ACIM Mentor

             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...