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Chapter 5: Healing and Wholeness

Section I: The Invitation to the Holy Spirit

Read ACIM Chapter 5, Section I (pages 73-75)

How does Jesus describe healing?

Connecting with the Holy Spirit is connecting with our true Nature. Our true Nature is naturally happy and joyous. The ego thought system of separating from God’s oneness is a downer. Trying to get and keep something for one’s self alone is a downer. “Healing is a thought by which two minds perceive their oneness and become glad. This gladness calls to every part of the Sonship to rejoice with them, and lets God go out into them and through them.” (1:1-2)

As we receive Holy Spirit’s ideas, we just naturally want to recognize our oneness with others out a sense of mutual celebration of the truth. As we open to letting our ego thoughts of ‘getting’ be gently washed away by the healing thoughts of the Holy Spirit, our values change. What we think is important changes. We become more open to our natural state, which is wholly joyous.

What happens to us when we remember the truth about everyone?

The fact is we cannot lose our inherent beingness in God and that is really wonderful news. It means that everyone, at the core of their being, is really totally safe, totally in a place of well being, no matter what fearful thoughts of scarcity or limitation they may be dreaming. The truth about everyone is so wonderful that, as we recognize it, we can’t help but be happy. We realize that we do not have to let our level of happiness go up and down like the horse on a merry-go-round. “If you do not choose to be wholly joyous, your mind cannot have what it does not choose to be.” (1:4)

Our happiness can be constant because our remembering the truth can be constant. The ideas that come from the Holy Spirit are always there. They may come and go because of our choice to allow them in or not, but we now realize that we can make that choice to accept happiness and joy more consistently with practice. The news from the Holy Spirit is so good and so happy that we can lower our barriers and accept it instead of rejecting it. Thank goodness the truth of our oneness in Love and joy is true and nothing else is true.

What is the effect of seeing that the world is not form but simply ideas?

This is one of many places in the Course where we are asked to question whether what we have been believing is true. The Part I of the Workbook is dedicated to helping us undo the way we have been seeing the world. We invite the Holy Spirit to heal our minds when we are willing to question our beliefs about reality.

We have become accustomed to thinking in concrete terms of separate images and separate things. We have taught ourselves that these forms are reality. As long as we hang on to that belief, we will always experience fear, loss and lack because it is impossible to share a separate form. A form by its definition is separated off from the whole. From this perspective, any attempt to share it could only mean dividing it more.

We are being asked here to accept that the world is not one of form, but of ideas. The effect of accepting this concept will be a profound change in our values, because it will mean that giving is no longer associated with losing. This means there will no longer be cause for fear, for loss becomes impossible. The giving of ideas can only mean gain. What a relief! No longer do we need to isolate and protect ourselves from potential loss. Instead we want to join and share our ideas, because in the sharing, we become stronger. Our joy is increased. This is the gift we receive when we invite the Holy Spirit to be our Guide.

What does the Holy Spirit need from us in order to help us?

We will only receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we make room for Him in our mind. He needs our welcome for us to know His presence. If we fill our mind with thoughts of separation, anger and guilt, there is no room for the Holy Spirit’s healing thoughts. Jesus tells us, “I have said already that I can reach up and bring the Holy Spirit down to you, but I can bring Him to you only at your own invitation. The Holy Spirit is in your right mind, as He was in mine.” (3:2-3) The Holy Spirit is there in everyone’s right mind, for He is “Universal Inspiration,” which means that the Holy Spirit is there to inspire everyone, as they are willing to accept the truth.

Here we learn that, “The Holy Spirit is the Christ Mind which is aware of the knowledge that lies beyond perception. He came into being with the separation as a protection, inspiring the Atonement principle at the same time.” (5:1-2) It is through the Holy Spirit, or the Christ Mind, that our mistaken perceptions are corrected, leading us to true perception. This allows the last step for us to be “carried over” by God so that we are able to remember our true Nature, as God created It.

What occurs as we welcome the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

The Universal Inspiration of the Holy Spirit returns our mind to sharing the truth instead of trying to separate out a part of the whole to keep for ourselves alone. As we practice inviting the Holy Spirit into our mind, we are led away from our belief in the ego’s thought system of separation. We are led away from making forms that are distinct and separate real. We are led towards seeing the truth of our unified Spirit, which shares one integrated mind. Our integrated mind knows its wholeness and oneness with all and thus is incapable of attack. Because it does not see differences, the integrated mind accepts the unity and universality of God’s Love. Creation, the extension of Love, is recognized as our only function.

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