Everything about most religions is fairly accurate in that it describes what's happening INSIDE THE DREAM. They describe what APPEARS to be true here.
It SEEMS that sin is real, it SEEMS that therefore God will judge and condemn us, it SEEMS that death can be justified, and it SEEMS that we can never be with God again.
The key point is, there is a chunk of metaphysical truth regarding what happened BEFORE the separation, before the dream, which frames the entire dream in a different light. And this chunk of truth, missing from religions, is extremely key in putting everything into its proper perspective.
Recognizing that Heaven is real, God is unconditional love, separation is impossible, and the innocent cannot sin, would have to tell you that the entire content of the dream and everything that goes along with it is not REAL. It is impossible.
But without that key fact, if you only look at what seems true within the dream, after the illusion of separation, it starts to seem quite sensible to conclude the exact opposite. You'll then say that sin is real, death is real, God has vengeance, you need to repent of real sins, etc.
The religion then becomes all about this fiction of having "actually sinned", and what you need to do to atone for it. And ultimately within that same idea, there MUST be also the idea that only death can atone for sin. And so the religion, while seeming to uphold moral values and lead towards love, also inadvertently supports death.
Descriptions of what seems real in a dream can only ever be opposite to the truth.
This is the one key area in which A Course in Miracles is different, because it explains what happened BEFORE separation or what conditions were like, such that the entire content of the dream is clearly RECOGNIZED as being false, unreal, untrue and impossible. It gives us the clarity to see that everything within the dream is an ILLUSION, not a reality.
This puts an entirely different spin on everything we perceive here. It totally reverses the illusion of the meaning of what seems to happen, or all the conclusions that have been drawn from appearances. The proper framing of everything that goes on in the dream world puts everything into its correct place and perspective, recognizing the real truth for what it is, and recognizing the illusion as an illusion. Failure to do this, or the deliberate "omission" of this key foundation at the core of truth, makes the entire content of the dream suddenly twist to a completely opposite and confused explanation of events.
Only a truth based on completely pure non-duality can explain and properly frame why and how everything within the dualistic world is false and unreal. Otherwise if you stop just short of awakening from the dream, or you stop just beneath the peak of the dream's heights, it will make the dream seem to be real and you will not wake up from it. This is why those religions ultimately keep people asleep. They are religions of the ego, based in the ego's thought system, worshipping the ego's God of death.
Death can't be true and separation can't be true and sin can't be true because God only creates eternal innocent life. If the absolute truth remains hidden, all true meaning is lost and insanity begins to seem sane.
Years ago I had no clue what "atonement" meant, other than being able to quote the Course as saying "nothing happened". This was more or less meaningless to me.
I went about my efforts at "forgiveness" and made some headway but it wasn't until recently that I started to realize just how important the Atonement is.
If you were to do nothing else other than to accept the Atonement, that would be all you need to do. It encapsulates all of forgiveness within it. It shares the same mind of Holy Spirit that forgiveness shares.
Previously I was not really "accepting" that nothing had happened. I tried to tell myself "this hasn't really happened", but it would seem fake and not believable. It didn't even seem especially important or powerful or capable of helping very much - just one more handy phrase to throw at the illusion of being attacked by the world to try to make it go away.
But the atonement IS the cure. It IS salvation. It IS the state of mind in which all has been forgiven and undone. It IS a reflection of your true nature and your innocence. In it ,your innocence is guaranteed and expressed. It is the light which shines away all darkness. It is the beacon of truth and the source of extending miracles as an expression of love.
I could not accept it before because I didn't really know what role it was supposed to play other than some intellectual fact about how none of this happened. I just couldn't accept that nothing had happened. Too much was tied up in illusions seeming to be real. I was too much in belief that I was dealing with a real world with real problems. Even after "doing a forgiveness" I would not be accepting the atonement, not really actually convinced of it or able to genuinely ACCEPT that it was true. And to experience it.
But we must get ourselves into the Atonement if we are to be free of the ego, free of illusions, and free of death. It's not an optional thing. It's MAJOR. It's the doorway home.
The secret to salvation, or the key to salvation, is said to be that "you are doing this to yourself". That concept is like a key that opens the door, because it reveals to you a way to access the Atonement. But it is itself not the Atonement. As an analogy, it is the key, which helps us to access the Atonement, but the Atonement itself is what lies on the other side of the door that the key opens.
Until we can get our mind to the place where we BELIEVE that fear is not real, guilt is not real, sin is not real, separation is not real, and REMEMBER that in God's view we are still completely innocent and MUST be forgiven and lovable/worthy of God, only then are we able to actually ACCEPT, and agree with, and align ourselves with, what the Atonement claims is true.
Only then can we even see, accept, or experience, that all the illusions we thought had really happened did not really happen (due to their unreality), and that therefore we ARE still as God created us. We have to take forgiveness all the way to this truth in order to complete the process and gain access TO a state of forgiveness, in which we and others are seen as FORGIVEN, having done nothing at all. Literally. That literally nothing happened in reality.
Then we will be WILLING to accept and receive God's love again, and share and extend it to others as miracles.
To perform a miracle, you must attune your belief and awareness to the state of truth that you are bringing about in the future.
With your mind imagining the future, picture the end result of healing in the state of it having actually happened. This is in effect accepting the atonement, that nothing unreal happened and only God's truth has happened already.
To do this goes against the ego because the ego holds onto what it believes is true now and tries to reinforce it, pulling up the past to prove and keep it.
"Overlooking" (forgiving) current appearances is a key part of miracles. You have to overlook how things seem now, recognizing that the current condition is the result of the past and you can change your mind to produce a new future completely unlike how it is now.
So in a way, overlooking the current state is like looking to the future.
Then, trusting that you have conceived of what the result WILL be like, regardless of how the world or body appears now, you remain fixated on that truth and believe it.
You believe it in the sense that it is "already done". So you bring that future state of "after the healing" back into the present. Believe now that you are already at that future moment, after the healing is already accomplished, putting the obstacles to healing behind you.
Having FAITH that the unseen will manifest as truth even if it is not showing up yet, is a key to miracles. "Miracles are taken first on faith."
"Thus is Christ's strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God, and that can never fail. And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made."
"God is my strength."
This is a relatively "new" idea to me and perhaps to others. But this is a very powerful and significant component not only of miracle working but of fulfilling your function as a powerful Son of God.
There is a strength in you. The strength of Christ - the strength of the Holy Spirit - the strength of God. God put this strength IN you by giving it TO you in your creation. You HOST His strength. Therefore, what seems to be YOUR strength, is actually HIS strength. HE makes you strong. HE gives you power!
Whenever you attempt to do anything based on your OWN strength, you really are depending on littleness and weakness. And this little weakness is NOT very strong. It has not much power in it and is not very capable. Depending on your own strength makes you AFRAID, because your own strength is tiny and insufficient and not really capable of doing or dealign with much at all.
As you are developing trust, putting aside your authority problem, and coming to DEPEND ON God, opening up to the fact that God is in you, at your inner altar, and as you progress through the lessons etc, you'll encounter this idea that God is your strength. And that Christ lends you His strength. And it is their strength that makes miracles possible through you.
When you are trying to be a miracle worker, if you look at it like you're the one who has to muster the strength, courage, power, to accomplish a miracle, and you're going to have to be very brave and strong in order to "make something happen", not much is going to happen. Because really this is a state of fear and an attempt to be brave in the face of insurmountable difficulty and weakness.
A key element in miracle working has to be that you have opened up to recognize and allow and invite the power of God to be in you. Which means making room for the power of God/Holy Spirit/Christ IN you, to BE strong FOR you. To be your strength. Rather than relying on your own strength. Their strength is OFF THE CHARTS unlimited power. And it is their strength that gives miracles their unlimited power.
So your function isn't to be "strong on your own" or some kind of super hero. The hero is always attempting to be an amazing miracle worker with super powers. But really to ACTUALLY perform miracles you need to depend on the strength of God and allow HIM to have the strength to accomplish the task. He is the one who will supply your strength and make YOU strong. Without Him you are too weak to give anything or accomplish consistent healing.
So this idea that your strength is given you by God, that God SUPPORTS you, strengthens you, makes you powerful, but not OF yourself, is key in both miracle working and awakening.
It’s important to realize, projection happens BEFORE perception.
"Projection MAKES perception"
"Perception is a RESULT, not a cause"
Perception is not really to do with what you project onto people. It’s the RESULT, or what you "see", AFTER you have projected something to see. Perception is more like a receptive, sensory device, which takes IN what has been projected OUT. You FIRST look within, at your own sins, then you PROJECT them out, THEN you perceive it. So what’s all this focus on "correcting perception"? Or even correcting projections? Shouldn’t you be correcting what is WITHIN?
Jesus goes on to say, seek not to change the world, but seek to change your mind ABOUT the world. Now, people have taken this to mean, that your ideas "about" the world are part of PERCEPTION. It’s not. They’re really ideas about YOURSELF, which you project onto the world, and THEN perceive.
There is a common belief that false perceptions CAUSE what you see. This is not remotely true. Perception is PASSIVE. It is a result. It doesn’t DO anything, because it is not a CAUSE. It is in fact the opposite of cause, it’s just an effect coming at you from the outside in.
Your projecting has a lot more to do with causing. And even projection is once removed from the real SOURCE of CAUSE which is WITHIN. Your beliefs, values and attitudes about yourself, is the STARTING POINT of all problems. That is ALL that needs correcting. Correct it at the source and there will be nothing sinful to project OR perceive. Change YOUR MIND, period, regardless of whether it seems to be "about the world" or not
Jesus says somewhere that it is therefore with your THOUGHTS that we must work. And what he means by that is your attack thoughts but also your BELIEFS. Beliefs are decisions, they are a long-term thought, which give rise to more thoughts. It is ONLY through belief that you give reality to the separation. It is through false believing that you modify the truth. It is through false believing that you attack. It is through false believing that you reverse cause and effect, regarding yourself as a victim, project causality outside of you, then have a perception of being attacked, which generates reactionary fear thoughts.
What you are doing to yourself is the KEY to salvation. The CAUSE of bad perceptions is the PROJECTING of bad beliefs. "I can be attacked by nothing but my thoughts" tells you it’s neither projection or perception that hurts you, but the attack thoughts against yourself that you put there FIRST before you even project, yet alone perceive..
"You but accuse your brother of your own sins" tells you that you FIRST accuse yourself of sin, THEN you project it onto your brother, THEN you perceive that your brother is being sinful. Correcting "perception" is not going to remove your belief in sin about yourself. But fix your mind and your perception automatically follows. "As a man THINKETH, so does he perceive." The thinking comes first, perception is a RESULT that you don’t directly need to change. It’s an effect.
Perception is like 3 times removed from the cause. If you really want to attain true perception, corrected perception, which is only a SIDE EFFECT (result), you have to work with what you are projecting, at least. Because projection is the CAUSE of perception. Trying to tackle perception itself won’t work. It’s not the problem. It’s coming FROM projection. And even projection is not the problem, it’s merely a way of trying to disown the problem.
Yes you should "take back your projections" and realize you are putting it there, but this isn’t enough. The fact you are projecting or judging others is not the whole problem. It’s just a step. Thinking it’s about others and NOT YOU is a layer of denial. Even if you stop projecting, that isn’t a total fix. Because you’re still left with WHAT you projected, and left holding the baby. WHAT you projected is your SELF attack. The stuff that’s WITHIN you, which you saw AS IF it were outside you, but it STILL was inside your mind. Your beliefs about YOURSELF.
Projection is an attempt to get rid of what you do not want to be responsible for, but it does not work. All it does is split your mind and disassociate and PRETEND it’s about someone else. It remains your mind attacking itself, but in a more split state that seems like it’s not coming from you. Projection is just an inflated form of self attack.
Ultimately it’s always still YOUR MIND that needs healing. It’s your self attack that needs to be healed. This is why he secret of salvation is the key to awakening - you are always doing it to yourself. Ideas leave not their source, your self attack does not leave your mind EVEN when you project or perceive it externally.
Change your mind, period, and everything you project AND perceive will change. You see yourself "in" the world. You see yourself everywhere, because you are everywhere. If you hate yourself, you will see hate everywhere. If you love yourself, you will see love everywhere. You are innocent.
God, Who encompasses all being, created BEINGS (plural) who have everything INDIVIDUALLY, but who want to share it to increase THEIR (plural) joy.
Nothing real can be increased except by sharing. (this is very key, God HAD to share ie create in order to increase, because he was already complete, and it was HIS JOY to create).
That is why God created you (talking about you as ONE INDIVIDUAL). Divine Abstraction takes joy in sharing (notice that sharing means GIVING by creating). That is what creation means.
"How," "what" and "to whom" are IRRELEVANT, because real creation gives everything, since it can create only like itself. (God creates in his total likeness!)
Remember that in the Kingdom there is no difference between having and being, as there is in existence. In the state of being the mind gives everything always."
This is from Chapter 4, the illusions of the ego: creation and communication.
In the atonement, it becomes the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.
In the atonement, you gain the authority to forgive the sins of others, and not just your own sins.
This literally means you are able to heal others instantly through your forgiveness, because forgiveness leads to an authority over illusions.
It's not just a technicality, like you accept the atonement and you're done. The atonement puts you in the hot seat. It gives you the power of God. It empowers you with commanding authority. And what you then say, goes.
Claiming the atonement for yourself will grant you the ability to give the atonement to others. And that means the undoing of all signs and symptoms of separation, including the reversal of death.
Raising of the dead would not be possible if it had to mean that the other person somehow had to do something on their own in order to resurrect. Yet Jesus raised the dead, and others have also. The dead cannot raise themselves.
This demonstrates to you the miraculous power that the atonement offers you. The power to overcome all illusions for yourself AND for others. And if it be God's will, you too can restore your brother to life.
He who shares the authority of God knows no limitations. Unlock the key to salvation and open the door to the atonement, and you will step through Heaven's gates. And from there, the atonement of yourself and of the whole world is complete in your eyes. And now have dominion over all suffering and death.
When you are in denial, the denial itself paints a picture that whatever it is you're denying is WORTH denying, because it's not good, even though WHAT you are denying is outside of your awareness. Like, as though there really is something there being denied - something you shouldn't STOP denying because then you'll be in big trouble.
It's the same with fear. Fear tells you there's something real to be afraid of, that the fear is justified. The fear says its worth being afraid, because if you aren't, you'll have to confront what it is you area afraid of. Think about that - if you're NOT afraid, you will have to FACE something fearful. Makes no sense.
The ego's basic mind-trick is avoidance of God, avoidance of the truth, avoidance of reality. But the thing is, it doesn't just avoid God. God is love. It isn't really telling you that you are avoiding love. If you knew you were avoiding love, and you remembered what love is, you wouldn't be willing to avoid it. So instead, it tells you you are avoiding something else.
The ego says, you're avoiding an evil God, and you wouldn't want to go anywhere near it. It tells you, you're avoiding real sin and guilt in the mind, and you shouldn't go anywhere near it. It tells you, you have a really big reason to be afraid because God is coming after you, so that you'll be justified in being afraid. All of this is designed to make you believe that you're actually doing the right thing by being in denial, or being afraid, or avoiding God, or going out of your mind.
The lie here is that fear itself INVENTS its own idea of what you are afraid of. And denial itself INVENTS its own idea of what you are denying. Once you enter into denial or fear, you're in a place of hallucinating and projecting ideas based in denial in fear, which out pictures God, or your mind's content, as also being fearful.
Here's the key. It's not that your mind HAS real guilt in it. It's not that you HAVE a real reason to be afraid of God. It's not that you HAVE sinned or that, if you looked within, you'd be confronted with the horrors of what you've really done. The key is.... ITS ALL A LIE!
There IS no reason to be afraid of God. There IS no real guilt in your mind. There IS no sin that you have accomplished. There is no dark icky content lurking for you to discover, to be ashamed or, or to feel bad about. THERE ISN'T ANYTHING THERE. You haven't really done anything. You haven't sinned. You're not guilty. THIS is what the ego does not want you to really FIND OUT when you look within. And this is what it DEFENDS against by telling you it is very justified in making you use denial and fear to protect yourself.
You're innocent. "What if you looked within and saw there was no sin?" - ACIM
So you have to realize this, the ego's devices of avoidance of God/Self/Mind all CLAIM that you should be afraid to look within, they all CLAIM that you've got tonnes of guilt to heal, they all CLAIM you sinned and that you would die if you faced God, but it's all a self-perpetuating myth. They're all lies. They're all defenses against the truth.
Ego defenses never defend you against the TRUTH, because they are designed to OBSCURE the truth, so that you believe you are defending yourself against something ELSE. You could never believe that defense against LOVE is ever justified - you can't hold an awareness of real love in your mind and at the same time believe you would ever not want it. So instead the ego tells you that there IS no love, its been replaced with something dark and sinister, and you need to defend against THAT - the God of hate that the ego made up (as itself).
So all the while you are fixated in your 'issues' about what you did, the sin, the guilt, the fear, all of that is designed to block and distract you from looking at what is BEYOND these things. Before sin there was separation, yes, but before separation there was LOVE. The ego doesn't want to you keep investigating what's real because eventually you'd unearth the love that you buried and realize it still exists AS love. And then it's game over for the ego.
The truth is, you are completely innocent and free. The truth is, when you look into your mind, you might AT FIRST seem to encounter guilt and fear and sin and shame and attack, but only because you still believe these things are real. They're just clouds of illusions. Temporary distractions. They're lies, all of them. Fear is never truthful. Denial is never called for. You don't need any defense from God because God is love.
All of these avoidances are really designed to cover up the ATTRACTION TO GOD which is so intensely powerful and undeniable that if you were to become aware of it, you would rush into God's arms and into eternal life immediately. It is this POWER that you attempt to cover up. It is this LOVE that you attempt to deny exists. It is this VALUE and MEANING that you try to stay away from by making up stories about what it's frightening. God isn't frightening, the ego is.
God is love.
The ego is simply a state of self-attack, taking place within a mind which has become divided against itself.
In this state, part of the mind has disassociated from the other part. There now appear to be two identities.
One identity is consciously identified with as "me" and the other as "not me".
The "not me" self, is very often equated with "the ego". It appears to be the self that we're always blaming and scapegoating, attacking and accusing, thinking of as other people etc.
But the trap there is not realizing who is doing the perceiving of an enemy. The person who sees enemies, AND the enemies themselves, are both two parts of ONE delusional thought system. They are both you.
The ego is not so much "that enemy" or the thing which is against you or your problems etc. It is the attacker and that which is attacked. It is both sides of every war. It is the state of *separation* taking place within yourself, between who you are and this illusion of who you are not.
Separating yourself from God was also an attempt to separate yourself from yourself. This could only create a condition in your mind where your original self remained, and a second self was added. You now think that only the second self is the "bad self", and label it the ego, but it is no more or less the ego than the self which describes it, because your real self was placed with a "persona" that pretends to be who you really are. It is the separation BETWEEN the two fake identities that is the ego.
So basically, if no-one else existed and there was just you and your mind, the entire separation from God would have to be taking place inside of yourself. And any conditions of conflict in which there seems to be wars or threats or enemies, those things MUST be also included inside your own mind. They're not outside of you.
So this is the key - the secret to salvation, that you are doing this to yourself. You have to realize that this so-called "not me", aka "my enemy", actually IS you. It's you who are against yourself, not other people. It's you who are at war with your own self. You do not have any enemies beyond yourself. That "not me" self is just part of your mind and will which you're kind of pretending not to have any control over, as if it's running on autopilot.
You have to therefore learn to recognize, that whatever it is which seems to loom over you with power and a separate will and a sense of threat or causality, making "you" at its effect, is actually your own self doing this to yourself. In other words, it's one disassociated part of your mind attacking the part which you're still associated with. You think it is not you and is attacking you - that's just part of you that thinks you are not you, attacking part of you that thinks it is you.
Truth is, you are not EITHER of these two fake identities. You are not the attacker or the attacked. You are not the victim or the victimizer. You are also not the self who looks upon the "bad enemy" and condemns them. That self is the other half of the ego, and the ego is always attacking itself. You are not the persona who rejects the shadow, and you are not the innocent victim who believes the perpetrator is not their self.
If you could see, that every pain and suffering, every attack, every torture, was actually being administered by a split-off part of your own mind, which you had disowned and disconnected from your sense of "conscious control", or your sense of the scope of your power or the reach of your influence, and if you can learn to recognize it and see yourself actually working "through" it to do things to yourself, then you will realize... you can stop doing that.
You can stop attacking yourself. You can stop hurting yourself. But even moreso, since the self being hurt is not you either, you can realize that you are no longer going to play EITHER role of victim or victimizer, and are going to give up the sense of identity that you were trying to protect from a fake enemy, transcend both of them, heal the *SEPARATION* that was creating them both, and return to a mind of wholeness and oneness.
if you could but see that you do everything to yourself, and get in touch with that choosing and doing, then you would simply realize how futile that is and stop it.
Sometimes you'll find in the day that a song is playing in your mind. It seems to be on autopilot. It can play for hours without you even noticing. And then maybe you notice and can't get it out of your head. But the thing is, it's actually being played by a part of your own mind, a part which is mostly unconscious, and you are just "allowing" it subtly to keep going. When you reclaim that power and recognize, it's YOU who is making this song keep playing in your mind, you reclaim the ability to stop it from playing. And it will stop. Because no-one else was playing that song. It was you.
It's the same thing with any aspect of the ego. You think it's outside of your control, beyond your choosing, disconnected from your influence, outside your power, and separated from "you". Reclaiming and owning that is the key to salvation. Taking back responsibility for everything you are experiencing.
No-one and nothing can happen to you against your will. No-one dies without their own consent. If you do not choose to attack yourself, you will be in capable of experiencing attack. No-one else has the power to go against your will. Your will is as powerful as the Son of God. There is nothing that can cause you other than God. You cannot be at the effect of anything but God (and that's a good thing). It guarantees that you are immortal and invulnerable forever, if you will just stop doing stuff to yourself unconsciously.
I don’t like having to go into Bible references, but there is one statement Jesus made which encapsulates in one place all the key miracle working principles of ACIM. It’s to do with moving mountains. There are different versions but this is a good one:
"For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith."
There are key parts to this which are ALL important and have ACIM principles to back them up.
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1) You must pray with your heart. It doesn’t matter what words you say because God does not understand words, but He understands what is in your heart.
ACIM: "Strictly speaking, words play no part at all in healing. The motivating factor is prayer, or asking. What you ask for you receive. But this refers to the prayer of the heart, not to the words you use in praying. Sometimes the words and the prayer are contradictory; sometimes they agree. It does not matter. God does not understand words, for they were made by separated minds to keep them in the illusion of separation. Words can be helpful, particularly for the beginner, in helping concentration and facilitating the exclusion, or at least the control, of extraneous thoughts. Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality."
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2) You must have faith and trust in the Holy Spirit. Faith means trusting in God’s laws. "I am under no laws but God’s". Faith means believing, knowing, accepting (atonement), aligning with, the Will of God.
ACIM: "The miracle is taken first on faith, because to ask for it implies the mind has been made ready to conceive of what it cannot see and does not understand. Yet faith will bring its witnesses to show that what it rested on is really there. And thus the miracle will justify your faith in it, and show it rested on a world more real than what you saw before; a world redeemed from what you thought you saw."
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3) You must BELIEVE that it will happen and be convinced, essentially that it has alread been received.
ACIM: "There is no miracle you cannot give, for all are given you. Receive them now by opening the storehouse of your mind where they are laid and giving them away."
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4) This believing entails a kind of IMAGINATION or VISUALISATION of the END RESULT of what you want to happen. Ie seeing the mountain in the sea in your mind’s eye.
ACIM: Not sure on a quote for this yet but other miracle workers have taught that the mind’s eye/imagination must be used to visualize what the person or thing will be like AFTER it has been healed/received. E.g. picturing someone swinging their arms around after paralysis has been removed.
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5) You must not have any doubt or fear. NONE. That means there will be LOVE and WHOLENESS in your heart and mind and perception.
AICM: You can do ANYTHING I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it VERY clear that these are NATURAL, CORRECTIVE, HEALING, and UNIVERSAL. There is nothing good they cannot do. But they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt.
Remember my own question, before you ask yours "Oh ye of little faith, wherefore didsth thou DOUBT."
(Reference to Christ and the apostles walking on water.)"
"Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles" - meaning, shifts in perception are not miracles because they are not *wholeness*. You must perceive with wholeness/love.
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6) Prayer is the medium of miracles. You must actually pray to "ask" and receive. The miracle doesn’t happen by just looking at the mountain.
"We said before that prayer is the medium of miracles."
"The distinction has also been made here between "miracle-mindedness" as a STATE, and "miracle-doing" as its expression."
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7) God/Holy Spirit are the power that makes the miracle happen, "not you". They work through you. The Holy Spirit is not a metaphor. It is a SPIRIT, a permanent creation of God, and it shares the POWER OF GOD.
"The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God's creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively."
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8) You must be single minded. That comes from being whole hearted, aware of love.
"A divided will can accomplish nothing." Or "a split mind can accomplish nothing" or "an untrained mind can accomplish nothing."
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Through these principles used in this combination, THIS is how supernatural miracles are performed. This may however be easier said than done. To have no fear. To have love in the heart. To be single minded you have to be aware of love, your heart has to be whole. You can’t have any fear or doubts. You have to have STRONG belief.
ACIM also puts it this way:
"There have been many healers who did not heal themselves. They have not moved mountains by their faith because their faith was not WHOLE. Some of them have healed the sick at times, but they have not raised the dead. Unless the healer heals HIMSELF, he does NOT believe that there is no order in miracles. He has not learned that EVERY mind that God created is equally worthy of being healed because GOD CREATED IT WHOLE."
"While expressions like "think big" give some recognition to the power of thought, they still come nowhere near the truth. You do not expect to grow when you say it, because you don’t really believe it. It is hard to recognize that thought and belief combine into a power-surge that can literally move mountains.
It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is merely arrogant, but that is not the real reason why you don’t believe it. People prefer to believe that their thoughts cannot exert real control because they are literally AFRAID of them."
Remember this: "There is NOTHING your holiness cannot do."
This is a course in HOW TO MOVE A MOUNTAIN. That is a miracle.
What we need to do, is learn to PRACTICE THE PRINCIPLES.