mind. When we re-experience the unconditional love of God, everything in this world will lose its appeal, including our identification with our body. (See Figure 1.1)
The Course is a unique blend of modern psychology, radical metaphysics and deep spiritual truths. Much of the psychology echoes Sigmund Freud’s teachings on our ego defence mechanisms of denial and projection and will be explained further in Chapter 3. The three volumes comprising the Course are a lifetime study requiring much re-reading to benefit from the depths of its teachings. The metaphysics of the Course have many parallels with some Eastern philosophies and religions. There are over 700 references to the Bible, and Jesus often reinterprets these biblical sayings. Many Christian terms are used in the Course but with entirely different meanings. Jesus stresses that we are not guilty, sinful creatures who need to atone through sacrifice and suffering. Instead, he gives us the inspiring message that we are guiltless, sinless creations of God who have fallen asleep in Heaven. In our collective dream, we have forgotten the abstract eternal beauty of our real nature and believe we are bodies in a world of form.
The Course is not trying to convince us that it is the only spiritual path. It states that it is but one of ‘many thousands’ of spiritual paths and that other teachers with different symbols are also needed. (M3; M-1.4:1-2) Jesus often says that the message of his Course is simple. However, when we first start to study it, it does not appear that way to most of us. This is because the Course’s thought system is completely opposite to our ego’s way of looking at the world. The Course uses the term ‘ego’— as is also the practice in the East — to describe our ‘little self’ which we have made to try to take the place of our real Self which God created. Our ego identifies with our body whilst our Self (or Christ nature) knows only the truth of our formless, spiritual magnificence.
Jesus stresses that all God’s children, referred to in the Course as the Son, Sonship or Christ, were created equal. Thus Jesus is not especially favoured in God’s eyes but is equal to all of us. He simply awoke to his true reality before us and seeks to help us regain what we have forgotten. In later chapters I will expand on some of the Course’s teachings, especially with regard to healing our mind.
The Text in particular seems hard to grasp and the practice of forgiveness equally as difficult. Because of this some people tend only to read the Workbook. However, there is much material in the Text, especially concerning relationships, which is not found in the Workbook. The Text forms the theoretical foundation of the Workbook. It becomes very easy to misunderstand the Workbook and read its message out of context without a knowledge of the theoretical framework of the Course which is found in the Text. On the other hand, to study the Text but not apply it through the Workbook lessons is to end up with an ungrounded and abstract view of the Course. Yet, with time, the message of the Course does become simple, although never easy to apply. 'Victim consciousness' is ingrained in our psyches and the desire to blame others for our unhappiness is universal. To read in the Course (see first quotation on page 13) that no one can take away our peace, only ourselves, is a difficult message to accept, but one which will eventually lead us to happiness.
Health is Inner Peace . . . Health is the result of relinquishing all attempts to use the body lovelessly.'
(T15; T-2.I.5:11; T146; T-8.VIII.9:9)
After my first visit to the Findhorn Foundation, I returned the following year and took part in a healing workshop. During this period I said ‘yes’ to working more deeply with healing. I did not realise until much later that this was the path I had chosen to help heal myself. Most of the people at the Foundation believe that their thinking at least contributes to their disease. This allowed me to help my clients reach deeper levels in their mind where a lack of forgiveness lay and gave them the opportunity to change their mind about some painful issue. If my client could achieve forgiveness, his sense of guilt would disappear and its shadow in the body — the disease — would go. The following story seeks to illustrate these points.
John asked to see me about the chronic pain at the base of his neck. He was somewhat sceptical about experiencing this type of healing as he came from a scientific background. The neck pain had been present for some months and his hospital had advised a long course of physiotherapy. I explained to John that there was a part of his mind which knew exactly what the cause of this problem was. To help him to access this, I told him I would take him through a relaxation procedure and try some ways which might help him to let go of his rational mind so he could open to his inner wisdom.
I asked John to lie down and made him comfortable with cushions and a blanket. Using a progressive relaxation method, I asked him to tense and release all the muscles in his body. Whilst he was doing this, I kept my hands lightly on his head as I find this helps me to join with the client as well as aiding their relaxation. I asked John to say a prayer to indicate his willingness to receive the help that is always there and to ask for help in seeing what thoughts he needed to change in his mind which would bring about healing. In my previous conversation with him I had discovered he was open to working with prayer. I joined his silent prayer with one of my own. I asked that I might open myself to my own source of help and be used as a channel in this healing session.
We remained in silence for a few minutes whilst I continued to lay on hands. I then asked John how he was feeling and if there was anything happening for him. He told me that the face of his aunt had appeared to him and had spoken the following words: "This pain in your neck is vengeance upon yourself for what you did." John told me that this was not said in any accusing manner but as a simple statement of fact. However, the words made no sense to John and we decided to leave this intriguing message for the moment. Although John had stressed that he had a well-developed logical, rational and scientific mind, I felt he also possessed strong intuition. I felt drawn to try some imagery in the form of a guided journey, to help lead him to his own source of inner wisdom.
I began the journey by asking him to visualise himself walking down a country lane on a summer’s day. To encourage him to experience all his senses, I asked him to feel the road underfoot, smell the flowers, hear the sounds of nature and observe the surroundings and the sky above him. In this manner he became more involved with his inner world which, in turn, loosened the hold of his rational mind. I continued to guide him on his journey in nature, sometimes stopping to enable him to study some object of interest.
The goal of this journey was to connect John with some symbolic form of his inner wisdom or higher self — what the Course calls the Holy Spirit. However, this guided journey was soon to come to an abrupt end. I had thought that I was leading him through a forest when he stated, with some irritation, that he had tried four times to enter this forest without success. Each time he tried, the trees would turn into a white mist and the forest would disappear.
One of the maxims I work with in healing is: "Anything you resist persists — anything you accept can heal." I told John to accept this mist, ask for help and continue to walk through it. As he continued, a human cell appeared in the mist surrounded by violet light. His scientific training enabled him to recognise it as a human cell and, further, to know that it was cancerous. Suddenly, the memory of his dying mother returned to him accompanied by strong feelings of guilt and shame. He told me he had felt unable to cope with the situation at the time and had given the care of his mother to his aunt. This was the same aunt who had appeared at the start of the healing session.
John began to cry tears he had been unable to shed at the time of his mother’s illness. He realised he had repressed all his guilt and shame around this issue and now needed to obtain forgiveness. I encouraged him to ‘invite’ his mother into this session and express to her all the things he needed to say. I told John to imagine that his mother was really here in the room and to speak out loud to her. When he had finished, I asked him to listen to anything his mother wanted to say to him and to speak out loud what she said. In this way John was given an opportunity to share his buried feelings with his mother and forgive himself for his past actions.
I then asked John if he felt complete with his experience and to return his awareness to the room we were in. He told me that the pain in his neck felt much better and he now understood the significance of his aunt’s remarks