For the overeater , food is an area where a spirit of fear has infected the
nervous system in a particular area, like a virus in a bio-computer mixing
all the settings and causing a malfunction. In other areas of your life, youmight be competent and happy and successful. But when it comes to eating
—a fundamental ingredient of a healthy life—it’ s as though wires have
gotten crossed in your brain. What is unhealthy can seem good; what is
good can seem boring. When the brain reports something as comforting that
in fact is actually harmful, or the physical appetites crave what the body
knows it doesn’ t want, this confusion of signals is so deep that the rational
mind alone cannot fix it. Our lesson today involves the miraculous transformation of a certain part
of you—not through denial but through embrace. Y our lesson today
involves learning to love the not-thin you, for she is nothing other than a
product of fear; and fear , being the absence of love, is a call for love. A part
of you that is a manifestation of fear cannot be transformed by fear . Miracles arise only in the spirit of love. The way to transform a malfunction
is to treat it functionally . And your only true function is love. When you have surrendered yourself to the spirit of love, when you have
allowed Divine Mind to enter the innermost chambers of your heart, when
you have opened your eyes to the darkness within you and come at last
upon the light, then fear will dissolve. And as the spirit of fear dissolves
within your consciousness, love will heal you, body and soul. You’re you, whether you’re eating wisely or eating excessively . But when
you’re eating wisely , you’re expressing love for yourself. When you’re
eating excessively , you’re expressing fear . Love dissolves fear the way light
dissolves darkness. Fat cells will dissolve permanently  when they are
dissolved through the power of love. Any reaction to your not-thin self that is based on fear —judgment,
attack, self-criticism, self-loathing—will only keep your excess weight in
place. If the miracle you are seeking is the removal of excess weight, then
learning to love all aspects of yourself— even her —is your liberation. As counterintuitive as it sounds, it is your learning to love Not-Thin Y ou
that will cause this aspect of yourself to disappear . She didn’ t ask to be
here; she isn’ t comfortable here; she was summoned up, and summoned up
by you. As you make her your ally rather than your enemy , she will
disappear into the light of your true being. She is quite literally a
manifestation of a ghost, a mere twisted thought given form by your
subconscious mind. But before love, or ultimate reality , all that is nothing.Nothing… ? How can that be? How can this problem be nothing? And
herein lies the secret of miracles: that fear is as nothing before the power of
God. Love is ultimately real because it is divine; fear is ultimately unreal
because it is not. In the presence of God’ s love, illusions disappear . The physical eye perceives only physical reality , and physical reality
itself is but a dream of the mortal mind. Y our spiritual eye extends your
perception to the spiritual reality beyond the material world. And what you
see beyond this world, you have the power to draw into it. As you learn to
see your perfect self—knowing it is there because it exists in the mind of
God—your mortal world will come to reflect it. Developing your spiritual
eye is the key to your transformation, for in filling your eye with light,
darkness disappears. Your problem may be manifest on the level of the body , but it will be
solved on the level of spirit. Learning to think about your problem in
spiritual terms will lead you to its solution, because it will release the power
of your spirit to work on your behalf. As you learn to align your thinking
with spiritual truth, then you will enter a dimension where nothing but love
can touch you. Fear will be rendered inoperative, and your compulsion will
be gone. As powerful as your compulsion to overeat might be, it is powerless
before the power of the divine. The ener gies and experiences that led to the
development of your dysfunctional relationship with food are as nothing
befor e the will of God. As you claim the totality of who you really are, who
you really aren’ t will simply melt away . Today’ s lesson involves healing the relationship between the part of you
that eats wisely , and the part of you that eats dysfunctionally . They are not
two separate beings, but rather two aspects of one mind. They cannot be
separated by force, but only by love. These two facets of you manifest as Thin Y ou and Not-Thin Y ou. They
are ener getically as well as physically dif ferent. Thin Y ou is beautiful in a
21st-century kind of way , and therefore your conscious mind wants to
inhabit her . Not-Thin Y ou is beautiful as well, however , in an ancient kind
of way . There is nothing inherently or objectively unattractive about your
Not-Thin self, and that is important to realize. She is not ugly; she is simply
you with a coat on, and you would prefer to take it of f.To judge an aspect of yourself as ugly is to abuse yourself, and then you
might respond to your hurt by … let’ s say … grabbing something to eat. Obviously , this conflict keeps you in a chronic pattern of self-hate and self-
sabotage, kept under control at times but never fully healed. Y our desire is
to take of f your coat, not pile on another one. The purpose of this lesson is to support you in reconciling your
relationship with Not-Thin Y ou. She is not your enemy; she is an
unintegrated part of yourself. She is an aspect of you that is demanding to
be seen and heard. It is only in learning to love her that you’ll gain the
power to calm her down. Ironically , it was an ef fort to earn your love that
led her to excessively materialize to begin with! “I thought if I put this coat
on, I’d be big enough to get your attention.” And you have to admit, she has
gotten your attention. You are understandably ambivalent about developing a conscious
relationship with Not-Thin Y ou, as you fear that in honoring her , you will
be granting her permission to stay . Your natural inclination might be to
think that in embracing her , you will fortify her presence—how could it be
helpful to go towar d that which one is hoping will go away? Y et only by
embracing her , will you compel her to leave. It does feel odd that we should honor a part of ourselves that we do not
want, but Not-Thin Y ou will not go away until she is listened to. Y ou don’ t
want her physical manifestation, but you do want a message that she carries
with her . She is simply waiting for you to receive it and she can go. Once
she is accepted as the part of you that you have made a habit of disowning,
she will dissolve into the nothingness from whence she came. She will not
leave until you love yourself. All of yourself. Including her . Period. Does a parent love a troubled child less than the untroubled child? In
accepting Not-Thin Y ou, you are not accepting her weight; you are simply
accepting her. And in accepting her , you are accepting the totality of
yourself. As an aspect of yourself, Not-Thin Y ou longs for nothing more
than to be congruent with every other part of you. When she is accepted for
who she is, she will become who she truly  is. She will mer ge into the gestalt
of your highest-functioning self, which, among other things, inhabits your
physical body at its perfect weight. Once she is integrated into your higher
self, your higher self will step forward.Part of your inner conflict is that while your conscious mind feels a level
of disdain for Not-Thin Y ou, your subconscious mind feels quite at home
with her . On a subconscious level, you might feel more comfortable within
a larger body . There is something you allow  yourself when you are
manifesting as Not-Thin Y ou. At times she feels more like the “real” you. Consciously , you feel like Thin Y ou is the real you, while Not-Thin Y ou is
the imposter; but subconsciously , you feel like Not-Thin Y ou is the real you,
and Thin Y ou is the imposter . The experience everyone yearns for is love, and you have come to
experience eating as an act of self-love, even when you are eating unwisely . Even when you overeat—an act you know better than to think of as actual
self-love, given that it is inherently self-destructive—you experience
yourself as emotionally nourished, even if it’ s just for a moment. A
subconscious ef fort at self-love has turned into a chronic pattern of self-
hate. As you transform—as you learn to be fed love by love itself—you will
stop looking to food for what food cannot feed you. You will learn a new set of habits. When you are about to put something
into your mouth that you know is not healthy , either in quantity or quality ,
you will love yourself too much to continue: you will stop, take a deep
breath, and feel love enter your mouth instead. Love will travel down
through your throat and enter every cell of your being, healing it and
returning it to divine right order . This process will actually shrink your
stomach by building and repairing your system of physical appetites. Today you’ll begin a new relationship with a part of yourself you’ve kept
out of your heart. For in keeping her out of your heart, you’ve kept her on
your body . Until you do this, you will continue with what years of habit
have taught you to do with conflict: reach for food as someone else might
reach for a drink or a drug. Keeping at bay an entire dimension of your being has put you in a
terrible conflict, and in a dysfunctional ef fort to numb the pain of the
conflict, you’ve only created more of it. Y our pain is exacerbated by the fact
that other addictions can be kept secret, at least for a length of time. Y ours
cannot, which increases your self-loathing, which increases your conflict,
which increases your eating, which increases your weight, which increases
your suf fering … until a miracle frees you.This lesson establishes an honorable and honoring connection with a
particular aspect of yourself, Not-Thin Y ou, based not on disgust but on
appreciation. As you build this relationship, reintegrating an aspect of
yourself that clearly will not be denied anyway , then you will regain your
authority as ruler of yourself. What you do not love, you do not understand. And with what you do not understand, you cannot negotiate. Learning to love Not-Thin Y ou, bringing her back into the circle of your
compassion, you will gain dominion over your life. Love will harmonize
your internal kingdom. This aspect of you only appears as lar ge because she
feels you are not looking at her , and she is trying to tell you something. She
will not go away until she is accepted for who she is. Once she does feel
accepted back into your heart, she will automatically respond to your desire
that she manifest dif ferently . Metaphysically , this is called shape-shifting. Your goal is not to push her
out, but to let her in. At that point, having been psychically reintegrated into
your spirit, she will have no further need to manifest physically at all. Reflection and Prayer
If you’re angry at someone, then it’ s hard to just say , “I love you, I love
you,” and that’ s it, all is for given. Sometimes you have to express your
upset with that person before you can for give him or her . How can you
come to love Not-Thin Y ou if somewhere in your heart you feel disgust for
her? In A Course in Miracles,  it’s said that miracles are born of total
communication given and received. There’ s no point pretending that it’ s
easy to love Not-Thin Y ou, given how much pain, shame, fatigue, and self-
hatred she’ s caused you. Y ou might intellectually understand that she’ s a
manifestation of your thoughts, but that doesn’ t of itself make her go away . What you’re going to do now is initiate a dialogue with Not-Thin Y ou
based on honesty and transparency . A part of you has dissociated from
another part of you. That dissociation has led to a profound dysfunction, as
one part of you has acted against the interests of the other . It’s time to
integrate the dif ferent parts of yourself, in order to end the battle that’ s beenraging within you. It’ s time to write a couple of letters. It’ s time for peace
talks. Having asked Divine Mind to guide your process, settle into a relaxed
space. Now with your inner eye, see Not-Thin Y ou standing before you. Begin a dialogue with her . Open your heart and allow a process of
communication between these two aspects of yourself to unfold. Although the point is not to hate Not-Thin Y ou, you cannot get to love
without first acknowledging what stands before it. Y our work here is to
share your truth … to tell Not-Thin Y ou how you really feel … how you
feel she has ruined your happiness … how much you hate her even, if
indeed you do. Include the “I hate you, get out of my life” type of things. This letter is for no one’ s eyes but yours alone, but it is an important thing
to write. Y ou are not writing these things in order to attack Not-Thin Y ou,
but simply to communicate with her … to begin a dialogue that allows you
to surrender thoughts that are already there, but that if unexplored remain as
toxins in your system. By owning and articulating these thoughts and then
surrendering them to God, you will activate a chain of miracles. Once you have told your truth to Not-Thin Y ou and then allowed her to
respond, you will learn a very important truth: she does not stand before
you craving food; she stands before you craving love. As with the writing you did regarding the bricks in the wall, neither rush
through this process nor leave anything out. T ell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. Below is a letter expressing how a woman named Beatrice
communicated to her not-thin self:
Dear Fat Ass,
I know your lumps and bumps ar e mer ely a navigational r eminder of
wher e you have been, of the things that wer e out of your contr ol and
happened early on. When Bad Things Happen to Little Girls. All of that. The Story . The Events. But now , you are the Event. He no longer has
contr ol over what happens to you, Fatty . The double-cheese pizza and
nachos ar e no longer wher e it’s at. Y ou ar e her e. You can celebrate your
fierceness that was born with me, Skinny Y ou, long ago, when you stood
up and spit in his face. W ith push-ups and cute bras, that miracle of a
miniskirt that has been hanging in your closet since 1992, with bike ridesand mountain climbing and long swims in the sea. Not with the hourly
walk to the fridge to see what might make Fat Y ou feel better in the
middle of the night—he’ s not coming for you anymor e. You made sur e of
it years ago. W e did it together . Put down the fork and pick up the fight! Put the cheesebur ger down  and go for a hike in beautiful Hollywood! Walk the str eets and listen to your music, let Bob Dylan tell you how it is,
listen to Bono and let those hips subside! I’m her e! I’m waiting for you! It’s getting annoying, Fatty . The tir es belong on your car , not your
midsection. How can your spirit dwell pr oudly in an excess of 40
pounds? How can your dance moves come out to play if you can ‘t make
it for longer than two hours in those heels? I’m not mad at you. I’m just impatient. I want you to live your life fully ,
unapologetically , with your head up and your chin in singular . The
warrior you have so long sear ched for is right ther e, inside of you. I am
her. I am you. Let me take over . I’m str onger than he ever was. And I am
stronger than you. Say “Y es” to bikini summers and a long, radiant life. Say “No” to pasta and cake. Or , maybe … just take one bite. Love, always, in lar geness or a size 2, but come on  already! Skinny Beatrice Badass
Having completed your letter to Not-Thin Y ou, now allow her to write
you back. Allow her to tell you what she wants to say . Your subconscious
mind is delivering the messages you need to hear and the images you need
to see. Listen deeply , and write down what you feel is her truth. It’ s there. Beatrice continued:
Dear Skinny ,
F#*@ you. It’s not easy , sister . It’s a daily siege of sliding 180 pounds into jeans
that bar ely button. I know the answers. I’m having a har d time, okay? I
know I’m not r eally an elephant. W ithout this unflattering excess million
pounds of sadness and fear , all piled uncer emoniously on my ass, and
thighs, and belly , I am actually  a yogi acr obat. A lotus hovering thr ee feetoff the gr ound and spinning somersaults, while gracefully holding up
bills-gr oceries-car payments- life. But it just so happens that at the moment I am a large yogi, stuck on
planet Earth, in flats. Cartwheels ar e a distant dr eam. But … I hear you. I know he is gone. It’ s just taking me a minute (30 years long) to fully
know that, to fully know that his face is not the face of every man I meet
—that I do not need to r e-create him, that once was (mor e than) enough. This cellulite is my for ce field, my invisible shield, my insurance policy . Fat Ass = No Possibility of Getting Hurt. Not able to get into a beautiful
dress and r ock the dance floor means no evil jackass will have the
opportunity to get up in this beautiful mess and cause another hurricane,
another tornado, a volcanic siege. Alone in bed with Luda the Gr eatest Dog Ever to Live + Lar ge Pizza
with Extra Sausage and Cheese = Easy and Safe. Beautiful and Sexy
means Open for Hurt. Listen, Skinny Super hero. Give me a minute. I am getting ther e. I have
found the yoga studio, and ther e are avocados in the fridge. The sun is
shining today , and ther e is work to be done. I am dr eaming of one
hundr ed easy sit-ups and that beautiful sheer tank top with the flowers on
it. I’m in, okay? Jeez, you ar e a pain in the gigantic ass. But I love you for always being with(in) me. In solidarity of spirit, not thigh cir cumfer ence,  
Your Fat Self
Do not underestimate the power of writing these letters. Building this
relationship between Thin Y ou and Not-Thin Y ou is the beginning of your
reconciliation with a part of yourself that belongs inside, not outside, heart. As Not-Thin-Y ou begins to feel safe within your emotional embrace, she
will calm down, she will relax, and she will take of f her coat. Dear God,  
Please for give me  
if I have failed to love  every part of Y our cr eation. Open my eyes that I might see,  
soften my heart that I might love,  
open my mind that I might understand  
every aspect of myself. Heal my r elationship  
with all of me,  
that I might suffer no mor e 
such violence towar d myself. Please help me, for by myself I cannot win this war . Please lift me above the battlefield  
to the peace that lies beyond. Thank Y ou, God. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 3
BUILD YOUR ALTAR
In the T welve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, there is the notion of a
Higher Power , or God as you understand Him. And that is fine for our
purposes. It doesn’ t matter what you call it, as long as you call on it. The
point is not a name or a word or any religious doctrine or dogma. The point
is a spiritual principle that becomes a living reality , affecting both body and
soul: that a power greater than the mortal mind, in you but not of you, can
do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Consider what that means to you. Y ou might wish to use your journal
pages to write down your thoughts, take a minute to reflect on your spiritual
beliefs, or talk to friends or counselors about your ideas. This course is not
so much about your relationship to food as it is about your relationship to
your Creator . In healing your relationship to Him, you heal your
relationship to yourself; and in healing your relationship to yourself, you
heal your relationship to everything. Our goal is that you have a miracle. But a miracle comes from
somewhere; it emer ges not from your mortal mind but from the mind of
God. For the purposes of these 21 lessons, it will be helpful for you to
entertain the possibility that Divine Mind can miraculously heal you. That
is all you need do: be willing to consider the possibility that this is true. By
opening your mind to the possibility of a miracle, you pave the way for
your experience of one. You have tried many ways to end your food hell, from various food
programs to exercise to fasting to who-knows-what. Now I propose that you
try something you may or may not have tried before. I suggest that you
plant a mustard seed and let God’ s strength grow within you. “The kingdom
of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his
field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is lar ger than allthe garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13:31–32). I suggest you accept this fact: that you cannot beat this problem by
yourself. Y ou cannot stop. Y ou have no control over it. It is bigger than you
are. If you could have done this by yourself, you would have done so by
now. Your freedom lies in accepting  that which frightens you most: that you
are powerless to stop this problem, to fight it or to fix it … your compulsion
to eat excessively is stronger than you are … you are so tired of this war
you have fought against yourself that part of you would rather die than go
on. It’s time to surrender the struggle now . And how does that feel to you? Does it feel like a relief, or does it make
you nervous? “What? Surrender? As in, just give up?” you might say . “Are
you crazy? How can I give up?! If I give up, I will become truly obese! I
might even die! I’ll be out of control entirely!”
Yet aren’ t you out of control now? Exactly what part of you would guide
you to keep up  the fight? This voice that seems to be speaking to you with
such concern and wisdom, warning you to keep fighting—is that a power
that has proven ef fective at solving the problem? And if in fact it hasn’ t,
then isn’ t it time to fire it as your guide? Your salvation in this area lies not in resisting the truth of your
powerlessness before food, but rather in accepting it. For this acceptance
leads you straight into the arms of God, however you think of Him or
whatever you understand Him to be. Y ou realize, once you accept that your
problem is bigger than you are, that perhaps something else is bigger than
it. You are now at one of the most important crossroads of your life, as a
problem you have dealt with for a long time has reached a climax. Perhaps
you feel cornered now , as though you’ve tried everything and all your
efforts are spent. Having depended on your own strength to heal yourself,
you have ended up smack-dab back in the center of the wound. Y ou feel
checkmated by yourself and beaten by your own ego. All your ef forts have
been for nothing when confronted by the demonic power of your
compulsion to eat unwisely .Yet the very situation that has wounded you can now become that which
heals you, if you allow it to take you deep into the mystery of the soul’ s
dependence on the divine. Do not for get that while your wound is more
powerful than your conscious mind, God is more powerful than your
wound. I cannot, but God can! I cannot, but God can! becomes your mantra. And
in realizing that the power of your mortal self is small when compared to
the power of God, you will no longer need to “puf f yourself up” in an ef fort
to make yourself “big enough” to handle your problems. In fact, you will
discover the power of true humility , deferring to a power that is greater than
your own. God is big enough to handle your problems— so you need not be. It can feel almost personally insulting when you first see that your
personal part in making your life run smoothly is so small compared to His. Yet that is exactly the right relationship of mortal to Divine power . In order
to end your compulsive eating’ s reign of terror , you need a power that
actually moves through your brain, changes your nervous system, changes
your patterns and habits, changes your self-image, changes your thoughts
about food, changes your thoughts about your body; and a myriad of other
physical, emotional, and psychological factors. What worldly power could achieve such a total makeover? When you
accept the possibility that there might be another way—that perhaps a
miracle could  happen—then you permit your mind to experience one. Something you always intuited but were terrified to admit—that of yourself
you don’ t have what it takes to lose your weight and keep it of f permanently
—becomes a relief. Y ou don’ t, but God does. It is when you allow God to be bigger , that you will allow yourself to
become physically smaller . You will begin to give up your burdens when
you remember there is someone to give them to. The weight on your body is nothing compared to the weight on your
heart … the sadness, the shame, the despair , the weariness. Y et imagine, if
only for a moment, that there is a force in the universe that would take your
sorrow and shame and all the rest, and simply lift them from yourshoulders. Y ou are carrying burdens you were not meant to carry and do not
have to carry . Your weight is a burden you can now give over . You were
created to travel lightly on this planet, with the same sense of relaxed joy
that little children have. As soon as you lighten up your mind, your body
will lighten up as well. A small child living in a normal, healthy environment is free and relaxed
because he or she assumes that an adult is handling his or her needs. That is
meant to be a model for the development of our healthy relationship to the
divine. Y ou are meant to trust the universe like a child trusts an adult. If,
however , you came to feel as a child that your adult authority figures could
not be trusted, then you have had a harder time transitioning into a healthy
dependence on God. Y ou think you’re on your own and have to handle
everything by yourself. No wonder you feel heavy . …
Consequently , you have had a dif ficult time processing your emotions. You don’ t work through them; you hold on to them. Y ou try to stuf f them. Problems arise, both conscious and unconscious, and instead of giving them
up, you take them in. You subconsciously make your body a lar ger size in
order to contain your lar ge problems. Y ou try to create a big enough
container to carry all your issues, when you shouldn’ t be carrying all those
issues to begin with! Perhaps you are someone who feels a need to sabotage yourself when
things get too good. Perhaps you’ve made a subconscious decision that you
should allow yourself only this much success, or this much money , or this
much physical beauty or happiness. And why? It could be a lot of reasons:
perhaps you grew up afraid to break through barriers that your parents
didn’ t break through, or were ashamed of being successful when those
around you weren’ t, or were concerned that you’d lose someone’ s love or
approval if you dared to have the life you really wanted. It doesn’ t matter why your own invisible barrier exists, that point past
which the subconscious alarm starts blaring, “Uh-oh! T oo much good! T oo
much good! Y ou mustn’ t go there! Go back!” As in, go back into that
limited condition wher e you belong. Don’ t you dar e break fr ee. If you br eak
through that barrier , all hell will br eak loose! But in front of that barrier is
where hell in fact has already broken loose. …
An overwhelming ur ge to overeat reflects the hidden barrier you erected
within your mind; you are invited to cross that barrier now and to make arun for freedom. Imagine God Himself, in whatever form He appears to
you, walking up to the barrier and smashing it. It is the barrier itself that is
the root of your problem. It is not enough to control your appetite; true
healing involves dissolving the barrier , removing the false thinking that has
kept you bound. Let’s now ask God to free you of the mental limitations that exist within
you like petty tyrants. There is no way to surrender your weight without
surrendering your subconscious belief that you’re better of f weighing too
much. If you’re subconsciously convinced that being heavy is a safer  zone
than being thin, then of course your primal ur ge to protect yourself will
make sure you stay heavy . You’ll feel a subconscious need to sabotage your
greater good. Sometimes we’re tempted to cap our good, afraid that what happens
when the cap is removed is too chaotic, too frightening, too out of control. But the life we live at the behest of our control mechanisms—whether
expressed as an obsessive ur ge to eat or an obsessive refusal to eat—is the
life that is out of control. T rying to keep down your feelings, your
gorgeousness, your success, your life for ce, you are seeking to put a cap on
life itself. And this cannot be done. No matter how much you try to abort
the process, life happens. It will unfold beautifully , or it will unfold less
than beautifully . But it will unfold. And this is a good thing. For all that life ener gy coming at you is not a
threat, but a gift; it’ s not a curse, but a blessing. Y our alternative to trying to
cap what cannot be capped anyway is to allow  it, to stand before the
wellspring of life not seeking to tamp it down, but rather enjoying its
delights. The deeper delights you are seeking are not found in food, but
rather in living fully . Don’ t resist the flow of life; relax into the middle of it,
and marvel at the ever -unfolding miracle which is life itself. God knows
how to be God, and will show you—if you allow Him to—the
awesomeness of creation as it manifests in and through you. Spiritually , your wanting to lose weight is not a desire to become less of
yourself, but rather a desire to become more of your true self. And youremember who you truly are when you remember Who created you. By
reestablishing your right relationship to your Source, you reestablish your
right relationship to yourself—in mind and in body . You are a being both
created by love and at home in love. Y our deepest desire is not for food, but
for the experience of home. Y our deepest desire is not for food, but for love. Love is both the creator of the universe and the order of the universe. W e
vastly underestimate the seismic rupture caused by the slightest deviation
from love. Every moment of unconscious eating is a moment when you are
starving from a lack of healthy self-love, and struggling to find it elsewhere. Just as a child in the womb receives its nourishment directly from its
mother , so we are to receive our true nourishment directly from the divine. In reestablishing your relationship with your divine source, you will once
again receive divine nourishment. As your connection to love is repaired,
you’ll be freed from your compulsion to seek love from a source that only
dishes out self-hate. You were taught to be self-reliant, and of course that is a good thing. But
your dependence on God is not the abdication of responsibility; it is the
ultimate taking of responsibility . It doesn’ t make you less powerful to
acknowledge a Higher Power; it makes you more powerful, because it gives
you access to the power of faith. Faith is an aspect of consciousness; there is no such thing as a faithless
person. Right now , you have plenty of faith … faith that you’ll eat too
much, no matter what you do. Faith that you’ll never lose the weight and
really keep it of f. Faith that overeating is your only true friend, even though
you know it’ s anything but your friend. The real question is, do you have
more faith in the power of your problem or in the power of a miracle to
solve it? Let’s try tweaking your faith a bit here. Believe, even if only for just a
moment, that God will work a miracle in your life. T ry having faith in that. He will take away your inappropriate and excessive desires for food; He
will remove your false appetites and return your body to its natural wisdom;
He will restore your life to purpose and joy . And if you can’ t do that—if
you can’ t summon up the faith—then, if only for a moment, lean on mine. The problem is not that we’re not believers; most of us are. The problem
is that we too often keep our “belief” or even our “faith” separate from the
rest of our lives. As though spirituality is some separate corner of life,distinct from our bodies or relationships or work lives or any other practical
concerns. “God has enough to think about,” people often say , as though we
shouldn’ t bother Him with our petty problems. But there is no spot in the
universe that isn’ t filled, infused, permeated, and lifted up by the divine. Your Creator can’ t be left out, except in your thinking. And wherever He is
left out in your thinking, He can’ t help you. Let Him help you lose weight,
and He will. At about this point, your fear -mind might be starting to disparage these
lessons. In your overeating, fear has found in you a perversely comfortable
home, and it will not move out of its lair so easily . With every step forward,
it will try to lure you back. “This is nonsense.” “This can’ t work.” “God has
nothing to do with your weight.” Such are the kinds of ammunition it will
use to make sure that no matter what else you do, you will not give this
course a chance. For something in your thinking has begun to expand, and the spirit of
fear will have none of that. “Whoa, slow down!” fear will say . Or “This is a
waste of time.” Or the pseudointellectual one: “Faith isn’ t rational! ” Well,
neither is a loving embrace, but no one would doubt its power . Fear is a psychic tyrant that has no intention of letting its slave go free. It
will say whatever it needs to say to confuse your thinking and pervert your
appetites. It will always seek to preserve itself, and it doesn’ t mind your
being spiritual or religious as long as you don’ t actually apply it to your life
too much. It doesn’ t mind your going to church, as long as you are fat and
going to church. Y ou are to do what it says, how and when it says to do it. And nothing—not your best intentions, your willpower , or your self-
discipline—has the power to overrule its authority . Only God does. Let us increase your faith in that. The purpose of this lesson is to increase faith that a power greater than
yourself can miraculously free you from the chains that have bound you. We build an altar to the divine as a way to focus our thoughts on the divine. So you will now build a physical altar in your home, and a spiritual altar in
your mind. Fear already has an altar—it’ s called your kitchen. It has cabinets and a
refrigerator , drawers of packaged goods, and forks and knives and spoons.It has all those things, plus counters, a sink, and more. It is the headquarters
for many of your fears. Let us now establish another headquarters: a headquarters for love. With this lesson, your assignment is to create a place in your home that
will remind you that love, not fear , is the true power in your life. Every time
you visit your altar , it will fortify love’ s power in your mind. And the more
love fills your mind, the more miracles will fill your life. Look around you and consider what area of your home might best be
used for your altar . Your altar should both celebrate and support your
willingness to receive a miracle. Every time you pass it, your faith will be
fortified. Seated next to your altar should be a chair for reading inspirational
material, praying, and meditating. The altar should include a surface on
which to place beautiful or meaningful objects that remind you of Spirit. This book, of course … and pictures, holy books, statues, fresh flowers,
prayer beads, sacred objects … all are examples of appropriate items to be
placed upon your altar . As you go through this course—indeed, as you
move through the journey of your entire life—it would be good to make
your altar a continuous expression of your devotion to God. This dedicated
space reminds you to bow down to love and love only . And every time you
write in your journal, you should return it to your altar . “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
might” is the First Commandment … and why? Because it is the key to
right living. W e should focus on Divine W ill because if we don’ t, then our
focus will be given over to something else. That something else is neurosis,
pathology , compulsion, and fear . In our separation from the thoughts of
love, blind to the true source of our good, we look for love in all the wrong
places. That is idolatry . Perhaps eating has become a false idol for you. On any given day when you feel triggered, when you are deeply drawn to
the ritualistic dance of self-hatred that is overeating, you will have more
power to resist if on that day you have already experienced the power of
your altar … if you have already prayed and given thanks to God. For
having bowed consciously before the power of the divine, you will be far
less tempted to bow subconsciously before the power of your compulsion to
overeat. Having begun to build your altar to love, let’ s begin to tear down your
altar to fear . First, walk into your kitchen and pray that it be home to loveand love only . Dear God,  
I dedicate this r oom to Y ou. May only love pr evail her e. 
May fear have power no mor e, 
in my heart, in my body , or in my house. Amen
Also, there is a Native American tradition called “smudging” that you
might find useful. It involves gathering some sage and burning it over a
bowl—in this case, in your kitchen. Along with prayer , this herbal ritual
will help clear out your dysfunctional appetites. The two will purify the
room of compulsive ener gies still hanging in the air , the psychic leftovers of
one who used to bow like a slave before the altar to fear . That person is no
longer who you ar e. Even though the ghost of your former self might
appear to taunt you, do not let this scare you. Y ou have remembered what is
holy, and what is not holy can no longer hurt you. I suggest you rid your kitchen of all trigger foods, for they can still harm
you as long as you do not have the will to resist their temptation. If the
thought occurs to you that you are throwing away good food that costs real
money , remind yourself that too much unhealthy food could in fact cost you
your life. Fill your kitchen instead with colorful, nutritious foods; enlist
family and friends to help you in this process, if you need their support. Get
rid of all that is unhealthy , and make your kitchen a sacred place. Moving back to your new altar—your altar to the power of love—allow
yourself, while sitting before it, to imbibe the ener gies of Spirit. Books,
music, letter writing, pictures … anything that helps build the thought-
forms and feelings of a more beautiful life. Even books about food are fine,
as long as they are about wise and healthy eating. You might take the opportunity to expand your reading to a powerful set
of principles: the T welve Steps of Overeaters Anonymous (OA). Whether
you are an addict or a compulsive eater—who, while not addicted to a
specific food, is still unable to control your desire to eat excessively—the
principles of OA carry a universal wisdom that has saved the lives of
millions.The steps are universal adages that speak to anyone dealing with an
addiction, and the first three encapsulate the meaning of spiritual surrender:
that as an addict you must admit that you are powerless before your
problem, that only God is powerful enough to restore you to sanity , and that
as an addict you must turn your will and life over to the care of God as you
understand Him. Addiction represents the place where one’ s sanity is overruled. No matter
what you do—no matter how much you diet or exercise—as long as there is
that place in your brain where your sanity flips over like a breaker switch,
then even your best ef forts will seem for naught. This then makes your life
unmanageable. It is as though there is a place where you are always
rendered powerless, no matter how powerful you might be in other ways. Only you can say if you are an addict. Addiction is more than
compulsion: it demands abstinence from particular items (at least
temporarily), whether they be made of sugar , white flour , or refined
carbohydrates; or specific binge foods. Coming to terms with the idea that
you are an addict is a huge thing, and should be treated with proper respect. Respect for your grief over the pain you have already caused yourself. Respect for the disappointment you feel at knowing you must abstain from
certain substances in order to be free. Respect for the pain you are in now ,
as you allow yourself to open to many thoughts and feelings only now
beginning to surface. This is not a journey you should take alone. Perhaps you have a group of
like-minded friends who in suf fering what you have suf fered can share the
pain and power of this journey with you. A solitary path will only give
more power to fear , while walking this path with others will give it the
power and blessing of love. If you feel drawn to this course and want to
dive into it more deeply , perhaps you have friends who wish to practice the
lessons with you. Connecting deeply to other people is a connection to the
divine. Only the divine is more powerful than fear , rendering powerless that
which has rendered you powerless. Only Divine Mind can restore you to
your right mind. Every thought that you yourself can manage your
addiction, or get on top of it or make it go away , is a thought that will only
lead you in time straight back into your addictive behavior .That is why the message here is not “Don’ t think so much about food.”
The message is “Think more about God.” And that is why you are building
an altar . Through a powerful shift in your relationship to God, your
relationship with food will begin to shift as well. But turning your life over
to the divine is more than a kinda-sorta-sometimes thing. It is a full-throttle
willingness to let go of everything—every thought, every pattern, and every
desire—that blocks love from entering you and extending through you. It is
not enough to just transform some of your thoughts, or even your body . You’ll get free, and remain free, only if you are willing to transform your
life. You will now begin to see how problematic situations that have little or
nothing to do with food have everything  to do with food, if they represent
your blocks to love. It’ s a subtle but very powerful shift from turning a
particular situation over to God, to turning your entire life over to Him. Unless your entire life is turned over , and not just your excessive eating,
then your compulsion will always find fertile soil in which to grow back. Fear is like a thief with endless patience, casually circling your house in
the belief that you will ultimately be careless enough to leave one of the
doors unlocked. It will simply hide and wait. “It’ s okay . So what if you’ve
been eating and exercising so well for the last month. I’ll just wait till you
get stressed over that situation at work, and I’ll put some sugar in front of
you while you’re going through it.” It is that sly , that insidious, and that
vicious. Y our job is to post enough angels around your house that the thief
cannot get in. Reflection and Prayer
Closing your eyes, see your body infused with light. Every cell is filled
with a golden elixir poured forth from Divine Mind. Angels are gathered
around you as you allow yourself to release yourself fully into the field of
the divine. Hold this image for at least five minutes. Breathe out your burdens, and
breathe in love’ s miraculous power . See light pouring into your body . Continue to do this visualization, using it when any problem occurs to you.The point is to not just release your weight  to God, but to surrender
everything  to Him. And everything  includes your body . For a minimum of
five minutes, allow Divine Mind to have full and total access to your
physical self. The imagery that emer ges from this experience is the
beginning of a process by which fear ’s hold on your body imagery will be
fundamentally , and ultimately permanently , dismantled. When you walk to the kitchen, see Him walking with you. When you
take a bite, surrender it to Him. Even if you overeat, surrender the
experience to Spirit as you do so. “Dear God, I surrender this experience to
you. Amen.” Do not fight yourself. Simply cleave to God. God is not your judge but your healer . It’s not as though He’ s been
unaware of your patterns, or of your suf fering. He has simply been waiting
for this day , when you would invite Him to enter and to do what only He
can do. Dear God,  
My eyes have been opened to the natur e of my disease. I am powerless befor e food, and I r ealize that now . I surr ender to Y ou both my pain and my compulsion. Please do for me what I cannot do for myself. Dear God, please overpower my false appetites  
and cast out my fear . I thank Y ou for Y our love,  
which I know has blessed me. I thank Y ou for Y our blessing,
which I know will heal me. And may my healing, dear God,  
be of use to others  
in whatever way that Y ou dir ect. Amen
OceanofPDF .comLESSON 4
INVOKE THE REAL YOU
You have a physical set of eyes and a spiritual set of eyes. W ith your
physical eyes you see the material world, but there is more to life than the
material world. With your spiritual eyes, you see beyond appearances. Y ou see into the
realm of divine possibility , and by seeing  a new possibility , you gain the
power to invoke it. Instead of allowing appearances to determine what you
think is real, you can decide what you think is real; by doing so, you can
cause a change in what you see. Once you see who you really are, you will permit the real you to come
forth. This is neither theory nor theology . It’s neither symbol nor metaphor nor
hopeful fantasy . This lesson will be as real in your experience as you
choose it to be, and to the extent that it is real for you, its ef fects will be real
in your life. The real you is neither fat nor skinny . The real you is not a body at all,
but rather a spirit … an ener gy … an idea in the Mind of God. The real you
is a being of light, and therefore has no material density . As you align more
and more with this truth of your being, this higher reality will permeate all
aspects of your life. The mor e you identify with the light of your being, the
lighter you will feel. You will materialize a lighter body when you have a
more light-filled mind. Fear literally weighs you down, but love en-lightens you. Any subject,
energy, circumstance, thought, feeling, interpretation, perspective, goal,
substance, or relationship that fosters fear in you is something that feeds
your compulsion, because compulsion is your fallback position in the
presence of fear . The question is: What are you afraid of?The first answer that suggests itself is that you are afraid of being even
heavier , of never getting your eating under control, of never getting this
monkey of f your back and so forth. But beneath that fear is an even deeper
one. Y our deepest fear isn’ t of being fat; your deepest fear is of being thin. Your deepest fear is of being beautiful. For many people, compulsive eating is tied to a fear of sex and of being
sexy. In particular , the number of women whose excess weight can be
almost directly traced to sexual abuse is significant. When I was beautiful, I
was molested. Or, When I was beautiful, I was raped. Or, When I’m
beautiful, I don’ t know how to handle the sexual attention. Such thoughts
run rampant through the minds of many who are overweight, men as well as
women. If the idea of being skinny frightens you, there’ s no point trying to get rid
of what your subconscious mind has created as your security blanket. For
subconsciously , you will not let it go. There are many ways to hide, and
weight is one of them. Some people hide behind a wall of weight as a
refuge from the risk of inappropriate or even criminal sexual contact. If these dark shadows of sexuality lurk behind your fear of being thin,
then the way to disperse those shadows is not to deny your sexuality , but to
purify it of error . Sometimes that means for giving someone else, and
sometimes it means for giving yourself. Certainly feminism has helped empower women, the women’ s movement
has liberated us to actualize more of our human potential, and the modern
view of women has helped us right injustices like the subjugation and
oppression of females. At the same time, however , there are certain cultural
attitudes more endemic to former times that served us well, the absence of
which has left us exposed to ener gies no woman should be exposed to. Freedom  and license  are two very dif ferent words, and the sexual freedom
of the 1960s—while in many ways a wonderful form of liberation indeed—
carried with it, as most things do, some hidden potential for misuse. Modesty is not just some old-fashioned we-don’ t-need-this-anymore
value; it is a spiritual ener gy that dignifies and protects female sexuality
from both abuse by men and misuse by women. Casual sex is not just
wrong for some moralistic reason; it’ s wrong because it violates something
profound and extraordinary by cheapening its value. “Starting too young” is
not just wrong because of societal attitudes; it’ s wrong because the brain ofa young teenager (and certainly those younger than that) is not developed
enough, and the personality of that young of a person is not experienced
enough, to integrate such a powerful experience in the most meaningful
way. We have been left exposed over the last few decades to a hell-posing-
as-heaven of sexual license, leaving us feeling not so much liberated as
unprotected. Many walls were torn down that we then made subconscious
and dysfunctional ef forts to build back up. Packing on pounds is one of
them. As your fear is reduced, your body will reduce itself. When you no
longer fear the world so much, you will be more comfortable dwelling in it. Dwelling more comfortably in the world, you will begin to dwell more
comfortably in your own skin. And dwelling more comfortably in your own
skin, you will subconsciously create a more comfortable body . If you feel afraid of the world, you feel a perverse comfort in a body that
keeps the world at a distance. And that is where the real you comes in. The
real you loves the world and doesn’ t want  to keep it at a distance. Y ou are
here to love the world and for the world to love you. The real you doesn’ t
perceive that fact within a sexual context, but within a spiritual one. The
purity of your spirituality heals the toxicity of any sexual impurity in your
past. Your real self is eternally innocent and eternally chaste. Nothing you
have ever done and nothing that anyone has ever done to you  could make
imperfect what God created perfect. What God has created is both
changeless and forever . The goodness and purity of your essential self is
guaranteed for all time. And the more you make conscious contact with that
purity , the more quickly dysfunctional thoughts, toxic shame, and other
buried feelings that might have arisen from sexual violation will begin to
dissolve and disappear forever . In Divine Mind, you exist as a Divine image. And that is the truth of who
you are. That image has a twin within the physical world, and she is waiting
to be born. Her existence expresses itself as you at your healthiest, happiest,
and most creative. Y our body at its perfect shape and weight already exists
within Divine Mind, the realm of pure possibility , because all that is perfect
dwells in Divine possibility . Your perfect weight, as an expression of the
real you, is not just a vague hope dangling out in the universe somewhere—
rather , it is a Divine imprint gestating within you. As an overweight person,you have given birth to the body of your suf fering; it’ s time now to give
birth to the body of your joy . There is no wall around the real you, but that doesn’ t mean she is
unprotected. She is protected by a mantle of blessing. Her weight is down,
but her sexual ener gy reads “Don’ t even think about it” to anyone but
appropriate partners. Having for given herself and anyone who transgressed
against her , she has learned her lesson and healed her heart. There is no
need or subconscious ur ge to attract a similar situation again. Having been
herself reminded of her fundamental virtue, others are automatically
reminded of it as well when in her presence. Only those who are worthy
will come courting, and only those who are worthy will be invited into her
court. The real you is not afraid of being thin, because she knows the real world
is not a dangerous place and the real world is where she lives. The real
world is not material but spiritual. The real world is not chaotic or
licentious or violent or fearful; the real world is simply love. Your beauty—and every one of us is beautiful when we allow ourselves
to be—is a gift from God. It is a blessing bestowed upon you and meant to
emanate from you. It is not a source of shame or falsehood or illusion; it is a
source of joy and blessing. The world is not made better by your hiding out,
spiritually or physically . The same God who created roses created you. The
real you, like the rose itself, is naturally and unself-consciously beautiful. And the world is more beautiful because of it. A spiritual practice is your bridge back to the real you and to the real
world. Through prayer , meditation, for giveness, and compassion, you make
conscious contact with your spiritual self, your most beautiful self, and
hasten the process of your healing. As you allow Divine Mind access to your thinking, you allow it access to
your body as well. Spirit moves  things, including biological forces. And it
removes  things as well. W ith this lesson, you ask Divine Mind to remove
any fear you have of being who you really are. Learning to be comfortable
with your own magnificence—your own reality as a child of God—is the
goal of any spiritual quest, including this one. The real you is like a file in a computer that’ s not currently downloaded. It exists; it just hasn’ t been brought up on your screen yet. And that’ s
because it hasn’ t been chosen. Fear rather than love has been doing yourchoosing, but as you do the lessons in this course, you will begin to choose
differently . The more you align with the real you, the real you will make
more of your choices. And the real you will always choose love. The choice to eat wisely is not important simply because it leads to an
arguably more attractive you; it isn’ t important simply because it of fers the
possibility of a smaller dress size; it isn’ t even important simply because it’ s
healthier . It’s important because it’ s an act of love. It’ s a way that you feed
who you want to be—the healthier you, the more beautiful you, the more
comfortable you, the happier you. And what you feed, you will call forth. You are not truly feeding yourself when you eat excessively; in fact, you are
withholding sustenance from yourself when you overeat, for in so doing,
you are withholding love. One of the ways you love yourself is by permitting yourself to want what
you want. One of the reasons people consume anything  too much is because
they don’ t consume other things enough. You tend to take in too much
material substance when you are starving yourself of spiritual substance. Overeating is an act of spiritual starvation, and one of the things the
overeater often starves herself of is the natural right to dream. Invoking the
real you begins with expanding your imagination, allowing yourself to want
what you really want. Y ou have as much of a right to your dreams as does
anyone else. And if you won’ t let a thinner you live in your imagination,
then there’ s no way you’ll let her live in your body . Perhaps you have a picture of yourself when your weight was what you
want now , or you can get a picture from a book or magazine that represents
your desired look. Make sure, however , that if you do use an image of
another person, that you put a picture of your own face  on it—otherwise,
this exercise can be used to depress you rather than heal you. These lessons
are not about your wanting to be someone else; they’re about your learning
to manifest your own best self. And your best self has an appreciation for
the beauty of this world, including your own. Beauty and sensuality are
gifts of nature, and if anyone or anything has sullied them in your mind,
then it is time to heal that now .The sensual aspect of your body is a spiritual gift; experiencing it is part
of the glory of being human. Deep down, you want the experience of a
waistline; you want the experience of a lighter body . You want the
experience of self-love in its totality . It’s not just your right but also your purpose on Earth to become the
person you long to be. Y ou don’ t long to be a victim; you long to be good,
healthy , and creative. Y ou long to feel the fun of a fit body and the joy of
being able to run around with your children and grandchildren. Y ou long to
have a non-obsessive relationship with food, and you long to look in the
mirror and like what you see. No one but you is denying yourself these experiences, and your facing
that fact—that you are cruel to you, that you are withholding from you, that
you are harming you—is both horrifying and liberating to look squarely in
the eye. Have you bludgeoned yourself enough yet, do you think? Have you
figured out yet what you did to deserve this? And are you ready for a
miracle? Regardless of your weight, you might not have the build of a supermodel. And that’ s okay . When your body is toned and at a weight that is healthy
and right for you, it’ s beautiful. If you put a picture of a supermodel on your
refrigerator—with your face instead of hers—then that’ s fine. Y ou’re not
self-destructively setting your sights on an unrealistic goal; you’re simply
allowing your heart to own what it really wants. Your desire is a good thing, not an enemy . You’re not diminishing your
seriousness by celebrating your physicality . You’re not giving in to some
chauvinist fantasy by saying, “Y es, damn it, I want that!” Y ou’re not trying
to escape your life; you’re trying at last to claim your life! The more you embrace the image of a beautiful body and emotionally
permit yourself to desire one, the more your subconscious mind will make
one manifest. “I shouldn’ t want that,” “I can never have that,” or “I don’ t
want that anyway” is not the instruction your subconscious mind should be
receiving when you look at Beyoncé. Perhaps you carry ugly pictures in your head—pictures of a fat stomach,
huge thighs, a double chin, and so forth. These might be exaggerated and
distorted images and not how others even see you, but they have led to
negative self-talk that both attacks these images and reinforces them at the
same time. Now , by putting your face atop a picture of a beautiful body—whether or not it’ s even representative of your body type—you have the
chance to project the real you into the world, usurping an old, ugly self-
image and flooding your mind with a new , gorgeous one. You are not comparing and contrasting your body with that of a thin
person, leading only to the seesaw of alternating motivation and despair . You are not trying to be someone else; you are simply invoking the
archetype of the beautiful human form. Y ou are embracing the beauty that is
absolutely your divine right, every bit as much as it belongs to anyone else. Someone with a beautiful body is not revealing what is his or hers alone; he
or she is revealing an archetypal ener gy. You are invoking ener gy as an
absolute, an aspect of the divine within us all. Take any action that will further this process. Make copies of that picture
of your face atop a beautiful body and put them in various places around
your home. Make sure you put them on your refrigerator , a cabinet in your
kitchen, and your bathroom mirror . Make your kitchen and bedroom a
visual homage to these images. And do not for get to place the picture on
your altar . No matter what you think of these pictures on a conscious level,
or what those around you may think of them, they are imprinting
themselves on your subconscious mind. Every time you look at that picture, you’re inviting your inner thin person
to come forth. Y our “inner thin” doesn’ t represent a false value, a
superficial or shallow image created by fashion magazines just to taunt you. Your desire to be thin is a valid desire … the desire to be healthy , to be light
on your feet, to be comfortable in your skin, to have fun with clothes, to
enjoy your body , to be sensual, and to be free of compulsion. You have within you an internal guidance system. It is perfectly
calibrated to keep the systems of your body in working order . It guides your
breathing, brain functioning, digestion, and so forth. And when you were an
infant, it guided your hunger and desire for food. Y our guidance system in
this area has admittedly been knocked out of working order , but there is
nothing inherently permanent about this disorder . When your spiritual
guidance system  is back in order , your physical guidance system will fall
back into place as well. This might not happen immediately , but it will
happen. Manifesting your perfect weight is simply a natural result of
realigning with your true self.Remember: your beauty already exists in the mind of God, and the more
you claim it as already existing, the more quickly it will materialize. Y ou
have explored the zone of a heavier existence; now explore the zone of a
lighter one. Think of yourself as the most gor geous god or goddess, thin and
radiant. Get to know this aspect of yourself. Relate to your true self where
your true self resides: in the inner temple of your heart. And inevitably your
true self will come forth. Y our body today is a product of yesterday’ s
thinking; as your thoughts change today , your body will be dif ferent
tomorrow . Don’ t wait till she materializes before you relate to your truest self. Relate to her now . Inhabit her now . Write to her now . Go to your journal pages and write a letter to Thin Y ou, just as in Lesson
2 you wrote to Not-Thin Y ou. T ell her what you think of her , and if
necessary , why you’ve been scared of her . Then allow her to write back to you. Allow her to tell you what she
needs, in order to come forth. An example might be:
Dear Thin Me,
Well, I haven’ t seen you in so long that I don’ t even know for sur e if
you exist. I mean, I guess you exist as a possibility—if that’ s really an
existence. But you’r e not the body I see when I wake up each day , I know
that for sur e. And I think my life might be better if I didn’ t even hope to
ever see you. I don’ t know whether I should hate you or love you, but I
know in my heart that I wish I was you. I r eally do. For whatever it’ s worth, I’m sorry that I make it so har d for you. I understand that I’ve made it har d for you to appear , and that I have
done mor e to hurt you than you have done to hurt me. I wish I knew how
to be thin and stay thin, but I have had a serious pr oblem with my weight,
as you know , and I haven’ t been able to do any better than I have done. I am hoping that God will help me so I can allow you to come forth
and be the body I want. I give up any thoughts or feelings that make it
harder for you to happen, and I am praying for a miracle. Love,
MeAnd would she not write back something along this line:
Dear Not-Thin Me,
Whenever you ar e ready, I’ll be ther e.
Hopefully , I’ll see you soon. Love,
Me
Return your journal to the altar when you are done, and repeat the letter -
writing whenever you feel moved. The repetition will add devotional
energy to your process. Reflection and Prayer
With your eyes closed, see within the middle of your mind a little ball of
golden light. Now see within this light yourself as you are now . See your
body as it is now , your weight as it is now , your entire being as it is now . Now see a ball of light form within the center of your chest. W atch the
light expand into a golden glow that covers your entire body , ultimately
casting out the vision of your physical self. Now see within this light a new body begin to form: the body of your
true self, an image both radiant and divine. Ask Divine Mind to place
within you a visualization of your perfect self … giving … for giving …
caring … assured … whole … fearless … and filled with love. What does
that body look like? It might be someone who is very thin; it might be
someone who is not thin, but rather full-bodied yet healthy and toned. When you have acquired that kind of internal fullness, whatever it may be,
your external self cannot help but be beautiful. When Divine Mind places this image within you, it will fill your soul. It
will be like some astral, ener getic body that already exists. It has not yet
been downloaded into physical manifestation, but it exists in the spiritual
ethers. It exists in the realm of infinite possibility . It exists in the realm of
pure potential.
_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:

        For the overeater, food is an area where a spirit of fear has infected the
nervous system in a particular area, like a virus in a bio-computer mixing
all the settings and causing a malfunction. In other areas of your life, youmight be competent and happy and successful. But when it comes to eating
—a fundamental ingredient of a healthy life—it’ s as though wires have
gotten crossed in your brain. What is unhealthy can seem good; what is
good can seem boring. When the brain reports something as comforting that
in fact is actually harmful, or the physical appetites crave what the body
knows it doesn’ t want, this confusion of signals is so deep that the rational
mind alone cannot fix it. Our lesson today involves the miraculous transformation of a certain part
of you—not through denial but through embrace. Y our lesson today
involves learning to love the not-thin you, for she is nothing other than a
product of fear; and fear, being the absence of love, is a call for love. A part
of you that is a manifestation of fear cannot be transformed by fear. Miracles arise only in the spirit of love. The way to transform a malfunction
is to treat it functionally. And your only true function is love. When you have surrendered yourself to the spirit of love, when you have
allowed Divine Mind to enter the innermost chambers of your heart, when
you have opened your eyes to the darkness within you and come at last
upon the light, then fear will dissolve. And as the spirit of fear dissolves
within your consciousness, love will heal you, body and soul. You’re you, whether you’re eating wisely or eating excessively. But when
you’re eating wisely, you’re expressing love for yourself. When you’re
eating excessively, you’re expressing fear. Love dissolves fear the way light
dissolves darkness. Fat cells will dissolve permanently  when they are
dissolved through the power of love. Any reaction to your not-thin self that is based on fear —judgment,
attack, self-criticism, self-loathing—will only keep your excess weight in
place. If the miracle you are seeking is the removal of excess weight, then
learning to love all aspects of yourself— even her —is your liberation. As counterintuitive as it sounds, it is your learning to love Not-Thin Y ou
that will cause this aspect of yourself to disappear. She didn’ t ask to be
here; she isn’ t comfortable here; she was summoned up, and summoned up
by you. As you make her your ally rather than your enemy, she will
disappear into the light of your true being. She is quite literally a
manifestation of a ghost, a mere twisted thought given form by your
subconscious mind. But before love, or ultimate reality, all that is nothing. Nothing…. How can that be. How can this problem be nothing. And
herein lies the secret of miracles: that fear is as nothing before the power of
God. Love is ultimately real because it is divine; fear is ultimately unreal
because it is not. In the presence of God’ s love, illusions disappear. The physical eye perceives only physical reality, and physical reality
itself is but a dream of the mortal mind. Y our spiritual eye extends your
perception to the spiritual reality beyond the material world. And what you
see beyond this world, you have the power to draw into it. As you learn to
see your perfect self—knowing it is there because it exists in the mind of
God—your mortal world will come to reflect it. Developing your spiritual
eye is the key to your transformation, for in filling your eye with light,
darkness disappears. Your problem may be manifest on the level of the body, but it will be
solved on the level of spirit. Learning to think about your problem in
spiritual terms will lead you to its solution, because it will release the power
of your spirit to work on your behalf. As you learn to align your thinking
with spiritual truth, then you will enter a dimension where nothing but love
can touch you. Fear will be rendered inoperative, and your compulsion will
be gone. As powerful as your compulsion to overeat might be, it is powerless
before the power of the divine. The ener gies and experiences that led to the
development of your dysfunctional relationship with food are as nothing
befor e the will of God. As you claim the totality of who you really are, who
you really aren’ t will simply melt away. Today’ s lesson involves healing the relationship between the part of you
that eats wisely, and the part of you that eats dysfunctionally. They are not
two separate beings, but rather two aspects of one mind. They cannot be
separated by force, but only by love. These two facets of you manifest as Thin Y ou and Not-Thin Y ou. They
are ener getically as well as physically dif ferent. Thin Y ou is beautiful in a
21st-century kind of way, and therefore your conscious mind wants to
inhabit her. Not-Thin Y ou is beautiful as well, however, in an ancient kind
of way. There is nothing inherently or objectively unattractive about your
Not-Thin self, and that is important to realize. She is not ugly; she is simply
you with a coat on, and you would prefer to take it of f. To judge an aspect of yourself as ugly is to abuse yourself, and then you
might respond to your hurt by … let’ s say … grabbing something to eat. Obviously, this conflict keeps you in a chronic pattern of self-hate and self-
sabotage, kept under control at times but never fully healed. Y our desire is
to take of f your coat, not pile on another one. The purpose of this lesson is to support you in reconciling your
relationship with Not-Thin Y ou. She is not your enemy; she is an
unintegrated part of yourself. She is an aspect of you that is demanding to
be seen and heard. It is only in learning to love her that you’ll gain the
power to calm her down. Ironically, it was an ef fort to earn your love that
led her to excessively materialize to begin with. “I thought if I put this coat
on, I’d be big enough to get your attention. ” And you have to admit, she has
gotten your attention. You are understandably ambivalent about developing a conscious
relationship with Not-Thin Y ou, as you fear that in honoring her, you will
be granting her permission to stay. Your natural inclination might be to
think that in embracing her, you will fortify her presence—how could it be
helpful to go towar d that which one is hoping will go away. Y et only by
embracing her, will you compel her to leave. It does feel odd that we should honor a part of ourselves that we do not
want, but Not-Thin Y ou will not go away until she is listened to. Y ou don’ t
want her physical manifestation, but you do want a message that she carries
with her. She is simply waiting for you to receive it and she can go. Once
she is accepted as the part of you that you have made a habit of disowning,
she will dissolve into the nothingness from whence she came. She will not
leave until you love yourself. All of yourself. Including her. Period. Does a parent love a troubled child less than the untroubled child. In
accepting Not-Thin Y ou, you are not accepting her weight; you are simply
accepting her. And in accepting her, you are accepting the totality of
yourself. As an aspect of yourself, Not-Thin Y ou longs for nothing more
than to be congruent with every other part of you. When she is accepted for
who she is, she will become who she truly  is. She will mer ge into the gestalt
of your highest-functioning self, which, among other things, inhabits your
physical body at its perfect weight. Once she is integrated into your higher
self, your higher self will step forward. Part of your inner conflict is that while your conscious mind feels a level
of disdain for Not-Thin Y ou, your subconscious mind feels quite at home
with her. On a subconscious level, you might feel more comfortable within
a larger body. There is something you allow  yourself when you are
manifesting as Not-Thin Y ou. At times she feels more like the “real” you. Consciously, you feel like Thin Y ou is the real you, while Not-Thin Y ou is
the imposter; but subconsciously, you feel like Not-Thin Y ou is the real you,
and Thin Y ou is the imposter. The experience everyone yearns for is love, and you have come to
experience eating as an act of self-love, even when you are eating unwisely. Even when you overeat—an act you know better than to think of as actual
self-love, given that it is inherently self-destructive—you experience
yourself as emotionally nourished, even if it’ s just for a moment. A
subconscious ef fort at self-love has turned into a chronic pattern of self-
hate. As you transform—as you learn to be fed love by love itself—you will
stop looking to food for what food cannot feed you. You will learn a new set of habits. When you are about to put something
into your mouth that you know is not healthy, either in quantity or quality,
you will love yourself too much to continue: you will stop, take a deep
breath, and feel love enter your mouth instead. Love will travel down
through your throat and enter every cell of your being, healing it and
returning it to divine right order. This process will actually shrink your
stomach by building and repairing your system of physical appetites. Today you’ll begin a new relationship with a part of yourself you’ve kept
out of your heart. For in keeping her out of your heart, you’ve kept her on
your body. Until you do this, you will continue with what years of habit
have taught you to do with conflict: reach for food as someone else might
reach for a drink or a drug. Keeping at bay an entire dimension of your being has put you in a
terrible conflict, and in a dysfunctional ef fort to numb the pain of the
conflict, you’ve only created more of it. Y our pain is exacerbated by the fact
that other addictions can be kept secret, at least for a length of time. Y ours
cannot, which increases your self-loathing, which increases your conflict,
which increases your eating, which increases your weight, which increases
your suf fering … until a miracle frees you. This lesson establishes an honorable and honoring connection with a
particular aspect of yourself, Not-Thin Y ou, based not on disgust but on
appreciation. As you build this relationship, reintegrating an aspect of
yourself that clearly will not be denied anyway, then you will regain your
authority as ruler of yourself. What you do not love, you do not understand. And with what you do not understand, you cannot negotiate. Learning to love Not-Thin Y ou, bringing her back into the circle of your
compassion, you will gain dominion over your life. Love will harmonize
your internal kingdom. This aspect of you only appears as lar ge because she
feels you are not looking at her, and she is trying to tell you something. She
will not go away until she is accepted for who she is. Once she does feel
accepted back into your heart, she will automatically respond to your desire
that she manifest dif ferently. Metaphysically, this is called shape-shifting. Your goal is not to push her
out, but to let her in. At that point, having been psychically reintegrated into
your spirit, she will have no further need to manifest physically at all. Reflection and Prayer
If you’re angry at someone, then it’ s hard to just say, “I love you, I love
you,” and that’ s it, all is for given. Sometimes you have to express your
upset with that person before you can for give him or her. How can you
come to love Not-Thin Y ou if somewhere in your heart you feel disgust for
her. In A Course in Miracles,  it’s said that miracles are born of total
communication given and received. There’ s no point pretending that it’ s
easy to love Not-Thin Y ou, given how much pain, shame, fatigue, and self-
hatred she’ s caused you. Y ou might intellectually understand that she’ s a
manifestation of your thoughts, but that doesn’ t of itself make her go away. What you’re going to do now is initiate a dialogue with Not-Thin Y ou
based on honesty and transparency. A part of you has dissociated from
another part of you. That dissociation has led to a profound dysfunction, as
one part of you has acted against the interests of the other. It’s time to
integrate the dif ferent parts of yourself, in order to end the battle that’ s beenraging within you. It’ s time to write a couple of letters. It’ s time for peace
talks. Having asked Divine Mind to guide your process, settle into a relaxed
space. Now with your inner eye, see Not-Thin Y ou standing before you. Begin a dialogue with her. Open your heart and allow a process of
communication between these two aspects of yourself to unfold. Although the point is not to hate Not-Thin Y ou, you cannot get to love
without first acknowledging what stands before it. Y our work here is to
share your truth … to tell Not-Thin Y ou how you really feel … how you
feel she has ruined your happiness … how much you hate her even, if
indeed you do. Include the “I hate you, get out of my life” type of things. This letter is for no one’ s eyes but yours alone, but it is an important thing
to write. Y ou are not writing these things in order to attack Not-Thin Y ou,
but simply to communicate with her … to begin a dialogue that allows you
to surrender thoughts that are already there, but that if unexplored remain as
toxins in your system. By owning and articulating these thoughts and then
surrendering them to God, you will activate a chain of miracles. Once you have told your truth to Not-Thin Y ou and then allowed her to
respond, you will learn a very important truth: she does not stand before
you craving food; she stands before you craving love. As with the writing you did regarding the bricks in the wall, neither rush
through this process nor leave anything out. T ell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth. Below is a letter expressing how a woman named Beatrice
communicated to her not-thin self:
Dear Fat Ass,
I know your lumps and bumps ar e mer ely a navigational r eminder of
wher e you have been, of the things that wer e out of your contr ol and
happened early on. When Bad Things Happen to Little Girls. All of that. The Story. The Events. But now, you are the Event. He no longer has
contr ol over what happens to you, Fatty. The double-cheese pizza and
nachos ar e no longer wher e it’s at. Y ou ar e her e. You can celebrate your
fierceness that was born with me, Skinny Y ou, long ago, when you stood
up and spit in his face. W ith push-ups and cute bras, that miracle of a
miniskirt that has been hanging in your closet since 1992, with bike ridesand mountain climbing and long swims in the sea. Not with the hourly
walk to the fridge to see what might make Fat Y ou feel better in the
middle of the night—he’ s not coming for you anymor e. You made sur e of
it years ago. W e did it together. Put down the fork and pick up the fight. Put the cheesebur ger down  and go for a hike in beautiful Hollywood. Walk the str eets and listen to your music, let Bob Dylan tell you how it is,
listen to Bono and let those hips subside. I’m her e. I’m waiting for you. It’s getting annoying, Fatty. The tir es belong on your car, not your
midsection. How can your spirit dwell pr oudly in an excess of 40
pounds. How can your dance moves come out to play if you can ‘t make
it for longer than two hours in those heels. I’m not mad at you. I’m just impatient. I want you to live your life fully,
unapologetically, with your head up and your chin in singular. The
warrior you have so long sear ched for is right ther e, inside of you. I am
her. I am you. Let me take over. I’m str onger than he ever was. And I am
stronger than you. Say “Y es” to bikini summers and a long, radiant life. Say “No” to pasta and cake. Or, maybe … just take one bite. Love, always, in lar geness or a size 2, but come on  already. Skinny Beatrice Badass
Having completed your letter to Not-Thin Y ou, now allow her to write
you back. Allow her to tell you what she wants to say. Your subconscious
mind is delivering the messages you need to hear and the images you need
to see. Listen deeply, and write down what you feel is her truth. It’ s there. Beatrice continued:
Dear Skinny,
F#*@ you. It’s not easy, sister. It’s a daily siege of sliding 180 pounds into jeans
that bar ely button. I know the answers. I’m having a har d time, okay. I
know I’m not r eally an elephant. W ithout this unflattering excess million
pounds of sadness and fear, all piled uncer emoniously on my ass, and
thighs, and belly, I am actually  a yogi acr obat. A lotus hovering thr ee feetoff the gr ound and spinning somersaults, while gracefully holding up
bills-gr oceries-car payments- life. But it just so happens that at the moment I am a large yogi, stuck on
planet Earth, in flats. Cartwheels ar e a distant dr eam. But … I hear you. I know he is gone. It’ s just taking me a minute (30 years long) to fully
know that, to fully know that his face is not the face of every man I meet
—that I do not need to r e-create him, that once was (mor e than) enough. This cellulite is my for ce field, my invisible shield, my insurance policy. Fat Ass = No Possibility of Getting Hurt. Not able to get into a beautiful
dress and r ock the dance floor means no evil jackass will have the
opportunity to get up in this beautiful mess and cause another hurricane,
another tornado, a volcanic siege. Alone in bed with Luda the Gr eatest Dog Ever to Live + Lar ge Pizza
with Extra Sausage and Cheese = Easy and Safe. Beautiful and Sexy
means Open for Hurt. Listen, Skinny Super hero. Give me a minute. I am getting ther e. I have
found the yoga studio, and ther e are avocados in the fridge. The sun is
shining today, and ther e is work to be done. I am dr eaming of one
hundr ed easy sit-ups and that beautiful sheer tank top with the flowers on
it. I’m in, okay. Jeez, you ar e a pain in the gigantic ass. But I love you for always being with(in) me. In solidarity of spirit, not thigh cir cumfer ence,  
Your Fat Self
Do not underestimate the power of writing these letters. Building this
relationship between Thin Y ou and Not-Thin Y ou is the beginning of your
reconciliation with a part of yourself that belongs inside, not outside, heart. As Not-Thin-Y ou begins to feel safe within your emotional embrace, she
will calm down, she will relax, and she will take of f her coat. Dear God,  
Please for give me  
if I have failed to love  every part of Y our cr eation. Open my eyes that I might see,  
soften my heart that I might love,  
open my mind that I might understand  
every aspect of myself. Heal my r elationship  
with all of me,  
that I might suffer no mor e 
such violence towar d myself. Please help me, for by myself I cannot win this war. Please lift me above the battlefield  
to the peace that lies beyond. Thank Y ou, God. Amen
OceanofPDF. comLESSON 3
BUILD YOUR ALTAR
In the T welve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, there is the notion of a
Higher Power, or God as you understand Him. And that is fine for our
purposes. It doesn’ t matter what you call it, as long as you call on it. The
point is not a name or a word or any religious doctrine or dogma. The point
is a spiritual principle that becomes a living reality, affecting both body and
soul: that a power greater than the mortal mind, in you but not of you, can
do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Consider what that means to you. Y ou might wish to use your journal
pages to write down your thoughts, take a minute to reflect on your spiritual
beliefs, or talk to friends or counselors about your ideas. This course is not
so much about your relationship to food as it is about your relationship to
your Creator. In healing your relationship to Him, you heal your
relationship to yourself; and in healing your relationship to yourself, you
heal your relationship to everything. Our goal is that you have a miracle. But a miracle comes from
somewhere; it emer ges not from your mortal mind but from the mind of
God. For the purposes of these 21 lessons, it will be helpful for you to
entertain the possibility that Divine Mind can miraculously heal you. That
is all you need do: be willing to consider the possibility that this is true. By
opening your mind to the possibility of a miracle, you pave the way for
your experience of one. You have tried many ways to end your food hell, from various food
programs to exercise to fasting to who-knows-what. Now I propose that you
try something you may or may not have tried before. I suggest that you
plant a mustard seed and let God’ s strength grow within you. “The kingdom
of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his
field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is lar ger than allthe garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13:31–32). I suggest you accept this fact: that you cannot beat this problem by
yourself. Y ou cannot stop. Y ou have no control over it. It is bigger than you
are. If you could have done this by yourself, you would have done so by
now. Your freedom lies in accepting  that which frightens you most: that you
are powerless to stop this problem, to fight it or to fix it … your compulsion
to eat excessively is stronger than you are … you are so tired of this war
you have fought against yourself that part of you would rather die than go
on. It’s time to surrender the struggle now. And how does that feel to you. Does it feel like a relief, or does it make
you nervous. “What. Surrender. As in, just give up. ” you might say. “Are
you crazy. How can I give up. If I give up, I will become truly obese. I
might even die. I’ll be out of control entirely. ”
Yet aren’ t you out of control now. Exactly what part of you would guide
you to keep up  the fight. This voice that seems to be speaking to you with
such concern and wisdom, warning you to keep fighting—is that a power
that has proven ef fective at solving the problem. And if in fact it hasn’ t,
then isn’ t it time to fire it as your guide. Your salvation in this area lies not in resisting the truth of your
powerlessness before food, but rather in accepting it. For this acceptance
leads you straight into the arms of God, however you think of Him or
whatever you understand Him to be. Y ou realize, once you accept that your
problem is bigger than you are, that perhaps something else is bigger than
it. You are now at one of the most important crossroads of your life, as a
problem you have dealt with for a long time has reached a climax. Perhaps
you feel cornered now, as though you’ve tried everything and all your
efforts are spent. Having depended on your own strength to heal yourself,
you have ended up smack-dab back in the center of the wound. Y ou feel
checkmated by yourself and beaten by your own ego. All your ef forts have
been for nothing when confronted by the demonic power of your
compulsion to eat unwisely. Yet the very situation that has wounded you can now become that which
heals you, if you allow it to take you deep into the mystery of the soul’ s
dependence on the divine. Do not for get that while your wound is more
powerful than your conscious mind, God is more powerful than your
wound. I cannot, but God can.
The text states that the rational mind alone cannot fix the issue, and that the solution lies in embracing and loving the part of oneself that is manifesting as Not-Thin You.
According to the text, what is the main issue with trying to overcome overeating through denial or self-control?
The text suggests that the key is to treat this part with love and compassion, rather than judgment or self-criticism, and to accept that it is a manifestation of fear, which will dissolve in the presence of love.
What is the key to transforming the part of oneself that leads to overeating?
The author suggests writing a letter to Not-Thin You, acknowledging and accepting this part of oneself, and then allowing it to respond, which will lead to a miraculous transformation.
What is the author's advice for dealing with the desire to overeat?
The author emphasizes that it is not about controlling one's appetite, but rather about surrendering and allowing the power of love to guide and heal.
What is the author's view on the idea of controlling one's appetite?
The author argues that self-love and self-acceptance are essential to healing and transformation, and that it is not about self-acceptance of one's physical appearance, but rather about embracing and loving oneself as a whole, including all aspects.
What is the author's perspective on the concept of self-love and self-acceptance?