Many years ago I took a class in parapsychology and one of the guest speakers was a man named Bill Thetford, who was associated with a new book called A Course in Miracles. The story he told was compelling and so I went to the bookstore and bought the three volume set with the intention of reading it. However, each time I tried, I was put off by what I termed “psycho-babble” and put it back on the shelf. Through the years, I’d pick one of the volumes up just to take a look, but it didn’t “speak” to me, so I left it alone.
In this past few years, I’ve struggled with the details of aging and have felt as though I’ve just been treading water with no real direction or focus. I happened to purchase the 2016 Hay House Summit interviews a couple months ago and started listening to the presentations. One was with a wonderful writer, Julia Cameron, who wrote The Artist’s Way, and mentioned that in addition to her daily writing practice, she also did A Course in Miracles. The next day, I listened to an interview with Alan Cohen, who wrote The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and he was talking about how years before he’d been introduced to A Course in Miracles and had the same reaction I did. However, through a coincidence, he picked it up again and found that it had some very potent wisdom to share. Based on these two interviews, I decided to take another look – to suspend judgment and “just see” if there was something to ACIM.
After I did my morning pages (Julia Cameron’s daily routine), I pulled the three volumes off the shelf and sat down to start reading. This time, something strange happened. It was as though a door opened that brought me into a familiar place I had forgotten through a lifetime of illusion. I found myself feeling an inner sense of hope and excitement…that my life wasn’t over and that there was something to look forward to. Each day I have been reading from the text and doing the daily lessons. Each day my sense of joy has risen as anxiety and fear recedes. Each day, I am finding an overriding reality to the one I watch on television…and interestingly enough, I no longer turn on the television in the morning to get the weather or the news. My first focus is on having a cup of tea with A Course in Miracles and beginning the day by putting Source first, not the world’s idea of reality.
I shared what I was doing with my daughter and other friends, and in each case, they said they wanted to take a look themselves. My daughter, who is a Buddhist, said she was really getting a tremendous amount out of the daily lessons, and she is able to see the correlation between ACIM and Buddhist principles. She is also recognizing shifts in her way of viewing the world that is bringing greater peace and clarity.
I feel an inner commitment to this process and recognize that it is altering my view of the world and my life. It is replacing my anxious fear filled thoughts with a clear perspective that leads to true knowing. There is no judgment, no expectation…only removal of the burdens I’ve carried. There is no religious agenda, no pre-qualifications required. I have been astounded that here before me is an agent of change that has been on my bookshelf for almost 40 years, virtually ignored by me. But I also realize that the adage that when the student is ready the teacher appears is true. It’s all about timing.