*Part Two*
Copyright 2012 Nouk Sanchez
NOTE: Please read Part One first, click on this link
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Presently I am learning a great deal about real healing. Let me share another example of the miracle translating to the physical level. Around 9 months ago I noticed a lesion on my leg and thought it looked like a sun spot; a kind of solar keratosis (from too much sun damage). As the summer unfolded, this spot began to grow rapidly and I felt a familiar pang of fear as the ego warned me this could be a form of skin cancer. Guilt reared its ugly head again as I recalled my many years of bathing in the hot Australian sun.
I have had a few of these sun spots removed by a doctor before, however this one was the biggest and fastest growing of them all. I couldn’t help but recognize my sudden spike of fear over this, however I soon remembered exactly what this kind of fearful situation was really made for. And that was to take my fear, my mistaken perception to Spirit and to exchange it for the miracle instead.
My process was to first recognize that I was in fear. I asked myself what my greatest fear was and in that moment it was suffering and death. So I looked at the idea of suffering and death with Spirit as I took this deeply within. I saw quickly that pain or death AND God’s Love were mutually exclusive. Only one was true. So I consciously reminded myself that my fear of pain and death was totally ungrounded. After all, it was not God’s Will for me and I wanted only to join with God’s Will. I remembered that I was safe in my mindful awareness of and gratitude for God’s Love as my Holy Self.
I was also aware of the ego’s game of denial. So another step in this process is acceptance. We cannot forgive (heal) something that we remain in denial of. We must be willing to accept the appearance of the problem and our fearful reaction to it. Yet we do this with Spirit. We will recognize Spirit’s presence because our fear will dissipate or vanish and our original ‘belief’ in the problem as a threat, will also be weakened. There will be no judgment or self-judgment as we gaze upon our fear with Spirit. Only an instant of suspended doubt is required for the miracle to replace and heal our misguided perception.
The biggest contributor to unconscious guilt, and therefore to our unconscious attraction to random acts of self-attack, is our obsession with making decisions alone, independently from Spirit. In my own experience I see a pattern. When I mindlessly take my life too seriously, while independently attempting to sustain or protect myself or another, I leave my Self. And when I leave my Self, I abandon God’s Love.
In this state I am indeed a prime target for random bouts of unconscious self-attack by the ego. The need to control myself, my body, others and the world, are expressions of my unconscious guilt as I partially recognize that while I run my life independently from Spirit, then I must secretly believe I separated from God and that I am guilty. And my guilt over this will surely manifest in different forms of attack. Yet all attack is self-attack.
In July of 2012 I sincerely accepted Atonement (miracle) for the appearance of this lesion. And I just ‘knew’ that my perception had been healed so I was sure that the lesion would heal as well. After all, the cause in my mind was never separate from its effect in the body or the world. Heal the cause? And the effect must follow, right? Otherwise there would be a fatal flaw in God’s Plan. Note: For the Forgiveness/Atonement Process go to: https://nouksanchez.com/nouks-blog/the-seven-essential-principles-in-quantum-forgiveness/
If the cause was truly healed (guilt) but the effect remained, then that would mean that cause and effect were separate and that ideas DO leave their source. In other words, that even though the cause (source) of the problem is healed in my mind, the effects (symptoms) would remain separate and unhealed as if they were independent of their real cause in my mind.
And while that may appear to occur at times, it could only be because I am still too fearful of the miracle translating to the level of form. So I will unconsciously block it. That is why sometimes it takes patience in the illusion of time, before we actually see the effects of the miracle. As our trust in Love increases, we will see time collapsing in this regard.
Anyway, around 2 months after my Atonement prayer, the lesion had not healed. In fact it had grown even more. I nearly buckled at that particular spike of fear. But my inner guidance was to keep taking every scrap of fear to Spirit over this. And to listen to fear-less guidance within rather than to the fearful shrieks of the ego. This is real trust. As I said previously, I just ‘knew’ that the guilty cause of the lesion had already been healed. And that all I was seeing with my body’s eyes now, was the ego’s tempting ‘appearance’ calling on me to respond with fear.
“We will not be misled today by what appears to us as sick. We go beyond appearances today and reach the source of healing, from which nothing is exempt. We will succeed to the extent to which we realize that there can never be a meaningful distinction made between what is untrue and equally untrue. Here there are no degrees, and no beliefs that what does not exist is truer in some forms than others. All of them are false, and can be cured because they are not true.” W-140.9.
More than 3 months went by. I found that all my concern about the lesion had dropped away entirely. And for the last month I totally took my focus away from it, reminding myself that I had surrendered this body’s purpose and health to Spirit. Therefore the body was no longer my personal responsibility. This body belonged to Spirit and my sole responsibility was to let Spirit run it from now on. And what a relief that was!
Last week after taking a shower I couldn’t help but notice something was missing on my leg. The lesion had fallen away entirely. No scar, no redness, not a single sign that it ever existed. It just vanished into thin air leaving not one shred of evidence. I was astonished. I sat on my bed and stared at my perfect lesion-less skin. And I must confess I was tempted to awe for a moment. And then? I felt tears of gratitude and joy welling up inside of me. Of course…healing is ALWAYS consistent as long as I maintain consistent trust in God’s Love as my Holy Self.
“The acceptance of sickness as a decision of the mind, for a purpose for which it would use the body, is the basis of healing. And this is so for healing in all forms. A patient decides that this is so, and he recovers. If he decides against recovery, he will not be healed. Who is the physician? Only the mind of the patient himself. The outcome is what he decides that it is. Special agents seem to be ministering to him, yet they but give form to his own choice. He chooses them in order to bring tangible form to his desires. And it is this they do, and nothing else. They are not actually needed at all. The patient could merely rise up without their aid and say, “I have no use for this.” There is no form of sickness that would not be cured at once.” M-5.II.2.
“What is the single requisite for this shift in perception? It is simply this; the recognition that sickness is of the mind, and has nothing to do with the body. What does this recognition “cost”? It costs the whole world you see, for the world will never again appear to rule the mind. For with this recognition is responsibility placed where it belongs; not with the world, but on him who looks on the world and sees it as it is not.” M-5.II.3:1-5
Your reality will obey either the laws of the ego, or the Laws of God; depending upon which you commit your allegiance to.
Nouk’s Forgiveness Prayer:
“Spirit, please help me to forgive myself for having unknowingly used___(person, pain, sickness, depression, financial scarcity, anger, self doubt, etc.,)______to attack myself and to separate from You as my Holy Self.”
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Nouk it is with such LOVE I write this to YOU/ME and say thank YOU for Awakening. You speak as ONE Voice in Truth as the Word passes from ONENESS through you that we may hear. It was the perfection of ONENESS to be placed in Brisbane to meet both you and Tomas, perfect. It was a seed of Awakening on that day and now it nourishes in LOVE. The only thing I am able to do in giving back as gratitude is to Awaken, to know I AM. To know there is nothing other than LOVE. To know the Embodiment of LOVE sees no sickness etc. only the Vastness of LIGHT, therefore there is nothing to heal except our perception to the illusion. I too continue to be Empowered and Awakened to Wholeness/ONENESS in turn awaken “the other” to be Empower and Awakened to Wholeness/ONENESS and to know that HOME has never left it is and has always been right HERE. Love to you.
Nouk. This is my answer. Could you please copy this to my page. My tab just will not let me. This is so profound, yet soooo true. I will be able to work with this Truth better from my page. Thank you ever so much. Love, Light and Blessings to you my friend. Sincerely, Betty
Dear Nouk,
when I first met the Course in early 1988, I could hardly believe that I had finally found all that I have ever sought.
At that time I was a 36-year-old man abounding in physical health and wellness. I had a wonderful wife and a little daughter and we all were very happy.
The Course came to me in just a short manuscript (a first try of a German translation of lessons 1-80 of the Workbook) – but for me this was the biggest “physical miracle” I could imagine. But at that time I was jus beginning to learn what Jesus means when he speaks about “miracles”.
Just two years later – in the meantime I had found out everything about ACIM (I had worked through the Workbook, translated all the lessons from 81 to the end and parts of the Textbook and Manual)- my whole life had changed: I had met a young woman that was as excited about the Course as I was. The result was:
A new relationship, another little daughter… and an “incurable” heart disease…Specialists advised to put me on top of the heart transplantation list.
In the meantime I had already learned that I had to decide everything for myself – together with the Holy Spirit – my real Self. And that’s what I did and practice since then. Here the “results”:
In 1991 my “old” heart was completely well again – this had never happened in medicine history before, my specialists attested: Another “physical miracle”!
In 1995 – in the meantime I was married the second time and we got a little boy – the heart disease showed up once again. This time so intense that I was immediately pensioned.
Result: I could stay at home with my new family and help raising the children. That was our wish deep from our hearts: to always stay together…
My heart recovered again…but this time just as much that I could stay retired…once again a “physical miracle”…
The reason why I tell my “personal” story here is to point out that in my experience of living forgiveness, my “physical condition” has nothing to do with my mental or spiritual condition – as can be found in the following statement in the Course: “There is no communication between the ego and the Holy Spirit.”
My “physical condition” has nothing to do with my “personal” understanding and practicing of forgiveness or with how “well” I forgive (Jesus also “died” on the cross for the “physical eyes”).
My physical condition (the body’s “strength or weakness”) is simply used to suit best to the “overall” situation.
It is just my Inner Peace that shows my healing. Nothing “external”.
e.g. A sick or even dying body can be understood as the letting go of all that does not represent the real “Self”.
Of course, I can well understand how you feel when experiencing and witnessing such “physical miracles”. It can be breathtaking, indeed, so “see” real forgiveness at work. To see that everything the Course is talking about is really true.
And I can understand how intense the urge can be to spread such “physical miracles” to the world…
But the emphasis on “physical miracles” in my experience can easily bring about more uncertainty for students of the Course (especially for “new” ones), and it can easily set an improper focus on the “physical” – thus working against the focus on Spirit which is taught and exercised in the Course.
In the “Song of Prayer” therefore Jesus states:
“Its (“physical” healing) importance should not be too strongly emphasized…”
Of course, to experience “physical miracles” can be aid and witness in the process of forgiveness. But it can also bring about a complete reversal of the focus which the Course promotes: That students of the Course now have the focus on “a nice, cosy life on earth”…
A living example of such a reversal – when the emphasis is rather on the “physical miracles” is e.g. the “Bruno Groening Circle of Friends” and other groups that want to prove that “spiritual healing” works…
Also among the Course community there are tendencies as e.g. the “Endeavor Academy” taking the Course very “literally” – in physical terms…
Promoting hope for “physical health”, “financial miracles” and all other kinds of “a worldly happiness” through ACIM can surely recruit many fans or followers.
But it can also mean a very long and tedious detour which you undertake…
Of course, in the end all detours will end up in Heaven.(LOL)
But the Course was rather meant to be a “time saver”… wasn’t it?
Love and Peace
Johannes
Hello Johannes,
Thanks for sharing…very helpful. In my own 22 years with the Course, I have undergone a radical shift in perception and part of this shift has manifested in bringing Jesus’ deeper message forward into the world. There is an excerpt here, that will explain more about this: http://undoing-the-ego.org/noukblog/?p=27
I agree with you, that to focus exclusively on physical miracles is to lose the entire point of Jesus’ teachings. However, as you read more…I think you will see something profound.
This is the undoing of the ego’s obsession with death in all its forms, as the concept of “death” is the central dream of this world. Jesus came to teach this though his resurrection but we were too fearful to recognize it.
Also…you might like to see a recent interview I did; it should help to clarify my message: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnaPeJ5haPo
Again, thank you for sharing your experiences and your wisdom!
With Love and Blessings,
Nouk
Thank you, Nouk. Your two articles have been very helpful. Love and Blessings, Bill
Hello Nouk! {we seem to keep bumping into each other…;-)) }
Thank you for both of these articles on physical healing. I have been using your forgiveness prayer often with much regaining of peace. Gratitude.
I appreciate Johannes’ input very much as well. His retelling of his physical miracles (that he properly credits to study of ACIM) is quite inspiring. I can see that a new student might get caught up in ‘form’ over ‘content’…but it seems to be part of the development of Trust in Holy Spirit to go through such ‘phases’. Only experience in that student’s individual curriculum, provided by Holy Spirit to correct perception, once chosen, can help the student to pass through it. It is the powerful experience that really encourages continued choice for the Voice for God {Holy Spirit}.
References to groups of bodies who focus only on bodies reminds me that we are all already Awakened…only some seem to be denying that (actually, most of us in one way or another, when we get very honest). “They” too have a place in providing reminders that there is a part of the split Mind that prefers ‘not-god’ in this moment. No one is left behind. We all get out of here in the end. Hurray for Jesus in helping us accept the Atonement and Holy Spirit along with Jesus for being our constant Mighty Companions. We go together. –Peace
Hey Triskana, you make some excellent and helpful points here! Thank you! Yes, confusing “form & content” is part of the development of trust process. We learn from flip-flopping between obsessing with form ( darkness)and releasing to content (light)…
Infinite Love <3
Nouk
Nice article Nouk, thanks for being a conduit for Truth and having the courage to be open to new frontiers on this radical path.
I’m not going to mess around with a soft people-pleasing delivery of a response to what has been commented.
The body would not exist at all if it weren’t for the mind. It is a very common mistake to believe the body is not the mind or is some kind of separate `thing` that the mind has nothing to do with. The body appears as an image that the mind projects and the body is `within` the mind – it is an imagined body. It does not exist anywhere but in our mind’s imagination. That means it’s being dreamed up – it is the hero figure of a dream. It absolutely is being invented by the mind and its current state is a live projection of the state of the mind dreaming it.
There is no separate body that has its own problems or sickness. The ego has cleverly crafted the illusion that you began life with a physical form and, by virtue of biologically `proven` laws and processes, are stuck with that same body for an entire lifetime. This is a complete smokescreen covering over the truth. The truth is there is no continuation of the body – it does not remain the same from one moment to the next. We do not stay inhabiting a single body at all and our body is not some object that has a life of its own or that accumulates effects, storing them up as tangible amounts of illness. It is just an image. It is a live video projection coming from a very immediate experience in the mind. Just like a movie, in any given moment an entirely new `frame` of the movie is projected in which is pictured an entirely new and separate-from-all-previous-frames body. That `now` body projection is no history or future. It is a current outward picture of a current inward condition.
The body doesn’t `get sick` and have to go through specific pathways and causes in order to remove that sickness. The mind simply chooses to no longer *project* the sickness, which very much can result in that sickness ceasing to be projected as a variation of the body. Our mind projects the body including any allegedly foreign substances or growths or anomalies. They are all part of the projection and when the mind chooses not to project that particular body-picture the picture changes. It changes right now. The body does not need time to catch up. The body does not need to go through a process to get there. The body does not need to be worked on. The ailment/anomaly does not need to be worked on. The mind merely needs to change its decision and *instantly* the projection will change.
Jesus was (is) perfectly capable of manifesting the image of any body at any time for any purpose. He manifested as a child, as a woman, as a man, as an older man, as a younger woman. These images can appear from nothing instantly and return as such instantly. There have no history and time plays no part in their state. There are no causes on the level of form that have any power over it whatsoever. Whenever it appears that something on the level of form has `effected` the body’s state it is an ego deception – the body is not at the effect of a world that isn’t there, and the dream world is itself an effect of the mind’s projection and is not a cause of sickness. Its appearance to cause sickness (e.g. someone chops off my leg with a chainsaw), as Jesus states, is STILL my own mind projecting a scenario, projecting a chainsaw, projecting a body, projecting a leg falling to the ground, etc… it all looks like there are external causes and effects at play but there are none at all… it is all being orchestrated by the mind as a `live` movie under its full control.
So to say that the body `will not` change as a result of the mind changing is completely impossible. The body cannot exist without the mind’s projection of it and the mind absolutely can change its appearance in an instant, not just to create the illusion that `something else` caused a cancer to disappear or that `some treatment` caused a headache to go away… but even moreso the mind can literally instantaneously project an entirely different body – one that you’d think was a completely different `person`, at any time, right now. We’re all doing it. Everyone around you that you see is projecting a body, a body that could switch off instantaneously at a moment’s notice and switch back on again. Just because the projector is staying `on` for a prolonged period of time does not mean that the body has a life of its own for that period of time. It’s an optical illusion.
The physical world is a `dense` world, the lowest level of a holographic dream. Here everything has been thoroughly separated out and kept apart. Here it is `harder` for the mind (seemingly) to cause physical matter to seem to change, but not impossible. There are cracks in the ego’s illusion that this world is completely solid and unchangeable. In more etheric levels of the dream – astral plane etc – it is much easier for the mind to manipulate the appearance of objects, not because those objects are easier to change but because the mind there is more aware that it is more One with those objects. The mind is changing *itself*. Buildings on the astral plane can only be maintained as long as someone keeps thinking them into being. To travel somewhere there your mind has to literally `invent` the place that you’re travelling to – you don’t just go somewhere that exists already, you *participate* in reality-creation. I say this only to provide a foundation of contrast. The physical world is much less seemingly malleable and this only seems to suggest it can’t be changed by the mind, or isn’t being affected by the mind. The heisenberg principle of quantum physics clearly shows that when you observe something you change it – because you are participating in its creation. The mind is participating in everything the ego is dreaming and the ego has tried (and failed) to make sure that it looks like mind is completely separate from matter – so that you shut your awareness out of your mind and associate with a body.
So when you say that the Holy Spirit and the ego never communicate you are correct, but in doing so you’ve made the mistake of thinking that the Holy Spirit and the ego are opposites – separate from each other. This is not a clear representation. Holy Spirit is *inclusive* of all that is, and the ego is an attempted limitation placed on that totality. As you awaken to more of what is here already, you realize that you’re merely becoming more aware of all that is, rather than that you’re separating yourself from the ego. Holy Spirit very well can alter and use and manipulate any kind of `image` at will, and that means any form including the body. Holy Spirit does not believe in the ego and completely unacknowledges it, but He can effortlessly manipulate what the ego has made and use it for awakening, which must mean he can affect your perception of it… but moreso, it is not just your perception (receipt of what you already projected) that can be changed, but also the very projection you made in the first place. The body is just a projection and its `health` is entirely a state of mind.
Wow. Paul, you have an outstanding ability to articulate a clear outline of this paradigm-shifting new frontier! Wonderfully helpful. Thank you, thank you!
And I agree. All there is…is LOVE (God/Spirit). Ego is limitation, an illusion. However for the sake of not causing further confusion to those who have not yet had the “experience” of all-inclusive Love within, my guidance is to keep it simple.
The ego and Spirit are mutually exclusive. Otherwise there’s a greater risk of confusing the two…and doing a Spiritual bypass. This is a trap I fell into in 1995. A dreadful deflation and collapse (breakdown) was the result. It took a few years to breakthrough that particular egoic insanity. The Spiritual ego, in my experience, is the toughest one to crack.
I appreciate your amazingly gifted expression…it will be helpful to many!
With Love,
Nouk
Nouk, yes thanks for simplifying. Sorry to waffle on 😉
One thing that came to mind last night while I was getting to sleep is what you said at the Colorado retreat – which is that we are capable of raising the dead. To me that means we are capable of choosing eternal life for ourselves and undoing our own belief in death entirely, which has to mean that we are completely capable of reversing the death of the body, if it is useful to do so. Lazarus would be a good example of this. If death is the ultimate sickness then the undoing of death would be the ultimate cure/miracle.
I do agree with Johannes that we don’t necessarily `need` to undo sickness in order to be at peace, but but at the same time it’s entirely possible if that’s what you prefer.
Thanks for helping us all to learn that death isn’t real and that we are all capable of using the mind to appear to heal the body.
No. We certainly don’t need to undo sickness or death in order to be at peace. However Jesus’ deeper teaching is not just about acquiring peace within the cycle of birth & death. It’s the total evaporation of the entire birth/death cycle.
So from where I’m at now, Spirit’s undoing of sickness, scarcity, separation and death, is not only possible – but neccessary.
I cannot overcome sickness, scarcity or death unless I completely SURRENDER the idea of Nouk (“I”). While Nouk believes that “she” is accomplishing anything at all in regard to miracles…she’s blocking them. A tough one to learn! I must die to who I think I am, before ‘who I think I am’…dies. LOL! That’s so funny!
Love,
Nouk
That is so ticklingly hilariously funny, indeed, Nouk! *rolls on the floor guffawing and laughing until my eyes tear up with tears of great Joy* I run after you ‘cuz you’re moving so fast and in the meantime, I’m leaking out my identity out onto the path as I go. No need to look back as Holy Spirit is wiping up the ‘mess’ as if it never happened. Yay! Atonement.
Hi, Nouk, Could you say more about this “spiritual bypass” you did when you did not keep the ego and Holy Spirit mutually exclusive? (Or if you have a blog on this, could you share the link?) I ask because I fall into bypassing also when I start experiencing totality/oneness. I get confused, then ego rushes in wanting things from the world, and then I back up to pure non-duality to get straightened out. Thanks in advance.
Hi Lorri,
I’m in seclusion for a while so can’t spend time replying. However if you send me your email address (nouk@undoing-the-ego.org), I can send you a helpful article (not mine) about spiritual bypassing…
With Love,
Nouk
Very interesting debate. Nouk, like always, you are very crisp in your understanding but I want to add some notes that might be helpful.
I can relate with all you write, as well as with what Paul and Jihannes shared with us, since I was there and still am. You said it right, Spiritual ego or ego Spirituality is very tough to crack. In other words, unless one comes out of his/her box and be totally ego free, there is no real difference in one’s life and his/her life is even more miserable. He remains at a phylosophical level, yet in terms of conscious creation and free will, remains extremely limited. Understanding grows, perception changes, yet life is difficult and we see ourselves powerless to change our circumstances and to actually live the life we desire.
Unless we are ccoming out of the “box”, that means to totally transcend the ego, we are still in the victim position. Our power is very limited and what we can do is to actually hope that the Spirit will “trick” the ego and will deliver time to time for our needs. But we unconsciously maintain the victim setting, the powerless setting and we recongnize that ego is our master and we are the slave. Unless we can express our Will, it means somebody else owns our Will. We are at the mercy of ego or the Spirit.
The objective of ACIM is to set us free, to completely regain our Will power, which is God’s Will and that means reuniting with God or Higher Self.
In my understanding, at the momment of separation from God, our mind has split in three parts: superconscious, conscious and subconsciuos minds. The superconscious mind is the place of the Higher Self who supervises everything and provides us guidance, the conscious mind, which accounts for the famous 5-10% of control is the place of the Lower Self or the Physical Self, the little I that we are running on right now. The subconscious mind, which is in charge with 90% of the reality creation, the turntable of thoughts becoming reality and the headquarters of our unconscious beliefs is the the headquarters of ego. And the ego fiercely defends its teritorry and that’s why we create over and over a reality that we don’t actually like or desire. The thing is, ego uses our own power to project that reality, and we don’t know it, giving us the ilusion that we are powerless and the projected reality is not ours and it is something that cannot be changed or that it is very hard to do it. To project this hologram that we call reality, ego needs power and the power he uses is actually OUR power held hostage with the help of negative emotions of guilt, shame, fear of death and hatred.
To be free again we need to reclaim the power we gave away to the ego at the momment of split from God, to reunite the three minds into one and to merge with the Higher Self into One. This is the state that Jesus achieved and eventually we are headed toward.
But to reclaim the power from ego is not an easy task as you know, because it defends itself with guilt, shane, fear of death and hatred. These are all emotions stored in the emotional body that works hand with the mental body.
Reality creation is Power + Thought + Feeling + Action. But the emphasize here is on Thought + Feeling, as Power is neutral.
Thoughts have no power by themsleves unless they are activated/catalyzed by a Feeling. A negative thought cannot create reality unless it is associated with a negative feeling (fear, guilt, etc.). The electrical charge of the thought is given by the electrical charge of the emotion/feeling.
That’s why, to set free and to collapse the unwanted reality of scarcity, sickness and loneliness, we have to completely clean our Emotional Body of all the negative emotions that are stored layers upon layers for lifetimes perhaps. Feeling/emotion is the bond that keeps the reality standing, similar to what mortar means to the bricks for a house. Without negative feelings, the undesired reality simply collapses.
I see the emotional body as a container filled with our emotional debris accumulated over lifetimes. Once it is totally empty of negative emotions, it will be ready to fill with Love and once it is filled with Love, Love will activate the positive thoughts this time and we will start creating our desired life, without any hindrances from ego.
Negative emotions ar ego’s “blood”, once they are gone, there is no ego to talk about, there will remain only the Lower Self (the Physical Self) and the Higher Self that will merge into One.
The most difficult part of the process is to release all negative emotions, because, as John Bradshaw says, the only way out is through, that means we have to feel them and let them go. This is very awkward at times, but is the only way. It takes a lot of courage to acknowledge your emotions, to let them get out of “basement”, to FEEL them and finally to let them go.
Mental understanding without emotional release is ego spirituality amd goes nowhere, it perpetuates powerlessness and victimhood.
At the end of the day, it’s all about regaining our Willpower and becoming powerful creators as sovereign beings, in deep Love, integrity and respect for ourselves and the others. This is to me the end of one road (separation and struggle) and the beginning of a new and definitely much nmore exciting one – conscious creation and true abundance in all forms: financial, material, health and relational.
With much love and appreciation,
Leonard
Thanks leonard for emphasising the need to release emotions and let go of those energetic lumps of baggage that block the light from extending. Or rather, that block our awareness of the fact that light is extending. Personally I go through numerous periods of crying – at least a few times a week – all as part of the release process. Any willingness shown on my part to move into light and truth is typically followed soon after with an upheaval and disturbance of otherwise hidden emotional crap, which then proceeds to demand release since the releasing process has already begun as soon as you step into light. I would say that after all these years of emotional healing I feel greatly renewed and refreshed and what used to feel like an approaching end, stuck and stale and tired, has been released to be replaced with enthusiasm and happiness and vitality. It’s weird to suggest you can become younger again or undo supposedly permanent sins, but you can. You can in fact move back towards innocence even after having believed in your own guilt.
For me, emotions are created by false perceptions, usually in the past. It was a result of my wrong perceiving/projecting that caused me to see myself as hurt or victimized or wronged in some way, which is what created a foundation for the negative emotions. They are all just forms of fear which is a reality distortion. Even though my intellectual understanding is now far different thanks to Holy Spirit, ACIM, emotional healing etc, I still have to go back to work through the #$#?! that was invented in my mind and emotions and was as yet unhealed. Usually after the emotional release there is a restoration of clarity and a truer perspective, usually filled with lightness and laughter if I got to the bottom of it 🙂
I appreciate also the warnings about the spiritualization of ego, which really is everything the ego does – gives false values to the dream, and by contrast also gives false negative value to other parts of the dream which is just another form of anti-spiritualizing. What I’ve learned (or started to) only recently is that all through my spiritual `path` it has still been ME, as a separate centralized self, that has been trying to wake up. I’ve been trying to get this separate self to become more spiritual. That is a spiritualization of ego. I pushed myself to great extents of false humility and martyrdom and sacrifice in an effort to get `me` to be more spiritual. But that was a mistake. I can’t get my centralized self to wake up. It does not wake up. It can only be a centralized self. What I have to do is wake up FROM the centralized self, become decentralized (ie not self centered) and become aware of the WHOLE of who I am, which is my True Self which does not have a center. The centralization of self is what the ego is all about, which is a defense against the whole by trying to resist everything (ie God).
I had a profound experience recently where I became radically more aware of all of myself, and at that time my sense of having a central self almost completely vanished. It seemed to dissipate and move into the background of my awareness at a greatly reduced volume and anything coming from it seemed faint and distant, intead of strong and demanding. That undoing of this false mishmash of a separate self showed me experientially that `I` – what I really am – awareness, not an isolate self – still exists even without a centralized ego identity. In fact it exists even MORE. There is much more to `my true identity` than I was aware of. This has demonstrated to me the importance of experience over discussion, and the falsety of my ego self trying to change itself to become more spiritual. That’s something I have to drop like a hot potato. It’s more about letting my ego self be what it is but then become more expanded and whole so that this ego self dissolves.
Great sharing and teaching. Thanks Paul 😉
Thank you, Paul!
Emotional clearings are difficult at times, but it always feel better after the bubble bursts and all the debris is cleared.
It’s tough but is healing.
All the best,
Leonard
Thank you Leonard. What a wonderful teaching!
You said, “That’s why, to set free and to collapse the unwanted reality of scarcity, sickness and loneliness, we have to completely clean our Emotional Body of all the negative emotions that are stored layers upon layers for lifetimes perhaps.”
In my own experience (so far), awakening “all the way” as Jesus has done, is nothing short of the undoing of death. The collapse of the concept of death is the collapse of the entire dream of separation. In a nutshell, it requires the TOTAL SURRENDER of every thought, belief, relationship, need, the past, and value that we have.
It requires the total surrender of the body and personal will. I find that of myself, I am nothing; I can do nothing. Yet of HIM…I AM. God IS. And the dream of death must fall away. And so, yes, it is the total handing over of my cellular (emotional & physical) memory in the space/time continuum. But…all this must be SEEN first with Spirit; and then forgiven (released), otherwise it’s a spiritual bypass once again. An (ego-safe) intellectual knowing that blocks us from falling through our ego death-paradigm and into LIFE itself. This is what Jesus means in the Course when he says, “all things must first be FORGIVEN and then UNDERSTOOD.” T-30.V.1:6
I’m not there yet. But that’s not my responsibility. Only consistent surrendering to LOVE is.
Blessings,
Nouk
All this Big Person talk is fun to read. I like to go out to play in the sun remembering that I am God’s little Child and Trusting Him is the Only Way to Be.
Thank you, Nouk!
I agree that liberation is undoing of death, no question about it. But death is a mental concept kept alive by the fear of death, that resides in the emotional body. Unless we clean the fear of death from the emotional body, we cannot collapse the death from our mind.
Forgiveness is a form of release of guilt that help us change our mind and implicitly our perception.
My only point is that we cannot collapse any mental construct without first clearing its associated negative emotions, whatever they are.
Emotional release/purification is the prerequisite of liberation and it is our job to do it as an active part of the process, under the guidance of Spirit. I understand surrendering as obeying to Spirit and following Its instructions instead of the ego, but I don’t see it as a passive attitude. Emotional purification is a very diifcult task that requires responsability, courage,vigilance and obedience to Spirit.
All the best,
leonard
I’d like to just hilite one thing you said there, which is that you must clear emotional content before the mind can be cleared. It’s really the other way around. You clear the mind first which brings about the clearing of the emotional content. Without shining a light on the darkness it can’t be dispelled – the light comes from the mind making a decision to heal, and then the `other bodies` which are just side-effects of thinking can `represent` the healing that has taken place in the mind. Without the mind agreeing to the healing in the first place the emotions could not change and the body could not be healed.
In my understanding mind is a tool that must be healed,and this decision belongs to Spirit and not to the mind itself. Spirit is the command center and mind is a tool used by the Spirit in the process of creation. In this process of liberation we regain our control over the mind from ego so that we can restore our conscious creation faculty, as in our original state as Spirits.
What I’m saying is that to restore the mind’s sanity we have to clear the emotions, and this decision belongs to the Spirit and not to the mind itself. At least this is my understanding at this point in time.
Hi! Quite the conversation you’ve been having here!! As I read through what each of you has written above, I am inspired to share a thought … for myself, i recognize there is one mind from which i make my choices. This one mind of mine is the same mind as that of the entire sonship’s. Jesus has told us, all we are responsible for is having the willingness to look with Spirit. It seems the natural progression from my willingness to look with Spirit has been an increased willingness to choose to allow Spirit to heal my mind, perception, cause, effect; none of that healing is of my own ability. Yet the entirety of the choice is up to me. The emotional body is as much a part of my physical body as is my intellectual capacity and none of them are any of my business except to be willing to look at them/myself with Spirit. How can I, with my ego decide to clear my emotions or mind when it is mis-perceiving what they are for?
Leonard, when you say “to restore the mind’s sanity we have to clear the emotions and this decision belongs to the Spirit and not to the mind” I sense (for myself) an egoic side-step that is directing us toward a complex clean-up process with no end in sight. In my experience, Spirit doesn’t make decisions … Spirit is fully in alignment with God’s Will and the flow of life, there are no decisions that Spirit needs to make. Us sleeping children of God are the only ones who need to make decisions because we’ve dreamed we created something other than God.
Perhaps it is just a matter of semantics and I am mis-understanding something! J does seem to like to encourage us to be mindful of the language (symbols of symbols) we use!
Blessings, love to each of you!
Wow! This is all very engaging and exciting to read. Thank you all.
I have always wanted to understand stuff, including the Course. In my mind watching I have been noticing how much of an ego defence this is for me. What I have felt guided to do is to stop thinking, analyzing and trying to figure anything out. This whole list of postings is an amazing gift to me. I love reading all the words and responses and am so grateful to all of you. The gift is that I see how very simple my guidance is in this. I accept that I am intrigued with this discussion. I want to get into it but don’t feel peaceful about doing that. I have invited Holy Spirit to look at this with me. I am releasing my need to understand anything and have total TRUST that Holy Spirit has got it for me. As I have given it to Him I feel free and peaceful. Although, I feel some attachment/fear to share this. Another sticky, tricky bit to release.
In love and gratitude to ALL my mighty companions. You show me myself/Self.
Hi Mary Ann,
Great…follow your inner Guidance, you can’t go wrong!
The Truth will resonate within you. Like you said, no need to understand, or analyze. Accept and listen deeply within…
With Love,
Nouk
Hi, this is all so interesting but since at this time the ego is experiencing an inflamed eye; I can’t fully read the responses; maybe I’m naive and I would love some feed-back. Spirit is telling me to keep it simple and to step back and allow Him to take me to the truth. What is the truth? I AM Spirit; I AM as God created me. I AM the consciousness of Divine Love. As Spirit, I chose to come into form just like Jesus to help the Sonship remember that they too are Love, created in God’s image (idea). So, in form; the body can be used in one of two ways; for Love, or hate. When the Mind, that it is Spirit created as Love, forgets what it is, then it goes into fear and attack mode and the body gets sick because attack thoughts project sickness, guilt and suffering and belief in death. So, then this gives us an opportunity to remember that for an insane moment, I forgot who I AM and why I am here; so Spirit help me to remember my true purpose and I give you my willingness to use this body I made believing I was a separate entity for a Holy Purpose; for extending love into this loveless world we made up in our mind when we forgot why we came in the 1st place and forgot who we are. Is this too naive? Anyway, I now am returning to stillness asking Spirit to change my perception of what the body is for and to give my willingness to let it be used for a holy purpose and not for attack and separation. Thank-you Nouk for bringing so much clarity on this subject and so lovingly sharing your experiences of un-doing and healing. One more thing. A so called physical healing might be nothing more than the demonstration that mind healing; healing of the separation has occurred; that more forgiveness has taken place. Why separate physical from mental; it’s all taking place in the mind. Like you said, cause and effect are all still in the mind. If there is still a perception of something physical like this inflamed eye; it just is a call for Love and with my willingness Spirit will hear that call and show me where there is still a need to heal my false thinking. Again, thank-you for providing this opportunity to dialog and gain more clarity.
One problem, one solution!
Dearest Nouk,
Can you comment on the sheer STRENGTH of the ego? I don’t presume that you remember me, but I have had a very serious health issue since 2009. For a wonderful period of time, communicated with Christoph Engen in Munich and we explored ACIM together, along with your beautiful insights. Since Christoph’s passing, my health has deteriorated to the point of now needing hospice care.
If, as Jesus teaches us, I am doing this to myself … how can I stop it? The ego’s strength seems insurmountable…
Love you,
Denise
Dearest Denise, this is a *BIG* subject. And unfortunately, its the false-self that wants to know “how to heal” because it is thoroughly hoodwinked into believing:
1) that we ARE the body (and at the mercy of it) and that the body is real
2) that the disease/pain is real
Bluntly speaking, we cannot heal (forgive) that which we believe is real. The body is an IDEA as is sickness. Both the body and sickness are ideas in our mind. They are the belief that we are guilty, and unworthy of God’s Love. They are the denial of our incorruptible Innocence. The cure…is to want nothing BUT to know and embody our Innocence…which means forgiving our self for everyone and everything (body included) we’ve ever believed victimized us.
Have you done all 365 lessons yet? This is a daily undoing of the ego thought system.
You are NOT the ego. You ARE the Christ Self who has total dominion over all phenomena including the body and disease.
Denise, this is a journey of UNDOING. I will accept the Atonement on your behalf. And I will hold you in my sacred space.
The real question is: “What do you want MORE than anything, more than anyone, more than life itself?” And “What are you most terrified of?” These need to be given to Holy Spirit – totally.
With much Love,
Nouk
I have struggled getting through all of the lessons simply because I depend on caregivers now and am bed-bound; sometimes there is no possibility of assistance in even holding the book or getting to my phone. None of this matters as much to me as does the guilt this disease incurs so aggressively (hence my reference to its strength). I am paralyzed now and depend on others for everything – toileting, bathing, eating, etc. It leaves me feeling guilt because my loved ones so desperately want me to “get better” and I can see their heartache in their faces as this body withers.
Thank you, Nouk, for answering. I will do the best I can whatever is to come.
Love,
Denise
And THANK YOU for holding me in your sacred space, Nouk, you truly are an angel of God. ?
Denise, my prayer for you is this: I am joined with Holy Spirit…asking for only HIS Will to be done here. God’s Will for you is that your awareness of the unassailable majesty of your Being be restored to you immediately. And this is a prayer that you open to the miracle of ACCEPTING your total, incorruptible innocence. You ARE innocent…always have been…always will be.
Allow me to join in Right-Mindedness and invoke the miracle on your behalf. If only you knew just how much God Love’s you…
<3 <3 <3 Sending hugs to you,
Nouk