Miracles News

Tweet

January-March, 2016

My Trip to Fantasy Land

by Rev. Linda Wisniewski, O.M.C.

Like all stories in the dream world of fantasy, this story of my trip to Disney World has a beginning, middle, and an end. And like all stories in the dream, it offers many opportunities for forgiveness that lead to awakening from the dream.

Beginning: My family which consists of my husband, two daughters, one son-in-law and 3 grandchildren ages 16, 12 and 10, went on a vacation to Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida for eight days. Everyone but me loves vacationing at Disney World. The 10 year old never was there and we all promised her that for her 10th birthday, she would get to go there. I used to look forward to vacations, but now I look forward to being in stillness and resting in God. So, I was not looking forward to this trip. In fact, I was dreading it. I was also dreading that I would be in a wheel chair because since I broke my hip a year ago, I knew I wouldn’t be able to walk the distances that Disney World and Universal Studios required.

There were many guilty thoughts coming up at the beginning. One of the thoughts was, “What would others think? Going to Disney World isn’t something a ‘spiritual person’ would do. It’s so frivolous and ‘unspiritual.’” Shame also came up about having to be in a wheel chair and believing everyone out there would see me as being crippled, weak and vulnerable and helpless. I must have done something awfully wrong to have a body like this that can’t move freely and is in pain much of the time. But aren’t these guilty and shameful thoughts the modus operandi of the ego? No different than the guilt that arose from the beginning when we believed we separated from God. I didn’t know what to do; I was feeling so conflicted. I knew that only Holy Spirit could help me sort it all out.

In the past, when I was new to being still, it was very helpful to write a letter to Holy Spirit, lay out all my confused thinking, and allow Holy Spirit to answer me in letter form. So, this is what I did.

Dear Holy Spirit, I am so confused about this trip; so much guilt and shame is coming up. Please help me sort this all out and see the Truth. Please help me heal my mind about what this all means.

Here is Holy Spirit’s answer:

Dear Linda: This trip is a love gathering and has nothing to do with form. Remember, everything in the dream is a fantasy; only Love is real. Being spiritual has nothing to do with behavior or what you do. It’s the state of mind that you are coming from that is important. Everyone’s reality is spiritual because our true nature is spiritual. We are Spirit in the Mind of God and we are the Spirit of God’s Love. Don’t think of Disney World as a place; think of it as a symbol of Love’s Presence in the midst of all the hoopla.

Holy Spirit then continued to tell me to use the trip as an opportunity to be child-like and remember innocence and the innocence of everyone else. Use it as an opportunity to demonstrate the God-given qualities that created us. Be the Spirit of Love —  joyful, peaceful, blessed, innocent. See Disney World as the Idea of Spiritual Innocence, connection, joining in Love.

And then Holy Spirit spoke to me about being in a wheel chair. Remember Workbook Lesson 1 and 2: Lesson 1: “Nothing I see in this room (on this street, from this window, in this place means anything.” Workbook lesson 2: “I have given everything I see in this room (on this street, from this window, in this place all the meaning that it has for me.”

Yes, Holy Spirit; I believe that riding in a wheel chair means I am weak, vulnerable, helpless, limited and crippled.

Holy Spirit: What does it matter whether you ride in a wheel chair; it is just another mode of transportation; no different than a car, a bus, a train that moves you from one place to another. It has nothing to do with who you are as a Divine Idea in the Mind of God. In Truth, you are Infinite, boundless, limitless Love. See the wheel chair as God’s chariot and God’s angels are carrying you in ease. The wheel chair doesn’t define who you are. The physical body doesn’t define who you are. You are the creative idea of God’s Love extending into the world. God’s Love is boundless, limitless, pure, whole, child-like innocence, harmonious. You can be all this whether you are in a wheel chair or walking. It has nothing to do with the body. All you need to do is change your thinking about it and you will be in peace and free.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for re-interpreting my erroneous thinking. I can now join with my family in ease and peace.

The Middle: I am learning that every thing we experience in the dream offers us an opportunity for forgiveness and awakening from the dream, even Disney World. First, I enjoyed the ease of being in a wheel chair and not having to have blisters or tire from the great distances that were required. The rides also provided me with an opportunity to really experience that this world we believe we are living in is really an illusion. One of the rides was called Star Wars. All we were asked to do was sit in a chair and a movie was projected onto a screen. The movie had you hurled into and through space at a very fast rate; it was filled with images of crashing into comets and facing other dangers. It seemed so real because the chair moved up and down and had me believe I was really being hurled into space and crashing into these objects. I was so fearful and just screaming. Finally, the ride ended and I had to laugh; nothing happened. I never left the chair; it seemed so real. You couldn’t have convinced the body’s senses that this wasn’t really happening.

This ride, as well as many of the other rides in Disney, very clearly demonstrated what the illusory state is all about. It is all a projection of fear coming from a mind that has been in a state of fear since it believed it separated from its Creator. What we experience with the physical senses is just our projection. Nothing is happening; we are still safe at Home in the Mind of God.

There was also a wonderful message on the ET ride. ET came on the screen and asked us all for help; ET was calling for help from all of us to help him get home. He couldn’t do it without our help and we would all go home together. Isn’t this the same message ACIM gives us? That we all need each other’s help and the help of the Holy Spirit to return us home and we all go Home together.

I also was given an opportunity to be a peaceful presence in the midst of chaos and a few family meltdowns. I also had an opportunity for self-forgiveness when I observed how I was judging others for their “impatience” and when I withdrew my projections, I was able to ask Holy Spirit to help me heal from my own impatient way of thinking.

End of Story: The story also had a joyous, happy ending. Before I returned to Wisconsin, I spent the weekend with one daughter and granddaughter in Ormond Beach, the home of Pathways of Light and its founders Mary and Robert Stoelting. While my daughter spent time at the ocean, I spent time with Mary and Robert and Trish Kearns, another minister who now lives at Ormond Beach. It was a wonderful and joyous joining filled with laughter and spiritual lessons reminding us of what is really important and what our true purpose is. I even had the honor of sitting in on a teleconference where those who were about to be ordained as ministerial counselors of POL got to share about what led them to go through the training. This was a real blessing and it brought me back to the time when I went through the training and was ordained in 2005 and all the healing and Miracles that have happened since.

So what I am learning can be summed up perfectly and couldn’t have been expressed better than in the “Opening Preparation” which we use to begin each session of the ACIM Practitioner courses.

As I do this mind healing work:

• I am willing to be mindful of my thoughts without judgment.

• I am willing to let go of tension… I soften and imagine the Holy Spirit leading me into peace; my aware Self leads me as I now focus on healing my mind as I go through this mind-healing course.

Going to Disney World was the opportunity, i.e. the “mind healing course,” I was being presented with to “surrender to the Source of Love within me and let It guide my way.” (from the opening preparation of the POL ACIM Practitioner Courses)

© 2015, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a Friend

Printable Page

Back to main page of Miracles News.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.