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The Best Guide Ever To

A Course In Miracles

by Carol Howe

BY MASTER TEACHER CAROL HOWE

THE BEST GUIDE EVER TO A COURSE IN MIRACLES

© Carol HoweAll rights reserved. Published by See How Life Works

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The ContentsYour journey has begun! 1

Inner Peace Test 2

What is A Course In Miracles and what is a “miracle?” 3

What makes it different from other spiritual approaches? 4

How do I use it to get results? 5

How can A Course In Miracles help? 6

What form does this Course take? 7

What can I expect with A Course In Miracles? 8

So now what is this work entitled A Course In Miracles? 9

Why do I have to change my mind about my private thoughts? 10

What is in my mind that needs to change? 12

Our brains are like computers 13

How is a book going to fix my brain? 14

The Science Shows Us – When we change our minds, the body follows

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3 Laws that govern our inner experience of the world 16

How does A Course In Miracles accomplish its goal of changing our minds to become more peaceful?

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So what is this ego, what is it made of, and how did we build it? 22

How do I make this change and actually upgrade my beliefs? 24

The Key - the Practice of A Course In Miracles 25

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Your journey has begun!

In the course of my career I have helped thousands of people, from wall street bankers to stay-at-home mothers. No matter the external appearances of their lives - from living comfortably in a mansion to struggling to pay the apartment rent - they have one thing in common: fear and loneliness. Deep down and often unrecognized, almost all humans suffer from a sense of self-loathing, disconnection, and inadequacy. But it doesn’t have to be this way! I have seen countless people’s lives transform dramatically once they begin to change their minds and then, almost miraculously, external circumstances begin to improve.

They have happier relationships, addictions lose their appeal, they gravitate toward careers guided by their inner wisdom rather than what they feel they “should” be doing. Often the physical appearance shifts as they begin to fill with self-love and radiate the inner peace within them.

The best news is that finding inner peace isn’t for a select few, but a quality of experience obtainable by everyone. Imagine - feeling peaceful regardless of what’s happening in your life right now! You might have only $3 in your bank account and still feel great, or no special partner right now and feel truly adored. I know this sounds impossible, but it’s true and available to you no matter how your life is showing up now. Sadly today, most people don’t realize these wonderful possibilities and live in a state of inner conflict, depression and confusion. The #1 Google search at the beginning of this year was, “How to reduce stress,” which shows just how many people are struggling. Incidentally, I hope you will be comforted to know that many of the greatest spiritual leaders began their teaching after struggling greatly during the first part of their lives. But your struggle can now be over and life’s beautiful and rewarding options made available to you!

Please be assured that whether you’re just curious, have been familiar with the Course for a while, or are a practitioner of many years, you’ve come to the right place. I am very much looking forward to sharing this material with you, answering your most important questions about A Course In Miracles, clarifying exactly why it’s so important to your well-being, and how to practice it. Now, to move forward as effectively as possible toward your goal of a happier, more peaceful life, it’s helpful to take stock of where things are now. So here are some thoughts for reflection:

Welcome, my fellow

PARTNER IN PEACE!

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Inner Peace Test In our instant gratification world, we expect answers right away. A friend summed it up nicely, “Skip the labor pains and give me the baby!” You have questions and we have answers, so to clarify and make those answers meaningful, please consider this: How long would you last if, for a few days, you had no access to phones, TVs, computers, other electronic gadgets, drugs, snacking when you aren’t hungry, sex, alcohol, the drama of relationships, or the myriad other means we commonly use to avoid being quiet and alone with how we really feel?

“You must have noticed an outstanding characteristic of every end that the ego has as its own. When you have achieved it, it has not satisfied you. That is why the ego is forced to shift ceaselessly from one goal to another, so that you will continue to hope it can yet offer you something.”

— A Course In Miracles

You can see, if you take this experiment to heart, how dependent you are on addictions and distractions to divert your attention from how you really feel, and how you don’t even recognize them as such. You just consider these uncomfortable feelings normal, accepting them as a way of life. Unfortunately, like almost everyone, you have also presumed the pain and loneliness that drives our distractions to be inevitable.

Continuing with our experiment, somewhere you know you want real and lasting change. When you are honest with yourself, you realize you do want to be happy, to feel the power and confidence that comes from knowing you are always safe, always loved, and solely in charge of your happiness. Very likely, thus far, those things you’ve counted on for happiness and fulfillment have not consistently panned out, haven’t actually handled your upset. You want and deserve a peace that is not contingent on circumstances, that can be accessed any time and anywhere with a sigh of relief that currently escapes you most of the time.

Or perhaps you don’t think you are interested in peace of mind. You simply want your plan for a good life to work out, to remedy what seems to be missing, upsetting, boring, or depressing, something more exciting than your current typical experience. No matter what you call it, you’ve been looking for SOMETHING different from what you have now that actually certifiably leads to happiness and security. And here it is!

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An old Theosophic saying goes, “When the student is ready, the master will appear.” In this case, the master is the ancient wisdom of A Course In Miracles, providing answers to your unspoken questions and prayers. I have heard endless fascinating and unlikely tales about how the Course pops up right on schedule when a person is ready. Since you are here, this is your way of discovery and I am more than delighted you are joining us!

“Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way.”


What is A Course In Miracles and what is a “miracle?” A Course in Miracles is a set of three books - a text, a workbook of daily lessons and manual for teachers. It is referred to as a spiritual psychology and considered one of the best “spiritual technologies” in the world for shifting from a state of fear and anxiety to inner peace. Many of the greatest spiritual leaders today such as Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, Oprah, and the late Wayne Dyer have studied the Course on their spiritual journey.

I presume you would like to know what “miracles” actually are if you’re going to invest your time and attention in pursuit of them. Here is what they are not: a phenomena that seems to operate outside of natural law. For instance, turning water into wine. That is comparatively trivial and would not bring you the release from fear and pain you so long for and deserve. In A Course In Miracles, the miracle is a change of perception, a shift in the way you experience everything - people, situations, things - that allows you to directly experience the love that is always present, love that constitutes the substance of everything, regardless of form.

Many years ago, I had the good fortune of visiting with a man who was a major volunteer in Mother Teresa’s organization in Calcutta, India. As we discussed the truly horrible circumstances in which people live there, particularly those who are most abandoned and outcast, the poorest, the sickest, the starving and dying ones, I commented that it must be more than challenging to have to deal with such outrageous, extreme illness and poverty on a daily basis. He responded that, no, that was not at all the situation. She loved what she was doing and all those she ministered to because that horror is not what she saw. She was able to see beyond the wretched forms of ugly, sick bodies and relate directly to the loving presence that is always the eternal substance of everything and everyone. So rather than being depleted, she was enriched. I learned a lot from him!

Several years later, I had my own version of seeing beyond form. It was at the conclusion of a lovely weekend with a few friends meditating, processing, and releasing. I knew everyone well except a new boyfriend of one woman present. As we chatted over coffee on Sunday morning, all of a sudden I could “see” his holiness, his lovingness. I was stunned and enchanted. This is very difficult to explain in words. I was seeing something but not with my physical eyes since I was physically seeing his body sitting there drinking coffee and talking.

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It was not like seeing auras or waves of anything, but nevertheless, I was aware of comprehending something I had never witnessed before. Although my senses could hear and see him, that part faded into irrelevance because this loving presence, this holiness I was experiencing was so compelling and fulfilling and amazing, I never wanted it to end.

For a while I wondered, “Why him and not the others?” I now believe it was to make the point that whether my ego, personal perspective knew and admired him, or not, was entirely irrelevant because this love is everywhere, in everyone and miracles are the experiences of finally seeing that instead of having our awareness arrested at the level of form. When you can’t go beyond the form to the loving substance of everything, you will always feel bereft and lonely.

What makes it different from other spiritual approaches? A Course In Miracles is not a course, in the usual sense, for acquiring strategic information for making your own world view or system successful. Nor is the Course designed to perfect your manipulation skills or put another “tool in your toolbox.” It does not have a several-step formula, a quick fix, special techniques for “getting your way,” or actualizing the picture of “how life is supposed to be.” It does not support the current “conventional wisdom.” The reason is that you cannot fix your way to happiness and success. The very thing that would be in charge of this “improvement,” the ego mind, that sense of being a personal, separate self unrelated to anything else, is the problem. It’s creating the fear and the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence. (More about what that ego is and where it comes from a bit later.) The goal of A Course in Miracles is not to help you gain wealth or to change the external circumstances in your life, but a guide to radically changing your mind about yourself and everything else, helping you to feel peaceful regardless of what is happening in your world. (And your external world will change as you will soon find out!) This is a brilliant unlearning process, moving you away from a predominant state of fear - the loneliness and feelings of “unworthiness” most people suffer from - and slowly leading you to living a beautiful life based on love and generosity. Few of us recognize the importance of this unlearning in the beginning. I certainly didn’t in my early days with the Course. I would read, reread, and reread some more trying to find that secret of success. Little did I know that my very life was about to be turned upside down rather than “improved” as I had hoped and presumed! This is a VERY good thing, though not appreciated at first, since my life, or your’s, directed by our egos, the self-image that is all about “getting,” will always lead to a place of unhappiness. This is about Self-realization and not self-improvement!

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”


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Additionally, the Course’s unique and powerful centerpiece is the emphasis on healing our minds, and thus all aspects of life, through healing our relationships. No stone is left unturned in clarifying the ways we sabotage relationships, how they can reveal to us exactly how we are hurting ourselves, and how to turn them all around. Our relationships, intended to be our greatest treasures, often turn into the worst nightmares. Their purpose has been vastly misunderstood, the goals set for them unworkable, and the limitless possibilities for understanding ourselves and releasing our pain “left on the table” unexplored. Under the loving guidance of ACIM, and in the crucible of relationships, the unconscious saboteurs of our peace of mind can be revealed and healed.

So how do I use it to get results? First, you have to be clear about the results you want to get. You might still secretly think this is about getting your wish list fulfilled and acquiring all the usual elements to have a “successful” life. That wish may vary somewhat from person to person, but we’ve all been taught it’s about “getting our way” in order to be happy and peaceful, revealing the very tenacious belief that if we can just have the things we want, make our relationships all work out, be able to control everything around us so we can be safe and secure, all will be well. We earnestly believe that having those things leads to peace of mind. They do not. We have the cart seriously before the horse. Having all the things, opportunities, loving people, and all else that supports and encourages the fulfilling expression of our lives comes as a result of peace of mind and an open heart. Hear that again: with peace, life flows, money comes, relationships are healed, addictions fade, confusion ends. The tangible and physical elements in life are always consistent with the internal and invisible life and there are no exceptions. So with more and more determination, we want our goal to be peace of mind - by far the greatest gift. And then all else is added. We drastically need to change our minds to enjoy the happiest of results.

“Behind the search for every idol lies the yearning for completion.Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited. To seek a special person or a thing to add to you to make yourself complete can only mean that you believe some form is missing. And by finding this, you will receive completion in a form you like. ---- It never is the idol you want. But what you think it offers you, you want in-deed and have the right to ask for.”


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Okay, how can A Course In Miracles help?By providing a tried and true path to supplying what’s missing, healing the pain, and restoring your peace of mind! Before we go any further, It’s important to clarify two things right up front. Peace of mind, the stated goal of the Course, is an amazing gift beyond measure!

You are probably used to thinking of peace as merely the absence of conflict, more like a truce. It is that, but vastly more. Reducing the conflict, no small task in our world where violence and aggression are glorified and promoted, is the beginning so that some quiet in your mind can be restored. At first, you might consider this quieting with less than enthusiasm because we are addicted to the adrenaline rush of conflict. But like all addictions, that doesn’t last either and we need more. Considering our love affair with conflict, you might mistakenly conclude that peace of mind means sitting around doing nothing and being bored. Not even close!

Now once again, imagine your stressed life without your distractions, not just for a few days but for an indefinite time with no apparent way out. Reflect then on its opposite - on how lovely it would be to settle into feeling safe, comforted, and nothing to worry about in place of your current mental/emotional state. Ending the conflict in your mind allows you to relax and then it gets even better. In addition to feeling quiet and secure, you begin to be drawn into a state for which there are no words. You sink into the deepest, most serene and indescribable experience and the only thing that can be said about it is that you never want it to end. Secondarily, from this conflict-free mind are derived all the outer counterparts - loving relationships, prosperity, deep satisfaction in being alive, delight in giving the gifts that are yours to offer to the world, healing of the body since you discontinue the constant interference with your body chemistry, and gratitude beyond measure. Definitely not boring!

“For you was peace created, given you by its Creator, and estab-lished as His own eternal gift. How can you fail, when you but ask for what He wills for you? --- It is this one intent we seek today, uniting our desires with the need of every heart, the call of every mind, the hope that lies beyond despair, the love attack would hide, the brotherhood that hate has sought to sever, but which still re-mains as God created it.”


A second important point: no matter what your problem is - frustrating or non-existent relationships, financial difficulties, the general turmoil in the world, anxiety, depression or the myriad other health problems we are heir to - at their core, they all have a common source, and thus, call for a common solution. Really - one solution for everything? Yes! You’ve been taught otherwise - that different problems call for different solutions and that’s incorrect.

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Here’s how it works and it’s really quite simple. All these difficulties listed, and more, stem from the conflict, and thus, fear in our minds. Now imagine our fear-driven, conflicted state filled with judgments, objections, fears, and condemnations as the common soil in which various plants are growing. Those “plants” represent all the assorted problems and issues with which you feel burdened. Though the forms are different and seem unrelated, they are all being fed by the same poisonous and life-challenging elements in the soil and they are all contaminated. Now, we change the fertilizer in the soil, and all our “plants” - the circumstances of our lives - are now nourished with loving, kindly life-affirming components and they start to thrive, grow, bloom, reproduce and are a delight to behold. The one and only difference, the one solution, is the change of “fertilizer,” shifting the thinking and attention from fear to love, from conflict to peace.

I hope you feel excited, curious, and reassured to know that instead of twenty-five different solutions to an entire range of problems, one will suffice. Now all your circumstances respond to the new perspective, the changed peaceful mind. One new “fertilizer” feeds all the “plants” and all areas of life miraculously improve; your life astounds you with its possibilities and I’m here to show you how to trade the life you have now for one you might not have thought possible.

“A long series of different problems seems to confront you, and as one is settled the next one and the next arise. There seems to be no end to them. --- Perceiving the underlying constancy in all the problems that seem to confront you, you would understand you have the means to solve them all.”


In addition, your timing is perfect! Most people find the world to be a mess and all of us that step up to the plate and decide to take more responsibility for our lives are making the most valuable and far-reaching contributions that can be made - to ourselves and everyone. Gan-dhi’s famous quote says it all, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So thank you for doing your part! Now to find out exactly what ACIM is about, how it offers that one solution and promotes peace of mind, radically changing your life for the better.

But first, to answer what form it takes and what to expect when you start out.

What form does this Course take? The Course is a three-volume work consisting of a text, a workbook and a manual for teachers received via inspired inner dictation by two world-renowned psychology professors at Columbia University in New York. First published in 1976, it was created as a self-study course, although many people collect in groups to study and explore it together. After four decades, there is now a plethora of teachers, classes, books about the Course, publications, and organizations that have sprung up all over the world by people whose lives have been changed and want to share with others.

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The Text, as the name implies, presents the theoretical underpinning for the actual practice of the material. It presents the basic premises on which the workbook lessons rest. It is basically a restatement of timeless wisdom with a modern twist, speaking to us in a language we can understand. Our modern day quantum physics now has proven the authenticity of this ancient wisdom, dating back more than 5000 years - there is one consciousness, we are all connected, our awareness of this fact has been blocked, and must be restored in order to feel powerful, happy, peaceful and safe.

The Workbook contains 365 lessons, one for each day of the year, that are to be focused on and put into practice, not only during the prescribed time per day, but at any time an upset rears its head and disturbs your peace.

The Manual for Teachers is the third and final section of ACIM and answers many commonly asked questions and defines terms. That title does not imply it is only for people who decide to teach the Course, but for everyone. Every person is always demonstrating - through actions, words, and choices - the beliefs that drive his/her life, and thus, teaching or reinforcing those ideas in the world. It also implies we are all students and teachers of one another and that each encounter is an important one from which we can learn a great deal about ourselves and how we are approaching the world - always either from love or fear.

“The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an in-ward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but to change your mind about the world.”


What can I expect with A Course In Miracles?First, you can expect to be very surprised at how much you don’t know about yourself, why you react the way you do, what beliefs direct your every move, and therefore, how you inevitably make self-sabotaging decisions. Those unfortunate decisions, proof that a change of mind is called for, will be upgraded to better ones as those changes are made. Then you can be even more surprised at how life, in a seemingly mysterious way, gets better and better as you change your mind about yourself and others. I can no longer count the number of people who have contacted me over the years to exclaim with amazement and delight, “I can’t believe how everyone around me has changed since I’ve started changing my mind!” Well, that’s how it works. The world and everyone in it is a mirror of your internal focus, so how could it be otherwise?

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“Every decision you make stems from what you think you are, and represents the value that you put upon yourself.”


So now what is this work entitled A Course In Miracles? It is primarily a guide to fundamentally changing your mind about virtually everything, already noted as essential. Everything? Yes, everything, since most everything you believe is 180 degrees off track in terms of creating your happiness. I might hear you saying you don’t really want to be dealing with changing your mind, but you do want more money, a better job, more robust health, and most of all, someone to love you and be there for you. Right? A Course In Miracles connects the dots and makes it crystal clear that to have those happy and fulfilling elements in your daily life (which, by the way, you absolutely always deserve) your mind MUST be changed. Period. A tall order but an essential one if ever you are to live a happy and peaceful life.

The Course is the best private tutor around for leading and supporting you step by step through those necessary changes of heart and mind with more focus on love and less on fear.

“You see what you expect, and you expect what you invite. Your perception is the result of your invitation, coming to you as you sent for it.”


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Why do I have to change my mind about my private thoughts?That is a great and very important question! You’ve probably always operated under the assumption, as most people do, that your thoughts - what you normally think of collectively as the “mind” - are your own private business, no one knows what they are, and that they don’t really count. Additionally, you have believed that what you do and say are the important aspects of living, since those are what others can see, and must be controlled to get desired results in life. Nothing could possibly be further from the truth! Our “invisible” thoughts direct all that “outer visible” activity. The way you feel and think about yourself and others is right there, inherent in your energy field, always available for everyone to pick up. It’s as if what you think is being broadcast from the top of your head like the TVs in airports, playing away all the time and that you can’t turn off ! It’s quite shocking to realize that what you presume is hidden and irrelevant is actually the most important aspect of your life. In summary, all those thoughts you believed were private and unimportant, your beliefs about everything, are directing all your outer activity and obvious to everyone. Now you can see why you must change your mind to change your life!

“Your mind is the means by which you determine your own con-dition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly.”


More specifically, the Course uses the word “perception” a great deal, referring both to what we see physically and how we see it, all driven by our thoughts. Much scientific exploration confirms that we see elements in our world based on what we believe, on what we expect to see, what we are interested in, or pay attention to. It’s called “selective perception,” implying that we all see things very differently. What we see in our physical world is always consistent with the inner beliefs, all those thoughts you believed were irrelevant, and shortly you will see how important that is to your quest for peace of mind.

A specific example of this process occurred many years ago when my husband and I, along with another couple, ventured off to Tahiti and surrounding islands on vacation. When we deplaned into the small airport, we noticed another two couples also just arriving. During our two weeks there, we kept seeing these same two couples. Although we were not on a tour, we were on the same beaches, in the same hotels, and viewing the same tourist sites at the same time.

Throughout this vacation, my husband and I had a fabulous time. Given the tropical climate, we had a few occasional showers that didn’t last long and were not disruptive, the food was some of the best ever, and the service people everywhere were more than helpful and polite.

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We were then, coincidentally, all back in the airport the same evening preparing to leave - the four of us and those two couples. To our amazement, we four overheard them discussing their trip and how disappointed they were with the entire experience - it rained all the time, the food was poor, the employees at the hotel were rude and on and on. Our mouths all but dropped open in surprise. We all had basically the same vacation but totally different experi-ences.

Here is a perfect case of selective perception at work, based on your thinking. When the brain receives input, being a pattern-seeking organ, it tries to match expectations and always succeeds. Those four apparently expected the worst, looked for what was wrong, and that became their experience. They got to be “right” as their brains selectively and automatically discarded the input that contradicted their thoughts. We obviously carried a very different set of presumptions and they were also met. All in the same time and space locations. We all experience different worlds depending on how our brains are programmed by our thought. Much scientific research supports this and I have done my own experimenting in workshops, asking all the participants to look at the same scene and then report back. Each one “saw” a different combination of elements in the scene they were watching. We see what we expect to see. The differences in what we experience, even under the very same circumstances, appear because of our respective beliefs.

I hope you see the immense consequences here. Clearly, seeing and experiencing a happier, more fruitful and rewarding life requires this change of mind, this change in how you frame your experience, which can happen quickly if you know how! The how is what I have spent my entire life teaching others and exactly what ACIM provides.

“Perception seems to teach you what you see. Yet it but witnesses to what you taught. It is the outward picture of a wish, an image that you wanted to be true.”


“Perception is a choice of what you want yourself to be, the world you want to live in, and the state in which you think your mind will be content and satisfied. ---- It reveals yourself to you as you would have you be.”


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What is in my mind that needs to change?Just like the couples who could only see the world as unsatisfactory and lacking, most of us are literally imprisoned with inaccurate, unhelpful thoughts/beliefs. In other words, they make up the programming and conditioning - our brains’ “wiring.” This wiring runs us like robots and we have to be liberated from it if we’re ever to have any peace of mind and all the other rewards that go with it - safety, happiness, and a sense that all is well. These programmed beliefs in our brains play the central part in all our distress. So before we go any further, please take a deeper look by asking the question, “Well, what are my programming and conditioning problems and where did they come from?” That question is the beginning of your healing journey.

You were programmed, conditioned, “wired,” so to speak, when you were so young it was all automatic and you had no ability to choose whether that wiring was helpful or unhelpful, accurate or inaccurate. In these early years when your core beliefs were laid down, your brain did not have the ability to make this choice and so everything went in unfiltered and unquestioned. In fact, many of the ideas and beliefs you presume are accurate and true, you inherited before your birth via DNA. This is what the field of Epigenetics has discovered. Without the ability to assess the accuracy of any given idea, word, thought, action, or experience you encountered, it ALL downloaded into your unconscious mind as the truth where, to this day, it drives your experience.

Oh dear, I think you begin to see the problem! We were all raised by parents, in cultures, and with religions where the adults around us merely passed on all their unexamined ideas and this has been happening for millions of years. Just passing on ideas, habits, beliefs, the things we take for granted - and almost never do we ask, “Who decided all this was true?”

“It is impossible not to believe what you see, but it is equally im-possible to see what you do not believe. Perceptions are built up on the basis of experience, and experience leads to beliefs. It is not until beliefs are fixed that perceptions stabilize.”


Let’s look at some of those habits and beliefs that were passed on. On the behavioral level - the language, the foods, the dress code, the things they approved of, or not, acceptable behavior and responses. Psychologically - their biases toward race, creed, social status, predominant religion, good and bad ideas. Then there are the generational neuroses and notions, defenses, survival strategies, fears, and guilt acquired from DNA at conception. Now that’s quite a load of baggage! And then we add our own misconceptions on top of that, acquired in our pre-verbal years, before self-talk or discernment is developed.

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So what if we were born into a different kind of family? We would have been programmed with another language and another set of beliefs, requirements, religions, preferences, outlook, prejudices, and unexamined assumptions. Added to that, caregivers may have known more or less than others about the psychology and development of babies and young children. Because of these variables, we all have our own unique set of false notions about ourselves and our value. But what if none of these things represents the ultimate truth, leading us to look for fulfillment and happiness where it can’t be found? Who knew!

If you’re fortunate, it may occur to you that you were raised by parents or caregivers who didn’t have all the answers and that you need to take the initiative to examine these things you have taken for granted. On the other hand, it might never have occurred to you that any of this matters at all. A very large mistake since understanding “what makes you tick,” your default set of responses, is crucially important to your sense of well being. So now to see the results of all this automatic and unquestioned downloading into your brain during your early years.

Our brains are like computers

Anyone familiar with computers will know that they can only operate as they are designed to if the software installed on them is functioning properly. Or if they have not been deliberately hacked. I was a systems engineer with IBM for years so have had a great deal of experience seeing how programming errors occur and what is required to fix them.

For instance, let’s say you have requested a program to print out a report with lists of numbers provided vertically, but you received that report with the numbers listed horizontally instead. What happened? The computer hardware did not originate that error. Someone made a mistake thinking through the logic for obtaining the desired output and the programming or coding, which tells the hardware computer what to do, faithfully followed the logic as it automatically does.

In this case, if the incorrect report is handed out, no telling what errors or upset or danger might result and I’m quite sure the immediate response would be, “Fix this right away!” If something goes wrong with your computer, you don’t normally sit back and say, “Oh well.” You most likely immediately download updates and get help to solve the problem. You don’t tolerate computer or phone malfunctions if you can possibly help it and must approach the mistaken programming in your brain the same way - “This has to be diagnosed and fixed!”

As I trust you can see, the human brain and computers are very similar. The incorrect logic, instilled in your brain from many sources in your formative years, consists of fear-inducing beliefs that are hurtful and patently false, such as: you’re an unworthy, unimportant person without real power, and so much more that is not true about you.

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As with physical computers, your brain is wired to “make you right” about that incorrect logic, because it doesn’t make value judgments. It follows orders just as the physical computer executes the task the programming dictates.

“Perception selects and makes the world you see. It literally picks it out as the mind directs. The laws of size and shape and bright-ness would hold, perhaps, if other things were equal. They are not equal. For what you look for you are far more likely to discover than what you would prefer to overlook.”


How is a book going to fix my brain? A Course In Miracles is the fastest and most comprehensive vehicle for updating the computer in your head. Really a spiritual technology in disguise, it guides you in your discovery of exactly where you misconnected the dots in your software that are creating the problems of pain, loneliness, lack of success, and peace. It then demonstrates how to trade fear-inducing beliefs for ones that support you, helping you realize you are kind, good, deserving, and valuable. Many of the “misconnected dots,” your programming, were installed at a survival level and challenging these programs about what you have to do, or not do, to stay safe seems dangerous to your wellbeing. The wisdom inherent in this Course recognizes this dilemma, serving as a kind, wise, powerful master teacher that takes you under its wing as you begin taking these challenging and essential steps to your freedom.

“Reality can only dawn on an unclouded mind. It is always there to be accepted, but its acceptance depends on your willingness to have it.”


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The Science Shows Us – When we change our minds, the body followsAs has been noted, but because it is so central to your wellbeing, here’s a repeat: happiness is always an “inside job” and does not ultimately come from an outside person, place, or thing. Since how you feel is determined by YOUR brain, directed by your mind, happiness is denied only by yourself. That may sound crazy at first because the world teaches that other people, laws, governments, financial situations, bodies, germs, and the environment determine how you feel, and you, like all of us, have unfortunately learned that well. So now this presumption must be unlearned - part of the changing your mind about everything. It’s impossible to be happy if you don’t know how that “inside job” works!

Here is the very simple version of what really happens to create either happiness/peace or distress/fear. The thoughts that constantly occupy your mind tell your brain what kinds of chemicals to create. If they are fear-based, conflict-ridden thoughts, that signals a threat to the brain and it dutifully responds by including a healthy dose of stress hormones in the mix. This chemical cocktail floods the body, is taken up via receptor sites into every one of the 60 trillion cells in your body and THAT determines your emotional/feeling state. All the outside influences may trigger some fearful beliefs you hold, which then initiates the cascade that follows. The important key is “trigger and not cause!” So now you can see how your upset feelings are your total responsibility. The best news of all is that is that brains have this brilliant ability called “neuro-plasticity,” which allows for easy rewiring. So no matter how long you’ve believed things that are not true, causing yourself so much heartache, you can decide to change your mind, automatically starting that rewiring process to steadily walk out of that prison in your mind.

“To learn this course requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a con-clusion based on everything that you believe.”


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I hope you are beginning to see that knowing how your physiology and psychology combine- how your thoughts result in your emotional states - is essential for your security and well-being. It’s often dangerous to operate machinery when you don’t know how it works. You understand this well in terms of some of the basic physical laws. For instance, if someone doesn’t know about the law of gravity and decides to jump off a high roof instead of going down the stairs, you know for sure that person will fall to the ground dead. Ignorance of the law of gravity will not protect from the consequences of the fall. And I trust it’s now clear that when you experience unfortunate consequences due to lack of understanding about how a law works, this is not personal and no one is being punished. The same would apply if you stick your finger into an electrical outlet; you will get shocked because you are disregarding laws related to how electricity works. If you stare at the sun, you will blind yourself; if you drink poison, you will seriously injure or kill yourself. Those you know about. There are other laws operative that are equally essential to consider if you’re going to live a happy, productive, and peaceful life, but lots of folks have no idea what they are. So let’s cover a few:

3 Laws that govern our inner emotional/psychological experience

1. You always have more of what you offer to others

2. Your outer life is a mirror of your inner state

3. The Universe doesn’t know about pronouns

In addition to needing to know about the physical laws by which we must abide, and those that govern our mental/emotional states, there are also universal laws that determine our peace and happiness. For instance, I suspect you’ve been taught, like everyone else, to believe there is a limited amount of almost everything in the world and that if you’re going to be safe and happy you have to get your share by any means necessary, including taking it from someone else and then hoarding it so no one takes it from you. Another word for this belief is scarcity - the false belief that the more you keep, the more you have. You might say, “That’s not a belief, that’s just a fact. Look around and see for yourself !” By looking around at the world, do you think this belief in lack and “it’s all about me” is adding to your peace of mind? Living from a belief in scarcity will never lead to peace and happiness and will always lead to fear, war, and primitive survival, because a universal law is being violated.

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“You cannot change laws you did not make, and the laws of happi-ness were created for you, not by you.”


1. You always have more of what you offer to others This is not an abstract law. It literally means that the more of anything you give, the more you have. If it’s an intangible like love, blessing, gratitude, or help, you will have an increased feeling and experience of those things yourself. If it’s tangible, you will find yourself receiving an abundance of whatever you may need or want. One common objection that arises here is, “But if I give my watch away, I don’t have it anymore.” You may not have the watch, but by offering it with generosity and caring, your entire experience of the world will feel like a sweet blessing and in some way, often seemingly unrelated, good will return to you. By offering to others, you are telling your brain to rewire from the belief in scarcity to the belief in prosperity. That is because you are paying attention to what you are giving/offering and what you pay attention to increases. This will ALWAYS transform your experience of life, resulting in happiness and peace welling up inside you. The more emotion and intention you put into your offering, the more strongly you will feel that very thing. Only a generous attitude results in prosperity and abundance. Joyfully, the fastest way to upgrade your attitude is through the practice of A Course In Miracles.

“The cost of giving is receiving. Either it is a penalty from which you suffer, or the happy purchase of a treasure to hold dear.”


2. Your outer life is a mirror of your inner state

The things you believe, feel, think, and what you hold as valuable and important translate exactly into the quality of your live - what happens to you, how you experience all things, the people you meet, the feelings that well up in you, your success or lack thereof, and the condition of your physical body. Because inner beliefs show up in the outer world, the experiences that happen in life are a perfectly faithful barometer of what’s going on in your mind, both helpful and unhelpful. Now, given that attitude affects every single aspect of life, from the most immense to the smallest and drives your experience, you can begin to see that you cannot escape the consequences of what you think and feel, until it’s embraced and changed. No more than the computer in our earlier example can avoid following the dictates of the program until the logic and coding is changed.

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My favorite example for making this clear is the use of a mirror. If you stand in front of a mirror wearing a red shirt and you don’t like seeing that red shirt looking back at you, and would much prefer seeing a green one, what do you do? For sure, what you do NOT do is to shake your fist at that image, threaten, yell, use affirmations, exert will power, pray, or demand. That image will remain right there, impervious to your distress, and reflect back that red shirt. And no one in his right mind would expect it to do otherwise. You know the image doesn’t make the first move.

When you finally decide to exchange your red shirt for a green one, that does it. And notice how immediate it is. The green shirt doesn’t gradually appear with first one sleeve and then a collar and on to complete the shirt. The new image is there all at once. You also have great faith that if you put on a green shirt, a yellow one will not appear out of nowhere. Nor would you expect it to reflect back what you had on yesterday or as an image of someone else.

“Your brother is the mirror in which you see the image of yourself as long as perception lasts.--- He is the mirror of yourself, wherein you see the judgment you have laid on both of you.”


So how does this relate to real life? Quite exactly. Every experience you have at any moment is faithfully reflecting your attitude or thoughts. If you harbor notions and ideas about being unimportant, undeserving, or worthless, are closed minded and opinionated, your world will reflect that back to you in full measure. For instance, people might ignore you, treat you unkindly as if your feelings don’t matter (exactly like you are treating yourself ), you’ll have less interesting options, and doors of opportunity will seem to remain closed. But no matter how long that’s been going on, it will begin to change the minute you become more loving and broadminded. It doesn’t take years to see a difference. The frequency of your energy field will increase immediately as you change your mind and you will find people responding to you differently, suddenly new opportunities will appear, doors will open, or you’ll understand something that seemed very complicated before. This is really a super exciting idea because, just as nothing interferes with the mirror image showing up faithfully as you, nothing can interfere with your experiencing the results of your change of mind!

There is no such thing as coincidence, although it might look like it. Everything simply changes in a positive direction when you adopt more positive beliefs about yourself and others. And you can rest easy in the absolute certainty that this law of the outside being a seamless whole with the inside is bullet proof. Nothing can interfere with it any more than you can defy the law of gravity.You have vastly underestimated the power that you are/have that flows through your attitude, your brain’s wiring, and the effect that is inevitably created. It is impossible to turn off the power that you are so use it only for loving purposes if you want to live with peace and fulfillment.

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“Ideas are of the mind. What is projected out, and seems to be external to the mind, is not outside at all, but an effect of what is in and has not left its source.”


“Only you can deprive yourself of anything. Do not oppose this re-alization for it is truly the beginning of the dawn of light.”


3. The Universe doesn’t know about pronouns

This means it doesn’t know the difference between I, you, her, me, him, it, so whatever you want for someone/something else to experience will be visited upon you! It is your desire that is noted, not where it is directed. So if you think, “I want him to suffer,” creative power flows through the focus on “suffer” and delivers it to you. Whenever you hate someone or something, wish them ill, hope they are destroyed and made miserable, the desire for their punishment is in your mind, activating your brain, affecting your body chemistry, and thus, your emotions. So you will feel the result, not the other person, because you are making the request and it is given you.

Conversely, if you say, “I want her to be happy,” that desire to be open, loving, accepting, helpful, and kind directly affects you and your experience. And notice that these choices about how to regard something or someone are entirely up to you. Nothing is involved here except what you believe will make you safe. If you believe attacking another or defending against them will make you safe, you will continue that way until the extent of the damage you are inflicting upon yourself finally dawns on you.

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To help you see how this works - if you order a product online, you have the option of placing the order but shipping to someone else. The Universe doesn’t offer that choice. Whoever is doing the ordering will always be the recipient of the order. Let’s take a deep breathe together and look at what this means. In the past, every time you ordered up some disaster or guilt for someone else, you were guaranteeing yourself that same experience. Look back at times in your life when you wished these kinds of negative experiences on people…what happened? You may realize that your wish for suffering wasn’t granted to them – you were the one who ended up suffering! That is a heavy realization but one that will open the door to your healing as now you can choose differently. NOW, together, we will take the journey where this all changes and you get to reclaim your life with simplicity and ease.

“The second error is the idea that you can get rid of what you don’t want by giving it away. Giving it is how your keep it.”


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How does A Course In Miracles accomplish its goal of changing our minds to become more peaceful?Up to this point, it’s almost like you’ve been brought up in a cult, an organization or thought system where members of a community, often cloistered, have no idea there is another world “out there.” All of the true and essential ideas about how to have a happy life are “out there,” and not usually included in your learned world view.

The dictionary defines a cult as “A system or community of religious worship and ritual, especially one focusing upon a single deity or spirit” or “Obsessive devotion or veneration for a person, principle, or ideal.” Well, here you have it. This definition is relevant because it describes the way you feel about the ego, that self-concept, that world view that developed slowly in your formative years, “your beloved son” that consumes all your attention, causes all the difficulty and blocks your happiest and most exhilarating life. And have you noticed what a tyrant your ego is? It presents itself as knowing what’s best for you and how you must listen to it, or else! Telling you what you can and can’t do, how you have to be, what rules to follow, what’s the matter with you, and more? Don’t you, for the most part, bow down before it? Does this sound familiar? You’re obsessed with “your story - really the ego’s story,” thinking that somehow getting it right is how you’ll be happy - a totally false assumption.

“You cannot evaluate an insane belief system from within it. Its range precludes this. You can only go beyond it, look back from a point where sanity exists and see the contrast.”


And it is from this self-concept, this ego, this almost totally false and fear-driven collection of programmed ideas about yourself that you must be “rescued.” You don’t have to be a psy-chologist to know what is meant by, “That guy has a really big ego!” It means that person is self-centered, calling all the attention to himself, heedless of others and their contributions, quick to blame and find fault, and all about getting and not giving in return. We also can see, if you are discerning at all, the fear, insecurity, and self-loathing that is at the heart of such behavior. All these thoughts and notions are blocking your awareness of your brilliance, your goodness, your inalienable right to express yourself fully.

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“The building of a concept of the self is what the learning of the world is for. This is its purpose - that you come without a self, and make one as you go along. And by the time your reach “maturity” you have perfected it to meet the world on equal terms, at one with its demands. A concept of the self is made by you. It bears no likeness to yourself at all. It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality.”


So what is this ego, what is it made of, and how did we build it? Here is the process, common to us all, that reveals how this sense of feeling “disconnected” or separate from everything else occurs:

When we are born, humans still experience being one with all that is, but by about age three we have established a sense of separate identity, and thus, assume we have successfully separated ourselves from life, energy, God, others, all creation. This is why every human who has ever walked the Earth feels a sense of loneliness at least part of the time. We feel guilty over this allegedly successful separation. The pain of this guilt is unbearable, and therefore automatically suppressed, for our own perceived survival from this pain.

The guilt then resurfaces in many guises - for instance the fear that “others will reject me.” At this point, “others” become the enemy. Psychologically speaking, judgment and projection are the tools used to keep “others” in this role of the enemy. The ego - an invented self-concept or image built over the early years consisting of our judgments, defenses, limitations, needs, notions about ourselves derived from endless sources, inherited beliefs and more - now becomes loud and active in our experience. This is the critical voice we hear in our minds, of self and others.

To deal with this “threat,” we hold ourselves back in various ways, not allowing ourselves to enter wholeheartedly into an encounter or relationship. We ignore our inner loving guidance and reject others before they can reject us. We literally separate ourselves from other people or situations by time and/or space, or try to control, manipulate, or change the “enemy.” After the ego convinces us that other people and the world are not here for us, we certainly don’t want to freely give of ourselves as that would seem dangerous at best. The ego has now counseled us to “stay separate and be safe!” We have given our allegiance to that critical voice believing that it will, indeed, keep us safe. Since giving is how to insure having, then refusal to give, or holding ourselves back in any part of life, will create the experience of lack, loss and more pain. We have steadily accepted the ego’s “advice” that works only to our detriment. To add to the confusion, we “give” our guilt to others through projection, thus increasing our own sense of guilt and pain. And we can’t figure out why we feel so lacking in peace!

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We now chronically withhold and inhibit ourselves on all levels, which automatically starts the mechanism for aging, sickness, scarcity, loneliness, and suffering. This personal self, ego mind, we have unwittingly mis-created with our constant holding back and defending increases the fear and we return again to creating more enemies, which then means we need more protection in an ever-tightening, self-defeating, closed loop.

After enough of this increasingly painful cycle, death, as we understand it, starts looking good. What we don’t realize is that, with the ego in charge, we have been in a sleeping, unaware state all along - a state devoid of real love and connection that has seemed like death, not Life! So you can see that the care and maintenance of your ego, which takes up most of our time and attention, is, indeed, like living in a cult with the ego as tyrant dictator.

“The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle of himself. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts.”


Primarily this ego has knee jerk responses to stimuli based on how it was programmed, most of which, as you can now see, is unconscious - meaning ideas, beliefs, commands operating below your level of awareness. You are not aware of much that drives you. And thank goodness for some of that. For instance there are billions of constantly changing instructions being issued in your unconscious that direct the body chemistry - ones that take care of your heart beating, your food digesting, your blood pressure regulating, your cells regenerating. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to be in charge of all that!

But there are other directives being given, about which you are unaware, that do not serve you. Those beliefs, ideas, assumptions about yourself - your value, your rights, what makes you happy and safe, the way to “make it” in the world - and millions more little related, but unexamined, presumptions are costing you dearly in terms of your peace, prosperity and happiness. So becoming aware is the name of the game. Looking at that critical voice in your mind - the ego - and discovering its falsity is not unlike finding out the earth is really round after believing forever that it was flat and you could only go so far before falling off the edge. Suddenly there are all kinds of things you can do, opportunities you can pursue, dreams you can dream, limitations no longer in place, rules no longer valid. You begin to be free to explore areas you never imagined you could enter. You join the explorers in consciousness just as the courageous ones dared to venture further out in the Atlantic ocean in spite of the prevailing belief they would fall off the edge. You have been imprisoned like that, too. The bars to your expansion made of unexamined beliefs are every bit as strong as iron bars in prison cells.

As you can now see and appreciate, the lessons in A Course In Miracles are not about learning more concepts, but about unlearning all these misperceptions. It guides us in taking down the psychological blocks, discarding the veils, removing the bars to the awareness of love’s presence.

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“You cannot be your guide to miracles, for it is you who made them necessary. And because you did, the means on which you can de-pend has been provided for you.”


How do I make this change and actually upgrade my beliefs? It as a steady trading in of judgment of yourself and everything else and adopting a broader, more loving and accepting attitude toward all people, things, and situations. The Course provides extensive practice through the workbook lessons for living a life based on love and equality rather than fear, guilt, and “who’s to blame.” Acquiring this loving and life-affirming attitude systematically leads to regarding yourself and others from a fundamentally different perspective, rather than merely learning many new facts and formulas. It’s about trading in that “story of me and what I want” for a more expanded one, including others and their needs as equally important. I becomes We. And that meets the only actual need we have and that is to love, because in so doing, all other needs are miraculously met. Our deep peace, contentment, and abundance are assured!

And it is from this new and different perspective, an expanded consciousness, where you actually feel valuable, important, and cared for, that the possibility arises of being happy and at peace no matter what’s happening. For example, if you are sitting at the end of a large room, you see a certain scene of furniture, accessories, people, and outside views. If you change places and sit at the opposite end of the room, you will see entirely different items within the scope of your vision. Just as it’s the same room from a different angle, we can see our lives from a different, more positive angle and that makes all the difference in how we experience our lives.

“You first dream of peace and then awaken to it. Your first ex-change of what you made for what you want is the exchange of nightmares for the happy dreams of love.”


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Is this exciting, or what! No longer do you have to be constantly trying to change or control circumstances in order to be feel great. Imagine the deep sense of security and power that comes from realizing, “I can be at peace no matter what is happening!” Remember, peace and wellbeing are caused by your attitude, where you place your attention. A friend of mine was an engineer at NASA long ago. He had worked long and hard on the Challenger mission that exploded in mid-air in January, 1986. Since he was intimately involved with its production, he with his fellow engineers were as close as safely possible when lift-off occurred. Of course, the rest is history. Moments later the disaster occurred. He said at first he was horrified and started down the internal road to great distress. But he stopped that process and immediately began to contemplate the comforting message in an ACIM lesson entitled, “I could see peace instead of this.” Immediately his feeling state settled, his comfort returned, and he felt blessed, calm, and safe even as the pieces of the Challenger were still falling from the sky. A catastrophe had occurred - lives were lost, many years of his life’s work were up in flames and he was at peace. He wasn’t special, just dedicated; and that option is ever available for you, too.

The Key - the Practice of A Course In Miracles

Several years ago I was conducting a retreat and a very honest man candidly remarked, “I have studied A Course In Miracles for quite a few years, but I’m a little afraid to practice it.” What a marvelously honest and important statement! Many of us must be afraid of something about this Course, although we have been drawn into its sphere of influence. We can be certain of this because of our approach-avoidance relationship to it. You may feel deeply and intuitively drawn to it, then make up all sorts of reasons for not doing the lessons. Or if you read them, not to actually practice them.

All your excuses are presented by the ego - exactly what the lessons are designed to change - so this reluctance to cooperate should not come as a big surprise. Just be aware that this ego doing the objecting is not you, but just a collection of ideas about yourself. You are perfectly safe so dedicate yourself to practicing them anyway. Because there is a HUGE gift to you in so doing!

Remember by letting go of your old notions, you are not being asked to sacrifice anything that adds to your happiness. But your ego will try to convince you that something precious will be lost if you become more loving, more “other-oriented,” which sounds insane, but that idea has a firm grip. Have you ever looked in your closet and wondered, “Why did I buy that; I don’t even like that color? And out it comes to be given away to those who might be able to use it. Now, would you consider that a sacrifice? The removal of something taking up space in your closet you don’t ever wear and don’t want? Of course not; you’re relieved it’s gone. That is exactly the way you feel - relieved - with each old limiting notion you look at and release. You are expanded, uplifted, confident, at peace.

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The Workbook does the work The workbook clearly states that the lessons must be practiced if a change of mind is going to occur. As the Introduction states, you may at first feel resistance to this process:

“Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you

need not accept them, and you need not even welcome

them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will

matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to

make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook con-

tains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use

them. Nothing more than that is required.”

And then, at least in the beginning, you proceed not to use them, with such excuses as: they don’t make sense, they seem silly or irrelevant, you become irritated at having to sit and be quiet, you don’t have time, and on and on. Putting these daily ideas into practice, as directed, is the precise method by which the rewiring of your brain, the upgrading of beliefs, occurs.

Remember this is not a body of material first to be successfully learned. Certainly understanding is ultimately essential, but A Course In Miracles reminds us that our basic ability to understand is greatly compromised by our self-centered approach to life. Self-centered should not be judged as bad since that is the way we are all conditioned and are, for the most part, unaware of any other options. And that self-centeredness is exactly what the Course is designed to address.

In addition to reading the lessons in a contemplative manner as the workbook suggests, you’re asked to consider the thought for the day when upset arises. It’s important to note that contemplation is different from meditation, where the mind becomes still, or concentration, where focused thought is occurring. Or even affirming, which is primarily a mindless repetition of thoughts. Contemplation is taking the ideas and rolling them around in your mind, focusing particularly and mindfully about how they apply to you. The focused attention on the ideas accomplishes the rewiring of your brain toward a more peaceful life. Remember you don’t want competing thoughts - I’m unworthy” and “I’m beloved and precious.” You want the latter to replace the former once and for all.

Every “upsetting” situation is an opportunity calling for a different response from the ones you’re used to automatically making. ACIM states that peace, joy, and understanding are all a unified whole, and thus, if you are not at peace, to presume you understand nothing. Hopefully that is enough to persuade you to set aside your current viewpoints and begin to accept the marvelous and guaranteed help A Course In Miracles offers. And everyone gains and no one loses.

That cannot be said about anything at all that your ego proposes. So let practicing and not studying the Course be your initial aim and watch as some pretty amazing changes occur. It is, after all, about choosing love over fear so the beautiful and varied gifts you deserve can show up in your life. Let the Course be your great advocate in making that choice!

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“Those who remember always that they know nothing, and who have become willing to learn everything, will learn it. But whenever they trust themselves, they will not learn. They have destroyed their motivation for learning by thinking they already know. Think not you understand anything until you pass the test of perfect peace, for peace and understanding go together and never can be found alone.”


Misunderstanding the Course Sometimes criticism of the Course is offered by people who have not actually read it and are operating on hearsay, or who have superficially glanced through it. You cannot possibly accurately evaluate the effectiveness and brilliance of this material by brushing over it lightly. First of all, as mentioned earlier, this is not intended to be a philosophy to be intellectually learned, but operates as an actual spiritual technology for physically rewiring your brain. There is a great saying by the neuroscientist Siegrid Löwel that states, “What fires together, wires together,” referring to the requirement to actually contemplate ideas about yourself in the much more appropriate and loving way the Course prescribes. As the repetitive lessons and ideas are contemplated and held in mind, the neurons that relate to your sense of identity and the adjectives that describe you rewire in a more positive fashion. Obviously, this is not done overnight or intellectually, but through daily immersion in the thoughts presented as they apply to yourself.

Others who do not recognize this as a synthesis of spiritual and psychological material have stated or inferred that A Course In Miracles is a religion, which is completely false. There is no hierarchy telling anyone what to do. It does use Christian terms, which is misleading to some, because they are used in profoundly different ways than those learned in traditional settings. I spent decades researching everything available before the Course came along, so am versed in many different disciplines in the general fields of psychology, spirituality, and self-help. I join many others in experiencing this Course as perhaps the most important work made available to us in the past 2000 years. Its purpose is to bring more love into the world through helping each of us replace our own fear with love, and when practiced, it succeeds brilliantly.

A breakthrough to peace As we bring our short overview to a close, it is my great desire that, first, you feel a stirring of excitement and hope that no matter what has troubled or confused or frightened you, it can now fade into past history. The past is completely gone and is only a memory you no longer need to consult. I deeply want you to know there is nothing about YOU that needs to be fixed, improved, or hidden - merely old notions discarded you once thought were true - only beliefs released that imprisoned and prevented your feeling safe and happy.

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A Course In Miracles is the most profound, effective, and comprehensive system on the planet for accomplishing this essential task.

The guidance and rationale it provides for steadily trading in your false, fearful, defensive thoughts for loving, peace-inducing ones becomes a way of life. Gradually your old programs will be replaced with new, better ones; exactly like upgrading your computer. Your consciousness expands, it becomes ever more clear that you are blessed, powerful, and beloved beyond measure and your happiness lies in your very own hands and heart - forever. You’ll find yourself feeling more valuable, larger, smarter, calmer, more attractive, and generally more conscious - all of which you deserve. Your ego, the self-concept you invented, is steadily dismantled to be replaced by the emergence of beautiful, eternal, and loving YOU! Finally, you will discover to your everlasting wonder that YOU are the love of your life and can rest assured you will never again have to be a slave of your addictions and distractions, never have to run from anything, never have to ask, “How do I get rid of stress?”

Now you know and the door to peace and happiness is always open, always inviting you to join in the the most amazing journey you will ever take!

“When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His voice. So poignantly He calls to you that you will not resist Him longer. In that instant He will take you to His home, and you will stay with Him in perfect stillness, silent and at peace, beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt, sublimely certain that you are at home.”


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