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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Musings: Six Stages of Developing Trust in The Holy Spirit

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Six Stages (or Steps) on

The Ladder of the Development of Trust

… from The Manual p.9-11

(Start at bottom of this post with #1 “The Undoing”… and then move up the ladder to the top at #6 “Achievement”)

6) Period of Achievement: The Real World…we ‘go Holy Instant’, and stay there. This is what the Manual calls “advanced teachers of God”. This is when the nine other characteristics of God’s Teachers automatically become part of us. We then share our awareness of the sameness of God’s Son with all persons and all things in all situations.

5) Period of Unsettling: Dark night of the soul… Ken says it’s when all hell breaks loose. We begin to realize that our own belief in an ‘individual self’ is still holding back our awakening to our true Self . It is similar to lesson 93, when we realize that we still are holding on to a not-self of “evil, darkness and sin.” We are learning to lay all judgements aside…in every circumstance, even about who we think we are (at this stage, a decision maker who could choose the something else of an ego).

4) Period of Settling Down: Time of “reasonable peace”… we have learned that asking Jesus for help not only hasn’t killed us or even taken anything away, but we are actually feeling pretty good and hopeful, being able to ask for his vision whenever things push our buttons again. It’s the calm before the storm, or the eye of the hurricane.

3) Period of Relinquishment: Giving up what doesn’t work… we are starting to see that things that used to seem valuable to us, like getting the stuff we thought we wanted (special love), and blaming and judging others (special hate) and keeping away what we don’t want, may not really be working for us. But we are not quite ready to give some of that up. So there can be a sense of sacrifice during this time. What we really learn to relinquish is not stuff or certain behaviors, but we simply let go of keeping Jesus and his perception of us and the world out of our awareness.

2) Period of Sorting Out: Learning what’s valuable, what isn’t…by asking Jesus to help us see that we are not upset or temporarily happy for the reason we think. We used to think certain things/people caused us pain or pleasure, and then the inevitable pain when the other shoe dropped. Now we are beginning to see that what only brings us true peace is inviting  Jesus into our awareness, to help us look at our misplaced investments (distractions). 

1) Period of Undoing: Changing teachers… from the ego’s ladder that goes nowhere (“lookin for luv in all the wrong places”), we get on the ladder of the Holy Spirit that takes us back to the right mind. We ask Jesus for help to be our new teacher.

Recent Replay of Course & Coffee Chat on the six stages of trust: 

 

(click here)

“No pain, no gain… Really?”

 

What is pain? What’s it for?

Did God really do this to us?

 

Watching the news last night really brought home to me how much relentless pain the planet seems to be in… both here, and abroad.

And then there is our own personal pain: physical, emotional, psychological… sometimes in spurts, at times chronic… sometimes mild, sometimes horrific.

Is it possible to somehow transcend all this stuff, and move beyond it into our true being and into a higher awareness, without being uncompassionate, uncaring, and disconnected?

A Course in Miracles discusses pain throughout the entire book, using words like suffering and pain more than 600 times. Two sections, that spend a lot of time looking at pain and its purpose, are “The (Our) Attraction to Pain” in Chapter 19, and Lessons 190, 193, 194, & 195 in the Workbook.

One of the most humiliating (to our egos anyway) and sometimes downright infuriating things that Jesus tells us about pain is this… It’s not that we don’t like pain or try to avoid it, but we are actually attracted to it. Really?

It gets worse… He continues with statements like:  “In your suffering of any kind, you see your own concealed desire to kill.” (Text, p.659, par.15)

Ok, wait… back up…if that’s even possibly true: what, how…  why ??

From Jesus point of view, pain is the great and grand witness to our supposed separation from Our Father. It screams our separated selves are real, and proves it by loudly proclaiming “I’m real, I exist, because look how much pain I’m in!”

(First off, don’t be a martyr. Even Mother Teresa said, if you’re in pain, take your medicine if you wish to. Jesus concurs. If you have a headache, or whatever, take an aspirin, take a walk, or do what makes you feel better. It would be silly not to.)

Unconscious pain permeates all three parts of our make-believe “Disconnect from Heaven” story of sin, guilt, and fear… each component of that saga can at least be described as incredibly painful.. the separation from Source (sin), the feeling of awfulness (guilt), and the sweat of terror of impending doom (fear).

[Click here for the Course story of how we believe we got here, into the world as bodies.]

But what if the pain was simply made up to reinforce the seeming reality of the story. We are God’s Son after all, and our cosmic make-believe might not only seem actually real, but so real that we even convinced ourselves to believe it… especially by adding the element of pain to the drama…

“If God is real, there is no pain. If pain is real , there is no God.”

(WB#190, par. 3)

 

 

Ok, ok… we sorta get the metaphysics, but what do we do now? How do we start to ‘undo’ this whole thing?

When I began working the lessons way back when, I realized one of my problems was… I didn’t consciously believe any of the Lesson titles. For example take one of the the first in-your-face lessons, WB #5 … “I am never upset for the reason I think.” Not maybe, not sometimes, but never.

Seriously? I’m always upset for the reason I think… that’s why I’m upset in the first place. I wouldn’t be upset if it were not for… ok, whatever. At least I can admit that’s what I believe. But, like Byron Katie always says in her sessions with others… “Is that true?”

So to start,  I put a what if  in front of the lesson (and actually all Lesson titles)… What if  I’m not upset for the reason I think? Am I even a little willing to go there? Some part of me says yes. That at least opens the door for me to look at maybe another possibility.

 

So, what then might be the real reason I’m upset? This is when we/I definitely need to ask Jesus for help to be able  to ‘see outside the box.’ My ego experience has always locked me in to blaming others for my pain… sometime myself or my own behavior, but mostly others.

What if I’m upset, in pain, feeling terrible physically or psychologically… simply because I’ve dropped Jesus hand, left my Father in Heaven, and am pretending I’m this separated thing that can feel pain and eventually die?  And I’m blaming something or somebody else for the pain I see and feel.

Would I even be willing to entertain the possibility that I made this up?

Another reason we really need Jesus or the Holy Spirit’s help when looking at this is… not only do we not believe it, but it’s really ego-easy to begin beating ourselves up if we did choose something this stupid…. Now I’m not only in pain, plus now I’m blaming myself for creating this mess in the first place… a double whammy ! I hear myself begin the ego litany… “Bad Course student, bad… !”

 

But then, if I’m willing to listen to another voice, and change ‘course,’ I feel Jesus gently saying to me…

Stop… stop. Look at me; talk to me. Sit with me for a while… let me help you experience something else, something wonderful. I love you. Softly, listen… you are not this separated-alone-self  in pain. You and I are connected… to each other, and to everyone else. We always are, we always will be. Be willing to feel this… God is loving us now!

Suddenly, as if someone threw a switch, I’m in a lot less pain, and I’m not as crazed as I was a moment before…

Jesus doesn’t tell me ‘no pain, no gain’…. he simply says ‘no pain… no pain.‘

 

 

For further discussion of pain and specifically the line from Lesson #190,

“Peace to Such Foolishness,” on Ken Wapnick’s CD set or MP3 download: click here.

 

The Gifts of God Prose Poem

The Gifts of God Prose Poem was the last of dictated messages to Helen Schucman from Jesus. It is contained at the end of a collection of poetry by Helen, also called by the same title,

The Gifts of God.

(click here to purchase)

The year was 1978. The Course had already been taken down by Helen Schucman and was published. The two Course pamphlets (Psychotherapy & Song of Prayer) were also already scribed, between 1975 and 1977.

It was a cold, snowy February weekend  in New York City… and Ken Wapnick was scheduled to head out of the Big Apple on a train for a couple days, to a Catholic center (about 30 miles north) to do some counseling work. Helen was terrified that Ken would be hurt, or worse, in an impending snowstorm. She had already talked him out of going the previous weekend for the same reason, and Ken dutifully said that this time he had to go, and he did. Helen had herself so worked-up about it, that her conscious fear became over-the-top and out of control. Later, by 3am in the middle of the night, she decided to finally talk to Jesus about it.

What then developed, over a three month period thru April of ’78, were Jesus messages to help her walk thru…  not the distracting conscious fear about Ken’s safety, but the real underlying fear (hers and ours) of simply letting go of separation and being with Jesus. These messages were collectively put together in what today is known as the Gifts of God Prose Poem.

The best description of this process, and a great discussion by Ken Wapnick on the contents of this piece, is Ken’s ten CD set/MP3 download:

“The Gift of the Ego (Fear) vs The Gift of God (Love)”  

Click here for info.

The Gifts of God Prose Poem contains five sections (on 14 pages):

  1. The Dream of Fear
  2. The Two Gifts
  3. The Ending of The Dream
  4. Our Gift to God
  5. The Father’s Love

 

The Prose Poem is a beautifully written synopsis of the entire Course,  with all its verses in Shakespearean iambic pentameter. For best understanding, it is recommended and helpful to have some clear previous study of the Course’s basic metaphysics, prior to reading and applying the poem’s teachings to our lives.

However The Gifts of God Prose Poem is an insightful capstone to the Course itself, and resonates with all Course students as an incredible addendum that wonderfully crowns A Course in Miracles.

 

 

Also, for a complete discussion of the entire Prose Poem by the School for ACIM, visit the SFACIM’s replay series on this amazing literary work of art…

and the expression of Jesus’ love for us in it:

click here

 

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

 

Yet our own redemption is done already, 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!

This Thurs.  11/23   @ 10am Mountain Time   

Special Online Thanksgiving Celebration 

with Tim & Lyn 

click here

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…

Six Month Online

The Immersion 2024

click here for info

 

Musings… How Could the Separation Ever Have Happened??

 


(by Tim Wise)

In the 1980’s the Talking Heads rock group had a song that kept repeating the line… “Well, how did I get here?”

Probably the most often question ever asked by both new and ongoing Course students is this: How did we/why would we ever leave the oneness and the peace of Heaven, and then separate into something else… if oneness is our true reality. 

What is the Course’s short and quick answer to “How did the impossible happen?”… It didn’t!

 

 

There are actually three ways the Course approaches and doesn’t answer this ego-based inquiry:

(1) It’s An Assertion, Not a Question

1) It’s not really an innocent question, the Course explains, but rather a statement masquerading as a question. We have already wrongly defined ourselves as separated beings. Now we are similar to two year olds throwing a fit and stamping our feet, insisting on something not real or helpful. We are demanding an explanation from God as to how that exodus from Heaven took place. As with any loving and caring father dealing with a tantrum, there’s not a lot He can say… but simply quietly wait for the tantrum to stop.   (Text: p. 376, par.4  &  The Quiet Answer p. 574-6)

“Who asks you to define the ego and explain how it arose can be but he who thinks it real, and seeks by definition to ensure that its illusive nature is concealed behind the words that seem to make it so” (Man. p. 81 par. 2).

 

 (2) It’s Not Only in the Past- It’s Happening Now Too!

2) At one point Jesus said to Bill Thetford, when Bill asked him about how the separation happened… “why are you asking about something that seemingly happened in the past (The Big Separation from God), when you believe you are doing it right now?” In any given moment there is only one of two thoughts being projected into our awareness in time and space… either separation (and it’s not our fault), or forgiveness (the Course’s Atonement principle which says separation never did happen, and isn’t happening even now). That all solely depends on which internal teacher we are choosing in this very second, the ego or the Holy Spirit. (Text p.85, par. 6 & p.179, par. 11-12)

“It is reasonable to ask how the mind could ever have made the ego. In fact, it is the best question you could ask. (Because, the ‘best’ answer is…. it din’t.) There is, however, no point in giving an answer in terms of the past because the past does not matter, and history would not exist if the same errors were not being repeated in the present” (Ch. 4, p. 56, Sec. II, par. 1).

 

 

(3) Ask for An Experience, Not An Explanation

3) And finally the most comforting description of this process of addressing this belief… Jesus says that when we practice forgiveness in our minds with others and ourselves, this question/belief will simply fade away, into the unreality from which it came. In other words, an experience of our true connection and identity as one Son of God is the direct result of forgiveness. We will know the disconnect never happened, despite the separated images we still seem to see. Then the question “well, how did I get here” becomes irrelevant, and we totally lose our investment in needing an impossible answer to a silly question. The simple answer to the question “how did the the separation ever happen?” is… it didn’t.     (Manual p. 77, par. 3-4)

“The ego will demand many answers that this course does not give. It does not recognize as questions the mere form of a question to which an answer is impossible. The ego may ask, ‘How did the impossible occur?’, ‘To what did the impossible happen?’, and may ask this in many forms. Yet there is no answer; only an experience. Seek only this, and do not let theology delay you.” (Man. p. 77 par.4)

 

https://youtu.be/_lQYJCYIIsA

For further discussion of our ‘leaving Heaven’

see Ken Wapnick’s CD set or MP3 download on

“The Four Splits” (click here),

——————————–

For an SFACIM post on the ‘way back’ to Heaven thru

“The 3 Steps of Forgiveness”:  click here

 

 

Course References on Death and Dying:

“There is no death, the Son of God is free…”

27. WHAT IS DEATH?

Manual p.66

1 Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. This is regarded as “the way of nature,” not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the “natural” law of life. 

————————————

 Text, Chapter 23, p.493, par.19

19 There is no life outside of Heaven. Where God created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true. 

——————————-

WB Lesson 163, p.309

There is no death. The Son of God is free.

 1 Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized. It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are but reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and as giver of release.

The idea of the death of God is so preposterous that even the insane have difficulty in believing it. For it implies that God was once alive and somehow perished; killed, apparently, by those who did not want Him to survive…

Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything. We live and move in You alone. We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your Will. 

—————————————-

28. WHAT IS THE RESURRECTION?

Manual p.68

1 Very simply, the resurrection is the overcoming or surmounting of death. It is a re-awakening or a rebirth; a change of mind about the meaning of the world. 

2 The resurrection is the denial of death, being the assertion of life. 

There is no death. The Son of God is free.

———————————————

Text, Chapter 19: The Attainment of Peace

C. The Third Obstacle to Peace: The Attraction of Death, p.416

1 To you and your brother, in whose special relationship the Holy Spirit entered, it is given to release and be released from the dedication to death. For it was offered you, and you accepted. Yet you must learn still more about this strange devotion, for it contains the third obstacle that peace must flow across… What seems to be the fear of death is really its attraction.

 7 Those who fear death see not how often and how loudly they call to it, and bid it come to save them from communication. For death is seen as safety, the great dark savior from the light of truth, the answer to the Answer, the silencer of the Voice That speaks for God. Yet the retreat to death is not the end of conflict. Only God’s Answer is its end. The obstacle of your seeming love for death that peace must flow across seems to be very great. For in it lie hidden all the ego’s secrets, all its strange devices for deception, all its sick ideas and weird imaginings. Here is the final end of union, the triumph of the ego’s making over creation, the victory of lifelessness on Life Itself.

 

D. The Fourth Obstacle: The Fear of God, p.420

1 What would you see without the fear of death? What would you feel and think if death held no attraction for you? Very simply, you would remember your Father…

4 See how the belief in death would seem to “save” you. For if this were gone, what could you fear but life? It is the attraction of death that makes life seem to be ugly, cruel and tyrannical. You are no more afraid of death than of the ego. These are your chosen friends. For in your secret alliance with them (death and the ego) you have agreed never to let the fear of God be lifted, so you could look upon the face of Christ and join Him in His Father…

… The exaltation of the body is given up in favor of the spirit, which you love as you could never love the body. And the appeal of death is lost forever as love’s attraction stirs and calls to you. From beyond each of the obstacles to love (and peace), Love Itself has called.

Also see:

*Workbook, Les. 167, p.318-319:

“You think that death is of the body. Yet it is but an idea (in the mind)… Death is the thought that you are separate from your Creator… What seems to be the opposite of life (in Heaven) is merely sleeping.”

*Song of Prayer Pamphlet, Part 3. Healing:

Sec.I p.16, par. 1-2

Sec. II p.17-18, par.1-5 (including…)

“This is what death should be; a quiet choice, made joyfully and with a sense of peace, because the body has been kindly used to help the Son of God along the way he goes to God. We thank the body, then, for all the service it has given us.

But we are thankful, too, the need is done to walk the world of limits, and to reach the Christ in hidden forms and clearly seen at  most in lovely flashes. Now we can behold Him without the blinders, in the light that we have learned to look upon again. — We call it death, but it is liberty. It does not come in forms that seem to be thrust down in pain upon unwilling flesh, but as a gentle welcome to release.

 

If there has been true healing, this can be the form in which death comes when it is time to rest a while from labor gladly done and gladly ended. Now we go in peace to freer air and gentler climate, where it is not hard to see the gifts we gave were saved for us. For Christ is clearer now; His vision more sustained in us; His Voice, the Word of God, more certainly our own. — Death is reward and not a punishment. But such a viewpoint must be fostered by the healing that the world cannot conceive.”(S-3.II.2:1-4/3:1-5/5:5-6)

For Further Discussion

on Death & Dying

by Ken Wapnick:

(Click on pictures below for info)

 

 

SFACIM YouTube Channel: Video on “Collusion”

 

Video on “Collusion with The Ego”

(click here)

 

 

School for A Course in Miracles

 

School for A Course in Miracles - logo

SFACIM YouTube Channel: 

(click here)

… Be sure to click on the “VIDEOS” link at the top of SFACIM YouTube page to see the list of  replays of videos and chats available from the School on many Course topics !

If you can, please donate a few bucks after watching replays… to help keep alive and growing the School for ACIM, our website , and more video replays coming… Thanks!

 

You can donate here:


If you don’t see yellow “Donate” link above, click here for link

 

Also be sure to check out the brief but insightful

Kenneth Wapnick videos on YouTube !

 

Celebrating The First 10 Years of School for A Course in Miracles

EXTENDING THE MESSAGE OF

“PEACE THROUGH FORGIVENESS”

 

Hello, Friends of A Course in Miracles:

Our School for A Course in Miracles was founded in 2007 as School of Reason. The name was later changed to School for A Course in Miracles as it more accurately expresses what we are about. The school is the teaching order of the Ark of Peace, a 501(c)3 non-profit, established in 1990 for the purpose of sharing the Course’s teachings of “peace through forgiveness”.

 

Here are some of the accomplishments in our first 10 years.

  • An outstanding website www.sfacim.org. As you visit it you will see a beautiful, well-organized site, filled with extensive written, audio and video materials on the Course. Updated daily, you can always find current events and classes.
  • 100’s of classes, numerous workshops and retreats, and five 6-month long Course Immersions in the study and application of Course principles.
  • A prolific Ken Wapnick Library, which has provided local Denver Course students with thousands of hours of listening to renown scholar Dr. Kenneth Wapnick as he illuminates the teachings of ACIM.
  • Weekly on-line classes offered through our new technology – Zoom Online Classrooms.
  • Mentoring sessions – a choice of 30 or 60 minutes – for those times when you feel stuck and can’t see a way out.
  • New technology that is expanding our access to students anywhere in the world. Course Immersion 2017 was attended by students in-person and online in Colorado, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The good news is that the technology has not impaired but broadened our School’s teaching/learning process.
  • The transformation of students into teachers of God, defined by the Course as those who understand and demonstrate the practice of forgiveness and share Jesus’ aim of healing the mind.
  • Four faculty members with over 120 years of combined education and application of Course teachings illuminated by thousands of hours studying with Course scholar, Kenneth Wapnick, Phd. Our teaching is consistent, focused and simple, imbued with certainty and conviction that it works. The benefits to students is accelerated learning and experience.

 

 

 

 

It appears to be a good time for us to think about extending the message of A Course in Miracles. The message is very simple: “God’s Son is guiltless.” To learn and experience the truth of this statement we must teach (demonstrate) it. And to teach it we must learn to forgive. Forgiveness is the way to peace.

From Jesus and his Course, and from Ken Wapnick (scholar, teacher and true helper) and his teachings on the Course, the facilitators of SFACIM have received an outstanding education. Now we are being nudged to expand our reach and make this same education more available to earnest students wherever they may be. Coincidentally, there is nothing we as Course facilitators would rather do than carry this message.

Moving forward, we want to build a firmer financial foundation on which to operate Jesus’ and Ken’s, yours and ours, and ultimately everyone’s school. We hope to move forward with the assurance that we can do so with minimum financial concern. Furthermore, we want there to be champions of the idea of “peace through forgiveness” in this world for as long as it is needed.

As a student, or someone who has been affected by A Course in Miracles, perhaps we speak for you as well. If so please join, help, or support the School for ACIM in any way you feel moved.

Click here to find out how you can help…

Sincerely,

Lyn Corona,

Director of School for A Course in Miracles

Have Retreat, Will Travel

School for A Course in Miracles - for students and aspiring teachers of A Course in Miracles (logo masthead)

Have Retreat, Will Travel:

The School for A Course in Miracles would be happy to send two or thee of its facilitators to conduct a retreat for a few days, anywhere in the world, if you can put together a group of at least 15 folks who would attend a Course Retreat. Our three Course facilitators have over 100 years collectively of studying, practicing, and teaching the Course. Call Tim (720 391 9294) or Lyn  (303 880 7713) for details…

 

 

On Resistance to The Course… By Ken & Gloria Wapnick

Foundation for A Course In Miracles

 Lighthouse Newsletter: Volume 10   Number 2   June 1999


RESISTANCE

(To Doing The Course)


How One Studies A Course in Miracles Without Really Learning It,

by Gloria Wapnick
and Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D.

Although the term resistance appears infrequently in A Course in Miracles, it is nonetheless a key concept in the process of students learning the mind-changing lessons of forgiveness that are the Course’s central teaching. Indeed, it is the only concept that can satisfactorily explain a phenomenon experienced by most (if not all) students of the Course at some point or another in their work with it. This is the seeming paradox, on the one hand, of consciously and most sincerely attempting to learn, live, and practice the Course principles under the guidance of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, while on the other hand, experiencing the ongoing frustration of not doing just that. Most spiritual seekers are familiar with the famous words of St. Paul, who exclaimed out of this same sense of frustration: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). This article explores the issue of resistance in Course students’ efforts to put into practice its principles of forgiveness as taught by their Inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit.

As with so many other areas that touch on the process of healing in A Course in Miracles, the work of Sigmund Freud offers us many parallels which underscore the importance of understanding the dynamics of the problem and its solution. Very early in his psychoanalytic work, Freud observed that his patients were not improving, despite the insights he was offering them as to the cause of their neurosis. It eventually dawned on him that the problem lay in the fact that the patients did not want to get better, a dynamic he termed resistance:

…the [therapeutic] situation led me at once to the theory that by means of my psychical  [i.e., psychological] work I had to overcome a psychical force in the patients which was opposed to the pathogenic ideas becoming conscious…. This work of overcoming resistances is the essential function of analytic treatment…. (Studies on Hysteria by Freud (with J. Breuer), 1893, Vol. II, p. 268; Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1917, Vol. XVI, p. 451).(1)

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From The Lighthouse: An Anthology [BOOK]