A Course in Miracles (ACIM)... In a Nutshell
“Nothing Real can be threatened,
Nothing unreal exists,
Herein lies the Peace of God.”
Prior to integrating the teachings of ACIM myself, I was experiencing a world that just didn’t make sense. I remember seeing the video of Donald Trump (the candidate) bragging about how he could grab women by the vagina because he was a famous guy, and thinking to myself, “Well, he’s out the race” and then being so utterly confused as to why that didn’t happen. As I watch the news these days (which isn’t “new” by the way), everything makes sense to me. Nothing surprises me, and nothing upsets me greatly. I still have my moments of forgetting the truth it isn’t real, but they quickly subside.
People often think of spirituality as very flighty stuff. A Course in Miracles is not. It is a dense web of logic and reason. The more you understand it the more you see how things work, and the more you forgive the world around you. I went to school to study psychology for four years. I read over a hundred books in psychology in that time. Nothing I read came close to as complete an accounting for every single psychological phenomena than does A Course in Miracles. It is also very practical, as it presents spirituality as a “practice.” It does work, and I am here to offer myself as another guide, someone who has already walked over the ground you will be walking on, and point out the things you might want to avoid along the path — the distractions the ego will put there for you to trip on, and the things you want to embrace as well.
Here are some basic concepts of A Course in Miracles.
ACIM teaches that perception IS projection.
We often relate to the phenomena of projection as something our friends, colleagues, and family do when they are not in their right minds. In ACIM, it is simply the law of perception. All our sensory perceptions are subject to this law.This concept aligns with the first principle of Hermetics, an occult teaching that stretches back five thousand years BC. The first principle of Hermetics is called Mentalism. Most other spiritual traditions (that have legs to move you forward) include this principle in their teachings, as well, as a Universal Truth.
ACIM teaches forgiveness.
Based on perception as projection, ACIM teaches a superior form of forgiveness which I often refer to as “quantum forgiveness.” In ACIM, you forgive yourself for making the images you hate or resist. Conventional forgiveness could be defined as perceiving an attack from someone as real, and then trying your best to be the better person who lets them off the hook. This could sound like, “You hurt me, but I forgive you.” Quantum forgiveness sounds more like, “I have projected an attack on myself, which was sourced from within me, onto you, and I forgive myself for this mistake.” Which is essentially remembering the Truth.
ACIM teaches the reader how to transform “Special Relationships” into “Holy Relationships.”
In “Special Relationships” we unconsciously (without conscious intent) use other people, or expect other people, to fill us up with the Love we perceive we are lacking. In truth, it is impossible for us to lack Love, because Love created us, and we are made of Love. Love is what we are. When an individual remembers this, they now have the freedom to give the relationship a new purpose: to awaken together to the Truth of Reality. In a “Special Relationship” two people expect the other person to “make” them happy, whereas in a “Holy Relationship” the people have both decided to be happy and to share their happy experience together.
ACIM teaches that the ego is not your ally.
The ego, according to ACIM is like an extra mind, with a will of its own that has been split off from the will of the One Mind we all share. The ego came into being when the Son of God (the One Mind) had a thought, “What would it be like to be separate?” The ego then unfurled the carpet of time into a concept of linear time. Because of this mistake, we now experience a dream of separation. We can decide to no longer identify as a separate being, a decision to not take guidance from the ego.
ACIM teaches that real change is possible on the level of thought.
The workbook for ACIM is 365 days of mind training, directed at changing your beliefs so they align with the agenda of the One Mind we all share. ACIM infers, because perception is projection, that if you invite in this belief system, you will no longer see a separate world. You will instead see Reality as it has always been: A collective experience of Love and an extension of Love. When we stop and think about it, our thoughts are the only thing we have control over. ACIM teaches they are all we need to gain control, because everything we experience flows from our thoughts and beliefs.
ACIM teaches you who you really are.
Your suffering is a symptom of your not knowing who you really are. Once you accept you are this One Mind, and NOT the separate self (most of us would prefer to keep one foot in both canoes), you connect to your Joy, which was only a potential before this. You are the One Unified Son of God, and not this separate self you think you are.
ACIM teaches you to stop looking for salvation in false gods.
This can be confusing, because it could be interpreted as “Don’t listen to those other spiritual traditions,” but that’s not what’s meant by it. The false Gods, or false idols, as ACIM usually refers to them, are things like searching for your happiness in the external experience. Examples include trying to secure a good reputation, or to enjoy bodily pleasures, or become a powerful person, a good student, or more attractive, attaining wealth, or just being the nicest person all the time. None of these bring you permanent joy, which is really what you’re seeking. You find it instead within yourself, and then you magnify it by extending it to your brothers and sisters. Your brothers and sisters are all other aspects of the OneMind.
ACIM teaches you to look at the fear in yourself, and then deny it.
Our conventional process is to hide the parts of ourselves that we fear or resist in the unconscious mind. In this way we hide it from ourselves. What happens next is that the unconscious mind projects the fearful images it contains onto the external world you see. Because you are not aware of all these preceding steps, you now are looking at a fearful world you made yourself. You have to look at the fear first before you can look past it. Meaning you have to be accountable for your projections onto the world before you can realize they’re not real, and there is nothing to fear.
ACIM teaches you to undo guilt.
We entertain guilty thoughts, then it’s a game of hot potato on the level of thought, wherein the hot potato is guilt. You project, or pass the guilt to someone else in the form of blame, and then it comes back at yourself. You get some reprieves from guilt by using this, the ego’s solution for guilt, but the Holy Spirit offers a much better solution. How about we try seeing everybody as innocent! Why not see that everyone is truly doing their best to be the idealized version of themselves. They fall off sometimes just as I do. But wouldn’t it be more constructive to assist them in getting back on, rather than condemn the for having fallen off? When I fall off, I prefer support rather than condemnation, but I must first reorient myself so that I can reply to an attack with an expression of Love.
ACIM teaches that there is another quieter guide within all of us.
It calls this guide the Holy Spirit. ACIM teaches us that God is not actively intervening in this world. The replacement image would be that God is sitting next to His sleeping son, enthusiastically anticipating the time that his Son will wake up and be with Him again. When we first had the thought of separation, God quickly responded with a correction, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the part of you that remembers the Truth. So today, the Holy Spirit that intervenes, and corrects for our mistakes in perception. But it only does so when asked. A second but”: It always answers when asked.
ACIM teaches that the ego likes its way better.
Essentially, the ego wants to be the author of the world, often referred to in the Course as “the Authority Problem.” The ego really really wants to establish the laws itself. When identified with the ego, we want the world to be the way we want it to be, but it just isn’t that way. Healing doesn’t work as the ego envisions it. The ego sees salvation as “getting more.” But when you get more, you appreciate less what you already have. It never works.The ego always tells us what to do for the sake of salvation or fulfillment, but it is wrong about everything and not the guide you want to listen to if you want happiness.
Miracles change perception for the better. When we see the true meaning of something rather than the meaning the ego gave it, we have experienced a miracle. Miracles are also expressions of Love. Any true expression of Love does not want, need, or expect anything in return. When we integrate the concept that “giving” is “having,” or that you keep all that you give, you begin to understand that sacrifices are not required on this path. There will be things that appear like sacrifices, but as long as they do, you are not urged make them. The spiritual ego will often urge you to make the sacrifices right from the start, while they still appear as sacrifices. By following this guidance from the ego, however, you will begin to feel resentment, which will probably take you off the path for awhile. The proper way is to give up the false idols you can genuinely give up right now, and hold onto the ones you can’t for now. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You don’t want to speed through the carefully designed process. Change simply does not happen fast.
ACIM teaches what Miracles are.
ACIM teaches many other concepts as well.
ACIM was designed like a text book. It has a text, a workbook, and a manual for teachers. It also aligns with some very astute principles of learning, namely that you accomplish efficient learning through a “scaffolding.” It introduces a new concept. Then integrates this concept with all of the other concepts it has already introduced. Then it asks you to practice applying the concept to your daily experiences through the practice of the workbook. There are so many ideas presented in A Course in Miracles it sometimes feels like a “theory of everything.” All the various concepts connect in a web of interdependency. The logic doesn’t work without ALL of its parts. But each part must be mastered before you can invite more parts into your psyche; otherwise they will not be integrated into the whole.
I teach that there is a lot of emotional turbulence you can expect to experience if you choose this path. I think that’s true of any path to healing, due to ego backlash. The ego will quickly pick up on your purpose to undo it. It will start screaming at you to stop. It will tell you you’re making a huge mistake and you should join with it again. It will scream that this path will require great sacrifices from you. The ego is lying. It is more afraid of Love than anything else, because it doesn’t have the capacity to understand what Love is. But it is rightfully suspicious that it’s not going to be with you anymore as you approach the finish line where Love awaits you.
You will have to let go of the ego’s hand at some point, which it will resist out of its own instinct for self-preservation. Like an airplane taking off and beginning to ascend through the clouds, you will experience some turbulence before you break through. Expect this. It wouldn’t be honest of me to say there won’t be discomfort, because in my experience there was. But the further along the path you go, the less discomfort and self-doubt there will be.