A Discussion of The Holy Spirit

(by Tim)

The phrase Holy Spirit is used

more than nine hundred times in the book A Course in Miracles.

Then there are countless references to the Holy Spirit, such as Him, Himself, Whom, Whose, etc. Not to mention hundreds of other Course names also describe Him… including Counselor, Appointed Friend, and Voice for God.

So who is this “masked man?” Is He even a person as such? And why is there so much emphasis on Him in the Course?

Jesus tends to use many Christian terms in the Course; however he redefines them all in terms of how he sees us and the world and our purpose of letting go of our seemingly separated identity. This certainly includes how and how often he refers to the Holy Spirit (HS). In Chapter 5, sec.III titled “The Guide to Salvation,” Jesus makes these compelling statements:

“The Holy Spirit is the bridge for the transfer of perception to knowledge…”

“The Holy Spirit is the idea of healing. Being thought, the idea gains as it is shared.”

“The Holy Spirit is God’s Answer to the ego.”

^“The Holy Spirit is the Mediator between the interpretations of the ego and the knowledge of the spirit.”

“The ego is the symbol of separation, just as the Holy Spirit is the symbol of peace.”

“The Holy Spirit is the perfect Teacher. He uses only what your mind already (seemingly) understands to teach you that you (really) do not understand it.”

“Look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands.”

I recall many times Ken Wapnick would call the HS the ‘memory of God and God’s Son that we took with us into the separation.’ These new thoughts surrounding our view of the Holy Spirit extend and expand our traditional Christian experience of the HS as a dove at Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, or the the tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles in the upper room at Pentecost.

As we sit with and consider these Course ideas about the Holy Spirit, we begin to see and become open to an active, aware… experience of “something else,” something different and profound and transcending. The real answer to our own crying out…. “there must be another way,” than what we have been doing on our own, because it hasn’t really worked.

Our willingness and desire to “look as the Holy Spirit looks, and understand as He understands” starts to change the way we see and understand everything, especially ourselves.