A Course in Miracles on magic thoughts

[HappyD]

Part XVII

How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)


This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all the
time is a form of magic thought.

This section addresses how I, as a teacher of God, should react to
somebody else's magic thoughts. The first part explains how our
temptation always is to make the magic thought real and to get angry
at it. The second part addresses very graphically and powerfully why
we get angry at others' magic thoughts. It is one of the most
brilliant discussions in the Course, integrating the underlying
metaphysics of what goes on in our minds -- between ourselves and God
-- with what goes on, on a very practical level, in our daily
experience here.

(1:1-3) This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. If this
issue is mishandled, the teacher of God has hurt himself and has also
attacked his pupil. This strengthens fear, and makes the magic seem
quite real to both of them.

The issue will be mishandled if I, as a teacher of God -- we are all
teachers and students -- see your magic thought and get upset about
it. That means I am making it real, which is exactly what my ego did
right at the beginning. This is the whole point of this section. The
ego part of my mind looked at the tiny, mad idea and said, "This is
pretty upsetting." In other words, it took it seriously.

So from the beginning, my mind has mishandled the thought of
separation. If I had identified with the Holy Spirit, I would have
simply smiled at it, realizing it was only a silly, magical thought
that has had no effect at all, and it would have disappeared back into
its own nothingness. But I mishandled it by making it real, by getting
upset about it. From that point on, my ego and I were off and running.
And that strengthens fear, because the magic thought is ultimately
based on the belief that I have sinned against God, and God is angry.
Therefore I should be afraid. If I make my magic thought real -- which
ultimately is always the thought of being separate from God -- I must
be afraid, because magic thoughts from the ego's point of view are
equated with sin.

(1:4-8) How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the
teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not to
attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's teacher
can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has
condemned himself. He can be sure as well that he has asked for
depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. Let him remember,
then, it is not this that he would teach, because it is not this that
he would learn.

Again, a magic thought is anything in this world that I believe is
salvation. So if anything in the world upsets me, I have made the
magic thought real. For example, I am a Course in Miracles student --
devout, sincere, dedicated, holy, etc. -- and you, who are in my
Course in Miracles group, get a headache and take an aspirin, an
obvious magic thought. I find myself getting upset and I say, "Well,
aren't you a good Course in Miracles student! Don't you know sickness
is a defense against the truth? Don't you know it's in your mind?
Don't you know that the aspirin is not going to help you?" And I go on
and on with all this "loving" attention. Well, I have become as sick
as you, my poor fellow Course in Miracles student. In fact, I may be
even sicker because I am probably making it much more real than you
are. I have attacked your magic thought.

Yes, absolutely, taking an aspirin is a magic thought. But why should
that upset me? As we will see shortly, it is upsetting me because it
is reminding me of my own feeble attempts at magic to protect myself
against my own thought of sin. That is the only reason that it could
upset me. This is just another expression of the basic dynamic of
projection. I cannot look at my own sense of sin, my own guilt over my
own magic thoughts. Therefore I project it onto you and attack you for
it.

But this is true with anything in the world. Someone who rapes and
kills fifteen women believes that by raping and killing fifteen women
he will feel better. That is magic. Adolph Hitler's murdering thirteen
million people is a magic thought. He believed that ridding the world
of thirteen million people, whom he saw as filled with impurities,
would preserve his innocence and the innocence of the German people.
Well, that is silly. Now if we look at his actions from the point of
view of the world, they are serious, not silly. But if we raise
ourselves above the battleground and look down on it, the thought is
incredible. And that is a magic thought. But it is no different in
content from the magic thought of someone taking an aspirin. They seem
different because the world orders everything, and everything in the
world is quantifiable. And from the point of view of the world, there
is a hierarchy of illusions. Some illusions are worse than others.
Very few people would feel that murdering thirteen million people is
the same as taking an aspirin. But remember the statement I have
quoted already: "What is not love is murder" (T-23.IV.1:10). Few
people would believe that murdering thirteen million people is loving.
However most people would not think that taking an aspirin is not
loving; but, of course, it is not. It is making the guilt and fear
real in the mind by not paying attention to it, and saying instead,
"The problem is in my body and I'll take a pill and I'll feel better."
That is denying the presence and the power of love in my mind. In that
sense it is not loving. And what is not love must be murder (T-23.IV.
1:10). Thus the forms are different, but the content is the same.

This means then, as a teacher of God, I will become extremely
sensitive over a period of time to anything in the world that either
mildly annoys me or sends me into a state of intense fury. I will
recognize they are exactly the same. And it really makes no difference
whether we are talking about the actions of a so-called sane person or
of someone who may be classified as mentally ill. They are all the
same. What we call mental illness is just an extreme form of fear.
That's all. It is all part of the same thought system. There is no
difference between the thought system of someone whom we keep within a
mental hospital and people living outside mental institutions. It is
just a question of degree. The thought system that the Course is
describing within each of us is basically that of a paranoid
schizophrenic. We are all that. We all believe that we are victims of
the world. We all believe that reality is illusory and that illusion
is reality. Isn't that a definition of psychosis? So it is only a
matter of degree. In this world we distinguish between people who are
clinically insane and people who are spiritually insane. But there is
no difference. Anybody who has ever worked in a mental hospital has
had the awareness at some point that the only difference between the
"ins" and the "outs" is that the outs have the key. That is what
establishes sanity. I am staff and I have the keys. It is only a
question of degree; we all share the same insanity.

So these lines are saying that my only lesson as a student of the
Course, if my desire is to be an advanced teacher of God growing in
the process of forgiveness, is to learn to tell the difference between
magic and a miracle. And so I want to be sensitive within myself to
all my attack thoughts, all my concerns and upsets in relationship to
all the forms of magic in the world, so I can learn to recognize when
I have deceived myself. I want to recognize it as quickly as I can so
I can turn to my Teacher within and say, "Please help. I've become
angry or upset or annoyed by something. It must be because I have
forgotten about You." That is the problem, because if I am identified
with the Holy Spirit, I will see everything in the world as a
classroom and as having no other value. If I exclude the Holy Spirit's
Love, then I will see everything in this world as a form of magic that
I believe in one way or another can solve my problems.

Let's skip to the third paragraph.

(3:1-2) It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most
apparent, and errors can be recognized by their results. A lesson
truly taught can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil,
who have shared in one intent.

Now the sharing in "one intent" does not necessarily mean that you are
consciously aware of what I have chosen. Sometimes it happens that
way; sometimes it does not. It does mean that in my mind I have joined
with you so that we are now both joined. Whether you accept the
joining or not is your decision. But in my mind I no longer see you as
separate from me. And where the error must be corrected is where the
error is, which is in the mind and not some place else.

(3:3-4) Attack can enter only if perception of separate goals has
entered. And this must indeed have been the case if the result is
anything but joy.

If I believe that my salvation can be bought at your expense, we have
separate goals. That must be an attack because I am seeing neither you
nor myself as Christ. Christ is total unity. If I am feeling anything
except peace or joy -- this is not referring to the world's joy -- I
must have chosen the wrong teacher.

(3:5) The single aim of the teacher turns the divided goal of the
pupil into one direction, with the call for help becoming his one
appeal.

This has nothing to do with what may or may not be going on for you,
but only with what is happening within my own mind. I have chosen one
goal for myself, and therefore I have chosen it for you as well. You
may still have a divided goal: God and the ego. A part of you wants to
be free from pain, but another part is holding on to it. But if I make
the choice that all I want is freedom from pain -- and that comes from
identifying with the Holy Spirit's Love -- since our minds are joined
I have made the same choice for you as well.

Again, you may choose in this moment to accept it or not, but a part
of your mind must have accepted it because minds are joined. The same
barrier that you have placed between yourself and the Holy Spirit you
have also placed between yourself and me. But just as the Holy
Spirit's Love is always present in your mind, now my love is also
present in your mind.

(3:6-7) This then is easily responded to with just one answer, and
this answer will enter the teacher's mind unfailingly. From there it
shines into his pupil's mind, making it one with his.

Minds are joined. And the one answer is forgiveness -- the recognition
that what is going on is simply a form of magic. And magic cannot
heal.

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.

Check out what Jesus said:

Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."

He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.

And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.

But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.

I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.

In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.

[delete]

Sid

[John Radgosky]

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]
Sid
--
I am a Magickal Being
My Second Spell is Innocencehttp://tinyurl.com/7vs9zb
usenet4444 (AT) gmail (DOT) com

perhaps there is a confusion created by language.

What you describe is faith, expressed by Jesus.

And then you cite his miracles as a high form of magic.

It could well be it is your choice of language which is creating such
emotion and push back.

And your continual expression about religion shows an abnormal
reaction and that is unhealthy. If you are adverse to religion, be
adverse. There is no law saying you have to be any other way. Just
stop pushing your nonsense that it is garbage or anything else
derogatory. If it is to you, great. But it's not to others. So at
least respect their choice. But most of all, respect your own tongue
and choose to use it wisely.

You cite Jesus, but then you choose to ignore him. What was his
advice about the Golden Rule for example ?

No doubt you have selective Jesus'isms. Your bad.

Now grow up and take a step back and make some effort to be objective
rather than just throwing your toys around the room in some stupid
tantrum. And if you have trouble doing that, call up some magick for
help.

Bonehead.

JR

[Carrie]

Post by John Radgosky

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]
Sid
--
I am a Magickal Being
My Second Spell is Innocencehttp://tinyurl.com/7vs9zb
usenet4444 (AT) gmail (DOT) com

perhaps there is a confusion created by language.
What you describe is faith, expressed by Jesus.
And then you cite his miracles as a high form of magic.
It could well be it is your choice of language which is creating such
emotion and push back.
And your continual expression about religion shows an abnormal
reaction and that is unhealthy. If you are adverse to religion, be
adverse. There is no law saying you have to be any other way. Just
stop pushing your nonsense that it is garbage or anything else
derogatory. If it is to you, great. But it's not to others. So at
least respect their choice. But most of all, respect your own tongue
and choose to use it wisely.
You cite Jesus, but then you choose to ignore him.

Where do you see this?

What was his

Post by John Radgosky
advice about the Golden Rule for example ?

Isn't the Golden Rule only something that one can apply to themself?
Looking to see (judge) if someone else is following it turns it into
something else.
Unless maybe you want to be judged and made wrong, yoursself.

Post by John Radgosky
No doubt you have selective Jesus'isms. Your bad.
Now grow up and take a step back and make some effort to be objective
rather than just throwing your toys around the room in some stupid
tantrum. And if you have trouble doing that, call up some magick for
help.
Bonehead.
JR

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]

The garbage that ACIM expresses about magick is just another
example of its poisonous nihilism. Magick is how reality works.
Ideas become real. Beliefs are spells.

If you don't know this, then anything else you know is useless.
It will get you nothing but ego strokes from fools.

Understanding that your life is your own creation is the real
'secret of the universe'.

ACIM is really nothing but another denomination of Christianity,
which is a spiritually poisonous artificial worldview that ignores
most of what Jesus taught and distorts most of the rest.

People who think they are better than animals live worse than
animals. God does not value humans any more than It values
rabbits.

Sid

[HappyD]

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]

The garbage that ACIM expresses about magick is just another
example of its poisonous nihilism. Magick is how reality works.
Ideas become real. Beliefs are spells.
If you don't know this, then anything else you know is useless.
It will get you nothing but ego strokes from fools.
Understanding that your life is your own creation is the real
'secret of the universe'.
ACIM is really nothing but another denomination of Christianity,
which is a spiritually poisonous artificial worldview that ignores
most of what Jesus taught and distorts most of the rest.
People who think they are better than animals live worse than
animals. God does not value humans any more than It values
rabbits.
Sid
--
I am a Magickal Being
My Second Spell is Innocencehttp://tinyurl.com/7vs9zb
usenet4444 (AT) gmail (DOT) com

Oh jeez what a loone. He quotes the bible and denounces it.

LOL

Make the leap Sid. So what if jesus said that if you have faith you
can move mountains. That still does not make it the highest or best
use of mind.

[Carrie]

On talk.religion.course-miracle, Sidney Lambe

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]

The garbage that ACIM expresses about magick is just another
example of its poisonous nihilism. Magick is how reality works.
Ideas become real. Beliefs are spells.
If you don't know this, then anything else you know is useless.
It will get you nothing but ego strokes from fools.
Understanding that your life is your own creation is the real
'secret of the universe'.
ACIM is really nothing but another denomination of Christianity,
which is a spiritually poisonous artificial worldview that ignores
most of what Jesus taught and distorts most of the rest.
People who think they are better than animals live worse than
animals. God does not value humans any more than It values
rabbits.

Sometimes you can write from such an inspired (and outright beautiful)
way.
Like with this, it doesn't seem to require putting down ACIM (or anyone's
beliefs) to write what you did in the last 2 lines.
It's like saying "all life is sacred". Are we getting into something else
here? Buddhism, the Tao, etc?
Point is, if this is the truth- THE TRUTH (on whatever level) why does it
matter what anyone writes on their computer screen, that goes out into a
discussion group? Does what anyone writes that isn't what you (or I, or
anyone) believe is "the truth" change it for us?
My mother as Unitarian (like old New England, Emercon, Alcott, etc kind)
and I think I got a basic upbringing about that, even though we weren't (at
that time) church goes, and didn't have any kind of formal religious
education. People teach/learn by example. Not being told how and why they
are wrong and what they should/souldn't believe.
But, I'm sure you're aware of that. You don't come across as an ignorant
person. In fact, I'm guessing you are super intelligent. Sort of like the
kind that don't easily fit in the world with "everyone else".

Sid

[Carrie]

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]
Sid

I believe what Jesus is quoted as saying in the bible.
I believe, since we are creating our own lives with our thoughts, having
things, and the way we want them, isn't anything wrong that shouldn't be
done.
Why would it matter? Creating something with one's thoughts is the same
no matter what is being created.
I think (to me) what ACIM means is our peace shouldn't depend on having
things a certain way. Like we get upset. stressed, desparate, when it's not
how we'd like it. Just be still, align with it, "Seek First the Kingdom"
(and all else will follow), our Connection with Source.
Be in the world but not of it.
Just how I believe it, offered in the context of discussion, and not
meant to lecture anyone else or insinuate their beliefs are wrong.

[HappyD]

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]
Sid

  I believe what Jesus is quoted as saying in the bible.
  I believe, since we are creating our own lives with our thoughts, having
things, and the way we want them, isn't anything wrong that shouldn't be
done.
   Why would it matter? Creating something with one's thoughts is the same
no matter what is being created.
   I think (to me) what ACIM means is our peace shouldn't depend on having
things a certain way. Like we get upset. stressed, desparate, when it's not
how we'd like it. Just be still, align with it, "Seek First the Kingdom"
(and all else will follow), our Connection with Source.
    Be in the world but not of it.
    Just how I believe it, offered in the context of discussion, and not
meant to lecture anyone else or insinuate their beliefs are wrong.

Here is the difference between what Sidney is saying and what the
Course advocates. This is why Sidney metaphysics is lower level.

The Happy Dream

Prepare you NOW for the undoing of what never was. If you already
UNDERSTOOD the difference between truth and illusion, Atonement would
HAVE no meaning. The holy instant, your holy relationship, the Holy
Spirit's teaching, and all the means by which salvation is
accomplished, would have no purpose. For they are all but ASPECTS of
the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams, from which you
waken easily to knowledge. Put yourself NOT in charge of this, for you
can NOT distinguish between advance and retreat. Some of your greatest
advances YOU have judged as failures, and some of your deepest
retreats YOU have evaluated as success.

Never approach the holy instant AFTER you have tried to remove all
fear and hatred from your mind. That is ITS function. Never attempt to
OVERLOOK your guilt BEFORE you ask the Holy Spirit's help. That is HIS
function. Your part is only to offer Him a LITTLE willingness to LET
Him remove all fear and hatred, and to BE forgiven. On your little
faith, joined with HIS understanding, HE will build your part in the
Atonement, and MAKE SURE that you fulfill it easily. And, WITH Him,
YOU will build a ladder planted in the solid rock of faith, and rising
even to Heaven. Nor will you use it to ascend to Heaven alone.

Through your holy relationship, reborn and blessed in every holy
instant which you did NOT arrange, thousands will rise to Heaven WITH
you. Can YOU plan for THIS? Or could you PREPARE yourselves for such a
function? Yet it IS possible, because God wills it. Nor will He change
His Mind about it. The means and purpose BOTH belong to Him. You have
accepted one; the other will be provided. A purpose such as this,
WITHOUT the means, IS inconceivable. He will provide the means to
ANYONE who SHARES His purpose.

HAPPY DREAMS COME TRUE, NOT because they are dreams, but only because
they are HAPPY. And so they MUST be loving. Their message is, "Thy
Will be done," and NOT, "I want it otherwise." The alignment of means
and purpose is an undertaking IMPOSSIBLE for you to understand. You do
not even realize you HAVE accepted the Holy Spirit's purpose as your
own, and you would merely bring UNholy means to its accomplishment.
The little faith it needed to change the purpose is all that is
required to RECEIVE the means, and USE them.

It is no dream to love your brother as yourself. Nor is your holy
relationship a dream. All that remains of dreams within it, is that it
is still a SPECIAL relationship. Yet it is VERY useful to the Holy
Spirit, Who has a special FUNCTION here. It will become the HAPPY
dream, through which He can spread joy to thousands on thousands who
believe that love is fear, NOT happiness. Let Him fulfill the function
that He GAVE to your relationship by ACCEPTING it FOR you. And NOTHING
will be wanting, that would make of it what HE would have it be.

When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by
ANYTHING, stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness,
IN SPITE of fear, to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one
which YOU would rather have. He will NEVER fail in this. But forget
not that your relationship IS ONE, and so it MUST be that whatever
threatens the peace of one, is an equal threat to the other. The power
of joining, AND ITS BLESSING, lies in the fact that it is now
impossible for either of you to experience fear alone, or to attempt
to DEAL with it alone. Never believe that this is necessary, or even
possible.

But, just as THIS is impossible, so is it equally impossible that the
holy instant come to either of you, WITHOUT the other. And it WILL
come to both, at the REQUEST of either. Which ever is saner at the
time when threat is perceived, should remember how deep is his
indebtedness to the other, and how much gratitude is due him. AND BE
GLAD that he can pay his debt, by bringing happiness to both. Let him
remember this, and say,

"I desire this holy instant for myself,

That I may SHARE it with my brother, whom I love.

It is not possible that I can have it WITHOUT him, nor he without me.

Yet it is WHOLLY possible for us to SHARE it NOW.

And so I choose THIS instant as the one to offer to the Holy Spirit,

That His blessing may descend on us, and keep us BOTH in peace."

[Carrie]

Post by HappyD

Post by Carrie

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

I have read the garbage in ACIM that is supposedly about
magick. And it is indeed, GARBAGE.
Mark 11:23 "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that
those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he saith."
He stated that message in a dozen different ways, over and
over in the Gospels.
And what did he do? He demonstrated High Magick, over and
over again.
But I am not surprised to see this evil clown imagining that
he knows better than Jesus. Not at all.
I invite him to shove his creepy religion right back up the
orifice it came from.
In fact, I won't even allow the punk to open his mouth
in my presence. I do not allow religious zealots to
preach at me.
[delete]
Sid

I believe what Jesus is quoted as saying in the bible.
I believe, since we are creating our own lives with our thoughts,
having things, and the way we want them, isn't anything wrong that
shouldn't be done.
Why would it matter? Creating something with one's thoughts is the same
no matter what is being created.
I think (to me) what ACIM means is our peace shouldn't depend on
having things a certain way. Like we get upset. stressed, desparate,
when it's not how we'd like it. Just be still, align with it, "Seek
First the Kingdom" (and all else will follow), our Connection with
Source.
Be in the world but not of it.
Just how I believe it, offered in the context of discussion, and not
meant to lecture anyone else or insinuate their beliefs are wrong.

Here is the difference between what Sidney is saying and what the
Course advocates. This is why Sidney metaphysics is lower level.
The Happy Dream
Prepare you NOW for the undoing of what never was. If you already
UNDERSTOOD the difference between truth and illusion, Atonement would
HAVE no meaning. The holy instant, your holy relationship, the Holy
Spirit's teaching, and all the means by which salvation is
accomplished, would have no purpose. For they are all but ASPECTS of
the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams, from which you
waken easily to knowledge. Put yourself NOT in charge of this, for you
can NOT distinguish between advance and retreat. Some of your greatest
advances YOU have judged as failures, and some of your deepest
retreats YOU have evaluated as success.
Never approach the holy instant AFTER you have tried to remove all
fear and hatred from your mind. That is ITS function. Never attempt to
OVERLOOK your guilt BEFORE you ask the Holy Spirit's help. That is HIS
function. Your part is only to offer Him a LITTLE willingness to LET
Him remove all fear and hatred, and to BE forgiven. On your little
faith, joined with HIS understanding, HE will build your part in the
Atonement, and MAKE SURE that you fulfill it easily. And, WITH Him,
YOU will build a ladder planted in the solid rock of faith, and rising
even to Heaven. Nor will you use it to ascend to Heaven alone.
Through your holy relationship, reborn and blessed in every holy
instant which you did NOT arrange, thousands will rise to Heaven WITH
you. Can YOU plan for THIS? Or could you PREPARE yourselves for such a
function? Yet it IS possible, because God wills it. Nor will He change
His Mind about it. The means and purpose BOTH belong to Him. You have
accepted one; the other will be provided. A purpose such as this,
WITHOUT the means, IS inconceivable. He will provide the means to
ANYONE who SHARES His purpose.
HAPPY DREAMS COME TRUE, NOT because they are dreams, but only because
they are HAPPY. And so they MUST be loving. Their message is, "Thy
Will be done," and NOT, "I want it otherwise." The alignment of means
and purpose is an undertaking IMPOSSIBLE for you to understand. You do
not even realize you HAVE accepted the Holy Spirit's purpose as your
own, and you would merely bring UNholy means to its accomplishment.
The little faith it needed to change the purpose is all that is
required to RECEIVE the means, and USE them.
It is no dream to love your brother as yourself. Nor is your holy
relationship a dream. All that remains of dreams within it, is that it
is still a SPECIAL relationship. Yet it is VERY useful to the Holy
Spirit, Who has a special FUNCTION here. It will become the HAPPY
dream, through which He can spread joy to thousands on thousands who
believe that love is fear, NOT happiness. Let Him fulfill the function
that He GAVE to your relationship by ACCEPTING it FOR you. And NOTHING
will be wanting, that would make of it what HE would have it be.
When you feel the holiness of your relationship is threatened by
ANYTHING, stop instantly and offer the Holy Spirit your willingness,
IN SPITE of fear, to let Him exchange this instant for the holy one
which YOU would rather have. He will NEVER fail in this. But forget
not that your relationship IS ONE, and so it MUST be that whatever
threatens the peace of one, is an equal threat to the other. The power
of joining, AND ITS BLESSING, lies in the fact that it is now
impossible for either of you to experience fear alone, or to attempt
to DEAL with it alone. Never believe that this is necessary, or even
possible.
But, just as THIS is impossible, so is it equally impossible that the
holy instant come to either of you, WITHOUT the other. And it WILL
come to both, at the REQUEST of either. Which ever is saner at the
time when threat is perceived, should remember how deep is his
indebtedness to the other, and how much gratitude is due him. AND BE
GLAD that he can pay his debt, by bringing happiness to both. Let him
remember this, and say,
"I desire this holy instant for myself,
That I may SHARE it with my brother, whom I love.
It is not possible that I can have it WITHOUT him, nor he without me.
Yet it is WHOLLY possible for us to SHARE it NOW.
And so I choose THIS instant as the one to offer to the Holy Spirit,
That His blessing may descend on us, and keep us BOTH in peace."

I know this. But, also, how "someone else" feels and believes is just
that. I can also see (when open to it) where he is coming from, too.
But then I believe Criss Angel does things like levitates and walks on
water (for real, I mean we're told Jesus did this, without mirrors, wires,
and tricks)
I have said on different groups (over time) I believe what Criss Angel
does is real. He somehow steps outside "reality" as others know it. David
Blaine is another one (and I know there are YouTubes and websites supposedly
explaining HOW they do these tricks) When I have read this, I believe it,
and Jesus did it... a lot of people can't tolerate this. Even if it's MY
BELIEF. If they were right in front of me, they'd tear me apart. Or nail me
to a cross.
Anyway, I believe what ACIM says and I believe what Sidney says (about
magic). I believe in beliefs. WE CREATED ACIM (in form, the books) and are
still creating it, as be open to believing in it. We could also be creating
it differently. ACIM wasn't just "there" waiting for us to find it, read it
and say 'this makes sense". We (minds joining) created it, and still are.
Sometimes the actual works of it change, in the books. We read them again
and they are different.
If it's all illusion, created with our thoughts, what's wrong with
magic (as long as our peace doesn't depend on it being a certain way, and
even at that, only "my" peace is involved, and I am effected by my thoughts
at any given time). If anything is possible then everything is?
And, just think, we have gotten some actual discussings from this. In
a way, "Sid" (whoever it may be) has brought the newsgroup back to life.
Gratitude is the only response to our brothers...

[Carrie]

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all the
time is a form of magic thought.
This section addresses how I, as a teacher of God, should react to
somebody else's magic thoughts. The first part explains how our
temptation always is to make the magic thought real and to get angry
at it. The second part addresses very graphically and powerfully why
we get angry at others' magic thoughts. It is one of the most
brilliant discussions in the Course, integrating the underlying
metaphysics of what goes on in our minds -- between ourselves and God
-- with what goes on, on a very practical level, in our daily
experience here.
(1:1-3) This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. If this
issue is mishandled, the teacher of God has hurt himself and has also
attacked his pupil. This strengthens fear, and makes the magic seem
quite real to both of them.
The issue will be mishandled if I, as a teacher of God -- we are all
teachers and students -- see your magic thought and get upset about
it. That means I am making it real, which is exactly what my ego did
right at the beginning. This is the whole point of this section. The
ego part of my mind looked at the tiny, mad idea and said, "This is
pretty upsetting." In other words, it took it seriously.
So from the beginning, my mind has mishandled the thought of
separation. If I had identified with the Holy Spirit, I would have
simply smiled at it, realizing it was only a silly, magical thought
that has had no effect at all, and it would have disappeared back into
its own nothingness. But I mishandled it by making it real, by getting
upset about it. From that point on, my ego and I were off and running.
And that strengthens fear, because the magic thought is ultimately
based on the belief that I have sinned against God, and God is angry.
Therefore I should be afraid. If I make my magic thought real -- which
ultimately is always the thought of being separate from God -- I must
be afraid, because magic thoughts from the ego's point of view are
equated with sin.
(1:4-8) How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the
teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not to
attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's teacher
can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has
condemned himself. He can be sure as well that he has asked for
depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. Let him remember,
then, it is not this that he would teach, because it is not this that
he would learn.
Again, a magic thought is anything in this world that I believe is
salvation. So if anything in the world upsets me, I have made the
magic thought real. For example, I am a Course in Miracles student --
devout, sincere, dedicated, holy, etc. -- and you, who are in my
Course in Miracles group, get a headache and take an aspirin, an
obvious magic thought. I find myself getting upset and I say, "Well,
aren't you a good Course in Miracles student! Don't you know sickness
is a defense against the truth? Don't you know it's in your mind?
Don't you know that the aspirin is not going to help you?" And I go on
and on with all this "loving" attention. Well, I have become as sick
as you, my poor fellow Course in Miracles student. In fact, I may be
even sicker because I am probably making it much more real than you
are. I have attacked your magic thought.
Yes, absolutely, taking an aspirin is a magic thought. But why should
that upset me? As we will see shortly, it is upsetting me because it
is reminding me of my own feeble attempts at magic to protect myself
against my own thought of sin. That is the only reason that it could
upset me. This is just another expression of the basic dynamic of
projection. I cannot look at my own sense of sin, my own guilt over my
own magic thoughts. Therefore I project it onto you and attack you for
it.
But this is true with anything in the world. Someone who rapes and
kills fifteen women believes that by raping and killing fifteen women
he will feel better. That is magic. Adolph Hitler's murdering thirteen
million people is a magic thought. He believed that ridding the world
of thirteen million people, whom he saw as filled with impurities,
would preserve his innocence and the innocence of the German people.
Well, that is silly. Now if we look at his actions from the point of
view of the world, they are serious, not silly. But if we raise
ourselves above the battleground and look down on it, the thought is
incredible. And that is a magic thought. But it is no different in
content from the magic thought of someone taking an aspirin. They seem
different because the world orders everything, and everything in the
world is quantifiable. And from the point of view of the world, there
is a hierarchy of illusions. Some illusions are worse than others.
Very few people would feel that murdering thirteen million people is
the same as taking an aspirin. But remember the statement I have
quoted already: "What is not love is murder" (T-23.IV.1:10). Few
people would believe that murdering thirteen million people is loving.
However most people would not think that taking an aspirin is not
loving; but, of course, it is not. It is making the guilt and fear
real in the mind by not paying attention to it, and saying instead,
"The problem is in my body and I'll take a pill and I'll feel better."
That is denying the presence and the power of love in my mind. In that
sense it is not loving. And what is not love must be murder (T-23.IV.
1:10). Thus the forms are different, but the content is the same.
This means then, as a teacher of God, I will become extremely
sensitive over a period of time to anything in the world that either
mildly annoys me or sends me into a state of intense fury. I will
recognize they are exactly the same. And it really makes no difference
whether we are talking about the actions of a so-called sane person or
of someone who may be classified as mentally ill. They are all the
same. What we call mental illness is just an extreme form of fear.
That's all. It is all part of the same thought system. There is no
difference between the thought system of someone whom we keep within a
mental hospital and people living outside mental institutions. It is
just a question of degree. The thought system that the Course is
describing within each of us is basically that of a paranoid
schizophrenic. We are all that. We all believe that we are victims of
the world. We all believe that reality is illusory and that illusion
is reality. Isn't that a definition of psychosis? So it is only a
matter of degree. In this world we distinguish between people who are
clinically insane and people who are spiritually insane. But there is
no difference. Anybody who has ever worked in a mental hospital has
had the awareness at some point that the only difference between the
"ins" and the "outs" is that the outs have the key. That is what
establishes sanity. I am staff and I have the keys. It is only a
question of degree; we all share the same insanity.
So these lines are saying that my only lesson as a student of the
Course, if my desire is to be an advanced teacher of God growing in
the process of forgiveness, is to learn to tell the difference between
magic and a miracle. And so I want to be sensitive within myself to
all my attack thoughts, all my concerns and upsets in relationship to
all the forms of magic in the world, so I can learn to recognize when
I have deceived myself. I want to recognize it as quickly as I can so
I can turn to my Teacher within and say, "Please help. I've become
angry or upset or annoyed by something. It must be because I have
forgotten about You." That is the problem, because if I am identified
with the Holy Spirit, I will see everything in the world as a
classroom and as having no other value. If I exclude the Holy Spirit's
Love, then I will see everything in this world as a form of magic that
I believe in one way or another can solve my problems.
Let's skip to the third paragraph.
(3:1-2) It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most
apparent, and errors can be recognized by their results. A lesson
truly taught can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil,
who have shared in one intent.
Now the sharing in "one intent" does not necessarily mean that you are
consciously aware of what I have chosen. Sometimes it happens that
way; sometimes it does not. It does mean that in my mind I have joined
with you so that we are now both joined. Whether you accept the
joining or not is your decision. But in my mind I no longer see you as
separate from me. And where the error must be corrected is where the
error is, which is in the mind and not some place else.
(3:3-4) Attack can enter only if perception of separate goals has
entered. And this must indeed have been the case if the result is
anything but joy.
If I believe that my salvation can be bought at your expense, we have
separate goals. That must be an attack because I am seeing neither you
nor myself as Christ. Christ is total unity. If I am feeling anything
except peace or joy -- this is not referring to the world's joy -- I
must have chosen the wrong teacher.
(3:5) The single aim of the teacher turns the divided goal of the
pupil into one direction, with the call for help becoming his one
appeal.
This has nothing to do with what may or may not be going on for you,
but only with what is happening within my own mind. I have chosen one
goal for myself, and therefore I have chosen it for you as well. You
may still have a divided goal: God and the ego. A part of you wants to
be free from pain, but another part is holding on to it. But if I make
the choice that all I want is freedom from pain -- and that comes from
identifying with the Holy Spirit's Love -- since our minds are joined
I have made the same choice for you as well.
Again, you may choose in this moment to accept it or not, but a part
of your mind must have accepted it because minds are joined. The same
barrier that you have placed between yourself and the Holy Spirit you
have also placed between yourself and me. But just as the Holy
Spirit's Love is always present in your mind, now my love is also
present in your mind.
(3:6-7) This then is easily responded to with just one answer, and
this answer will enter the teacher's mind unfailingly. From there it
shines into his pupil's mind, making it one with his.
Minds are joined. And the one answer is forgiveness -- the recognition
that what is going on is simply a form of magic. And magic cannot
heal.

So, why does Raj, who says he is the author of ACIM say:
"The world needs changing. Why? Because the world as it is at the moment
is not the way God is Being it at this moment. But it is the way people are
being in it, behaving as orphans-behaving as those who have no Father, no
divine Source, and nothing in them that is built, you might say, that is
created to express love and harmony and integrity and divinity."

(and the way to change the world seems to be donate more and more money to
the NWFFACIM so the Tuttles can live better, moving from their $500,000 home
to the new $700,000 home people donated money to buy for them last summer)

When ACIM that Raj claims to have written says: "Seek not to change the
world, but choose to change your mind about the world"?

T-21.in.1. Projection makes perception. 2 The world you see is what
you gave it, nothing more than that. 3 But though it is no more than that,
it is not less. 4 Therefore, to you it is important. 5 It is the witness to
your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. 6 As a man
thinketh, so does he perceive. 7 Therefore, seek not to change the world,
but choose to change your mind about the world. 8 Perception is a result and
not a cause. 9 And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is
meaningless. 10 Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. 11
Nothing perceived without it means anything. 12 And where there is no
meaning, there is chaos.



Applarently, what the course says isn't true, as written. Or, it's open to
personal interpretation, and in this case, Raj speaks (sometimes about the
course, his own verson of it, sometimes about all Paul and Susan Tuttle do
(he says) to help change the world, or spread HIS word in it, or collect
money from people who seem to believe in this and whatever it's supposed to
be doing...)



So, the NWFFACIM having a new home, bigger, better, more expensive than the
old one they already h ave, and people sacrificing more and more to donate
to support this and pay for it (even though the course also says "do not
sacrifice") will somehow make the world a better place.



That this seems to contradict what I think the course says (and I've
noticed this for years) is one thing, just my personal opinion about it, and
not even my business, but the idea that even a few people don't notice this,
or seem to care. That Raj, who says he is author of ACIM, doesn't even seem
to know what's written in it. And, that Paul Tuttle, after speaking for Raj
(who says he wrote ACIM) for decades, can't seem to actualy live it.



But then it's in the world of iego/illusion, which is upside down and
backwards and isn't meant to "work". (someone once pointed out the world of
illusion does work very well, for ego/illusion)



I guess if Raj (who insinuates he is Jesus and has said he wrote ACIM)
can ask for thousands, to make a better life for the Tuttles, and say it's a
way of making the world better, then there's nothing wrong with magical
thinking, and making our own world a better place by using any means we can.

[Carrie]

Link to the post I read that in (Raj saying the world needs to change)

http://www.nwffacim.org/tgp/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=30608&mid=146941#M146941

Raj also has said there are evil people in the world, that we need to
defend against (to me ACIM says the opposite of this). Said a few years back
when some were banned from their group for asking questions and pointing out
inconsistencies. Thus, they were dubbed 'the enemey".

I used to feel outraged by stuff like this, but realized, it's what some
seem to want, and are even willing to pay to support. Even if (to me) it
isn't anything like what ACIM (Raj said he wrote) says.

Everyone has their own choices. And, I guess, their own Jesus.

Post by Carrie

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all
the time is a form of magic thought.
This section addresses how I, as a teacher of God, should react to
somebody else's magic thoughts. The first part explains how our
temptation always is to make the magic thought real and to get angry
at it. The second part addresses very graphically and powerfully why
we get angry at others' magic thoughts. It is one of the most
brilliant discussions in the Course, integrating the underlying
metaphysics of what goes on in our minds -- between ourselves and God
-- with what goes on, on a very practical level, in our daily
experience here.
(1:1-3) This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. If
this issue is mishandled, the teacher of God has hurt himself and
has also attacked his pupil. This strengthens fear, and makes the
magic seem quite real to both of them.
The issue will be mishandled if I, as a teacher of God -- we are all
teachers and students -- see your magic thought and get upset about
it. That means I am making it real, which is exactly what my ego did
right at the beginning. This is the whole point of this section. The
ego part of my mind looked at the tiny, mad idea and said, "This is
pretty upsetting." In other words, it took it seriously.
So from the beginning, my mind has mishandled the thought of
separation. If I had identified with the Holy Spirit, I would have
simply smiled at it, realizing it was only a silly, magical thought
that has had no effect at all, and it would have disappeared back
into its own nothingness. But I mishandled it by making it real, by
getting upset about it. From that point on, my ego and I were off
and running. And that strengthens fear, because the magic thought is
ultimately based on the belief that I have sinned against God, and
God is angry. Therefore I should be afraid. If I make my magic
thought real -- which ultimately is always the thought of being
separate from God -- I must be afraid, because magic thoughts from
the ego's point of view are equated with sin.
(1:4-8) How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the
teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not to
attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's
teacher can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin
and has condemned himself. He can be sure as well that he has asked
for depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. Let him
remember, then, it is not this that he would teach, because it is
not this that he would learn.
Again, a magic thought is anything in this world that I believe is
salvation. So if anything in the world upsets me, I have made the
magic thought real. For example, I am a Course in Miracles student --
devout, sincere, dedicated, holy, etc. -- and you, who are in my
Course in Miracles group, get a headache and take an aspirin, an
obvious magic thought. I find myself getting upset and I say, "Well,
aren't you a good Course in Miracles student! Don't you know sickness
is a defense against the truth? Don't you know it's in your mind?
Don't you know that the aspirin is not going to help you?" And I go
on and on with all this "loving" attention. Well, I have become as
sick as you, my poor fellow Course in Miracles student. In fact, I
may be even sicker because I am probably making it much more real
than you are. I have attacked your magic thought.
Yes, absolutely, taking an aspirin is a magic thought. But why should
that upset me? As we will see shortly, it is upsetting me because it
is reminding me of my own feeble attempts at magic to protect myself
against my own thought of sin. That is the only reason that it could
upset me. This is just another expression of the basic dynamic of
projection. I cannot look at my own sense of sin, my own guilt over
my own magic thoughts. Therefore I project it onto you and attack
you for it.
But this is true with anything in the world. Someone who rapes and
kills fifteen women believes that by raping and killing fifteen women
he will feel better. That is magic. Adolph Hitler's murdering
thirteen million people is a magic thought. He believed that ridding
the world of thirteen million people, whom he saw as filled with
impurities, would preserve his innocence and the innocence of the
German people. Well, that is silly. Now if we look at his actions
from the point of view of the world, they are serious, not silly.
But if we raise ourselves above the battleground and look down on
it, the thought is incredible. And that is a magic thought. But it
is no different in content from the magic thought of someone taking
an aspirin. They seem different because the world orders everything,
and everything in the world is quantifiable. And from the point of
view of the world, there is a hierarchy of illusions. Some illusions
are worse than others. Very few people would feel that murdering
thirteen million people is the same as taking an aspirin. But
remember the statement I have quoted already: "What is not love is
murder" (T-23.IV.1:10). Few people would believe that murdering
thirteen million people is loving. However most people would not
think that taking an aspirin is not loving; but, of course, it is
not. It is making the guilt and fear real in the mind by not paying
attention to it, and saying instead, "The problem is in my body and
I'll take a pill and I'll feel better." That is denying the presence
and the power of love in my mind. In that sense it is not loving.
And what is not love must be murder (T-23.IV. 1:10). Thus the forms
are different, but the content is the same.
This means then, as a teacher of God, I will become extremely
sensitive over a period of time to anything in the world that either
mildly annoys me or sends me into a state of intense fury. I will
recognize they are exactly the same. And it really makes no
difference whether we are talking about the actions of a so-called
sane person or of someone who may be classified as mentally ill.
They are all the same. What we call mental illness is just an
extreme form of fear. That's all. It is all part of the same thought
system. There is no difference between the thought system of someone
whom we keep within a mental hospital and people living outside
mental institutions. It is just a question of degree. The thought
system that the Course is describing within each of us is basically
that of a paranoid schizophrenic. We are all that. We all believe
that we are victims of the world. We all believe that reality is
illusory and that illusion is reality. Isn't that a definition of
psychosis? So it is only a matter of degree. In this world we
distinguish between people who are clinically insane and people who
are spiritually insane. But there is no difference. Anybody who has
ever worked in a mental hospital has had the awareness at some point
that the only difference between the "ins" and the "outs" is that
the outs have the key. That is what establishes sanity. I am staff
and I have the keys. It is only a question of degree; we all share
the same insanity.
So these lines are saying that my only lesson as a student of the
Course, if my desire is to be an advanced teacher of God growing in
the process of forgiveness, is to learn to tell the difference
between magic and a miracle. And so I want to be sensitive within
myself to all my attack thoughts, all my concerns and upsets in
relationship to all the forms of magic in the world, so I can learn
to recognize when I have deceived myself. I want to recognize it as
quickly as I can so I can turn to my Teacher within and say, "Please
help. I've become angry or upset or annoyed by something. It must be
because I have forgotten about You." That is the problem, because if
I am identified with the Holy Spirit, I will see everything in the
world as a classroom and as having no other value. If I exclude the
Holy Spirit's Love, then I will see everything in this world as a
form of magic that I believe in one way or another can solve my
problems.
Let's skip to the third paragraph.
(3:1-2) It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most
apparent, and errors can be recognized by their results. A lesson
truly taught can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil,
who have shared in one intent.
Now the sharing in "one intent" does not necessarily mean that you
are consciously aware of what I have chosen. Sometimes it happens
that way; sometimes it does not. It does mean that in my mind I have
joined with you so that we are now both joined. Whether you accept
the joining or not is your decision. But in my mind I no longer see
you as separate from me. And where the error must be corrected is
where the error is, which is in the mind and not some place else.
(3:3-4) Attack can enter only if perception of separate goals has
entered. And this must indeed have been the case if the result is
anything but joy.
If I believe that my salvation can be bought at your expense, we have
separate goals. That must be an attack because I am seeing neither
you nor myself as Christ. Christ is total unity. If I am feeling
anything except peace or joy -- this is not referring to the world's
joy -- I must have chosen the wrong teacher.
(3:5) The single aim of the teacher turns the divided goal of the
pupil into one direction, with the call for help becoming his one
appeal.
This has nothing to do with what may or may not be going on for you,
but only with what is happening within my own mind. I have chosen one
goal for myself, and therefore I have chosen it for you as well. You
may still have a divided goal: God and the ego. A part of you wants
to be free from pain, but another part is holding on to it. But if I
make the choice that all I want is freedom from pain -- and that
comes from identifying with the Holy Spirit's Love -- since our
minds are joined I have made the same choice for you as well.
Again, you may choose in this moment to accept it or not, but a part
of your mind must have accepted it because minds are joined. The same
barrier that you have placed between yourself and the Holy Spirit you
have also placed between yourself and me. But just as the Holy
Spirit's Love is always present in your mind, now my love is also
present in your mind.
(3:6-7) This then is easily responded to with just one answer, and
this answer will enter the teacher's mind unfailingly. From there it
shines into his pupil's mind, making it one with his.
Minds are joined. And the one answer is forgiveness -- the
recognition that what is going on is simply a form of magic. And
magic cannot heal.

"The world needs changing. Why? Because the world as it is at the
moment is not the way God is Being it at this moment. But it is the
way people are being in it, behaving as orphans-behaving as those who
have no Father, no divine Source, and nothing in them that is built,
you might say, that is created to express love and harmony and
integrity and divinity."
(and the way to change the world seems to be donate more and more
money to the NWFFACIM so the Tuttles can live better, moving from
their $500,000 home to the new $700,000 home people donated money to
buy for them last summer)
When ACIM that Raj claims to have written says: "Seek not to
change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world"?
T-21.in.1. Projection makes perception. 2 The world you see
is what you gave it, nothing more than that. 3 But though it is no
more than that, it is not less. 4 Therefore, to you it is important.
5 It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an
inward condition. 6 As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. 7
Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your
mind about the world. 8 Perception is a result and not a cause. 9 And
that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. 10
Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. 11 Nothing
perceived without it means anything. 12 And where there is no
meaning, there is chaos.
Applarently, what the course says isn't true, as written. Or, it's
open to personal interpretation, and in this case, Raj speaks
(sometimes about the course, his own verson of it, sometimes about
all Paul and Susan Tuttle do (he says) to help change the world, or
spread HIS word in it, or collect money from people who seem to
believe in this and whatever it's supposed to be doing...)
So, the NWFFACIM having a new home, bigger, better, more expensive
than the old one they already h ave, and people sacrificing more and
more to donate to support this and pay for it (even though the course
also says "do not sacrifice") will somehow make the world a better
place.
That this seems to contradict what I think the course says (and
I've noticed this for years) is one thing, just my personal opinion
about it, and not even my business, but the idea that even a few
people don't notice this, or seem to care. That Raj, who says he is
author of ACIM, doesn't even seem to know what's written in it. And,
that Paul Tuttle, after speaking for Raj (who says he wrote ACIM) for
decades, can't seem to actualy live it.
But then it's in the world of iego/illusion, which is upside down
and backwards and isn't meant to "work". (someone once pointed out
the world of illusion does work very well, for ego/illusion)
ACIM) can ask for thousands, to make a better life for the Tuttles,
and say it's a way of making the world better, then there's nothing
wrong with magical thinking, and making our own world a better place
by using any means we can.

[Stephen]

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all the
time is a form of magic thought.

Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where the Course definition (in
this case "magic") is so far from the ordinary meaning of the word that
discussion almost inevitably focuses on definitions. It would have been
much more useful if another word had been chosen, but then, the course
isn't perfect.

To those who have studied magic in the Kabbalistic tradition, any act of
will is a magical act. It's how we get things done. It's the application
of the proper force, in the proper direction, through the proper medium,
to the proper object. There can be no objection to this, since to a
greater or lesser extent we all do it every day. To condemn all ideas
about magic as a result of reading the course material is to make the
same mistake as saying the body is not real, therefore there is no need
to eat.

The Kabbalists ask for help from the spirits, which is not a lot
different from what the Native Americans do.

By appearing to condemn magic, the course is misleading to those who
don't know what the course really means by it.

Your definition is not much better, by the way. Nothing can be done
"outside the mind, with the body" because the body is also in the mind.

[Carrie]

Post by Stephen

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all
the time is a form of magic thought.

Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where the Course definition
(in this case "magic") is so far from the ordinary meaning of the
word that discussion almost inevitably focuses on definitions. It
would have been much more useful if another word had been chosen, but
then, the course isn't perfect.
To those who have studied magic in the Kabbalistic tradition, any act
of will is a magical act. It's how we get things done. It's the
application of the proper force, in the proper direction, through the
proper medium, to the proper object. There can be no objection to
this, since to a greater or lesser extent we all do it every day. To
condemn all ideas about magic as a result of reading the course
material is to make the same mistake as saying the body is not real,
therefore there is no need to eat.
The Kabbalists ask for help from the spirits, which is not a lot
different from what the Native Americans do.
By appearing to condemn magic, the course is misleading to those who
don't know what the course really means by it.
Your definition is not much better, by the way. Nothing can be done
"outside the mind, with the body" because the body is also in the mind.

Seems like I have heard/read something like it just means don't let
"Peace of God" depend on things being a certain way.
Trying NOT to have or deal with magic thoughts gives as much
importance to them as having and believing them.
I tend to believe what some might call "mgic". That my thoughts have
energy (no neutral thoughts, all create form in some way) and can "create"
in the world of illusion and form that seems so real. I just don't think
making a big deal of it, having it a certain way or avoiding something,
tying in with it too much is good for one's peace. Basically, if it's all
illusion I am creating with my mind, why not have it the best way I can?
Just enjoy it and don't let my peace dependon it. And "seek first the
Kingdom" (seems like all, maybe most beliefs say this in various ways)
I recently read something in Wayne Dyer's book "The Power of Intention"
he quotes from Carlos Castaneda:

"Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerer (those who
live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for
attainment, which means that sorcerers always acomplish what they set out to
do".

I don't believe the course says NOT to have things and have a wonderful
life, just not to let one's "Peace of God" (connection to Source) depend on
this. Whatever we have or don't have in the world isn't all that big a deal.
Actually, it says "Only the Love is Real".

[Mike]

Post by Stephen

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all the
time is a form of magic thought.

Unfortunately, this is one of the areas where the Course definition (in
this case "magic") is so far from the ordinary meaning of the word that
discussion almost inevitably focuses on definitions. It would have been
much more useful if another word had been chosen, but then, the course
isn't perfect.
To those who have studied magic in the Kabbalistic tradition, any act of
will is a magical act. It's how we get things done. It's the application
of the proper force, in the proper direction, through the proper medium,
to the proper object. There can be no objection to this, since to a
greater or lesser extent we all do it every day. To condemn all ideas
about magic as a result of reading the course material is to make the
same mistake as saying the body is not real, therefore there is no need
to eat.
The Kabbalists ask for help from the spirits, which is not a lot
different from what the Native Americans do.
By appearing to condemn magic, the course is misleading to those who
don't know what the course really means by it.
Your definition is not much better, by the way. Nothing can be done
"outside the mind, with the body" because the body is also in the mind.
--
Stephen
Ballina, NSW

I don't think the Course condemns magic. It simply states that
magic will
not get you where you want to go. The body exists only within the
split mind,
the separated part of the mind that believed God's Will could be
replaced by
our own. In Truth, the body does exist outside the mind. When the
Course
states that Lucifer literally flung himself from Heaven it is saying
that Lucifer
identified with the body and so became separated, by his own
volition, from
his Source and his Self, the part of his mind which knew no such
replacement
of God's Will is possible.

[Sidney Lambe]

[delete]

I guess they don't like what I have to say.

Isn't that just too bad?

No. I don't bother reading their articles anymore.

Anyone who thinks that miracles and magick are two different
things is simply not qualified to discuss either.

I have no time for braindead religious fanatics who don't
do anything but parrot from a garbage document like ACIM.

ACIM is just fundamentalist Christianity in a new-age costume.

A turd by any other name still stinks.

Sid

[Carrie]

Post by Sidney Lambe
[delete]
I guess they don't like what I have to say.
Isn't that just too bad?
No. I don't bother reading their articles anymore.
Anyone who thinks that miracles and magick are two different
things is simply not qualified to discuss either.

Yet you know everything being said. You are magick!

Post by Sidney Lambe
I have no time for braindead religious fanatics who don't
do anything but parrot from a garbage document like ACIM.

This means you won't be posting here anymore?
Actually, you have already done a great deal for this newsgroup, in a
positive way. You have gotten it back to life again.
Thank You!

Post by Sidney Lambe
ACIM is just fundamentalist Christianity in a new-age costume.

Do you also go on Christian groups and tell them how and why they are
wrong and waste time trying to make them see it your way?
Seems like a hopeless waste of energy and time.

Post by Sidney Lambe
A turd by any other name still stinks.
Sid

[HappyD]

Post by Sidney Lambe
[delete]
I guess they don't like what I have to say.
Isn't that just too bad?
No. I don't bother reading their articles anymore.  
Anyone who thinks that miracles and magick are two different
things is simply not qualified to discuss either.
I have no time for braindead religious fanatics who don't
do anything but parrot from a garbage document like ACIM.
ACIM is just fundamentalist Christianity in a new-age costume.
A turd by any other name still stinks.
Sid

Happy:D

Yet he contradict his every statement with post.

[Mike]

Post by Sidney Lambe
[delete]
I guess they don't like what I have to say.
Isn't that just too bad?
No. I don't bother reading their articles anymore.  
Anyone who thinks that miracles and magick are two different
things is simply not qualified to discuss either.
I have no time for braindead religious fanatics who don't
do anything but parrot from a garbage document like ACIM.
ACIM is just fundamentalist Christianity in a new-age costume.
A turd by any other name still stinks.
Sid

If you don't read the articles, how, specifically did you know that
I, specifically,
in the post you responded to, stated that magic and miracles are not
the same?
Huh? Huh? Huh? Did Seth tell you?

[Stephen]

Post by Mike
I don't think the Course condemns magic.

No, I don't think so either. It depends on your definition. But it can
be read that way, which is unfortunate. In fact there is no clear
definition of magic in the course.

It simply states that

Post by Mike
magic will
not get you where you want to go.

Not magic by the course definition, no. That's the problem. Magic in its
true sense is simply asking and receiving. Whether that gets you where
you want to go depends on what you ask for compared with what you really
want. Knowing what you want is vital.



The body exists only within the

Post by Mike
split mind,
the separated part of the mind that believed God's Will could be
replaced by
our own. In Truth, the body does exist outside the mind.

Nothing has independent existence outside the mind, split or not. Mind
is all there is. Nothing there that isn't you.


When the

Post by Mike
Course
states that Lucifer literally flung himself from Heaven it is saying
that Lucifer
identified with the body and so became separated, by his own
volition, from
his Source and his Self, the part of his mind which knew no such
replacement
of God's Will is possible.

More mythology. Lucifer stories are allegories attempting to explain how
the impossible happened.

[Mike]

Post by Stephen

   I don't think the Course condemns magic.

No, I don't think so either. It depends on your definition. But it can
be read that way, which is unfortunate. In fact there is no clear
definition of magic in the course.
   It simply states that

magic will
   not get you where you want to go.

Not magic by the course definition, no. That's the problem. Magic in its
true sense is simply asking and receiving. Whether that gets you where
you want to go depends on what you ask for compared with what you really
want. Knowing what you want is vital.
  The body exists only within the

split mind,
   the separated part of the mind that believed God's Will could be
replaced by
   our own.  In Truth, the body does exist outside the mind.

Nothing has independent existence outside the mind, split or not. Mind
is all there is. Nothing there that isn't you.
   When the

Course
   states that Lucifer literally flung himself from Heaven it is saying
that Lucifer
   identified with the body and so became separated, by his own
volition, from
   his Source and his Self, the part of his mind which knew no such
replacement
   of God's Will is possible.

More mythology. Lucifer stories are allegories attempting to explain how
the impossible happened.
--
Stephen
Ballina, NSW

Allegories or symbolism? Since Jesus says that 'Lucifer literally
cast himself out of Heaven' I take it as more than allegory.
Symbolic of all
us, perhaps but certainly not Animal Farm.

[Stephen]

Post by Mike
Allegories or symbolism? Since Jesus says that 'Lucifer literally
cast himself out of Heaven' I take it as more than allegory.
Symbolic of all
us, perhaps but certainly not Animal Farm.

I no longer take everything in the course to be 100 per cent true.
There's lots of good stuff in there, along with a certain amount of
psychobabble/gobbledygook.

It's just as unwise to idolise the course as it is any other text.

Apart from internal evidence, which I now find less than convincing, and
which at any rate is not stated outright, there is no real evidence that
the course author is the historical Jesus. The entity being channelled
by Helen seems to have got some good material, but there seems to be
more than one ultimate source represented.

[Mike]

Post by Stephen

    Allegories or symbolism?  Since Jesus says that 'Lucifer literally
   cast himself out of Heaven' I take it as more than allegory.
Symbolic of all
   us, perhaps but certainly not Animal Farm.

I no longer take everything in the course to be 100 per cent true.
There's lots of good stuff in there, along with a certain amount of
psychobabble/gobbledygook.
It's just as unwise to idolise the course as it is any other text.
Apart from internal evidence, which I now find less than convincing, and
which at any rate is not stated outright, there is no real evidence that
the course author is the historical Jesus. The entity being channelled
by Helen seems to have got some good material, but there seems to be
more than one ultimate source represented.
--
Stephen
Ballina, NSW

I see.

[Carrie]

Post by Stephen

Post by Mike
Allegories or symbolism? Since Jesus says that 'Lucifer
literally cast himself out of Heaven' I take it as more than
allegory.
Symbolic of all
us, perhaps but certainly not Animal Farm.

I no longer take everything in the course to be 100 per cent true.
There's lots of good stuff in there, along with a certain amount of
psychobabble/gobbledygook.
It's just as unwise to idolise the course as it is any other text.
Apart from internal evidence, which I now find less than convincing,
and which at any rate is not stated outright, there is no real
evidence that the course author is the historical Jesus. The entity
being channelled by Helen seems to have got some good material, but
there seems to be more than one ultimate source represented.

The course says "forget this course".
And at the end of the workbook ("the year we gave to God) it says no
more specific lessons and now ask one's Inner Teacher.
Even going to "school". First Grade, Second Grade, at some point,
graduate, go into life, and live.

[Deborah]

Post by Stephen
Nothing has independent existence outside the mind, split or not. Mind
is all there is. Nothing there that isn't you.

I don't think the statement "The body is outside of you" equates to
any suggestion that the body exists independently. More like the body
is nothing. Along the lines of the statement that it is ludicrous to
think that time can come to encroach upon eternity.

The "you" the course addresses is eternal. The body is not. Students
of the course are to learn to use the body "sinlessly", meaning, I
suppose, to stop using it as a fence.

Tall order, really, if I'm honest about it.

Deborah

[John Radgosky]

Post by Deborah

Post by Stephen
Nothing has independent existence outside the mind, split or not. Mind
is all there is. Nothing there that isn't you.

I don't think the statement "The body is outside of you" equates to
any suggestion that the body exists independently.  More like the body
is nothing.  Along the lines of the statement that it is ludicrous to
think that time can come to encroach upon eternity.
The "you" the course addresses is eternal.  The body is not.  Students
of the course are to learn to use the body "sinlessly", meaning, I
suppose, to stop using it as a fence.
Tall order, really, if I'm honest about it.
Deborah

Sometimes the language of the course and it's students acts like such
a jolting shock that it produces a barrier reaction to the untrained
ear of the listener. And I sometimes feel like that is because of
the abruptness in the language.

To me adjusting to the thought system and the way ideas are expressed
in the text is more like an evolving awareness or realization.
Instead of saying the body is nothing, I feel like a way for me to
embrace, understand, accept and agree with such an idea comes by
expressing it differently. Something along the lines of " eventually
we evolve in our thinking to ultimately appreciate and understand the
body passes which makes it irrelevant relative to our ultimate true
nature and purpose". Or something along those lines. For me
anyway.

I know this is my way of absorbing the bluntly expressed ideas, but I
find myself having to do that otherwise I end up pondering them and
occasionally feeling conflicted someway about some of them.

What I'm finding as I age is just kind of "accepting" what the course
often says, without actually fully understanding it, or being able to
articulate it on to someone else. I make no attempt to describe the
course to anyone. I find it impossible to. So I don't make any effort
with that.

It's kind of weird in that way for me, actually.

JR

[Sidney Lambe]

On talk.religion.course-miracle, John Radgosky <***@yahoo.com> wrote:

[delete]

Post by John Radgosky
we evolve in our thinking to ultimately appreciate and
understand the body passes which makes it irrelevant relative
to our ultimate true nature and purpose". Or something along
those lines. For me anyway.

Once again, we see these foolish and ignorant religious fanatics
denying the validity and purpose of the spirit-in-flesh.

ACIM is just Fundamentalist Christianity in a New-Age costume.

A turd by any other name still smells like shit.

[delete]

I will not be reading any of their replies to this.

"The Nature of Personal Reality" by Jane Roberts is
the _real_ 'course in miracles'.

[John Radgosky]

Post by Sidney Lambe
[delete]

Post by John Radgosky
we evolve in our thinking to ultimately appreciate and
understand the body passes which makes it irrelevant relative
to our ultimate true nature and purpose". Or something along
those lines. For me anyway.

Once again, we see these foolish and ignorant religious fanatics
denying the validity and purpose of the spirit-in-flesh.

I don't expect your tiny mind to be able to comprehend anything I
write. You keep asserting how much you appreciate things to be in
plain simple English.

Well, here goes.

See spot run.

Focus on that for today. It's quite fundamental too.

Post by Sidney Lambe
ACIM is just Fundamentalist Christianity in a New-Age costume.
A turd by any other name still smells like shit.

Shit in the dirt helps the beautiful rose bloom.

JR

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by Sidney Lambe
[delete]

Post by John Radgosky
we evolve in our thinking to ultimately appreciate and
understand the body passes which makes it irrelevant relative
to our ultimate true nature and purpose". Or something along
those lines. For me anyway.

Once again, we see these foolish and ignorant religious fanatics
denying the validity and purpose of the spirit-in-flesh.
ACIM is just Fundamentalist Christianity in a New-Age costume.
A turd by any other name still smells like shit.
[delete]
I will not be reading any of their replies to this.
"The Nature of Personal Reality" by Jane Roberts is
the _real_ 'course in miracles'.

I don't have to read his reply, because he doesn't know
anything worth knowing and doesn't have the power to
harm me in any way.

He is a cipher.

[r***@tahoe.blue]

Post by Stephen
In fact there is no clear
definition of magic in the course.

Hi, Stephen

The Course uses the term "magic" to mean the belief that there is
something outside us that can hinder OR help. Your statement down
thread about there being nothing but mind is a pretty good definition,
too.

R

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by r***@tahoe.blue

In fact there is no clear definition of magic in the course.

Hi, Stephen
The Course uses the term "magic" to mean the belief that there
is something outside us that can hinder OR help.

Yet another instance of the so-called "course in miracles"
taking a common word and assigning to it a bizarre definition.

It does the same thing with the word "miracle".

This is incredibly dishonest and STUPID.

Post by r***@tahoe.blue
Your statement down thread about there being nothing but mind
is a pretty good definition, too.
R

Then I guess this body and those mountains and trees and clouds
aren't real.

You are fucking idiots.

The only people who deny life are incompetents who can't
cope with it.

ACIM is just Fundamentalist Christianity in a New-Age costume.

Created by headsick white trash.

[r***@tahoe.blue]

On 5 Feb 2011 03:26:03 +0100, Sidney Lambe

Post by Sidney Lambe
Yet another instance of the so-called "course in miracles"
taking a common word and assigning to it a bizarre definition.

As if "magical" is spelled "magickal," right? "People in glass
houses..." and all that.

R

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by Sidney Lambe

Post by r***@tahoe.blue

In fact there is no clear definition of magic in the course.

Hi, Stephen
The Course uses the term "magic" to mean the belief that there
is something outside us that can hinder OR help.

Yet another instance of the so-called "course in miracles"
taking a common word and assigning to it a bizarre definition.
It does the same thing with the word "miracle".
This is incredibly dishonest and STUPID.

Post by r***@tahoe.blue
Your statement down thread about there being nothing but mind
is a pretty good definition, too.
R

Then I guess this body and those mountains and trees and clouds
aren't real.
You are fucking idiots.
The only people who deny life are incompetents who can't
cope with it.
ACIM is just Fundamentalist Christianity in a New-Age costume.
Created by headsick white trash.

I do not waste my time arguing with braindead religious fanatics.

[r***@tahoe.blue]

On 5 Feb 2011 17:10:16 +0100, Sidney Lambe

Post by Sidney Lambe
I do not waste my time arguing with braindead religious fanatics.

My loss, I guess.

R

[HappyD]

Post by r***@tahoe.blue
On 5 Feb 2011 17:10:16 +0100, Sidney Lambe

Post by Sidney Lambe
I do not waste my time arguing with braindead religious fanatics.

My loss, I guess.
R

Happy:D

Don't worry. Nothing Sidney says has come to pass.

[Carrie]

Post by r***@tahoe.blue
On 5 Feb 2011 17:10:16 +0100, Sidney Lambe

Post by Sidney Lambe
I do not waste my time arguing with braindead religious fanatics.

My loss, I guess.

LOL

Post by r***@tahoe.blue
R

[Deborah]

Post by Stephen
Your definition is not much better, by the way. Nothing can be done
"outside the mind, with the body" because the body is also in the mind.

"The body is outside of you"

What do you make of that statement, in the course? It's one of many
statements that has got me contemplating the true nature of the "you"
the course addresses.

Deborah

[Mike]

Post by Deborah

Post by Stephen
Your definition is not much better, by the way. Nothing can be done
"outside the mind, with the body" because the body is also in the mind.

"The body is outside of you"
What do you make of that statement, in the course?  It's one of many
statements that has got me contemplating the true nature of the "you"
the course addresses.
Deborah

Like many course statements it works on more than one level. It
kind of works with the statement, '...the Kingdom of Heaven is within
you'.
Both implying that the 'you' is within the body e.g. you are not your
body. That would be the most basic level. It also states that the
body, a symbol of the ego and the world at large, are all outside of
you; therefor, not a part of you, and therefor not part of the Kingdom
of Heaven.

What is wrong with simply refering to the 'you' as the dreamer? We
dream therefor we sleep. I prefer dreamer to Wapkin's 'the decider'.

I think a lot of course students get confused by failing to make a
clear distinction between spirit, or soul, and mind. I understand
that intellectually they know there is a difference, but when it comes
to discerning the function and nature of each and trying to assemble a
belief system around the course terms everything tends to become mumbo
jumbo. Just sayin'.

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by Mike

On Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:08:46 +1100, Stephen

Post by Stephen
Your definition is not much better, by the way. Nothing can
be done "outside the mind, with the body" because the body is
also in the mind.

"The body is outside of you"
What do you make of that statement, in the course? =A0It's
one of many statements that has got me contemplating the true
nature of the "you" the course addresses.
Deborah

Like many course statements it works on more than one level.
It kind of works with the statement, '...the Kingdom of Heaven
is within you'. Both implying that the 'you' is within the body
e.g. you are not your body. That would be the most basic level.
It also states that the body, a symbol of the ego and the world
at large, are all outside of you; therefor, not a part of you,
and therefor not part of the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is wrong with simply refering to the 'you' as the dreamer?
We dream therefor we sleep. I prefer dreamer to Wapkin's 'the
decider'.
I think a lot of course students get confused by failing to
make a clear distinction between spirit, or soul, and mind. I
understand that intellectually they know there is a difference,
but when it comes to discerning the function and nature of each
and trying to assemble a belief system around the course terms
everything tends to become mumbo jumbo. Just sayin'.

The entire 'course' is mumbo-jumbo.

Like all religious elitists, they aren't posting any links to
their original text. They don't want anyone reading it for themselves,
they want people to rely on them to interpret the parts of it
they want to interpret.

The same goes for wannabee and real 'gurus' in the honest
Christian world. They never tell people to read the Bible
themselves. Just selected passages that they have already
interpreted for people.

ACIM is just Fundamentalist Christianity in a New-Age costume.
And like the Bible, it is very confusing and open to many
interpretations. Perfect fodder for would-be gurus.

http://courseinmiracles.com/urtext/

The real 'course in miracles' is "The Nature of Personal Reality"
by Jane Roberts.

I will not be reading any replies to this. Religious fanatics
bore the hell out of me.

[Sidney Lambe]

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)

Correction: How do clueless and conceited fundamentaiist Christians
pretending that they are something else deal with reality?

Post by HappyD
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all the
time is a form of magic thought.
This section addresses how I, as a teacher of God, should react to
somebody else's magic thoughts. The first part explains how our
temptation always is to make the magic thought real and to get angry
at it. The second part addresses very graphically and powerfully why
we get angry at others' magic thoughts. It is one of the most
brilliant discussions in the Course, integrating the underlying
metaphysics of what goes on in our minds -- between ourselves and God
-- with what goes on, on a very practical level, in our daily
experience here.
(1:1-3) This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. If this
issue is mishandled, the teacher of God has hurt himself and has also
attacked his pupil. This strengthens fear, and makes the magic seem
quite real to both of them.
The issue will be mishandled if I, as a teacher of God -- we are all
teachers and students -- see your magic thought and get upset about
it. That means I am making it real, which is exactly what my ego did
right at the beginning. This is the whole point of this section. The
ego part of my mind looked at the tiny, mad idea and said, "This is
pretty upsetting." In other words, it took it seriously.
So from the beginning, my mind has mishandled the thought of
separation. If I had identified with the Holy Spirit, I would have
simply smiled at it, realizing it was only a silly, magical thought
that has had no effect at all, and it would have disappeared back into
its own nothingness. But I mishandled it by making it real, by getting
upset about it. From that point on, my ego and I were off and running.
And that strengthens fear, because the magic thought is ultimately
based on the belief that I have sinned against God, and God is angry.
Therefore I should be afraid. If I make my magic thought real -- which
ultimately is always the thought of being separate from God -- I must
be afraid, because magic thoughts from the ego's point of view are
equated with sin.
(1:4-8) How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the
teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not to
attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's teacher
can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has
condemned himself. He can be sure as well that he has asked for
depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. Let him remember,
then, it is not this that he would teach, because it is not this that
he would learn.
Again, a magic thought is anything in this world that I believe is
salvation. So if anything in the world upsets me, I have made the
magic thought real. For example, I am a Course in Miracles student --
devout, sincere, dedicated, holy, etc. -- and you, who are in my
Course in Miracles group, get a headache and take an aspirin, an
obvious magic thought. I find myself getting upset and I say, "Well,
aren't you a good Course in Miracles student! Don't you know sickness
is a defense against the truth? Don't you know it's in your mind?
Don't you know that the aspirin is not going to help you?" And I go on
and on with all this "loving" attention. Well, I have become as sick
as you, my poor fellow Course in Miracles student. In fact, I may be
even sicker because I am probably making it much more real than you
are. I have attacked your magic thought.
Yes, absolutely, taking an aspirin is a magic thought. But why should
that upset me? As we will see shortly, it is upsetting me because it
is reminding me of my own feeble attempts at magic to protect myself
against my own thought of sin. That is the only reason that it could
upset me. This is just another expression of the basic dynamic of
projection. I cannot look at my own sense of sin, my own guilt over my
own magic thoughts. Therefore I project it onto you and attack you for
it.
But this is true with anything in the world. Someone who rapes and
kills fifteen women believes that by raping and killing fifteen women
he will feel better. That is magic. Adolph Hitler's murdering thirteen
million people is a magic thought. He believed that ridding the world
of thirteen million people, whom he saw as filled with impurities,
would preserve his innocence and the innocence of the German people.
Well, that is silly. Now if we look at his actions from the point of
view of the world, they are serious, not silly. But if we raise
ourselves above the battleground and look down on it, the thought is
incredible. And that is a magic thought. But it is no different in
content from the magic thought of someone taking an aspirin. They seem
different because the world orders everything, and everything in the
world is quantifiable. And from the point of view of the world, there
is a hierarchy of illusions. Some illusions are worse than others.
Very few people would feel that murdering thirteen million people is
the same as taking an aspirin. But remember the statement I have
quoted already: "What is not love is murder" (T-23.IV.1:10). Few
people would believe that murdering thirteen million people is loving.
However most people would not think that taking an aspirin is not
loving; but, of course, it is not. It is making the guilt and fear
real in the mind by not paying attention to it, and saying instead,
"The problem is in my body and I'll take a pill and I'll feel better."
That is denying the presence and the power of love in my mind. In that
sense it is not loving. And what is not love must be murder (T-23.IV.
1:10). Thus the forms are different, but the content is the same.
This means then, as a teacher of God, I will become extremely
sensitive over a period of time to anything in the world that either
mildly annoys me or sends me into a state of intense fury. I will
recognize they are exactly the same. And it really makes no difference
whether we are talking about the actions of a so-called sane person or
of someone who may be classified as mentally ill. They are all the
same. What we call mental illness is just an extreme form of fear.
That's all. It is all part of the same thought system. There is no
difference between the thought system of someone whom we keep within a
mental hospital and people living outside mental institutions. It is
just a question of degree. The thought system that the Course is
describing within each of us is basically that of a paranoid
schizophrenic. We are all that. We all believe that we are victims of
the world. We all believe that reality is illusory and that illusion
is reality. Isn't that a definition of psychosis? So it is only a
matter of degree. In this world we distinguish between people who are
clinically insane and people who are spiritually insane. But there is
no difference. Anybody who has ever worked in a mental hospital has
had the awareness at some point that the only difference between the
"ins" and the "outs" is that the outs have the key. That is what
establishes sanity. I am staff and I have the keys. It is only a
question of degree; we all share the same insanity.
So these lines are saying that my only lesson as a student of the
Course, if my desire is to be an advanced teacher of God growing in
the process of forgiveness, is to learn to tell the difference between
magic and a miracle. And so I want to be sensitive within myself to
all my attack thoughts, all my concerns and upsets in relationship to
all the forms of magic in the world, so I can learn to recognize when
I have deceived myself. I want to recognize it as quickly as I can so
I can turn to my Teacher within and say, "Please help. I've become
angry or upset or annoyed by something. It must be because I have
forgotten about You." That is the problem, because if I am identified
with the Holy Spirit, I will see everything in the world as a
classroom and as having no other value. If I exclude the Holy Spirit's
Love, then I will see everything in this world as a form of magic that
I believe in one way or another can solve my problems.
Let's skip to the third paragraph.
(3:1-2) It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most
apparent, and errors can be recognized by their results. A lesson
truly taught can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil,
who have shared in one intent.
Now the sharing in "one intent" does not necessarily mean that you are
consciously aware of what I have chosen. Sometimes it happens that
way; sometimes it does not. It does mean that in my mind I have joined
with you so that we are now both joined. Whether you accept the
joining or not is your decision. But in my mind I no longer see you as
separate from me. And where the error must be corrected is where the
error is, which is in the mind and not some place else.
(3:3-4) Attack can enter only if perception of separate goals has
entered. And this must indeed have been the case if the result is
anything but joy.
If I believe that my salvation can be bought at your expense, we have
separate goals. That must be an attack because I am seeing neither you
nor myself as Christ. Christ is total unity. If I am feeling anything
except peace or joy -- this is not referring to the world's joy -- I
must have chosen the wrong teacher.
(3:5) The single aim of the teacher turns the divided goal of the
pupil into one direction, with the call for help becoming his one
appeal.
This has nothing to do with what may or may not be going on for you,
but only with what is happening within my own mind. I have chosen one
goal for myself, and therefore I have chosen it for you as well. You
may still have a divided goal: God and the ego. A part of you wants to
be free from pain, but another part is holding on to it. But if I make
the choice that all I want is freedom from pain -- and that comes from
identifying with the Holy Spirit's Love -- since our minds are joined
I have made the same choice for you as well.
Again, you may choose in this moment to accept it or not, but a part
of your mind must have accepted it because minds are joined. The same
barrier that you have placed between yourself and the Holy Spirit you
have also placed between yourself and me. But just as the Holy
Spirit's Love is always present in your mind, now my love is also
present in your mind.
(3:6-7) This then is easily responded to with just one answer, and
this answer will enter the teacher's mind unfailingly. From there it
shines into his pupil's mind, making it one with his.
Minds are joined. And the one answer is forgiveness -- the recognition
that what is going on is simply a form of magic. And magic cannot
heal.

The Truth can be stated simply and clearly in plain English. When
someone is trying to get you to believe nonsense like the above:
that there are two kinds of creativity, one that is supposedly
Divine ('miracles'), and one that is crude and unworthy ('magic'),
they have to go on and on.

(I put those words in quotes because the definitions of them
in ACIM are simply bizarre.)

This is just the old and poisonous Christian fundamentalist idea
of Good and Evil in new age clothing. That's what ACIM is:
ugly, stinking, poisonous Christian wearing a disguise.

There is only one creative source, and that source is God,
or All That Is. The practical application of that creativity
can accurately be called _magick_.

What Jesus did was magick. That's what he was, a magician and
a teacher of magic.

Anyone who tries to tell you that what he did was something
different than magick is an ignorant fool.

Sensible people trust their own experience and intuitions
and common sense.

Braindead fools trust garbage documents like ACIM.

------------------------------------------------------

"HappyD"? This latest sockpuppet of yours, "Stephen", will,
like you, keep its anus mouth shut when it is in my presence.

This is not a request, this is a command, and you WILL obey it.

Because you are a moron who thinks that miracles and magick
are two different things.

I'll believe you can wipe your own ass without assistance when
I see the video.

[b***@gmail.com]

Post by HappyD
Part XVII
How Do God's Teachers Deal with Magic Thoughts? (M-17)
This is an extremely important section and we will spend a good deal
of time on it. A magic thought, as we have seen, is anything we do to
solve a problem in such a way that it can never be solved. In other
words, it is an attempt to solve an internal problem, which every
problem is -- the problem of guilt in the mind -- by doing something
outside the mind with the body. So everything we all do almost all the
time is a form of magic thought.
This section addresses how I, as a teacher of God, should react to
somebody else's magic thoughts. The first part explains how our
temptation always is to make the magic thought real and to get angry
at it. The second part addresses very graphically and powerfully why
we get angry at others' magic thoughts. It is one of the most
brilliant discussions in the Course, integrating the underlying
metaphysics of what goes on in our minds -- between ourselves and God
-- with what goes on, on a very practical level, in our daily
experience here.
(1:1-3) This is a crucial question both for teacher and pupil. If this
issue is mishandled, the teacher of God has hurt himself and has also
attacked his pupil. This strengthens fear, and makes the magic seem
quite real to both of them.
The issue will be mishandled if I, as a teacher of God -- we are all
teachers and students -- see your magic thought and get upset about
it. That means I am making it real, which is exactly what my ego did
right at the beginning. This is the whole point of this section. The
ego part of my mind looked at the tiny, mad idea and said, "This is
pretty upsetting." In other words, it took it seriously.
So from the beginning, my mind has mishandled the thought of
separation. If I had identified with the Holy Spirit, I would have
simply smiled at it, realizing it was only a silly, magical thought
that has had no effect at all, and it would have disappeared back into
its own nothingness. But I mishandled it by making it real, by getting
upset about it. From that point on, my ego and I were off and running.
And that strengthens fear, because the magic thought is ultimately
based on the belief that I have sinned against God, and God is angry.
Therefore I should be afraid. If I make my magic thought real -- which
ultimately is always the thought of being separate from God -- I must
be afraid, because magic thoughts from the ego's point of view are
equated with sin.
(1:4-8) How to deal with magic thus becomes a major lesson for the
teacher of God to master. His first responsibility in this is not to
attack it. If a magic thought arouses anger in any form, God's teacher
can be sure that he is strengthening his own belief in sin and has
condemned himself. He can be sure as well that he has asked for
depression, pain, fear and disaster to come to him. Let him remember,
then, it is not this that he would teach, because it is not this that
he would learn.
Again, a magic thought is anything in this world that I believe is
salvation. So if anything in the world upsets me, I have made the
magic thought real. For example, I am a Course in Miracles student --
devout, sincere, dedicated, holy, etc. -- and you, who are in my
Course in Miracles group, get a headache and take an aspirin, an
obvious magic thought. I find myself getting upset and I say, "Well,
aren't you a good Course in Miracles student! Don't you know sickness
is a defense against the truth? Don't you know it's in your mind?
Don't you know that the aspirin is not going to help you?" And I go on
and on with all this "loving" attention. Well, I have become as sick
as you, my poor fellow Course in Miracles student. In fact, I may be
even sicker because I am probably making it much more real than you
are. I have attacked your magic thought.
Yes, absolutely, taking an aspirin is a magic thought. But why should
that upset me? As we will see shortly, it is upsetting me because it
is reminding me of my own feeble attempts at magic to protect myself
against my own thought of sin. That is the only reason that it could
upset me. This is just another expression of the basic dynamic of
projection. I cannot look at my own sense of sin, my own guilt over my
own magic thoughts. Therefore I project it onto you and attack you for
it.
But this is true with anything in the world. Someone who rapes and
kills fifteen women believes that by raping and killing fifteen women
he will feel better. That is magic. Adolph Hitler's murdering thirteen
million people is a magic thought. He believed that ridding the world
of thirteen million people, whom he saw as filled with impurities,
would preserve his innocence and the innocence of the German people.
Well, that is silly. Now if we look at his actions from the point of
view of the world, they are serious, not silly. But if we raise
ourselves above the battleground and look down on it, the thought is
incredible. And that is a magic thought. But it is no different in
content from the magic thought of someone taking an aspirin. They seem
different because the world orders everything, and everything in the
world is quantifiable. And from the point of view of the world, there
is a hierarchy of illusions. Some illusions are worse than others.
Very few people would feel that murdering thirteen million people is
the same as taking an aspirin. But remember the statement I have
quoted already: "What is not love is murder" (T-23.IV.1:10). Few
people would believe that murdering thirteen million people is loving.
However most people would not think that taking an aspirin is not
loving; but, of course, it is not. It is making the guilt and fear
real in the mind by not paying attention to it, and saying instead,
"The problem is in my body and I'll take a pill and I'll feel better."
That is denying the presence and the power of love in my mind. In that
sense it is not loving. And what is not love must be murder (T-23.IV.
1:10). Thus the forms are different, but the content is the same.
This means then, as a teacher of God, I will become extremely
sensitive over a period of time to anything in the world that either
mildly annoys me or sends me into a state of intense fury. I will
recognize they are exactly the same. And it really makes no difference
whether we are talking about the actions of a so-called sane person or
of someone who may be classified as mentally ill. They are all the
same. What we call mental illness is just an extreme form of fear.
That's all. It is all part of the same thought system. There is no
difference between the thought system of someone whom we keep within a
mental hospital and people living outside mental institutions. It is
just a question of degree. The thought system that the Course is
describing within each of us is basically that of a paranoid
schizophrenic. We are all that. We all believe that we are victims of
the world. We all believe that reality is illusory and that illusion
is reality. Isn't that a definition of psychosis? So it is only a
matter of degree. In this world we distinguish between people who are
clinically insane and people who are spiritually insane. But there is
no difference. Anybody who has ever worked in a mental hospital has
had the awareness at some point that the only difference between the
"ins" and the "outs" is that the outs have the key. That is what
establishes sanity. I am staff and I have the keys. It is only a
question of degree; we all share the same insanity.
So these lines are saying that my only lesson as a student of the
Course, if my desire is to be an advanced teacher of God growing in
the process of forgiveness, is to learn to tell the difference between
magic and a miracle. And so I want to be sensitive within myself to
all my attack thoughts, all my concerns and upsets in relationship to
all the forms of magic in the world, so I can learn to recognize when
I have deceived myself. I want to recognize it as quickly as I can so
I can turn to my Teacher within and say, "Please help. I've become
angry or upset or annoyed by something. It must be because I have
forgotten about You." That is the problem, because if I am identified
with the Holy Spirit, I will see everything in the world as a
classroom and as having no other value. If I exclude the Holy Spirit's
Love, then I will see everything in this world as a form of magic that
I believe in one way or another can solve my problems.
Let's skip to the third paragraph.
(3:1-2) It is easiest to let error be corrected where it is most
apparent, and errors can be recognized by their results. A lesson
truly taught can lead to nothing but release for teacher and pupil,
who have shared in one intent.
Now the sharing in "one intent" does not necessarily mean that you are
consciously aware of what I have chosen. Sometimes it happens that
way; sometimes it does not. It does mean that in my mind I have joined
with you so that we are now both joined. Whether you accept the
joining or not is your decision. But in my mind I no longer see you as
separate from me. And where the error must be corrected is where the
error is, which is in the mind and not some place else.
(3:3-4) Attack can enter only if perception of separate goals has
entered. And this must indeed have been the case if the result is
anything but joy.
If I believe that my salvation can be bought at your expense, we have
separate goals. That must be an attack because I am seeing neither you
nor myself as Christ. Christ is total unity. If I am feeling anything
except peace or joy -- this is not referring to the world's joy -- I
must have chosen the wrong teacher.
(3:5) The single aim of the teacher turns the divided goal of the
pupil into one direction, with the call for help becoming his one
appeal.
This has nothing to do with what may or may not be going on for you,
but only with what is happening within my own mind. I have chosen one
goal for myself, and therefore I have chosen it for you as well. You
may still have a divided goal: God and the ego. A part of you wants to
be free from pain, but another part is holding on to it. But if I make
the choice that all I want is freedom from pain -- and that comes from
identifying with the Holy Spirit's Love -- since our minds are joined
I have made the same choice for you as well.
Again, you may choose in this moment to accept it or not, but a part
of your mind must have accepted it because minds are joined. The same
barrier that you have placed between yourself and the Holy Spirit you
have also placed between yourself and me. But just as the Holy
Spirit's Love is always present in your mind, now my love is also
present in your mind.
(3:6-7) This then is easily responded to with just one answer, and
this answer will enter the teacher's mind unfailingly. From there it
shines into his pupil's mind, making it one with his.
Minds are joined. And the one answer is forgiveness -- the recognition
that what is going on is simply a form of magic. And magic cannot
heal.

"Magic thoughts" as the terms used by A Course in Miracles, are thoughts that ascribe creative act or power to the non-creative. The Course also calls this level confusion, miscreation or fantasy association.

The experience of living in a mind in a body a physical universe is a magic thought. Mind is NEVER un-separate - excepting within wish of unshared perception. That is the use of mind to experience itself split off and limited, as if a power, in and of itself, amidst a realm of powers NOT self. A state of threat calling for protection. An oppositional will calling forth division, pain and loss, to be denied and hidden and justified.

The exchange of knowing for perception is the capacity to dissociate or not know. This is indeed a mad idea at which the Son of God remembers not to laugh, by device of which a mind believes itself split.

Magic thoughts - as the Course uses the term - are thoughts of division seeking reinforcement in segregative and separative definitions and acts whereby to defend and persist in an impossible situation without exposure of the deceit or delusion by which the impossible seems real.


The Course is not segwaying into human philosophical or magical or religious or psychological thinking. It is not a 'thought system' with which to compete with other thought systems. It is an intimate study course for the uncovering and waking of the willingness through which miracles attest a different foundation than do war, struggle and grievance. The shared nature of such experience awakens or welcomes the light within the mind that was hitherto denied and disregarded BECAUSE the attempt to hide operated as a false foundation.

To attempt to use anything - including A Course in Miracles - as a weapon of a personal agenda in a world of fearful powers or to frame oneself in specialness as if to overcome invalidation - is simply to blindly persist in wishful or magic denial and dissociation from the actual relation one is living within and as. The more assertive the identity, the more fear operates to maintain that identity. But fear CANNOT identify us truly. To be truly identified is to be truly known. The mind of magic in this sense is the mind-in-seeming, albeit given great investment of identification - like a character in a story with which one has become entranced.

The interpreting of 'magic thoughts' as bad or negative or wrong, is itself 'magical thinking'. These 'perceptions' do not have reality outside the mind that wants them true - no matter how many 'join' in projecting guilt.

If one's true knowing is sufficient to accept and believe in by acting forth, then there is every basis for confidence. But if fearful self definition obscures and undermines one's capacity to know, believe and act, then it is temporarily expedient to 'give unto Caesar what is due unto Caesar' but at the same time to lean as persistently and joy-willingly in the directions that one CAN wholly embrace and accept.

In the Bible, Jesus used spittle and dust in healing sight in a blind man. Not as an appeal to magical powers, but as a spontaneous symbolic representation of the power that comes forth from our true Word when operating through the forms of appearance. Others made Jesus 'special' and ascribed him magical powers which they either appealed to or feared and hated. Jesus did not teach this nor support it. He was reflecting us to ourselves - in both our fearful magical reactions and our true hearted recognition.

This post is simply a willingness to share into the idea of 'magical thoughts' because I came upon it and felt a movement to share. There is no argument within a system that is internally consistent - but to come to the Course from the perspective of other symbols - even traditional Christian thought - will mis-interpret and mistake a true gentleness of calm authority for something else.

The ego seeks to add to itself so as to validate its own judgement in righteousness. Isn't that 'magic thoughts'?

The use of symbol and imagination is either guided by hidden fearful agenda, or by an indwelling light. Of course one can use ALL apparent powers, or faculties of communication for restoring wholeness but the power is indivisibly Mind Itself and is not IN the symbols themselves. The attempt to coerce outcomes loses true identity in a struggle within the level of effect. YOU are not there!

To let creative power flow freely and naturally and innocently as your true being, you have to recognize and own the coercive will as meaningless to your true desire. The wish to power is born of the darkness of belief in the lack of power. Let true power be the love and awareness of existence itself and let honesty replace fear. What you give out is what you get back. Image is not Self. If you truly know that then iMagination is Creative freedom. But creating from a split off and threatened sense of self can only reflect fragmentation and chaos. Source is not far from you - for you exist and know so. A true Sourcerer embodies the movement of wholeness and not as a coercive will upon it.
Everything that is used for personal agenda become adulterated and degraded and devalued accordingly. Yet the 'world' of the ego-sense is nothing BUT private agenda. Into such confusion comes messengers from Source for those that have called - whether they yet know it or not. The messenger is not the focus. The awakening recipient is the focus. The sole (and Soul) responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement (undoing in perfect love) for them selves. UNLESS this comes first, all that comes after will be a split agenda of what the Course calls 'the unhealed healer' - and this calls forth a split response.

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Thank you. God bless you.