2/25/19

Stages of community



Stages of community

Over the past fifty years, psychotherapists, management consultants, and other students of group behavior have come to discern that when groups evolve, they tend to do so in certain somewhat predictable stages. This is not to say that all groups evolve in wisdom, maturity, effectiveness, or civility. Most, in fact, do not. But when they do, there is an order and lawfulness to the process. These stages have been given various names. My preferred ones are pseudocommunity, chaos, emptiness, and community.

For many groups or organizations the most common initial stage, pseudocommunity, is the only one. It is a stage of pretense. The group pretends it already is a community, that the participants have only superficial individual differences and no cause for conflict. The primary means it uses to maintain this pretense is through a set of unspoken common norms we call manners: you should try your best not to say anything that might antagonize or upset anyone else; if someone else says something that offends you or evokes a painful feeling or memory, you should pretend it hasn't bothered you in the least; and if disagreement or other unpleasantness emerges, you should immediately change the subject. These are rules that any good hostess knows. They may create a smoothly functioning dinner party but nothing more significant. The communication in a pseudocommunity is filled with generalizations. It is polite, inauthentic, boring, sterile, and unproductive.

Over time profound individual differences may gradually emerge so
that the group enters the stage of chaos and not infrequently self destructs. The theme of pseudocommunity is the covering up of individual differences; the predominant theme of the stage of chaos is the attempt to obliterate such differences. This is done as the group members try to convert, heal, or fix each other or else argue for simplistic organizational norms. It is an irritable and irritating, thoughtless, rapid-fire, and often noisy win/lose type of process that gets nowhere.

If the group can hang in together through this unpleasantness without self-destructing or retreating into pseudocommunity, then it begins to enter "emptiness." This is a stage of hard, hard work, a time when the members work to empty themselves of everything that stands between them and community. And that is a lot. Many of the things that must be relinquished or sacrificed with integrity are virtual human universals: prejudices, snap judgments, fixed expectations, the desire to convert, heal, or fix, the urge to win, the fear of looking like a fool, the need to control. Other things may be exquisitely personal: hidden griefs, hatreds, or terrors that must be confessed, made public, before the individual can be fully "present" to the group. It is a time of risk and courage, and while it often feels relieving, it also often feels like dying.

The transition from chaos to emptiness is seldom dramatic and often agonizingly prolonged. One or two group members may risk baring their souls, only to have another, who cannot bear the pain, suddenly switch the subject to something inane. The group as a whole has still not become empty enough to truly listen. It bounces back into temporary chaos. Eventually, however, it becomes sufficiently empty for a kind of miracle to occur.

At this point a member will speak of something particularly poignant and authentic. Instead of retreating from it, the group now sits in silence, absorbing it. Then a second member will quietly say something equally authentic. She may not even respond to the first member, but one does not get the feeling he has been ignored; rather, it feels as if the second member has gone up and laid herself on the altar alongside the first. The silence returns, and out of it, a third member will speak with eloquent appropriateness. Community has been born.

The shift into community is often quite sudden and dramatic. The change is palpable. A spirit of peace pervades the room. There is more silence, yet more of worth gets said. It is like music. The people work together with an exquisite sense of timing, as if they were a finely tuned orchestra under the direction of an invisible celestial conductor. Many actually sense the presence of God in the room. If the group is a public workshop of previous strangers who soon must part, then there is little for it to do beyond enjoying the gift. If it an organization, however, now that it is a community it is ready to go to work - making decisions, planning, negotiating, and so on - often with phenomenal efficiency and effectiveness.

from: M. Scott Peck, A World Waiting to Be Born


What is the work to be done?

-  oOo   -

Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky







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The first law of chaos

"The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone."
ACIM Text, Chapter 23
The first law of chaos states that the truth is different for everyone. This is the foundation upon which chaos is established and maintained. To be in a state of chaos is to be in a state of rebellion against God. The state of God is well ordered and harmonious. The state of God is not chaos. The first law of chaos is based upon limited selective perception, and it is best illustrated by the story of the three blind men and the elephant. Each of the three had only a limited experience of a much larger creature, and mistook his separate limited perceptions as being exclusively representative of the whole creature. Each of the three were both partially right and wholly wrong. The fable accurately describes the problem, but it also contains within it the seed of a solution. As the story ends being a provocation, the three blind men are arguing, insisting that each alone is right and all the others wrong and misguided. The obvious solution presents itself to combine the three sets of separate perceptions into a greater and more expansive view, and thereby reach a more harmonious understanding of the whole. It would be a closer approximation of the truth. It would also have the virtue of reducing strife.
-  oOo   -
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky






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Teaching Oblivion - ACIM failures

Oblivion: The condition or state of being forgotten or unknown. ~ Merriam-Webster

- - oOo - - 

The definition of reality is God's, not yours. He created it, and He knows what it is. You who knew have forgotten, and unless He had given you a way to remember you would have condemned yourselves to oblivion. God would reunite you with yourself, and did not abandon you in your seeming distress.

The ego teaches that your function on earth is destruction, and that you have no function at all in Heaven. It would thus destroy you here and bury you here, leaving you no inheritance except the dust out of which it thinks you were made. As long as it is reasonably satisfied with you, as its reasoning goes, it offers you oblivion. When it becomes overtly savage, it offers you hell. Yet neither oblivion nor hell is as unacceptable to you as Heaven. For your definition of Heaven IS hell and oblivion, and the REAL Heaven is the greatest threat you think you could experience.

Hell and oblivion are ideas which YOU made up, and you are bent on demonstrating their reality to establish YOURS. If THEIR reality is questioned, you believe that YOURS is. For you believe that ATTACK is your reality, and that your destruction is the final proof that you were RIGHT.

If you decide to have and give and BE nothing except a dream, you MUST direct your thoughts unto oblivion.

The ego teaches that hell is HERE, and bids you leap from hell into oblivion.

This world is but the dream that you can BE alone, and think without affecting those apart from you. To be alone must mean you are apart, and if you are, you cannot BUT be sick.
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When you made visible what is not true, what true became invisible to you. Yet it cannot be invisible in itself, for the Holy Spirit sees it with perfect clarity. It is invisible to you because you are looking at something else. Yet it is no more up to you to decide what is visible and what is invisible, than it is up to you to decide what reality is. What can be seen is what the Holy Spirit sees. The definition of reality is God's, not yours. He created it, and He knows what it is. You who knew have forgotten, and unless He had given you a way to remember you would have condemned yourself to oblivion.

 Because of your Father's Love you can never forget Him, for no one can forget what God Himself placed in his memory. You can deny it, but you cannot lose it A Voice will answer every question you ask, and a vision will correct the perception of everything you see For what you have made invisible is the only truth, and what you have not heard is the only Answer. God would reunite you with yourself, and did not abandon you in your distress. You are waiting only for Him, and do not know it. Yet His memory shines in your mind and cannot be obliterated. It is no more past than future, being forever always.

You have but to ask for this memory, and you will remember.

T-12.VIII.3. 1 - T-12.VIII.51


-  oOo  -


Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky

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Extension, expression and miracles - ACIM topics


 Extension, expression and miracles

 Expressions of love



I. Principles of Miracles

Principle 1: There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.

Principle 3: Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.

Principle 9: Like all expressions of love, which are always miraculous in the true sense, the exchange reverses the physical laws.

Principle 11: Through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.

Principle 35: Miracles are expressions of love

T-4.IV.11.11 I understand that miracles are natural, because they are expressions of love.

Expressing awareness of Christ


Principle 44: The miracle is an expression of an inner awareness of Christ and the acceptance of His Atonement.

The proof of Atonement


T-1.III.1.7 The power to work miracles belongs to you. I will provide the opportunities to do them, but you must be ready and willing. Doing them will bring conviction in the ability, because conviction comes through accomplishment. The ability is the potential, the achievement is its expression, and the Atonement, which is the natural profession of the children of God, is the purpose.

T-1.III.7.4 As an expression of what you truly are, the miracle places the mind in a state of grace. The mind then naturally welcomes the Host within and the stranger without. When you bring in the stranger, he becomes your brother.

T-1.III.8.1 That the miracle may have effects on your brothers that you may not recognize is not your concern. The miracle will always bless *you*. Miracles you are not asked to perform have not lost their value. They are still expressions of your own state of grace, but the action aspect of the miracle should be controlled by me because of my complete awareness of the whole plan.

T-1.IV.4.6 I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me, and to whatever extent he permits it. Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus strengthens it. Those who witness for me are expressing, through their miracles, that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.

T-2.IV.5. The value of the Atonement does not lie in the manner in which it is expressed. In fact, if it is used truly, it will inevitably be expressed in whatever way is most helpful to the receiver. This means that a miracle, to attain its full efficacy, must be expressed in a language that the recipient can understand without fear. This does not necessarily mean that this is the highest level of communication of which he is capable. It does mean, however, that it is the highest level of communication of which he is capable The whole aim of the miracle is to raise the level of communication, not to lower it by increasing fear.

Other expressions


T-1.V.1.3 While you believe you are in a body, however, you can choose between loveless and miraculous channels of expression. You can make an empty shell, but you cannot express nothing at all.

T-2.I.5.6 In reality you are perfectly unaffected by all expressions of lack of love. These can be from yourself and others, from yourself to others, or from others to you.Peace is an attribute *in* you.

The body as a means of expression


T-1.VII.2.1 Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this. The Love of God, for a little while, must still be expressed through one body to another, because vision is still so dim. You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable. Learning to do his is the body's only true usefulness

Expressions of miracle-mindedness


T-2.V.3. I have already said that miracles are expressions of miracle-mindedness, and miracle-mindedness means right-mindedness. The right-minded neither exalt nor depreciate the mind of the miracle worker or the miracle receiver. However, as a correction, the miracle need not await the right-mindedness of the receiver. In fact, its purpose is to restore him *to* his right mind. It is essential, however, that the miracle worker be in his right mind, however briefly, or he will be unable to re-establish right-mindedness in someone else.

An expression of charity


T-2.V.10.5 I said before that only revelation transcends time. The miracle, as an expression of charity, can only shorten it. It must be understood, however, that whenever you offer a miracle to another, you are shortening the suffering of both of you. This corrects retroactively as well as progressively.

Special Principles of Miracle Workers

(1) The miracle abolishes the need for lower-order concerns.

(2) A clear distinction between what is created and what is made is essential. All forms of healing rest on this fundamental correction in level perception.

(3) Never confuse right- and wrong-mindedness. Responding to any form of error with anything except a desire to heal is an expression of this confusion.

(4) The miracle is always a denial of this error and an affirmation of the truth. Only right-mindedness can correct in a way that has any real effect. Pragmatically, what has no real effect has no real existence. Its effect, then, is emptiness. Being without substantial content, it lends itself to projection.

(5) The level-adjustment power of the miracle induces the right perception for healing. Until this has occurred healing cannot be understood. Forgiveness is an empty gesture unless it entails correction. Without this it is essentially judgmental, rather than healing.

(6) Miracle-minded forgiveness is correction. It has no element of judgment at all. The statement "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" in no way evaluates they do. It is an appeal to God to heal their minds There is no reference to the outcome of the error. That does not matter.

(7) The injunction "Be of one mind" is the statement for revelation-readiness. My request "Do this in remembrance of me" is the appeal for cooperation from miracle workers. The two statements are not in the same order of reality. Only the latter involves an awareness of time, since to remember is to recall the past in the present. Time is under my direction, but timelessness belongs to God. In time we exist for and with each other. In timelessness we coexist with God.

(8) You can do much on behalf of your own healing and that of others if, in a situation calling for help, you think of it this way:


  • I am here only to be truly helpful.
  • I am here to represent Him Who sent me.
  • I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me.
  • I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me.

An expression of fear

T-2.VI.7. The first corrective step in undoing the error is to know first that the conflict is an expression of fear. Say to yourself that you must somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen. Then the whole process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of pragmatic steps in the larger process of accepting the Atonement as the remedy. These steps may be summarized in this way:

Know first that this is fear.
Fear arises from lack of love.
The only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.
Perfect love is the Atonement

An expression of will and power


T-2.VIII.1.3 Your will to create was given you by your Creator, Who was expressing the same Will in His creation. Since creative ability rests in the mind, everything you create is necessarily a matter of will. It also follows that whatever you alone make is real in your own sight, though not in the Mind of God.

T-4.IV.8.2 There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he can limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do. Do not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. 6 Judge how well you have done this

Revelation cannot be expressed


T-4.VII.7.2 Revelation is not enough, because it is only communication God. God does not need revelation returned to Him, which would clearly be impossible, but He does want it brought to others. This cannot be done with the actual revelation; its content cannot be expressed, because it is intensely personal to the mind that receives it. It can, however, be returned by that mind to other minds, through the attitudes the knowledge from the revelation brings.

Full power of creation cannot be expressed

T-5.IV.7.3 The full power of creation cannot be expressed as long as any of God's ideas is withheld from the Kingdom. The joint will of the Sonship is the only creator that can create like the Father, because only the complete can think completely, and the thinking of God lacks nothing. Everything you think that is not through the Holy Spirit lacking.

An expression of confidence

T-7.IX.7.1 Be confident that you have never lost your Identity and the extensions which maintain It in wholeness and peace. Miracles are an expression of this confidence. They are reflections of both your proper identification with your brothers, and of your awareness that your identification is maintained by extension. The miracle is a lesson in total perception. By including any part of totality in the lesson, you have included the whole.

Normal expressions of mind


T-8.VII.11.1 The removal of blocks, then, is the only way to guarantee help and healing. Help and healing are the normal expressions of a mind that is working through the body, but not *in* it.

Physical expressions of the fear of awakening


T-8.IX.3. Wholeness heals because it is of the mind. All forms of sickness, even unto death, are physical expressions of the fear of awakening.

T-9.II.2.4 An individual may ask for physical healing because he is fearful of bodily harm. At the same time, if he were healed physically, the threat to his thought system might be considerably more fearful to him than its physical expression. In this case he is not really asking for release from fear, but for the removal of a symptom that he himself selected. This request is, therefore, not for healing at all.

Desire to kill


T-12.VII.13. Remember, then, that whenever you look without and react unfavorably to what you see, you have judged yourself unworthy and have condemned yourself to death. The death penalty is the ego's ultimate goal, for it fully believes that you are a criminal, as deserving of death as God knows you are deserving of life. The death penalty never leaves the ego's mind, for that is what it always reserves for you in the end. Wanting to kill you as the final expression of its feeling for you, it lets you live but to await death. It will torment you while you live, but its hatred is not satisfied until you die. For your destruction is the one end toward which it works, and the only end with which it will be satisfied.

Indirect expressions of the will to live


T-14.I.4. Any direction that would lead you where the Holy Spirit leads you not, goes nowhere. Anything you deny that He knows to be true you have denied yourself, and He must therefore teach you not to deny it. Undoing indirect, as doing is. You were created only to create, neither to see nor do. These are but indirect expressions of the will to live, which has been blocked by the capricious and unholy whim of death and murder that your Father does not share with you. You have set yourself the task of sharing what cannot be shared. And while you think it possible to learn to do this, you will not believe all that possible to learn to do.


Expressing conflict


T-14.VI.6. You who speak in dark and devious symbols do not understand the language you have made. It has no meaning, for its purpose is not communication, but rather the disruption of communication. If the purpose of language is communication, how can this tongue mean anything? Yet even this strange and twisted effort to communicate through not communicating holds enough of love to make it meaningful if its Interpreter is not its maker. You who made it are but expressing conflict, from which the Holy Spirit would release you. Leave what you would communicate to Him. He will interpret it to you with perfect clarity, for He knows with Whom you are in perfect communication.

Expression of the holy instant


T-17.V.1. The holy relationship is the expression of the holy instant in living in this world. Like everything about salvation, the holy instant is a practical device, witnessed to by its results. The holy instant never fails. The experience of it is always felt. Yet without expression it is not remembered.

T-17.V.11.10 And by this lack of thanks and gratitude you make yourself unable to express the holy instant, and thus lose sight of it.

T-17.V.13. You *have* received the holy instant, but you may have established a condition in which you cannot use it. As a result, you do not realize that it is with you still. And by cutting yourself off from its expression, you have denied yourself its benefit. You reinforce this every time you attack your brother, for the attack must blind you to yourself. And it is impossible to deny yourself, and to recognize what has been given and received by you.

The expression of what you made yourself to be


T-19.II.7. There is no stone in all the ego's embattled citadel that is more heavily defended than the idea that sin is real; the natural expression of what the Son of God has made himself to be, and what he is. To the ego, this is no mistake. For this is its reality; this is the "truth" from which escape will always be impossible. This is his past, his present and his future.For he has somehow managed to corrupt his Father, and change His Mind completely. Mourn, then, the death of God, Whom sin has killed! And this would be the ego's wish, which in its madness it believes it has accomplished.

Expression of forgiveness


T-19.IV.A.14. The Holy Spirit has given you love's messengers to send instead of those you trained through fear. They are as eager to return to you what they hold dear as are the others. If you send them forth, they will see only the blameless and the beautiful, the gentle and the kind. They will be as careful to let no little act of charity, no tiny expression of forgiveness, no little breath of love escape their notice. And they will return with all the happy things they found, to share them lovingly with you. Be not afraid of them. They offer you salvation. Theirs are the messages of safety, for they see the world as kind.

Truth and its expression


T-20.I.2. This week begins with palms and ends with lilies, the white and holy sign the Son of God is innocent. Let no dark sign of crucifixion intervene between the journey and its purpose; between the acceptance of the truth and its expression. This week we celebrate life, not death.

The expression of a wish to see a little part of him and sacrifice the rest


T-26.I.1.6 To see a brother in another body, separate from yours, is the expression of a wish to see a little part of him and sacrifice the rest. Look at the world, and you will see nothing attached to anything beyond itself. All seeming entities can come a little nearer, or go a little farther off, but cannot join.

Expression in the terms of form


T-30.III.1.1 Idols are quite specific. But your will is universal, being limitless. And so it has no form, nor is content for its expression in the terms of form. Idols are limits. They are the belief that there are forms that will bring happiness, and that, by limiting, is all attained.

LESSON 27.


Above all else I want to see.

W-pI.27.1.1 Today's idea expresses something stronger than mere determination.

LESSON 74.


W-pI.74.1.5 Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an expression of the Will of God, you have no goal but His.

LESSON 78.


W-pI.78.6.4 The body's eyes are closed, and as you think of him who grieved you, let your mind be shown the light in him beyond your grievances.

W-pI.78.8.1 What you have asked for cannot be denied. Your savior has been waiting long for this. He would be free, and make his freedom yours. The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. And what you see through Him will free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved.

LESSON 82.

W-pI.82.1.2 My forgiveness is the means by which the light of the world finds expression through me.

LESSON 89.


W-pI.89.3. (78) Let miracles replace all grievances. By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit's, and perceive them as one. By this idea do I accept my release from hell. By this idea do I express my willingness to have all my illusions be replaced with truth, according to God's plan for my salvation. I would make no exceptions and no substitutes.

LESSON 94.


W-pI.96.4.1 Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self expression. And the mind which serves the spirit is at peace and filled with joy.

3 Expressed through you, the Holy Spirit will accept this gift that you received of Him, increase its power and give it back to you.

LESSON 130.


W-pI.130.9. God will be there. For you have called upon the great unfailing power which will take this giant step with you in gratitude. Nor will you fail to see His thanks expressed in tangible perception and in truth. You will not doubt what you will look upon, for though it is perception, it is not the kind of seeing that your eyes alone have ever seen before.

LESSON 185.


W-pI.185.2.1 No one can mean these words and not be healed. He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is himself a dream. He cannot make a hell and think it real. He wants the peace of God, and it is given him. For that is all he wants, and that is all he will receive. Many have said these words. But few indeed have meant them. You have but to look upon the world you see around you to be sure how very few they are. The world would be completely changed, should any two agree these words express the only thing they want.

C-in.3.1 This course remains within the ego framework, where it is needed. It is not concerned with what is beyond all error because it is planned only to set the direction towards it. Therefore it uses words, which are symbolic, and cannot express what lies beyond symbols.

-  oOo   -
Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky





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A Course in Miracles and Christianity

A Course in Miracles is a modern, in-depth, commentary on the message of the Christian Gospels. Jesus of Nazareth's message is the essential foundation of the Course. The primary means for us to explore this connection is through an understanding the New Testament, even if some of the Course's symbolism is purely contemporary. The Course itself assumes that its readers are familiar with the stories and characters in the Gospels. There are a thousand, or more, direct and indirect biblical references embedded in the Course. These give the Course a rich and multi-layered texture to those familiar with the Scriptures. Likewise, the writings in the New Testament take on an entirely new significance when revisited in the light of the Course's message.

One function of a miracle is to shake up stagnant and erroneous perceptions, as an aid to learning. The Course begins by challenging our basic understanding of what a miracle is, by expanding the definition of a miracle and by elaborating basic principles. It then proceeds to shake up the basic theological dogmas of Christianity. The Course firmly looks away from sacrifice and suffering as the basis for salvation, and toward the eternal life of spirit present now. Ultimately, it catalyzes our conceptions about the reality of the world and separate individual identity, by focusing upon the possibility of a direct mystical perception of the essential unity of God and creation. It does all this while simultaneously affirming the life, miracles, teachings, and resurrection of Jesus 2000 years ago, and presenting him as a practical role model for everyone today. "What would Jesus do?" is transformed into, "What would this look like if seen through the eyes of Christ?" To learn from the Holy Spirit and to use Jesus as a role model, according to the Course, one must be willing to question every pre-existing belief and value. This prospect is bound to be unattractive for those who are satisfied with the status quo of established church traditions, and it is unsettling to even those who are not. This is as it should be. One of the basic principles of miracles is that they are unsettling.

The Birth of Holiness

The Course does not place any special significance upon Jesus' physical birth. In fact, it doesn't even mention it at all. To understand why, it is useful to have some idea of the way in which the Course views bodies in the physical world. All that is needed is to look around and simply observe that everything you see is in a state of constant flux. There is nothing you can look at, with a few exceptions (like the largest geologic features), that existed 500 years ago. Likewise, if we could fast-forward 500 years into the future, most everything you see now would not exist then. This includes your own body.

What we think of as the physical world is generally not radically different from day to day, but given enough time even the mountains will slide into the sea and the sun will grow cold. Thus, the physical world is a temporary thing, and human bodies have even less permanence then most of the other things of the world.

The Course suggests that God does not create temporary things that have beginnings and endings. This is not all that different from the ideas expressed by Jesus in the Gospels when he cautioned, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal." Matthew 6:19 Throughout the New Testament and throughout the Course, there is a distinction drawn between the dual nature of humankind - one physical and ephemeral, and the other spiritual and eternal. This is even alluded to in the Book of Genesis with its dual creation stories. In the first chapter of Genesis, on the sixth day of creation, God created humankind "in his own image." But, in the second chapter of Genesis, after the seventh day of creation, Jehovah "formed man from the dust of the ground." Many students of the Bible have interpreted this as an acknowledgement of the dual nature of humanity.

Although some, but not all, of the Gospels attempt to make Jesus' body into something unique and divine from birth, there is nothing in the New Testament to indicate that Jesus though of himself that way, and A Course in Miracles certainly does not do so. If Jesus' body was a unique instance of divine creation, there is no good explanation offered in the Gospels why that body suffered and was destroyed as easily as any other body.

The Course mentions Christmas as the time to celebrate the birth of holiness into the world, which could be any time, or ideally, all the time. It is generally accepted today that December 25th does not correspond to the date of Jesus' actual birthday, which is unknown. The December date was selected by the early church fathers to correspond with and to supplant pre-existing pagan festivals. In the Course, Christmas is viewed as a state of mind embracing joy, for "the time of Christ is meaningless apart from joy."

The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by him. In his presence, the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For he is host to God. And you need but invite him in who is there already, by recognizing that his host is one, and no thought alien to his oneness can abide with him there. Love must be total to give him welcome, for the presence of holiness creates the holiness which surrounds it. No fear can touch the host who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the host is as holy as the perfect innocence which he protects, and whose power protects him. A Course in Miracles, Chapter 15


Jesus, the Man and Role Model for Humanity

A Course in Miracles does not offer a historical narrative of Jesus' walk on earth 2000 years ago. Instead, the Course deals mainly with his ideas, interpretations, and meanings, although it does offer corrections for several statements that the Gospel accounts have put into Jesus' mouth. Specifically, the Course denies that Jesus ever actually said, "Think not that I came to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword," Matthew 10:34, or that he felt betrayed by Judas. Rather, the Course takes the Gospel stories as givens, and assumes that the reader is familiar with them.

Jesus states in the Course, "I was a man who remembered the soul and its knowledge," he acknowledges his disciples, and he mentions several by name.

My brothers slept during the so-called "agony" in the garden, but I could not be angry with them because I had learned I could not be abandoned. Peter swore he would never deny me, but he did so three times. He did offer to defend me with the sword, which I naturally refused, not being at all in need of bodily protection. A Course in Miracles, Chapter 6

Naturally enough, the Course focuses mainly on miracles, but leaves it to the reader to apply the general principles of miracles to the specific examples given in the Gospels. The Course states that miracles enable man to heal the sick and raise the dead, and asks, "Why is it strange to you that faith can move mountains? This is indeed a little feat for such a power."

The Course gives an extensive and detained discussion of the healing power of miracles, a rational explanation of how they work, and also why they frequently do not work. According to the Course, miracles are natural, but the basis of miracles cannot be briefly summarized except to say that the barrier to the miraculous is fear. According to the Course, we are afraid of miracles, afraid of love, afraid of each other, and afraid of God. Fear is the essential existential problem that keeps us alienated.


The Meaning of the Crucifixion

If Jesus' crucifixion and physical death are the pivotal facts of Christianity, as many believe, then the Course and Christianity have very little in common.

"The crucifixion did NOT establish the atonement. The resurrection did. This is a point which many very sincere Christians have misunderstood . . . If the crucifixion is seen from an upside-down point of view, it DOES appear as if God permitted, and even encouraged, one of his sons to suffer BECAUSE he was good. Many ministers preach this every day." A Course in Miracles, Chapter 3

Many believe that Jesus' death on the cross atoned for all sin for all time in the same way that the Jewish practice of ceremonial animal sacrifice on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, made good for the annual accumulation of sins by the people of Israel. This is the theory of Jesus as a divine scapegoat. In fact, the word "scapegoat" derives from the Yom Kippur temple sacrifice practice, and not the Passover lamb.

The actual circumstances of the crucifixion during the Jewish holy days of Passover forced the early Christian church to use the analogy of the sacrificial lamb whose blood was use to mark the lintels and doorposts to protect the Israelites from the angel of death during the final plague of Egypt, the killing of the first-born. The logic, it seems, is that sacrificing the life of God in human form would be a lot more powerful than sacrificing the life of an animal, and Jesus' spilt blood would provide more potent protection. The fundamental problem is the idea that we need an intermediary to protect us from God, and it contradicts Jesus' statement in the Gospels, quoting Hosea 6:6, "But go ye and learn what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." Matthew 9:13

The Course offers another interpretation of the Gospels that fit the facts more appropriately. Jesus' physical body was crucified and died, not to protect us from God's wrath, but to demonstrate through his resurrections that we are, in fact, safe from the angel of death.


Mystery of the Resurrection

In the Gospel accounts of the resurrection we have four slightly different versions of the events on the first Easter Sunday. In the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John, the women arrived in the morning to discover the stone already had been rolled away from the empty tomb prior to their arrival. One might get the impression from this sequence of events that Jesus' dead body was re-vitalized in the same manner that Lazarus was raised from the dead, and that rolling away the stone was a physical necessity for Jesus to walk out of the tomb. In the Gospel of Matthew, however, the stone is moved in the women's presence after they arrived, for the purpose of showing them that the tomb was vacant.

Messages related to A Course in Miracles indicate that Jesus' body dematerialized in the tomb sometime before that Sunday morning. "The body disappears, and no longer hides what lies beyond. It merely ceases to interfere with vision." The mysterious image on the Shroud of Turin, if it is the actual burial cloth Peter found in the empty tomb (John 20:6), may be the tangible trace evidence of that unprecedented event.

Course materials specifically relate that the resurrected Jesus "came in the flesh." See 1st John 4:2.

I did assume a human form with human attributes afterwards, to speak to those who were to prove the body’s worthlessness to the world. This has been much misunderstood. I came to tell them that death is illusion, and the mind that made the body can make another since form itself is an illusion. They did not understand. But now I talk to you and give you the same message. The death of an illusion means nothing. It disappears when you awaken and decide to dream no more. And you still do have the power to make this decision as I did. A Course in Miracles, Special Messages

The decision that Jesus of the Course speaks of here is the decision to look past the glittering unreal temptations of the ephemeral world, and to find joy in the unwavering beauty of God's true creation. It is a decision to embrace God's will as our own, not out of any onerous sense of obedience, compulsion, or fear of painful consequences, but in recognition that doing God's will is the only source of true happiness.

God holds out his hand to his Son to help him rise and return to him. I [Jesus] can help because the world is illusion, and I have overcome the world. Look past the tomb, the body, the illusion. Have faith in nothing but the spirit and the guidance God gives you. A Course in Miracles, Special Messages

Conclusion

If the miracles of Jesus, his teachings, and his resurrection are what define Christianity, then A Course in Miracles is not only compatible with the Christian faith, it is a welcome complement and amplification of its teachings. The Course makes rational sense of the Gospels in ways that mainstream Christian discourse has not been able to approximate, while at the same time it provides specific instructions to a direct and personal mystical experience of spirit. The Course, therefore, is in essence a practical guide to the miraculous.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do." John 14:12

The Course affirms that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth as a man; that he had disciples; that he was crucified and died in the flesh; that he was resurrected in the flesh; that he is always with us as a living spirit and available to each of us when we turn to him; and that his on-going purpose is the salvation of the world and everyone in it. His message is unchanged in A Course in Miracles: Love God, love your brother as yourself, and judge not. "For many are called, but few are chosen," of Matthew 22:14 is revised in the Course to read, "ALL are called but few choose to listen."








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A Course in Miracles (ACIM) and New Thought

In the "urtext" version of "A Course in Miracles," it is written:

"Man's spiritual eye can sleep, but as will shortly appear in the notes (reference Bob, elevator operator) a sleeping eye can still see. One translation of the Fall, a view emphasized by Mary Baker Eddy, and worthy of note, is that 'a deep sleep fell upon Adam'. While the Bible continues to associate this sleep as a kind of anaesthetic utilized for protection of Adam during the creation of Eve, Mrs. Eddy was correct in emphasizing that nowhere is there any reference made to his waking up. While Christian Science is clearly incomplete, this point is much in its favor."

Much of this will sound very strange to some " A Course in Miracles" (ACIM) students, for its specificity of expression is very different from the grand abstractions which many Crouse students seem to favor. However, in the ACIM urtext we have found many examples of the author discussing very specific persons, issues, and religious doctrine, both historic and contemporary to the early scribing (1965 - 1966).

In passage quoted above, the author states, essentially, that Mary Baker Eddy's teaching of Christian Science was right about at least some things, but that those teachings didn't take it far enough. Of course, many were inspired by Mary Baker Eddy to expand the ideas with their own unique insights, such as Charles Fillmore, founder of Unity Church, Ernest Holmes, founder of Science of Mind, and the entire "New Thought" movement, and to take the ideas further.

In the event that some brother might benefit from exposure to the writings of classic New Thought authors, we work to make them available, along with other writings mentioned in the ACIM urtext. Specifically, "Letters from the Scattered Brotherhood."


June 10, 2005
Louisville, Kentucky





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Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood

Free eBook version
Published on Scribd.com - eBook in PDF format


Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood
House of Light digital edition

114 pages
11 x 8.5" 





Editor’s introduction

The one hundred four letters collected in this book were originally published from the late 1930’s through the mid 1940’s in a weekly magazine called the Churchman. The letters were published as anonymous contributions by various writers from across the country. It is a mistake to think that all of the letters were written by a single individual. They were not. Many varous writers contributed over several years. From the content and style of the letters it seems likely that these unknown authors were professional Protestant clergy, or at least deeply immersed in the more spiritual side of the Christian faith.

The language of these letters can sometimes seem a bit archaic to the modern ear, but it is also clear that the authors were lovers of language, extremely literate, and sincere spiritual thinkers. A modern reader might notice the unaccustomed emphasis sometimes placed on racial divisions and identification with one’s “race,” but that is simply a sign of those times, and the word was also used to mean the “human race.” Some incomplete effort has been made to clean up the more annoying uses of “thee”, “thine”, and “shalt,” but enough remain so as to leave no doubt that these letters come to us from an earlier generation. Subsequent revisions to the ebook will reflect additional modernization efforts by the editor.

There letters were originally collected in book form by the editorial efforts of Mary Strong, about whom not much is known. First published in 1948 by Harper & Row, the book was reprinted in 1991 and it is still currently available for purchase. This present digital edition draws upon the same source materials as did the printed book, but the letters have been re-compiled in a different order of my own selection.

Coming out of the dark days of the great depression of the 1930’s and the terrifying days of World War II, this collection appears as a mighty call to take heart in the ever present solace of spiritual truth, and to focus on spirit rather than the distressing news of the day. As a source of inspiration and practical spiritual insight in the best Christian tradition, these letters are as valuable today as they were during those turbulent times.


Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood

 
—oOo—
Tom Fox Louisville, Kentucky


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1968 - Bill Thetford looks for a publisher for ACIM - letters

In 1968, after the first volume of A Course In Miracles (the Text) had been transcribed, Bill Thetford and Helen Schucman began shopping the manuscript around, looking for a publisher. These two letters have never before been made public.

Carmen and I obtained copies of these letters on June 22, 2000.





-  oOo   -

Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky


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2/23/19

God Calling February 23 Secret of Healing

God Calling
February 23
Secret of Healing

Love the busy life. It is a joy-filled life. I love you and bid you be of good cheer. Take your fill of joy in the spring.

Live outside whenever possible. Sun and air are my great healing forces, and that inward joy that changes poisoned blood to a pure, healthy life-giving flow.

Never forget that real healing of body, mind, and spirit comes from within, from the close loving contact of your spirit with my spirit.









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2/22/19

Scattered Brotherhood - Keep the Contact


-  oOo   -

Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky


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You Must Trust

February 22

You Must Trust

You must trust me wholly. This lesson has to be learned. You shall be helped, you shall be led, guided, continually. The children of Israel would long before have entered the Promised Land - only their doubts and fears continually drove them back into the wilderness. Remember always, doubts delay. Are you trusting all to me or not?

I have told you how to live and you must do it. My children, I love you. Trust my tender love. It will never fail you, but you must learn not to fail it.

Oh! Could you see, you would understand. You have much to learn in turning out fear and being at peace. All your doubts arrest my work. You must not doubt. I died to save you from sin and doubt and worry. You must believe in me absolutely.




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Children of the Way

Children of the Way

Yes, there seems to be a heavy dismaying delay in the outer world, as if the waters of material life were in heavy tide and the times were frozen. And yet you, as children of the Way, have been secretly freed from fear as you have advanced in your invisible selves.
The paradox is puzzling to many who journey upon this road, that great revelation and joy often cometh in times of seeming darkness, obstruction and difficulty. In periods of confusion those who live in the invisible while in the visible world can be as yeast, the ferment, the center of the light which is illuminating the dark places, because they remain in peace and are quietly and gently instructed. And by instruction I mean the only form it could take, that of feeling the actual Presence, the reality of the helping guiding spirit.
As you well know, when novices attempt to push forward through their own effort and fresh enthusiasm the world opposes. This is true in art and all human endeavor – that when a positive move is made an obstruction is met. The question then is, Will the challenge dismay and discourage?
In the material world the successful ones are not dismayed but gather more strength, win more victories. But the young soul with its new perceptions half revealed, a little overconfident because he is not on guard against the outer you, goes down in a cloud of chilling doubt, for the world is grim indeed to those sensitive souls just awakening.

When you go beyond the point of perception, the burden is lifted for the first time. Remain steadfast! Return to childlike simplicity and doubt not. Are you not aware that there is a no-man’s-land between your periods of invisible at-one-ment, your holy communion, your sense of reliance in these heavenly moments, and the contact with the impinging material world with its laws of time and place, events and confusions?

It is indeed hard to remain there and remember across the no-man’s-land to this place of creative power and serenity. What has happened, and why you have felt the protection of peace, is that the no-man’s-land is narrowing, you remain closer to your place of safety and you are able to bring beams of light to your material world.

You have asked to be spiritual beings; do you know what spirituality is? It is a loftiness, a sustaining, august, fiery, yet still presence. Can you carry this feeling across no-man’s-land and hold it in your spiritually-evaporating outside life? Whatever happens, stand in thy full spiritual stature and deny everything that is not of God; nothing will then have power over you except your highest conception.

Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood




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You will come to this place

It may be helpful for you to consider the fact that to permit stupid thoughts to dwell and slip through the mind is as dangerous as to let sharp delicate tools slip through the fingers. Therefore the old practice of self-examination is recommended if it is made with clean, concentrated thinking that challenges one’s words and deeds during the miniature life of a day, thus planning for the future. See and realize the strange unreasonable elements that seem to come from nowhere; shades of savagery born from self-pity, the constant over-sweet voice that indulges the self, condoning excuses. There is much degeneration due to emotional storms, even though they are secret storms, that needs the strong tools of creative, intelligent thought to clear away. Yes, build yourselves a practical, efficient, spiritually-hard working instrument that will live your life for you more easily, in balance, so that you will walk sure-footed through states of emotion. When you are stung by a hurt, an unreasonableness, a delay, watch your response; take it out and look at it. You are to think your way out. Now that you are more aware of divine assistance, cease from being fools, for the wise man is he who when he prays for wisdom and receives it, acts upon it. Many pray, receive and do not recognize it. Pray that you may realize the tools of thought-recognize them-when they are put shining into your hands. There are no excuses in this realm.


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2/14/19

ACIM and comets


Great comet of 1965 - Ikeya-Seki - Wikipedia

Comet Ikeya-Seki was unknown until it was first seen in the night sky on September 18, 1965.  The comet raced toward the sun in its elliptical orbit until reaching its closest point on October 21, 1965.  It proved to be one of the brightest comets seen in the last thousand years, and is sometimes known as the Great Comet of 1965.  It was so bright that it was clearly visible in the daytime sky next to the Sun. The comet was seen to break into three pieces just before its passage of the sun. The three pieces continued together in almost identical orbits.
 
October 21, 1965 was the day that Helen Schucman first begin scribing A Course in Miracles.

-  oOo   -

Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky




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Let us be quite honest- Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood



Let us be quite honest

Some of you say, why is this silence you speak of so important? Or, he is a mystic, as if that put a person outside of the life of practical religion. What is religion? What is a “faith”? Are they not worship of God and a belief that we can know him? Jesus said that eternal life was a state of mind, that is, if knowing something is a state of mind, when he said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee.“
Let us be quite honest and ask ourselves how we can know him and if there is any other way than through communion with him as well as that communion can be made. Can we learn anything without listening, even in the sense of scholastic study? Complete attention in a classroom is the first step in an institution of learning.
The student with a steadfast heart, whose first desire is to learn of him and worship him, must in the end give complete attention; “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Surely the two commandments of Jesus were given by him in their logical order; thou shall love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thyself. Can we love our neighbor as he meant us to do it without knowing anything of the love of God? Paul answers that in no uncertain terms “Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor . . . it profits me nothing. Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.”

To have eternal life through knowledge of God is to learn of him, to learn of his love from him, and then to put it into action in our everyday world. Acts without faith can work good but faith without acts is hard to imagine, and the consequences are inevitable. Neither way belongs to the children of God who desire to come into knowledge of their godhood.
How can we learn of him except through communion with him? How commune with him except in silence? It can only be through putting aside for intervals of quiet all human activities, not only of the hands but of the mind. And if you think you are master of your mind watch your mind when you try to still it.

Let us make an image that will help you. Suppose you wished with all your heart to be in his presence and suddenly Christ appeared to you to teach you. Would you have a thought of any importance whatever to offer him?. Could any human experience matter in the least? Could you listen and hear unless you offered your mind completely to him? What prayer conceived in your mind would matter at all? What human act, what experience received through the senses would contribute to the transcendent experience of simply being aware of him?

And yet you say, I believe he dwells within me.

Do you clean the room of your mind and invite him in to reveal himself to you? Not that you may talk to him?

Why must we go to him in silence and not in prayer as we usually know it?

Because he said, “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you . . . and he that loves me shall be loved of my father and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.”


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2/8/19

First method to release from the troubles in this world - part 1

First method to release from the troubles in this world - part 1

 Weiqiang Chong
January 31 at 10:20 AM ·

Self-introduction of narrator: I am Chong Weiqiang, male, born in 1982, and from Tianjin, China. I am just a common civilian with both parents and children, and live an ordinary life, commuting to work every day. It can be called “Diaosi” of the generation after 80s. it is one of my tasks to illustrate this information.

First method to release from the troubles in this world (mass-based part)

The troubles in the world can be divided into several types:

1. You feel scanty and fearful because of failing to pursue certain things and relationships.

2. You want to change your fate and change others, but you can’t, so you often live in the pain of hate and self-hatred.

3. When you pursue something that satisfies your mind and relationships, you find that such satisfaction doesn’t last for long time. Then, you go on to pursue new goals, and end up in a cycle of “chasing but not getting” that will keep your mind satisfied forever.

4. Sometimes you feel that you exert too much to others, but you get too little. And you can’t change anything, so you are just exhausted to hold on firmly.

5.Your fear of the future, illness and death.

In short, there are so many troubles in the world. I will not explain them one by one, for I am going to illustrate how to relieve from them.

In order to relieve from all the troubles in the world, you need to have a basic understanding, that is, you need to understand the answers to several myths in the world. These myths can be summarized as follows: how did this vast universe come about? What is the meaning of my life? Who am I? Where do I come from and where do I go? The answers to these questions are the basis for relieving from all the troubles in the world. I won’t talk about how scientists and biologists answer these myths. I’ll directly focus on the subject to illustrate the answers to these myths.

First of all, I will take you into an imaginary space with some words, so that you can begin to imagine with them:

We all take a bath in an warming pool, and there are many hot springs in the world. Firstly, you can imagine the feeling that you soak in an infinite hot spring. Such feeling must be very warm, comfortable and cozy. And then, you can further imagine, if you became a drop of water in the hot spring, what would you feel? You will feel the following points:

1. You, a drop of water, are integrated with the entire hot spring, and you are also integrated with an infinite number of other water drops. So, you will first feel that you are the hot spring.

2. You will feel completely safe, because this hot spring is infinite. The hot spring is infinite, so you know you will not leave the whole hot spring.

3. You will feel that you have nothing to ask for and nothing to want. Because there is nothing else to do for a drop of water. All you can do is simply enjoying the warmth and comfort of the entire hot spring.

These are some important feelings you have as a drop of water in hot spring. Next, I will continue to personalize this drop of water. When this little water drop experiences the warmth and comfort of the hot spring in a carefree manner, an emergency situation suddenly appears, which is that this little water drop has an idea in a moment, and this idea is similar to “what if I develop by myself outside the hot spring……”. With the emergence of this idea, this drop of water gets into a kind of absent-minded state of mind in this world. (to be continued)
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2/5/19

Revelations and the Real World



Original art of Carmen Cameron

Compare the concept of the Real World in A Course In Miracles and The Revelations of John.

Attainment of the Real World
 
Sit quietly and look upon the world you see, and tell yourself, "The real world is not like this. It has no buildings, and there are no streets where people walk alone and separate. There are no stores where people buy an endless list of things they do not need. It is not lit with artificial light, and night comes not upon it. There is no day that brightens and grows dim. There is no loss. Nothing is there but shines, and shines forever." 

ACIM Text T-13.VII.1.1


"And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb."

Revelations of John 21:23 


In this small respect, at least, it seems that A Course In Miracles and standard American Christianity view the next world very similarly.


Miracle Mugs & More



-  oOo   -

Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
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2/3/19

Carmen-Thomas Designs: an angel of the Lord

Carmen-Thomas Designs: an angel of the Lord: Act_5:19  But an angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them out     An angel of the Lord Original angel a...
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5/18/15

Un Curso Sobre Milagros

The Course In Miracles Society has released a Spanish translation of the Original Edition.

Un Curso Sobre Milagros - Edición Original Comentada de la Sociedad Un Curso Sobre Milagros. Traducción de Juan Jesús Zaro y Armando Brons   

For those who do not know, the Original Edition contains the unaltered English words of A Course In Miracles transcribed by Helen and Bill, before the ego-mind got hold of it and changes a few things here and there, to make it more "acceptable."



Cover design by Carmen Cameron, with a little help from me.

-  oOo   -

Tom Fox
Louisville, Kentucky
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