ACIM Mentor

           “Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time.” (M-24.6)   I did not know that the spiritual symbols that remained here were ego until they collapsed. I just went along with whatever understanding unfolded here, and the symbols of God, Christ, and Holy Spirit remained. In fact, in many ways returned , because before the shift in consciousness, I preferred the words Truth , Extension of Truth , and Teacher of Truth . As I’ve shared, after the ontological ego fell away in a moment, the psychological ego has been in a process of falling away, rising fully to conscious awareness as it does so. I had no idea that those symbols returning were part of that. They were part of ego’s sense of specialness for Liz. So, it is with wonder that I watch the whole spiritual apparatus here deflate. Father (God), Son (Christ)…long ago I came to understand these terms as Whole and Part of the Whole. This is how I transl...

            I’ve had some questions and discussions that indicate I need to clarify what I was trying to convey in last week’s article.            Although the idea of God has fallen away here with ego, my mystical experiences (transcendent love and oneness) as well as my experiences of an internal, loving guide, teacher, and therapist when ego was here were real (as far as consciousness is concerned). I simply understand now that they were the experience of pure consciousness, not of a higher power of some kind. Ego’s denial and opposition to pure consciousness turns the ordinary into something extraordinary, making it seem distant and lofty and special—making it into a god.             My message is that the experiences of universal love and oneness and wholeness that you seek are right here , beyond and surrounding ego in your experience. This is not a new message at all, but I no longer feel t...

            Over six years ago, the ontological ego (the experience of existence that consciousness is reality) fell away. Ever since, I’ve watched the psychological ego fall away. In this process, ego was wholly revealed. At the same time, consciousness itself—consciousness without ego—is rising more completely to conscious awareness. I’ve recorded much of this in these articles, and it has been an evolution. Lately, I’ve used a particular analogy. And now I must dump it! It is this one:   If the sun were God (the Absolute), and sunlight was God’s Extension (Christ), and a house was consciousness, then the occupant of the house would be ego and the sunlight streaming into the house would be God’s (or Christ’s) Spirit.   Turns out: Nope. No part of the Absolute—which is what I meant by  God —is in consciousness.  All  of consciousness is a  representation of the idea of not-Truth and its undoing by the All-encompassi...

             This seems an appropriate time (for our foreign friends, yesterday was Thanksgiving in the US) to answer a question I often get, “Is it useful to have a gratitude practice?” Like any other positive feeling, gratitude is especially nice when it arises spontaneously. But a gratitude practice of some sort—like making a list of the things for which you are grateful and looking at it each day or listing at the end of the day what you are grateful for about that day—can be a way to counteract a negative mindset or to center one that has been distracted with busy-ness for much of the day. The experience of the singular consciousness behind all that appears—what most mean by God —is oneness and love. This is the “truth” of consciousness. Many who take an aspirational approach to spirituality feel that a positive attitude aligns with this, and when it does not arise naturally, they seek to bring it about to line themselves up with what they thi...

            In last week’s article, I mentioned how without ego, there is no longer judgment in this mind on Liz’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. I will elaborate here. Throughout her life, Liz was often moved to do things the reason for which she didn’t understand at the time. She often had thoughts or feelings ego didn’t want, that ego said weren’t consistent with who she was, or were somehow “wrong” or “bad.” Sometimes she was surprised by the words that came out of her mouth or how they came out. These occurrences would lead to a thunderous amount of internal judgment from ego that she was not “acting like herself” or that what she thought, felt, said, or did was somehow not right, not “spiritually correct” or not “spiritually advanced.” Liz’s thoughts, feelings, and actions were merely neutral expressions of consciousness, but ego contracted them to itself, it made them personal . Liz was always going to do what she did, but ego inserted itself int...

            In a couple of months, the Republican House and Senate of this nation will begin to legislate this country into a Christian autocracy (dictatorship). (See Project 2024.) Knowing that Liz here values a democratic republic, and one that separates church and state, some have asked how this person has responded to the election since she has shifted consciousness. To explain, I will backtrack a bit. At The Shift, what I call the ontological ego fell away. This means that the experience of existence that was here is gone. That experience of existence was that consciousness and ego are reality. What remained to slowly wind down was what I call the psychological ego , which is what one normally thinks of as ego—the guilt and fear, the judgmental and attacking thoughts, etc. After several difficult years of ego rising fully to conscious awareness, this consciousness has become quieter, more open, and lighter as the power of the psychological ego has...

            It is popular to explain what is occurring in consciousness as a movie or a play, and until recently, I did so, too. The idea was that some part of Reality took on a role, played a character, for a while. For those for whom reincarnation makes sense, they speak of some part of Reality taking on several, usually evolving roles, over many lifetimes. I was not wholly comfortable with this idea of an actor playing a part, but for a while it was all I had because ego was still here saying identity is real. But I could not figure out who the actor was supposed to be, because my experience is that consciousness is simply the space in which images, thoughts, and feelings appear, but it has no agency, no will, no identity. And Spirit is Reality’s extension into consciousness, always aware of Its Source. Spirit has never been lost to Reality or even felt It was lost to Reality. So, if the actor isn’t Spirit, then it is not anything real, either. Finall...

            “What is happening when someone like a ‘psychic’ is speaking with a dead relative and the information can be confirmed by a living relative, or when someone has a ‘near death experience’ and tells of meeting Jesus or dead family members? Are we just jumping timelines, thinning a veil, simply changing the quality of the dream or is it just the layers of this illusion?” –WW These are just layers of the illusion. Psychic phenomena are simply moments when one has access to consciousness as a whole and tunes into what is to happen or sees another’s story for themselves and others. Some have ongoing access to information in consciousness, others have it occasionally, or maybe only a moment or two in their life. Near death experiences (NDEs) and mystical experiences could be seen as the “thinning of the veil.” To use an analogy I’ve used before, if the sun represents God and sunlight represents Christ and a house represents consciousness, the oc...

          Sometimes clients or readers express that they feel that one side of the political spectrum is more in line with Truth, with God, than the other. And this would be the left side, which they see as more compassionate, recognizes our commonality, has a we’re-all-in-this-together attitude, encourages a more humane work/life balance, is more about people than money or religious righteousness, etc. They feel that the political left comes closer to expressing oneness than the political right and are confused when I say neither has anything to do with God. If consciousness were real, were God (the Absolute), they could have a point. If you shift consciousness, you do become aware that there is one consciousness behind all seeming consciousnesses. If ego falls away, the one consciousness expands and moves forward in your conscious awareness, and you are aware that all that appears is occurring in this one consciousness. For many, both in Eastern and Western ...

           Decades ago, when I got stuck and told Spirit I could not go on unless I got an answer to how What is Perfect could have even an imperfect thought , I was given the ontology that I use to this day:   God, being All, must contain the idea of Its Own opposite. But being All, God cannot have an opposite, so not-God can only ever be an idea .   But as the opposite of Timelessness, the idea of not-God contains time , and in time it seems as though the idea arose long ago and will be undone in some indefinite future…   I realized right then that time was the great illusion on which all other illusions rest. An idea that arose and could not catch hold because of its impossibility seems real because of the illusion of a gap between its arising and being undone. It is in that illusion of a gap—time—that a false reality seems to occur. An illusory sense of deep time is crucial to an illusion seeming real. While this was obvious, I ...

            A question I had after the shift in consciousness was, “Am I really seeing a different world? Or just the same old world differently? Or is this the same thing?” The answer is the latter: A different way of seeing a world is a different world. Because the world one lives in is perceptual and is not the material world. The material world is simply a screen onto which one’s perceptions are projected. Or not, when the screen is seen to be just a screen. I thought I knew that world really meant consciousness , but the Shift showed this to me in a way I could not understand until consciousness shifted. Another question was: Given that it is so different, is there any value for others in my sharing what I now know and see? For some who have experienced the Shift themselves or are nearing it, the answer is sometimes yes. What I share may validate, illuminate, or describe their experience. But they are a tiny minority. For most, it seems what I now...

  “Over the years, I’ve heard the term ‘healthy ego’ what are your thoughts about this? Is there such a thing?” – ESA   Ego is not real, so from Spirit’s perspective, there is no answer to this. But within the framework of its false reality, an ego’s state of health ranges from extreme mental illness up to spiritual self-realization, Bill Thetford being a good example of the latter for students of A Course in Miracles . So, in short, yes there is such a thing as a “healthy ego”, but it’s a relative, never an absolute, thing. Psychologically speaking, a healthy ego is one that has a sound sense of self-worth without being overblown and adjusts to the world as it is. A healthy ego deals with the stresses of life without falling apart. In fact, a healthy ego grows through crises. A well-adjusted adult ego holds a job, takes care of their self, and has functional, balanced relationships. When thrown off balance, a well-adjusted ego eventually rebalances and will ask for help ...

             It seems so obvious now, but only recently did I see, as I wrote a few weeks ago , that identity is not necessary . The constant search for “What am I?” or, later, “What is real and true and where do I fit into that?” was an obstacle to seeing Truth. It was the primary obstacle to seeing Truth because it was always ego straining and striving to find out how it fit into Truth and it doesn’t because it’s an illusion. How simple to just see that there is no need for identity of any kind! Truth is here, whole and complete, and quite apart from identity . I used to say, correctly, that the Truth is here in consciousness and always has been. Truth meaning God’s (Reality’s) Spirit . But I thought—without question—that identity was neutral and could be ego or Spirit. In other words, I thought consciousness = identity but it turns out only ego = identity. So, I kept waiting for Spirit identity to take over and it never did, although Spirit’s...

            The word God is a loaded word because it can mean many things to many people. The meaning of the word has evolved for me, which is why in writing I often put in parenthesis what I mean by God or I write what I mean and put the word God in parenthesis. With my life-coaching mentorees in the A Course in Miracles community, I typically run into God meaning one of three things primarily —often what a client means by God is a mishmash of two or more of these three things:   The Christian Father-God : An anthropomorphized, distant judge, usually stated to be benevolent, but often still feared. No one ever experiences this God, it’s really only a concept. For these students, what occurs in the world is intimately tied to God, so they feel there are right and wrong thoughts and actions, if not morally, at least in terms of what is in line with God. They generally do not think in terms of Truth and illusion or are confused about what is ...

             To continue with the theme of acceptance from last week … Sometimes, people have a mystical experience of some kind that shows them that the world (consciousness) is out of accord with the wholeness and peace and love of Reality (God) They may come out of it saying, “This isn’t how things are supposed to be!” or “We’re supposed to love one another!” But of course, what is unfolding in consciousness is exactly what is to unfold in consciousness. It is not wrong or bad to not be loving. If this is occurring, this is meant to occur. It is just what is unfolding in consciousness right now.   Consciousness is the illusion of a reality opposed to Reality (God), and it depicts the Atonement (correction) over time . So much of it is out of accord with Reality for now and depicts what is to be corrected, not yet the correction. What those who have mystical experiences feel is that Spirit is also here in consciousness and that Spirit refle...

             What is unfolding in time and consciousness depicts the moment the idea of not-God arose and was simultaneously undone by God’s All-encompassing nature. It depicts, over time, the Atonement , or the correction of the idea that God can have an opposite. In time, there can appear to be a gap between the idea of not-God arising and its being undone. So, at any given moment, you might not be able to see the Atonement. But you would if you could see the whole story.     “It is necessary for the teacher of God to realize, not that he should not judge, but that he cannot…In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognize in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would...

             A Course in Miracles can be read on two levels, from the psychological or the ontological perspective. ( See last week’s article. ) “Seeing differently” from the psychological perspective means a different view from ego. Asking for and accepting another way of seeing a person, situation, or yourself is something that you can practice. From the ontological perspective, “seeing differently” means a wholesale change of perception. It means Spiritual Sight, or the Vision of Spirit. You can be open to this, but you cannot practice it or make it happen.             “Do you prefer that you be right or happy?” (T-29.VII.1) This question in the Course exemplifies the psychological approach of the Course . It is saying that the psychological ego insists on its way of seeing, but if it is not making you happy, are you willing to see differently? This approach encompasses both ego’s larger world view as well as speci...