ACIM Mentor

My mistake for so many years was to try to accept that I wasn’t what I was experiencing myself to be. In other words, I felt I was a self, but I tried to get myself to realize that I was Truth or Spirit or Mind or whatever you want to call It. It would have been better to allow myself to feel I was a self and to also invite Truth into my awareness. In practice, of course, this is what eventually occurred. I would, time and again, say, “This is what I experience, dammit, and I’m not going to deny it anymore.” But it would have been a lot less painful if between those moments of honesty I didn’t fall back into guilt and feel I had to try to accept what was unacceptable from the point of view that I was a self. There was no reconciling my experience as a self and my experiences of Truth. I really just had to experience each apart from the other. This is the experience of the split mind. But mind seeks to be whole. So it seeks to reconcile its parts. However, Wholeness is . It is not ...

There are two approaches one can take to a spiritual teaching. In one the teaching is an end in itself. The goal of the student is to master the teaching. The emphasis of study for them is to find the “right way” to understand the material. Therefore, they often engage in arguments with other students over the correct way to interpret the material. They are often unhappy with teachers they feel are not “right” in their interpretation. In the other approach, the Awareness of Truth (Holy Spirit) is the Goal. And the teaching is seen as an instrument that the Awareness of Truth in the student’s mind uses to help them reach that Goal. So the student does not seek the “right way” to read the material, but rather asks the Awareness of Truth in their mind for the most helpful way to understand it. The student emphasizes their experiences of Truth over the material they study, which they recognize are just symbols on a page. They have no reason to argue with others over the correct inter...

“I was doing my morning reading of the Course when I came upon this statement in  Text-4.7.5: 'God Who encompasses all being, nevertheless created distinct beings who have everything individually, but who want to share it to increase their joy. Nothing that is real can be increased except by sharing it.' This confuses me a bit...thinking we need to lose the individual…” – JW Yes, it is a confusing quote out of context and seems to contradict much that A Course in Miracles says about Oneness. And it certainly contradicts the experience of Oneness! Oneness means one and the same throughout. There is no distinction to be made in What is One. The conversational nature of ACIM, especially in the first few chapters, also makes it confusing because there is an implied understanding between the Voice and Helen so there is a lack of helpful elaboration for the rest of us. But that quote is understandable if you remember that in ACIM “to create” means “to extend” rather than “to b...

“…I try to follow your descriptions when you refer to the mind but it seems there are so many versions of “mind” I wondered if you could find an easy way for the very simple person (me) to explain so I can understand? So for example in your last mind you mentioned--Universal mind--Universal split mind--hybrid mind, and simply mind. Is this linked to the ladder of the split which Kenneth Wapnick referred to?” - CL There is only one Mind (Truth), but we experience Mind as though It is split between Truth and not-Truth. The part of Mind where the idea of not-Truth seems to occur I refer to as the one or universal split-mind. (In A Course in Miracles this is called the “Son of God”).  It is this split-mind that projects the universe of form, including billions of versions (“sons of God”) of itself. You experience yourself as one of these projected split-minds. The split in you shows up as two thought systems, the Awareness of Truth (Holy Spirit) and the personal thought system (...

Last week I wrote about an experience of the Light of Love coming into my mind and the product, a lesbian romance novel, which came about because of it ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2017/11/an-interesting-thing-happened-this.html ). (The “Light of Love” can also be called the Vision of the Holy Spirit, the Vision of the Holy Relationship, Spiritual Vision, the Real World, True Perception, etc.) There was also a great deal of personal psychological processing that occurred when it began. I noted that the novel was not “channeled”, though it “rode in”, on the Light. So where did it come from? It came from what I call the “hybrid-mind”. This is a blend of this split-mind and the universal split-mind. Both of these contain the awareness of Truth. To explain: This split-mind is a singular expression of the universal split-mind. The Truth in this split-mind is universal. But not-Truth in this split-mind is unique. Not-Truth is this particular personal thought system (ego) and the...

An interesting thing happened in this mind this summer. But first, some background: As many of you know, I have published five books and written many articles, all non-fiction, all with spiritual themes. But my writing began with fiction at the age of ten. All my life I have devised plots in my mind, inspired by any number of things. It’s just the way this mind often occupied itself. I finished two novels, one in my early twenties and one in my early thirties. Both were love stories. The first was heterosexual. The second, more authentically for me, was between two women. Though both were submitted to publishers, neither was published. I did not consider myself very good at writing fiction, though I loved the process. Eventually, fiction writing fell away naturally, though my mind continued to produce plots and characters. My non-fiction, spiritual writing began in my early forties, as my blog. I have not stopped writing spiritual themed books and articles since (I am fift...

“i am currently reading 'The ACIM Mentor Articles: answers for students of a course in miracles' and as some of the entries are from 2006 etc, i am wondering if they are still relevant to your current teachings now, as you seem to have developed and sometimes have different ways of perception.” – HE Yes, I have evolved and much of what I wrote back then I would not write now. However, what I wrote then was authentic to where I was then. So many readers still find those articles relevant to where they are now. I get a lot of positive feedback about that book's practical approach. Also, working one-on-one with others, I try to meet them where they are, not where I am. So with clients I teach what was relevant to me when I was where they are now. In that respect I still teach some of what I wrote back then. FYI: The last article in that book was April, 2010. For articles written since then you can go to my blogsite, www.blogspot.acimmentor.com. >>>>   ...

Continuing with the themes of “the way out is through” and “the fear to look within”… I have found that grief is the emotion that is most often resisted and repressed. It is also often unidentified. All loss entails feelings of grief, to varying degrees. Sometimes we go through it quickly. You miss a phone call and you experience denial (“I can’t believe I missed that.”), anger/depression (“Oh, I really wanted to speak with them.”), and, finally, understanding/acceptance (“Oh, well, they’ll call back.”). In other situations these stages take longer to process. Sometimes, in the case of a major loss, it can take years to fully reach understanding and acceptance. Grief is painful, sometimes excruciating, but it is not really a negative emotion. It is the process our minds use to heal. The way out of grief is to go through the process. We repress grief because it is so painful and/or because we don’t want to acknowledge the loss. But when we don’t go through the process we d...

Last week I wrote about how the way out of emotions that are obstacles to being aware of Truth and being at peace is not to deny or repress them but to go through them. But many people struggle to do this. And that’s because the first obstacle you encounter is a belief that if you look inward you will not be able to cope with what you find. Sometimes it seems you fear you will be overwhelmed by your emotions, but what you really fear is to see the guilt that you believe is there. “…Loudly the ego tells you not to look inward, for if you do your eyes will light on sin, and God will strike you blind. This you believe, and so you do not look…” (T-21.IV.2) Guilt is what sustains the ego (personal thought system) in your mind. It wants you to believe in guilt. So as much as you might not want to look at the guilt in your mind, the ego is not threatened by you doing so. What it really fears when you look inward is that you will see past it. You will see that there is no guilt. ...

When I started out on this path to Peace I was very young. I was drawn to Truth, but I was also hoping to avoid pain. I wanted to use my growing spiritual awareness to do so. But it quickly became obvious this was not going to happen. Pain did not go away. But it was my fear of denial that had set me on this path in the first place, so I was not going to use the path for another form of denial. If I found I was doing so, I’d pull myself back and face whatever I had to face. Not only was I not going to avoid the pain of the personal life, but there was the pain of the spiritual path to deal with, too. It is not that it has to be painful. It is just that it is inevitably painful to look into one’s mind at one’s obstacles to peace. If I didn’t think they were painful, they wouldn’t be obstacles! The only way to overcome obstacles and get out of the pain is to go directly into and through the ideas and beliefs that cause them. And that is experienced as painful until I am through th...

A few questions and requests for clarity came after last week’s article ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2017/10/finally-real-choice.html ). Also, I have something to add. So I will try again: The body’s eyes report what it sees to the mind. It sees forms that have no meaning in themselves. So the universe of form is like a blank screen with regard to meaning. Your mind always perceives inward. If you are in the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in your mind) you know this and you see Real Perception, or what A Course in Miracles calls the “real world”. This is a Vision of Love or Light within. This inward Vision extends outward to the universe of form. This “colors” the way you see form, but you are aware of this. You do not have the illusion that how you see form comes from the forms the body’s eyes report. You know you are seeing your own mind. In the ego (personal though system) you also always perceive only inward. However, you project your perceptions away onto the u...

A Course in Miracles teaches that we always look inward before we look outward. And it has always been easy for me to see True Perception (the Real World, Christ’s Vision, Holy Spirit’s Vision, etc. in ACIM) as a wholly inward Vision. When I experience It I also see the universe of form is meaningless. It is a blank canvas. The Vision may extend to form but I know the source is me, not the forms the body’s eyes report. In a way, I see a world overlaid over the world of form and I know that “real world” is in me. This overlaid world actually overlooks form because it is meaningless. But the ego’s (personal thought system’s) perceptions are harder for me to see as only an inward perception. And that is because it always projects its perceptions away. Even though I have learned to take back my perceptions by practicing sorting out facts in form from my projection of meaning onto them, still there has always been an attachment between my perceptions and the universe of form. This ...

“Lately, through spending much more time in meditation (not necessarily stillness!), I seem to be able to “drop into” a space of deep quiet and a new kind of being (knowing??) for brief periods of time. My question is this: What does the Holy Spirit ‘feel like’?  I would love to think I’m finally able to experience my own Teacher, but my mind (no surprise) kicks up a fuss and tells me this is just brain waves, nothing special, don’t be silly, etc. etc.  I do seem to get responses to sincere requests for clarity, answers to questions and so on, but again my mind tells me I am making everything up on my own.  How would I know the difference?” – MG You have experienced the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in your mind) in the quiet knowing you described as well as in the clarity and answers you received. You can trust this. You know it is the Holy Spirit when you feel set free from confusion, guilt, and fear in their various forms. There’s a lifting and lightening. ...

 “ An interesting follow-on topic in your blog may be specific examples that may be used to determine if you have outgrown your relationship…as it applies to ACIM followers…” – JW It does not matter if one is a student of A Course in Miracles or not. It does not matter the relationship, whether it be romantic, family, friend, to a job, to an object, etc. The determinant of when to leave a relationship is the same: When the pain of staying outweighs the pain of leaving. Some people are healthier and can recognize it is time to leave before it gets too painful. In their case, they recognize that if they stay the pain of staying will outweigh the pain of leaving. They do not wait for it to get too painful. >>>>>   Are you in a painful relationship and trying to determine if it’s time to leave? Email me at Liz@acimmentor.com to set up a telephone appointment. Learn more at www.acimmentor.com . If you have a question the answer to which you...

A common issue with my clients is the resistance they feel to practice, be it study, meditation, doing the lessons, making the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in your mind) their Constant Companion, etc. But resistance is part of the process. It does not mean something is wrong. It does not mean you are failing. Resistance really means “not ready” or “not now”. It does not mean you have fallen off the path. For example, you may go through a hungry stage where you cannot study enough. But then you find one day that you do not want to study at all. Or if you try the words just seem to bounce of your mind and not penetrate. This is not necessarily resistance to further study. This can be that you are so saturated with what you have taken in that you need to process it before you can take in more. A lot of this processing is unconscious. It shows up as a lack of motivation to study. But when you are done processing you will find yourself motivated to study again. Sometimes you a...

“Only what you have not given can be lacking in any situation.” (T-17.VII.4) This quote is from the Text of A Course in Miracles . In context, it is about Helen Schucman’s and Bill Thetford’s faith in their Holy Relationship. They were being told not to blame the other when they lost sight of the Holiness of their relationship. The Vision of the Holy Relationship was within each. It did not come to each from the other. So if one did not see Holiness in the other the problem with within them, not in the other. This is, of course, a central lesson in ACIM. The issue is always within you. I often use this quote with clients in a slightly different context. They will share with me that they are not getting something from a relationship. Often they will take this idea and feel that if they just gave enough forgiveness or love the other would change. But I ask them if they are giving themselves, through the relationship, what they want from the other. For example, if they are in a...

There are certain words that students still identified with the self use in their relationship with the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth in their own minds) that not only have negative connotations that indicate or increase fear; they are also not applicable. Two of those words are “submit” and “surrender”. To submit or surrender to the Holy Spirit would mean, first, that the self is the correct view of yourself and it is from this view that you must submit or surrender to the Holy Spirit; second, that the Holy Spirit is something separate from you; third, that you can give up your power to It. All of these are erroneous. The difference between submission and surrender is that submission sounds less defiant than surrender. Submission means you recognize the Holy Spirit’s greater power and surrender sounds like you were defeated by the Holy Spirit. But neither attitude is applicable toward the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the thought system in your mind that speaks for...

“I know it is ego, but…” is a phrase that is often said or written to me by clients and readers. But often what is called “ego” (personal thought system) is actually not the ego. Often it is just the personality of the self expressing itself. Why is this important? Because in order to let go of the ego you have to see its boundaries. Otherwise you attempt to release what does not need to be released. And this can feel discordant, giving the ego an opportunity to tell you that you are being asked to sacrifice. To recognize the ego’s boundaries you have to understand the self’s boundaries, too. The self, as I use the term, is a body and personality. It is part of the universe of form. It is the result of cause and effect at the level of form. Your particular self is the effect of what has gone before in the story of time. It has an authentic expression as part of the unfolding story of time. And it is neutral in that it is neither good nor bad. It simply is what has resulted fro...

“Liz the ego's way into the world began with the thought ‘Is there something better?’ and a way out of the ego's world began with Bill Thetford's thought ‘There must be a better way’.  Is it possible the ego asked both of these questions? The first question responded to by the Father (God) and the second by a son Jesus?” – ESA God (Truth), being All, must think of Its Own opposite. But being All, God cannot have an opposite. The idea of not-God arose and was undone immediately by God’s All-encompassing nature. It is as though God said, “What’s my opposite? Oh, wait, I am All; I cannot have an opposite” and the idea was done. So there is no intention behind the idea of not-God. Like God, it merely is. But unlike God it has no meaning because it is impossible. Only in time, which is part of the idea of not-Truth, does it seem that the idea of not-God began long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future. So only in time, in not-Truth, does lack and a need to fill t...

“I have one thing keeping me from embracing ACIM, and that is that I still don’t understand non-violence. My question is, ‘If violence does not exist, then wars don’t exist, genocide does not exist, because it is all an illusion? Then there is no good nor bad, and one can do whatever they want?’ But then, nothing has meaning, and studying the book, and learning to think right also has no meaning, and no merit. I simply don’t understand, the thinking seems circular to me. I must be peace, killing an animal is peaceful? If I had the opportunity to kill Hitler in the middle of his act, with the thinking of non-violence, I should let him live? I am lost with this work. Please help me.” – Anonymous You actually have three questions here so it is no wonder you feel lost! One is a question about non-violence, another is about morality, and the last is about why you bother to study at all. With regard to non-violence, A Course in Miracles does not take a stand one way or the o...

“I am 78 and my sister is 70. Ever since I can remember she has been ill with different conditions. Before I learnt from ACIM that we choose our own sickness I always felt helpless about this. Now I just feel angry! I feel she is using the illnesses to get attention! It really irritates me that her attitude is 'Poor me. I can't do anything because I have just had this fall or I have this or that’...... Now on another level I know that this is my lesson but on a practical level I don't know how to interact with her. We are told to be kind! My reaction to that is that I should try to fix her problems. I seem to have been doing that all my life but I don't want to do this anymore!!!!! Help!” – Anonymous The choice that A Course in Miracles refers to with regard to what happens to the self in the world is for the entire experience of imperfection and dysfunction that is the human experience. It is the opposite of God (Truth) in every way.  Illness, the vulnerability...

“We (I) did not choose separation, still, I , being a personal ‘mind’, choose to believe ego's thought system, now.... although the Course teaches me otherwise . You personal LIZ still experiencing LIZ as LIZ constantly choosing to not follow her personal thoughts:  Is this the daily NOW dream..? I experience the dreamflow as reality with momentary ‘forgiveness’ workouts when things get STUCK because I forget the dream as being a dream...” – ER A Course in Miracles does not teach that you as a micro split-mind chose “separation from God”. It teaches that the Son of God, or macro split-mind, made that choice. Your (micro split-mind) choice is made only in the present. You are also not a personal mind, or thought system. Your mind is split between the thought system of the Holy Spirit and a personal thought system (ego).  You are not the thought system but the mind choosing it. And that choice is made so unconsciously that you do not even seem to have a choice. It’s ...

There are things that become so clear without the belief in guilt in the mind! For me, one of those things is the idea that “separation from God” was not a choice made somewhere, sometime, perhaps by the “Son of God” (macro split-mind). While I was studying A Course in Miracles the Holy Spirit (Awareness of Truth) would try to get me to see that God (Truth) is One so there is no choice in God. Choice is a part of not-God, which is the opposite of God, so there could be no choice that caused the separation. Choice only has meaning within the separation. But I felt, without articulating it to myself, that someone had to be responsible for the error. In fact I worked at being hyper-responsible for the separation by always referring to it as something I chose even though I couldn’t see it. This is all over my early writing. What the Holy Spirit was trying to get me to see, and what I can see now, is that nothing real has occurred, so how could there be a choice that caused it? I do...