In the Turnaround
When I was a young child sometimes when I played alone I
would experience a reassuring, comforting Presence with me. I felt in those
experiences that everything would always be okay. These experiences were very
rare. I had a happy, secure childhood and I had no conscious need to seek
reassurance. But of course I was still having the human experience of everyday
lack and insecurity. I was unconsciously open to Truth at those times. These
experiences seemed very natural so I didn’t question them. Nor did I think of
them beyond their occurrences.
As a teenager I would in times of desperate adolescent angst
turn to what I thought of as my “inner Therapist”. These were very rare
occurrences, too. But you can see how a shift had unconsciously occurred for me:
The Presence was no longer with me;
It was within me. It was still Other,
but I knew It was in my own mind. I thought of It as my “inner adult” the way
as adults people speak of their “inner child” left-over from their childhood. It
was a future, wise me come to guide and comfort me through hard times. (I
pictured It at the time as being all of 25 years old!)
In my late teens I started reading self-help books and
eventually psycho-spiritual material. These told me that God was within me. I
understood that they were speaking of my Inner Therapist. And then A Course in Miracles came along when I
was twenty years old and I knew right away that the Voice that dictated it was
the Christ in my mind – another name for the Presence that I had experienced as
a child and the Inner Therapist I turned to as a teenager. I changed my label
for It but the experience was the same.
My study and practice of ACIM led me to grow my awareness of the inner
Presence, the Holy Spirit. I learned to call on it as my Guide and Teacher in
all things. Later, when it came time for me to teach others, I learned to come
from the Holy Spirit within me with others and in my writing.
Recently I have experienced a shift and I now know, not just
intellectually but experientially, that that Presence, that Inner Therapist,
the Christ Mind and Holy Spirit, is me. I have had surprising experiences of
myself as the Teacher to the split-mind (decision-maker) in this mind rather
than as the split-mind calling on or coming from the inner Teacher. In these
experiences the split-mind is the “other”. It wasn’t exactly accurate for me as
a teenager to think of the Presence as a future me. It was me all along. What
was in the future was my awareness of
this. I have gone from the Presence being
with me to It being within me but
Other; to the boundary between me and It slipping and being able to come from It as I dealt with the world;
to beginning to experience, at least so far within this mind for the self in it,
being the Presence…
>>>>>
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Comments
Practicing a Course in Miracles; Cronkhite
“It is very important that you realize that, however you believe yourself to be as a ‘person’, it does not matter at all to God, because God does not know you as a 'person', but as One with God. For you to remember that your are One with God, you do not have to become a certain type of person, but rather you must let go of your identification with a personal self altogether. The attributes, attitudes and behaviors that you ascribe to yourself as a personal self are never ‘good’ or ‘bad’ or ‘right‘ or ‘wrong’; they are always only meaningless, because they are never really you.
But if you want someone to help you through the process you can always book time with me to see if I'd be a fit as a mentor...check out my website, www.acimmentor.com to see what I offer.
this description of your unfolding relationship with the Inner Companion is relevant for my journey. glimpses of a union with - dissolving into - This Presence are occasionally breaking through. thank you deeply.
endless Love, n
When you are present to the Presence you feel It within you. There's a sense of immediate "hereness"; like "This is It. There is nothing else." No matter what is going on around the self.
Thank you Liz
"When you are present to the Presence you feel It within you. There's a sense of immediate "hereness"; like "This is It. There is nothing else." No matter what is going on around the self."
Question: Would you say another pointer might be:
Present to Presence = I AM