A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend
that you read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.

“I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.”

God created us, His Son, as changeless Love like Himself. Because our Self is changeless, loss is impossible. Loss of any kind must mean that there has been some change. But the truth is we still remain as God created us.

In this world it does not seem that we are changeless. It seems like change is the only thing that is inevitable. But that is because the ego made the world to be a place where God could not enter, where we could not experience His changelessness and ours. Gratefully, since only changeless Love is real, this world can only be an illusion, a dream.

Like the dreams we experience when the body sleeps at night, the events and figures in the dream seem very real. Some of the figures in the dream can seem very threatening and the body’s heart beats faster as fear builds. When the body wakens we recognize it was only a dream and we dismiss it as nothing. Yet when the body wakens, we still dream this world of separation. But similar to the experience when the body wakens, when we waken from our dream of separation, we will see its meaninglessness and dismiss it as nothing.

We have the means within our mind to help us waken from this dream. In paragraph 1 of this lesson, Jesus describes the process we go through: “There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. This is the truth, at first to be but said and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations. Then to be considered seriously more and more, and finally accepted as the truth.”

It is the Holy Spirit Which reminds us that we remain changeless Love as we were created. We change all thoughts that hurt, that bring us discomfort, anxiety, guilt or fear by taking each thought that hurts to the Holy Spirit and asking to receive His interpretation. Because this is a gradual process, we need to do this over and over until it is finally accepted as the truth.

If we listen and accept His vision, we will learn to see past the images of this world and feel the peace of God that comes from knowing that loss is impossible and thus recognizing that loss is not loss when properly perceived. It was only a dream that could never be true. God’s Love for us is eternal. We can never lose it. We need only welcome His Love and we will know it is there.

Today I commit once again to practicing taking all my thoughts that do not bring me supreme happiness to the Holy Spirit for His gentle and kind correction. Thus will I change all thoughts that hurt.


The way I change all thoughts that hurt is to be willing to take these thoughts to the Holy Spirit to receive a correction in my perception. All hurt and pain, loss and guilt, all suffering of any kind comes from joining with the ego’s thought system. So the way out of these painful experiences is to be willing to let go of the thoughts that are the cause.

In another place in the Course, it says, “To every apprehension, every care and every form of suffering: I will forgive and this will disappear.” Forgiveness means letting go of my false ideas, letting go of the ideas that bring me pain. I let go of these false ideas with the help of the Holy Spirit, Who shows me that these thoughts are not true. Once I really get it that they are not true, it is easy to let them go because they are simply meaningless thoughts. Crazy ideas are simply crazy ideas and don’t have to be energized with belief.

The Holy Spirit shows me the difference between what is real and what is not real, and this makes all the difference in how I view the world or my experiences in this false world of separation. Gradually it becomes easier to see the one united Light that is behind every false form that looks separate and alone.

As I open more and more to Holy Spirit’s perception of the world, I see that there is nothing to fear. Behind all the fearful ideas is always Love. Love has never left. It is always there if I am willing to see It. “I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.”

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