OceanofPDF .comALSO BY MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
The Age of Miracles*  
A Return to Love  
A Woman’ s Worth 
Illuminata  
Emma & Mommy T alk to God  
Healing the Soul of America  
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Enchanted Love  
Everyday Grace  
The Gift of Change  
Miracle Car ds* 
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OceanofPDF .comOceanofPDF .comCopyright © 2010 by Marianne W illiamson
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transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use—other than for
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use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or
medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or
indirectly . The intent of the author is only to of fer information of a general
nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In
the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is
your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no
responsibility for your actions. Library of Congr ess Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Williamson, Marianne. A course in weight loss : 21 spiritual lessons for surrendering your weight
forever / Marianne W illiamson. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-4019-2152-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. W eight loss–
Psychological aspects. 2. W eight loss–Religious aspects–Christianity . I.Title. RM222.2.W4557 2010
616.3’980652–dc22
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1st edition, November 2010  
2nd edition, January 2012
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OceanofPDF .comFor Oprah
This book began and ended as a communication  
between friends. Oprah W infrey inspir ed the book,  
directed its course, and guided its vision. On a soul level  
definitely , and in many ways a literary one, this book  
was a collaborative effort. Every page is a r eflection of my  
affection for and gratitude to her; my hope is that it brings  
comfort to her as she has br ought comfort to so many . To any r eader who might feel that this book is a gift,  
please know that it was a gift fr om her . OceanofPDF .com CONTENTS 
Forewor d by Dean Ornish, M.D. Introduction
Embarking on the Journey  
 
LESSON 1 : Tear Down the W all
LESSON 2 : Thin Y ou, Meet Not-Thin Y ou
LESSON 3 : Build Y our Altar
LESSON 4 : Invoke the Real Y ou
LESSON 5 : Start a Love Af fair with Food
LESSON 6 : Build a Relationship with Good Food
LESSON 7 : Love Y our Body
LESSON 8 : Surrender to the Divine
LESSON 9 : Inhabit Y our Body
LESSON 10 : Consecrate Y our Body
LESSON 1 1: Ritualize the Change in Y ou
LESSON 12 : Commit to Y ourself
LESSON 13 : Feel Y our Feelings
LESSON 14 : Allow the Pain
LESSON 15 : Exit the Alone Zone
LESSON 16 : Discipline and Discipleship
LESSON 17 : Forgive Y ourself and Others
LESSON 18 : Honor the Process
LESSON 19 : Birthing Who Y ou Really Are
LESSON 20 : Soul Sur geryLESSON 21 : The Body Brilliant  
 
Journal Pages for A Course in W eight Loss
Acknowledgments
About the Author
OceanofPDF .com FOREWORD 
In this wonderful and inspiring book by Marianne W illiamson, she
addresses the root causes not only of our weight, but also of our suf fering. For more than 30 years, my colleagues and I at the nonprofit Preventive
Medicine Research Institute have conducted a series of studies proving that
when we address the underlying causes  of a condition, our bodies often
have a remarkable capacity to begin healing, and much more quickly than
had once been thought possible. W e’ve used high-tech, state-of-the-art
measures to prove the power of these low-tech, low-cost, and ancient
interventions. Our research proved that the progression of even severe heart disease
often can be reversed by making comprehensive lifestyle changes; so can
early-stage prostate cancer as well as diabetes, high blood pressure,
elevated cholesterol levels, arthritis, and depression. W e published studies
showing that when you change your lifestyle, you change your genes—
turning on the genes that prevent disease and turning of f the ones that
promote heart disease, cancer , and other illnesses—and even increasing an
enzyme that lengthens telomer es (the ends of our chromosomes that control
aging), thereby enhancing longevity . And people lost an average of 24
pounds in the first year and kept of f half that weight five years later . However , if we only literally or figuratively bypass  the underlying
causes, then the same problem often recurs—we regain the lost weight, the
bypassed coronary arteries clog up again, the medications have to be taken
forever—or a new set of problems may occur , or there may be painful
choices. When I lecture, I often show a slide of doctors busily mopping up
the floor around an overflowing sink without also turning of f the faucet. The lifestyle choices we make each day in what we eat and in how we
live are among the most important underlying causes of obesity and other
chronic diseases. But there is an even deeper , root cause that powerfullyaffects our lifestyle choices, and that is the separation from who we really
are—the misperception that we are separate and only separate. This is what
Marianne describes so eloquently and intelligently in this book. Information is important, but not usually suf ficient, to motivate lasting
changes in diet and lifestyle. If it were, we’d all be thin and healthy , as most
people know which foods are healthy and unhealthy to eat. And no one
would smoke. Everyone who smokes knows it’ s not good for them—the
Surgeon General’ s warning is on every package of cigarettes, at least in this
country . Yet one-third of Americans still smoke. Clearly , we need to work at
a deeper level. The real epidemic is not just obesity or heart disease or cancer; it’ s
loneliness, depression, and isolation. If we address these deeper issues, then
it becomes easier for people to make lasting changes in their behaviors. In our studies, I spent a lot of time with the participants over a period of
several years. W e got to know each other very well, and a powerful trust
emer ged. I asked them, “T each me something. Why do you overeat? Smoke? Drink
too much? W ork too hard? Abuse substances? W atch too much television? Spend too much time on the Internet and video games? These behaviors
seem so maladaptive to me.”
They replied, “Dean, you just don’ t get it. These behaviors aren’ t
maladaptive, they’re very adaptive—because they help us get through the
day. They numb our emotional pain.”
Getting through the day becomes more important than living a long life
when you’re lonely , depressed, and isolated. As one patient told me, “I’ve
got 20 friends in this pack of cigarettes. They’re always there for me, and
no one else is. Y ou want to take away my 20 friends? What are you going to
give me instead?”
Other patients take refuge in food. As someone once said to me, “When I
feel lonely , I eat a lot of fat—it coats my nerves and numbs the pain. I can
fill the void with food.” There’ s a reason why fatty foods are often referred
to as “comfort foods.” W e have many ways of numbing, bypassing, and
distracting ourselves from pain. Awareness is the first step in healing. Part of the benefit of pain is to get
our attention, to help us make the connection between when we suf fer and
why, so we can make choices that are a lot more fun and healthful.The experience of emotional pain and unhappiness can be a powerful
catalyst for transforming not only behaviors like diet and exercise, but also
for dealing with the deeper issues that really motivate us. “Well, it may be hard to change, but I’m hurting so badly that I’m willing
to try something new .” At that point, properly guided, people are more
willing to make lifestyle choices that are life-enhancing rather than those
that are self-destructive. Because the mechanisms that af fect our health are so dynamic, when we
work on a deeper level, we’re likely to feel so much better , so quickly , that
it reframes the reasons for change from fear of dying to joy of living. What’ s sustainable are joy , pleasure, freedom, and love. Even more than
being healthy and losing weight, most people want to feel free and in
control. Because of this, diets don’ t work. Diets are about what you can’t have
and what you must  do. If you go on a diet, sooner or later you’re likely to
go off a diet. If you go on an exercise program, sooner or later you’re likely
to go off it. And diets are often based on the fear that something really bad—like a
heart attack, a stroke, or cancer—may happen to you otherwise. Ef forts to
try to motivate people to change their lifestyles based on fear don’ t work,
because we don’ t want to believe that something really bad will ever
happen to us, so we don’ t think about it. Fear is not a sustainable motivator . Why? It’ s too scary . We all know
we’re going to die one day—the mortality rate is still 100 percent, one per
person—but who wants to think about it? Even people who have had heart
attacks usually change for only a few weeks before they go back to their old
patterns of living and eating. The language of behavioral change often has a moralistic quality to it that
turns of f a lot of people (like “cheating” on a diet). It’ s a small step from
thinking of foods as “good” or “bad” to seeing yourself as a “good person”
or a “bad person” if you eat these, and this creates downward spirals in a
vicious cycle. Also, the term “patient compliance” has a fascist, creepy quality to it,
sounding like one person manipulating or bending his or her will to another . In the short run, I may be able to pressure you into changing your diet, butsooner or later (usually sooner), some part of you will rebel. (Remember ,
“Don’ t eat the apple” didn’ t work, and that was God talking. …)
And willpower is just another way of saying you’re forcing yourself to
do something, and pressuring yourself to do something is not sustainable. Again, what’ s sustainable are love, joy , pleasure, and freedom. When we inevitably go of f a diet, then we usually blame ourselves. Thus,
humiliation, guilt, anger , and shame are inherent in most diet and lifestyle
programs, and these are among the most toxic emotions. Instead, with Marianne as our guide, we can go back to the root cause of
our suf fering: we’ve for gotten who we really are. Health  comes from the
root “to make whole.” The word yoga  derives from the Sanskrit word
meaning “to yoke,” to bring together . Science is helping to document the
wisdom of ancient traditions. Intimacy is healing. T rust is everything, because we can only be intimate
to the degree we can make ourselves emotionally vulnerable. A fully
committed relationship allows both people to feel complete trust in each
other . Trust allows us to feel safe. When we feel safe, we can open our heart
to the other person and be completely naked and vulnerable to him or her—
physically , emotionally , and spiritually . When our heart is fully open and
vulnerable, we can experience profound levels of intimacy that are healing,
joyful, powerful, creative, and intensely ecstatic. W e can surrender to each
other out of strength and wisdom—not out of fear , weakness, and
submission. If that trust has been violated by physical, sexual, or emotional abuse—
especially if it’ s by a parent or relative who is supposed to protect us—then
intimacy can be dangerous and frightening. Overeating often becomes a
way of protecting us from further abuse, but it also isolates us from the
healing intimacy that we most want. The values of community , compassion, for giveness, altruism, and service
are part of almost all religious and spiritual traditions as well as many
secular ones—what the German philosopher Leibniz called “the perennial
philosophy”—the common, eternal underpinnings of all religions once you
get past the rituals and forms that are all too often used to divide rather than
unify . Altruism, compassion, and for giveness may be healing for both the giver
and the recipient because giving to others with an open heart helps heal theisolation and loneliness that separate us from each other . When we for give
others, it doesn’ t excuse their actions; it frees us from our own stress and
suffering. These allow for deep levels of intimacy and community that are
powerfully healing. When you meet hatred with love, and fear with hope,
this transforms you, as well as those around you. The ancient swamis and rabbis, monks and nuns, mullahs and maharishis,
didn’ t use spiritual practices simply as powerful stress-management
techniques, although they are. They are also powerful tools for
transformation and transcendence, providing a direct experience of what it
means to be happy and peaceful if we simply stop disturbing our natural
state of inner peace. These techniques do not bring  peace and happiness; they simply help us
to experience and rediscover the inner peace that is there already , once we
stop disturbing it. As the ecumenical spiritual teacher Swami Satchidananda
often said, “I’m not a Hindu; I’m an Un-do.”
Prayer and meditation allow us to access our inner wisdom more
intentionally . Have you ever awakened in the middle of the night and
figured out the answer to a problem that had been troubling you? All
spiritual traditions describe a “still, small voice within,” a voice that speaks
very clearly but very quietly . It’s easily drowned out by the chatter and
business of everyday life. For many people, the only time the mind is quiet
enough to hear one’ s inner voice is when waking up in the middle of the
night. Sometimes it says, “Listen up, pay attention. I have something
important to tell you.”
At the end of a meditation session—whether it’ s been one minute or one
hour—my mind is much quieter and calmer , so I can hear the still, small
voice within more clearly . I then ask myself, “What am I not paying
attention to that I need to hear?” And then I wait, and listen. Over time, I’ve learned to trust and recognize my inner voice. Everyone
can. When we practice listening to our inner voice in quiet moments, we
can learn to access it at the stressful times when we most need it. If we pay attention to our inner wisdom, we can often recognize
problems in their earlier stages when they are easier to rectify . As Oprah
Winfrey once said, “Listen to the whisper before it becomes a scream.”
Meditation, prayer , and other spiritual practices can provide the direct
experience of the interconnectedness of life. On one level, we’re allseparate and apart from each other . You’re you, and I’m me. On another level, spiritual practices, taken deeply enough, allow us to
experience that we are a part of something much lar ger that connects us,
whatever name we give to that (even to give it a name is to limit what is a
limitless experience). W e are a part of , not just apart fr om, everyone and
everything. W e are That. In this context, love is not something we get; it’ s
who we are. When we can maintain that “double vision”—both the duality and the
underlying unity—then we can enjoy life more fully and accomplish even
more without so much suf fering and stress, from a place of wholeness
rather than lacking, from a feeling of interconnectedness rather than
separateness and isolation. Our lives become manifestations of love, acts of
love—the most powerful force in the universe. And, by the way , you’re likely to lose weight and keep it of f, because
lasting weight loss is a by-product of a deeper healing. This book brilliantly
illuminates a path out of the darkness. — Dean Ornish, M.D.,  Founder and President, Preventive  
Medicine Research Institute; Clinical Professor of Medicine,  
University of California, San Francisco • www .pmri.org
OceanofPDF .com INTRODUCTION 
Since the publication of this book in its original hardback version, I have
met thousands of people who have gone through its curriculum and
achieved extraordinary success. Some pieces fell into place for them,
they’ve reported, that had not fallen into place before. At last they were able
to free themselves from the horrifying tyranny of compulsive patterns of
unwise eating. I’m thrilled about this, obviously , but I’m not surprised. For the
application of miracle-minded thinking to any challenge is a breakthrough
in problem solving. From a spiritual perspective, our recognizing the power
of a problem is never as significant as recognizing the power of God to
remove it. The subject of obesity has become a serious problem for millions of
people, and TV , the Internet, and bookshelves are filled with ideas for
solving the problem. Most of the time, however , the issue is addressed
primarily on the level of diet and exercise. It’ s not that diets don’ t work; of
course they do. It’ s not that exercise doesn’ t work; of course it does. The
problem for the compulsive or addictive eater , however , does not lie on the
level of either one. The problem lies on the level of emotional and
psychological factors that can make it almost impossible for someone to
stay on the diet, or to get themselves to consistently exercise. When it comes to drugs and alcohol, there seems to be a widespread
understanding that a spiritual experience is necessary in order to achieve
recovery from an addiction. But when it comes to compulsive patterns of
unwise eating—even though the dysfunction involved can be life
threatening—there is a rampant insensitivity to the problem of the
compulsive unwise eater that one rarely sees in regards to drugs or alcohol. If nothing else, it’ s considered politically incorrect to say about the
alcoholic, “W ell, why doesn’ t he just stop drinking? It’ s that simple!” No,people realize now that for the alcoholic, it is not that simple. Y et one hears
the most mean-spirited comments when it comes to the compulsive eater . “It’s simple! Why doesn’ t he just stop eating so much?” What the
commenters don’ t understand, perhaps, is that for millions and millions of
people, it is also not that simple. And this book has been written for them. A Course in W eight Loss  is a spiritual curriculum consisting of 21
lessons. It is separate from anything else you might do regarding diet or
exercise. It does not aim at retraining your body , or even your food choices. It is a retraining of your consciousness in the area of weight. While the body is obviously the level of your problem with weight, it is
not the level of the solution  to your problem. The ultimate solution to any
problem lies within your thinking, because what happens in your mind
determines your experience of life. This most basic Law of the universe—
the Law of Cause and Ef fect—posits that thought is the level of Cause, and
the material world is the level of Ef fect. When you change your thinking—
and only when you change your thinking—do you make permanent changes
in your life experience. The lessons in this book will help you change your
mind, and as you do so, you will harness the subconscious power to change
your body . Many people have exerted extraordinary conscious power—will power ,
self-discipline, intellectual research, eating dif ferently , exercise—in their
efforts to lose weight, and often to amazing ef fect. I have met people who
have lost hundreds of pounds in total, and know more than most of us will
ever know about everything from body metabolism to nutrition and
exercise. T ragically , however , those who have lost the most are often those
who have gained the most back. What has happened is that they’ve been
stymied by something their conscious minds could not control: the power of
a compulsion that is headquartered not in the conscious but the
subconscious mind. If we’re dealing with a serious compulsion, it’ s not enough to change our
conscious mind … a New Y ear’s resolution, a promise made to oneself to
“really do it” this time, a fail-proof plan approved by experts. Until thesubconscious mind is enrolled in our weight-loss ef forts, we will find a way
to reconstitute our excess weight regardless of what else we do. Perhaps you’ve made amazing ef forts to lose weight in the past—
employing everything from extraordinary diet plans to almost superhuman
feats of exercise—yet have found yourself mysteriously unable to keep the
weight of f permanently . While you succeeded for a time in changing your
behavior , you’d not yet experienced the deep level of change necessary in
order to free you from your compulsion. On your own you might have
changed your conscious mind, but you alone cannot change your
subconscious mind. For that, you need the help of a Higher Power . For that,
you need a miracle. That idea—that there is a power higher than the conscious mind, in us
but not of us, that can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, is the
basic theme of this book. It is not a new , unique, or original idea; it is at the
heart of all great religious teachings as well as the T welve Steps of
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). It is a truth, however , that while simple, is
not always easy to access. The lessons in this book are a specific plan in
accessing this truth in the service of serious weight loss. The principles that guide these 21 lessons are not dif ficult, but they are
different from the way you might usually think. They form the beginning of
a miracle-minded approach to weight loss. The principles are these:
1. Your body itself is completely neutral. It causes nothing; it is
completely an ef fect, not a cause. 2. Poor diet is not the cause  of your excess weight, nor is lack of exercise
the cause  of your excess weight. The cause of your excess weight is in
your mind. 3. The cause of your excess weight is fear , which is a place in your mind
where love is blocked. 4. Fear expresses itself as subconscious ur ges, which then express
themselves as either excessive and/or unhealthy eating habits and/or
resistance to proper exercise. The ultimate ef fect of this—that is,
excess weight—will only be permanently and fundamentally healed
when the fear itself is routed out.The purpose of this course is to route out your fear , and to replace it with
an inestimable love. That “inestimable love” is our Higher Power . It is the spirit, or divine
spark, that lies within each of us, and the spiritual journey is the quest for
that power . Every problem is at heart a spiritual problem, in that it
represents a place where we have been disempower ed as people through
disconnection  from our spirit. In finding the disconnection from love that is
the hidden source of every problem, we’re then free to reconnect with the
love that makes all things right. This reconnection is a shift from mere
mortal thoughts to immortal ones; from thoughts of fear that bind us, to
thoughts of love that free us. And that is the miracle: the shift from fear to
love. If you’re a compulsive unwise eater , it might seem odd to consider that
fear is the source of your weight problem. In order to achieve success with
this book, however , you’re not even asked  to believe it. Y ou’re simply
asked to consider the possibility that a Higher Power can do for you what
you’ve not been able to do for yourself. Then, as your mind is trained to let
go of its fear , your body will let go of its excess pounds. Y ou might be
saying about now , “Well, that would be a miracle.” And that is the point. According to A Course in Miracles,  “Miracles occur naturally as
expressions of love.” W ithin the space of your true holiness, the sacred love
within your heart, miracles are in infinite supply . This course is not about
your relationship with food; it is about your relationship with love, and your
relationship with yourself. Miracles occur naturally when you remember
who you are, for who you really are is love itself. You are a perfect child of a divine Creator , and nothing about you is
imperfect. The Creator , being perfect, does not create the imperfect. It is
therefore humble—not arrogant—to accept the divine perfection of your
true self. In any moment when you behaved imperfectly , you did not
become  imperfect; in that moment, you simply for got your perfection. Y ou
simply for got who you are. And when we cannot remember who we are, we
have a harder time behaving  like the person who in our heart we most long
to be. The body is not separate fr om the mind; in fact, it takes instructions fr om
the mind. Y our mind having for gotten its divine right pr ogramming, your
system of physical appetites then for got their divine right pr ogramming.Your mind having become confused, your nervous system then became
confused. Remembering your divine perfection, therefore, is key to your healing of
both mind and body . As you embrace the idea that your spirit is created
perfect, your subconscious mind will begin to remember that your body is
created perfect as well. And that perfection is reflection, among other ways,
in the perfect, most healthy weight for you. Y our body is meant to be a
reflection of your spirit, and both your thoughts and your cells will respond
to a reminder of their divine perfection. The goal of this course is to remind
your body of its perfection by reminding your mind of its perfection. By
resetting one, you reset the other . Your true self is programmed perfectly by nature to think and behave in
ways that are healthy and strong. Y our job now is not only to disconnect
from the matrix of addiction or compulsion, but also to reconnect with the
matrix of perfection in which you were created and in which your spirit
remains. This matrix of perfection is the real you. The real you is already
perfect, in every aspect and in every way . You are not a problem, because
you are divinely perfect. When you overeat—or overspend, or overdrink, or
over-anything—you are simply not being who in fact you are. The real you is your spiritual rather than physical self, although living in
this world, it is tempting to for get this. Y our resulting confusion has
contributed to a pattern of dysfunctional behavior . The dysfunction existed
first within your consciousness, was then expressed in your behavior , and
then manifested as excess weight. As you remember your higher truth, the cells of your body are reminded
of their  higher truth. The body has a natural intelligence for creating and
maintaining the perfect weight for you as long as the mind is aligned with
its own perfection. Y our perfect weight is coded into the natural patterns of
your true self, as your perfect everything  is coded into the patterns of your
true self. The real you knows exactly how to inhabit your body in the
healthiest, happiest way , and will do so automatically when you reestablish
conscious connection with spiritual reality . By getting back to the truth ofwho you really are, you will get to a place where all your problems with
weight have disappeared. This course is a reminder of three things:
1. W ithin you there is a perfect love, which is the essence of your true
self. 2. You can for get your perfection, but you cannot uncreate it. 3. There is a way to reconnect to your perfection when you have become
confused and for gotten that it exists. This “way to reconnect” is called, for the purposes of this course, Divine
Mind. It is a gift from God, always available to remind you of your true
self. Y our compulsion is a place where, in your spiritual for getfulness, you
go temporarily insane if even for a moment—just long enough to open the
bag of potato chips that’ s the trigger to your binge food mania. Lost in this
forgetfulness, you become confused in your thinking and are unable to say
“No” when something truly harmful to your well-being is posing as a
supportive and loving friend. Divine Mind is the counterforce to this
temporary insanity; when you are lost in moments of spiritual for getfulness,
it will remind you who you are. No one needs to convince you how destructive such moments of
forgetfulness can be. Y et why does that confusion, an impulse so counter to
your good, even exist? Fundamental to understanding this course is a basic
spiritual principle: that there are two opposing forces—the power of love,
and the power of fear . The power of love is perfect, creative, self-or ganizing, healthy , self-
healing, and abundant. It is the truth of who you are as a child of the divine. The power of fear is insane, destructive, violent, disease producing, and
lacking. It expresses itself as an impostor self, perverting your true nature
and making you behave in a way that is opposite of who you truly are. It is
spiritually immature to underestimate the power of either of these two
forces. Both of them are active, and both of them have their eyes on you. One wishes you well, and the other wishes you dead. Transcending fear is not always easy , nor is it something that can be done
by the mortal mind alone. It cannot be done by self-discipline, superior
intelligence, dieting, or any act of self-will. When you are enslaved by thedictates of your compulsive behavior , only Divine Mind is powerful enough
to cancel out its authority . Divine Mind is always there when you call it. It
will free you from the chains that bind you in a way that you cannot do for
yourself. It’ s not enough to just say , “So I’ll change my thoughts and I’ll be
healed!” For it’ s not that simple. As you yourself have discovered, you
alone are not powerful enough to cast out the destructive force of fear . Many times we hear , “Just change your thoughts!” or “Learn to love
yourself!” As though it’ s that easy . No one who has ever lost a lot of weight
and then—despite his or her best conscious ef forts not to—put it back on
needs to be told how powerful is the force of the resistant, fear -based mind. You change your thinking, and then something in you changes it back
again. When subconscious forces lead a person into chronic self-destructive
behavior over which their conscious mind has little or no control, this is
called an addiction. Addiction is a system of self-generated behavior over
which a merely self-generated psychological response system holds no
sway . Addiction is when you can’ t stop. When some craziness takes over
and you do whatever it is you do that blows it every time, ruins everything,
snatches happiness from your hands, and leaves you desperate at what your
life has become. It’ s life when lived at the behest of a wicked witch who
seems to have taken over your brain and now uses it as her control room,
directing you to do the most self-destructive things and then cackling with
amusement as you lie writhing on the ground in misery right afterward. It’s tempting to think that you’re the only one going through this, though
intellectually you pretty much know that you’re not. Still, addiction is a
private hell and a secret hell and a shame-filled hell, because you’r e not
supposed to be that way . But if you’re not supposed to be that way , and I’m
not supposed to be that way , and no one else is supposed to be that way ,
then why ar e so many people that way? Whether or not you are a food addict is something only you can say . But
of this, be sure: The consciousness of the entire human race is addicted. W e
are addicted to fear , having lost sight of our common love. Y ou are not
weaker or more wounded, better or worse, than others; each of us is home
to a great contest between the forces of fear and the forces of love. The
contest within you happens to manifest externally , which brings with it aunique and embarrassing form of suf fering. But all of humanity experiences
the pain of our common addiction to fear . Addiction and compulsion are spiritual issues, healed only by a higher
love. The overeater ’s emotional wounds overpower both his or her rational
mind as well as self-discipline. But as painful as it can be to see that, it is a
realization that ultimately leads to joy . For in realizing that you yourself
can’t fix the problem, it begins to dawn on your consciousness that indeed
God can. Love is always the answer , but your own love is not enough. I love
myself, I love myself,  while a sweet af firmation, is an inef fective mantra. If
your only antidote to fear is your own love, then you are left in a situation
where you are fighting you. And you will never win a battle where you are
pitted against yourself. The love that will free you is Divine Love, coming
from beyond  your mortal mind. It is a divine intercession from a thought
system beyond our own. Placing your problems in the hands of God, the
situation it represents will be re-created. That which is imperfect will then
become perfect. When you are acting out of an addiction or compulsion (all addicts are
compulsive, but not every compulsive eater is an addict), you are
disconnected from the memory of who you are as God created you. Compulsion and addiction are patterns of self-sabotage that emer ged from
trauma, something that probably happened at a very young age, leaving you
bereft and feeling unloved. And the absence of love produces fear , just as
the absence of light produces darkness. In the moment when you could not
feel love, you felt fear instead. Y et fear came posing as your friend, of fering
up food as a substitute for love. Some wires in your brain got twisted in that moment. The purpose of this
course is to untwist them, by training your mind to think miraculously . For
if you are a food addict, anything less will be insuf ficient to fundamentally
and permanently alter your patterns of eating. Intellectually understanding your body , your mind-body connection, the
physiology of exercise, or the realities of food metabolism mean little if you
are addicted. In the words of Sigmund Freud, “Intelligence will be used in
the service of the neurosis.” The fact that you yourself have anything
figured out makes little or no dif ference to any of this. No matter how smart
you are, or how much “work you’ve done on yourself,” you alone cannotoutsmart the psychic force of compulsion and addiction. If you could, you
would have done so by now . For this problem, entrenched and pernicious as
it is, you need spiritual forces to help you. For this, you need God. This is not a course in theology but in experience. The ener gy of Divine
Love is not just an idea, but an actual force to apply to your circumstances. It is the only force more powerful than that of an addictive drive to hurt
yourself. When you are acting out of your addiction, you are temporarily blind to
your holiness and thus disconnected from your essential self. The healing of
your bodily imperfection lies in reclaiming your divine perfection. That is
why this course is not about food but about spirituality—the quest for a
power that is greater than your own. It is not about your addiction, but
about a force that is more powerful than your addiction. Our purpose is not
to analyze your darkness but to turn on a light that, having been trapped
within you, is now ready to blaze forth. And that light is love itself. Healthy eating is an act of love and unhealthy
eating is not. Thus, when you overeat, you are acting in a space of no-love. When you for get who you are, you pervert  who you are. Y our compulsive
self is a perversion of your true identity , not neutral but proactively harmful. For there is no such thing as a neutral thought. Compulsive behavior is your
natural impulse to love transformed into an unnatural impulse to do
something that is not love. Overeating is simply one form that that impulse
takes. It is not about food. It is about an insane desire that would overthrow
God and try to do you harm. It gets to your body by getting first to your
mind. Traditional Christians often refer to the devil as silver -tongued; in AA,
the disease of alcoholism is referred to as baf fling and cunning. The spirit of
fear, regardless of what form it takes, is your own mental power turned
against yourself; however manipulative, punitive, or outlandish you can be,
it can be. Have you ever found yourself saying something that you knew in your
heart to be the opposite of how you really felt? That’ s what’ s happeningwhen you act against yourself, with food or in any other way . In a moment
of self-hate, your mind is so twisted as to convince you that you are acting
out of self-love. “I’m eating all these cookies to comfort myself. ” “I’m
eating all this bread because it nourishes me emotionally .” It is not just your
mind but also your body that can go insane. Compulsion and addiction
render the life-sustaining proclivities of both mind and body temporarily
inoperative. This is not a war that reason can win. So ask yourself this question: Are you willing, if even for a moment, to
consider the possibility that God can outwit your insanity? If you feel that
on your own you simply cannot stop waging this war against yourself—a
war that if unabated could eventually kill you—then allow yourself to
surrender to a fervent hope and to feel, if even for a moment, that the help
you’ve prayed for has finally arrived. You would not be reading this book if you had not already come to this
place. Some part of you knew that the one solution you have not yet tried—
complete dependence on the will of a Higher Power—would be beckoning
you were you to read this. And no matter how much your mind might resist
it, your spirit is thrilled to think that this would be your next step. Sometimes we need to admit our own darkness, and at other times we
need to admit our light. At the deepest level, it is not your food addiction
that you most need to admit to yourself. At the deepest level, it is the
memory of your own divine essence that you most need to admit to yourself
… a memory that lies within you as the gift that it is: the Answer to every
problem, even this one. Dear God,  
Please fr ee me  
from false appetites  
and take away my pain. Take fr om me my addicted self,  
and show me who I am. Unchain my heart  
so I might live  
a freer life at last. AmenOceanofPDF .com EMBARKING 
  
ON THE JOURNEY
You are about to embark upon a specific journey , and as with everything
else in your life, you have two choices: you can play it shallow or you can
play it deep. The overeater has a delusional relationship with food, imbuing it with
power it doesn’ t actually possess. Perhaps you’ve subscribed to the magical
belief that eating af fords you comfort and strength, even when you are
eating food (or an amount of food) that in fact can only hurt you. The
overeater forms an idolatrous relationship with food in which powers that
belong only to God have been ascribed to something else. Begin by simply seeing this. Spiritual growth is a fascinating process when you allow it to be. It is an
inner journey from one insight to another , in which helpful realizations fall
into place as you are ready to receive them. T wisted thoughts become
untwisted once you see them for what they are. Y our journey from
blindness to spiritual vision precedes your journey from dysfunctional
eating to a healthy and wholesome relationship to food; in fact, it is a
necessary prerequisite for it. As you understand more deeply the roots of
your weakness, you lay the foundation for the cultivation of new strengths. The first realization on your journey to freedom is that you have come to
believe a lie. Then, through the strength of your belief in this lie, you have
actually made it seem true for you. The lie is that food that is actually bad
for you has the power to comfort, nurture, and sustain you. Y our task is to
correct the lie. The line from the end of the Lord’ s Prayer , “For Thine is the kingdom,
the power , and the glory ,” means “Only God has the power to comfort,
nurture, and sustain me.” That line is not an entreaty but an af firmation,which when said prayerfully has the power to penetrate the deepest regions
of your subconscious mind. Y ou are realizing that food cannot nurture you
emotionally , and that God, and only God, can. In giving all power to Spirit, you realign the ener gies of your
subconscious mind; you thus beckon every aspect of yourself—including
your body—back to Divine right order . Your body is meant to be a
reflection of your spirit, and both your thoughts and your cells will respond
to a reminder of their Divine perfection. The goal of this course is to remind your body of its perfection by
reminding your mind of its perfection. By resetting one, you reset the other . This course is cumulative. Every day you will be given a lesson, and
while the content of that lesson is to be focused on for a particular day , its
energy should be allowed to live continuously within your psyche as the
days unfold. Compulsive eating involves two things: compulsion and food. You will not end your compulsive eating by substituting another
compulsive practice. Therefore, this is not a course to race through, but
rather a process to relax into. These lessons are not meant to cause you consternation or feelings of
guilt. They can neither be passed nor failed; you can neither be passed nor
failed. Simply allow yourself to fall into them as into a gentle place, where
you are equally loved whether you do the lesson “right” on any given day
or you fall short. The only way you can “fail” a lesson is if you punish
yourself for failing. This course is a journey , and as with any serious
journey of self-discovery , there are days when we detour into darkness as
we make our way toward light. In moments that are dif ficult—perhaps you’ll read something inspiring in
one of the lessons and close your eyes for a beautiful and peaceful time of
meditation, but then find yourself an hour later finishing a whole bag of
potato chips!—know that the problem is not the potato chips, but rather the
fear that has been aroused in the presence of love. It has been said that love brings up everything unlike itself, and
sometimes just when we feel we are moving toward a solution, the problemjumps up again and grabs us by the throat. That is natural. It is part of the
process. Do not despair . In such a situation, simply take a deep breath, acknowledge yourself for
your ef forts, and for give yourself for the detour . Know that the patterns of
light you are establishing now will in time cancel out all darkness. Know
that the greatest successes are often arrived at two steps forward and then a
step or two back. And know that skinny people eat too many potato chips
sometimes, too. These lessons are simple, but their potential to heal you is profound. The
reason the lessons are gentle is because your overeating is not. Only the
power of love can overcome the power of hate, and make no mistake about
it: your unhealthy eating is an act of self-hate. Overeating is a form of
violence, and one of the mechanisms you are now dismantling is your habit
of taking up the sword against yourself—whether the sword be knife or
fork. Begin with a commitment to be kind to yourself. Overeating is an
emotionally violent act, and scolding yourself for having done it is just
inflicting further violence. At some point you’ll act out those feelings, and
it’s a pretty good bet you’ll lean on your fallback position of overeating as
your favorite way to express self-hate. Not only that, but the overeating
would then also be a perfect way to comfort yourself while feeling all that
guilt. Is the insanity becoming clear enough yet? And does it not follow that it
would take a miracle to dismantle such a weird and twisted set of thoughts
and emotions? At a certain point, you come to admit a truth that you
previously resisted: you don’ t have the human capacity to fix this problem. Yet that’ s not the end. It’ s only the beginning. For in realizing that you
can’t heal yourself, you begin to consider Who can. These lessons are not just something you are going to read; doing this
course requires your active participation. Occasionally you’ll be asked to
procure an item or two or to do an activity , and often you’ll be asked to
write things down. There are pages at the end of the book for this purpose,or you may wish to use a separate journal. W riting will be very useful to
you throughout the course, as it will help you integrate the lessons more
fully. With that, let’ s begin our journey . OceanofPDF .comLESSON 1
TEAR DOWN THE WALL
I was never a food addict, but for years I was a compulsive overeater . Diets did not work. I would starve myself, then binge, starve myself, then
binge, in a constant cycle of self-abnegation and self-indulgence. I hated
many things about the situation, but what was worse than anything else was
how much I thought about food. I was obsessed with it. Thoughts of eating
hardly ever left my mind. And then they did, in a miraculous way . When I began studying A Course
in Miracles,  I wasn’ t consciously thinking of my weight as an area where I
needed a miracle. But one day I looked down and couldn’ t believe what I
saw, on the scale or on my body . Weight had simply dropped of f, and I
realized why . The weight had merely been a physical manifestation of my
need to keep others at bay . I feared other people and had built a wall to
protect myself. Practicing the Course,  I’d learned to extend my hand across the wall. I’d
learned ways to replace fear with love. I’d asked God to enter my life and
make all things right. And the wall had disappeared. For the purposes of this first lesson, try to imagine that you yourself are
carrying a wall around you—a wall of flesh to be sure, and yet the wall
reflects a wall of thoughts. The wall of flesh has been built by your
subconscious mind, where reside your fears of other people and of life
itself. Y our fear has built the wall, and love will tear it down. Looking closely , you see that every brick has something written on it:
Shame Injustice
Anger ProtectionFear Pride
Unfor giveness Selfishness
Judgment Jealousy
Disdain Greed
Excess  
responsibilityLaziness
Separation
Pressur e Dishonesty
Exhaustion Arrogance
Burden Inferiority
Stress Embarrassment
Heartbr eak Self-abnegation
Now allow yourself to read this list again, very slowly . With every word,
ask yourself whether or not it represents a thought, an emotional reality , or a
character defect that pertains to you. Know that the vast majority of people,
were they to be honest with themselves, would say “Y es.” (Y ou might even
add a few words of your own to the list.) And with every word, move
slowly into your heart and allow yourself to identify the situations or
circumstances in your life that this word connects to. “I feel shame because I had inappropriate feelings for my mother ’s
boyfriend when I was a little girl.” “I feel anger because my husband left
me after 20 years.” “I feel jealous of the people at work who get promoted
before me.”
The weight you are seeking to let go of was added to your consciousness
before it was added to your body . Your body is merely a screen onto whichis projected the nature of your thoughts. When the weight is gone from your
consciousness, it will be gone from your physical experience. In asking God
to remove the cause, you automatically remove the ef fect. As the fear is
miraculously removed from your mind, its manifest reflection will fall of f
your body . The weight on your mind, and thus on your body , is the weight of your
own emotional shadows that have not yet had a light shone on them. They
might be unprocessed feelings, negative thoughts, or fear -based attitudes
and personality traits. They are no dif ferent from the issues that other
people have, and it is important to remember that. All of us have wounds,
whether visible or invisible, and the love that heals one heals them all. What is unique to your situation is that for whatever reason, these
thoughts or feelings have become frozen within you and are not being
processed properly . Instead of your getting sad, let’ s say—going through
the sadness and then moving to the other side of it—your sadness is likely ,
for various reasons, to stay stuck within your mind. And then it gets stuck
within your body . You are failing to assimilate an experience and let it go. Emotionally and mentally , as well as physically , our systems must process
waste. It can feel at times as though our emotional sewage system is on the
blink. Painful experiences are not meant to linger . They are meant to teach us
what they need to teach us, and then dissolve into the realm of soft-focus
memory . Even bitterness in our past can transform into peaceful acceptance. With your system of psychological-waste removal on the blink, however ,
you’ve subconsciously tried to get rid of these thoughts and feelings by
eating them. If I can’ t process my sadness, per haps I can eat my sadness. If
I can ‘t process my anger , perhaps I can eat my anger . In the absence of an exit valve for what could be seen as your
psychological sewage, your unprocessed thoughts and feelings have
embedded themselves in your flesh— literally . They are the materialization
of dense, unprocessed ener gy that had nowhere else to go. Y ou are carrying
your burdens around—not only with you but on you. This course is a way
to release them to God. It’s not as though other people don’ t have unprocessed emotions; we all
do. In some of us, unprocessed pain expresses itself through taking drugs or
drinking; in others, through emotional outbursts; in still others, throughpromiscuous sex, and so forth. The form of dysfunction is not particularly
relevant; what matters is that we address the unprocessed suf fering behind
it. In order for your healing to be real and deep, you must be willing to be
real and deep with the issues you address here. No one else needs to know
what is revealed to you, unless you choose to share the information with a
trusted friend. This journey is a sacred one, in which you travel with God
through the secrets of your heart. Now let’ s begin to tear down the wall. There are only two categories of thoughts—those of love and those of
fear—and the only way to transcend fear is to replace it with love. For love
replaces fear the way that light replaces darkness. As you identify fear
thoughts and then surrender them to Divine Mind, love emer ges naturally . When thoughts that lead you to overeat are surrendered, then those that lead
you to wholesome eating come forth to take their place. The unprocessed fear will then leave your system, in time taking with it
the pounds of flesh it has produced. In bringing it into your conscious mind
and surrendering it to God, your fear and then your excess weight will be
transmuted and removed. In the past, you may simply have ignored or suppressed the thoughts,
feelings, and memories that caused you pain. By doing so, however , you
stopped a natural process by which such thoughts and feelings could be
transformed. The pain has been pushed into your flesh. Now you are
remembering that you can make another choice: you can look at your pain,
and then release it to One in Whose hands it will dissolve forever . And there is a dif ference between seeing an issue and surrendering it. It is
not enough to just see our issues; in order to activate spiritual power , we
must place them in God’ s hands. It is not enough to merely identify your
pain; the miracle comes when you pray that it be taken away . Saying, for instance, “I am so embarrassed about this or that situation,” is
not of itself a healing. T o pray , “Dear God, I am so embarrassed about that
situation. I place everything that happened and all my feelings about it in
Your hands. Please help me see it dif ferently .” That is a healing. What is placed on the altar is then altered; as you surrender a situation,
your thoughts about it are changed. Divine Mind comes into your worldly
thoughts from a thought system beyond your own, authorized to return youto grace and sanity . You can think of this as a divine intercession; this
course is a lesson plan in miraculous thinking as applied to your ef forts to
lose weight. God will remove the wall that surrounds you when you look at
each brick, own your thoughts and feelings that imbue that brick with such
addictive force, and then place it in His hands. Give to Him what you do not
want, and what you do not want will disappear . By recognizing what constitutes the wall around you, you will begin the
process of dismantling it. Return now to the words listed at the beginning of the chapter , which
represent the bricks in your wall. For each word, write down in your journal
what is true for you. Do not rush through this process. Be as detailed and
complete as you can, feeling free to go back to certain words after you’ve
already moved on to others. Allow yourself to look and to feel, and you will
ultimately understand. You are seeing already that these lessons ask a lot of you … in terms of
honesty with yourself, and in terms of time. And let’ s look at what that
means. If your problem were shallow , then perhaps shallow answers would
serve you. But this course is intended to meet you at the depth of your
suffering, which is to say that it invites you to dig deep into the actual
causes of your despair . Seek to be patient with yourself, yet honoring of
your true need. If you will avoid a sense of hurry , yet seek consistently to
address the issues that these lessons present—then your reward will be
great. This is a meaningful opportunity to see your light, by being courageous
enough to look at your darkness. Shame:  I am ashamed of ___________________. Perhaps you acted foolishly , and cringe to think that other people still
remember . …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my shame to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Anger:  I am angry at ___________________. Perhaps you feel unfairly treated, and have not released all your anger at
the meanness of others. Or perhaps you have not for given yourself for self-
sabotaging behavior in the past that af fects your life now . …Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my anger to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Fear:  I am afraid of ___________________. Perhaps you carry a secret fear of loss, of tragedy , and have not yet
learned to release it to God. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my fear to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Unforgiveness:  I haven’ t forgiven ___________________ for
___________________. Perhaps there is someone who betrayed your heart and you have not been
able to for give him or her yet. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my unfor giveness to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Judgment:  I judge ___________________ for
________________________________. Perhaps you think that others are behaving in ways they shouldn’ t, and
you think and/or speak of them in negative terms. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my judgmental thoughts to you. Please take them from me. Amen.”
Disdain:  I feel disdain for ___________________. Perhaps there are those who disagree with you, and you hold contempt
for their beliefs and actions. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my disdainful thoughts to you. Please take them from me. Amen.”
Excess responsibility:  I am r esponsible for
_________________________________. Perhaps you carry the burden of thinking you’re responsible for things
that are out of your control. …Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender all these things I must take care of to you. Please take it all and
make it right. Amen.”
Pressure:  I feel so pr essur ed about___________________. Perhaps you feel that at home, at work, as a spouse, as a friend, as an
employee, or as a parent, you’re carrying more pressure than you can stand. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender all this pressure to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Exhaustion:  I am exhausted because ___________________. Perhaps you feel physically , mentally , and emotionally so tired that you
can hardly stand to awaken some days. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my exhaustion to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Burden:  I am bur dened by ___________________. Perhaps you are carrying a pain in your heart that lies heavy upon you
and weighs you down. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my burden to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Stress:  I am str essed by ___________________. Perhaps the bills you owe, the responsibilities you carry , the needs of
your family , the demands of work, and so forth are a constant source of
stress. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my stress to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Heartbreak:  My heart is heavy because
_________________________________. Perhaps someone you love is ill, or has left you, or has died. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my heartache to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Injustice:  It isn’ t fair that I ___________________.Perhaps you were overlooked, or dissed, or thrown under the bus, or not
treated fairly . Or perhaps you cannot stand the injustice that is perpetrated
against others. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my sense of injustice to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Protection:  I feel I need pr otection fr om
_________________________________. Perhaps you feel there is a person or a condition that is a threat to your
well-being, that frightens you. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my fear to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Pride:  I am prideful when ___________________. Perhaps you lack humility when dealing with others, failing to listen to
them deeply or to admit when you’ve made a mistake. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my pride to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Selfishness:  I am selfish when ___________________. Perhaps you grab for what you want in life without thinking of the needs
of others. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my selfishness to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Jealousy:  I get jealous when ___________________. Perhaps you tear others down when you fear their success, not having
learned that blessing others and what they have is a way of manifesting the
same abundance in your own life. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my jealousy to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Greed:  I get gr eedy when ___________________. Perhaps you accumulate more than you need in life, giving no deference
to moderation, balance, or the needs of others. …Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my greed to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Laziness:  I am lazy when ___________________. Perhaps you fail to take responsibility for generating ener gy in a positive,
vital, and productive way . …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my laziness to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Separation:  I feel separate fr om ___________________. Perhaps there is a friend or family member or or ganization or community
from which you’ve been disconnected, leaving a pain in your heart. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my feeling of isolation to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Dishonesty:  I don’ t feel that I can be honest about
________________________________. Perhaps you carry a secret, something you don’ t feel you can safely tell
anyone. Perhaps it’ s a guilty secret, or something that you simply fear
others would judge you for . …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my dishonesty to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Arrogance:  I am better than ___________________. Perhaps you think you are smarter , better , more qualified, or more worthy
than someone else … perhaps you feel your sensitivity makes you superior . …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my arrogance to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Inferiority:  I feel not as good as ___________________. Perhaps you feel that others are smarter , better , more qualified, or more
worthy than you … perhaps you feel that your weight makes you inferior . …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my feelings that I am inferior to you. Please take them from me.Amen.”
Embarrassment:  I feel embarrassed because
_______________________________. Perhaps you have fallen down in some way in front of others … perhaps
your issues with weight have increased this embarrassment … perhaps your
spouse or children are embarrassed by your appearance. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my embarrassment to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Self-abnegation:  I have built this wall so that others won’ t hate me for
being beautiful and successful and seeming to have it all
___________________. Perhaps you have subconsciously chosen excess weight as a bar gaining
chip to win the approval of others, as though if you still have one big thing
you suf fer from, then you’re not so glorious as to of fend them. …
Do not go unconscious. W rite it all out. Then write, “Dear God, I
surrender my self-sabotaging to you. Please take it from me. Amen.”
Reflection and Prayer
Closing your eyes, see yourself standing in a golden light. See all the flesh you think of as excess weight as a brick wall that you
carry around. Looking closely at the wall, see that it is made up of your own
suffering and pain. Now ask God—in whatever form or image He appears to you—to walk
up to the wall with you. T ogether , the two of you begin to take down each
brick, one by one, and ultimately dismantle the wall. Explain to Him what
each brick means to you, then watch how whenever He touches a brick, it
crumbles. Do not rush away from this vision; rather , hold it for as long as you can. Spirit will illumine your understanding and give you the permission to feel
the pain that you’ve denied for so long. And the pain will begin to leave. …
Dear God,  
Please r emove the wall that I have built ar ound me. I have built it so str ong, 
dear God,  
that I cannot tear it down. I surr ender to Y ou 
every thought of separation,  
every feeling of fear , 
every unfor giving thought. Please, dear God,  
take this bur den 
from me for ever. Amen  
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 2
THIN YOU, MEET NOT-THIN YOU
Today’ s lesson involves your getting to know , and to love, the part of you
that overeats. There are parts of you the way there are parts of the color blue. There is
pastel blue, which is blue mixed with white. There is dark blue, which is
blue mixed with black. There is purplish blue, which is blue mixed with
red. All of them are blue, yet they are dif ferent hues of one color . The one
thing they have in common is blue itself. So it is with you. Like everyone, you are a multidimensional being. There
are many facets to you, all living together within your psyche. These
differing “selves” are part of a mosaic that makes up the entirety of who
you are. There is the you in which your basic identity is mixed with a healed heart
and high self-esteem; that’ s you when you’re happy , healthy , and
successful. And then there is the you in which your basic identity is mixed
with trauma and low self-worth; that’ s you when you’re neurotic,
compulsive, addictive, and so forth. What all these parts of you have in
common is you, manifesting in many dif ferent ways depending on a variety
of factors and experiences throughout your life. You might express beautifully , serenely , and lovingly in one aspect of
your personality; yet meanly , frantically , and fearfully in another . Everyone
is a mix of characteristics—few people are all perfect, or all imperfect. Y et
those places where we’re imperfect are not where we’re bad; they’re simply
where we’re wounded. And what has wounded us, in one way or another , is
fear itself.
_OceanofPDF.com_A_Course_In_Weight_Loss_-_Marianne_Williamson.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        OceanofPDF. comALSO BY MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
The Age of Miracles*  
A Return to Love  
A Woman’ s Worth 
Illuminata  
Emma & Mommy T alk to God  
Healing the Soul of America  
Illuminated Prayers  
Enchanted Love  
Everyday Grace  
The Gift of Change  
Miracle Car ds* 
A Year of Daily W isdom  Perpetual Calendar*
*Available from Hay House
Please visit:
Hay House USA: www. hayhouse. com ® 
Hay House Australia: www.
Marianne Williamson
Who is the author of this book?
To help the reader understand the spiritual aspects of weight loss and to provide a plan for healing and transformation
What is the primary focus of this book?
The author believes that diets and exercise are not a sustainable solution for weight loss, as they do not address the underlying emotional and psychological factors.
What is the author's opinion on the effectiveness of diets and exercise in achieving weight loss?
The author believes that "willpower" is not a sustainable solution for change, as it is not a natural part of who you are.
What is the author's perspective on the concept of "willpower"?