As we take steps to face and undo
what’ s blocking us from the joy that is our birthright, we finally  arrive in
the miracle, in the light. The way to come from split to unified desire is to see that the
problem is not out there, outsid e of our minds; we have to look inside. To illustrate this, let’s use the levels of mind map and insert all the
seeming proble ms of the world on the outer layer of the mind,
perception: floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, or tornadoes;
diseases like cancer , heart diseas e, or HIV; financial problems, economic
conditions around the world, poverty , and world hunger; terrorism; and
wars. We can fill in with anythin g we conceive of in our mind that we’ve
been conditione d to think of as a problem within time and space on any
scale or of any magnitude. It’s all out there on the screen. There seems to
be a myriad of external causes and external effects on the screen, but,
gently , the Holy Spirit keeps singing this song to the mind: “That’ s not
the reason why. The problem’ s not out there; you have to look inside.”
The Holy Spirit is not only telling us to look inside, but has also given us
the steps, the how to move throug h illusion and to find the solution. The
correction to this erroneous thought system can only happen in the mind. With Spirit’ s help, we can find the correction in our own minds, just like
Jesus did. He simply accepted the correction for every false belief. And
now Spirit is giving us a detailed roadmap. The way is made clear! Going Back to the Projector
How do we get to a peaceful perception of the world? By not judging. The less you judge anything in your life, the more it seems like you are
just watching a movie or theater play (sometimes with lots of good
acting going on!). Rather than being within the movie as a character
among other characters, you have the greater perspective of an observer . It’s only the ego that tries to separate out and thinks it knows the
motivations of all the characters , why they did certain things, and what
they were thinking. The ego is constantly reading meaning intoeverything. And whenever you see through fragmented perception and
try to analyze the characters , including your own, it gets very
complicated. In fact, it’s so complicated that you couldn’ t possibly see it
as just a dance of form. You can’t even enjoy the movie of life because
there’ s too much judgment going on. And part of that judgment is
control. The mind that has fallen asleep, has forgotten its Creator , and is
trying to control absolutely everything. It’s always showing up with an
agenda. It needs to back off the screen and make its way back to the
projector room. Through the miracle, you can experience that everything is thought. It all can merge and meld into holistic perception and awarenes s. When
that happens, it’s so peaceful; there are no parts to conflict and no parts
to defend and attack. Your perception becomes more and more unified in
the joy. Therefo re, things that others identify as problems and may even
apologize for, you don’t even notice; they are not in your awareness. This is how it goes with perception. It’s subjective. And it is through
facing your beliefs, allowing your emotions to come up, and becoming
more aware of your thoughts, you will find that your perceptions become
lighter . You are moving toward unified perception where your
experience is more and more one of peace and harmony . A Different Tool for Awakening to Joy
I am a huge fan of using movi es as helpful tools on the journey . I see
movies as modern-day parable s, and the journey can be quite fun. I
encourage you to explore your perception in every movie-watching
experience. A spiritual journey need not be cumbersome or tiring. Movies are an excellent way to watch your mind, to pay attentio n to
your emotions, and to help you discover what your unconscious beliefs
are. When you react emotionally to a movie, it’s the same dynamic as
when you react to people in your life. If you have issues with people, it’s
a projec tion of your mind. And it’s the same if you have react ions to a
movie—it’ s coming from a projection of your mind. Watching movies is
an enjoyable way to wake up and heal, compared to being in a difficult
family situation or in a confrontational relationship. W atching movies forhealing can help you get clear in those difficult situations faster . Being
aware of your state of mind, thoughts, and reactions while watching
movies accelera tes healing. It can be intense at first when you start to get
in touch  with emotions and belie fs, but it gives way to joy, and you open
up more to lasting peace, happiness, and contentment. Ultimately ,
movies can help guide you to enlightenment. The Spirit showed me techniques for watching movies in a new
way—not as entertainment or escapism, but as a way to allow intense
emotions to arise for healing. Movies can trigger memories that have
been repressed and denied. When these intense emotions come up for
you, pause the film so you can be present with whatever is arising for
healing in the moment. Welcome  the feelings so they can be released and
open up to a new perspective.Exercise: Enjoy the Show! Watch the Disney movie, The Kid. Even if you’ve seen this movie
before, it is guaranteed that with this new purpose, you will have a
deeply meaningful and healing experience. Remember that the
purpose of watching the movie is for healing the mind by releasing
unconscious beliefs. Hold this intention of using it for healing
clearly in your mind before you start the movie. A simple  prayer
can be helpful:  “Holy Spirit, I invite a new and healing experience,
watching this movie with You.” During the movie, watch your
emotions and anything that the scenarios or characters bring up
for you. Even if you experience discomfort, try not to distract away
from it. More than anything, be willing to stop the movie and feel
and observe your emotions  during intense scenes, attractive
scenarios, or moments when  you want to know or think you know
what will happen next. Give yourself permission to stop
investigating and just be with what is arising in awareness. Following your viewing of the movie, answer these questions
in your journal (you may use some of these questions for any
movie that you watch going forward):
1. Do you see how observing your different perceptions allows
you to identify certain emotions and maybe even beliefs? Write down the emotions and beliefs you identify . 2. Did you experience any triggers or upsets from seeing any
particular scenes or conversations in the movie? What were
they? 3. What were your general feelings and associations about
Russ as a character in the beginning of the movie? 4. Russ seems to have a lot of stress over keeping his self-
image. How might this relate to you? Do you attempt to
keep a good self-image in dif ferent situations?5. How did you feel when little Rusty confronted him about the
way his life ended up as a forty-year-old—that he had no
dog or girlfriend and that he does not fly planes? 6. Does this movie remind you of anything about your past
that you try to hide or might still be upset about? Write
down anything that feels unresolved. 7. There is a funny scene when Russ makes an attempt to
find safety in a sandwich. Are there situations when you feel
that your self-image begins to fail? What are the forms of
“safety” that you try to use to cover insecurities? 8. How does Russ’ s attachmen t to his false identity block him
from true love and happiness? 9. What enables Russ to let go of his false identity and step
into an experience of love? Release and Rest:  Take some quiet time to detach and let
emotions and ideas from the processing of the movie drop away . Open your mind to the Holy Spirit to wash away any remaining
feelings and relax into peace . Take your time; there is never any
rush. Peace in Spiritual Perception
The power of desire is the determ iner of your state of mind. You are now
in the early stage of changing your perception, which really means
changing your life toward the real experience of peace. Small steps can
lead to some big shifts in your awareness. It’s important to be vigilant
with your perception and the tendency to perceive upsetting things as
real problems. This is a process  of looking honestly at your mind while
allowing your heart’ s desire to be purified. The spiritual journey will culminate when you open up to spiritual
vision, the vision of Christ, which takes you beyond the body entirely ,
back into an awakened state. Spiritual vision is a vast experie nce. The
observer and the observed are one through healed, peaceful perception.When you perce ive the entire cosmos as unified and as neutral, you have
reached true perception. It’s like a happy movie that includes everything
and everyone. That’ s how you return to your Christ awaren ess. You
return first to this full and complete awareness that everything  is really
one, everything is the same, there are no differences. The purpose is to
see everything through the Holy Spirit’ s peaceful perspective or
interpretation. Therefore, “it is from your peace of mind that a peaceful
perception of the world arises.” In this perception, nothing is a struggle! “The miracle is a lesson in total perception.”Chapter 3
Fear
What if we knew that all the things that we do—all the plans, all the
busyness, as well as drama, bewilderment, despair , and conflict—are
chosen by a mind that is afraid of being present? This fear of being
present is disguised as many other fears. It can be fear of being alone,
fear of losing someone, fear of what other people think, fear of accidents
and catastrophes, or fear of threats, violence, and abuse, to mention a
few. Fear serves one egoic purpose: to keep us from feeling the
wonderment, the beauty , and the eternal calmness of the present
moment. The separate mind is untrained and unwilling to keep attentive
to the present since it is afraid of it. It is afraid of the Holy Spirit. The
reason for this may not be apparent. It believes the ego, and thus
separation from God, is real. It is attached to a tiny, imposter concept of
self that is not true or real. We have all felt fear; it is a universal
experience. It is an experience that exists in our minds but nevertheless,
because of projection, it always  seems to have external causes  and also
solutions, yet those solutions are never permanent. Fear locks us down. It
closes us up and isolates us from the world. Until questioned, it binds us
in a small and separate existenc e. Fear stems from a belief in a world of
duality . Once fear is questioned, it will no longer rule our minds, as my
friend Jenny learned through her experiences. Jenny’ s Example
I was br ought up in a family that went to an ecumenical chur ch. There was a deep belief in sin and guilt. For me, what sin was
always seemed strange, vague, and unclear . The teaching was
that we ar e all sinners. As a r esult, I had to r eally face the fear of
going to hell. One day , I sat on a stool in my r oom feelingbewilder ed, scar ed, and extr emely determined all at the same
time. The feeling was, “I have to follow my heart, and I have to
leave my chur ch.” And the belief in hell, which to that day had
been in the back of my mind, surfaced. The fear that I could
possibly go to hell was in the for efront. But I r esponded with,
“Okay , if I go to hell, I will still do this; I still want to follow my
heart. I have to.” And looking back at it now , I know that the fear
itself is what hell is. Facing this fear shook me to the cor e, and I could only sit
through it, allowing the fear to move thr ough. Y es, potentially I
would actually go to hell by this move, and if so, it would be
worth it; it would be my choice. I faced the deepest depr ession of
my life. I was in a dark tunnel, and one day I was at the end of it,
facing the back with no exit. Ther e was nothing else rising in fr ont
of me; it was like being stuck in the darkest part of a deep cave. A
friend, whom I trusted, called me that day . She asked if I wanted
to shar e how I was doing. I spoke about the darkness, and after
the call, I r ealized I had turned ar ound and was facing the way
out of the tunnel. Fr om then on, I could feel the possibility of light
and healing and I began to take steps towar d the light. Stepping out of Normal
On the spiritual journey , you will probably find that you will feel called
to make some changes in your life, like Jenny did. But becaus e of fear,
you may find many reasons not to make a move or even take a step. Even if you have some hesitatio n at first, when you feel ready , you will
find that it’s worth it to feel uncomfortable, to let go of your routines in
order to find all the joy of God’ s love that’s available. It can feel like a
solo journey at times because you have to go within to find the answers. At other times, companions show up to help you along the way . When I was in graduate school, I would take long walks in the
woods. During these walks, I’d ask myself, “What am I doing this for? Is
there a purpose for studying at university?” And the ego would rattle off,
“Yes, you need to have a degre e because you need to have a good job.Because if you want to have a relationship, you can’t be broke. This is
why you are here, and this is why you have been here for ten years. Just
keep at it, and we’ll get through this phase.” All of my reasons for being
there were fearful, based on my fear of consequences. Becoming aware  of this poor motivation for my life got me in touch
with a deep desire to open up to the guidance of Holy Spirit. I would ask,
“Why am I here? Am I afraid of something? Is there something driving
me to get all this education? Is there something pushing me from
underneath? Am I afraid of something besides what the world would call
a ‘fully engaged life?’” The more I took the questions inward, the more
Jesus was able to show me that it was freedom, peace, happiness, joy,
love, and intimacy that I wanted . He showed me that I had many beliefs
about what one has to do in this world to get those things. And it was
those beliefs that were driving me. He said: “If you listen to Me, I will
show you how to experience the things you want, through Me. In other
words, through listening and then following Me, it will come from the
inside of your mind. It won’ t come from any event or outcome in the
world.”
This turned me in the right direction. In the beginning, I was
astounded to see what a huge percentage of my actions were motivated
by the fear of consequences. It could have been tempting to judge myself
at that point, but I was determined not to do that. I was happy to discover
how plugged in to the fear of consequences I was. I was happy  to begin
to unplu g with Jesus and the Holy Spirit’ s help. I found that to be very
practical. It was something I could contemplate and ponder . I knew it
was going to be a big job. I knew I wasn’ t going to take a pill and wake
up the next day free of fear. I knew it would take contemplation and
mind training. But I had A Course in Miracles , and it was a great tool to
burrow deep into the mind. As I mentioned in the introduction, the mind can be directed by one
of two thought systems: either of fear or of love. The ego-thought system
produces fear. The Holy Spirit’ s thought system produces love. The ego
speaks first because it is impuls ive. It is usually very harsh and critical. And the voice of the Spirit has to wait patiently , and then, when your
mind is open, you can experience how He is there, unceasingly and very
gently reminding you of the truth of who you are. The ego wants you tobelieve in its thought system and tricks to keep you asleep and dreaming,
while the Spirit wants you to see your thoughts, your feelings, and your
beliefs so you can become aware  of them and start to loosen the bindings
that limit you. To know this simplifies things as you realize you can
choose which thought system to use. It is a decision in the mind. You will see that you are making decisions all along the way. You’re vacillating between two thought systems and between two
emotions, and there’ s got to be a way to bring an end to it. You can make
a choice. It is a matter of being  alert to which voice you will give your
attention. Whichever you give more attention to is the one that will
become stronger  in awareness. It’s very much like the old saying about
the black  and the white wolves in the mind: one represents fear, and the
other represents love. The question is: Which wolf will you feed? The Ring of Fear
In the explanation of the levels of mind in chapter 2, we saw that
underneath the gross perceptual world is a layer of emotion. A Course in
Miracles  calls this “the ring of fear.” This whole world—everything that
we perceive through the five senses—is built on unconscious fear. How
can this be? How does our fear translate into objects of time and space:
houses, buildings, streets, and people? By the power of our mind. The
mind simply can only see what it believes, which is why we need to
release false beliefs. In the end, the spiritual journey becomes all about
facing this unconscious fear. This is the transformation of the projected
world into peace. When we take steps inward on the way to discover peace and true
freedom, we first encounter the ring of fear, and it usually gets quite
intense. In addition to fear, all of our other emotions are right underneath
the far outer ring of perception as well. This means we really need to get
in touch with our emotions as a starting point. If we ever want  to reach
the point of truth deep within our minds, we need to engage the natural
process of allowing our emotions. The ego tries to control us by scaring
us with many hypothetical consequences, so we push down and suppress
all our emotions.Most of us weren’ t raised to get in touch with our emotions and
thoughts. Many of us, if we were feeling upset, angry , or belligerent,
were told, “Go to your room! ” or “You’re grounded!” The response
wasn’ t “Oh sweetie, tell me what you are thinking.” Your parents were
probably not Christlike psychot herapists filled with unconditio nal love
and positive regard. They proba bly didn’ t say, “Let’ s get in touch with
those thoughts underneath the fact that you just punched a hole in the
wall.” They said, “You are grounded! You will fix that hole in your wall,
and we’re taking  away your allowance.” We were usually met with a lot
of harshness when our emotions came up. There is a different way of relating with feelings, and when you
understand the metaphysics of the mind, you discover what’ s beyond
your perception down in the levels of mind. You can become much more
sensitive to what’ s underneath the surface. Sometimes in meditation if
you start to sink very deeply inward, a very surprising fear can come up,
and it will seem to come from nowhere. Y ou are getting in touch with the
darkness of the unconscious mind. This is fear that’s buried very deep. It
is the reason why a personal identity was made. The personal identity
was made to cover a very deep fear that you could be separate from God,
from everything, from your Self—that you could be alienated from your
Father and from oneness and be utterly lost. Mystics and saints have
often shared that they encounter this fear when they begin letting go of
their personal identity and they are coming closer to a merge with God. The stillness inside is so powerful that it can seem to burn up the “self.”
This is a huge threat to the ego, which is why it feels like a burning up or
dissolving. The fear-based ego-belief system  is based on having no safety in a
dark world of hurts and needs, and of believing in the reality of victims
and victimizers. This is so only because of an identification in the mind
with the self as the body . But how could we truly know of safety and
comfort except to identify with something real and true, something that
cannot die or change? Everyone who is asleep and dreaming in this world is actually
afraid of the Holy Spirit. This is so because even though people’ s lives
are not happy and fulfilled in time, there is a familiarity to linear time. The things and activities of linear time are believed to be safe, while theHoly Spirit is associated with the unknown and is something completely
different than anything in time. In the state of oneness, the mind is
naturally at peace. The first fear was the fall from grace. It was a
tremendous shift in mind, from loving, peaceful, and happy to terrifying
and frightening. So, each step that you take with the Holy Spirit will
have some reverberations of fear associated with it. Because even though
you are awakeni ng from a nightm are, the ego is afraid of this awakening. The ego is afraid that it will be annihilated, that it will cease to exist. When we perceive something fearful, we can always allow
ourselves to take a moment to pause rather than react. By taking a
moment to open our minds and invite Holy Spirit into our percep tion, we
invite a miraculo us shift in how we see things, and we can start to let go
of habitual reacting and conditioned behaviors. We open  up to
inspiration. The beauty of the journey to happiness and freedom is that we all
have the power to follow our inspiration and Spirit. We choose this and
no longe r live based on fear of consequences. Otherwise, how would we
ever get past this fear of love? We make a decision to no longer go for
the seem ingly prudent, safe choice based on our past learning. We decide
against the closed loop of the past and allow for the miracle, allow for
the inspiration.Exercise: Looking at Fear
When fear (or other negative, upsetting emotions) comes  up, you
can be alert to it. You can face it with a “bring it on” attitud e where
you’re actually happy that you’ve got something to work with since
releasing fear and doubt is really releasing the grip of a false
identity . This exercise has the potential to help you to deepen in
trust beyond desired results and outcomes—time-based  desires
and wishes that your sleepin g mind hopes to attain and achieve
because of the belief that they are safe and can of fer something of
value. Make sure that you have half an hour to an hour to yours elf. Choose a current life situation that brings up fear or maybe just
some anxiety or worry . It could be around losing a job or a
relationship, or it could be other fear-based issues around family
or friends. Fear can also be disguised as anger because there is
always fear underneath ange r. Try to be aware of other defenses
or self-concept s that may cover the feelings. Take a look at ideas
such as “I am a person who never gets worried, anxious, or
fearful. I am strong and competent. Nothing ever worries me.”
These may be cover-ups, and you may not yet be aware of a
deeper part of your mind that actually has a lot of fear or anxiety ,
which explains why the defense was built up in the first place. Keep this particular fearful life situation in awareness and
relax for a moment. You are now going to look inward, following
these steps. 1. In your journal, write down all your feelings and thoughts
about the situation. 2. Is there a certa in meaning and importance you have given
to this situation ? How are you perceiving the situation? How
does it affect your peace of mind? Close your eyes if it
helps you focus.3. Now take a moment and inquire on this very importa nt
question: Where do I believe my safety lies? Sit with this
question for a moment. Write down the thoughts that come
to mind . Make sure you don’t censor yourself or come up
with an answer that you belie ve is “right.” Allow yourself to
experience these thoughts as they reflect the beliefs that
you hold around safety . Then write down all your
associations to this fear until you feel complete. 4. Slowly read this list of possible fears:
fear of not having enough money
fear of not being a good enough father , mother , son,
brother , or sister
fear that I actually feel some misery inside and that it
will get worse
fear of my own anger or someone else’ s anger
fear of standing up for myself
fear of being tiny , small, and unimportant
fear that I don’t really know enough
fear of expressing myself, especially the love
fear of making a dramatic change in my relationship
fear that I might not “make it”
fear of losing special attention from others
fear of sexual intimacy
fear of touching others or being touched
fear of connecting and communicating with others
fear of attraction to certain people
fear that someone will reject me
fear of trusting
fear of facing the day when I wake upDo some of the items in the list relate to you? Take a
moment to first notice and then journal your reactions
and discomforts with these particular fears. 5. Take a few minutes to settle in and, using free association,
list additional fears that come to mind. Allow all your
thoughts and emotions around these fears to pour out in
your journal. 6. You are now going to relax and invite the Spirit to shift your
perception. Gently and prayerfully go over each fear and
say: “Holy Spirit, I hand this fear about 
 over to you.” Feel free to add, “Be
you in charge.” Take enough time to allow yourself to feel
the release for each one. Continue on with this handover
until you feel a calm and assuring restfulness. You may feel
that the fears are loosened from your mind or even gone! Fears Can Become Possibilities
Fear in the mind is nothing other than the ego actively attacking your
peace of mind. This means that you often experience a lot of attack
thoughts and doubt thoughts. In those moments, it’s important to be able
to face the fears  and really ask, “What am I afraid of?” When you are
able to see your fears and what’ s behind them, you can really get into the
strength of choosing to be with the Spirit and realizing there’ s nothing
that can threate n you at all. The fear does leave. I live a completely
fearless life because I allowed all the darkness to come up. I stopped
hiding and protecting it. I don’t use any kind of defense mechanisms. When you refuse to stuff it down and let it fully come up, it comes, and
you go back to the light in the present now . This is importan t in any situat ion where you want to know your
heart’ s calling and your way back to peace. You need to be very honest
with yourself and look at what you’re afraid to lose. When what you are
afraid of is seen, you will be in a space to tell the Holy Spirit, “Just show
me if it is Your will.” Your mind is now open to all possibilities and all
options. Then, from a place of feeling the joy and the peace, you caneasily access deeper inspiration. And you will be able to see a lot of
signs and symbols because the Holy Spirit doesn’ t just provide guidance;
He always provides the means to achieve it too! I join you in accepting the next steps in this journey . I encourage
you to follow your heart in the face of any fears that you may
experience. Our journey together is one of inspiration—of opening to all
that is possible with the Holy Spirit.Chapter 4
Guilt
There will be times when you feel resistance to the Holy Spirit, when the
ego says, “Stop! No! Stay away from my life.” Or it will say, “I will give
you some parts of my life, but I’m going to keep some to myself.” As we
listen to and follow the Holy Spirit, we become more and more willing
to give over all of our pictures, the whole film, to Him. Let’s zoom in on one of fear’s major derivatives: guilt. We all know
how it feels to have feelings of guilt and shame. Most of the time, we
associate feeling s of guilt and shame with something in form, something
we think we have done wrong, or something that we didn’ t do that was
expected of us, and we feel like we came up short. This shows us that
guilt always seems to be related  to behavior , whether it’s our behavior or
somebody else’ s behavior . By refusing to face the guilt of separation, we project this guilt,
which I call “ontological” guilt, onto many different things. We can feel
guilty about food. W e can feel guilty about sexuality , body image, or past
memories of behaviors. I have met people who have been in prison for
what the world would judge very shameful crimes. I have met people
who would look me in the eye and feel me out: “Can I expose a secret to
you? And will you still love me afterward?” Once they know that yes, I
will, then they tell me that they have killed somebody . Or they reveal
their deepest darkest secret, their hidden secret of what they find most
shameful, what they believe makes them a sinner , makes them unloving,
unlovable, and so forth. When someone exposes their guilt this way, I
stay with the presence of love and don’t judge whatever they did. And in
their exposing it, it is automatica lly handed over to the Holy Spirit. Their
first step of unveiling the ontological guilt has been taken. The ego wields guilt. That is why you reinforce a feeling of guilt
anytime you use the body or the world for the ego’s purposes. The ego’spurpose could be possessiveness or “getting.” It can be to defen d, attack,
compete, or use the body for pride or pleasure. The guilt is not inherent
in anything. It’s only the purpose we give to things that determines
whether we feel guilt or peace. The purpose we give to anything can
either reinforce  the separation or it can be used for healing and
forgiveness. Let’s take the example of food. Food is generall y a huge
target for the projection of a lot of guilt. The truth is that deep-down,
people don’t feel guilty around  fatty or sugary foods, even though the
nutritionists tell us not to eat these foods. Even brands play on our guilt
by marketing products as “guilty pleasures,” “guiltily delicious,” and
“sinfully delicious.” But there aren’ t good foods and bad foods. There
isn’t anything wrong with ice creams or cookies, sweets or meats. We
should not feel guilty about eating certain foods. The belief in guilt is in
the mind . There  is no guilt in the foods, nor can eating them cause any
guilt at all, although it sometimes seems to get projected that way. Like
with anything else, we can open  up to Spirit’ s guidance around  what to
eat. It is the Holy Spirit’s task to purify the mind. You need to let Him
reinterpret every thing that the ego made, including the body . This is not
something that you can try to skip over; there is going to be a lot of guilt
that will come up as you relate in this world. Along the spiritual journey ,
the ego defense mechanisms attempt to minimize fear and guilt without
actually letting them go. Instead , the ego minimizes the fear and guilt to
the point of being tolerable—so that you will keep them! The ego-
thought system does not want to get rid of them, so it acts ingeniously:
minimize the intensity to keep you trapped. It is as if you were forced to
agree to drink a cup of lethal poison but were granted one wish of
deciding how you would drink it. Your wish was to mix the poison with
the ocean first, let it blend in, and then you fill your cup. That is what the
ego is doing; it lets you dilute the poison before you drink it. It dilutes
the guilt so it gets unrecognizable and acceptable to the sleeping mind. But diluted poison is still poison, although it’ s harder to recognize. The Origin of GuiltGuilt is the feeling that something has gone wrong. The mind gets
fixated on it, gripping something that is not loving, but how do you
become aware of and release this feeling of wrongness? Guilt is also associated with linear time. Projection and guilt are the
“making” of time, for without those, there is only timeless eternity ,
where all is one. Because the ego invented linear time, it tells you that
you were guilty in the past, that there has been much wrongdoing in the
past, and that the present moment is nothing or insignificant. It rolls over
or skips  the present moment where the answer of peace is and moves
into the future, making us believe that the future will be the same as the
past. This guilt comes from way down inside. It originates in believing
that we are separate from God. The ego-thought system uses linear time
to keep the mind trapped in guilt, and then it maintains the guilt by the
repetition of this same mistake of separation, over and over again. But it
is all a big trick to keep you feeling you have done something wrong. In this way, guilt has nothing to do with behaviors. Guilt gets
generated from the core split in the mind (see the levels of mind
discussion in chapter 2), not from things in the world, although it is
immediately projected out as the world of form. This means that the
experience of guilt is solely a result of the purpose the ego gives to
things. Most people are not consciously aware of this, so no matter how
much we try to change behavior , guilt is still there. The belief in hell, the
devil, or some dark force separates the mind from the experience of
being one with God. Metaphysi cally , it is our own guilt that projects the
whole idea of an external dark force or hell. Since the ego believes in
opposites and is scared of God and love, it makes up ideas such as hell,
the devil, and sin. It is as if the ego is using what should be the most
sacred to scare the mind with opposite ideas. For example, Christianity
in its core is pure. It is supposed to lead people into God. Jesus’ s pure
teachings—present in mystical Christianity , Gnosticism, and The
Urantia Book IV—are all about that. And the ego seems to take what is
the purest and make it dark to scare people. This separation guilt is all
unconscious. Most people don’t come home from an emotionally bad
day and tell their partner , “Dammit, it’s that belief I’ve separa ted from
God; I’ve been acting it out all day.” We don’t get into traffic and say:
“That guy tried to cut me off! Ah…separation from God again!” Andthen we don’t eat lunch and say, “Oh, I overate; I feel bloated…ahhh…
separation from God.” This separation from God arises, and we feel so
guilty . But we don’t go throug h the day consciously thinking that we
have separated from God. We are not aware that this separation is our
only problem, nor are we askin g ourselves why we keep playing this
game. We are not aware that it’s ontological guilt that’s causing all the
specific problems. In attem pting to fix our life or to heal, we mistakenly focus very
strongly on specifics. The mind gets tangled and complicated; that’s why
we can work with a psychotherapist for years and make very little
headway—because we focus on the wrong thing. It is like rearranging
the deck chairs on the Titanic  while the ship is going down. As long as
we have guilt coming up, there  is a deep fear of love way down in the
mind. Whether we’re aware of it or not, there is a tremendous terror of
love. Of course, it’s the ego’s terror , and as long as we’re identified with
the ego, we’ll feel its emotions. W e’ll feel the ego’ s guilt. How Ego Wields Guilt to Keep Us Trapped
We need to disidentify from the ego, to expose it, and show its
nothingness. Once we are disidentified from the ego, we are free of guilt
forever . So how is the ego maintaining guilt? What are its tricks at the
bottom of the mind where the guilt actually occurs? There is a lot of guilt in the mind. The ego has it wired that way for
a reason: to keep us trapped in a small self-concept that is very limited
and experientially very far from our true Self. The way it does this is
through memories, conditioning, and anticipation. We just keep having
certain memories and experiencing events that reinforce the guilt over
and over again. This is because guilt is wired to behaviors. But no matter
how much we try to behave and be a good little boy or girl and no matter
how old we get, because of the guilt, we still seem to mess up. And we
still seem to have behaviors that we associate with guilt. It seems like we
are caught with our leg in a trap, and we can’t get out of it because the
guilt just recirculates and recycles through the memories and theconditioning. And our anticipation that this is just the way it is keeps
projecting the guilt out onto the future, and so we keep experiencing it. There is a line in A Cours e in Miracles  that says, “For you must
learn that guilt is always totall y insane, and has no reason.” That is a
pretty clear teaching from Jesus: there is no reason for guilt. Another line
says, “All anger  is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel
guilty .” I call this the unholy trinity: guilt, fear, and anger . They are
coming from the ego belief system in an attempt to project. It’s a
dynamic where, if you get angry enough, somebody is supposed  to admit
guilt or feel bad. It’s all an egoic attempt to not look at our own guilt,
which actually only maintains our guilt and anger . My great suggestion
is that when you have those emotions arising, do not buy in to ego
justifications or rationalizations for them or look for causes in the world
to blame. You can never fully know the bigger picture of mind while the
ego is believed to be real. We can only feel angry , guilty , or afraid while we still have  the
belief of separation active in our mind. All guilt arises from the attempt
to think apart from how God thinks. God is love and the illusion of guilt
can only come from having thoughts that aren’ t of God. They must be
ego thoughts because that’s the belief in separation from God. A Course
in Miracles states that guilt feelings are just a sign that we don’t know
that God Himse lf orders our thoughts and that we believe we can think
apart from Him. How does this relate to all the problems we see in the world? To
believe you can think apart from God is “the authority problem.” It’s
believing you can author yourself. So, the authority problem is a
question of authorship: Am I the author of me, or is God the author of
me? Am I as God created me, as Spirit, or can I make myself something
other than Spirit : flesh, separate, tiny, and little? It happens in the mind,
but it gets projected to form. It plays out when children have problems
with parents. Think about two-year -old children and the first “No!”
coming toward Mom or Dad. You know how it goes when the teen years
come, parents get authoritative:  “You are drinking; we’re going to give
you a curfew; we’re taking away your driving privileges.” The war may
start against parents and transfer to classmates and teachers, and then, as
the young adult grows up, there are authority issues with police officers,politicians, lawyers, and bosses. It goes on and on. It’s all a projection of
the initial authority issue, of thinking we are the author of our self. Guilt and judgment always go together . We judge because we feel
guilty . But where does the guilt come from? Where does that deep
ontological feeling of wrongness, of separation, come from? Not the
personal guilt of I, personally , am unworthy or I’m not good  enough,
which most people deal with for their entire lifespan. I mean that
fundamental feeling of wrongness, that something has gone dramatically
wrong, that all this fragmentatio n wasn’ t meant to be—the core guilt. It
comes from the belief that you can order your own thoughts, that you
can judge. It’s misusing the power of your mind. It’s like sayin g, “Hey ,
I’m in time and space now, and I can do any damn well thing I want to
do here. I’ve got my currency to spend. I’ve got my time to spend.”
Giving this power to ego is almost like giving a small child a credit card
and saying, “Go at it! Go have  some fun with that credit card and do
whatever you want with it. I don’t care!” Ego believes this time is yours,
it’s a currency to spend between birth and death, and you can do
whatever you want. And, wow! Look at the variety that’s involved with
that, if you consider all the years, the centuries that this has been going
on, and all the different ways an individual life is spent: as a Roman
centurion, as a prostitute, as a governor , as an athlete, as an of fice worker
or doctor , as a husband or wife, as a nurse or carpenter or whatever . There are all kinds of combinations. It’ s almost like the new age teaching
you might have seen: “Crea te your own reality .” That’ s what’ s
underneath this: the belief that you’ve got a menu in time and space, and
you can pick and choose and select from all the different possibilities, all
the images, and make a conglomerate, a synthetic personal self. With a sense of these dynamic s that go on in the mind, you can
learn, not to stop judging, but to let the Holy Spirit judge for you. The
Holy Spirit, Who knows us as we truly are, judges every one and
everything as innocent. We can refer to the Biblical expression: judge
not, lest you be judged. That was spoken by Jesus two thousa nd years
ago. Do you know anyone who has been able to completely follow these
words?Returning Home to Our Father
Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son, where one son left after asking
for his inherita nce. Off he went and used his entire inheritance for
riotous living until he had nothing, until he was hungry , until his only job
was feeding the pigs and he was eating the husks. And after some time,
he said, “Even my father ’s servants have more than me. Maybe I should
go back.” And he went back in shame; he went back in guilt. He went
back with his head bowed low . But before he even got close to home, his father came running
down the road, running to welcome, running to celebrate. In the same
way, our shame, guilt, and believed wrongdoings are met with open
arms. The father can only see the son’s innocence, so he celebrates with
a party , by killing a fatted calf. And then the other son, the dutiful son,
the son that tried to play it safe and do all the right things, sees the
condemned brother come back. He says, “What is happening here? A
party? I have stayed here dutifully by your side all along and not once
have you killed a calf for me. This wanderer , this betrayer , this weak one
who blew it all, you welcome him back and have a party?” The dutiful
one is angry . And the father says to him, “Dear son, all that I have is
yours; it has always been yours. But your brother , my son, he was lost,
and now he is found.” There is nothing more important than to be found,
to find our true inheritance again,  regardless of what seemed to happen
when we were lost. This second chance is the olive branch that is there for all of us. God is saying, “Just take the olive branch, just take the branch of peace.”
This realization is what the second coming of the Christ means . It’s our
Self-realization. When the awareness of our true Self dawns—the
knowledge that all is forgiven and that we are one in God where  we have
always been—we know that we are nothing but mind. This mind is
whole and complete. It never dreamed of fear, loss, and separation. It is
free and happy in God. It is guiltless—innocent!Exercise: Looking at Guilt—From Blame to Innocence
To listen to a recorded version of this exercise, go to
http://www .newharbinger .com/41870 . (There are a host of other
materials available for download there. See the very back of this
book for more information.) Sometimes we really want to be right about a situat ion. Whenever the pain of guilt or the desire to be right arises,
remember that if you yield to it, you are deciding against your
happiness, and you will not learn how to be happy . In this two-part exercise, you are going to use a situation to
look closely at your experie nces of blame and guilt and move
toward the release of them. Acknowledge and invite the presence
of Spirit, your higher power , to guide your mind through this
process. Part 1:  Exploring the Feelings of Blame and Guilt
Identify a person you blam e for hurting you. In your journal,
answer the following questions:
1. What do you blame this person for? 2. Why do you think they are guilty? 3. How are you maintaining the story that they are guilty in
your mind? 4. In this situation, what do you think you did that you regret or
feel guilty about? Prayer for Release from Guilt
I ask you for help, Holy Spirit, to see myself and my friend as
you created us. I cannot do this alone, so I ask that Y ou be with me now .I want to be happy . Holy Spirit, help me to decide for peace. I give this situation or relationship over to Y ou. I trust that Y ou
will guide me in the way ahead. Peace of mind is a present decision, which I gratefully choose
right now! Blame and guilt only seemed possible because I was
determined to hold on to a false belief about who I am and who
my friend is. I let go of the meaning I gave to the situation and open my
mind to the present—absolved and innocent. I am grateful for the realization that the cause of my upset,
which I thought was in the world, was actually only an
unquestioned belief and decision in my mind. I have decided anew for my peace of mind. Part 2:  Innocence
Stay with the same person and situation. You and they have a
shared identity  in God as perfect innocence. Spend a moment
and reflect on this. When you’re ready , answer the following
questions in your journal:
1. Do you feel this person deserves to be innocent? Why or
why not? 2. If you cannot see that you are both innocent, can you feel a
sense of wanting to be right? 3. If being right means that you will be unhappy , do you still
want to be right? 4. Can you see how accepting your innocence releases both
of you from guilt? 5. What is innocence to you? Write it down and focus your
attention on how this experience of innocence feels to you. 6. Take a moment now and reflect on this prayer:I am the work of God, and His work is wholly lovable and
wholly loving. This is how a man must think of himself in his
heart because this is what he is. To further process and deepen your healing experience using the
levels of mind, you can find a downloadable works heet at
http://www .newharbinger .com/41870 . Let Miracles Replace Guilt Thoughts
Nothing we perceive is there by accident; it is just exactly  as it is
because that is the way our mind wants it to be. By making our
unconscious guilt conscious and then releasing it, we can heal and start
to perce ive the world differentl y. We have a choice in how to interpret
things. In truth, there is no guilt going on at all. It has no purpo se. Only
as long as we still have some unconscious desire for guilt do we interpret
the world in a harsh way. We can learn to be more gentle with ourselves
and free ourselves from those harsh interpretations and be light-hearted! We can laugh and sing in joy and really feel that we are moving on in the
right direction. Why not let every day be like that? In our hearts, we can find the innocence even when things seem to
fall apart and when things seem to implode. Don’ t try to hold it together! We are going Home. We are waking up. There is no need to make it any
more complicated than that. We are here to expose the ego’s guilt game. Everything the ego does—every scheme, every defense, every  trick in
the book—is aimed at perpetuating guilt. Let it arise and release it. You need to realize how closely you are identified with the thoughts
you think. If you project judgments onto the world, how could you not
feel guilty? Of course, in truth, you are not guilty because God didn’ t
create guilt. God didn’ t create a stream of guilt thoughts and say, “This is
my beloved stream of guilt thoughts, in whom I am well please d!” God
doesn’ t work that way! No, He says, “This is my beloved son, in whom I
am well pleased.” God is please d with the Christ, the Christ of pure love,
pure innocence, which is you, and not a stream of guilt thoughts!Where the ego’ s purpose is to make you guilty , Spirit’ s purpose is to
extend innocenc e. That is why you need to go inward and bring the guilt
to the Holy Spirit. Bring that darkness to the light so you see that the
guilt has nothing at all to do with the world or your behaviors. As you go
deeper , you start to realize that there is never a reason to feel guilty—it is
just part of that false ego belief system. You start to become aware that
the way out is miracles. The more miraculous your life beco mes, the
more habitually miracle-minded you become, and you experience the
innocence that comes from miracle-mindedness. You have had glimmers of this innocence. You don’t need to
change. You don’t need to become better at something. You don’t need
to fix something . You are just perfect. In the next chapter , we will bring
more clarity to this as we get into the importance of our thought s and the
power of our minds. Think of all your relationships. How would it feel if you saw
everybody as perfect? What if when somebody came to you and said,
“Oh, I feel so bad for what I’ve done,” and you could just smile  and give
them a big hug and say, “I love you so much.” When you can give that
gift to yourself, you have the power to give that gift to everyone : to all of
your friends, family members, coworkers, and people in the grocery
store. And it feels so good to give that gift. It must come from the Holy
Spirit because the ego could never conceive of such a gift. It has been
the greatest joy in my life to give the gift of innocence away: “You are
not guilty; you are innocent. I see you as innocent, I will treat you as
innocent, and I will think of you as innocent.” It is only by giving away
that which you want for yourself that you can escape from guilt!Chapter 5
Private Thoughts
We communicate through words, through language, and by sharing our
thoughts. This happens every day: in our families, in our schools, and at
work. When we share our thoughts with others, we expand our view ,
connect, and grow . Communic ation can also be wordless and still be
shared clearly , for example through body language. But if we don’t have
someone to talk to, we believe that our thoughts are not shared. It seems
like we can think about whatever we want, and nobody else knows about
it. This is the belief that we have privacy inside our minds. But our
thoughts alone make up the whole (seemingly private) world we see. At our Course in Miracles –inspired monastery , we have no vows of
poverty , chastity , or obedience as they do in traditional monasteries. Instead, we have a guideline: we encourage everyone to have no private
thoughts and to expose what has been hidden. Private minds with private thoughts seem to be the very basis of the
human condition: humans value privacy , autonomy , and independence. It
is said that these things make the human being, but it is a game of
pretense, a ruse. These unreal concepts and ideas generate a fiction of the
human race, a fiction of individuality and separateness. In this fiction, it
seems each person goes their own way and leads a distinct life apart,
only to meet with others at certain times. This has never brought us
consistent joy, happiness, peace, or contentment. Stemming from the
belief in separation, private minds and private thoughts have us
wandering, lost in time and space. We just need to open up and share. Returning to Jenny’ s story , she says:
In my early twenties, my marriage was not happy . It felt abusive,
and my husband even raged a lot. I didn’ t feel like I had anyone
to talk to about it. Then I met a pastor at a conference who I
found very, very trustworthy . I poured out my whole heart to him,all my experiences, and all the pain from my marriage. This
pastor just listened to me. He was very open-minded, very
interested, engag ed, and patient, and I felt such an opening in my
heart and in my mind. It felt so valuable, like a long-sought
lifeline. I felt seen and heard. This opened me to the many steps I
needed to take to move forward and heal. Opening up my priva te
thoughts opened up my life. The urge to keep stuff within and not share comes from our urge to
defend and protect ourselves. But the need to be defensive can only
come when we have identified with an illusion of our self. If you take a
thought that comes, a feeling of mild concern, or a bit of worry , and
follow it down into your mind, you will find an image of yourse lf that is
not the real you. It is a picture that was made to take the place of your
true Self. It’s not that good or bad things  happen to us. We can learn to not
judge the form and instead see that everything is an opportunity to
expose our fears, doubts, and beliefs. We’ve been accustomed to taking
things on, to taking things personally , to feeling bad, and to feeling like
we’re not worthy of sharing, not worthy of being . Experiencing and perceiving an external world is rooted in hiding
and holding on to private thoug hts. When you become more aware of
your thoughts and beliefs, you’ll find that what seems to be happ ening in
form is connecte d to your inner feeling experience. The interna l and the
external world aren’ t really different; they merge. It seems like there’ s a
world outside the mind, but it’s actually not out there. It’s synonymous
with mind. This means you really don’t have interpersonal relationship
problems. You really don’t have  any physical problems. You really don’t
have issues with what could happen to the environment. It’s all in your
mind. It’ s all mental. The Core Private Thought
When it comes to healing the mind and opening up to freedom  and joy,
the big shift happens when we open up our most private thoughts.Underneath all the others, there is one core secret that is intolerable to
hold in mind, and it is this idea: “I am separate from God.” This core
private thought marks the birth of a belief in time and projects  a whole
world. This thought puts everything fearful “out there” as well as what is
believed to be enjoyable. This is where beliefs such as pleasure and pain
come in attempt ing to strengthen the idea that you are a body . We can
say that thoughts of valuing the body and identification with it are
diluted private thoughts that cover the core private thought of separation. Essentially , all the thoughts that separate a “me” and a “you” are private
thoughts. Thoughts that lead you away from an experience of this present
moment, or any thoughts invol ving time, are private thoughts. This is
because time, as used by the ego, excludes the experience of the present,
the miracle. A private thought always involves the past or the future in
one way or another . Regret of something that seems to have happened in
the past or worry about something that can happen in a hypothetical
future are examples of this. These thoughts, often concerns, worries, or
even hopes, only involve the perception of a separate individual. They
are therefore also called hypothetical thoughts. Hypothetically speaking,
as-if, in the future, something may or may not occur . If you really watch
your thoughts as they roll through, you’ll see that there are a lot of
hypothetical, private thoughts. Some of them are judged to be very
desirable, which explains why you think about them over and over. Some of them are very fearful or worrisome and have a lot of doubts,
anger , and guilt attached to them. But they are all part of a mechanism to
distract you and keep you from experiencing the present moment. The Holy Spirit knows that the sleeping mind is heavily invested in
private thoughts. When the Self is realized and there is an expe rience of
pure oneness, there are no longer any experiences of private thoughts,
yet the condition  of being in this world is to believe in those thoughts. In
fact, they are believed to be the only reality . So in truth, I have no private
thoughts, but as a separate self, all that I am aware of is private thoughts. This must mean that the separate self is not who I am. By their very
nature, private thoughts come from an individual mind, with memories
and thoughts of the past as well as future planning and looking  forward
to things. So, through exposing all your thoughts to the Holy Spirit andmaybe to a very trusted friend, you are opening up to a completely
different experience, dif ferent than you’ve ever had before. You have surely  noticed that there are a lot of emotions connected
to private thoughts, and that’s why it can seem like the human condition
is just an emotional rollercoaster ride. Up and down. People will even
say, “Life is meant to be a serie s of challenges,” and “It’s inevitable that
you will have challenges every  day.” And this is an experience most
people have, which is based solely on these private thoughts  and the
emotions that come with them. If we had to give a definition of God’ s
will for us, it would be perfect happiness. God’ s will is definitely not for
a rollerc oaster ride of emotions and painful experiences. That is why it
seems to take a lot of conscious willingness to allow private thoughts to
come into aware ness and then to be willing to not protect them, not push
them down or repress them, and not to deny them. Just allow them to
come into awareness, then let them go, and give them to the Holy Spirit. This is not like a lot of spiritualities where we were taught to
accentuate the positives and eliminate the negatives, or to use positive
affirmations. That’ s a common  thing that people talk about on the
spiritual path, as if you can just eliminate the negative and then have
only positive thoughts in your mind. But the positive thoughts and the
negative thoughts are both coming from a dualistic perspective, a part of
a continuum, and it’ s the very continuum that’ s the block. So, the attainment of happiness and inner peace is a matter of
willingness to not hide and protect private thoughts. Because we judge
our private thoughts as terrible or wrong, we hide them. There’ s a mask
that the mind wears. It has the personality mask on with underlying
beliefs and thoughts that it’s too afraid to face and expose because they
are believed to be real. We believe that if people knew about these
thoughts, then they wouldn’ t want to be around us. But as we expos e these private thoughts more and more, we come
to a point where we say, “Aaah , these are just thoughts in my mind. I
can’t believe I held onto them for so long.”  The only way to reach the
real you, or to reach that sense of invulnerability and a constant state of
being happy, is to let go of the mask, the part of you that plays a role as a
personality self. Let go of the belief that those thoughts are really whoyou are and question the validity of those thoughts. The ego set it up that
way to obscure the truth about who you are. “And yet it is only the
hidden that can terrify , not for what it is, but for its hiddenne ss.” Ego
made up all the differences that led to all the private thoughts. Therefore,
it’s only through  the awareness that there are no private minds that we
know freedom and love as it really is, the love that is at the core of our
being, the love that is our true, divine self. Open Up, Share, and Be Free
We only hide our thoughts out of fear and guilt, and this is just a holding
on to a make-believe identity of guilt. When we truly give private
thoughts to the Holy Spirit, we let them go forever . It’s like talking to
your best friend. The best friend does not take these thoughts seriously
and may laugh when you share them, and then you laugh too because
you see how silly they are. This is how healing occurs. We have  heard and often felt the deep value of communication. The
holy instant is the experience of total communication. It is what I call
communion. Communion with God is total communication in which
everything is out in the open. The whole journey to enlightenment and
self-actualization is about voluntarily , willingly , and gently letting the
private thoughts come up into your awareness. Seeing that they no
longer serve you, you realize that you don’t need them for survival. You
don’t need them for a sense of well-being. You will relax, sink into the
present moment, and experience  that everything you could ever want or
ever need is in this very moment. It takes a lot of trust to let go of thoughts that you believe bring
about safety, security , and many , many desirable things. But they haven’ t
truly brought about safety . It’s been more like a wheel; you’ve just kept
thinking about them over and over. The wheel does not bring peace of
mind. This wheel, a wheel of distraction, is what has kept you apart from
the present moment in experience. When you go deeper , you start to get
insights about how your everyd ay life can only reflect what’ s in your
mind—your thoughts. I call them the “top forty”—the thoughts that
recur over and over. Work with your top forty; they are topics andopportunities that are just waiti ng to be dissolved. Try to not interfere
with the healing that’ s always occurring. Some of my best times, the times that I have enjoyed the most on
Earth, are when I have done long retreats, and people line up for one-on-
one sessions. This often happens after profound talks since people get in
touch with a strong desire to open up and share what’ s in their heart. Some people unload their deepest darkest secrets, their deepest shames,
or their deepest  fear. I honor this deeply . It is immensely sincere and
beautiful. I love being used as an instrument of innocence and healing. Often when I sit with someone, their eyes are saying, “Can I trust you? Will you still love me after I speak these next words to you?” And then
they go for it. What follows these sessions is usually a moment of
sparkly eyes, and we are both in happiness and love because the love of
God transcends anything that the ego can come up with, any memory ,
any perception. We have an expe rience of our divine innocence, which is
what we all want. A very helpful step toward not taking the world so seriously and not
taking things personally is to have a safe environment, a safe atmosphere
like a best friend with whom you can release your private thoughts and
grievances. Imagine having the presence and spaciousness, to have
someone, maybe your spouse, a coworker , a close friend, or a relative
that you can just pour your heart out to, knowing that they love you. You
trust them, and you know that they are not going to take anything you
say personally; you can let up all the darkest things. I think that was the
original intentio n behind the confessional booth of the Catholic Church
—unburdening yourself. Talking to someone who is loving and caring is
a symbol of giving it over to God and not holding on to anything. The
more you say, “I want to heal; I want to bring this up, to release it, and to
give it over,” the more you hear others speaking the exact same thoughts
and sharing the exact same feelings. And when you are the one listening
to them, you think, Oh, how could she think that about herself? How
could he believe that? I feel love for him; she is beautiful. And the
feeling is I love you,  once the private thoughts are expressed! Whether you are giving thoughts over or hearing someone else
express private thoughts, you see clearly that it is the ego being exposed,
and that it is not who you or they are. You can truly see these thoughts,and they get lighter and lighter and funnier and funnier . What is really
powerful is that we do not try to fix the thoughts or adjust the story . We
are just letting them go so a deeper awareness can come and take the
place of the busy thoughts. Issues simply dissolve, and you get to see
that the Holy Spirit is really the healer . It is practicing the prayer of
bringing illusion s to the truth and praying to bring the darkness to the
light of love that brings the healing!Exercise: Express Those Private Thoughts
Do this exercise when you can spend an hour by yourself. Get
your journal, and silence your cell phone. This is a time set aside
just for you. Part 1:  Write a Letter
Imagine someone whom you can trust completely , whom you
could say absolutely anything  to and they will not pass judgment
on you. This person can be real or imagined; you could even write
to the Holy Spirit. This friend listens to you lovingly and is not
affected by anything you say or by any of the thoughts that you
are ashamed of. This is some one who listens to you with a caring
heart and of fers you unconditional love. You are now going to write a letter to this friend. Sit quietly
and allow all private thought s to come to your mind. Write down
your thoughts in this letter: thoughts you have hidden, thoughts
that cause fear, thoughts of judgment on yourself, thoughts that
you think would cause others to judge you, thoughts you feel
ashamed of, unloving thoughts you have toward others or
yourself, thoug hts you worry would cause a person to extract their
love from you. Recall the importance of bringing private thoughts up to be
exposed: when anything is hidden, it cannot be heale d. Take
some deep breaths, and continue to write all hidden thoughts and
thoughts that are so intoler able that you have avoided writing
them down. Exposing these  thoughts is where the healing lies. They can now be offered up. This letter is proof that you are
willing to look at absolutely anything that comes up on your
journey to healing. Once you have  finished writing, sit or stand in front of a mirror
and read your letter aloud. Allow yourself to feel the emoti ons thatsurface, knowing that a loving presence exists that accepts you
unconditionally regardless of these thoughts. The next steps  are up to you.
This-Moment-is-Your-Miracle_by_David_Hoffmeister.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        As we take steps to face and undo
what’ s blocking us from the joy that is our birthright, we finally  arrive in
the miracle, in the light. The way to come from split to unified desire is to see that the
problem is not out there, outsid e of our minds; we have to look inside. To illustrate this, let’s use the levels of mind map and insert all the
seeming proble ms of the world on the outer layer of the mind,
perception: floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, or tornadoes;
diseases like cancer, heart diseas e, or HIV; financial problems, economic
conditions around the world, poverty, and world hunger; terrorism; and
wars. We can fill in with anythin g we conceive of in our mind that we’ve
been conditione d to think of as a problem within time and space on any
scale or of any magnitude. It’s all out there on the screen. There seems to
be a myriad of external causes and external effects on the screen, but,
gently, the Holy Spirit keeps singing this song to the mind: “That’ s not
the reason why. The problem’ s not out there; you have to look inside. ”
The Holy Spirit is not only telling us to look inside, but has also given us
the steps, the how to move throug h illusion and to find the solution. The
correction to this erroneous thought system can only happen in the mind. With Spirit’ s help, we can find the correction in our own minds, just like
Jesus did. He simply accepted the correction for every false belief. And
now Spirit is giving us a detailed roadmap. The way is made clear. Going Back to the Projector
How do we get to a peaceful perception of the world. By not judging. The less you judge anything in your life, the more it seems like you are
just watching a movie or theater play (sometimes with lots of good
acting going on. ). Rather than being within the movie as a character
among other characters, you have the greater perspective of an observer. It’s only the ego that tries to separate out and thinks it knows the
motivations of all the characters, why they did certain things, and what
they were thinking. The ego is constantly reading meaning intoeverything. And whenever you see through fragmented perception and
try to analyze the characters, including your own, it gets very
complicated. In fact, it’s so complicated that you couldn’ t possibly see it
as just a dance of form. You can’t even enjoy the movie of life because
there’ s too much judgment going on. And part of that judgment is
control. The mind that has fallen asleep, has forgotten its Creator, and is
trying to control absolutely everything. It’s always showing up with an
agenda. It needs to back off the screen and make its way back to the
projector room. Through the miracle, you can experience that everything is thought. It all can merge and meld into holistic perception and awarenes s. When
that happens, it’s so peaceful; there are no parts to conflict and no parts
to defend and attack. Your perception becomes more and more unified in
the joy. Therefo re, things that others identify as problems and may even
apologize for, you don’t even notice; they are not in your awareness. This is how it goes with perception. It’s subjective. And it is through
facing your beliefs, allowing your emotions to come up, and becoming
more aware of your thoughts, you will find that your perceptions become
lighter. You are moving toward unified perception where your
experience is more and more one of peace and harmony. A Different Tool for Awakening to Joy
I am a huge fan of using movi es as helpful tools on the journey. I see
movies as modern-day parable s, and the journey can be quite fun. I
encourage you to explore your perception in every movie-watching
experience. A spiritual journey need not be cumbersome or tiring. Movies are an excellent way to watch your mind, to pay attentio n to
your emotions, and to help you discover what your unconscious beliefs
are. When you react emotionally to a movie, it’s the same dynamic as
when you react to people in your life. If you have issues with people, it’s
a projec tion of your mind. And it’s the same if you have react ions to a
movie—it’ s coming from a projection of your mind. Watching movies is
an enjoyable way to wake up and heal, compared to being in a difficult
family situation or in a confrontational relationship. W atching movies forhealing can help you get clear in those difficult situations faster. Being
aware of your state of mind, thoughts, and reactions while watching
movies accelera tes healing. It can be intense at first when you start to get
in touch  with emotions and belie fs, but it gives way to joy, and you open
up more to lasting peace, happiness, and contentment. Ultimately,
movies can help guide you to enlightenment. The Spirit showed me techniques for watching movies in a new
way—not as entertainment or escapism, but as a way to allow intense
emotions to arise for healing. Movies can trigger memories that have
been repressed and denied. When these intense emotions come up for
you, pause the film so you can be present with whatever is arising for
healing in the moment. Welcome  the feelings so they can be released and
open up to a new perspective. Exercise: Enjoy the Show. Watch the Disney movie, The Kid. Even if you’ve seen this movie
before, it is guaranteed that with this new purpose, you will have a
deeply meaningful and healing experience. Remember that the
purpose of watching the movie is for healing the mind by releasing
unconscious beliefs. Hold this intention of using it for healing
clearly in your mind before you start the movie. A simple  prayer
can be helpful:  “Holy Spirit, I invite a new and healing experience,
watching this movie with You. ” During the movie, watch your
emotions and anything that the scenarios or characters bring up
for you. Even if you experience discomfort, try not to distract away
from it. More than anything, be willing to stop the movie and feel
and observe your emotions  during intense scenes, attractive
scenarios, or moments when  you want to know or think you know
what will happen next. Give yourself permission to stop
investigating and just be with what is arising in awareness. Following your viewing of the movie, answer these questions
in your journal (you may use some of these questions for any
movie that you watch going forward):
1. Do you see how observing your different perceptions allows
you to identify certain emotions and maybe even beliefs. Write down the emotions and beliefs you identify. 2. Did you experience any triggers or upsets from seeing any
particular scenes or conversations in the movie. What were
they. 3. What were your general feelings and associations about
Russ as a character in the beginning of the movie. 4. Russ seems to have a lot of stress over keeping his self-
image. How might this relate to you. Do you attempt to
keep a good self-image in dif ferent situations. 5. How did you feel when little Rusty confronted him about the
way his life ended up as a forty-year-old—that he had no
dog or girlfriend and that he does not fly planes. 6. Does this movie remind you of anything about your past
that you try to hide or might still be upset about. Write
down anything that feels unresolved. 7. There is a funny scene when Russ makes an attempt to
find safety in a sandwich. Are there situations when you feel
that your self-image begins to fail. What are the forms of
“safety” that you try to use to cover insecurities. 8. How does Russ’ s attachmen t to his false identity block him
from true love and happiness. 9. What enables Russ to let go of his false identity and step
into an experience of love. Release and Rest:  Take some quiet time to detach and let
emotions and ideas from the processing of the movie drop away. Open your mind to the Holy Spirit to wash away any remaining
feelings and relax into peace. Take your time; there is never any
rush. Peace in Spiritual Perception
The power of desire is the determ iner of your state of mind. You are now
in the early stage of changing your perception, which really means
changing your life toward the real experience of peace. Small steps can
lead to some big shifts in your awareness. It’s important to be vigilant
with your perception and the tendency to perceive upsetting things as
real problems. This is a process  of looking honestly at your mind while
allowing your heart’ s desire to be purified. The spiritual journey will culminate when you open up to spiritual
vision, the vision of Christ, which takes you beyond the body entirely,
back into an awakened state. Spiritual vision is a vast experie nce. The
observer and the observed are one through healed, peaceful perception. When you perce ive the entire cosmos as unified and as neutral, you have
reached true perception. It’s like a happy movie that includes everything
and everyone. That’ s how you return to your Christ awaren ess. You
return first to this full and complete awareness that everything  is really
one, everything is the same, there are no differences. The purpose is to
see everything through the Holy Spirit’ s peaceful perspective or
interpretation. Therefore, “it is from your peace of mind that a peaceful
perception of the world arises. ” In this perception, nothing is a struggle. “The miracle is a lesson in total perception. ”Chapter 3
Fear
What if we knew that all the things that we do—all the plans, all the
busyness, as well as drama, bewilderment, despair, and conflict—are
chosen by a mind that is afraid of being present. This fear of being
present is disguised as many other fears. It can be fear of being alone,
fear of losing someone, fear of what other people think, fear of accidents
and catastrophes, or fear of threats, violence, and abuse, to mention a
few. Fear serves one egoic purpose: to keep us from feeling the
wonderment, the beauty, and the eternal calmness of the present
moment. The separate mind is untrained and unwilling to keep attentive
to the present since it is afraid of it. It is afraid of the Holy Spirit. The
reason for this may not be apparent. It believes the ego, and thus
separation from God, is real. It is attached to a tiny, imposter concept of
self that is not true or real. We have all felt fear; it is a universal
experience. It is an experience that exists in our minds but nevertheless,
because of projection, it always  seems to have external causes  and also
solutions, yet those solutions are never permanent. Fear locks us down. It
closes us up and isolates us from the world. Until questioned, it binds us
in a small and separate existenc e. Fear stems from a belief in a world of
duality. Once fear is questioned, it will no longer rule our minds, as my
friend Jenny learned through her experiences. Jenny’ s Example
I was br ought up in a family that went to an ecumenical chur ch. There was a deep belief in sin and guilt. For me, what sin was
always seemed strange, vague, and unclear. The teaching was
that we ar e all sinners. As a r esult, I had to r eally face the fear of
going to hell. One day, I sat on a stool in my r oom feelingbewilder ed, scar ed, and extr emely determined all at the same
time. The feeling was, “I have to follow my heart, and I have to
leave my chur ch. ” And the belief in hell, which to that day had
been in the back of my mind, surfaced. The fear that I could
possibly go to hell was in the for efront. But I r esponded with,
“Okay, if I go to hell, I will still do this; I still want to follow my
heart. I have to. ” And looking back at it now, I know that the fear
itself is what hell is. Facing this fear shook me to the cor e, and I could only sit
through it, allowing the fear to move thr ough. Y es, potentially I
would actually go to hell by this move, and if so, it would be
worth it; it would be my choice. I faced the deepest depr ession of
my life. I was in a dark tunnel, and one day I was at the end of it,
facing the back with no exit. Ther e was nothing else rising in fr ont
of me; it was like being stuck in the darkest part of a deep cave. A
friend, whom I trusted, called me that day. She asked if I wanted
to shar e how I was doing. I spoke about the darkness, and after
the call, I r ealized I had turned ar ound and was facing the way
out of the tunnel. Fr om then on, I could feel the possibility of light
and healing and I began to take steps towar d the light. Stepping out of Normal
On the spiritual journey, you will probably find that you will feel called
to make some changes in your life, like Jenny did. But becaus e of fear,
you may find many reasons not to make a move or even take a step. Even if you have some hesitatio n at first, when you feel ready, you will
find that it’s worth it to feel uncomfortable, to let go of your routines in
order to find all the joy of God’ s love that’s available. It can feel like a
solo journey at times because you have to go within to find the answers. At other times, companions show up to help you along the way. When I was in graduate school, I would take long walks in the
woods. During these walks, I’d ask myself, “What am I doing this for. Is
there a purpose for studying at university. ” And the ego would rattle off,
“Yes, you need to have a degre e because you need to have a good job. Because if you want to have a relationship, you can’t be broke. This is
why you are here, and this is why you have been here for ten years. Just
keep at it, and we’ll get through this phase. ” All of my reasons for being
there were fearful, based on my fear of consequences. Becoming aware  of this poor motivation for my life got me in touch
with a deep desire to open up to the guidance of Holy Spirit. I would ask,
“Why am I here. Am I afraid of something. Is there something driving
me to get all this education. Is there something pushing me from
underneath. Am I afraid of something besides what the world would call
a ‘fully engaged life. ’” The more I took the questions inward, the more
Jesus was able to show me that it was freedom, peace, happiness, joy,
love, and intimacy that I wanted. He showed me that I had many beliefs
about what one has to do in this world to get those things. And it was
those beliefs that were driving me. He said: “If you listen to Me, I will
show you how to experience the things you want, through Me. In other
words, through listening and then following Me, it will come from the
inside of your mind. It won’ t come from any event or outcome in the
world. ”
This turned me in the right direction. In the beginning, I was
astounded to see what a huge percentage of my actions were motivated
by the fear of consequences. It could have been tempting to judge myself
at that point, but I was determined not to do that. I was happy to discover
how plugged in to the fear of consequences I was. I was happy  to begin
to unplu g with Jesus and the Holy Spirit’ s help. I found that to be very
practical. It was something I could contemplate and ponder. I knew it
was going to be a big job. I knew I wasn’ t going to take a pill and wake
up the next day free of fear. I knew it would take contemplation and
mind training. But I had A Course in Miracles, and it was a great tool to
burrow deep into the mind. As I mentioned in the introduction, the mind can be directed by one
of two thought systems: either of fear or of love. The ego-thought system
produces fear. The Holy Spirit’ s thought system produces love. The ego
speaks first because it is impuls ive. It is usually very harsh and critical. And the voice of the Spirit has to wait patiently, and then, when your
mind is open, you can experience how He is there, unceasingly and very
gently reminding you of the truth of who you are. The ego wants you tobelieve in its thought system and tricks to keep you asleep and dreaming,
while the Spirit wants you to see your thoughts, your feelings, and your
beliefs so you can become aware  of them and start to loosen the bindings
that limit you. To know this simplifies things as you realize you can
choose which thought system to use. It is a decision in the mind. You will see that you are making decisions all along the way. You’re vacillating between two thought systems and between two
emotions, and there’ s got to be a way to bring an end to it. You can make
a choice. It is a matter of being  alert to which voice you will give your
attention. Whichever you give more attention to is the one that will
become stronger  in awareness. It’s very much like the old saying about
the black  and the white wolves in the mind: one represents fear, and the
other represents love. The question is: Which wolf will you feed. The Ring of Fear
In the explanation of the levels of mind in chapter 2, we saw that
underneath the gross perceptual world is a layer of emotion. A Course in
Miracles  calls this “the ring of fear. ” This whole world—everything that
we perceive through the five senses—is built on unconscious fear. How
can this be. How does our fear translate into objects of time and space:
houses, buildings, streets, and people. By the power of our mind. The
mind simply can only see what it believes, which is why we need to
release false beliefs. In the end, the spiritual journey becomes all about
facing this unconscious fear. This is the transformation of the projected
world into peace. When we take steps inward on the way to discover peace and true
freedom, we first encounter the ring of fear, and it usually gets quite
intense. In addition to fear, all of our other emotions are right underneath
the far outer ring of perception as well. This means we really need to get
in touch with our emotions as a starting point. If we ever want  to reach
the point of truth deep within our minds, we need to engage the natural
process of allowing our emotions. The ego tries to control us by scaring
us with many hypothetical consequences, so we push down and suppress
all our emotions. Most of us weren’ t raised to get in touch with our emotions and
thoughts. Many of us, if we were feeling upset, angry, or belligerent,
were told, “Go to your room. ” or “You’re grounded. ” The response
wasn’ t “Oh sweetie, tell me what you are thinking. ” Your parents were
probably not Christlike psychot herapists filled with unconditio nal love
and positive regard. They proba bly didn’ t say, “Let’ s get in touch with
those thoughts underneath the fact that you just punched a hole in the
wall. ” They said, “You are grounded. You will fix that hole in your wall,
and we’re taking  away your allowance. ” We were usually met with a lot
of harshness when our emotions came up. There is a different way of relating with feelings, and when you
understand the metaphysics of the mind, you discover what’ s beyond
your perception down in the levels of mind. You can become much more
sensitive to what’ s underneath the surface. Sometimes in meditation if
you start to sink very deeply inward, a very surprising fear can come up,
and it will seem to come from nowhere. Y ou are getting in touch with the
darkness of the unconscious mind. This is fear that’s buried very deep. It
is the reason why a personal identity was made. The personal identity
was made to cover a very deep fear that you could be separate from God,
from everything, from your Self—that you could be alienated from your
Father and from oneness and be utterly lost. Mystics and saints have
often shared that they encounter this fear when they begin letting go of
their personal identity and they are coming closer to a merge with God. The stillness inside is so powerful that it can seem to burn up the “self. ”
This is a huge threat to the ego, which is why it feels like a burning up or
dissolving. The fear-based ego-belief system  is based on having no safety in a
dark world of hurts and needs, and of believing in the reality of victims
and victimizers. This is so only because of an identification in the mind
with the self as the body. But how could we truly know of safety and
comfort except to identify with something real and true, something that
cannot die or change. Everyone who is asleep and dreaming in this world is actually
afraid of the Holy Spirit. This is so because even though people’ s lives
are not happy and fulfilled in time, there is a familiarity to linear time. The things and activities of linear time are believed to be safe, while theHoly Spirit is associated with the unknown and is something completely
different than anything in time. In the state of oneness, the mind is
naturally at peace. The first fear was the fall from grace. It was a
tremendous shift in mind, from loving, peaceful, and happy to terrifying
and frightening. So, each step that you take with the Holy Spirit will
have some reverberations of fear associated with it. Because even though
you are awakeni ng from a nightm are, the ego is afraid of this awakening. The ego is afraid that it will be annihilated, that it will cease to exist. When we perceive something fearful, we can always allow
ourselves to take a moment to pause rather than react. By taking a
moment to open our minds and invite Holy Spirit into our percep tion, we
invite a miraculo us shift in how we see things, and we can start to let go
of habitual reacting and conditioned behaviors. We open  up to
inspiration. The beauty of the journey to happiness and freedom is that we all
have the power to follow our inspiration and Spirit. We choose this and
no longe r live based on fear of consequences. Otherwise, how would we
ever get past this fear of love. We make a decision to no longer go for
the seem ingly prudent, safe choice based on our past learning. We decide
against the closed loop of the past and allow for the miracle, allow for
the inspiration. Exercise: Looking at Fear
When fear (or other negative, upsetting emotions) comes  up, you
can be alert to it. You can face it with a “bring it on” attitud e where
you’re actually happy that you’ve got something to work with since
releasing fear and doubt is really releasing the grip of a false
identity. This exercise has the potential to help you to deepen in
trust beyond desired results and outcomes—time-based  desires
and wishes that your sleepin g mind hopes to attain and achieve
because of the belief that they are safe and can of fer something of
value. Make sure that you have half an hour to an hour to yours elf. Choose a current life situation that brings up fear or maybe just
some anxiety or worry. It could be around losing a job or a
relationship, or it could be other fear-based issues around family
or friends. Fear can also be disguised as anger because there is
always fear underneath ange r. Try to be aware of other defenses
or self-concept s that may cover the feelings. Take a look at ideas
such as “I am a person who never gets worried, anxious, or
fearful. I am strong and competent. Nothing ever worries me. ”
These may be cover-ups, and you may not yet be aware of a
deeper part of your mind that actually has a lot of fear or anxiety,
which explains why the defense was built up in the first place. Keep this particular fearful life situation in awareness and
relax for a moment. You are now going to look inward, following
these steps. 1. In your journal, write down all your feelings and thoughts
about the situation.
To see that the problem is not outside, but rather within.
What is the first step to undo what's blocking us from joy?
To return to the light and achieve true perception, which is a unified and peaceful experience.
What is the goal of the spiritual journey?
To keep us trapped in a cycle of fear, guilt, and anger.
What is the purpose of the ego's thought system?
To expose and release all private thoughts and emotions, and to allow the Holy Spirit to guide and heal.
What is the key to healing and self-actualization?
A sense of peace, love, and unity with others, and a deep understanding that all thoughts and emotions are just a projection of the mind.
What is the outcome of facing and letting go of private thoughts?