If suicidal thoughts are to be replaced with thought of life, a new thought system must be utilized; one with a new focus and a new goal. Such is A Course in Miracles. It is flexible, in that, it sees you where you are, as you are, as well as where you could be without the thought of death. It provides a workbook of lessons to train the student in how the shift of perception can be made. It does not force, but enables. It does not appeal to everyone, though it has a profound effect on those whom find it appealing. Here is the introduction to Lesson 93. Decide for yourself if it contains anything worth looking into. G.W.
LESSON 93 Light and joy and peace abide in me.
You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.
These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see that they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have sought salvation in strange ways; have been deceived, deceiving and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams; and have bowed down to idols made of dust, – all this is true by what you now believe.
Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think, but from a very different reference point, from which such idle thoughts are meaningless. These thoughts are not according to God’s Will. These weird beliefs He does not share with you. This is enough to prove that they are wrong, but you do not perceive that this is so.
11 comments
“These thoughts are not according to God’s will”. So you know what God thinks and feel qualified to speak for him. Have you considered starting a religion or forming a cult? People with a direct line of communication to God sometimes do; I hear it’s very lucrative.
Good reply, C4! A Course In Miracles, I don’t know if you’d call.it a cult, but it attracts a following of believers looking for some ‘spiritual’ type of thing to latch onto and ‘save’ them. It’s all just a lot of bullshit! And it is making somebody plenty of money, which is what these things are all about.
How many lessons are there?
Yeah, no offense meant, but the whole post reads like a recruitment campaign for a cult. I has half expecting to find a link at the end where I could buy something from a self help guru promising to transform my life.
I do not believe any god exists. Therefore, i do not believe anyone can actually communicate with any non-existent god, except in the comfort of their own delusions. Hence, i have already decided that there is nothing to gain from listening to anyone who claims to speak to, and know the thoughts and Will of, any such “god” being, because it doesn’t exist.
Anyone claiming to “know” that “god” is real, or any of what such a being thinks or wants or intends, is clearly deluded, and not qualified to advise others on important matters of actual life and living.
I do believe in the golden rule (as a part of interaction protocol, not as an expectation of others; it’s entirely voluntary), and i do believe that we should not only avoid causing undue harm to others, but that we should actively strive in cooperation, to eliminate the causes of unnecessary suffering for all beings.
Miracles are unnecessary, except in the circumstance where something cannot otherwise be changed. And it is those circumstances where people are most desperate, and most vulnerable to psychological manipulation and false constructs.
The kind of people who would create works such as “a course in miracles,” may not even realize that they are exploiting the weak and vulnerable… but that is what this, and all other religious pursuits, actually amounts to.
We need to believe in reason and compassion, cooperation, compromise, and focused, strategically applied effort; not deities and miracles.
Are you a Freemason, too? I wouldn’t have minded joining the Freemasons. Trouble is, they segregate the men and women. So instead of sacrificing goats and plotting to take over the world, I’d be in the gossip circle talking about babies and knitting quilts for soldiers in Afghanistan. Blehh, no thanks.
Seems like a good time/place to drop a Manly P. Hall reference.
Okay i have to object again:
“You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.”
WHAT!?
I swear, it’s like you’re TRYING to say the opposite of the truth.
I do not think i am the home of evil, darkness and sin.
I do not think that if anyone could see the truth about me, they would be repelled, recoiling from me as if i were a poisonous snake.
I do not think that if what is true about me were revealed to me, that i would be struck with horror so intense as to compel me to immediately destroy myself.
Dude, seriously, you are either completely batshit insane, or you are buying into some blatantly contrary mysticism that is not at all rooted in reality.
In fact, i am not the home of evil, though i am indeed filled with darkness. If i believed in sin, and even if i don’t, but use a reasonable definition, i am not a sinful person at all.
Perhaps ignorant crazy paranoid religious folk might think so, but that’s not what is true.
I also do not think that the Truth about me would cause anyone to revolt or recoil. In fact, it is the opposite: their fantastically incorrect presumptions cause them to flee, prior to ever discovering any truth, preventing them from ever encountering that truth… and if they would indeed face their own fear of encountering truth (ironically ingrained in them by a system built to instill fear of truth, claiming to lead them to it), they would discover that my truth is actually not terrifying or horrible, but that i am actually a good person who should be valued, not shunned.
When people see things through scary filters that religion builds, they first see the lie of the snake, and feel compelled to escape. But they are only running from the false constructs impregnated into their imaginations by psychological enslavement, through indoctrination systems carefully crafted by diabolical men who wanted to steer the populous according to the whim of the few, in order to benefit from it.
I have seen, have known the real truth about myself, for a very long time. The truth about Me, is not what compels me to end my life; it is instead, the truth about others, the way they see me, and why they see such terrible and false things, through the filters instilled in their brains by people like You, and those who have created the system you now endorse and promote. You, sir, not us, are “doing the work of the devil.” Evil and Good exist without any god. The true evil is making people fear something that doesn’t exist, in order to get them to behave in the ways you want.
Miracles are about giving desperate people false hope, so you can keep benefiting from their existences.
I recently discovered Manly P. Hall, and i realized i have a similar mindset to his, but in a different age, a different time, with different knowledge and experiences. We shared an inclination toward the esoteric, and perceived that all religions seem to have common tenets and underlying themes. I began perceiving these “secret teachings of the ages,” many, many years before i ever learned this man existed.
There are indeed “secret teachings” which have spanned history… but none of the religions use those teachings truthfully; all attempt to use them as an enticement toward gaining members and promoting their particular agendas.
Manly P. Hall eventually became a 33rd degree mason, but freemasonry is just another version, another style, another way of perceiving and organizing many of those “secret teachings of the ages.” And then there’s all the bizarre (and potentially true) pop-culture conspiracy-ish stuff about masons… but i can’t honestly suggest that they are “behind it all.” If you dig deeper, they’re just another interesting group who participated in some events, and were likely incorrectly linked to others.
The real “bad guys” are elsewhere… though some of them may or may not be masons. I don’t think the mason part is the relevant part. There are other more important things happening.
There are 365 lesson. Take a look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles
From the wikipedia article G.W. links to above “There is no author clearly listed for the book, Helen Schucman (a psychologist) in fact wrote down the book with the help of William Thetford (also a psychologist), based on what Schucman called an “inner voice” which she identified as Jesus.” So, ACIM is just like Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and other “seers” who have been visited or talked to by angels or Jesus or some other spiritual being. More delusional nonsense.
idk I take this post differently. Language can be a barrier especially when using words like God are rooted into someone’s vocabulary and others prefer to use universe. or positivity. or love. How I take this post is to stop putting yourself down and focusing on all the negative around you and to try and focus on the positive because you radiate what you focus on and you attract what you radiate.
Even tho the language was a little heavy, that’s the meaning I drew from it by applying my own synonyms to the words you used, or what I feel like you meant for those words to represent.
I appreciated your post G.W. and I appreciate the goodness of spirit you try to bring to a troubled place. You get a lot of condescending comments sometimes and sometimes not condescending but just abrasive comments but you keep trudging and I respect that. Go you.