Connecting Alice's Experiences in Wonderland in Tim Burton's Movie with the Problem-Solving Power of Sleeping Dreams

The other night, my wife, Christine, and I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Walking out of the theater, I found myself thinking of one scene, in particular. At the end, soon after Alice emerges from the rabbit hole, she walks into the ongoing Garden Party. Because of her adventures down the rabbit hole, she is now certain and decisive and confident, addressing each person, one by one, resolutely solving the problem that had been left irresolute. This is quite a contrast to her state of mind at the beginning when she was uncertain and indecisive and passive. Her new-found confidence is demonstrated in the following scenes, contrasting her behavior before and after her descent into Wonderland.

Before.

HAMISH. Alice Kingsley, will you be my wife? The question hangs in the air. The musicians' bows are poised. The party has fallen silent. It seems the whole world is listening. Unsure of herself, unsure of her future, unsure of anything in that moment, Alice stammers.

ALICE. I. . .I. . .would have to say. . .everyone thinks I should. . .and there's no reason not to. . .so I suppose my answer would have to be. . .I would have to say. . . She trails off as she sees the White Rabbit leaning against a pillar, glaring at her with undisguised impatience.

After.

Alice turns to Hamish, her adventure, although unremembered, has given Alice unwavering confidence and self-awareness.

ALICE. I'm sorry Hamish, I can't marry you. You're not the right man for me.

Before.

Alice continues to look for the elusive rabbit. She hears rustling ahead and peeks around a tree. . surprising a man and a woman kissing. The woman gasps and runs off. The man turns. It's Margaret's husband, Lowell.

ALICE. Lowell?

LOWELL. Alice. We were. . .Katrina is an old friend.

ALICE. (upset) I can see you're very close. He's caught and he knows it. So he goes on the offensive.

LOWELL. You won't tell your sister about this, will you?

ALICE. I don't know. I need time to think.

LOWELL. Think of Margaret. This would be devastating to her.

ALICE. I know!

LOWELL. Marriage is based on trust. She would never trust me again. You don't want to ruin your sister's marriage, do you?

ALICE. But I'm not the one. . .

LOWELL. She must never know about this.

After.

ALICE. (to her sister) You shouldn't act so smug, Margaret. Your life may not be as perfect as you think it is. She whispers the truth about her husband in Margaret's ear. Margaret gasps and glares at the suddenly sheepish Lowell.

Before.

IMOGENE. Alice? What's this I hear that you don't want to marry Hamish?

ALICE. I didn't say that. I'm not certain. .
.
IMOGENE. Marry him, Alice. If you don't, you'll lay awake at night in your cold, cold bed, growing older and older waiting for the perfect man.

After.

ALICE. (gently to Aunt Imogene) There is no prince, Aunt Imogene. You need to talk to someone about these delusions.

Before.

Strolling with Alice in the garden, Lady Ascot sees something off.

LADY ASCOT. Incompetence The gardeners planted white roses when I specifically asked for red.

ALICE. I like white roses.

LADY ASCOT. You couldn't possibly. They're too bland.

After.

ALICE. (to Lady Ascot) I happen to love white roses, Lady Ascot, as well as rabbits.

Before.

MARGARET. Such an embarrassment. And now that Father is gone, you can't depend on Mother to support you. You don't want to be a burden, do you?
She's succeeded in making Alice feel not only insecure but guilty as well.

After.

ALICE. (turning to her mother) Don't worry, Mother. I won't be a burden. I'll find something useful to do with my life.

Finally.

ALICE (looks around) Is that everyone?

LORD ASCOT. You've left me out.

ALICE. No, I haven't. You and I have business to discuss. sir. They're all surprised to hear the word coming out of a young woman's mouth.

When we arrived home that evening after the movie, I was still musing about the connection between Alice's dreams in Wonderland, and her new state of mind that enabled her to solve the problems in her life. We decided to watch a television program, and "by chance" we watched a NOVA program entitled, "What are dreams?"

It just so happens that the theme of the program is that sleeping dreams prepare us for solving problems in our waking life, or rather, as Teachers of A Course in Miracles, we refer to it as a waking dream. There's not really any difference between sleeping dreams and waking dreams.

During the program, I was struck by one of the commentators in particular, Dr. Deidre Barrett, a professor at Harvard Medical School, who has studied extensively the connection between dreams and problem-solving. She demonstrated this connection by citing examples of musicians and writers and scientists who solved problems in their dreams that they were unable to solve during the day. For example, Stravinsky dreamed essential elements of Rite of Spring; Robert Lewis Stevenson dreamed two key scenes of his novel, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Mendeleev described dreaming the periodic table of the elements in its completed form.

In fact, Barrett did a scientific study entitled, "The 'Committee of Sleep': A Study of Dream Incubation for Problem Solving." The title comes from a statement by John Steinbeck, " It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it."

This is how the study was set up:

Seventy-six college students (47 women, 29 men, ages 19-24) were asked to incubate their dreams. They were instructed to select a problem of personal relevance. They were asked to write out the problem in a simple fashion. Subjects followed this procedure nightly for one week. Two raters then judged all dreams in the week's journals. (Journal of the Association of the Study of Dreams, 1993, The "Committee of Sleep": A Study of Dreams Incubation for Problem Solving, pp. 115-123, p. 1)

Here is one example of a problem and its solution:

Problem: I have applied to two clinical psychology programs and two in industrial psychology because I just can't decide which field I want to go into. Dream: A map of the United States. I am in a plane flying over this map. The pilot says we are having engine trouble and need to land and we look for a safe place on the map indicated by a light. I ask about Massachusetts which we seem to be over right then and he says all of Massachusetts is very dangerous. The lights seem to be further west. Solution: I wake up and realize that my two clinical schools are both in Massachusetts where I have spent my whole life and where my parents live. Both industrial programs are far away, Texas and California. That was because originally I was looking to stay close to home and there were no good industrial programs nearby. I realize that there is a lot wrong with staying at home and that, funny as it sounds, getting away is probably more important than which kind of program I go to. (Committee, p. 4)

Here is another:

Problem: I'm trying to decide whether to be on the softball team again this spring. I love it, but practice does take time away from my studies. I could just go to watch the games this year and still see my friends from the team. Dream: I'm camping in an open place in a tent that doesn't come all the way to the ground. People are all around staring at me. I feel very uncomfortable and exposed: Solution: The dream reminded me of the phrase "a watcher rather than a doer" which has very negative connotations for me. I don't think I'd be happy with just going to the games. (Committee, p. 5)

Here is a summary of her study:

Subjects incubated dreams addressing problems chosen by the dreamer nightly for one week. Approximately half recalled a dream which they judged to be related to their problem; a majority of these believed their dream contained a solution. Problems of a personal nature were much more likely to be viewed as solved than ones of an academic or general objective nature. (Committee, p. 2)

(I recently experienced a problem-solving dream, and I invite you to read my account in my blog post immediately preceding this one, entitled, "Learning to Move Mountains by Saying to Myself, "Yes, and.")


Alice's experience in Wonderland and the study subjects' problem-solving dreams provide powerful analogies. Alice emerges from the rabbit hole confident, and the subjects solve problems in their sleeping dreams. Nevertheless, in both cases they are still left in the waking dream, i.e., Alice returns to the ongoing Garden Party, and the subjects return to their daily lives.

As Teachers of A Course in Miracles, we know that we are walking around in a waking dream of our own making. It's just a matter of remembering to ask for help to forgive the thought-images that make up the waking dream. These two sentences towards the end of the study lead me to think that, at some level, Dr. Deirde Barrett, is also aware that something else is going on.

Perhaps the "committee of sleep" may have workers outside of the dream state. This experiment occurred at a religious college and several of the responses indicated a firm conviction that the dreams came from God. (Committee, p. 7)

There is no perhaps about it. As Teachers of God we know that there is a worker outside of the dream state. Here is the analogy: Just as Alice's experiences in Wonderland prepare her to emerge from the rabbit hole with certainty and decisiveness and confidence, so can my waking dreams be used to enable me to be more certain that I am the Holy Son of God. That is why we often use the phrase, "Utilize, don't analyze."

We can learn to give our waking dreams over to the worker, the Holy Spirit, who translates our illusory dreams into truth. We can ask, we must ask, the Holy Spirit to be the mediator.

The Holy Spirit mediates between
illusions and the truth. Since He must bridge
the gap between reality and dreams,
perception leads to knowledge through the grace
that God has given Him, to be His gift to
everyone who turns to Him for truth.
Across the bridge that He provides are dreams
all carried to the truth, to be dispelled
before the light of knowledge. There are sights
and sounds forever laid aside. And where
they were perceived before, forgiveness has
made possible perception's tranquil end.
(W-p11.7. What is the Holy Spirit? 1)

If Alice were to become a Teacher of God, she would find that she may still find herself in the duality, i.e., asking herself whether to marry Hamish, or not; to stand up to her mother, or not; to tell her sister the truth, or not. However, she would learn that choosing this dream over that dream will not lead to truth. But asking the Holy Spirit for help to forgive these dreams, recognizing their unreality, can lead to the truth that she is a Holy Son of God, and that she is in the world, but not of the world, thereby learning to "Wear the world like a loose garment." (St, Francis)


The goal the Holy Spirit's teaching sets
is just this end of dreams. For sights and sounds
must be translated from the witnesses
of fear to those of love. And when this is
entirely accomplished, learning has
achieved the only goal it has in truth.
For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides
it to the outcome He perceives for it,
becomes the means to go beyond itself,
to be replaced by the eternal truth.
(7:2)

What is helpful for her, and for us, is that the phantasmagorical figures that appear in Wonderland, like the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, and the White Queen, are, in fact, only slightly more exaggerated and distorted than the thought-images that we seem to see in our waking dreams, or what we consider the "outside" world.


"Phantasmagoria" is defined as: a shifting series of phantasms, illusions, or deceptive appearances, as in a dream or as crated by the imagination. It is a great reminder that Alice's dreams in Wonderland and those that we seem to see in our waking dream are really not different at all. For example, you could take your thought-image of your "worst" enemy and give him red, curly hair, a lot of eye make-up, and a hat, and he becomes only a slight exaggeration of your own image that you are projecting onto him. This is how we people our world.

In this manner, Alice could come to know the truth that what appears to be without comes entirely from what is within.

Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. The source of neither light nor darkness can be found without. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily passed, and cannot stand between you and your salvation. The reason is very simple. Do you really want to be in hell? Do you really want to weep and suffer and die? (W-p11.73.5)

Alice can learn moment to moment, that she can look outside, and if she is feeling pain, she can look inside and ask for help to forgive painful thoughts. Instead of saying "Nonsense" to the Queen, she can say "Nonsense" to her own grievances, her own thought-images, recognizing the illusory nature of what she pictured before. And when she experiences a moment of light, of clarity, she will see that light reflected in her world.

If you but knew how much your Father yearns
to have you recognize your sinlessness,
you would not let His Voice appeal in vain,
nor turn away from His replacement for
the fearful images and dreams you made.
The Holy Spirit understands the means
you made, by which you would attain what is
forever unattainable. And if
you offer them to Him, He will employ
the means you made for exile to restore
your mind to where it truly is at home.
(7:3)

So it all comes down to forgiveness, forgiving thoughts in your mind that have no source in reality, leading to knowing exactly who you are.

From knowledge, where He has been placed by God,
the Holy Spirit calls to you, to let
forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be
restored to sanity and peace of mind.
Without forgiveness will your dreams remain
to terrify you. And the memory
of all your Father's Love will not return
to signify the end of dreams has come.
(7:4)

Accept your Father's gift. It is a Call
from Love to Love, that It be but Itself.
The Holy Spirit is His gift, by which
the quietness of Heaven is restored
to God's beloved Son.

For Alice, now, there is no way that she could possibly refuse to take on her function, and I can just hear her emphatic answer to this question that ends the passage:

Would you refuse to take the function of completing God, when all He wills is that you be complete? (7:5)

ALICE. "Nonsense!"

Learning to Move Mountains by Saying to Myself, "Yes, and."

Lately, because of some things that “appear” to be going on in my life, my trials and tribulations, I have found it necessary, in fact, absolutely essential, to rely more and more on A Course in Miracles, particularly, the lessons for each day, to remind myself, constantly, of the truth of who I am, so that the falsity of what I think I am can fade into the nothingness from whence it came.

It is not necessary to go into the content of the things going on in my life because the content changes from moment to moment; it is the form that needs attention. The form is always a thought-image that has no source in reality. When I let go of the thought-image, the content simply melts away, much like an ice cube sliding across a hot, flat grill; as the ice (form) melts, the water (content) evaporates into nothingness. The heat of the grill represents transformation. All that it required is the loving warmth of gratitude and the right belief and the constancy of trust and the certainty of forgiveness.

It is no surprise that, while constantly asking for help, I had this remarkable dream the other night.

I am on a mountain, and I am walking along a road leading to the bottom where I am supposed to attend a meeting. I go to the edge of the road, looking down the side of the mountain, and I decide to bound my way down. I simply jump and land softly, bending my knees, crouching and then springing up again, and leaping downward again. This was fun and easy and simply a delight.

Close to the bottom I come upon some beautiful Roman ruins, fallen marble columns lying in soft sand. I quickly walk through them, wondering how far it is to the bottom, and I come to a short, gently-inclined dirt path. At the bottom is a vertical board blocking the entrance to the road, and I easily break through it.

I woke up thinking that I had made my trials and tribulations into mountains, and I remembered a Biblical passage where Jesus says that you can move mountains.

And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Matthew 17:20

Firmly standing in the state of mind of the peace of God, I can forgive thoughts that have no source in reality; I can, literally, remove thought-images that seem as large as mountains. Blissfully bounding down a mountain is a demonstration of this.

This simply requires my belief that it is possible because it is only a mistaken belief that makes thoughts seem mountainous in the first place.

What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs?
And what can save the world except your Self?
Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts
you hold are mighty, and illusions are
as strong in their effects as is the truth.
A madman thinks the world he sees is real,
and does not doubt it. Nor can he be swayed
by questioning his thoughts' effects. It is
but when their source is raised to question that
the hope of freedom comes to him at last.
W-p1.132.1

And, then, I remembered, once again, that trials are but opportunities for me to practice coming into the awareness of the truth of who I am.

Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn
presented once again, so where you made
a faulty choice before you now can make
a better one, and thus escape all pain
that what you chose before has brought to you.
In every difficulty, all distress,
and each perplexity Christ calls to you
and gently says, 'My brother, choose again'.
He would not leave one source of pain unhealed,
nor any image left to veil the truth.
He would remove all misery from you
whom God created altar unto joy.
He would not leave you comfortless, alone
in dreams of hell, but would release your mind
from everything that hides His face from you.
His holiness is yours because He is
the only Power that is real in you.
His strength is yours because He is the Self
That God created as His only Son.
T-31.Vlll.3

For me, practice is essential. Over the years, I have practiced in different ways, and right now, this is how I practice moving mountains, and it is as simple as ice sliding across a hot grill.

As often as I remember, I focus my awareness is on breathing in and breathing out, breathing in and breathing out.

For these moments, my awareness is not on my thought-images showing me a meaningless world. These thought-images have nothing to do with my True Self. In fact, my awareness of a particular thought-image is preventing me from experiencing my Self as God’s Son; thus, I am depriving myself of the awareness of His Love.

My preoccupation with a thought-image prevents me from being aware of the Thoughts of God.

God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.
W-p1.49

Not my will, but Your Will. Not mine, but Thine.

Now, and I mean, in this moment of peace, I can say to myself when thought-images come into view, “Yes, and,” meaning let them arise “and” let them go. Let them melt away.

This practice enables me to shift from looking at the thought-images and saying “Yes, but.” It is a very subtle difference that the “but” enables me to, encourages me to, linger for too long on the thought-images that have no source in reality, thereby making them seem real. It is a very subtle difference that I use to keep me separate from God. The difference between “and” and “but” is as subtle as that “b,” but it is there.

Consciously, breathing in and breathing out and saying “Yes, and” enables me to do this.

Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.
W-p1.47.7:3-6

Ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Robert Frost, "Nothing Gold Can Stay:" But Golden Inspiration is Eternal

Last week, I came across a book of Robert Frost poetry called Seasons. What is unique about this beautiful book is that Frost's poems are grouped according to the seasons and powerfully illustrated by exceptional photographs. For example, here is a Spring poem.

Nothing Gold Can Stay.

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

And here is the illustrative photograph.


This photograph provides a perfect context for understanding the meaning of the poem.

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.

When you look at a tree, say, a Maple, during the day in late summer, the leaves are all totally green. However, on a clear day, the leaves, catching the early-morning light, are bright gold. But that hue won't last, as the sun moves on.

Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

That early, golden leaf, briefly, looks like a flower.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,

Just as the golden sun moves on and gold leaves return to green, so was man tempted by the serpent to give up his golden innocence by eating of the apple of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, thereby causing his grief and expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

So he drove out the man;
and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims,
and a flaming sword which turned every way,
to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis. 3:24

So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

The analogy is tight: dawn and day, gold and green, innocence and grief.

At first, after reading the poem this time, I ask myself what is there about this poem that makes it last, that makes it valuable. After all, it is a grim reminder of the human condition; nothing in time and space will last, and by immersing ourselves in the illusion of time and space, we have expelled ourselves from eternity.

Then it occurred to me:

This poem, itself, is gold because it is an expression of Thoughts that come from out of time, that come from a part of our mind, the timeless Thoughts of God.

The poem lasts because it stems from the Tree of Life. The poet's inspiration, an artist's inspiration, comes from the awareness of God's Thoughts. "Inspire" comes from the Latin inspirare, meaning "to breathe in;" we breathe in the breath of God, spirit, the Holy Spirit, God's Voice, the Bridge between time and eternity.

It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. W-p1.49.1:1,2

There is not a moment in which His Voice fails to direct my thoughts, guide my actions and lead my feet. I am walking steadily towards truth. W-p1.60.(49).2:3,4

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of inner stillness. The mind then gives form to the creative impulse or insight.
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, (Namaste, 1999), p. 24

It is the human condition to be in the world, to be in time, to have thoughts of good and evil, without an awareness of a reference point out of time, the stillness of God, the peace of God. Adam and Eve walked out of Eden, paradise, eternity into time, and we are doing the same thing.

You have elected to be in time rather than eternity, and therefore believe you are in time. Yet your election is both free and alterable. You do not belong in time. Your place is only in eternity (Eden), where God Himself placed you forever.
T-5.VI.1:4-6

It is possible to be in the world, and not of the world, and although Frost did not use this terminology, he had an out of the world awareness that enabled him to tap into inspiriting thoughts. (OK, I meant to type "inspiring," but I typed "inspiriting," and I can't help but leave it. To be inspired means to breathe in the Voice of the Holy Spirit.) For this experience, Frost uses the word "delight," and I like to focus on the light in the word.

Here is Jesus:

When I said "I am come as a light into the world," I meant that I came to share the light with you. T-5.VI. 11:1

Frost expresses this in an essay entitled, The Figure a Poem Makes, his Introduction to his Collected Poetry.

A poem begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life. For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I am in a place, in a situation, as if I had materialized from cloud or risen out of the ground.

I like to think that Frost is describing here what it feels like to be transported to a state of mind receptive to inspiration.

There is a glad recognition of the long lost and the rest follows. Step by step the wonder of unexpected supply keeps growing. The impressions most useful to my purpose seem always those I was unaware of. It must be a revelation, or a series of revelations.

That which is eternal is being revealed in his heightened awareness.

Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting. A poem may be worked over once it is in being, but may not be worried into being. Its most precious quality will remain its having run itself and carried away the poet with it. Read it a hundred times: it will forever keep its freshness as a petal keeps its fragrance. It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.

Touched by God, the golden innocence is always fresh and new.

Days come and God, and the gold of inspiration is eternal. (OK, I am going to leave it like that; I meant to type "go," but I am delighted to see that "God" is most appropriate.)

Only gold can stay.

The First 7 Lessons of A Course in Miracles: Emerging from our Immersion in Thought

It has been one week now since the beginning of the New Year, and I have been doing the early lessons of A Course in Miracles each morning, and they are brand new.

This morning an idea came floating into my mind, a phrase from the past, a Zen question, “Does a fish know water?” And my next thought was, “To what extent am I aware, moment-to-moment, of my total immersion in my thoughts making up this dream, this illusion, this mirage, surrounding me?” To what extent am I so familiar with this imaginary world that I am oblivious of floating in it? Preoccupied with form, I forget that I am formless; while submerged in the world, I forget that I am not of the world. It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering.

My habitual preoccupation with my immersion in thought is the reason Jesus begins His Workbook as He does:

Lesson 1, Nothing I see means anything.

Now look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very specifically to whatever you see. (Paragraph 1: Line 1)

Sitting on my couch, looking around the room, I slow down and glance at objects, one at a time. But I find that I can hardly look at an object and move on because associations rapidly pour into my mind, instantaneously. . . the new bird feeder attached to the window, my son, Stephen, gave me that for Christmas. . .my coffee cup, containing French-pressed Italian Roast from World Market. . .the wood-burning stove, the Woodman delivers wood from northern Wisconsin.

Here I am practicing that none of these thoughts mean anything, and not for the first time, either, and yet I automatically bring associations to each object my eyes light upon, giving each object a particular meaning. Thus, in my immersion, Jesus offers a lifeline, a reminder, this truth, nothing, no thing, no object I see, no thoughts I think, means anything.

(At the end of this post, each of the 7 Lessons is printed in its entirely.)


Lesson 2, I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me.

Oh, I see. Each object has a personal meaning, and another person looking at it would see only a meaning personal to him/her. Furthermore, the phrase, Oh, I see, reminds me that we associate seeing with understanding. The false connection between seeing/understanding is built into our language.

It is also obvious that when you and I look at something, some thing, we each see our own meaning, making true communication between us extremely difficult.

If possible, turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. 1:5

Now, this gets me every time. Not only do I personally give meaning to every thing, every thing is not even there until I perceive it! I am walking around with this camera-head, making personally real only what I focus on, while all other objects disappear because they are not appearing in my camera lens, my eyes. . . what was behind you.

Merely glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you. 2:1

When Jesus says relative importance to you, He reminds me of the associations I am making rapidly, automatically, habitually. Now I understand why Master Teacher often referred to us as “Associations,” and those of us at Endeavor Academy belong to an “Association.”

Lesson 3, I do not understand anything I see in this room.

Because I am in a constant state of mind of associating ideas with objects, it is impossible for me in this state to understand, or to see, any thing as it is.
Anything is suitable if you see it. 1:5

Here we go again. . .if you see it. The object is not even there until I see it, until my camera-eyes snap a picture of it. As far as the metaphor of a camera, would it only be so that my eyes were as objective as a camera.

Some of the things you see may have emotionally-charged meaning for you. 1:6

To this point, Jesus has only emphasized thoughts and understanding and associations, and now He brings in emotions and feelings. Jesus is methodically revealing to us exactly how our minds work. And once again, the teaching is not to resist, not to stifle these thoughts and feelings, but simply be aware of them and lay such feelings aside. 1:7

The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them. 2:1

All I need do is clear my mind, and that is everything. Most likely, I was not even aware that my mind was cloudy in the first place. Probably, before this exercise, I had no reference point other than my total immersion in the world of thoughts and objects. And Jesus slips in now; now, this moment, is the only time there is. Being present with a clear mind is the only time there is. Now is not an interval between the past and present; it is a state of mind of clarity.

Lesson 4, These thoughts do not mean anything.

The only thing that could possibly cloud my mind is a thought. Because of the rapidity of thought, I am not aware of the nano-second of a clear mind before and after the cloud passes. Jesus asks us merely to note these thoughts, not associate with them. He tells us not to evaluate them as good or bad. Just be aware of each thought as it rises and falls, as it floats across our minds. We really cannot label them as good or bad, anyway.

This is why they do not mean anything. 1;7

These passing thoughts that we hold near and dear mean nothing. Thoughts are thoughts and real meaning is something else.

None of them represents your real thoughts, which are being covered up by
them. 2:3

Now Jesus makes a distinction between unreal and real thoughts. This is intriguing because I was not aware for my entire life of a layer of real thoughts covered over by thoughts that are unreal, meaningless.

Jesus uses the word train; He is training our minds to learn to separate the meaningless from the meaningful. In truth, we are full of meaning, although we have squandered a great deal of time on things with less, actually, no meaning. Jesus moves us from things that appear outside, to the thoughts we experience inside.

It is a first attempt in the long-range purpose of learning to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within. 3:3

When did I ever look at thoughts before. Prior to this time, thoughts were to me like water to a fish. Yet, Jesus cautions:

You are too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly preoccupied. 5:4

There it is. I have a chance to become aware, but not pointlessly preoccupied with meaningless thoughts because I am being trained purposefully.

Lesson 5, I am never upset for the reason I think.

I'd like to think of myself as a reasonable person, i.e., I can connect the dots; I can move from facts to conclusions. I can certainly be reasonable about my upsets. I have a lot of practice connecting my upsets with persons, (Christine, my wife, did not do what I expected her to do.), situations (The squirrels are ruining my bird feeders.), and events (It is 5 degrees below 0 Fahrenheit, and my car won’t start.). I am reasonably upset.

Michael Brown, the author of The Presence Process, makes a great play on the word, “upset.” Here's an example in the training:

I am not angry at Christine for the reason I think. 2:3

Michael Brown calls these upsets, “set ups.” They are opportunities for us to come into the recognition that these thoughts do not mean anything, either about the event, or the feeling. Jesus gives us the opportunity to use these upsets as set ups by connecting the event with the feeling, realizing that they are both of our own making, based on thoughts that have no source in reality. In fact, this preoccupation is covering up, clouding over, our real thoughts. We can learn to use the set up to break through our "reasonable" connecting of the dots, connecting events and feelings.

Lesson, 6, I am upset because I see something that is not there.

Now I am learning that I am applying my reasonability improperly. I am not connecting the dots properly. There are no dots. My emotional reactions, and what I think is causing them are not connected. I have been set up, heavily invested in the premise that seeing is believing. Yet, Jesus brought that into question in is His very first Lesson, Nothing I see means anything. Here is the first exercise in Lesson 6;

I am angry at Christine because I see something that is not there. 1:4

Here is how Jesus concludes His Introduction to His Course:

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.

Recognizing the difference between what is real and what is unreal will lead to my peace of mind, my clarity of mind, my experience of now.

Lesson 7, I see only the past.

In this Lesson, Jesus makes clear why we are simply associations, associative thinkers. I am simply incapable of looking at an object without seeing, or understanding , it in reference to my past experiences.

Here is a demonstration of how we see only the past.

Please glance at this sketch.

Now look at this picture.

What do you see? The chances are good that when you looked at the picture, you associated it with the sketch and saw a young woman. You may say, what else is there to see?

Please look at this sketch.

Now look back at the compossite picture. What did you see this time? You probably saw an old woman.

Our past thoughts predispose us to seeing what we are now looking at. Notice the rapidity of past thoughts and the impact they have on the present.

So, Happy New Year! I am so grateful to begin the New Year being reminded that all my thoughts about form mean nothing because all things in form are given current meaning by past references. This is a good beginning that will lead me to experience what is real and formless, and Herein lies the peace of God.

And now back to my beginning query: “Does a fish know water?” A fish cannot know water without a reference point different from water. I am rather amazed that while writing this post, an article appeared in the newspaper that announces that there is just such a fish. Paleontologists in Poland report finding the footprint of a tetrapod.

The water-dwelling ancestors of modern-day mammals, reptiles and birds, emerged onto land millions of years earlier than previously believed. A set of fossilized footprints show that the first tetrapods—a term applied to any four-footed animal with a spine—were treading upon ground 397 million years ago, well before scientists thought they existed.

This was a critical period in evolution when sea-based vertebrates took their first steps toward becoming dinosaurs, mammals, and—eventually—human beings, giving our fishy forebears an incentive to explore open land. (Emergence of 4-legged animals pushed back, Raphael G. Satter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Section B, p. 3, January 9, 2020.)

A tetrapod leaving his footprint on dry land now knows water in reference to knowing land.

Now, this fish knows water!


Dear Reader, this may be a long way to go to explain the idea for us who are totally immersed in our meaningless thoughts to recognize with gratitude that Jesus in His Course in Miracles is guiding us to the experience of a reference point, a footprint, enabling us to stand on the firm ground of reality, the peace of God.

In Lesson 50, I am sustained by the Love of God, Jesus offers several phrases, expressing a place to stand, reference points enabling us to emerge from our immersion in thought, anchors to hold us steady.

. . .perfect peace and safety

The eternal calm of the Son of God.

The Love of God within you.

. . .a blanket of protection and surety the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the resting place where your Father has placed you forever.

In summary, here is the analogy:

fish: water

man: thought

And:

fish: a tetrapod's footprint

man: The Love of God within you

In this New Year, as we continue to walk in the world of form, and not of the world, being formless, we need to be reminded constantly that we are God's Son, sustained by His Love. This reference point will strengthen us to remember when we forget, to help us remember, to help us emerge from our long immersion in thought.

Here is Lesson 50, I am sustained by the Love of God, in its entirety.

Here is the answer to every problem that will confront you, today and tomorrow and throughout time. In this world, you believe you are sustained by everything but God. Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols; pills, money, "protective" clothing, influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the "right" people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers.

All these things are your replacements for the Love of God. All these things are cherished to ensure a body identification. They are songs of praise to the ego. Do not put your faith in the worthless. It will not sustain you.

Only the Love of God will protect you in all circumstances. It will lift you out of every trial, and raise you high above all the perceived dangers of this world into a climate of perfect peace and safety. It will transport you into a state of mind that nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God.

Put not your faith in illusions. They will fail you. Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. Through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence. Tell yourself this often today. It is a declaration of release from the belief in idols. It is your acknowledgment of the truth about yourself.

For ten minutes, twice today, morning and evening, let the idea for today sink deep into your consciousness. Repeat it, think about it, let related thoughts come to help you recognize its truth, and allow peace to flow over you like a blanket of protection and surety. Let no idle and foolish thoughts enter to disturb the holy mind of the Son of God. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Such is the resting place where your Father has placed you forever.

Happy New Year!

* * *

Lesson 1, Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything.

Now look slowly around you, and practice applying this idea very specifically to whatever you see:

This table does not mean anything.

This chair does not mean anything.
This hand does not mean anything.
This foot does not mean anything.
This pen does not mean anything.

Then look farther away from your immediate area, and apply the idea to a wider range:

That door does not mean anything.
That body does not mean anything.
That lamp does not mean anything.
That sign does not mean anything.
That shadow does not mean anything.

Notice that these statements are not arranged in any order, and make no allowance for differences in the kinds of things to which they are applied. That is the purpose of the exercise. The statement should merely be applied to anything you see. As you practice the idea for the day, use it totally indiscriminately. Do not attempt to apply it to everything you see, for these exercises should not become ritualistic. Only be sure that nothing you see is specifically excluded. One thing is like another as far as the application of the idea is concerned.

Each of the first three lessons should not be done more than twice a day each, preferably morning and evening. Nor should they be attempted for more than a minute or so, unless that entails a sense of hurry. A comfortable sense of leisure is essential.

Lesson 2, I have given everything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.

The exercises with this idea are the same as those for the first one. Begin with the things that are near you, and apply the idea to whatever your glance rests on. Then increase the range outward. Turn your head so that you include whatever is on either side. If possible, turn around and apply the idea to what was behind you. Remain as indiscriminate as possible in selecting subjects for its application, do not concentrate on anything in particular, and do not attempt to include everything you see in a given area, or you will introduce strain.

Merely glance easily and fairly quickly around you, trying to avoid selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you. Take the subjects simply as you see them. Try to apply the exercise with equal ease to a body or a button, a fly or a floor, an arm or an apple. The sole criterion for applying the idea to anything is merely that your eyes have lighted on it. Make no attempt to include anything particular, but be sure that nothing is specifically excluded.

Lesson 3, I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this, window, in this place].

Apply this idea in the same way as the previous ones, without making distinctions of any kind. Whatever you see becomes a proper subject for applying the idea. Be sure that you do not question the suitability of anything for application of the idea. These are not exercises in judgment. Anything is suitable if you see it. Some of the things you see may have emotionally charged meaning for you. Try to lay such feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else.

The point of the exercises is to help you clear your mind of all past associations, to see things exactly as they appear to you now, and to realize how little you really understand about them. It is therefore essential that you keep a perfectly open mind, unhampered by judgment, in selecting the things to which the idea for the day is to be applied. For this purpose one thing is like another; equally suitable and therefore equally useful.

Lesson 4, These thoughts do not mean anything.

They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place]. Unlike the preceding ones, these exercises do not begin with the idea for the day. In these practice periods, begin with noting the thoughts that are crossing your mind for about a minute. Then apply the idea to them. If you are already aware of unhappy thoughts, use them as subjects for the idea. Do not, however, select only the thoughts you think are "bad." You will find, if you train yourself to look at your thoughts, that they represent such a mixture that, in a sense, none of them can be called "good" or "bad." This is why they do not mean anything.

In selecting the subjects for the application of today's idea, the usual specificity is required. Do not be afraid to use "good" thoughts as well as "bad." None of them represents your real thoughts, which are being covered up by them. The "good" ones are but shadows of what lies beyond, and shadows make sight difficult. The "bad" ones are blocks to sight, and make seeing impossible. You do not want either.

This is a major exercise, and will be repeated from time to time in somewhat different form. The aim here is to train you in the first steps toward the goal of separating the meaningless from the meaningful. It is a first attempt in the long-range purpose of learning to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within. It is also the beginning of training your mind to recognize what is the same and what is different.

In using your thoughts for application of the idea for today, identify each thought by the central figure or event it contains; for example:

This thought about _______ does not mean anything. It is like the things I see in this room [on this street, and so on].

You can also use the idea for a particular thought that you recognize as harmful. This practice is useful, but is not a substitute for the more random procedures to be followed for the exercises. Do not, however, examine your mind for more than a minute or so. You are too inexperienced as yet to avoid a tendency to become pointlessly preoccupied.

Further, since these exercises are the first of their kind, you may find the suspension of judgment in connection with thoughts particularly difficult. Do not repeat these exercises more than three or four times during the day. We will return to them later.

Lesson 5, I am never upset for the reason I think.

This idea, like the preceding one, can be used with any person, situation or event you think is causing you pain. Apply it specifically to whatever you believe is the cause of your upset, using the description of the feeling in whatever term seems accurate to you. The upset may seem to be fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy or any number of forms, all of which will be perceived as different. This is not true. However, until you learn that form does not matter, each form becomes a proper subject for the exercises for the day. Applying the same idea to each of them separately is the first step in ultimately recognizing they are all the same.

When using the idea for today for a specific perceived cause of an upset in any form, use both the name of the form in which you see the upset, and the cause which you ascribe to it. For example:

I am not angry at ______ for the reason I think.
I am not afraid of ______ for the reason I think.

But again, this should not be substituted for practice periods in which you first search your mind for "sources" of upset in which you believe, and forms of upset which you think result.

In these exercises, more than in the preceding ones, you may find it hard to be indiscriminate, and to avoid giving greater weight to some subjects than to others. It might help to precede the exercises with the statement:

There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.

Then examine your mind for whatever is distressing you, regardless of how much or how little you think it is doing so.

You may also find yourself less willing to apply today's idea to some perceived sources of upset than to others. If this occurs, think first of this:

I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.

Then search your mind for no more than a minute or so, and try to identify a number of different forms of upset that are disturbing you, regardless of the relative importance you may give them. Apply the idea for today to each of them, using the name of both the source of the upset as you perceive it, and of the feeling as you experience it. Further examples are:

I am not worried about ______ for the reason I think.
I am not depressed about ______ for the reason I think.

Three or four times during the day is enough.

Lesson 6, I am upset because I see something that is not there.

The exercises with this idea are very similar to the preceding ones. Again, it is necessary to name both the form of upset (anger, fear, worry, depression and so on) and the perceived source very specifically for any application of the idea. For example:

I am angry at ______ because I see something that is not there.
I am worried about ______ because I see something that is not there.

Today's idea is useful for application to anything that seems to upset you, and can profitably be used throughout the day for that purpose. However, the three or four practice periods which are required should be preceded by a minute or so of mind searching, as before, and the application of the idea to each upsetting thought uncovered in the search.

Again, if you resist applying the idea to some upsetting thoughts more than to others, remind yourself of the two cautions stated in the previous lesson:

There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.

And:

I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.

Lesson 7, I see only the past.

This idea is particularly difficult to believe at first. Yet it is the rationale for all of the preceding ones.

It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything.
It is the reason why you have given everything you see all the meaning that it has for you.
It is the reason why you do not understand anything you see.
It is the reason why your thoughts do not mean anything, and why they are like the things you see.
It is the reason why you are never upset for the reason you think.
It is the reason why you are upset because you see something that is not there.

Old ideas about time are very difficult to change, because everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it. Yet that is precisely why you need new ideas about time. This first time idea is not really so strange as it may sound at first.

Look at a cup, for example. Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it?

Look about you. This is equally true of whatever you look at. Acknowledge this by applying the idea for today indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye. For example:

I see only the past in this pencil.
I see only the past in this shoe. I see only the past in this hand.
I see only the past in that body.
I see only the past in that face.

Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically. Glance briefly at each subject, and then move on to the next. Three or four practice periods, each to last a minute or so, will be enough.

The Only Thing Standing Between Me and the Experience of God's Perfection is a Thought

There is a place where I go several times during the day to experience peace, and thank God, it is never very far away. It is my couch. On my left is my desk, piled high with books, and over the top of them I can look out into the woods. In front of me, just beyond the wood-burning stove in the corner to my left, is a window looking out over our lawn and trees and our neighbor's house. To see her house, I look trough hanging chimes and bird feeders and colorful twirlies catching the wind. On my right are windows and the door looking across the lawn to the street and the houses across the way.

Early on this particular morning, a cold day in December, -2 degrees Fahrenheit, I sit down to read the day's Lesson, 346, Today the peace of God envelops me, and I forget all things except His Love.

Father, I wake today with miracles
correcting my perception of all things.
And so begins the day I share with You
as I will share eternity, for time
has stepped aside today. I do not seek
the things of time, and so I will not look
upon them. What I seek today transcends
all laws of time and things perceived in time.
I would forget all things except Your Love.
I would abide in You, and know no laws
except Your law of love. And I would find
the peace which You created for Your Son,
forgetting all the foolish toys I made
as I behold Your glory and my own.

And when the evening comes today, we will
remember nothing but the peace of God.
For we will learn today what peace is ours,
when we forget all things except God's Love.

After reading the Lesson very slowly, sitting here enveloped by peace, I look up and study the yellow twisty twirly hanging in front of the window, absolutely covered with ice, the frozen water having dripped down to a very small point, catching the golden sunlight.


I sit transfixed, experiencing the reflection of my peaceful mind, and then, and then, a thought enters in, shattering the peaceful moment.

This is the thought: "If this house were insulated properly, there wouldn't be icicles."

Am I insane, or what? Are we all insane?

I went on thinking that the heat burns through the ceiling, pushes through the roof, and forms ice dams that melt into icicles, causing high heating bills for natural gas.

So, of course, the Lesson is perfect. I haven't even left my house, and I need a miracle.


Father, I wake today with miracles correcting my perception of all things. And so begins the day I share with You as I will share eternity, for time has stepped aside today.

For a moment, time, indeed, had stepped aside today. But then, it suddenly intruded with a vengeance.

I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them.

Just then, my wife, Christine, came into the room, and I told her what was going on. I said that now I would sit quietly and ask for help to try to regain my peace, and then look at the icy twirly again.

She said, "Too late."

She was right. I was asking for an outcome based on what "I" wanted. I was not asking to be in eternity with God. I was making the common mistake of asking God for help on my terms.

I do not seek the things of time, and so I will not look upon them.

The answer to a prayer does not lie in things at all.

I would forget all things except Your Love.

And now it flashed on my mind how Jesus is so exacting in his use of words to train our minds to see differently. Dear Reader, look at the word would, above. As I put on my English teacher's hat, I am going to remind you that this is the "conditional tense" of the verb. Using this tense, instead of, say, the future, "will," reminds me that what I experience is conditional on the choice I make between God's Love and fear.

I would abide in You, and know no laws except Your law of love.

If I were successful in forgetting all things, I would abide in God and finding peace, I would transcend the world. Experiencing transcendence is conditional on the choice I make. In every moment I am choosing to invest, either in God, or in thoughts that have no source in Reality. And, of course, there is really no choice at all. There is only God's perfection.

And I would find the peace which You created for Your Son, forgetting all the foolish toys I made as I behold Your glory and my own.

And now I sit and experience peace and open my eyes and see, or rather, experience the peace in the reflection I gaze upon, mirroring the peace in my mind, looking through "things."

And when the evening comes today, we will
remember nothing but the peace of God.
For we will learn today what peace is ours,
when we forget all things except God's Love.

“No BUT’s about it.” Bringing into Application the Principles of A Course in Miracles: Ray and Christine

At Endeavor Academy we have daily morning Sessions, and in the afternoons we have classes where students have an opportunity in smaller, interactive groups to bring into application the principles of A Course in Miracles.

Yesterday, in our class we decided to share our personal mission statements that we had prepared in advance, each of us taking turns standing in front of the class to make our declarations. We listened in hushed silence, marveling at each deeply-felt expressions, each so individual, so powerful. What came to mind is a prism, the single light coming through and manifesting in so many individual, brilliant colors. We are, indeed, bright rays of God's light.

Here is my statement, and then my wife, Christine’s.

“No BUT’s about it.”


My mission, moment-to-moment, is to remember this:

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me. Lesson 199

The key here is in the word still; in my stillness of mind I am in the experience of being as God created me. This stillness is marked by the absence of mind-chatter, thoughts that have no source in Reality, thoughts that make up a world that is not Real.

In the book Embraced by the Light, Betty Edie “died” on the operating table, and she said later: My first impression was that I was free. My sense of freedom was limitless, and it seemed as if I had been like this forever.
Yes, we are as God created us before we came into this life, while we are here, and when we return Home.

For me, it is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I forget that I am God’s son, I say things like this to my self:

Perception is a mirror, not a fact. Lesson 304

I am in the world, and not of the world.

“It is not what you do, but the state of mind in which you do it,” Brother Laurence.

“No matter where you go, there you are,” Buckaroo Banzai
No matter where you go in time and space, you are home in eternity.

It makes a difference,
But it doesn’t matter.
That which appears to happen seems to make a difference in time and space, and it does not matter in eternity.

I am affected only by my thoughts. Lesson 358


Now, the thing is to be vigilant.

I watch myself very carefully so that when something “bad” happens, I don’t say, “That happened, BUT.” If I say to myself BUT, then I will continue entertaining it in my mind. However, if I say “That happened AND, I will be heading to a state of mind where the negative experience will melt into the peace of God. I am in the world, AND not of the world. I want to say this just happened AND this drama unfolding is not so. Help!

Simply do this. Be still. Lesson 189

And in this stillness I am receptive.
God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Lesson 49
In this stillness I am open to hear the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I particularly like this phrase, “Wear the world like a loose garment.”

From the book, Twenty-Four Hours a Day.

I must live in the world and yet live apart with God. I can go forth from my secret times of communion with God to the work of the world. To get the spiritual strength I need, my inner life must be lived apart from the world. I must wear the world as a loose garment. Nothing in the world should seriously upset me, as long as my inner life is lived with God. All successful living arises from this inner life. March 29

And now I want to look at a brother and say, “Namaste,” the Christ in me greets the Christ in you and be in the experience of it.

My latest practice is to see my “worst enemy” as the Christ because if I see him or her any less, I am not experiencing the Christ in myself, and I am projecting my fears onto him or her, and I am depriving my self of the peace of God, and now I am asking for help to experience this peace, experience the Christ, because I know that in reality:

My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me. Lesson 199

* * *

Here is Christine's.

My Mission Statement


Do unto others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31

Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:39

My mission is to immerse myself in God. I Rest in God. In applying this to my being will bring me to quiet, peace and a state of grace. By remaining vigilant and constant moment to moment, I can extend my serenity and peace, remaining in a state of grace. It will be my privilege to give of myself in whatever manner is required.

And as I Rest in God I am renewed. And as I recognize the truth in me, I give myself away in pure extension. By recognizing the Christ in me, I can then see the Christ in everyone I encounter. When greeting a brother, I vow to consciously acknowledge the Christ by saying “Namaste”, the Christ in me greets the Christ in you. This creates a clean slate in my mind to be receptive, activating a channel to receive the Voice of the Holy Spirit. Now I am truly open. It will be my privilege to give to my brother. I will be a light that reflects love and peace and pure extension. I will come to know that, feel that, and understand that everything I see, feel, touch is a emanation of my mind, and when I love my extensions, I can truly love myself. I will rejoice in life because of who I am. I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son.

I am the Son of God. Nobody can contain my spirit, nor impose on me a limitation God created not.

And I remind myself that God wants for me only happiness.

Let me remember love is happiness, and nothing else brings joy. And so I choose to entertain no substitutes for love.

Happy Thanksgiving! All things that live bring gifts to you.

Early this morning I am sitting on the couch,
just looking out the window before doing the Lesson.
I catch some movement off to my right,
and I look over and see the brown leaves on the low-hanging boughs
just above the driveway,
moving up and down and back and forth, joyously.
I look away, scanning the yard, and much to my surprise,
there is no other movement, there is no breeze,
it is utterly still.
It’s as if they are waving just to me,
and I look over and wave back.

There is a light in you which cannot die;
whose presence is so holy that the world
is sanctified because of you. All things
that live bring gifts to you, and offer them
in gratitude and gladness at your feet.
The scent of flowers is their gift to you.
The waves bow down before you, and the trees
extend their arms to shield you from the heat,
and lay their leaves before you on the ground
that you may walk in softness, while the wind
sinks to a whisper round your holy head.
W-p1.156.4

The Fall of the Berlin Wall and Robert Frost's Poem, The Mending Wall

Yesterday, I was reading newspaper articles about the Twentieth Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989. While reading, I was surprised and pleased at what came floating into my mind, Robert Frost’s poem, Mending Wall, written long before the Wall went up.

What the poem does is bring out the symbolic significance of the Wall, like a barrier in our minds, a wall of fear and darkness separating us from love and light. Here are the first two lines of the poem:

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it.

The frozen ground-ground swell is like the light penetrating darkness.

Later in the poem, the speaker contrasts this recognition with his neighbor’s idea that 'Good fences make good neighbors', noting that he moves in darkness.

Here is the poem.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

While the theme of the poem is set in the first two lines, the speaker matter-of-factly details the repairing of the wall for the next 23 lines, and then he thinks:

There where it is we do not need the wall.

When he tells this to his neighbor, he can only repeat his father’s saying,
'Good fences make good neighbors.'

Although the speaker does not name what does not love a wall, calling it something, he is aware at some level that it refers to the light and love that he is; at some point along the way, he had caught a glimpse of the truth of his wholeness.

Yet, his neighbor is moving in darkness, aware only of his separateness from God, having learned from his father who was a liar from the beginning in the sense of the human conditioning being passed on, deceiving from generation to generation.

Holiness can never be really hidden in darkness, but you can deceive yourself about it. The deception makes you fearful because you realize in your heart it is a deception and you exert enormous effort to establish its reality. T-1.lV.2:1,2

In this darkness, he moves like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

This is the darkness of separation in illusion. There is, however, an end to his journey in darkness, and the fall of the Wall gives us a physical demonstration.

There is a hush in Heaven, a happy expectancy, a little pause of gladness in acknowledgement of the journey's end. For Heaven knows you well, as you know Heaven. No illusions stand between you and your brother now. Look not upon the little wall of shadows. The sun has risen over it. How can a shadow keep you from the sun? No more can you be kept by shadows from the light in which illusions end. Every miracle is but the end of an illusion. Such was the journey; such its ending. And in the goal of truth which you accepted must all illusions end.
T-19.lV.6

And the Wall and the illusions came tumbling down.

And all the king’s men and all the king’s horses
couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Simply Letting a Single Thought Melt into Stillness Dismantles an Entire Hallucination

Several weeks ago, three Texas fishermen were rescued from atop their capsized boat in the Gulf of Mexico, after having been stranded for eight days. The men, Tressel Hawkins, 43, James Phillips, 30, and Curtis Hall, 28, were found sitting on their twenty-three foot catamaran, 180 miles from land, having endured hunger, blistering heat, scares from sharks, and hallucinations.

The men rationed their salvaged bubble gum, crackers, beer and chips and used a hose to suck fresh water out of the internal “washdown” tank. Fishermen often keep such a tank to wash fish slime off their boat when they are out in the salt water. “We’d eat crackers one day, and then a handful of chips,” Phillips said. “Everything tasted like gasoline and saltwater.” (Texas Boaters Fought Heat and Hunger, USA Today, 8/31/2009, Section 1, p. 1)

What first caught my attention in this account is that they started hallucinating about the fourth or fifth day.

“We started hallucinating about people dropping off food and water,” Phillips said. “And we were talking to them, but they weren’t there.” (Texas Boaters, p. 1)

What is fascinating to me is how Hawkins, in particular, dealt with his hallucinations.

Hawkins said he initially wondered whether his rescuers were another figment of his imagination. “My first reaction was, ‘Is this really real?’ You must have to kind of sit back and say is this real or hallucination. You have to wake yourself up three or four times to make sure it is real.” (Texas Boaters, p. 1)

Now, what you and I know, and Hawkins may not, is that he is continuing to hallucinate now while safe at home, and we do, too, when we are not experiencing the peace of God and seeing with the eyes of Christ. We hallucinate each moment we take for real the dream that we are making up by believing that what we see with our eyes has reality, believing in our miscreations. We hallucinate when we listen to the voice of the ego, rather than the Voice for God. This is one way Jesus expresses it in A Course in Miracles.

The distractions of the ego may seem to interfere with your learning, but the ego has no power to distract you unless you give it the power to do so. The ego’s voice is an hallucination. T-8.l.2:1-2

The root meaning of the word distract is helpful here. It comes from the Latin, distractus, meaning “to draw away from.” We can choose not to give into the temptation of being drawn away from experiencing the peace of God. We can stand still for a moment and question the reality of our dream. Hawkins teaches us to kind of sit back and say is this real or hallucination. He did not, automatically, give it power.

You cannot expect it to say “I am not real.” Yet you are not asked to dispel your hallucinations alone. You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to you. If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind for you. T-8.l.2:3-6

The word hallucinate comes from the Latin hallucinatus, meaning “to wander in the mind, in the sense of to have an illusion.” When we wander from the state of mind of the peace of God, we end up distracted by images in time and space, walking through an illusory world of our own making, believing it to be real.

Jesus tells us very early in His Text:

You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations. T-2.VI.4: 6

What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up? What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal? Could you have faith in what you see, if you accepted this? And would you see it? T-20.Vlll.7.3:3-7

Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are.

That is why I love so much the lesson that Hawkins teaches.

“My first reaction was, ‘Is this really real?’ You must have to kind of sit back and say is this real or hallucination.

My God! That’s all I have to do. I just have to step back for a moment and ask if this is real?

This is Lesson 155, I will step back and let Him lead the way.

The world is an illusion. Those who choose
to come to it are seeking for a place
where they can be illusions, and avoid
their own reality. Yet when they find
their own reality is even here,
then they step back and let it lead the way.
What other choice is really theirs to make?
To let illusions walk ahead of truth
is madness. But to let illusion sink
behind the truth and let the truth stand forth
as what it is, is merely sanity.
W-p1.155.2

This is Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home.

When you are still an instant, when the world
recedes from you, when valueless ideas
cease to have value in your restless mind,
then will you hear His Voice. So poignantly
He calls to you that you will not resist
Him longer. In that instant He will take
you to His home, and you will stay with Him
in perfect stillness, silent and at peace,
beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt,
sublimely certain that you are at home.
W-p182.8



For the past couple of weeks, I have been actively practicing stepping back and being still. It came to me one night just before going to bed, while I was sitting quietly, simply being aware of breathing in and breathing out, that I could practice doing this during the day from moment to moment, when I remembered, particularly, when I found myself hallucinating.

This also coincides with the fact that I have been memorizing this passage from Lesson 189, I feel the love of God within me now.

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside
all thoughts of what you are and what God is;
all concepts you have learned about the world;
all images you hold about yourself.
Empty your mind of everything it thinks
is either true or false, or good or bad,
of every thought it judges worthy, and
all the ideas of which it is ashamed.
Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you
one thought the past has taught, nor one belief
you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God.
W-p1.189.7

I realized that I was beginning to live into the meaning of this passage by simply taking these steps.

1. Be aware of breathing in and out.

2. Ask for help to let go of thoughts.

3. Be present and receptive.

So, I am walking down the street, and I come face to face with a brother against whom I have a grievance; recognizing my hallucination, I breathe in and out and ask for help to let it go, and I become present and receptive, smile, nod my head in greeting, and walk on by.

I am becoming increasingly intolerant of mind wandering.

And now it comes to me to express it this way:

A single thought melts away in stillness,
dismantling an entire hallucination,
making way for the state of mind of the peace of God.

"The brain can think, and the eyes can see." "Nonsense!"

I came across an article in The New York Times a couple of days ago that summarizes research that demonstrates, empirically, exactly how our brains lure us into causal loops, making us believe that we are seeing something real going on outside of ourselves. The article is entitled, “Brain is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop,” and here is the first paragraph.

If after a few months’ exposure to our David Lynch economy, in which housing markets spontaneously combust, coworkers mysteriously disappear and the stifled moans of dying 401K plans can be heard through the floorboards, you have the awful sensation that your body’s stress response has taken on a self-replicating and ultimately self-defeating life of its own, congratulations. You are very perceptive. It has. Researchers have discovered that the sensation of being highly stressed can rewire the brain in ways that promote its sinister persistence. (Natalie Angier, "Brain is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop, " Science, p. 18-19, August 18, 2009)

The researchers discovered that highly-stressed rats actually underwent physical changes in their brains’ neural circuitry.

On the one hand, regions of the brain associated with executive decision-making and goal-directed behaviors had shriveled, while, conversely, brain sectors linked to habit formation had bloomed. “Behaviors become habitual faster in stressed animals than in the controls, and worse, the stressed animals can’t shift back to goal-directed behaviors when that would be the better approach,” Dr. Sousa said. “I call this a vicious circle.” (Brain, p. 18)

Just now, much to my surprise, a voice came into my mind, shouting, “Nonsense! The brain cannot think, and the eyes cannot see!” That’s a familiar voice, it is the plucky Alice of Alice in Wonderland. Just after entering the rabbit-hole, she found herself only a little startled seeing the Cheshire Cat, astride a branch. She even stood up to the nasty Queen who looked at her and said, “Off with her head.” “Nonsense!” said Alice, very loudly and decidedly, and the Queen was silent. Her “decidedly” echoes my certainty that the images our brains present to us are no more real than Alice’s bizarre adventures down the rabbit-hole.

It is for this reason that Jesus begins His Workbook of A Course in Miracles with this Lesson, Nothing I see means anything. In the Text He refers to the brain’s illusory interpretations.

The brain interprets to the body, of which it is a part. But what it says you cannot understand. Yet you have listened to it. And long and hard you tried to understand its messages.T-22.l.2:9-11

You cannot understand the brain’s interpretations because they are not real.

Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein, lies the peace of God.

That which is real cannot be seen because it is invisible, intangible—Truth, Love, Joy, Peace.

That which is unreal is visible, tangible—the brain, the body, the eyes and the images they make. This is our human conditioning. Our father was a liar from the beginning.

Children are born into the world through pain and in pain. Their growth is attended by suffering, and they learn of sorrow and separation and death. Their minds seem to be trapped in their brain, and its powers to decline if their bodies are hurt. T-13.In.2:4-6

Children, like Alice, fall into a rabbit-hole, an illusion, a dream.

For the content of individual illusions differs greatly. Yet they have one thing in common, they are all insane. They are made of sights that are not seen, and sounds that are not heard. They make up a private world that cannot be shared. For they are meaningful only to their maker, and so they have no meaning at all. In this world their maker moves alone, for only he perceives them. T-13.V.1:4-9

The problem is that we forget the fall, and we become entranced by the images our eyes see and the sounds the ears hear, not realizing that there is another way of seeing, seeing through the eyes of Christ.

We are on a mission here to learn to see truly, to see with vision, and we cannot do this alone because we are constantly deceived by seeing through blind eyes. And we are not alone. The Holy Spirit will guide us to see through the brain’s sleeping eyes, so that we can recognize the vision of Christ. It is a matter of remembering and forgetting; forgetting, i.e., relinquishing the sights and sounds projected by our brains, and remembering to see with the eyes of Christ. This is an awakening to the real and letting go the unreal. T-12.Vl.4

The researchers studying the brains of the stressed rats were joyously surprised to learn that the changes in behavior and brains could be reversed. That is, although, the induced stress caused particular sections of the brain to shrivel, they found that pampering the rats particular parts of the brain “resprouted.”

But with only four weeks’ vacation in a supportive setting free of bullies and Tasers, the formerly stressed rats looked just like the controls, able to innovate, discriminate and lay off the bar. Atrophied synaptic connections in the decisive regions of the prefrontal cortex resprouted, while the overgrown dendritic vines of the habit-prone sensorimotor striatum retreated. (Brain, p. 19)

The "resprouting" of the atrophied synaptic connections is, of course, looked on as favorable, and this is a real temptation while looking through eyes that cannot see. We tend to see dualities, e.g., a stressful, or non-stressful situation, sad or happy, good or bad, and we try to find a solution more favorable rather than less favorable, forgetting that we are looking at completely illusory situations, dream-figures of our own making, characters at the bottom of a rabbit-hole.

So, it always comes down to the basics. When I see an image and respond to it stressfully, or non-stressfully, for that matter, I ask for help to remember that it is not so, it is not real, it is a dream, and ask to see through the images with vision, with the eyes of Christ, thereby, experiencing truth and love and peace.

At the end of Alice in Wonderland, we discover what we may have suspected all along—Alice Liddel, the young girl Charles Dodgson based his story on, was dreaming all the time. She finds herself in her sister’s lap, dreaming that cards are fluttering down all around her, and she wakes up discovering her sister brushing leaves off of her face.

Here is the way I expressed it in the last section of a poem in blank verse I once wrote about Alice, entitled The Wonder of Alice.

At this the whole pack of cards rose up in
the air, and came flying down on Alice
Liddel, lying on her sister’s soft lap;
she was gently brushing away some dead
leaves that had come fluttering down from the
trees upon her face. So Alice got up
and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well
she might, what a curious, wonderful dream.

If you wish to read the poem in its entirety, please click here.