Miracles are not just a shift in perception

A miracle is NOT a shift in perception! And this is NOT what Jesus is teaching in A Course in Miracles.

It's one of those sound-bytes which have circulated a lot but really don't have any foundation. And I think there are reasons for it, driven by denial and fear.

I think this attitude has been perpetuated by many of the earlier ACIM teachers, including Ken Wapnick, who tended to interpret the Course as a kind of 'behind closed doors' thing that you do in isolation, all by yourself, in your mind, without even so much as revealing to anyone else that you're doing it.

The focus has been placed heavily on 'I will do this by myself', 'I need to change my perception and don't make any attempt to change the world', 'I must accept things as they are and be passive', 'its all about my thoughts and changing my thinking', and various other very intellectual, head-oriented *interpretations*.

I FEEL that there is a significant factor of the HEART, feelings, and love, which is missing in the community's collective attitude, largely fueled by ego-driven fear, excessive mental engagement with the Course, and really a total lack of EXPERIENTIAL TRUTH - replaced by analysis and intellect and study and discussion.

Where is God in all this? Where is Heaven? Where do angels fit in (and yes the Course does mention angels)? Where is there any real awareness at all of what God is, how to access Him, what He is capable of, what His reality is like, or what He wants for us? What about having an actual relationship with God, for Heaven's sake? Oh that's right, the world isn't real so there's no point being loving, right?

In a way, I think that many people have come to ACIM in order to REJECT various aspects of traditional religion, not realizing that there are *some* components of their engagement with God that are sorely missing from all this 'study it quietly in a library' mentality.

And in case you haven't noticed, NOT many people believe in real miracles, the kind that Jesus demonstrated, and who by the way is the author of the Course and even named the Course A Course in MIRACLES, knowing that he is KNOWN FOR miracles of the kind you cannot deny are truly miraculous.

Most of the miracle principles appear to be skipped by most students and brushed under the carpet in a nice tidy fashion so as to focus on the less radical parts of what's said, or, perhaps worse, are mangled into an intellect-justifying mishmash of 'its just about my own perception inside my own body and that's it' - really a form of selfishness and denial. Especially given you cannot make any progress with the Course unless you open up to SHARING LOVE.

I don't mean to sound too 'evangelical' or 'religious' here, but I feel the Course community is seriously missing a component of Spirit, a component of extending love, a component of 'praising God' or at least thanking and communing with Him, and a component of connecting with others by sharing real miracles. This is what Jesus wants us to do. Yes DO. Not just 'undo' as in 'miracles undo' but DO as in you have to DO a miracle in order to UNDO the ego.

Calling a miracle just a shift in perception completely strips it of all of its power, completely denies GOD (how convenient), totally covers up His power, pretends that He and Holy Spirit and Jesus are just ideas/metaphors/analogies to serve our intellectual understanding, and completely shuts us out of our HEART while we focus on mentally-appealing pursuits like 'inner peace'.

God is love, in case you forgot. And love creates real miracles, in case you skipped that part. And miracles are a service to OTHER PEOPLE, in case you didn't see that in the first few pages :-)

ACIM is not about the clinical, sanitized, intellectualized, antiseptic cosmetic under-the-radar hidden-from-view total lack of heartfelt love that so many people THINK it is.

Go forth and multiply God's blessings.

Attached is a somewhat intellectual but interesting and well-thought-out analysis of why ACIM has NEVER referred to miracles as shifts in perception... I enjoyed the read and agree with it 100%...What is the POINT of doing this Course if you don't learn how to love your brother and extend miraculous, healing, spiritually powerful love to him?