My first introduction To A Course In Miracles was in 2004. When I was in recovery at a dual diagnosis treatment center in Malibu my therapist asked me if I was familiar with ACIM. I said yes, I tried to read ACIM but the material was so dense that I was having difficulty comprehending and retaining anything. She then asked if I had worked with the lessons. I said no, I don’t have the lessons but I will get them. She said that the lessons are included in the Workbook for Students, which is located after the text.
My Introduction To A Course In Miracles Was My Introduction to Mind Training
She was quite right. When I got home and looked at my copy of A Course In Miracles I was surprised to find that the book did indeed have three parts: Text, Lessons for Students, and Manual for Teachers. It was right there in front of me staring me in the face. My copy and of course all copies of A Course in Miracles contain these three parts. So in 2004 I worked on a few of the lessons and was almost immediately healed of my addiction to alcohol. The course is so powerful that the brief amount of time I spent studying and practicing the lessons and then reading the text stayed with me all these years. The miracle is a change in perception. The course taught me that the Atonement is at-one-ment. At one with God. The effect was profound an Zen-like.
Above all else I want to see
This is the story of my life: Everything is always right in front of me. When I can’t find my iPhone I wander around the house and then when I can’t find it I return to my desk where it is sitting front and center right there in front of me. Now, twenty years later, I am practicing the lessons again and they are having an immediate healing effect upon me. It may have taken twenty years to fully practice but now my re-introduction to A Course in Miracles is having a profound healing effect upon me. The Divinity is in the order of things. Today’s lesson is ‘Above all else I want to see. Vision has no cost to anyone, it can only bless.’
We become like the people we spend the most time with
I always knew that ‘like attracts like’ but now I see this more clearly in my life: If I hang out with thugs, then I am a thug. I may lie to myself and say that I am different, I am not really like them, I am not really a thug. But the fact remains: If I hang out with losers, then I am a loser. We are who we hang out with. The same goes for the self-ordained eccentrics of society. Because of my low self esteem I often hang out with the the holy fools, freaks and outcasts of society. If I hang out with the wierdos, then I am a wierdo. If I hang out with the eccentrics, then I am an eccentric. We become like the people who we spend the most time with. If I want to know who I really am, all I need to do is look around at my friends and associates. The problem is that freaks will eventually freak out on you. Losers eventually bring me down to a level lower than they are. If people feel bad about themselves then they work hard at making other people feel bad. This is not a judgement. This is simply natural selection in action.
I used to love being an eccentric
I used to pride myself on being an eccentric. I worked really hard at being different. The past twenty years have healed me of all of that. Eccentric behavior is the acting out of trauma. When I was a freak I was acting out the post-traumatic stress disorder caused by my childhood trauma and adverse experiences. My re-introduction to A Course In Miracles has re-opened my eyes.
My re-introduction to A Course in Miracles has set me free
I cringe when I think about the old me. Now I no longer feel the need to set myself apart from others. I have been set free. Now I work hard at demonstrating the Christ of God. Now when I am at Unity of the Westside I will sit with the decent and respectful people and ask them to save me. Save me from the wierdos. Save me from my own eccentricity. My re-introduction to A Course In Miracles at Unity of the Westside has re-opened my eyes and saved me from myself.
