ACIM Mentor

           “What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?” (W-135.18) That’s a lovely idea, isn’t it? But some of my clients and readers have a hard time with it. Understandably.   We all know it was true for Bill Thetford, whose life was described in the Manual for Teachers of A Course in Miracles . He went to live in California with groups of friends, “mighty companions”, made up of some of the first Course students. Even his death is described in the Course : He would see the real world and then “God would take the last step.” He saw the real world (“I’m there.”) and passed away. You could leave it there and just read the Course as the story of Helen Shucman’s and Bill Thetford’s “holy relationship” in bringing the Course into the world and take some wisdom and a practice here and there for yourself. You wouldn’t be ...

              When Liz here was young, in any situation in which a decision was required, she would ask herself what she wanted. The answer was not always clear. Most situations had pros and cons and she was conflicted. Eventually, of course, something would happen, seemingly by her decision or not, and she would have to deal with what she felt were the “cons” of the situation. “What do you want?” is a question family and friends and therapists will ask you when you are confronted with a choice. The answer might tell you about yourself but not about what will happen. Everything that unfolds is predetermined. Your person’s life is unfolding as part of a greater unfolding (what most call God ). If you cannot accept this, you can at least see that in any given situation rarely is your choice the only factor in what occurs. Sometimes even when you’ve made a choice you find that choice remade for you. For example, you are conflicted about taking a certa...

          “I would like to see a discussion on what Christianity calls Holy Spirit.  As I see it, Christianity does not have exclusive ownership of it, it's just called something else in other spiritual teachings such as, spirit, consciousness, or presence. As I see it, it's the awareness that we all are…” – HC   You are correct that there are universal experiences, some of which some call the Holy Spirit . I doubt there will ever be agreement on what any term means or to what experience they should be applied. It is up to the beholder to label their experiences. Most of us try to find labels that come close to how the experience is experienced or, if we are part of a tradition, to apply the label to what we think the label is supposed to mean in that context. A Course in Miracles uses the term Holy Spirit for one’s inner teacher. It is the Voice for God in each of us that can reveal to us our part in the plan of the Atonement (correction of th...

              In 2008 when Liz here was translating A Course in Miracles into plain language , a message it held stood out the whole time. In fact, it felt like it was slamming into this mind over and over again. It was this: “My conflict is not with a world outside of me or a god outside of me. My conflict is between me and me.” It was refreshing to see this, even though it didn’t end the conflict. As a student of the Course , this mind thought it was being shown that conflict is within and that it must be the false self’s (ego’s) conflict with the true self (spirit). But something about this didn’t seem complete to this mind. It either wasn’t seeing it correctly or there was something more to see. This experience lasted beyond translating the Course , but it eventually faded away as other lessons came forward and it was mostly forgotten. Eventually, the core of ego, the “I”, fell away, leaving only its thought system to “wind down” and when that e...

             In show biz, there’s a thing called “typecasting” where an actor is cast to play the same type of character often if not always. This is most common with character actors, the supporting actors you see in many TV shows and movies. For example, the actor who always plays the supportive best friend, or the conceited sister, or the critical mother. Originally, it’s based on how they look, and if they play the character well, they can get stuck being typecast. Once, Liz here saw an actor who usually played tough characters, often bad guys, in an interview and she was floored. He was well groomed, artsy, sensitive, and soft-spoken in contrast to his rugged face and how he was usually cast. When Liz was a child, she learned early in primary school that the best-looking kids were not necessarily the best people. They were nice to look at but not necessarily nice to be around. She also quickly learned that someone she liked to be around grew bet...

            Back in January there was an article here, Being Conscious , about the experience in this mind of pure consciousness in conscious awareness. This has continued to advance, and it is refreshing. And I see now clearly what ego did with those experiences before. Before ego fell away in this mind, when pure consciousness (truth) rose to conscious awareness (rare), leading to an experience of feeling very conscious (very present, very clear), ego did one of two things with it: If it felt it was going to be judged by this “presence” (which was how ego experienced it), it feared it, so when it passed, ego quickly “forgot” it (denied it) with one distraction or another. But other times, it used it for itself, it became part of its own story. This presence, which was benevolent and strong, had arrived, to ego’s way of thinking, for the sake of ego, like for comfort, or it meant something about ego, for example, that it was ego’s “true self”. Because i...