I felt inspired to start A Course in Miracles again on the Winter Solstice. It’s been 11 years since I did the course the first time around, and I wondered how much has changed (in my ability to understand the concepts). To my delight, it’s been an easier go around the second time, as many of the concepts I’ve actualized, which allows for the synchronicities to align beautifully.
If you’re not familiar with ACIM, it’s a book with 365 days of study and meditation which works to completely transform the mind and perception. After coming out of the programming of the Catholic Church by choice, I used it as a cleansing of the mind, in order to experience a reset of my thought and perceptions. It’s a powerful tool, reportedly the work of Jesus himself, as channeled by someone who was Atheist prior to receiving this download of information.
Currently, I am reading and understanding more about perceptions versus truth. Perceptions are different from Truth. Truth comes via the channel of Spirit and cannot be argued or changed. Perception comes via the channel of ego and is consistently challenged and fluctuates based on any myriad of variables.
This was from my reading this week, “Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to change.” Upon proper reflection, the profundity is astounding. Every single thought has meaning and value in its energy. That energy, upon which each thought is constructed, alters the way we see and thereby experience the world. This has a direct impact upon our psyche, our emotional state, and our relationships.
I woke up this week after a restful night of vivid dreaming with a realization about a relationship which had always felt “off” to me. It felt like a moment of claircognizance, I “saw” for the first time why this relationship was off. It was all due to perceptions which weren’t True. I had been experiencing discord with this person for years and realized suddenly it’s due to something she had seen in the environment. Seeing this object triggered her own (past) experiences, leading her to judge something as Truth that was not actually true. The energy she put out, I then picked up on and misinterpreted myself, causing this consistent undercurrent of discord anytime we had contact with one another. We could both feel it, but I don’t think either of us really understood what was happening.
The Truth was that this object in the environment didn’t come from where she thought it did, nor did it belong to whom she assumed it did, nor did it represent for us what it represents to her.
This was a major “ah-ha” and breakthrough moment for me. For years, I have been holding on to a belief that I must’ve done something wrong or there was something about me personally, that created this sense of mistrust. I noticed I consistently felt insecure around this person and like the person thought I was hiding something. But it wasn’t me. It never was. With this realization, I let it all go, instantaneously. Forgiveness. Atonement. All based on multi-dimensional understanding which could only come through the lesson of realizing completely that every thought we have makes up some segment of the world we see. Even funnier, when I shared this story with another person, loosely involved, the other person had a completely differing opinion (or thought) about where the discord originated from (a politically motivated conversation once had around a fire)!!
I share all of this to illustrate the illusive nature of our reality. Everything we perceive through our eyes is simply perception, and perception is different for each and every individual. The reason being that perception is created by the ego aspect, and ego perceives the Self as separated. What is True is only what is created by the Spirit, which cannot be changed, it simply is. This comes from a place of Unity and oneness. The world that we see is merely an illusion. It isn’t real. What’s real is the Spirit which lives on even once the body dies off.
If we don’t like what we see on the outside, we need to reflect and examine what’s going on in the inside. From the inside, we can change our thoughts, which alter our perceptions. This is how we change the world we see and experience. This process is long and takes time. Patience, fortitude, practice, and determination are each required.
ACIM is not the path for everyone, however it can be a path for those who are spiritually inclined and feel like they have an “overactive” mind or mental aspect. The daily practices help to retrain the thought process and perception, altering the mind slowly, gradually, over the course of a year. There are many podcasts and groups for people who want to join communities and get feedback while doing the Course. In other words, no one has to do it alone if they prefer togetherness.
