ACIM Mentor

              All consciousness does is register the presence of either ego or Spirit. Much like memory foam, it receives the impression of one or the other, but it would bounce back to its original state—emptiness—if no thought system were there. It belongs to neither. What are these thought systems? Ideas. Spirit is the Idea of God. Ego is an idea opposed to God. Registering the presence of these ideas as thought systems is all that is going on in seemingly individual consciousnesses. Thoughts and feelings in consciousness are induced by ego or inspired by Spirit. What consciousness hears and feels as “I” is whichever thought system occupies it at the moment. The “I” feels the same either way, which is why it is confusing and makes it seem consciousness is the ”I”. But consciousness does not have agency. It is a “receptive mechanism”, as A Course in Miracles calls it. So, the experience of “I”, or identity , in consciousness simply means a thoug...

              In ego-consciousness, you can become aware of God within you—Christ. You can grow this awareness. You can learn to trust Christ’s Spirit (Holy Spirit) as your Guide, Teacher, and Therapist and make It your Constant Companion as you go about the world. In fact, you can make being in the world about being with Spirit. You can be a Spirit-centered person. This will help you to detach from ego, to mitigate the pain of ego. In my experience, it was the only way to live in ego-consciousness with any peace and happiness. But what you cannot do is make Spirit take center in consciousness, which causes ego to fall away. This is what is commonly called “awakening.” No amount of spiritual practice can bring this about. At most, it can prepare you for it, if it is to happen. And it is not necessary for it to happen. Ego will fall away, it will “die”, one way or another, either through awakening in consciousness or the death of the body. It is onl...

            Sometimes I am asked, “What do you see with spiritual Sight?” In A Course in Miracles , spiritual Sight is called right or true perception , the perception of the Holy Spirit , or the real world . Some seem to expect to see a different material world or to only see loving actions between bodies in the material world. But spiritual Sight does not involve the body’s eyes or the material world. It is a perception (consciousness) of the mind. Spirit sees Spirit, which can also be called Its Self, Love, or Unity (Oneness). The reason this is hard to understand until you have the experience is because ego obscures the perception of the mind by projecting its perceptions onto material forms seen by the body’s eyes. Spirit extends Spirit. And ego also extends itself but denies it is seeing itself. (Projection = extension + denial) Another way to put this is Spirit’s Seeing is only content —the content of the mind, which in Spirit’s case is only...

            Ego falling away from the center of consciousness allows for ego, consciousness, and Reality (Spirit) to be seen correctly and in their correct orientation to each other. Before this consciousness shifted from ego to Spirit, I said, and taught, “I am mistakenly identified with ego.” This was incorrect. There was no “I” apart from ego to be mistakenly identified with it. Ego is a false identity in itself , not the false identity of something else. Consciousness is a neutral space that registers the presence of ego or Spirit but does not identify with them. When ego held center in consciousness, its “I, I, I”, “me, me, me” was only itself. Ego did make it seem consciousness was an identity by projecting its identification on an appearance in consciousness, a person (body/personality). Ego lived in and as and through the person. It made it seem consciousness was an alternate reality to God. It distorted consciousness into something it was not. ...

          There are two similar experiences in the spiritual process that I think are important to distinguish because I have heard both referred to as “awakening experiences”, yet one occurs at the beginning of ego’s undoing and the other at the end. While they have a lot in common, they are obviously distinct stages. The first one is equivalent to the Period of Undoing in A Course in Miracles . (See the Manual for Teachers, Development of Trust, M-4.I.A). This is when Truth (God) dawns in your conscious awareness, transcending mere intellectual belief, and you know It is real and you know It is within you. You may not yet know It is all that is real, but It is here now in your awareness and will not leave you. This can be a joyous time, though not always wholly as it is often accompanied by a sense of loss, within as well as in your material life. And ego is threatened, although its full resistance to this dawning awareness may not come until later. You ma...

             Some readers and clients express confusion over whether A Course in Miracles is truly a nondual teaching. It is, but their confusion is because the Course’s foundational theory (its ontology and theology) is nonduality (only God is real) but its practice does not seem to be. That is because the practice meets you where you are, in ego-consciousness, or duality (the experience that both consciousness and God are real). Yet, the practice means to lead you to experience God (Holy Spirit, Christ) which will show you that only God is real. The introduction to the Course points out that you don’t need to seek for God (Love) but for your obstacles to God. Those are ideas that make separation from God—duality—seem real to you. Undoing them is what the Course is for. The Course leads you to an awareness of the Holy Spirit, or God in consciousness. Growing your trust in the Holy Spirit is how you grow your awareness of God’s Reality. And i...

  (This questioner [CS] had many questions, which are answered in last week’s and this week’s articles. I present each question and then its answer.)   “How are we to understand the 10 year restructuring  process given the recognition that time is a  ‘structure of ego’ that ‘seems to grant reality to consciousness’? Can the seeming reality consciousness of ego be understood in relation to what Jung refers to as the symbolic archetypes of collective unconsciousness where there is a shared unconscious belief system expressed within linear constructs of time and space across which the trajectory of life, birth and death appear to unfold sequentially…" I have been told that there is a ten-year process that follows a shift in consciousness from ego- to Spirit-consciousness like I experienced. I suspect it is more a de -structuring rather than re structuring process. However, as I described, I do not experience it as time passing, but rather that I am still as this pro...

            (This questioner [CS] had many questions, which are answered in this week’s and next week’s articles. I present each question and then its answer.)   “…Jung stated: ‘There are forms or images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth as constituents of myths and at the same time, as individual products of unconscious...These [archetypes] are imprinted and hardwired into our psyches.’ Considering the nature of ego and its structures as it correlates with Jung's collective unconscious archetypes in ‘Facing the Structures Left Behind’ (last week’s article), an encompassing understanding is sought with respect to how the terms ‘consciousness’, ‘awareness’, ‘conscious awareness’, and ‘unconsciousness’, are expressed or could be applied respectively to:   ‘Ego is the idea that consciousness is reality, and its structures are ideas and beliefs that uphold this idea [and] symbolize ego, the personal...

            A client who has read many awakening stories reminds me that after the shift in consciousness from ego to Spirit, one embarks on a ten-year process. Well, this month is five years, so I’m halfway there! It’s hard to believe it’s been five years. Oh, sure, if I look at all that’s unfolded in this mind since then, I can see where it took that much time to do so. But in the normal course of things, many different things happen in five years, and for me, only one thing has been occurring for five years, this process. It’s like I’ve been standing still while all this has gone on around me. After some things I’ve seen this week, I understand this process better. When I was confused about ego’s persistence after it seemed to fall away, a couple of people told me of others who described it as the ego “winding down”, like when you stop peddling a bicycle but continue to roll forward until the momentum is used up. I felt it like the “echo” of ego wa...

         I had a whole other article written for this week. I was revisiting the idea that you need to face your stories of trauma to get past them. I used an example from a writer I’ve mentioned before and then went into what was going on with me at that time. I seemed to be facing memories from when Liz was seven. I had a whole story of the effect those experiences had on the former life. It all made sense, seemed to explain a great deal. It was emotional, sad, and I spent hours speaking with Hannah about it, I didn’t get much sleep… And twenty-four hours later, it all collapsed in the awareness that none of that happened, I only thought it did. This did not apply to just the story that had occupied my mind for a day. That whole life, that whole experience of existence, did not occur. I wrote before about how time collapses into now for me. The past is only an idea in my mind now. It has no reality, it cannot hold up, these bouts back into delusion notwith...

          There are two ways in which the term unconditional love is used. One refers to Love that did not arise from any condition , like a person or a relationship, because It is What is. It is God’s Love and It rises spontaneously in your experience. You cannot make It happen. This definition is what many spiritual teachers mean when they use the term unconditional love .          The other refers to a form of personal love that many think of as ideal, even spiritual. It arises from psychological wholeness. It is “ I will love you, no matter the conditions.” Therefore:   Unconditional love means “I will love you, even if we are no longer together.” It does not mean, “I will stay with you under any conditions.” Unconditional love means, “I will love you, even if you change.” It does not mean, “I will stay with you, even if you change.” Unconditional love means, “ I will love you, even if I change.” It does not mean, “...

             When I write or speak about everything occurring in time and consciousness being predetermined as the depiction of the Atonement, or the moment of the idea of not-God arising and being simultaneously undone, readers and clients present certain questions. I answer a few common ones here.   “If everything is predetermined, why should I do anything?”   You will find your person doing things (or refraining from doing them), because this is the Atonement being depicted through your person . Knowing it is predetermined does not change how your expression of consciousness experiences consciousness. You feel desire or not, you feel motivation or not, you feel moved to act or not, you feel moved to make changes or not, you have a particular mood at any given moment, you find choices and decisions are required and you make them. All thoughts, feelings, and actions are the Atonement moving through consciousness. What you can ta...

           “Liz, you use the word ‘perfect’ often. In the past it has had one definition that is generally understood, but as used with the course it has become flexible depending on the situation in which it is used. If Jesus had a grave, he would be turning over in it. For instance, Jesus appreciated Edgar Cayce’s work but was always quick to point out his errors. Good work but not perfect. Your use of the word seems to have a different purpose. As a believer in predestination as part of the course you seem to use the word to bolster an interpretation or opinion. In this definition perfect and not perfect are allowed at the same time. This is getting uncomfortably close to reincarnation, not in form but intent.  There is an interpretation of the Course as I understand it, that takes away the need for this juggling. In any case would you explain your use of “perfect” and your intent.” —Anonymous   I believe you refer to my use of the word “per...

           There is an idea in some nonduality circles, including in A Course in Miracles , that everyone must and will awaken. But seeing consciousness as I do now, as a depiction of the Atonement, or the moment of the idea of not-God arising and simultaneously being undone by God’s Onlyness unfolding over time, I understand this to mean not that every expression of consciousness must awaken, but that every expression of consciousness has a part to play in the awakening of the one consciousness. Therefore, everyone is playing their part perfectly, from those whose lives depict almost pure ego to those that depict realization of Spirit. (At this point in the Atonement, most are going to fall somewhere between these extremes.) This means that to some, consciousness—the Atonement—can seem inherently unfair. Perhaps this is what gives rise to ideas like reincarnation in some cases so that it can seem that each expression of consciousness can have as many c...

            Last week I wrote that it does not always appear peaceful and gentle when you respond to others from Spirit. The question I get from readers and clients is, if you don’t judge by appearances, how do you know if you came from Spirit or ego? The answer is in how you feel. Sometimes clients say, “I know I appeared upset but I wasn’t really feeling upset.” There’s the indication that you were coming from Spirit rather than ego. You act and speak as you are moved but you are not charged up. And when you are done, you quickly come out of the heightened energy you displayed. Putting aside attacking judgments from ego about how you appeared , if you came from Spirit, you will not churn on the issue you addressed in the seeming confrontation. Often, though not always right away, there is a positive outcome involving the other. They will have “gotten the message.” But, it does not matter anyway whether you come from ego or Spirit. Oh, you care because...

           Recently, in a conversation with a friend who is on the path, she wondered how she could accept someone close to her who is clearly steeped in guilt and acting in ways from that guilt that is harmful to their relationships, without feeling she is giving up on any hope that this person will change and grow. During our discussion, she suggested I use this question for this article. Specifically, she was concerned with how to go forward with this person with boundaries that protect herself when necessary but without leaving the relationship, which she feels would be abandoning the other. As she is a Spirit-centered person, she recognizes that she will at some point let go of outcomes and attachments, but also that for now she is still triggered by others’ pain. So, I suggested that she refrain from deciding about the relationship as a whole and instead take each encounter with this person as it comes, responding authentically in that moment, trust...

  (The “I” in this article is the expression of consciousness called Liz.)   When The Golden Light of Love came to this mind in 2017, a few months before I fully shifted to Spirit-consciousness, I recognized it was the Vision I had first experienced in a mystical holy relationship when I was twenty and a new student of A Course in Miracles . But because it came to this mind alone, it was not yet the shift to Spirit-consciousness. It simply hailed the imminent arrival of the shift. I was still, as I had been for many years, aware of Spirit within, but still seeing meaning in the material world that seemed outside of me. When the shift to Spirit-consciousness occurs, what was once one’s inner world with Spirit becomes one’s only world, the real world. In other words, meaning is found only in Spirit. The Shift happened in the spring of the following year and resulted in the recognition that I am not in the material world but the material world is in me and it is meaningless...