions (the what, where, and why of guilt), and practical insights into the process of letting guilt go, check out some of these Course references below…

[It is always helpful to remind ourselves that when the Course talks about ‘mind,’ it is not talking about the place in our bodies between our ears (the brain). It is however referring to a place, an experience deep within ourselves, where we are constantly choosing in any given moment between one of two inner guides or teachers, who help us interpret what we believe we see… the ego or the Holy Spirit.]

(1) What is guilt?

Ch.5, p.84 par.2-3… Belief in attack on God

If the ego is the symbol of the separation, it (the ego) is also the symbol of guilt. Guilt is more than merely not of God. It is the symbol of attack on God. This is a totally meaningless concept except to the ego, but do not underestimate the power of the ego’s belief in it. This is the belief from which all guilt really stems.

3 The ego is the part of the mind that believes in division (it is our own chosen, made-up, separated identity, at war with God). How could part of God detach itself without believing it is attacking Him? We spoke before of the authority problem as based on the concept of usurping God’s power. The ego believes that this is what you did because it believes that it is you (because we choose to believe the ego is us). If you identify with the ego (the thought of separation and sin), you must perceive yourself as guilty. Whenever you respond to your ego (as our guide) you will experience guilt, and you will fear punishment. The ego is quite literally a fearful thought. However ridiculous the idea of attacking God may be to the sane mind, never forget that the ego is not sane. It represents a delusional system, and speaks for it. Listening to the ego’s voice means that you believe it is possible to attack God (the sin we committed), and that a part of Him has been torn away by you (the guilt we feel). Fear of retaliation (the fear we will be punished) from without follows, because the severity of the guilt is so acute that it must be projected (onto the world).

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WB p.161 par.1; p.166 par. 2… Descriptions of ‘intense horror’ of ego’s guilt

You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible. (Les. 93)

You see yourself as a ridiculous parody on God’s creation; weak, vicious, ugly and sinful, miserable and beset with pain. Such is your version of yourself; a self divided into many warring parts, separate from God, and tenuously held together by its erratic and capricious maker, to which you pray. It does not hear your prayers, for it is deaf. It does not see the oneness in you, for it is blind. It does not understand you are the Son of God, for it is senseless and understands nothing. (Les. 95)

(2) Where is guilt hiding?

Ch.5, p.86 par. 8… Decision of the mind

8 The continuing decision (in the mind) to remain separated is the only possible reason for continuing guilt feelings. We have said this before, but did not emphasize the destructive results of the decision. Any decision of the mind will affect both behavior and experience. What you want you expect. This is not delusional. Your mind does make your future, and it will turn it back to full creation at any minute if it accepts the Atonement (our guiltlessness) first.

Ch.13, p.236 par.1-2… Acceptance of guilt into the mind

1 If you did not feel guilty you could not attack, for condemnation is the root of attack. It is the judgment of one mind by another as unworthy of love and deserving of punishment. But herein lies the split. For the mind that judges perceives itself as separate from the mind being judged, believing that by punishing another, it will escape punishment. All this is but the delusional attempt of the mind to deny itself (its oneness with other minds), and escape the penalty of denial. It is not an attempt to relinquish denial, but to hold on to it. For it is guilt that has obscured the Father to you, and it is guilt that has driven you insane.

Projected onto the World…

2 The acceptance of guilt into the mind of God’s Son was the beginning of the separation, as the acceptance of the Atonement is its end. The world you see (which is projected from our mind’s choice for guilt) is the delusional system of those made mad by guilt. Look carefully at this world, and you will realize that this is so. For this world is the symbol of punishment, and all the laws that seem to govern it are the laws of death. Children are born into it through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. They seem to love, yet they desert and are deserted. They appear to lose what they love, perhaps the most insane belief of all. And their bodies wither and gasp and are laid in the ground, and are no more. Not one of them but has thought that God is cruel (and guilty too).

Ch.13, p. 261 par.6… Always in your mind

6 See no one, then, as guilty, and you will affirm the truth of guiltlessness unto yourself. In every condemnation that you offer the Son of God lies the conviction of your own guilt. If you would have the Holy Spirit make you free of it, accept His offer of Atonement for all your brothers. For so you learn that it is true for you. Remember always that it is impossible to condemn the Son of God in part. Those whom you see as guilty become the witnesses to guilt in you, and you will see it there, for it is there until it is undone. Guilt is always in your mind, which has condemned itself. Project it not, for while you do, it cannot be undone. 

For more Course references on

(3) ‘Why’ we need to look at guilt?

(4)  ‘How’ do we look at it?

see…

“Guilt, Part Two”

(click here)

 

 

For Ken Wapnick CD sets (or MP3 downloads) on realizing and releasing guilt…

(click here)

 

(click here)

Replay of  SFACIM Class on…

Chap. 13: Introduction and Section 1

click here

 

Musings: “Projection Makes Perception”

PROJECTION & PERCEPTION:

Projection is the fundamental law of the wrong (ego) mind: what we unconsciously believe we see inwardly (separation from God) determines what we seem to perceive outside our minds in the world. Projection reinforces and protects our inner unacknowledged guilt for believing we separated from Heaven, by displacing (projecting) that guilt onto someone or something else in the world, and then judging/condemning that guilt in our perceived victimizers.

We then are unaware that we even have a mind, and that the actual source of our projected guilt is lurking there. We don’t realize that the problem (guilt) is not out there, but within our mind. And we also don’t realize that the Answer (the Holy Spirit) to the made up guilt is in our minds too.

Projection is talked about in 22 of the 31 Chapters in the Text. It is mentioned and discussed more than 140 times throughout the entire Course, beginning in Chapter One.

The first real discussion of projection is in Chap. 6.

(p. 96, par.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 12)

Chapter 6: The Lessons of Love

II. The Alternative to Projection

1 Any split in mind must involve a rejection of part of it, and this is the belief in separation. The wholeness of God, which is His peace, cannot be appreciated except by a whole mind that recognizes the wholeness of God’s creation. By this recognition it knows its Creator. Exclusion and separation are synonymous, as are separation and dissociation. We have said before that the separation was and is dissociation, and that once it occurs projection becomes its main defense, or the device that keeps it going. The reason, however, may not be so obvious as you think.

2 What you project you disown, and therefore do not believe is yours. You are excluding yourself by the very judgment that you are different from the one on whom you project. Since you have also judged against what you project, you continue to attack it because you continue to keep it separated. By doing this unconsciously, you try to keep the fact that you attacked yourself out of awareness, and thus imagine that you have made yourself safe.

3 Yet projection will always hurt you. It reinforces your belief in your own split mind, and its only purpose is to keep the separation going. It is solely a device of the ego to make you feel different from your brothers and separated from them. The ego justifies this on the grounds that it makes you seem “better” than they are, thus obscuring your equality with them still further. Projection and attack are inevitably related, because projection is always a means of justifying attack. Anger without projection is impossible. The ego uses projection only to destroy your true perception of both yourself and your brothers. The process begins by excluding something that exists in you but which you do not want, and leads directly to excluding you from your brothers.

 

 

The second ‘projection’ discussion in the Course is in Chap. 7.

(p. 128, par. 8-9, and p. 129, par. 1 to 5)

Chapter 7: The Gifts of the Kingdom

VIII. The Unbelievable Belief

1 We have said that without projection there can be no anger, but it is also true that without extension there can be no love. These reflect a fundamental law of the mind, and therefore one that always operates. It is the law by which you create and were created. It is the law that unifies the Kingdom, and keeps it in the Mind of God. To the ego, the law is perceived as a means of getting rid of something it does not want. To the Holy Spirit, it is the fundamental law of sharing, by which you give what you value in order to keep it in your mind. To the Holy Spirit it is the law of extension. To the ego it is the law of deprivation. It therefore produces abundance or scarcity, depending on how you choose to apply it. This choice is up to you, but it is not up to you to decide whether or not you will utilize the law. Every mind must project or extend, because that is how it lives, and every mind is life.

2 The ego’s use of projection must be fully understood before the inevitable association between projection and anger can be finally undone. The ego always tries to preserve conflict. It is very ingenious in devising ways that seem to diminish conflict, because it does not want you to find conflict so intolerable that you will insist on giving it up. The ego therefore tries to persuade you that it can free you of conflict, lest you give the ego up and free yourself. Using its own warped version of the laws of God, the ego utilizes the power of the mind only to defeat the mind’s real purpose. It projects conflict from your mind to other minds, in an attempt to persuade you that you have gotten rid of the problem.

3 There are two major errors involved in this attempt. First, strictly speaking, conflict cannot be projected because it cannot be shared. Any attempt to keep part of it and get rid of another part does not really mean anything. Remember that a conflicted teacher is a poor teacher and a poor learner. His lessons are confused, and their transfer value is limited by his confusion. The second error is the idea that you can get rid of something you do not want by giving it away. Giving it is how you keep it. The belief that, by seeing it (guilt) outside you have excluded it from within, is a complete distortion of the power of extension (love and forgiveness). That is why those who project are vigilant for their own safety. They are afraid that their projections will return and hurt them. Believing they have blotted their projections from their own minds, they also believe their projections are trying to creep back in. Since the projections have not left their minds, they are forced to engage in constant activity in order not to recognize this.

4 You cannot perpetuate an illusion about another without perpetuating it about yourself. There is no way out of this, because it is impossible to fragment the mind. To fragment is to break into pieces, and mind cannot attack or be attacked. The belief that it can, an error the ego always makes, underlies its whole use of projection. It does not understand what mind is, and therefore does not understand what you are. Yet its existence is dependent on your mind, because the ego is your belief. The ego is a confusion in identification. Never having had a consistent model, it never developed consistently. It is the product of the misapplication of the laws of God by distorted minds that are misusing their power.

5 Do not be afraid of the ego. It depends on your mind, and as you made it by believing in it, so you can dispel it by withdrawing belief from it. Do not project the responsibility for your belief in the ego onto anyone else, or you will preserve the belief (in your own ego). When you are willing to accept sole responsibility for the ego’s existence you will have laid aside all anger and all attack, because they come from an attempt to project responsibility for your own errors. But having accepted the errors as yours, do not keep them. Give them over quickly to the Holy Spirit to be undone completely, so that all their effects will vanish from your mind and from the Sonship as a whole.

The purpose of projection is twofold. To put it simply:

  1. We maintain unconsciously our own chosen belief we are a separated entity from God Our Father, proven by the made up experience of pain and guilt we feel for the seeming disconnect from Heaven…

  2. Then we project (displace) the source of pain outward, and now we believe the pain we still feel is not coming from my inner choice to be separate, but from a guilty someone or something external to me. It’s then their fault, not mine.

 So the belief in separation and its corresponding feelings of guilt and pain are maintained internally, but now I don’t know (1) I have a mind where the pain is really coming from, and I am not aware (2) that the Holy Spirit in my mind can and will help me let go of that belief in separation from God and all my brothers, which was the made-up source of my pain and guilt.

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Classic Course statements about projection & perception:

“Projection makes perception.” Ch.13 p. 248, par. 3; Ch.21 p.445 par.1*

“Nothing so blinding as perception of form.” Ch. 22 p.476, par.6*

“Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.” T 21 p.445 par.1

“Beware of the temptation to perceive yourself unfairly treated.” Tp.563

“And in your suffering of any kind, you see your own concealed desire to kill.” Tp.659 par.15

From our friend Bob Rye on perception on Les. 43:

God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.

This is a long and important lesson (in the first 50 lessons).  It deals with perception vs. knowledge, the Holy Spirit being the mediator between the two.  Thus it is the key to  forgiveness. To me the most impressive statement in this lesson is that “in salvation, which is the undoing of what never was, perception has a mighty purpose. Made by the Son of God for an unholy purpose, it must become the means  for the restoration of holiness to his awareness. . . The Holy Spirit gives it meaning very close to  God’s.  Healed perception becomes the means by which the Son of God forgives His brother, and thus forgives himself.”  This is a wonderful articulation of the heart of A Course in Miracles. To grasp this is to grasp the essence of this further teaching of Jesus. I cannot really see apart from God because I have been locked into perception “which is not an attribute of God/” Therefore the Holy Spirit, the mediator, must heal my perception and turn it to seeing as God sees. This is an extremely important exercise. It will move me forward significantly in my journey home.

 

 

 See Ken Wapnick’s 3 CD set, Mp3 download, Book or E-book…

for further discussion on learning how to take our projections less seriously.

“Taking the Ego Lightly:

Protecting Our Projections” 

(click here)

This 2013 seminar discusses the dismantling of the ego’s serious thought system of sin, guilt, and fear. This is held in place by our projecting a serious world—personally and collectively—its purpose being to rivet our attention on the body. In this way we are distracted from the decision-making mind that is the source of the problem and the answer. But the ego is easily undone when we pay attention to the gentle little man (symbol for Jesus) just in back of us, always reminding us to laugh at his joke: “It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity… .” His loving presence encourages us to meet the ego’s seriousness—in all its forms—with a gentle giggle, tender tickle, and sweet smile.

(This is the last seminar Ken did before making his transition in Dec. 2013… and in that sense it is his last message to us in form.)

 

Musings… A Course in Miracles & 12 Step Recovery

 

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.

 

A Course in Miracles - combined volume - hardbound - English

 

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

 

 

 

PICS: ACIM Revival… Labor Day Retreat 2024, Colorado Springs, Co.

To see each picture more clearly, double-click on each image…

  

  

 

 

 

ACIM In-Person Retreat/Revival

* A Revival of  Our Awareness as God’s One Son.

** A Revival of Our Everyday Dedication to Forgiveness as A Path to Peace.

*** A Revival of Our Everyday Commitment to Include Everyone and Everything in that Process of Forgiveness.

Labor Day Weekend 2024…

Aug. 30, 2024: Fri. @ 2pm 

thru…

Sept. 2, 2024: Mon. @ noon .

 @ The Franciscan Center

Colorado Springs, Colorado

(In the foothills of The Rockies)

This  retreat is only open to folks who

(1) are already passionate about the Course,

(2) use Ken Wapnick and his teachings on ACIM as their primary ACIM teacher, and

(3) are working the Course’s forgiveness process everyday already.

That could be for any amount of time… from the last two  months to the last twenty years or more.

—————

This retreat is not for people recently introduced to ACIM.

See sfacim.org for online introductory classes on ACIM.

** Our approach to A Course in Miracles can be quite different than other Course groups and teachers. All of our classes and events are based on Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s books, teachings, and seminars on ACIM. So please visit our online classes first before registering… Thanks!

 7740 Deer Hill Grove, Colorado Springs, CO 80919

The ACIM Retreat is four days long, with three overnights and eight meals included (Fri. at 2pm thru Mon. @ noon).

Retreat fees will include room for three nights, eight meals, and program)  … depending on  single or double room occupancy. 

The program will include large group sessions on the daily lessons and  smaller breakout  sessions on chosen ACIM topics.

——–

 

 $669 single, $569 each in double

 (Limited scholarship funds have been donated...please request if needed.)

——-

** Our approach to A Course in Miracles can be quite different than other Course groups and teachers. All of our classes and events are based on Dr. Kenneth Wapnick’s books, teachings, and seminars on ACIM. So please visit our online classes first before registering… Thanks!

——-

We only have rooms for about 20 people, so please register early in order to reserve a place. 

 

Double Room ($569) with two twin beds per room: includes three overnights, eight meals and four day program:



 

 

Single Room ($669): includes three overnights, eight meals, and four day program…



Most bedrooms have their own bathroom. A few rooms share one bathroom with only the one bedroom next to it.

——

There are vegetarian meals (dairy and fish included) and  gluten- free meals available upon request … when you register text Tim to let him know 720-391-9294.

Salad bar is normally available at lunches and dinners.

But please bring some supplemental food for yourself if you are on a special diet.

There are two refrigerators available for our use during the retreat… one is in a small kitchen on the basement floor of Marian Hall (the building where our bedrooms are located), and another refrigerator is in our large Woodmen meeting room in Francis Place bldg.

 

(Francis Place)

(Marian Hall)

Please specify if you need a bedroom on the first floor if you have difficulty doing steps  (text Tim @ 720 391 9294).

*The Franciscan Center does not have elevators. The Woodmen meeting room and  Franciscan Center cafeteria are both on the ground floor.

The Marian Hall bedrooms provide fans but do not have air conditioning. Our large meeting room and the cafeteria do have AC if needed.

New Franciscan Center Rules for Refunds:

Refunds for the full amount are available for cancellations up to 60 days before the retreat starts,  and refunds for half the amount are available up to three weeks before the retreat starts.

No refund can be given for anything less than three weeks notice before the retreat starts.