ACIM Mentor

In the last article I discussed the difference between the two “visions”: What the body’s eyes report and the meaning (or the awareness of no meaning) that your mind projects or extends. Spiritual Vision is not just a “nicer” way of interpreting the world. It is a wholly different vision that you can invite and welcome, but you cannot make it happen. It comes to you when you are ready and open to It. When I was a new student of A Course in Miracles for a few months I experienced the Vision of the Holy Relationship with another. I saw that we were one and the same, obviously not as bodies and personalities, but in Truth. The inner Vision I had was that the Truth in her was the exact same Truth in me. Even thinking about her brought an experience of deep recognition beyond any human experience. This is the experience that Helen Schucman and Bill Thetford had. I recognized it completely when I read the passages in ACIM about the Holy Relationship. This Vision is what, in ACIM, Helen...

A Course in Miracles talks about two “visions”, “sights”, or “perceptions”. (In my translation into plain language I used only “perception” for clarity). This “seeing” is not done with the body’s eyes. It is an inner seeing. It occurs in the mind from one of two unconnected places in your mind. It is much like these two visions are two different platforms in your mind. One platform, the lower platform, is in the world. On that platform you are very involved with the world. You can move around on that platform and look at the world from different angles, but all of those angles are on the same level. The change in view is not a real change. It is simply a different angle on the same thing. For example, you learn something new about someone and you “see them in a new light”. Outwardly they have not changed, so you do not “see” them in a new physical light. You see them from a new point of view within your mind . Your inner vision of them changed. You stood in a different place on that...

First, this mind believed it was a self in a process toward the goal of peace. Then one day it had an experience while meditating that Truth is right here . It was the Holy Instant and It was breathtaking. This mind realized that in meditation, and in everything else, it always reached for Truth. And in that reaching it over-reached Truth and missed It because Truth is right here . It was like when the self looks for the mustard in the refrigerator but does not see it because the mustard is right in front of it and the self is looking past it to find it. And then the awareness of the immediate Presence of Truth was gone. Each day in meditation this mind tried to be present and experience the Truth again but could not. It could remember the experience but not conjure it. How long did this go on? Months? Years? Then it happened again and this mind would think, “This is it. This is all I need to experience. This is all I need to remember. Stop reaching. It’s here now.” And then…It c...

This mind is grateful that its current stage of awareness of Truth coincided with this body’s peaking in peri-menopause because otherwise it would be a neurotic mess. If peri-menopause had happened earlier in this mind’s developing awareness of Truth this mind would be totally distracted by the physical, psychological, and emotional effects of the wild and unpredictable surges in hormones that are the natural process of this stage of the body’s life.  The body would require hormone replacement therapy at minimum and perhaps anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medicines. This time of life for the body coinciding with this stage of growing awareness of the mind has in fact helped this mind to hone its detachment from the body, the self, and its story. It has helped it to see that there is no real difference between a “good” mood and a “bad” one in that they occur in the same self-identified part of mind. It has helped this mind to see all moods as one single experience – the human exp...

I used to have episodes of panic attacks. After the panic attack subsided I’d remain in a heightened state of anxiety for days in dread of more panic attacks. This heightened state of anxiety led to more panic attacks, more anxiety, more panic attacks, etc. It was a vicious cycle. Eventually I learned that the primary cause of my panic attacks was some small change in my body that I would pick up subconsciously and that would lead to fearful thoughts just below my conscious awareness. These thoughts would lead to the rush of adrenaline that fueled the panic attacks. For example, I noticed I often had panic attacks at the beginning of Fall. When I paid attention I became aware that there was a very slight thickening feeling in my bronchia. I was experiencing a small allergic response. I would subconsciously pick up on this and I’d have thoughts just below my conscious awareness that I was suffocating. But even after I discovered this I felt powerless to do anything about it. I trie...