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October - December, 2008

What Is a Miracle?

by Dennis Gaither, M.D.

So what is a miracle, anyway? There is something very compelling about the idea of miracles; something that engages our imagination, some deeply yearning part of us. They have been the stuff of folklore and faith for millennia. Whether curious, hopeful, disdainful or fascinated, few are neutral in their beliefs about what a miracle is.

In conversations and classes, study groups and workshops, I find that when people offer to share about their “miracle stories” what follows is usually about an unexpected and happy event in the world. A lost pet is found. An illness is healed. A parking space materializes. Unexpected help arrives to solve a problem. There is a timely phone call. The list goes on and on. In traditional religion, miracles refer to supernatural physical occurrences that defy usually understood natural laws, and are performed by or through certain “special” or enlightened individuals. They certainly are not something you or I could “do.”

Now, in the face of all of this cultural lore about miracles, we have this strange book, A Course in Miracles, that purports to teach us how to bring forth miracles. Most students quickly get the idea that by miracle the Course is not talking about walking on water. It is about healing our mind; that an “event” in the world we perceive becomes a “grievance” or “problem” only in our mind’s interpretation of it and that by healing our perception we can radically change our subjective experience.

So we are led from the idea that a miracle involves an unexpected change in outer circumstances, as in the traditional view, to a shift in our perception of the circumstances. But is that all there is to it, change our mind and change our experience? Hardly.

Miracles are not simply a means to a more peaceful existence here in this world. They are a path by which we awaken from this world. With each miracle, we awaken a little more to Who we are in truth. The key here is to recognize Who is actually “doing” the miracle. The “problem” is made on the level of ego, of individual mind. But it is not on that level that the problem is undone. It is not a matter of “changing our mind” in the usual sense of the ego exchanging one illusion for another nicer one. We, on the level of individual mind, can offer only our willingness for the miracle. But that is enough, if we offer it truly: Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came. (T-18.IV.2:1-5) [Italics mine – DG]

As a seeming individual expression of One Mind, like all of us, I experience many reactions every day to the events around me. I can, as that individual mind experience, choose to interpret my emotional reactions as having been caused by those events, that I am indeed a victim of the world I see, and try to control those events as best I can. Most of the time, this is the first thing that happens. “The ego always speaks first.”

But I also have another choice. To open the door to the miracle I can first recognize that whatever may appear to be happening in front of me, my experience of it is a product of my own mind. That decision then begins a process. I can allow the experience to flow upward through me, and not push it down or away, not deny it with distractions or right-minded sounding affirmations or formulas. Thoughts and feelings of guilt, fear, unworthiness and attack need to be allowed, without resistance or holding on. To have the courage to do this, I need to have an abiding trust that there is a Reality within that transcends the feelings of the moment. That Reality tells me that I am Innocent, I am Safe, I am Love and that all else is not real. The beliefs that act as “props” for the emotions, the upsets, the sense of unworthiness or fear, the “evidence” my ego has gathered, need to be looked at and let go of. (I appreciate the teaching of Regina Dawn Akers for her clarity around this process!)

I find it helpful to imagine myself offering them, one by one, and very specifically, to Holy Spirit, as I would a precious gift given to someone I love. Sometimes this seems easy, and sometimes difficult. The difference in difficulty is an illusion, not inherent in the issue at hand but in my own attachment, or unwillingness to let go. That unwillingness in turn is related to the fear of losing some part my “identity,” of who I think I am. The more closely I identify with some form of illusion as being “me,” the more fearful and less willing I am to let it go.

Everything in “my” part of the miracle is about letting go, of surrendering, about trusting in my willingness. I do not “do” anything, only let go of my “doings.” And even this is an illusion. It is the process of the miracle that teaches that the individual “I” is an illusion, not the specific forms that may result.

We may seek the miracle because of a certain outcome that we desire, whether that be a healing of the body or a relief from an upset. But if we attach to that outcome in form, we will miss the opportunity for an even deeper healing. We will miss the opportunity to experience, deep inside, an abiding Presence that heals and comforts us and teaches us who we really are; that we are not that little “i” presence that we thought we were.

© 2008, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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