HEALING ARTICLES WRITTEN BY ME
BASED ON
A COURSE IN MIRACLES®
Page references are from A Course in Miracles.
T = text W = Workbook M=Manual
S = Song of prayer P = Psychology (ACIM supplements)
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A. Healing - miracle or magic?
B. Obstacles to truth
C. Peace of mind
D. How do I forgive?
E. The AAA approach to forgiveness
F. Our Resistance to Forgiveness
A. MIRACLE OR MAGIC?
When the ego tempts you to sickness do not ask the Holy Spirit to heal the body
for this would merely be to accept the ego's belief that the body is the proper aim
of healing. Ask rather that the Holy Spirit teach you the right perception of the
body, for perception alone can be distorted. Only perception can be sick because
only perception can be wrong. A Course in Miracles T146/157f
When our body is in pain or is not functioning properly, it is very tempting to focus our attention on the symptoms and seek a change at that level. This is an example of what the Course calls magic. Magic is an attempt to heal something at the wrong level. We might try pills, rituals, charms, crystals, Bach flowers, visualisation, surgery etc. The Course is not against us using magic to relieve our pain but tells us this is not healing.We seek to fix up something "out there" which appears to be the cause of the distress. "Out there" includes our body, other bodies (relationships) and situations in the world. Our magical belief is that something other than our thoughts is the cause of our pain and if we can change that sufficiently, we will be at peace. This is at the root of all our anger. We believe that attack will get us what we want. For example, you might have a difficult relationship with someone and find that you often develop a headache when you are with them. You might even get into the habit of carrying a pill with you to relieve your headache. Both the anger you use to try and change the person's behaviour, by attempting to make them guilty, and the pill you swallow are magical attempts by your ego to change something outside of your mind. Thus magic is an attempt to change on the level of effect as opposed to cause.
Cure is a word that cannot be applied to any remedy the world accepts as beneficial. What the world perceives as therapeutic is but what will make the body 'better.' ... He is not healed. He merely had a dream that he was sick, and in the dream he found a magic formula to make him well. Yet he has not awakened from the dream, and so his mind remains exactly as it was before. W263/270
The quotation at the beginning of this article stresses that the cause of all our pain - physical or psychological - is due to the way we perceive the world. What we see in the world is what we see in our mind - "projection makes perception" as the Course states it. We first look within before we look without. If we only perceive our fearful and attacking ego in our mind, this is all we can see in the world.
Trapped within our ego thoughts, we can only come up with ego solutions which will treat the symptoms but not the cause. Perhaps we will succeed for a while in changing our bodily condition or the way another relates to us. However, our success in tinkering with effects will be short lived and our problems will return in a similar or related form. Our ego will then suggest another solution and we are forced to start all over again.
To see the world differently and be at peace we must heal our perception. To do this, we need help from outside the ego system. It is a mistake to think we can heal ourselves without the help of Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
So do we lay aside our amulets, our charms and medicines, our chants and bits of magic in whatever form they take. We will be still and listen for the Voice of healing, Which will cure all ills as one, restoring saneness to the Son of God. No voice but This can cure. W264/271
As we begin to realise that our own magical efforts cannot bring us lasting peace, our prayers turn away from effects ("Please heal my body Jesus") to the cause ("Teach me how to forgive"). Realising that the cause of all our pain is in our mind and not the world, we start the process of taking our projections back off the world and begin to look with the help of the Holy Spirit at all that we have denied in our mind. We do not simply "give everything to the Holy Spirit" for first we must recognise and acknowledge the ego's thought system of attack hidden in our mind. The Course is not about affirming truth and love but discovering and ...."removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence. (intro, text)
As we begin to discover the extent of the anger and hate in our mind, the ego will counsel us to feel guilty for in this way, we will continue our allegiance to it. We can only feel guilty if we still believe that what we discover in the darkness is really us. At these times, Jesus asks us to turn to him for help. Only his light can dissolve our darkness. He is ever waiting to stretch out his hand to us if we but call to him for help. As we start to allow his light to fill our mind, we too can help him heal others through us. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our mind reminds us that we are still children of God. In the same way, our example of peace will remind others who we meet that they can choose to see differently.
The only meaningful contribution the healer can make is to present an example of one whose direction has been changed for him, and who no longer believes in nightmares of any kind. The light in his mind will therefore answer the questioner, who must decide with God that there is light because he sees it. T160/172
This is not to say we do not continue to use magic for ourselves and others, for few have reached the stage where they can immediately change from wrong perception to right perception on every occasion. It is not a sin to have a toothache and a visit to the dentist would be a wise decision. However, our goal needs to be the healing of our mind and to do this, we must acknowledge the darkness - albeit illusory - of our ego mind and sincerely ask for the light of the Holy Spirit to shine it away. As we learn to hold the hand of Jesus more and the hand of the ego less we will be encouraged by the joyful results to trust him more and more.
B. OBSTACLES TO TRUTH
The Course tells us that the truth cannot be taught, but will be revealed to us if
we do our part of forgiveness. To forgive is to look past our perceptual errors and
thus not judge ourselves or others. Truth was given to us in its entirety at our
creation, it was not learned. Thus we cannot learn truth as this implies time, and
our creation was outside of time. Our task is to accept truth back into our awareness
again. As we meet the necessary conditions required truth will automatically start
to dawn upon our minds all by itself.
All that is asked of you is to make room for truth. You are not asked to make
or do what lies beyond your understanding. All you are asked to do is let it in ;
only to stop your interference with what will happen of itself; simply to recognize
again the presence of what you thought you gave away. A Course in Miracles
T419/449
We are afraid of truth as it will dissolve our sense of separation by revealing the
oneness of God's creation. When truth comes the ego is extinguished. Truth is of
the mind and not the body. It resides with the Holy Spirit in our split mind. To
avoid this threat to its existence the ego always counsels us to stay well away from
the mind and focus on the physical world. Spirit cannot make connection with matter
and thus the ego is safe.
"Sickness is a defense against the truth" (Lesson 136) the Workbook tells us. As truth begins to dawn upon our mind the ego counsels us that we are in great danger. He tells us that truth will reveal the depths of our sin against god and lead us back to his just punishment of us. To avoid this very fearful situation the ego may counsel us to get sick so we can divert our attention from the mind, where truth can be found, to the body. Now we are safe from god, back in the hiding place of matter.
The ego is always wrong. As we learn to hold the hand of Jesus and look without judgement and blame at the content of our mind we begin to learn that joy and not damnation await us. As we dismantle the barriers we have built to the presence of truth it will automatically flow into our mind with no help from ourselves.
Long ago we decided to block the awareness of truth so we could play our game of separation. Tiring of this painful game we begin at last to lift the barriers to its presence and find that its still there, unchanged, perfect and joyfully waiting to embrace us again.
C. PEACE OF MIND.
Forget not that the motivation for this course is the attainment and the keeping
of the state of peace. Given this state the mind is quiet, and the condition in which
God is remembered is attained. A Course in Miracles T-24.Intro
Happiness is living in the space between two thoughts. Into that space the Holy Spirit
is invited and guides all activities. In that space "I need do nothing".
To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the
body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there
abides.
T-18.VII.7:7
The past and future no longer exist. Memories, knowledge - once thought essential
to judge and evaluate each moment - are released to let this higher power take charge
of your life. Decisions are gone to be replaced by certain knowing. The ego warns
that all will be chaos without its help but instead, all is peace. We are told to
resign as our own teacher as we have been badly taught (T-12.V.8). How humbling,
and to the ego, how insulting. "Is not all my past experience of great value?,"
it cries. "No", replies the Holy Spirit, for every moment is fresh and
requires a unique response and only the Holy Spirit knows which one. And this response
will benefit all for He can only give to all. "But how can the future be safe!"
cries the ego. "Future is your concept," replies Spirit. "There is
no time, only the present moment, and I can tell you exactly what you need to do
to give you peace and joy. But reliance on memory-based thought must cease before
I am made welcome and this includes your so called 'good thought' as well as your
attacking thoughts".
As students of_A Course
In Miracles should we be working for world peace? Is it selfish of us to only
concern ourselves with inner peace? The Course tells us that this entire universe
is but a projection of a thought of separation onto the screen of space-time.
The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except
love's absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not,
and where His Son could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge
could not cause such insane thoughts. W-pII.3.2.
It is built into the very structure of this planet that discord and problems must
exist here. The ego is a murderous thought system, kill or be killed, and so it must
be mirrored here. Just to exist at all means we must kill something to eat - whether
animal or vegetable. All ideas of achieving a utopia must therefore fail. If there
is a world there must be an ego projecting it. When all separated beings finally
decide to let the ego go (the Last Judgement) there will be peace, but there will
not be a universe left to project. So our concern is not achieving peace in the world,
not sending light to troubled areas, but learning to find inner peace through daily
forgiveness. When the mind attains peace the memory of God will return and we will
become a healing presence in the world. Some people will be drawn to our peace and
they in turn will be encouraged by our example to choose forgiveness instead of attack.
We will have no motive to change and influence others, for the mere presence of a
teacher of God has the potential to heal others. By being at peace ourselves the
greatest good can be accomplished.
The ego mind is constantly thinking, planning, scheming, defending and attacking.
This is a very effective smokescreen for obliterating the thoughts of God. We cry
out "Where is God?" whilst all the time making sure we do not leave Him
a gap to enter. Can we give God a gap? Or do we believe God can't hit a moving target
so let's live a life of constant thought and action and then we will be safe from
Him.
I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them
go. I choose to have them be replaced by what they were intended to replace. My thoughts
are meaningless, but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God.
W-p1.51.4:6
To find the peace of God we must reach the point when we see "The world I see
holds nothing that I want". (Lesson 128) Whilst we still believe we know what's
best for us we will continue to scheme and plan for the ultimate relationship, career,
etc. Peace, and therefore the memory of God, will elude us whilst we pursue the idols
of the world. A point must come when we willingly surrender to the fact that we don't
know anything about how to be truly joyful and at last step aside and let the Holy
Spirit lead the way.
Only be quiet. You will need no rule but this, to let your practicing today lift
you above the thinking of the world, and free your vision from the body's eyes. Only
be still and listen. W-p1.125.9
D. HOW DO I FORGIVE?
It is impossible to forgive another, for it is only your sins you see in him.
You want to see them there, and not in you. That is why forgiveness of another is
an illusion.
from_The Song
of Prayer. S-2.I.4:2-5
What is forgiveness?
We can only begin the process of forgiveness when we start to realise how much alike
we are to the person we wish to forgive. When we cannot forgive someone it is because
we cannot forgive ourselves for the same problem, albeit in another form. For example,
a woman may hate her husband for his loud aggressive outbursts of anger whilst she
may never have made him suffer in this way. However, her anger is just as strong
as his but is given a different expression by her. When she feels angry she may withdraw
herself and cut off from him emotionally. Her husband's anger but mirrors her own
which she has not forgiven in herself.
The Course teaches that forgiveness recognises that what we thought was done to us we truly did to ourselves, for we can only deprive ourselves of the peace of God; therefore we forgive others for what they have not done to us, not for what they did. True forgiveness recognises an attack as a call for love and correction (T-12.I.8). Forgiveness is letting go of the past, is letting go of whatever we think people, the world, or God has done to us as well as whatever we think we have done to them. Forgiveness is a shift in perception. Everyone is our brother or sister coming from love or fear. Their attack, which comes from fear, is a plea for our love. Our only problem is the belief in separation from God, our only healing is by joining with each other through forgiveness.
The three stages of forgiveness
Kenneth Wapnick has identified in the Course three stages
or steps on the path of forgiveness which I find helpful in understanding what true
forgiveness is.
1 - Firstly we must take back our projections onto the world and take responsibility
for our own pain. We must stop pointing our fingers at people and situations and
accusing them of hurting us and see that they are mirroring to us the areas we have
not healed/ forgiven in ourselves. In fact these people and situations merit our
thanks for showing us what is in our unconscious for without them we would not see
the forces that drive us.
The secret of salvation is but this: that you are doing
this unto yourself.
T-27.VIII.10:1
2 - After realising that there is nothing to blame "out there" we normally fall into the trap of feeling guilty on finding that the problem is in us. Our ego believes it has separated from God and wants to stay that way. It tells us we should feel guilty for our sins for in this way we come to take this world of separation seriously. Guilt always demands punishment and this prevents us from releasing our pain. During this second stage of forgiveness we come to see how deeply attached we are to our guilt. Guilt is the sum total of the negative thoughts we have about ourselves. It appears as a sacrifice not to feel justified in being a victim and the desire is to hang onto our anger, jealousy, greed etc. Although guilt is painful it is what we are familiar with and we prefer it to the increase in self-responsibility we know will come to us when we lose our attachment to being a victim. We can now choose to decide that guilt no longer serves us and that we would like it to be undone. This shift needs help from outside the ego thought system for we cannot do it by ourselves. Our little willingness to change, to shift our perception, opens the way for the third stage of forgiveness.
3 - In this final stage our guilt is undone by the Holy Spirit, Who was always there behind the barrier of our guilt, and peace returns to our mind. However, until we perform the first two steps He cannot take the third. Our steps can be likened to making a hole in our protective barrier we have erected to God's love allowing His love to pour in and dissolve our guilt.
The following prayer from _A Course In Miracles contains within it the three stages of forgiveness. The Course urges us to use it whenever we are not joyous.
I must have decided wrongly, because I am not at peace.
I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.
I want to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.
I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the
consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.
I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.
T-5.VII.6:7-11
At the deepest level of experience we will come to realise that we are not our ego but still "at home in God dreaming of exile" (T-10.I.2:1.) We will discover that we are still as God created us, the one Christ, perfect and eternal and that nothing can harm us. What then will there be to forgive?
..... in complete forgiveness, in which you recognise that there is nothing to forgive, you are absolved completely. T-15.VIII.1:7
E. THE AAA APPROACH TO FORGIVENESS
Awareness - Acceptance - Asking for help.
AWARENESS - The Undoing of Denial
Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind, if
it would be escaped. A Course in Miracles W-pII.333.1:4
For the process of forgiveness to begin we need to realise the problem is in our
mind and not in the world where our ego asserts it is. If we get upset at dictators
like Hitler it is because we have a Hitler in our own mind. It is uncomfortable and
painful to realise what we have kept covered in our minds and we resist this process.
However, until we realise what needs to be forgiven we are destined to keep our problems.
Further, if we allow our ego defences to be undone, the Holy Spirit would enter our
minds and shine away the ego, and this is our greatest fear - the end of our uniqueness
and specialness.
It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for
what is false. TT-16.IV.6:2
The main thrust of the Course is not in affirming the light and love within us but
discovering and forgiving the ego blocks we have built to love's presence. When they
are removed in the process of forgiveness the light and love of God will automatically
dawn upon our minds. Jesus asks us to use our relationships as mirrors to discover
all that is unhealed in us. For this we need awareness and this is our responsibility.
As Jesus reminded Helen Schucman You are much too tolerant of mind wandering,
and are passively condoning your mind's miscreations. T-2.VI.4:6
ACCEPTANCE - Not Taking Our Ego Seriously
It is sin's unreality that makes forgiveness natural and wholly sane, a deep relief
to those who offer it; a quiet blessing where it is received. It does not countenance
illusions, but collects them lightly, with a little laugh, and gently lays them at
the feet of truth. And there they disappear entirely.
W-pI.134.6:1-3
When we discover, through awareness, that the problem is in us, the ego tries to
regain its lost ground by using our newfound insights to accuse us of our sin. There
is a great temptation to believe this and our accusing finger now points at our own
head. Our response makes the ego's world real again. However, this drama of ours
is still occurring in the dream of separation from God and nothing is really happening.
Just as you awake from a nightmare to realise nothing actually occurred,so Jesus
asks us to learn to laugh gently at our ego dreams. Nothing we do can harm our Christ
nature - otherwise sin would be possible.
To look at our guilt with acceptance is the shift of perception the Course calls
a miracle. Anything we resist persists, but that which we accept will be healed.
The Course is asking us to look into the darkness of our minds and accept without
judgement what we find there. We are not asked to suppress our anger or transform
it but to simply to watch it with gentle acceptance, waiting patiently for the time
when it will no longer be there.
The cause of all our pain comes from our desire to maintain the seeming separation
from God and thus keep our individuality preserved.
He bids you bring each terrible effect to Him that you may look together on its
foolish cause and laugh with Him a while. You judge effects, but He has judged their
cause. T-27.VIII.9:3-4
ASKING FOR HELP - Offering Our problems to the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit asks of you but this; bring to Him every secret you have locked
away from Him. Open every door to Him, and bid Him enter the darkness and lighten
it away. At your request He enters gladly. He brings the light to darkness if you
make the darkness open to Him. But what you hide He cannot look upon. T-14.VII.6:1-5
When we decide to be happy and not right we are inviting the Holy Spirit into our
minds to shine away the guilt we have been grasping onto.
It is important to realise that it is not ourselves that heal our mind - we simply
allow the blocks to God to be removed by the Holy Spirit. We don't need to understand
how this happens. Our work is in the first two stages of this process - Awareness
and Acceptance. To be healed we need help from outside our ego thought system. This
help must wait until it is called for as it would never force itself upon us against
our free will.
Next time you feel you have lost your peace it can help if you stop a moment and
become aware of where in your body you feel uncomfortable. This area is a reflection
in your body of an unforgiveness in your mind. Place your hand on this area in a
gesture of simple acceptance and tell yourself it all right to feel this way. When
you feel ready, ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the problem in your life a different
way.
F. Our Resistance to Forgiveness
It is often thought by people new to studying A Course in Miracles that their
lives will become more peaceful as they begin to practise its teachings. However
this does not always follow. In fact things may seem to get worse, not better. Before
practising the principles of the Course, they will probably have heeded the egoís
counsel and denied the guilt they feel and projected it onto others. Now they attempt
to bring their unconscious mind to consciousness, which starts the process of undoing
denial, bringing their guilt to the light of the Holy Spirit to be forgiven. To become
aware of the ego's darkness in the mind is not an easy process.
The principles of forgiveness as described in the Course are relatively simple to
understand and bring us great rewards if we apply them. It is also true that most
of us find it very difficult to own our pain and ask for help. To help us understand
why this is so, the Course goes to great lengths to show how subtle and devious the
ego really is. We are largely unconscious of the way it operates owing to the wall
of denial we have constructed. The Course encourages us to look behind that wall
and learn to laugh gently at what we find there.
As we practise forgiveness, at the same time we shall be lessening the importance
we have given to the ego. Having identified so strongly with the ego's thought system,
it seems as if we are sacrificing something very dear to us. As we bring our darkness
(illusions) to the light (truth) the Course states that we will experience "periods
of unsettling". These are times of discomfort and anxiety that we must inevitably
feel in the process of shifting from the ego's thought system (wrong-mindedness)
to the Holy Spirit's thought system (right-mindedness).
First, they (God's Teachers) must go through what might be called "a period
of undoing". This need not be painful, but it usually is so experienced. It
seems as if things are being taken away, and it is rarely understood initially that
their lack of value is merely being recognised. A Course
in Miracles M8; M-4.I.3:1-3
This quotation is taken from a section which describes the six stages in the development
of trust. Jesus cautions us that four of these stages are normally experienced as
difficult and thus we should not underestimate the challenges involved in spiritual
growth.
It would be helpful to take a closer look at our investment in the ego and what it
seems to offer us. As we start to question the 'gifts' it holds out to us, our practice
of forgiveness will become easier. Our ego will tell us that we are the most important
person in the world. We have special needs which must be fulfilled and we feel justified
in using whatever means are necessary to achieve this. The Course tells us that the
source of this justification comes from an insane belief stored in our unconscious
mind. This belief states that we are lacking the things we need because they have
been stolen from us. (See 'The Laws of Chaos' in Chapter 23 of the Text) This thought
justifies the use of any means to get back what we feel is rightfully ours in the
first place. Forgiveness teaches the opposite of this and states that we have given
away our remembrance of our spiritual reality in exchange for the experience of individual
uniqueness ñ the need to feel special and different from others.
When we decided to forget our true state of unity within the One Mind of God, competition
and judgement had to follow. To maintain a sense of individuality we must continually
compare ourselves to others and look for differences. If we meet someone who seems
better than us in some way, then we must make them into our enemy or put them onto
a pedestal and appear to look up to them. However, at a deeper level of our mind
we will hate them for being better than us. The Course states: "Only the special
could have enemies, for they are different and not the same. And difference of any
kind imposes orders of reality, and a need to judge that cannot be escaped."
(T465; T-24.I.3:5-6) When we come across someone whom we judge as inferior, there
will be a desire to keep this person the way they are so we may appear superior by
contrast. The Course describes this dynamic as follows:
Against the littleness you see in him you stand as tall and stately, clean and
honest, pure and unsullied by comparison with what you see. Nor do you understand
it is yourself that you diminish thus. (T466f; T-24.II.1:6-7)
This quotation reminds us that when we compare and attack our brothers we are also
attacking ourself. Our attacks are always centred on another's body or their behaviour
and thus our belief in the reality of the body is strengthened and our awareness
of spirit is weakened.
The Course states: "You would oppose this course because it teaches you you
and your brother are alike." (T466;T-24.I.8:6) Forgiveness teaches us that our
egos are all the same, as is our Christ nature. This is the last thing our ego wants
to hear. For the ego to retain its desire for specialness, it must perceive differences
between itself and others. If someone goes to a party, the last thing they want to
find is someone else wearing the same outfit as them.
Our original desire to be separate and different from God is perpetuated in our continuing
desire to be separate from others. Forgiveness would undo this thought and eventually
return to our awareness our oneness with each other and God. This is perceived by
our ego as an act of treachery which deserves punishment. To welcome the state of
unity back into our awareness means the death of the ego and this it must fight with
all its resources.
The ego is deceived by everything you do, especially when you respond to the Holy
Spirit, because at such times its confusion increases. The ego is, therefore, particularly
likely to attack you when you react lovingly, because it has evaluated you as unloving
and you are going against its judgement. The ego will attack your motives as soon
as they become clearly out of accord with its perception of you. This is when it
will shift abruptly from suspiciousness to viciousness, since its uncertainty is
increased. (T164; T-9.VII.4:4-7)
We might experience a day when we feel open to the love of the Holy Spirit and feel
a deep sense of peace and well-being. We may even think this state could last forever.
However, we might wake the following day feeling depressed and alone and wonder why
things have changed so much. To allow this shift to occur, we must be persuaded by
our ego that to continue listening to the Holy Spirit is dangerous. The ego reminds
us that it is safer to stay as we are as change will involve sacrifice and, even
worse, there is an avenging god awaiting us at the end of our journey ready to punish
us for our many sins. We are told that if we follow the path of forgiveness, we shall
have to look at all the horror and darkness within our mind, and that we shall not
survive this experience. The journey of forgiveness is not an easy one, but its success
is guaranteed by God, for it is His will that we return to Him.
Reprinted from 'Healing the Cause - A Path of Forgiveness' by Michael Dawson.
(Copyright) Michael Dawson
Portions from A Course in Miracles®1975,
reprinted by permission of the
Foundation For A Course In Miracles® 41397 Buecking Drive, Temecula,
California 92590-5668, USA