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October-December, 2010

Hoodwinked by ACIM

by Rev. Jean Weston

A few weeks back I had a thought pass through that A Course in Miracles was really ‘hoodwinking’ its students, who would otherwise be a resistant strain. Normally, I let thoughts pass through that are not useful. But this thought seemed to contain some light, so I held it to take a closer look.

ACIM seems to teach a radical new Christianity. It speaks of our human experience as all illusion. It has the metaphysical elements that can cause one’s eyes to roll in two different rotational directions. Sometimes it sounds like Nihilism in that ‘nothing is.’ And it asks us to love and forgive in a way that goes far beyond usual human rational thought.

But the more I studied it to figure out how it could be so ‘bizarre’ and yet contain such beautiful prose and ideas, the more I started to understand. It took a while. I had to get to a point where I felt I would never really understand it, and then pieces starting to fit together like a puzzle. The idea of ‘fractals’ helped a lot, although, again, at first, this only added more ‘intellectual’ stuff to my mind-spinning. But each piece that seemed so radical or unworldly, slowly seemed to align in my mind in such a way that, yes, each piece was the whole… all the ideas seemed to say the same thing but in various different approaches. It was all One! Truly amazing.

After I reached this point, I started seeing everything as a ‘thought’ or a ‘symbol.’ Not constantly, as I came in and out of this way of being as I tended to my daily living, but more and more often my time seemed to be spent in this other realm of asking ‘What is it for?’ Or ‘How can I see this differently?’ And it really transformed my way of approaching so many things.

In my particular journey, I quickly saw the parallels between ACIM and Quaker philosophy. I wrote a piece called ‘George Fox and A Course In Miracles’ which I thought was amazing because of the things George Fox stated in the 1600’s that are so similar to the ideas in ACIM, and how this contributed to Quaker concepts today that are very similar to ACIM concepts. Then, in Yoga, I noticed how what the teacher was teaching us in our meditations were exactly like ACIM. In a brief conversation with him, he said that all religions were the same when you got to the deeper levels.

And that is true. Jon Mundy’s new book What Is Mysticism? points to the deeper truths shared by mystics throughout all ages. And ACIM itself states that “A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this experience toward which the course is directed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone uncertainty ends.” (C-Intro.2:5-7)

So, the truths have always been there. Nothing is new. Only the way we choose to experience them and incorporate them into our human understanding is changing and this shift is necessary as we evolve in time. A Course In Miracles is simply a succinct way for Christian based people to make this shift.

I took my daughters back to a traditional Christian church because I wanted them to get the ‘basics.’ I stayed for the service as I wanted to ‘hear’ it from my new perspective. I was incredibly amazed that when I chose to apply ACIM principles to the hymns and sermon, they were very cleansing and helpful. I just had to see all of these things from a different perspective — a truer perspective!

So it occurred to me that the shift was in me, not the places. I was seeing differently. ACIM helped me to understand it all in a new way, using traditional Christian terms differently, but in a more transformative way. So I felt ‘hoodwinked’ in a sense. I mean, here I was, sitting in a traditional church, hearing and partaking of all the songs, sermons and rituals and choosing to see the Truth in them, rather than criticize them or feel guilty for my shortcomings. I was more holy now than I had ever been in my life and yet, the church, it’s teachings and rituals did not change. I did. I now saw them ‘face to face’ rather than through a mirror, dimly. (Cor. 13) I was hoodwinked by ACIM into really getting the messages of Christianity.

I would still like our churches to do some study of ACIM so others could ‘see’ in this way of letting go of judgment and sin. Why? Because it seems churches still don’t really ‘live’ in the life of Christ, for as much as they ‘love’ Jesus, they don’t seem to be living with Him in the garden, now, and because of that, they seem to hang on to worldly ways of conducting business and relating to one another. This causes them to miss the small shift that could really ‘hoodwink’ us all back into the garden.

© 2010, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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