ACIM Mentor

            When Liz here has occasion to read A Course in Miracles , say, with a client or to look something up for these articles, what comes across now is a feeling of benevolence . It was always the case that she felt something lovely when she read the Course . In hindsight, this mind now understands why as an early student she carried all three hardcover books in a backpack with her everywhere, not because of all the mind blowing things it said, but because of how she felt when she read it. For a long time, the only time she felt the Holy Spirit was when she was reading the Course . When the Holy Spirit became her constant companion, her reading tapered off. This is, of course, the experience for probably everyone who has a distinct “holy book”. The experiences felt while reading whatever teaching it is comes from the reader, not from the book. Liz read the Bible and felt none of what she felt reading the Course . Yet, multitudes feel something love...

              After The Break here, when the “I”, ego, fell away, the gamut of darker personal experiences rose to conscious awareness, without covers. One of the aspects to emerge was a weak, whiny, self-pitying aspect that felt childish. In fact, for a while, it was thought here that perhaps something from the inner child was trying to be seen, but in time it was realized this was just fear appearing as insecure and whiny. What we think of as ego can be childish and often seems undeveloped and unevolved. The thing is, if those traits are ego, what is rationality, responsibility, empathy, compassion, strength of character—in other words, maturity? Certainly, these personal traits aren’t the Son of God or the Holy Spirit as those are not persons . So, if they aren’t ego, what are they? This mind did not know how to label them until ego fell away at The Break. It’s become clear here now that ego used A Course in Miracles to dissociate its negative ...

          There used to be something here that learned and grew. It made choices. It could be right-minded or wrong-minded. It could be honest about its dark side or it could wear a mask and pretend it was only “good”. It could remain stuck in painful thoughts and feelings, or it could call on the Holy Spirit, its “true self”, for help. It is probably what Ken Wapnick referred to as the “decision maker”. It was thought to be the true “I” that would discover, if ego, the deceiver, fell away, that it really was “God”. But at The Break here eight years ago, it fell away. And this is why the whole “I” experience, not just negative thoughts, attitudes, and traits, have come to be referred to as ego in these articles. (Ego is Latin for “I”, after all.) It was thought here in this mind from the beginning of being a student of A Course in Miracles that what was referred to in the Course as ego was the entire personal experience. This is not what the Course teach...

             Often when something uncomfortable is occurring in their lives clients will ask if, on some level, they want it. They’ve heard from teachers that nothing happens against their will and even if they are not conscious of it, on some level they want everything that occurs. They are sometimes told that they have in fact asked for it because of what they could learn from it. A Course in Miracles says you ask for your experience, either fear or love, but not the events in which they seem to occur. There is the appearance of free will and you can choose to see things either through fear or love. You can use uncomfortable situations to remind you to turn your mind to love. Or at least, if you are stuck in fear, you can ask love for another way to look at the situation. But lets examine the idea that you want what happens. Truth does not lack so it does not learn. Only ego learns. Putting aside ego choosing or asking for experiences to learn,...

              It happens more now that a thought will pass through this mind and then show up in the world in some way. For example, this mind will make a connection or see a pattern or simply receive information about what is going on in the world and in a day or two come across an article about it. This was just a passing thought not shared with anyone, not researched, so no algorithm picked it up. This is not new, just occurring more because this mind is quieter and clearer and so is more aware of passing information. Coincidences and synchronicity have always been a part of this mind’s awareness, but what was occurring was not fully understood. Liz would take up an interest, say a hobby or a certain type of fiction she had not tried before, and suddenly it would explode in popular culture. This was long before social media and algorithms, so Liz was not joining a trend she was aware of, she was unconsciously moved to be on the leading edge of it....

            In the 1980s, when Liz here was first a student of A Course in Miracles , there was a famine in Africa and a bunch of musical artists got together and gave huge concerts to raise money for food for the people of Africa. At the time, Liz was in a Course study group with mostly much older people (Liz was only 20), many of them a group of friends from a nearby church. One of the women from this group was very involved with famine relief. But one day the leader of our group talked about how for famine to be wiped out, there would have to be a paradigm shift in consciousness away from lack toward abundance. This made the woman feel her involvement with famine relief was pointless, it was indeed only, as the first concert was called, a Band Aid . (For those not in the US, Band-Aid is a common brand of bandaging for everyday cuts.) Why was she bothering if it was only a temporary fix and wasn’t bringing real change? Certainly, there was a very urgent...