ACIM Mentor

In my experience, the Holy Spirit does not think in terms of right/wrong or good/bad. When it comes to things in the world, the Holy Spirit asks one question: “What part of this is helpful for awakening?” And It lets go of everything else. For example, I often have students who comment to me about books they have read that reference A Course in Miracles , but that they have found are not strictly in line with the Course . Last November I decided to address this issue in a blog, The Better Dream Teachers ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/11/better-dream-teachers.html ). There were a lot of ways I could have looked at the writers of these books. My ego doesn’t like it when someone reads the Course differently from me or when they do something with the Course with which I don’t agree. But the Holy Spirit pointed out that many students who complained about these teachers were often led to the Course through their books. I also know that many people have used these books to help the...

For a long time one of my obstacles to accepting what A Course in Miracles was teaching was that I thought it was trying to make us all into goody-two-shoes. I thought what it is saying is that we are supposed to look at “bad” situations and simply choose to see them in a “nice” way. I couldn’t see that in every situation I was interpreting what was occurring. I thought the way I saw the world was fact and that changing how I see the world was repression, when in fact the world itself and the events in it are neutral. I learned that the world is neutral through my absorption in politics and by watching the talking heads on television (see How I Overcame My Addiction to Politics, http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-i-overcame-my-addiction-to-politics.html ). At first I noticed how an event was interpreted differently by different people depending on their political point of view, each claiming that the way they saw things was the truth. Then I saw the “spin doctors” after poli...

The first time I heard the Voice for God and consciously knew what It was, was at the moment I came out to myself as a lesbian. I was seventeen years old, three months out of high school and infatuated – once again – with a woman. I said to myself, “You know this means you are a lesbian” and a still, quiet Voice in my mind said, “I know.” I felt a rush of relief and I felt joy for the first time in my life. It was as though a curtain was pulled back and I allowed myself to see who I really was for the first time. The world is an illusion. Those who choose to come to it are seeking for a place where they can be illusions, and avoid their own reality. (W-155.2) The self I saw then was not my True Self, but my human self, my ego, the illusion of myself. In time, as I learned the Truth that I am Part of God, I wondered about that moment. Why would the Holy Spirit bother to be with me when what I was revealing to myself was not Truth? There is a conflict we all have in the world with our h...

There’s a woman who is a customer of mine in my house cleaning business who I have known for over a decade. I see her almost every week. We remain only acquaintances because she is devoutly LDS (Mormon) and I am a lesbian. She is friendly to me, but only asks general questions about my personal life, and never asks about my life-partner. I know she is uncomfortable with my homosexuality, and while I am always honest and never hold back, I do not bring up my life-partner unless she or someone with us has touched on a topic that makes it natural for me to mention Courtney. While our spiritual beliefs vary greatly and are in some areas diametrically opposed, I respect her consistency. She lives what she believes. She is not a hypocrite. This woman is respected, even revered, in the LDS Church here. She is a teacher in her Church and is often called upon to speak at LDS gatherings. Her specialty seems to be morality and she has a deep belief in right and wrong. Her Church teaches that one’...

Students have asked me what I think about people who are called “master teachers”. Some who are referred to as “master teachers” use A Course in Miracles and some use other teachings. Students seem to want to know two things: Do I believe a person can be a “master teacher”? And how can they know who to trust? The Master Teacher is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is within you. When looking for external teachers there is always the risk that you will not learn this and will mistake another “person” as having something that you do not have. An advanced teacher of God will always point you inward to God and will teach you that the Truth in you is the same as the Truth in themselves. We are in the world to teach only as long as we need to learn. Therefore, there is no difference between teachers of God, except time, and what is that but an illusion? Really, you are your own teacher because you learn from others what you project or extend – separation from God or Oneness with God. As ...

Few students of A Course in Miracles are happy to find that they have embarked on a process – they want Heaven now ! Sometimes they are in immediate pain somewhere in their life and they want a quick fix. Usually they’ve had at least one tantalizing glimpse of peace and they want it back – all the time ! But their impatience is really a lack of faith that peace is theirs, otherwise they would simply relax into the process of awakening to it. They may think they lack faith in themselves (“How do I know I won’t step off the path?”; “How do I know if I’m following the Holy Spirit?”), but when you are still identified with ego, trying to put your faith in yourself means withdrawing your faith in the Holy Spirit. Either you have turned your life over to the Holy Spirit but don’t trust the Holy Spirit; or you haven’t faith enough in the Holy Spirit to turn your life over yet. It is but the first few steps along the right way that seem hard, for you have chosen, although you still may think ...

When I led a study group a young man new to A Course in Miracles came a few times. He asked, “What is the Holy Spirit? Is it my conscience?” We told him, No . “Is it my good intentions?” Again, we said, No . I don’t remember how we explained it to him at the time. The Course tells us the Holy Spirit is the Voice for God, our Teacher and Guide, etc., but what he wanted to know was, what is the experience of the Holy Spirit? How would he know when he was experiencing the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is the Love of God within you. It is the Love within you that is One with the Love in everyone else and with God. Everyone experiences the Holy Spirit, whether or not they identify It as such. It is just one of many voices in your mind that you are trying to single out. Sometimes the Holy Spirit guides us through our intuition – but not all intuition is the Holy Spirit’s guidance. This is the difficulty in trying to sort out what is the Holy Spirit and what is ego. One of the characteristic...

It seems to me there is some confusion out there as to what happens when you turn a relationship over to the Holy Spirit or choose to see another’s holiness rather than their ego (these are the same thing). Pretty much life goes on as before, only your attitude changes. Your experience of relationships changes and others may change toward you because of this. You really only need to experience your holiness once through another for this to happen. Choose to see your holiness in one relationship and you’ve changed them all because they are all the same – your relationship with your self. I hear a couple of different expectations from students about the practical results of choosing to see holiness in another. The rare one is that if you see holiness in someone they will change to become what you want them to be. Far more often, however, students think that once they turn a relationship over to the Holy Spirit their own personal needs should be ignored. They should only focus on holiness...

I’ve been asked to define an unhealthy relationship. There are many reasons one can become uncomfortable in a relationship, often because of their own projections. So how do you know when it is time to insist on change or to leave? An unhealthy relationship is one where the overriding reason you maintain its form is fear. Relationships are complex and you may stay in a situation for many reasons, but the fear is “overriding” when if you took away the fear you would insist on change or leave. I said maintain its “form” because sometimes we don’t want the relationship to completely end, but to change. For example, you don’t want to stop being a parent to your adult child, but you do want him to get a job and move into his own place. It’s unhealthy if he is using emotional blackmail to make you support him and you give in to this. Fear in the form of guilt is the overriding reason you maintain the form of this relationship. The other reason I said “form” is because all relationships are r...

I used to be a political junkie. I love to analyze and there is nothing so given to analysis like politics. Election years were the most absorbing to me and I spent my time flipping between 24 hour news programs and the C-Span channels to get my fix. When I got back into A Course in Miracles after a few years away from it I lost much interest in politics. But when the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan – and then Iraq – I felt I “should” pay attention. It was simply that my ego had found a hook to draw me back. I spent a couple of years completely absorbed with politics again. It filled my mind and I was often in a tizzy over something in the news. I drove my life-partner crazy. I was not happy; I was addicted. Finally I asked myself why I was watching this stuff. What was it for? Why was I making it real to me? It only fed my ego. I’ve heard that some say you have to watch this stuff to forgive it, but that doesn’t make any sense. When you forgive illusion you let it go. So I stopp...

You will never know that you are co-creator with God until you learn that your brother is co-creator with you . (T-9-VI.7) In A Course in Miracles “creation” means Oneness with God. The quote above means that you will not know you are One with God until you learn you are One with others in this world. Sometimes students ask me why the Course puts such an emphasis on relationships with others when it teaches you that God is within you. Why do you have to see God in others? If your brothers are part of you, will you accept them? Only they can teach you what you are, for your learning is the result of what you taught them. What you call upon in them you call upon in yourself. (T-9.VI.3) And meaning always looks within to find itself, and then looks out. All meaning that you give the world outside must thus reflect the sight you saw within; or better, if you saw at all or merely judged against. (T-20.VIII.10) We’re back to the law of mind: The mind always sees itself. There is really ...

Many of my students have mentioned a book that is out now called “The Secret”. They all recognize that it is the law of attraction repackaged for today’s world. I have not read it, but it does seem to confuse some of my students who see parallels with what A Course in Miracles teaches about being responsible for what we see and experience. The thing about the law of attraction is that it is real and it works. It is simply the law of mind: The mind always sees itself; it sees what it wants and what it believes. Understanding this law of mind often leads to the temptation to use it to make a better dream of separation from God rather than to transform the dream of separation into one of Oneness. One of my students was particularly disturbed because friends of hers who follow “The Secret” now think they only have to ask God for something and it will show up. It is a fact that once you start communing with God your outer life improves as a reflection of your improved inner life. But that ...

Long after I had accepted the ideas in A Course in Miracles I still had a lingering fear that if I totally gave my life to God I would eventually be asked to suffer through something horrible, like Jesus’ crucifixion. Even though I was not raised in any religion, the idea that God asks horrible sacrifice of those who serve Him best is so imbedded in our culture – and so reinforced by ego -- that it was not until fairly recently that I was able to overcome a superstitious feeling that I would be called upon to suffer. After many years of listening to and following the Holy Spirit and learning that the Holy Spirit always gives me so much more than I am asked to give, I have finally accepted that God does not need me to suffer at all. If it has taken so long for me, who had no formal religious training, to accept this, how much harder is it for students who come from a religious background? Still some students tell me they are grateful that “Jesus died for my sins” when the Course make...

Appetites are "getting" mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called "higher ego needs." Body appetites are not physical in origin. The ego regards the body as its home, and tries to satisfy itself through the body. But the idea that this is possible is a decision of the mind, which has become completely confused about what is really possible. (T-4.II.7) Inevitably students of A Course in Miracles come around to the question of sex and its role in their lives now that they are on a path to become teachers of God. They learn that pain and pleasure are the same, that whatever the body experiences is in the mind, that God did not make bodies, etc. Sex plays several different roles in our lives: Pleasure, bonding/connection, power and reproduction. So let’s look at each of these individually. Pleasure Pain compels attention, drawing it away from Him and focusing upon itself. Its purpose is th...

It is essential that error be not confused with sin, and it is this distinction that makes salvation possible. For error can be corrected, and the wrong made right. But sin, were it possible, would be irreversible. (T-19.II.2) A Course in Miracles makes a distinction between error and sin as a way to release you from guilt. Error is correctible, and as such has no real effects. Sin is imperfection-made-real and cannot be undone. The Course uses the word “error” to describe our perception of separation from God because it is not real – it is only a perception so it can be undone. And it teaches that "sin" cannot happen at all because you cannot change God’s creation. This world and everything you do in it is an error in perception that has already been corrected by the Holy Spirit within you. You learn this as you make the Holy Spirit manifest in your life by extending holiness into all that you see. By seeing your holiness everywhere you realize you have not left God and r...

There’s a parable that many of you have probably heard in some form that I am going to share here: An old man wakes one morning to find his town flooded and water lapping at his porch. Soon a fire truck comes sloshing through the water and the firefighters offer to take him to higher ground. “That’s okay,” the old man responds. “God will take care of me.” The next morning the water has risen above the first floor. The old man is looking out a second-storey window when a boat comes by and the rescuers offer him a ride. “No thank you,” the old man says. “God will take care of me.” Overnight the water continues to rise and morning finds the old man sitting on his roof. A helicopter appears and a rescuer descends with a basket to help take the old man to safety. “I’m okay,” the old man reassures him. “God will take care of me.” The old man drowns that day. When he reaches heaven he sees God and asks, “Why didn’t you save me?” And God replied, “I sent you a fire truck, a boat and a helicopt...

Everyone is born into this world that is not of God and therefore is not real. Because of this A Course in Miracles calls this a dream or an illusion. There are really two layers to this dream: The collective dream we all dream together that makes up the whole world and what happens in it; and your own individual dream within this dream. The collective dream is made up of all of our individual dreams. There are areas where we have agreed to agree – like the earth is round, the sky is blue, etc. But the collective dream is also full of conflict because each of us is having our own dream and pulling against everyone else’s dream. Even where we agree we often have subtle differences – the sky is blue, yes, but what shade of blue is it to you? All this is the separation. None of it matters. It does not matter what we have made collectively or individually. It is not of God. Sometimes students get bogged down in why . Why did I make this painful situation in my life? Why did we collectiv...

A student of A Course in Miracles has asked me to address in a blog my being in a relationship with someone who is not a student. She points out that in my recent blog on the special relationship I refer to my life-partner as a “partner in every way” when she is not a student of the Course . She finds it “less than ideal” that she cannot share the Course with her husband and finds it hard to make decisions with him because they have different perspectives. My primary relationship is with God. Courtney accepts this and she has her own path to God (twelve-step). I never felt she needed to share mine. I really don’t think the Course would work for her even though she sees and accepts that it works for me. I’ve learned to share the Course with her not by directly talking about it, but by seeing Christ in her instead of what makes us different. I share the Course with her by knowing that she is Part of God while she is not remembering it for herself. I share the Course with her throug...

The Holy Spirit does not speak first, but He always answers . Everyone has called upon Him for help at one time or another and in one way or another, and has been answered. Since the Holy Spirit answers truly He answers for all time, which means that everyone has the answer now . (T-6.IV.3) Often students tell me they are not feeling God’s Presence in their life. Perhaps they think they are not because they have an expectation of the experience that is not being met by the actual experience. While a revelation of God is profound, experiencing God in your life in the world – what is called the Holy Spirit – is not. It is far more subtle and can be an ordinary, everyday experience. At first it is often only recognized in retrospect. But with conscious effort you soon begin to feel the Presence around you all the time. You are Part of God so of course you experience God. It is just that this experience is jumbled up with all your ego experiences and it takes a while to sort out what is...

I have said repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would not deprive you of your special relationships, but would transform them. And all that is meant by that is that He will restore to them the function given them by God. (T-17.IV.2) Until I experienced the holy relationship, my sole goal in life was to find Ms. Right and to live happily ever after with her. This special relationship was supposed to be my salvation, though I would not have put it that way. But I did expect it to fulfill me, make me happy and bring me peace – salvation by other names. I’ve written before about my experience with the holy relationship soon after becoming a student of A Course in Miracles when I was 21 years old ( http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2006/02/holy-relationship.html ). The holy relationship was the experience that, like the revelations I wrote about last time, taught me that everything the Course was saying about Oneness was true. Through revelations I experienced Oneness with God; through the mira...