ACIM Mentor

My adult children have refused to speak to me for years. I have explained my past actions and I have apologized but this has not brought about a change in my relationship with them. How can I use what ACIM teaches to change my thinking about this? – Anonymous             By taking responsibility and apologizing you have taken steps to undo the guilt in your mind that the personal thought system (ego) may have been using as an obstacle to peace. This clears the way to peace for you. But whether or not your children want peace is up to them. Every mind has peace in it, but most are not willing to work through their obstacles to peace. Most continue to seek peace through grudges and victimhood rather than through an awareness of Truth and the releasing of the personal story.             Frankly, even if your children came around and forgave you the personal thought system...

I don't understand what the workbook says about "I am under no laws but God's", particularly when it comes to economic laws.  A part of me wants not to worry about money but another part says I have to. This quote from the Course makes me feel free, but I wonder if it will make me irresponsible as well. – SD             The personal thought system (ego) teaches that if you follow certain rules in the world you will be happy, peaceful, complete, etc. What A Course in Miracles is saying is that your peace and happiness are not determined by anything in the universe of form but by your awareness of God. God is the eternal Truth in you.             What you are seeing here is that the personal thought system (ego) equates worrying with responsibility. But in what way is worrying responsible? It is a waste of time and energy and it certainly does not lead to...

...When I hear people talk about guidance it seems to be involved in a lot of different aspects and areas - I'm not sure if that makes sense - but I guess the question is about how to get in touch with guidance and what real guidance is being used for - how to use it to awaken rather than in a way that the personal mind might use it to keep you in the dream and "fixing" up the dream?  I'm not really clear how to ask about this because I think it's probably quite an in-depth topic in the sense of really receiving guidance and how guidance can be distorted and misused and also guidance for more personal activities or how the body is utilized and more deeper clearing of the mind and really joining with the presence of God and releasing identity with the personal. – AL             Inner peace results when you are aware of Truth. So when you decide that you want inner peace you are ready to grow your awareness of Tr...

I have been trying to help someone and have been trying to have them, when they see something disturbing, to tell the Holy Spirit that you are willing to see this differently. Last week she saw a beggar yelling at his dog. She has a particular problem with suffering dogs of the world. I tried to explain how we perceive and then interpret what we perceive. She wrote back “what about when you see something hurtful or sad when it is obvious and not an interpretation.” She got me there. The problem is it all results in her giving large amounts of money and it completely ruins her day and results in a deep depression that can last a week or most likely longer. During this time she can do nothing. I think you get the picture. How can I answer her comments?... – DH             If you want inner peace then you want to sort out fact from interpretation (projection of meaning). You never respond to facts, but to your interpretations. Y...

          I had written and received the most wonderful response from you in regard to feeling deep love and joy when interacting with my family which consists of my husband of almost 20 years and our two pugs. We are at our happiest when we are all together. I felt guilty because I felt I was "loving" myself deeper into the dream and your advice was that my family is a manifestation of the love I feel within and that I should gratefully continue appreciating and loving them. I felt complete release from guilt but it has returned. There are moments of joy we share that just seem so full and wonderful and I can't help but think I'm ignoring the text and strengthening the illusion.             This passage, from The Message of ACIM, specifically illustrates my fear: "Do not make any illusion your friend, because if you do, it will take the place of the Holy Spirit, Which God has made your only Friend ...

I've been a student of ACIM for nine years. I very recently was led to your plain language versions and feel my progress had been sped up immeasurably. However my meditation honeymoon period seems to be over. The first 2 weeks after reading "The Four Habits for Inner Peace" I easily fell into a wonderful mindless state and barely noticed the hour that seemed to just fly by. Now, most mornings…all manner of things begin to happen…barking…, the phone rings, a leaf blower...a car alarm suddenly ignites…I get a coughing or yawning fit, short unexplainable stabs of pain manifest in parts of my body etc. It's comical! Sometimes I get frustrated and give up and feel guilty, thinking my progress has been arrested. Sometimes I just smile and wait a bit till everything calms down and continue, able to ignore the illusory external chaos. My questions concerning this are... What is your advice when all of these distractions manifest. Should I stop and wait until later? If I don...

…I haven't been doing "the Course " for very long, but I do seem to get caught up in "my thoughts". At the beginning of doing the Course , are we just to be concentrating on releasing fearful, anxious, jealous, so called "lower" states of mind? Sometimes, when I am daydreaming about my new bedroom furniture (for example), I become aware that I am thinking "private thoughts" and not thinking with the Holy Spirit. This is causing me a good bit of hyper vigilance, which does not make for a peaceful day!! …practically, when the Course says we want neither the "good nor the bad" thoughts, that confuses me. How do you suggest approaching these so-called "good thoughts'? Or, am I jumping way ahead of myself to a goal that is not within reach for me at this time? – SL You do not have to force your mind to stay focused on Truth (God) all day long. This is not realistic, and frankly there are times when you need to be focused on w...

I have a close female friend my ego brings to mind a hundred times a day (thoughts of intimacy between us). The ego wishes to be closer to her but, even though we have not talked about it, it seems to me that we have both turned off the possibility of the experience of sexual intimacy. Me because I have made the decision to be faithful to my wife and her because she simply would not be an adulteress. We are both dedicated ACIM students who share a mutual goal of diminishing the ego and being more of what we truly are. While picking up a book for her one day I found Robert Perry's pamphlet on Holy Relationships. This is the first time I remember that subject coming into my awareness. I felt after reading it that at some level beyond conscious thought we have already made the decision to be in a Holy Relationship and it is just now coming to mind. Do two people have to consciously decide to have a Holy Relationship? Is there any value (to the degree that it would help us awaken) in s...

…How can a single person connect to their life partner? I have been single for several years and... I have learned I want a life partner more than a soul mate, I think I am looking for someone who can stand to be with me and I with them for more than 10 minutes at a time; someone to share the dream together while in the dream world. –JP It is good for your peace of mind that you are being honest with yourself about what you want. So many A Course in Miracles students make the mistake of repressing personal desires in the guilty belief that they are “wrong”. In Truth (God) personal desires are not “wrong” or “right”; they are nothing. But while you are aware of a world they can be either obstacles to or means for peace. The personal thought system (ego) uses them as ends in themselves, so they become obstacles to peace for you. But the Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) within you uses personal desires as means for peace if you share them with It. So the first step is for you to be honest...

I am a beginner; still, things have changed so radically for me, and so quickly. I am now at odds about how to earn my living. Are we told what our task is? It must be a manifestation of His Will, but how do we find out? Is it one with “the light of the world”? Will it be unveiled to us? – L A Course in Miracles states that, if you want inner peace, your one responsibility is to “accept the Atonement for yourself”. The “Atonement” in the Course means correction of your perception that you are separate from God (Truth). This is accomplished through your becoming aware of God within you and your forgiving, or releasing, the thoughts that are obstacles to your staying aware of God within you. So your “task” does not involve what the personal self does in the universe of form but what you do with your mind. And you become aware of God again in the course of an ordinary, everyday life because it is there that you run into the obstacles (guilt, fear, attachment) to being aware of God that ...

There is no question this week for "Ask ACIM Mentor" so here is an article from June 23, 2007: http://acimmentor.blogspot.com/2007/06/separation-is-over.html >>>> Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com . If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.

I have a relationship with someone that seems to trigger a fear to be myself. I haven't felt this way with anyone in a long time. I have been asking to see only the face of Christ in her and have had many experiences of just that. I love her unconditionally and am not threatened by anything she seems to do. Yet, I still withhold my true thoughts from her because I am still afraid of what I have perceived about her, which is that she is degrading and not connected to humility in a way that I can relate to. I just feel so separated from her and can't seem to find a way to connect and disarm myself and her. I want to very deeply, but every time I seem to be making headway, I realize that she and I are talking different languages and we both haven't got a clue what the other is going through or saying. I do not leave the relationship because it seems to me that since I feel such conflict in the relationship that I have not learned what I need to learn. I am willing to stay and ...

I am working through ACIM and have not found any other teaching that has felt so right as ACIM … Where does the spirit world come into the teachings of ACIM ? Is there a spirit world or is this also created by ourselves within the dream? Is it really past relatives that people try to connect to?...The spirit world seems to be the only thing created that we believe is beyond our world and seems to be the place we all end up after this dream has what we see as ended…- AR You are correct that A Course in Miracles never refers to a “spirit world”. It is indeed just a concept of the personal thought system (ego). Like the idea of “reincarnation” it is meant to give to the personal self an aspect of Truth (God): eternality. It is the personal thought system’s attempt to have you believe that the personal self, or at least some aspect of it called a “spirit”, is real. Actually, all sense of individuality falls away in the awareness of Truth. There is only one Spirit (God, Truth). Yes, som...

What are the differences in the love for God and the love for another 'special relationship' man / woman / child. I know one difference would be conditional love for another body and unconditional love between God and myself. But is it the same kind of love? My ACIM group says they are different and it is too bad they use the same word. I think the love between myself and my spouse is the same as, albeit, a small representation of God's love for me. – RQ The most obvious difference between the Love of God and personal love is that God’s Love simply is and personal love is always directed toward an object (person, animal, or thing). God’s Love is God’s Being, which means It is your True Being. The experience of It is radiating joy and peace, without beginning or ending. It is an experience of wholeness that has no correlation in the personal experience. God’s Love is introduced to you as “God loves you” when you are identifying with a personal self not because God’s Love is...

From the point of view of A Course in Miracles , only one teacher of God is needed to save the world. According to the Course , all the rest would be the ego's arrogant specialness. ACIM also talks about The Hundredth Monkey Theory of Salvation which states that a certain number of people are needed to tip the scales to favor of salvation, and as a corollary, that there is some sort of divine plan to have this done by certain special people… Speaking for myself, nothing wrong with this The Hundredth Monkey Theory , except that I happen to believe in the concept of the critical-masses of people needed to tip the scale of salvation of the world.Perhaps, that is why, I believe that part three of A Course in Miracles is devoted to these God's teachers who are destined to tip the scale in favor of salvation of the world. I read somewhere that Helen, the scribe of the Course , mentioned about the "Celestial Speed Up" process. The manual for Teachers was written for ...

If I am the dream figure, then who is the dreamer of this dream? And how do I as the dream figure get in contact with the dreamer? Is Jesus in ACIM addressing the dreamer of the dream? How do I change this dream into the "happy dream" ACIM speaks of? - G.P. You are the dreamer of the dream dreaming that you are a figure in your dream. A Course in Miracles addresses you as the dreamer. The “dreamer of the dream” in the Course refers to the split mind, which it calls the “son of God” (lower case “s” on son). It is split between God (What it is) and not-God (the idea of the opposite-of-God). This split mind makes the universe of form and projects its mind into many seemingly-individual minds. So each seemingly-individual mind seems to be a dream figure but is really one form of the one split mind. You begin your study of the Course almost wholly identified with a figure in the dream, or a personal self (ego). You think that the personal “life” and its world are happening to ...

I have been attempting to understand how sex might connect us to divinity. I've read the ACIM urtext. I've read your piece, "Sex and the Course Student." Remember that the Holy Spirit interprets the body only as a means of communication. (T-8.VII.2) If this is the case, then can sex not be a means of …holy communication? A man I know, who says he is a teacher of the Course , has decided that his assignment from God is to meet as many souls as possible for holy encounters involving "transcendent sex." He says his encounters have nothing to do with sex and the body but, rather, love and spirit. Is this really possible? Or is it a misunderstanding of the message of the Course ? Is there such a thing as a misuse of the Course ?I've had a few beautiful sexual experiences, and it seems the pleasure that spreads across my body brings me "higher," but I wonder if that's just my ego tricking me?...this man says that he believes Jesus was being ca...

I am studying a course that asks me to look back at my life. I suffered a lot of child abuse which resulted in no self esteem and a complete inability to function in the world. I am now 65 years old. How do I use ACIM when it says that what you experience is a picture of an inner condition? I was just a child. How could I project this into the world or the people that were responsible for me growing up? I just can’t see that I was responsible but I am willing to accept it if that is the way ACIM explains it… – DH (September 30, 2011) Here is the quote from A Course in Miracles to which you refer: “Perception seems to teach you what you see. Yet it but witnesses to what you taught. It is the outward picture of a wish; an image that you wanted to be true.” (T-24.VII.8) If you read the quote above in context (read the paragraphs around it) you will find that it is not referring to the specifics of an individual life but to the “son of God’s” choice to make a universe of form that is ...

On page 368 of The Message of A Course in Miracles (Chapter 16; VI The Bridge to the Real World) it says "In your transition there will be a period of confusion and disorientation but do not fear this because it only means that you have been willing to let go of your hold on the distorted frame of reference which seemed to hold your 'reality' together." What is the experience of this "period of confusion and disorientation”? How do you recognize it? – WW (September 23, 2011) The transition mentioned here is how your whole awareness of Truth (God) unfolds. You feel discomfort the moment that you have an experience (miracle) that shows you that the universe of form, which you thought was reality, is not Reality. A single or even a few experiences are not enough to shift your mind entirely to an awareness that formless being is Reality. You must experience this awareness again and again to undo your fixed sense that the universe of form reality. Each time you feel ...

I have been a student of ACIM (off & on) for 5 yrs +…but still encounter basic problems that are becoming increasingly insurmountable: 1. The assertion that our physical existence is "a fantasy" or "an illusion"…Who in their right mind would believe this…?What about the physical pain we experience through the course of our lives?... I'm talking about e.g., Suddam Hussein's "go thru the wood chopper" pain, or anything remotely equivalent. Is this pain not transparently REAL to its recipients?... Without a reconciliation to what we intuitively experience and thus accept as truthful ACIM's assertions become sheer sophistry. 2. It is even more troubling that we are told by ACIM that GOD is in essence oblivious to our physical pain…but then HE…has thus dispatched the Holy Spirit to sort it all out, and lead us to the ATONEMENT. What could be more convoluted than this? 3. Additionally, the fact remains even if we have the power deep within us ...