Hope Johnson's Wisdom Dialogues
Hope Johnson's Wisdom Dialogues
What Causes Strain | A Course in Miracles Deep Dive @ Lake Whatcom, WA | January 7, 2026
Summary of Cameo 14 & Cameo 9, Chapter 3, Part I, Paragraph 4, Sentence 2 & 3 | Summary of Key Points in Chapters 1 and 2
A tiny, unwatched fear can hijack a whole day. We trace ACIM’s chain of miscreation from its first faint flicker—what Jesus calls a “will-o’-the-wisp”—through strain, irritation, self-protection, and the cascade of missed guidance that follows. Using vivid stories (a botched cab ride, a cold doorway, even cat-and-meat drama), we show how events are irrelevant; the real lesson is how the mind slides from fear to reaction when it isn’t watched.
We lay down seven foundations that make everything else click: miracles are shifts in perception, not outcomes; cause and effect live in the mind; fear is self-generated; the body is neutral; guidance replaces control; circular miracles differ from corrective ones; and a unified will ends the sense of coercion. From relationships to sickness, we examine how level confusion turns bodies into causes and life into negotiation. Then we flip it: when the mind pauses and pardons, time shortens, efficiency appears, and action becomes light and clear for everyone involved.
Along the way, we unpack a jarring but useful ACIM phrase—“mental retardation” as a defense—not to label people, but to name the tendency to feign confusion to avoid responsibility. The cure is simple willingness: study what matters, watch the first hint of strain, offer pardon, and let guidance carry you. If you’re ready to stop wasting time with urgency and start saving time with miracles, this conversation will give you language, tools, and lived examples to practice today.
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Ah, aloha, and welcome to a Course in Miracles Deep Dive with Hope Johnson coming to you from Lake Watcombe, Washington. Yay! Thank you for being here. So today we're going to get back to chapter three, paragraph four, in the complete annotated edition. We ended in the middle of a cameo. And then afterwards, I realized we already went over that cameo in May of last year. Yes, last year. And so what I did was I came up with a summary of it so we can go over it. What we already covered basically covers everything that Jesus was talking about, and then we'll get into it a little bit more. So yay, let's get back to that. I love it. Let's tune in. Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. For all of these precious moments, we get to join in truth. Being together with willingness to see beyond these words to the truth that we are with our own inner guide. You know, we all the same inner guide. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That we all have the same inner guide and we're sharing the same purpose. Thank you for your love and your patience and your guidance. Amen. That's how a beautiful study. So I'm gonna go and uh just give a summary of cameo fourteen. It's called the chain of miscreation. And if you're not familiar with with what a cameo is, this is uh more personal conversations that Jesus was having with Helen and Bill, and it gives some really good insight, especially this one, the chain of miscreation, particularly, on how uh a lot of un uh un let's say unwelcome events keep on unfolding. Um, and that's because error unfolds in the mind. So in this cameo, Jesus says this is his only extended walkthrough of how of how error unfolds step by step in the mind. So it's never like he's reprimanding anyone about specific events. What this cameo shows us is a typical mental process. It's showing how small, unchecked fear thoughts snowball and compound conflict and lost opportunity. In these examples, it's lost opportunity to be efficient with a cab and with a cab for a ride home, and also where to store the documents for a course in miracles. So Jesus makes this really explicit in the cameo. He says the events themselves are not relevant, their results are irrelevant as well. What matters, you know, he's saying it doesn't matter that they missed the cab and they were inefficient with their storage. What matters is how misthought progresses when it's not watched, it just keeps on going. And you could see how it affects other people in this cameo. This is cameo 14 of the complete and annotated edition. So the purpose of this conversation they were having was not to shame anyone, but to show us what not to do if we want to have a good day and harmonious relatings. Okay. So the true corrective is named in this cameo, and that's mind watching. So it's like a failure to mind watch allows these missed thoughts to compile snowballs, you know, snowball, so to speak. So, and he also noticed this, he also noted that this kind of negative analysis, it's not his preferred teaching method, uh, which is the reason he says he's not gonna do it again. So this is the place to go to see how uh misstep in thought unfolds. I've seen it myself too. Uh, it played out one time right before my eyes, just right in front of me. This man came to visit, and he was already kind of like uh uh a little bit angry, uh kind of angry, maybe not even a little bit, but angry. Uh he expressed anger at the world and stuff like that. Um, and then I noticed, you know, I was just I was just smiling and enjoying him. And he goes, You're just not gonna uh get upset about any of this stuff. And I said, No, there's no need to. And so then he was like upset about that, that I wouldn't get upset about the things he was upset about in the world. So then he went outside and he uh found out that the cat had gotten into his meat in the back of the car, and he was all pissed at the cat. And then he walked into the yard and he, I think he wanted to wash off his meat, like he was bringing his meat over to the hose, and he stepped in dog shit, and then he looked at me and he goes, Is this because I've been thinking negative thoughts? And I go, Well, when you're maintaining that a negative thought is true, it does compound and then start affecting your experience going forward, you know. It's like uh, and and these aren't punishment by any means, uh, it's just that it's not allowing the light, and so the uh the perception doesn't appear with lightness, you can say it appears heavy then. So the initial error is unwatched fear, it could be very small, fleeting, fear-producing attitudes. That's what uh Jesus called it fear-producing attitudes in Bill's mind. They weren't major errors in themselves. Jesus called them will-o wisps because he's saying there weren't they weren't major errors in themselves, but because they weren't watched, they produce strain. And then the strain leads to irritation. So uh the first principle here is unwatched fear weakens the mind, even if it seems insignificant. So then that needs to be pardoned, you know. That uh that feeling of irritation that's caused by the strain, then that needs to be pardoned. That's an opportunity right now, right there. When you notice strain, that needs to be pardoned. Bill didn't pardon his irritation. That was part of the conversation. Helen did pardon his irritation, but it was under strain for her because her will was divided. Okay, she she doesn't uh she didn't realize that's what she actually wanted to do. Like when you realize it's what you want to do, you want to pardon uh the irritation, then uh then you're you're uh miracle and will-minded. So it feels really good to do it. But if you're but if you do it under strain, you're still doing it, but it's not as effective as it could be. He was talking about Jesus was talking about how strain weakens her ability to re to respond healingly. So, and then this makes her makes her vulnerable to further error down the road, which also occurred. So, one important clarification that Jesus modeled here is words like unpardonable and stupidity, those reflect Helen's thoughts. That's not Jesus' judgment. He used those words in this cameo. He's saying that errors are always meant to be pardoned, but pardoning under strain diminishes the healing power. Okay, so if you have any questions, just let me know and I will stop and take your question. I love you. Thank you for joining. Okay. So another point covered in the cameo was error countered with more error. So in that part, Bill committed what Jesus called one of those, one of those most fear-provoking errors possible. See, he was saying countering error with error. And the example that was given was a woman named Dora behaved foolishly. That's what Jesus said. That's his words. She behaved foolishly. Bill responded with self-protective behavior. So he not he didn't offer a shared cab. That's the self-protective behavior. So this was done by Bill out of a belief in urgency, like it would be uh more efficient for him to get home quicker and personal need. So in this moment, Jesus identified it as becoming highly inflammable. So the teaching there is reacting to error rather than correcting error invites escalation. So what he's saying is that when Dora behaved foolishly, that's where uh Bill needed to pardon the foolish behavior, not counter it with more foolish behavior. And you know, when foolish behavior occurs, you get an emotional reaction to it. That's the only way this is gonna go down is if you do get emotion, get an emotional reaction. Um, so when you notice the the emotional reaction, remember that that's a signal that forgiveness needs to be offered here. You may not feel like you want to do it, like in Helen's case, but Jesus is saying that you know, any effort, any will, any uh will toward truth is helpful. It's always helpful. You get helped. So uh, and you know, of course, what I found that leads to seeing these patterns, seeing how the chain of miscreation starts, you know, so you're less likely to get caught in the chain of miscreation, you know. Um, this seems like it, you know, from my point of view, anyways, that this is something people need to study because when they can recognize patterns, then things really, you know, viscerally feel impersonal. It's one thing to know they're impersonal, but it's another thing to viscerally feel this is impersonal and have compassion flowing through whatever it is. So basically, Bill responded from fear rather than loving kindness. Uh he blocked the time-saving function of miracles. That's another thing about miracles. They are a time-saving function as well in the world. Like if Bill were to extend the miracle, extend forgiveness, right? Uh, for Dora's foolish behavior in the first place, he would have been more miracle-minded and he would have seen what he needed to do, exactly what he needed to do, and as and even been carried to that particular action and through that action that ended up being efficient for everyone. So he ended up waiting longer than usual for a cab. The very thing he was trying to avoid following the wrong voice. So Jesus stated this explicitly. He would have gotten home much quicker if he had taken time to use time properly. So these are some foundational ACIM teachings. Miracle save, miracle save time, fear waste time, and personal urgency. Personal urgency. That's something you uh feel in your body's energy field. Like this is something I have to take care of on my own and not asking for guidance. Personal urgency. These things prevent miracles. Isn't that fun? When you see it, it's like, oh, and you know, it's like if miracles are prevented, it's like, oh, well, that experience was an experience of a difficult experience, a more difficult experience than it needed to be. Uh, but still learning occurred through it. So, you know, everything is awesome. Everything is freaking awesome. All right. So attempted self-atonement. That's another error that was talked about here. Sensing that something went wrong, Bill tried to fix it himself. He did that by giving a cab to someone else. Uh, Jesus was talking about how it was framed as generosity, but it was actually misguided. And it was simultaneously unkind to Helen, who was cold and late. She could have used a cab. So Jesus was really clear. He said attempting to atone on one's own leads to further error. So guidance was available. It's always available. It just wasn't asked for. And that's something we all do all the time, right? It's not a big deal to be shame. It's not something to be shaming yourself over, certainly. Um, although, you know, the ego loves that. Uh, but just noticing, you know, the more you notice, the more alert you get, the more you take the time out to be still and do whatever you're asked to do, you know, and and witness, uh, be awareness high above all your patterns, recognizing that you're never touched by them, even when you seem to be touched by them. Isn't that wonderful? Okay, so more on this. It's a pretty uh involved cameo, actually. So that chain of miscreation extended to Helen. Helen was already feeling strained. Okay, she she wanted to go home. She was feeling strained. Uh, and you know, earlier things which uh which strained her were being present while someone was uh being made a character of and laughing about that. Jesus was talking about how that kind of uh in engagement, involvement in the mind, it strains the mind. So that's why she ended up strained. And you know, that but that brings me to an example too. Um, I had a friend over one time, and he's uh, you know, he's a spiritual teacher, and uh and he came over and he was talking with uh my husband, and they were just like talking in this way about people, and I didn't feel good. And and my friend, who is a spiritual teacher and intuitive, he noticed I didn't feel good. And he's like, Are you okay? And I wasn't sure what it was yet, but then I sunk into it and I was shown and I communicated with him too. You know what? I just noticed it doesn't feel good to me when people are projecting shame onto other people in my presence, and I just noticed that. And he goes, Oh, well, you know, it's it's good for us to talk about that stuff. And I was like, No, no, I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just noticing that for myself. And, you know, the confusion was that I didn't really see what they were doing as a call for love. That's all the confusion was within me that made it feel bad in my perception. That was the confusion that I just didn't notice that was a call for love. When I noticed, oh, that conversation that they're having right there in front of me, all that is is a call for love. I don't have to engage in it and I don't have to resist it. Right. And then just let the Holy Spirit speak anything that wants to be spoken through me if there is anything. Isn't that fun? Yeah. So Helen was already strained from earlier in the day, and then she became irritated at a girl blocking the door. When that girl blocked the door, it made Helen cold. So her irritation was seeming to be rooted in the discomfort she was feeling from the cold and uh whatever the girl was doing. Uh, it was just something that that was compounding from earlier that day. This is called the chain of miscreation. See? So Helen had already noticed the girl's extreme uncertainty. Uh, Helen was a professional trained. In mental retardation, Helen could have recognized that that was. She could have, if she was in her right mind, recognized the situation and offered reassurance to the girl, you know, like she normally would have under circumstances where she was not strained. But instead, she associated with the girl's confusion. She kind of like joined her in confusion. Not that they can really join, because we can only join minds in truth. Um, but it's like she tried to join her in Jesus. Uh, I think he said in there, joined her, it tried to join her in the retardation rather than uh making a miracle, rather than extending forgiveness and making a miracle, helping the girl, being helpful. So he was demonstrating how being under strain reduces discernment. Okay, even where normally you would have clarity. So this unwatched mind keeps on going, and you're always you're always being orchestrated and given these opportunities to extend truth, uh, see miracles, and uh and be in harmony with all of creation. See, everything's orchestrated that way. Like at that point, if Helen would have offered a miracle to that girl, she would have felt so much better. The cold wouldn't have even been so prevalent in her uh projection. So that's where it all is. It's all in it's it's all in the mind, what mind watching, and that's why this is a mind training course. Yay! All right, so what this cameo is teaching, what we covered here. Here it is, just distilled for you guys. Uh, errors are rarely big at the start, but unwatched fear weakens the mind, and then that produces these fearful attitudes. And then there's the and then this weakness invites irritation. Irritation that invites a reaction. See that one reaction is uh uh one reaction is um of is of compounding the error is to keep on uh projecting the feeling that's coming up. That's the reaction in the body's energy field. It's like I gotta do something, I gotta take it upon myself. And then that leads to compounding the error, and then that error spreads. See how it spread to Helen too, unless it's corrected at the level of thought. So these two, which are uh basically learning how to be mighty companions, each of them could have helped one another. And Helen did help Bill by pardoning his irritability, but she didn't do it fully. That's what Jesus was talking about, where she would have actually felt uplifted from extending that miracle. He's saying they're not lost. It's not that the miracle's lost, it did work, but it could have worked even more effectively. Yeah. So we're just blocking the use of miracles uh on a regular basis until we develop the habit of being miracle-minded all of the time. And that's what we're going for because that is the extended happy day, happy dream that everyone wants in joyful harmony. And, you know, as we're undoing these things, we can, it says in A Course in Miracles, and I totally know it, we can be as happy children uh looking at our patterns together, the patterns that we play together, you know. Uh it takes not taking these patterns personally and looking at them and go, wow, look at that. You know, these underlying uh ideas that leaded to that. Oh, okay. And then you it's kind of like you get the flavor of that, and you're like, oh, I don't want that flavor anymore. I'm not gonna go down that chain of miscreation. It doesn't sound good. Eventually you don't follow it, and eventually there's nothing to even bring up fear once the holy kingdom is seen, because our site has been cleared of all this nonsense. So, and the problem is never the situation. The situations, all the situations that are that are shown, they're just for showing a typical situation. That's all a typical situation, not a personal situation. Things feel personal, that doesn't make them personal, though. Uh, that's what it's meant to do. It's meant to prove to your mind that it is personal, but you don't have to accept that as evidence. You can you don't have to accept that because you are experiencing an upset feeling that that's evidence that something is wrong uh with this particular situation. No, every situation is just a run-of-the-mill situation. It's always the only problem is unobserved belief that's operating beneath it. So, yay.
SPEAKER_00:So let's see where we go from here.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I did make some notes on Cameo 9. We'll see if I'm gonna get to that one. Cameo 9 was about Mrs. Albert, the miracle worker that did miracle working just naturally. Um Helen was uh Helen was in her presence and Jesus was talking about watch this woman, Mrs. Albert, the miracle worker. She knows who he who she is. She does miracles all the time, uh effectively, because they're not coming from any kind of effort, they're not coming from any kind of action. Not it's just it's just not this special behavior. It's just that she's aligned with her identity. She's certain of who she is and who God is. She doesn't hesitate, she just extends what's true. Her certainty of being loving makes miracles natural. So, and then there was also talking about Helen's tendency to forget names. And he was clarifying that Helen isn't being hostile, but she's fe she's afraid, she's fearful of involvement and recognition. She doesn't want to recognize this person as who she is because she's hung up on making magic, using control, protection, manipulation rather than miracles, which is joining, extension, healing. So he was saying, Jesus was saying how forgetting names was functioning as a distancing mechanism for Helen, a way to limit joining. So he was talking about what it is to be a real miracle worker. And that was a cameo that was mentioned within cameo 14, the chain of miscreation. So miracles occur naturally when the mind knows who it is. That's that's the the key. Distance, hesitation, uh, protecting, uh, these are these are signals of fear of joining. They're not wisdom at all. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Paragraph four, sentence two. Well, I'm just gonna read sentence one. It says the next part of this course rests too heavily on the earlier part not to require its study. And then when we look at footnote six, it's after that sentence, this is the content we are being asked to study here in our study periods. We are being asked to review, quote, the earlier part, end quote, i.e., the course up until this point. Jesus later refers to these study periods as reviewing the notes. And that, and then cameo fourteen is part of that footnote, which we just went over, the chain of miscreation. So sentence two paragraph four, sentence two. Without this, and the this that he's talking about is uh study of those earlier lessons. So without this, without study of the earlier lessons, you will become much too fearful when the unexpected does occur to make constructive use of it. So by this paragraph in this chapter, Jesus has already emphasized to us that earlier material must be reviewed, not skimmed. That's basically what we've done. If you've joined me for all these deep dives, we've reviewed it. We've definitely not skimmed it, we've reviewed it deeply. Uh, Jesus framed that review as preparation, not as repetition. So it's going deep into it and really preparing your mind. See, in this sentence, it says, without this, without this preparation that you get through reviewing the earlier material, you will become much too fearful when the unexpected does occur occur to make constructive use of it. Okay, without this, that means reviewing the earlier materials. And earlier in this particular chapter, he was talking about making time to study. Making time to review that earlier materials. You know, at this point, you might you might make study time to study by listening to my ACIM deep dives, which you can find links to on my website at hopejohnson.org. They're also on the podcast stations, and they're also on Substack. Hope Johnson Wisdom on Substack. You can find the link on my website. That's the only link you need, hopejohnson.org. So Jesus noted, you know, has noted up to this point how resistance, delay, and strain interfere with our readiness. So when he says, without this, he's referring very specifically to the careful study and assimilation of the earlier part of this course. And that's chapters one and two. Okay. According to footnote seven, hey, where's footnote seven? Let's get footnote seven going. The unexpected. Oh, I already had it going. I didn't realize it was the footnote. The unexpected, quote unquote, refers to Jesus' comment originally at the end of paragraph one, that the course was meant to prepare Bill for a quite unexpected role in God's plan, a role that Bill acted disinterested in because he was really afraid of it. The idea here is that unless Bill carefully studies the earlier part of the course, when that role finally does show up, he will be too fearful of it, the role, to make constructive use of that role, the role in God's plan. So he's specifically telling Bill here if you don't review the notes and study, you're not gonna be prepared for what's coming. I think I probably went over this many years ago because I knew to keep on studying and practicing forgiveness on all little things that came up. And I noticed how much strength they gave me whenever something unexpected would come up. Like let's say lava, for instance. You know, I noticed they how much strength I had in those moments, those unexpected uh roles you play in God's plan. It's so fun. So if the mind is not already well studied in this regard, the materials of chapters one and two, fear is being self-generated. Okay it hasn't learned that the fear is not coming from outside, so it just continues to self-generate. I mean, the fear is not coming from within the mind, not coming from outside.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So these are these are some important things to know that chapters one and two require study for. Okay, another one is that miracles are natural, you don't have to do anything. The power is in the mind, knowing who it is, the power is not in the body, and that guidance can be trusted. Then when that role in God's plan, that unexpected role in God's plan shows up and the ego experiences it as a threat, you recognize it. And you don't have to take it as a threat. This is why Jesus uh doesn't say that Bill would reject the role, he would be too fearful to make constructive use of it. So when that role arises and you're not recognizing that the fear is self-generated, you tend to become more fearful, project fear. Uh, you tend to try to control miracles when you're not when you're not well studied and aware that miracles are natural, right? That's the goal. That's one of the goals of study, so that you are you just know like that's your uh regular resting place in the mind. Fear is self-generated, miracles are natural, all power is in the mind, not in the body, and my guidance can be trusted. So constructive use here, where Jesus says he would be too fearful to make constructive use. He's saying it, he's saying it wouldn't be extended without strain. There would be strain. He wouldn't be able to heal without miscreation and collapse patterns, right? And collapse patterns rather than repeating them. The goal is to collapse patterns so that we don't repeat them over and over again. And that's what make constructive use is when something arises, something unexpected, and the ego starts to talk about how bad this is, how terrible it is, how unjust. How about being unjustly treated? That's a fun one. One thing Jesus said to be particularly aware of. You don't want to be uh seeing yourself as unjustly or unfairly treated. So paragraph four is kind of like a warning about readiness. He's saying, in effect, if you don't train now, then when your function appears later, fear is gonna hijack it. Right, by distorting it. So this placement where it is, it's also it's explaining why the next uh the what the next the next material is moving into learning failure, resistance, and then the chain of miscreation, which we just went over, right? So the problem is never your calling, it's unprepared perception. Your calling is always the same, you know. Uh as the light of the world, your function is forgiveness, no matter the perception. So if you haven't been prepared in this way, you're not gonna see these roles that you're given in the divine plan where you're meant to extend truth. So without this, you will become much too fearful when the unexpected does occur to make constructive use of it. Okay, so from here, since Jesus is talking about one and two, I made some notes about chapters one and two. So we're gonna go over everything Jesus said as far as I you know picked out. It everything that Jesus wants us to know before going forward with the next material. And I'll make it kind of pithy, especially since those uh chapters were really long. Okay. So what a miracle is and what it's not. Jesus wants us to be clear that a miracle is a shift in perception, not an external event. See, people talk about it's a miracle that this happened. Nope, that's not where the miracle is. That's effect. You could say that's uh that's an effect of healing. All right. The perception is healed, so the perception makes uh projection, right? And projection makes perception, so a shift in perception, not an external event. This is a correction that is received. It's not private self-work, it's not working on yourself, it's just natural. It's just natural, it's not special, it's not effortful, it's not dramatic, and it's certainly not rare. He says that you're uh meant to do miracles all the time. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong. See, if this isn't understood, your later guidance is gonna be over-efforted. So when you notice over-effort, okay, this is the principle. Right? It's as if an external event is supposed to happen. Money's supposed to come. And if money does come, yay, and it's not a miracle. And if money doesn't come, yay, and it's not a miracle. Miracles are shifts in perception. And if that's not understood, it would be misunder misused to control form or feared. Make you afraid of too much responsibility. This is not too much responsibility for you because miracles are natural, they're natural for you. Number two, cause and effect are in the mind. So this is one of the most critical lessons. The mind is the cause, the world and the body are effects. Jesus talked about level confusion here. When you put the body and the mind on the same, the body and world on the same level as the mind, and and make them compete, that's a conflict for you. They're not on the same level. Mind is a way higher level. It's the only real level, actually. So nothing that the mind made is the cause. That's what it's showing you. Okay, the mind is the cause. The effects, the form, the circumstances, those things, the effects. They are not the cause, they are the effects. The ego always turns that around as if the effects are doing something to the mind. It's like you make it happen and then pretend like you didn't make it happen. It's awesome. So Jesus here wants the student to stop solving problems at the level of form. Treating symptoms as causes. You can use sickness as a really good example. Right? A stuffy nose uh doesn't mean that the body is susceptible or something. A stuffy nose means that's an attack. It's a mental attack. You know, it's an effect of that. It doesn't mean, you know, of course, you take care of it. You don't really have to think about that, though. When you just recognize, oh, that's an effect of thinking against myself. It's an effect of self-abandonment, self-loathing, whatever the problem may be, it's mental. So treating symptoms is fine, but treating them as causes keeps them looping around. It keeps the real cause hidden. They're not causes in themselves. And uh one example of how you would make it a cause is like you caught the stuffy nose somewhere, right? Or you went out in the cold and that's why you got the stuffy nose. You ate the wrong food. No, don't do that. That's confusing the levels. Your mind projected the symptoms, they didn't come from anything. That is a that is uh a belief, uh, it's a hidden belief that situations produce inner states when it's the opposite way around. The inner state produces the situation. So without clarity on that, uh the next material is just going to be misapplied, it's gonna be misinterpreted. How's it going?
SPEAKER_02:Can I see? Yeah, what's what's up? When you said yeah, the first principle you said was miracles are a change in perception. Right. And it's the perception. So there's perception and there's form that we're perceiving, essentially, right? And we're not when we say change in perception, we're not uh talking about a change in the form, we're talking about the mental level of how we are how how we are perceiving, how that's right.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. How you're interpreting the what you're perceiving. See how he's talking about the interpretation right here in the example that I gave with sickness, uh, as if the sickness was cut was caused by contagion or something else. You did the wrong things. That's guilt, right? No, so you see, it's like that's not how those aren't the reasons that you got sick. You're saying no to that. You're denying that those reasons are the reason. And you know, you're not really sick either. That's another thing to see. You're projecting a this is a projection of a sick mind. See? So we're not solving things on the level of form. That's not saying you shouldn't treat the symptoms, it's saying you shouldn't treat the symptoms as if they're causes in in themselves. You can treat the symptoms all day long. It's just magic, it doesn't mean anything, doesn't do anything, but it's like permission slips for your mind to feel comforted, and that's fine. No problem. All different people have their different magic, none of it really works. It's all awesome. See that being gentle.
SPEAKER_02:When you say magic, it um magic and miracles are different things.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, magic is anything that you would use in a dream to apparently make an effect, they're not real effects, that's why it's magic. See that? Like let's say you got a cough and you take cough medicine. The cough medicine is magic in a dream. Okay, you may or may not get the perception that that helped your cough. Either way, it's just magic in a dream. A miracle is a shift in perception, huge difference, right? Isn't that fun? Yeah, I love it. Yeah, all right. So we're ready for number three. We feel good.
SPEAKER_02:What was number two, one more time?
SPEAKER_01:Number two, cause and effect are in the mind. Okay. Okay, you got that? Yeah, all right. Number three, fear is always self-generated. By the end of chapter two, this needs to be clear. Fear never comes from others, fear comes from divided will. What's divided will? It's not recognizing that your only true will is what God wills, and that's joining. So for joining to occur, forgiveness may have to occur first. And you know what's awesome about forgiveness? Whenever forgiveness is extended, the joining goes deeper. It's really lovely. These are real, they're truly opportunities. Truly. So uh fear is the experience. When you experience fear, that's the experience of inner conflict. See, if this isn't understood, later calls to your function will feel coercive, overwhelming, or unsafe. The call to extend a miracle. If this isn't understood, that fear never comes from others. See what I mean? Let's give an example. Like, let's say someone's coming to rape and kill you, apparently. This is your perception, anyways. They're barging in your door, they got a knife and they look horny. Maybe their dick's out, right? And all of a sudden, you recognize you are feeling fear as an experience, you must be projecting fear, and you soften. See, miracles shift perception, they shift the perception in the mind, which affects everyone. And when miracles are performed, uh like fully, we saw how they're not fully performed. That's where you have divided will, but you still work a miracle, right? You still you still recognize it, but you think you don't want to do it. You still recognize the truth, but you think you don't really want to do it. That's divided will, right? So if the miracle is fully embraced and you're fully like, oh, awesome, this guy came to the perfect person. You're gonna see things shift. And you know, I've had experiences like that myself, and I've heard stories from other people like that too. They're just like, yeah, something happened. I just like expanded, and it extended to that person who seemed to be going toward committing a crime against me. It's amazing, and I see it all the time. Uh, I don't, I, you know, I don't find myself like uh encountering someone with a knife or something like that, but uh, you know, I see it all the time in small ways, like in my relatings. Like I'll get the perception, you know, I'll use my son as an example. Uh recently, my daughter told me that he said, I don't, you know, I don't like mom. I don't want to hang out with her, you know, I just don't like she has shitty advice and she always wants to give advice and she doesn't listen to me and stuff like that. And so uh my daughter told me that. And I go, Oh, hmm. Oh, well, yeah, okay, I see how I could listen more. And uh, you know, I was just like really open about it. And I looked at it and I was like, hmm, that doesn't seem or feel true to me at all, like any of that stuff. It just doesn't really feel or seem true to me. And I noticed the ego knocking at the door, like, hey, uh, here, you know, the proof that you're a shitty mother, you know, you got this son saying this kind of stuff, and he doesn't, he's saying he doesn't even want to hang out with you, 23-year-old son. And, you know, I didn't make those thoughts meaningful. I just kept on resting in the truth. And I mean, viscerally resting in the truth when one of those thoughts would come to bother me, specifically about my son. And the next thing I know, he's being super sweet to me. He's and we're laughing and we're having a great time. And now at this point, surprise, surprise, I'm flying to Maui. And and you know, it was uh his idea for me to come over there and and uh and stay with him for eight days in his little tiny apartment. So apparently he does like hanging out with me. And you know, uh the mind is just so shifty like that. That's how it is, and we really do have command over all particles. So when we're not uh when we're when we're not uh resisting the experience and just joining with the experience, we are the experience, so it's kind of like joining with ourselves and relaxing in the experience. It affects is ever it affects everyone. Oh, he actually um called me up super grateful. He he realized something. He's like he realized how much uh I took care of certain things now that he's out there adulting in Maui, and he just felt really grateful. And I was like, Yeah, and that's another been another theme too gratitude all around. Uh wow, it's wonderful. Okay, so now we have three that we've gone over what a miracle is shift in perception. It's not a it's not like a control or doing or over efforting over-efforting. Cause and effect are in the mind, so we don't get level confusion where we feel helpless to our illusions. Uh, knowing that fear is always self-generated and it comes from divided will. Number four circular miracles. This was one of my favorite ones. I had a huge opening here. I saw something, and everything changed for me after that. This was a really nice opening for me. Um, if you want to go back to it, it's somewhere in there. Circular miracles versus corrective miracles. I believe I named the episode that. So here's where Jesus introduced a subtle, and for me, this was subtle because I didn't see this distinction until uh a couple months ago, five maybe months ago. Uh, miracles that relieve our symptoms, but leave level error. See, we talked about level and level confusion, and then we talked about miracles that relieve symptoms that leave level error intact are circular. Okay, level error intact. I've seen this example, and one of my friends, he knows everything's an illusion, he knows it all comes from his mind, and then he says, Oh, well, I guess it's the way it is. And it's like, that's circular. He's having a circular miracle. He's getting relief because he knows it's coming from his mind. That's giving him relief, but he's keeping the uh level confusion intact as if he's helpless within the error. Okay. So we want to actually collapse the pattern. So let's say you get a diagnosis that says you have diabetes, for instance, right? And you start to feel fearful for how the diabetes diagnosis is going to go. So you get a fear, a miracle for the fear. You get a miracle for that fear. Fear isn't justified because everything can be used for the Holy Spirit's function, right? But there's a level error. It's believing that the diabetes is real and has a cause in the world and it's really here. Here's the thing: there is no diabetes. Every symptom that you seem to perceive is projecting now. So you're leaving then that level error intact. So you just have another miracle for the fear about the body, another miracle for the fear about the body, and work in circular miracles, but leaving that root confusion intact that you're vulnerable to a diabetes diagnosis in the first place. See, that's error, that's that level error. It's like as if this evidence says I have this and it's really true. I don't have anything. Right? Each time a symptom comes up, it's a matter of recognizing. This isn't saying you don't do the treatment, whatever that is for diabetes. Uh, you don't say you don't do the treatment. That's neither here nor there. If that's what you have the faith for, that's what you're being called to, go ahead. It's just that recognize that all the symptoms are being projected by you. They're not projected by diabetes. True miracles collapse the pattern, actually collapse uh uh correcting the underlying cause, which is correcting whatever it is that's propping up diabetes as a reality for you. It is a it is an unseen belief. That's all it is, it's not really there. If that isn't grasped, your piece is just gonna come and go, your patterns are gonna repeat. Oh, well, well, I'm just uh uh doing my best and this sucks, right? It's like, man, you know, if I get the perception that I got some kind of diagnosis, you know where I'm going right to the cause of that perception until the perception is healed. That's what I do with aging, actually. I love it. And you know, I'm not attached to uh any kind of outcome with it, it's not like that at all. It's just that anytime I get the perception that aging is true, these thoughts, oh my gosh, they just arise from the unconscious mind. And it's like they validate the world's belief over and over again. And I just watch that and I deny any meaning to it, and it's really fun and it makes me happy too. Serving our function does make us happy. You know, the underlying pattern of everything instead of you know, let's let's do another example for this because this is a really subtle thing. Let's do another example for this. Let's say it's aging, let's say you're getting the perception, you see another, another wrinkle. Oh, there's another wrinkle, or that wrinkle got deeper, or something like that, right? So a circular miracle be doing the miracle for the upset feeling about the body's aging, a miracle that actually is uh collapsing the pattern itself, is that there is no aging. I'm actually projecting the aging and the feeling right now. What is it? What else can I see and undo that props up this illusion of aging, not just for myself, but for everyone. It's fun. So also, if this level confusion isn't grasped, the students will think they're failing when all they're doing, they're just correcting at the wrong level. They're doing the correcting, they're doing the forgiving. It's just the wrong level. It's not you can't even say it's the wrong level because Jesus is saying he likes that you're getting relief. He loves it, he wants you to have relief. He just wants you to have full relief that doesn't repeat. He's like, you're doing great, and you can do better. Better meaning this is gonna make you way happier because you're not gonna eventually. Eventually, not going to see these things on repeat. All right, number five. Are we ready for number five? Let me see if you guys have questions. Oh, here we go. We have a question, Durga. Explain more about we really do have command of all particles. Okay, so the particles that can be measured right now are not real particles. They're manufactured particles, but they are reflecting a state of mind. So when we recognize that everything in the field is actually made of love particles, God particles, you might call it. Anything that you perceive, even everything in the perception, is made of these particles. And they respond to your, let's say, miracle workers, miracle working. When you're serving your function of forgiveness, that's what's recognized by these particles, and they form and affect all of the imaginary particles as well. They work in the illusion, they work on our behalf, and they always are because that is the truth of who we are and how creation functions. And since this is just overlaying creation, when we recognize that we are in communion with everything and we relate with it in that way, we are in command of uh of it, uh knowing that our uh our shared function is true joining, harmony, harmonious relating. It's what everyone wants. So you see how it's kind of like, from my point of view, uh it's like it's almost like I controlled my son to make him be fucking sweet to me and generous. He's like telling me he's gonna buy all my food while I'm on Maui as well, um, and thankful toward me. I didn't control his behavior, but I related with the particles that make up his whole uh self of form, his whole image. So it's like I'm communicating with the part of the mind that's one. So I don't know exactly how things are going to unfold, but what I do know is that we all want the same thing. And when we communicate, truly communicate, and that that means the body doesn't need to be present. Here, the opportunity to communicate was hearing my daughter say that he didn't even like me, he didn't even want to hang out with me, he didn't want to talk to me, right? So uh, so then his uh his self of form is is like it's still in my field, right? We're always always in the same energy field, we're always sharing the same mind. So when thoughts of it occur, I communicate and extend truly to my son, just recognizing that we're held in perfect union and love and letting my thoughts be sweet and light and gentle. It just truly changes everything. And, you know, just to see the uh the shift, it's so heartwarming. It's like, oh my goodness, yeah, this is how it actually is. There's actually gratitude and love and lightness and play and laughter here. All right. So let me know if you have any additional questions. I'm checking in with you guys who are live on Substaff and the ones who are live on Zoom. Yay! So, one through four. What a miracle is and is not. It's a shift in perception, it's not an external event. Number two, cause and effect are in the mind, so we don't have level confusion. Okay. Uh, not treating symptoms as causes. Number three, fear is always self-generated. It never comes from others, it comes from your divided will. Fear is any upset feeling. And number four, we just did uh circular miracles versus corrective miracles. Yay. Number five. The body, what do you have something? I do actually. Okay, let's see.
SPEAKER_02:Divided will. Yes, we were talking about willingness the other day, which is just an expression of our will. Yes, that's right. Yes, and so what what is divided will?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you always will with God, and God's will is for you to join, okay, and extend miracles, right? With everything, yes, yeah. Your God's will is uh is perfect peace for every mind.
SPEAKER_02:Let's say but always already unity, right?
SPEAKER_01:All the other wills, like what you could think you're gonna do, and all that shit, that's all ego will. Okay, okay, the ego will, no, and that that's no no problem, right? Uh the ego will that blocks you from knowing that your only true will is the will of God, is this divided will that we're talking about.
SPEAKER_02:The ego will that blocks you from knowing your true will, which is the will of God, right?
SPEAKER_01:Because that would have you, even if you are re are performing miracles, doing so under strain. You see how Helen uh Helen pardoned Bill's irritation, but she did it under strain. Okay. So she uh it's like she worked the miracle, but it wasn't as effective as it could have been because she was under strain, her will was divided. She didn't know she really wanted to do that. See? Yeah, when you know you really do want a party pardon, it's ah it's like you you feel the benefits of it.
SPEAKER_02:It's like complete wholeheartedness.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Okay, that's right. Thank you. Okay, the body is neutral. Okay, Jesus insists here that bodies do not think, they got no intelligence in them, they do not feel that's why feeling is an experience. All right, it's just it's you are projecting the feeling onto a body, the body does not feel. It's a neutral thing, it doesn't cause fear, it doesn't cause healing. If it's believed to be a cause, later teachings about relationships, sex, sickness, and function will be misunderstood because they'll be moralized. Okay, so so you know, it's like if you when in these later teachings, if you take the body to be a reality, and he's talking about relationships and sex and stuff like that, there's gonna be this moral thing that comes in. It's gonna feel very moralized to you. And if you're following these teachings, you're gonna be more condemning. He's saying, if you don't understand that the body is neutral, it doesn't think, it doesn't feel, it's not a cause. And you know, that's really when you see what this means, it's complete freedom. It's freedom of the freedom of freedom for each is just like be whatever it is, then it's not it's not confining because you don't you don't get the sense that you're uh you stop getting the sense that you're actually in this thing and recognizing that you're actually observing it from high above it. You're actually observing all these patterns, you don't have to be afraid of them. So the body is neutral. We don't attribute any uh any kind of intelligence to it, it has no intelligence.
SPEAKER_02:I'm trying to think that it says neutral because it's not also saying the body is evil.
SPEAKER_01:That's right.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Is it is the body separate?
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's one thing because it's a projection. Yeah, but it's a projection. So so look at let's say let's say the mind is a projector and the body is what's on the screen. Okay, so like that. So yeah, kind of separate, and kind of not right, it's it's the the screen is not the projector, right? So in that way they're separate because the screen is can't say I am the projector, uh, but like but the projector is definitely making what's on the screen.
SPEAKER_02:So if you have a movie, then you need a projector and a screen.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_02:So the movie is one movie, uh-huh, but those are parts of part, you know. So they're yeah, they're they're they're one in the sense that they're one.
SPEAKER_01:In a sense, yes. Okay, yes, that's right. Yeah, it's it's it's very, very much like that. So Jesus is so insistent about the body um not being real, you know, he's not like trying to minim minimize human experience, though. He's actually trying to protect the student from level confusion. Remember what I was just saying about diabetes? So this is the the mistake uh that makes the rest of a course in Carson Miracles unintelligible when he's saying the body doesn't think or feel or uh or or cause any healing or or fear. You know, he's saying where the cause actually is. The mind is the cause, the body is the effect. So remembering the body is the effect, okay? Anything else is reversing cause and effect. So certain certain things can certain things tend to go wrong if the body is believed to be causal. Relationships become transactional, right? Gosh, it used to like kind of like make me feel sick when I was a kid to get the perception, getting the perception um that you know when we uh when we're having sexual interactions, like it's uh I I give this and you give this, I give this and you give this. See how it's transactional. It's making the body real. And then that makes it appear like people can make us feel love, safe, rejected, whatever, unsafe. Attraction and aversion seem like they're meaningful. These things are not even meaningful, and then your boundaries too. Boundaries are different when you believe the body to be the cause. The boundaries become a form of protection against harm instead of a move toward clarity of purpose, right? It's like this there's this protection thing, and it's like it's like, yeah, you can use protection, using protection toward clear toward clarity, though, not against harm. So bodies being causal turns these bodies into means for negotiate negotiation in relationships. We negotiate for comfort. If my body looks better, for instance, maybe I can get more. Maybe I can get more comfort. If my body uh produces more, then maybe I can get more. You know, it's it's like mining the body for experience, right? When all experience comes from the mind, including the perception of the body. That's why he talks about the body and how it's not real. Uh, also attempts to control closeness or distance. See, when you're aware that the body is just a manifestation of the mind, you allow your relationships to flow. Right? It's like it they can just flow comfortably. You don't have to try to control them. So Jesus' later teaching on holy relationship cannot be understood if the relationship is still believed to be the cause of inner states. And you know that I just went through something like that. I know how painful that can be, right? Uh, but like for myself, what I do is I just look at uh, okay, this can't be the cause. What is projecting right now in my mind? Let's say someone treated me cruelly, someone was cruel toward me, this projection that someone was cruel toward me is not the cause of this inner state right now. Right? This is not the cause of the inner state. So uh it's like, and bringing that to the truth, it helps us to see. But there's certain instances, and you know, some of them seem to be bigger than others, even though they're all the same. They're really the same fear. Um persistence pays off. I can definitely tell you that. You know, and and this is what Jesus means by this sense of not wanting to, you know, my will definitely uh felt split. It's like there's this sense of not wanting to let go of the guilty projections towards someone who was cruel toward me, you know, and one of them was even seeing, was even being able to see that was cruelty playing out. Because there's all these layers covering it up, uh, especially how I'm supposed to be, and uh being tolerant and understanding and all this different kind of stuff. It's like, whoa shit. And then when you see it, you can let go of uh the stories, bringing them to the truth. Okay, the truth is this state, this uh emotional state, maybe it's grief, maybe it's whatever that I'm perceiving right now. It is not caused by anything that has been perceived. I am the cause. Okay, another thing when you make bodies real, sex becomes moralized or idolized. Okay, if the body is believed to feel pleasure or pain, that's the thing, even sexual pleasure. The body is not feeling, you're projecting, you're projecting all the feelings, even so. Then sex appears to be either a source of fulfillment or damage, right? And let it be neither. It's not fulfillment or damage, give it to the Holy Spirit, it makes attraction seem meaningful. Attraction isn't meaningful, there's nothing meaningful about it. Oh, there's attraction. Let it come, let it pass, let all experiences arise as they do. Guilt or specialness that is always attached to bodies. So then if you misunderstand that about the body and you think the body is real, then you're gonna mishear Jesus' statements about sex. You're gonna take them as condemnation, as you're supposed to repress, as like as if it's endorsing sacrifice. And in the course, sex isn't sinful or anything, it's a neutral form, it's given meaning by the purpose of the mind. So, sex, just like anything else, is what is an activity that you can elect to use for the Holy Spirit's function or for the ego's purpose. So without this clarity, what the student's gonna do is either defend sex or attack it. It's just neutral. Both are both of those are ego responses. He also talked about how we've misunderstood sex. So if you want to know more about that, uh, you can look at where I went over chapter one. And it'll say, I believe it'll say sex, right on the title. So you can search for that on podcasts, on Substack, wherever whatever you got. So, yes, and then sickness also becomes a personal or physical problem when you believe that the body's real. Sickness starts to seem random, tragic, unjust. Healing becomes some kind of bodily intervention, like surgery or something. Surgery, I I read this meme, I loved it. Surgery is controlled trauma. I love that. Yeah, it's like we're just using this doctor guy as a device to cut us and do some shit because we believe we deserve punishment to a body that can't feel anything. But just believing we deserve punishment, wanting to play something out. So fear intensifies when you believe the body's real because the cause of everything that's happening to you feels external and uncontrollable. Jesus' later teachings on sickness. You know, when I first read his teachings on sickness, I didn't fully understand uh the teachings of chapters one and two. And I closed the book. I was like, fuck that book. Because it felt like blame. It felt like unhealthy denial, it felt like spiritual bypassing, right? But but that's because you don't understand, you haven't gotten it in your mind yet, how it's clicked in your mind that the body doesn't feel anything. It's not doing anything, it's your mind projecting all of it. Sickness, it says, is a decision in the mind. It's not punishment, it's a it's not a bodily event that must be fought. It's proof that the Son of God is guilty, and you don't have to take that proof as any kind of reality at all. It's not true, it's not true. There's not even any sickness. Uh, it also makes your function feel dangerous and overwhelming, believing you're a body. This is one of the most important consequences. If the body is believed to act and perform and carry responsibility, your function as the light of the world feels exhausting. Being called to be the light of the world as this body, you know, because you're thinking you're the body, feels threatening. And the Holy Spirit's guidance to extend love, bless, forgive feels like coercion. The ego here is Jesus saying, You must do something difficult, something visible, something demanding. But what Jesus is saying is that function is a decision in your mind, it's not an action of the body. That's another teaching. That goes along with the body is not real. You don't have to make it do anything. It's all it's only following the trajectory of the mind. Because the body isn't real and the world is totally safe, function is just effortless. Jesus repeats this so often because so many later teachings depend on it. Okay, without this correction, miracles are going to be behavioral for you. They're not going to be natural, like Jesus is saying. Forgiveness is going to become like some kind of an endurance effort that you have to do. Responsibility becomes a burden. Right. I care harder. So and then and then I could see the chain of miscreation that occurs when I've uh seen it like that. Basically, I'm seeing it like I oh, I need to, it's like triggering something uh that I set up a belief structure that says, shit, if they need more care, that's how I show love. I just step up and keep on caring, right? Um, but you know, it's like sometimes boundaries and retreat are actually in order, but there's no seeing that because there's this sense of responsibility. And then when it feels like a burden, that's how you know. And it's like we can repent anytime. That's the thing. Back to truth, let it be a correction, right?
SPEAKER_02:So the chain of miscreation, is that related to what you've already explained at all? I mean, is there a way that you can explain that tying it into what you because I I would like to know, but I don't want to take you off track at all.
SPEAKER_01:I started off this one with the chain of miscreation. I went deeply into it, but it's basically where a small, kind of unidentified, uh Jesus called it a will-o wisp, where you where uh where there's uh this divided will, but it's small in it of in and of itself, but you didn't watch it, and then it and then another one came and then it snowballed, and then by the end of the day, everyone was bummed out, basically. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:You're welcome.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So without this correction about the body, the power that you have becomes frightening to you. And awakening feels like a loss. See, with this awareness that there's no body, that it's merely an effect and not a cause of anything, nothing needs to be defended, nothing needs to be managed, and you know that nothing real is at any risk. Uh, of course, of course, in miracles says nothing real can be threatened, threatened, and nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. So Jesus insists that the body is not causal so that you will not confuse love with sensation. That's a good one. Fear is not blamed on form, right? So you're not blaming your fear on whatever it is that you're perceiving. Like I feel fearful because I have diabetes, for instance. So we're not seeking healing and effects, we're not looking for something to change, even. It's not as we see it. That's all we need to know. It's not as we see it, and we are the truth. Uh that way, our function isn't feared and it's not seen as effort. If the body were a cause in itself, salvation would actually be impossible. Uh, but because the mind is the is the cause, correction is actually immediate. When you don't see the effects immediately, that's only because your perceiving hasn't caught up to the immediate perception effects. Okay. So that was number five on my list. The body is neutral. Number six, guidance replaces control. You could call this uh command, like we were talking about, command of the particles, instead of being in control. And that's where we're accepting Holy Spirit's guidance. Ego control feels like deciding independently, like on your own, taking on the burden and doing it. Holy Spirit guidance is like asking and listening and being carried through it. So Jesus wants us to recognize that independent problem solving is the ego's hallmark. Guidance is not occasional, it's constant, it's never missing. It's just that you don't ask. So without this awareness that you're letting guidance replace control, later instructions might be resisted or delayed or just followed partially. All right, number seven, another essential foundation. Your will is undivided, truly. Your will is with God. But when you believe your will is divided, you experience pressure and coercion. That's a good way to know. Bill felt coerced when he was asked to go to a certain lunch, and someone else already knew that Helen was asking. He felt coerced, and Jesus was pointing out that his will was divided because he went, anyways, which was what he was called to do, but he felt coerced, so he went under pressure. A whole will, a whole will experience peace and clarity. You don't feel like you got to get out of here. I noticed that when I was um staying in Arizona at one point, I looked over and I saw so much clutter, apparently, that I was like, I got to get the fuck out of here. That was the thought that occurred to me. I gotta get the fuck out of here. What am I doing in a place where there's all this clutter? And I recognize that it's divided will. I just recognize that as divided will. It's like, no, I can only will to be where I am. It has to be the will. It's not that I can't leave. In fact, options for leaving open up if they need to, if and when they need to, anyways. And everything becomes more efficient when we're recognizing what's true. What is true in that moment, that's an example of divided will. I'm here, I just woke up in this place. And that voice that's saying, I gotta get the fuck out of here, that's not me. And then come back into the visceral sense of peace and clarity and relaxation. And man, it works.
SPEAKER_02:Whoa, whoa, whoa, I gotta say something. This is uh this is amazing. This is like ironically amazing because you said that's not me, and that's the ego voice.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Now it's so because we were talking about this ego in Latin means I, uh-huh, and blah blah blah. Freud didn't even say ego, he said the I. Uh-huh. Like it's it's turning it on its head. Like the ego is not.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's right. You know, I even notice when um uh the voice that says I gotta get the fuck out of here. You know, I even notice the way I speak it, it says I'm like, I gotta get the fuck out of here. And I think the way I say I'm like is because that's not my voice, right? But it seems like because there's a visceral feeling that I also have to get the fuck out of here.
SPEAKER_02:Whoa, everyone who's like saying like they're like, they're not really.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, it's an ego voice. That's right. Yeah, wow, yeah, because in you know, in the show, in the play, in my perception, I'm like, I gotta get the fuck out of here. But then there's awareness that that's oh, that's divided will. That's not even my true voice. And then there's a visceral sense of relaxation and grounding in the moment. So, number seven, will must be undivided. The whole will experiences peace and clarity. That's what happened in that in that instant. That that's an example of a miracle. So I just went from divided will to awareness of my true will, peace and clarity in the visceral sense, experiential sense. It was wonderful. Um, and I, you know, I knew it was my will to do that. That's why I got to experience the effects right away. So knowing that will your will is always undivided helps you to recognize that invitations to join, even if they feel coercive, are never coercive. Right? Invitations to join. That's basically like let's get, let's say, the the the the desk in Sedona again, right? Invitation, that's an invitation to join with truth. It really is. You know, if I were to go, this feeling means that I do have to get the fuck out of here, and then I take it upon myself. You see how that that chain of miscreation starts instead of just being receptive. So if I would have felt coerced, like this doesn't deserve joining, this doesn't just deserve clear seeing, this doesn't deserve clear vision, the desk is too messy, this is too disrespectful, right? And no matter what's going on, joining is always called. Joining is always called for, it is your true will. Okay, so that covers it. So there's so I've got seven on my list of major points. I'll go over them one more time. What a miracle is and is not, it's a shift in perception, it's not an external event. This prevents over X over effort, over-efforting, and misusing uh miracles to control form or fearing too much responsibility. Number two, cause and effect are in the mind. This prevents level confusion. The mind is the cause, the body and the world are the mind's effects. Fear is always self-generated. Number three, fear never comes from others, it comes from your own divided will, which is impossible. That's why there's fear. Because fear is also impossible. So, you know, just you decided for the impossible, basically. Isn't that fun? Being all powerful, you can and do often decide for the impossible and make it seem possible as fuck. Number four, circular miracles versus corrective miracles, the kind of miracles that collapse time, miracles that relieve symptoms but leave level error intact are circular. True miracles collapse the pattern by correcting the actual cause. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Collapsing patterns and collapsing time is almost the same thing, same thing, same thing.
SPEAKER_01:Nice, yes, collapsing patterns. Um, shortening time is the way Jesus puts that a lot. Okay, yeah. It's because you know the patterns to play out take time. So when you're collapsing the patterns, it shortens the time that you need to uh undo illusions. Yeah. Isn't that fun? So yes, when you when you're aware of the difference between circular miracles and corrective miracles, peace stops to be fleeting for you. Patterns stop repeating for you. Yay! Eventually the whole body, uh mortal body pattern is gonna stop repeating. We number five, the body is neutral. The body doesn't think, the body doesn't feel. Even the word instinct is a misnomer because it's uh it's saying that something's coming from the body, everything's coming from the mind. The body is a projection right now, it has no past, even. Uh, this helps with teachings on relationships, sex, sickness, and function. Number six, guidance replaces control. How nice. Ego control is deciding independently with burden or strain. Holy Spirit guidance involves asking and listening. Okay, your will is always undivided, but you you experience a divided will, and that makes an effect of pressure and coercion, and that's what you know. You might sense that pressure in the body's energy field. Again, there's no body. That sense of pressure is the mind making an effect. Okay, so being aware of what that is, it's really helpful. All right, we have uh gone through what Jesus wants us to study. If you feel like any of those need to be studied further, you know, one really fun thing you can do is write down whatever concepts seem to be uh requiring more study, and you could upload a PDF of a Course in Miracles to AI and actually say what you want to study and let it help with that. It'll it'll even point you to parts in the book where you can get that information and it does a really good job. So yeah, it's a fun way to do it too. Whatever appeals to you, I love you. Will you please post this? What do you want me to post, Durga? You want me to post those? You want me to post that review that I just did of uh chapters one and two? I I was thinking about that. Okay. Um, I was thinking about that. So what I'll do is when I post this episode, I'm gonna post the, I'm gonna post what we went over. Yeah. I'll uh you know what I'm I'm pausing there because I'm like, how the fuck am I gonna remember that? Because I'm like, I got these things kind of like stacked up, but I'm sure it's gonna come uh come out. Okay. When I see myself with white earrings and a blue top, I'll know that I need to put that in there. I don't know how it's gonna work out. Uh Mahalo for going over this. Yes, please post. Okay, I will. Okay. And you know what? If you guys see this episode come out and I didn't post it, just hit me up. I'll get it. I'll get it for you because I save my notes anyways. Thank you for asking. Okay, I have more for you. We got about 20 minutes left. Let me see how you oh yay, aloha. I love you guys. Thanks for joining on Substack too. I checked to see if you have any questions. So go ahead and post them there too. I'm checking Zoom and Substack. Orbah, will you get me a water with right there?
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Thanks. Okay, so back to the sentence that we were just on in the text.
SPEAKER_01:And this is uh this is chapter three, part one, paragraph four, sentence two. Without this, that's that's studying chapters one and two, Jesus says, you will become much too fearful when the unexpected does occur to make constructive use of it. So we have covered that sentence. If anyone has any questions, though, just let me know.
SPEAKER_02:Uh I'm happy to I love that you went over the that brings me so much joy, but you have those seven points. And basically, what I'm getting is the gist of it is like, look, Jesus is saying, like, look, I'm not telling you to do anything different other than just see what's here. Just see things clearly like so just take these points in as pointing out things that are already the case. Yes. It's just a question of I mean, that's what a book can do. A book can just help us see what's already the case.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's saying these are your regular misperceptions that you're constantly misperceiving.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Here's the correction for those. Now, this is the foundation for what's to come. This is only the beginning of chapter three, right? Right? There's 30 chapters here.
SPEAKER_02:But the rest is like applying applying like the implications of those. Well, I don't know, we'll see.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll see. Let's let's go. Beautiful. All right. So the reason Jesus is saying that the next part rests too heavy heavily on this, because what follows, this is your question, too. What's following, what's coming, is gonna involve function, joining, responsibility, and real-time application. Okay, and so uh if you're gonna be confusing, uh, if you're gonna be confusing the levels and believing fear is caused by something external and mistrusting the Holy Spirit's guidance or seeing miracles as something that you have to effort, then the next material coming up is gonna produce fear instead of clarity. So are we clear on all of this before we proceed? All right. This this is all Jesus is warning about. It's like you're not gonna perceive what I'm sharing with you from this point forward if you don't know these things that we covered in chapters one and two. If you don't fully understand, because this is understanding how your mind works. If you don't understand how your mind works, what miracles actually are, and where fear really comes from, then what comes next isn't isn't going to be very helpful to you. You won't know how to use it.
SPEAKER_02:Your mind is the one mind.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Well, look, uh, you know, it's like there's an individualized consciousness, you could say, okay, and it and it's like it's It's learning. Okay. It's learning to see things differently. You're already in heaven. The you that you are that's true doesn't need to learn a thing.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Right? And up to a point, consciousness learns, and then there's no more need for learning for consciousness either. Right. And then there's no more need for experience. And then there's no more of these uh meaningless experiences. Let me see. No more world need for worldly experience. There's always experience. So Jesus wants, and we did it, I think we did a great job uh going over chapters one or one and two so that power isn't feared.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:Because we're going to be taught about our fat our power going forward, and our function isn't being misused, and we don't feel burdened by the responsibility, and miracles aren't playing out circularly, right? So, and we want to be able to meet the unexpected calmly and constructively. So let's see what else I have for you. Where are we? 443. All right. When you say joining, do you mean communion with the divine? Okay, so uh so it's like joining, it's like joining the one mind. It's joining in truth. We're joining with everyone and the divine and everything. Uh, yes, you can call it communion. And we can always be in a joining state of mind where we're just open to joining, open to seeing uh truly, right? And then noticing when you're not joining, when you're not joining, there's an upset feeling, and that's because of, and you're never really not joined either. That's the other thing. Uh, but the upset feeling is because of that uh that will conflict, right? Because you're not realizing that all you really want to do is join.
SPEAKER_02:Would it be fair answering that question to say joining is communion with the divine in present experience?
SPEAKER_01:Joining is communion with the divine in present experience. You can say that, sure. Yeah, that's that's great.
SPEAKER_02:Whatever you're experiencing, yeah. You're joining with it.
SPEAKER_01:You join, join with whatever it is, yes, because that is all that is. It you're seeing it, you're not seeing it clearly, most likely, unless you're seeing in truth. Uh, but it is all that is. Oh, yeah, you are all that is, yes. It's united with yeah, that's why it can't be wrong.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:I was sharing with a girl at the salon. I've been going to the salon every day getting light therapy, it's been great, so chill. An hour and a half to two hours, just like chilling in these different so fun, anyways. Uh I was saying how beautiful it is here, and the girl said how she hates it. And and I go, Well, you know, you don't really hate it. That hatred is really just a pattern, and she knew it right away. She was like, and she was a young girl, she's like, Oh, it is, and she's like, I gotta look at that, and I'm like, Yeah, you know, people just don't notice when they're saying stuff like that. It adds up and adds up, and it ends up being a persona that you just wear, you know. But when you notice, it's just adding up all the time, and it's like, oh, I see that, yeah. I go, yeah, you'd even be able to uh travel and everything um by recognizing that wherever you are, you chose it, and it's totally awesome because you're the one in the experience and are the experience. It's all of it. Everything is you all right, we're gonna do another sentence. We are on to chapter three, paragraph four, sentence three. However, as you study the earlier part, you will see some of the obvious implications unless you still persist in misusing the defense of mental retardation. There he goes again. All right, so here we go, step by step. You'll see some of the obvious implications. So he's not promising new information, he's saying clarity emerges naturally. Okay, once the foundations of chapters one and two and two are actually used, the implications are obvious because they're already contained in what has been taught. The implications are contained in what has been taught, they're not requiring interpretation or any kind of brilliance, they follow directly from correcting level confusion. So nothing is hidden from you, but it can be avoided. So you can avoid it. That's why you're saying uh the obvious, uh, however, as you study the earlier part, you will see some of the obvious implications, like why you're studying this, unless you still persist in misusing the defense of mental retardation.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So he's saying the implications are obvious because they're already contained there in what's been caught, what's been taught, right? They're obvious implications. What are they? Fear is always self-generated, behavior is never the cause, miracles must address cause and not effects. Guidance replaces control, function is mental. This is what we just went over, not bodily. Responsibility is not burden but power. Okay, those seven things that we just went over a little bit more deeply. So these implications inevitably appear when the earlier material is studied with honesty. If they don't appear, Jesus is very clear about why, isn't he? Misusing the defense of mental retardation. That's the reason only reason why. Right? If the implications of these of these study periods of chapters one and two don't appear to you, this is the reason. Unless you still persist, this is an accidental confusion. Persist means to maintain it deliberately. He's talking about a choice, he's not talking about a limitation, as he's not talking about mental retardation as a limitation. And this phrase that he's using, the defense of mental retardation, it may be jarring to you, and that's on purpose. He's naming a psychological defense, he's not naming a condition. He talked about this. And of course, in miracles, mental retardation means slowing down comprehension intentionally, pretending not to understand, remaining vague where clarity is available, using confusion as a protection against responsibility. It's a common, common thing. That's why he's going over it. He wants us to know that when we do that, we're hurting our mind. Okay, everyone's doing awesome. I'm checking on you guys. Earlier in chapter three, Jesus already explained this defense. He said it can be temporary and harmless, and it becomes obstructive when it's misused. So misuse here means I prefer not to see what this implies, because if I see it, I will have to relate differently. That's a common defense. Why is it a defense? Okay, because the implications of chapters one and two are not neutral. If they're truly seen, here's what they require that the ego doesn't want you to give up. These are the implications. Giving up blame, victimhood. You stop behavioral management.
SPEAKER_03:That's huge.
SPEAKER_01:I know, I know. Uh, you start accepting responsibility for your perception and you start trusting your guidance. The ego totally experiences this as a threat. That's why mental retardation comes up. Don't use it. And mental retardation projects itself by saying, this is confusing. A Course in Miracles is too confusing. How many times have you heard that? I don't get it yet. How many times have you heard that and said it? I need more time. This is too abstract. It's not abstract. That's fucking saying it really straight. He's saying, no, the issue is not comprehension, it's willingness. So this sentence explains why people can study a course in miracles for years and not change. This is it. Not because this material, this material is difficult at all. Clarity is being defended against.
SPEAKER_00:See that.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, we're we're getting into some juicy stuff next. And learn learning failure, misuse of time, strain, resistance, all this kind of stuff. Uh Jesus is showing what we what we use. And you know, this is under the the section, the need to study. Same perception, the need to study. So we've had a beautiful study today. I had a great time with you guys. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm uh making another note to self right now to post that review that I did or the summary that I did of chapters one and two, along with the recording that comes on here. And gosh, that just seemed to fly by. I really appreciate you guys. Thank you so much for joining me. And thank you to everyone who listens too. I'll be back on Sunday, same time, 3 to 5 p.m. Pacific time. I'm going to be taking some time off from the 22nd. Any dates, any of my dates that fall between the 22nd and the 5th, 22nd of January and the 5th of February, because I'm going to the islands. Yeah, I'll be on Big Island from January 30th. I'll be in HPP until the 31st, and then I'll go down to Seaview and I'll stay down there until the 4th. And then I'll go back up to HPP on the 5th and fly back to this beautiful Lake Sanctuary. It's really sweet. I'm loving it so much. Um, if you'd like to donate, or if you'd like one-to-ones with me, you can visit my website. Also, all my free resources are there on my website, hopejohnson.org. There's now a way to donate monthly. You can set up a monthly donation right on my website. And if that doesn't work, you can contact me about it. Yay. Thank you, Dorga. I feel like it was deeply transformative as well. And I had an amazing time. Um, I look forward to getting that posted. And um, it'll be posted. I can't do it on the podcast, but on Substack, that's where I'm gonna have a PDF for you guys where you'll be able you'll be able to download the PDF. Yeah. And if you're listening to this, subscribe to my Substack. You could also subscribe to my Substack by subscribing on my website, hopejohnson.org. Yay, I love you so much. And until next time, Mahalo, aloha, and a hoo-e-ho!
SPEAKER_00:Yay!
