ACIM Blog - A Course in Miracles Blog
Conversations, Events, Resources and Reference for students of A Course In Miracles
The listings above are a sampling of our favorite ACIM books and media. If you want a larger list, click here for a more extensive selection of books, audios, DVDs and other items related to A Course In Miracles. Purchasing from these links help support this labor of love website and we appreciate it! 
One of many great videos by Kenneth Wapnick:
New Year’s Resolution_Themes from “A Course in Miracles”
Here is the complete list of YouTube videos from Foundation for A Course in Miracles (FACIM)
For all fans (and soon-to-be fans) of Disappearance of the Universe, Your Immortal Reality and all of Gary Renard’s audio, video and other great work … Don’t miss Gary and Cindy in Colorado Springs on Sep. 24th! Gary shared 3 wonderful seminars with us when we lived in Oregon, and as a new Colorado dreamscape resident, I’ll be at this one, too! They just keep getting better! I’m also eager to hear a few new bits from the 3rd book.
When: Saturday, September 24, 2011
Where: Clarion Hotel & Conference Center
314 West Bijou St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
719.471.8680
Time: 10-5 followed by book signing.
Cost: $75.00 through Sept. 23, 2011 $85.00 Sept 24, 2011
Contact: Kathy Scott Perry 512.938.9996
More details about the Miracle Promotions and about Gary and registration here.
Fellow ACIM student Terry Miller shares:
“While in a meditative state during a car ride to see Tom and Linda Carpenter speak in Ashland I was reading from their book DIALOGUE ON AWAKENING Communion with Jesus. I’ve no idea now what concept on what page that I was contemplating, but this poem came to me intact:
This body is old
I am not
I have no age
This body is deaf and dumb
I am not
I am sage
This body is small
I am not
I have no form
This body is separate
I am not
I am Home.”
Here’s a collection of some excellent videos online that give an introduction to the non-dual thought system of A Course In Miracles that Gary Renard eloquently shares. If you know of other videos online I could add to this collection, please let me know!
(Editor’s note:
In February 2004, while giving multimedia presentations at the Global Sacred Geometry Conference in Sedona, Arizona, I too had the enjoyable opportunity to do an interview with Alan Steinfeld. Since the summer of 2007, when I discovered the Disappearance of the Universe, most of my thinking about what I shared there was transformed by revisiting ACIM, but it was still a fun interview. Since reading DU and re-reading ACIM (and many other related books), I have been shifting my emphasis from form to content, as Ken Wapnick would say. I’m SOOO grateful that my friend Claire loaned me her copy of DU! My life was transformed by the understanding that pure non-dual awareness is not in any way connected with any sort of duality, a.k.a. God doesn’t know about space, time, bodies, personalities, individuality, and certainly has nothing to do with sin, guilt and fear! Hallelujah to that! Just for fun, here’s that video interview about The Seven Hermetic Laws, Sacred Geometry and more with Alan Steinfeld of New Realities … More about sacred geometry and the Hermetic Laws, which, like everything else can be used as a mnemonic when turned over to our real teacher a.k.a. Holy Spirit, is on my GeometryCode.com website for those that might be interested.)
A collection of videos of Gary Renard on The Manifest-Station website; requires logging in via free account.
In the normal reckoning of space and time, I ‘met’ Thomas Vieira less than 2 years ago in San Francisco at a conference on A Course In Miracles. He and his former wife and teaching/learning partner, Nouk Sanchez, were giving a 75-minute workshop on their ACIM experiences and revelations. I immediately felt connected to both, like long-lost friends, as they engaged with everyone in the room, reminding us that we’re ALL long-lost friends. I can’t think of anyone I’ve talked to that didn’t have a similar experience. Starting with the whoopee cushions they placed on everyone’s seats, it was obvious that their sense of humor was of primary importance in their assigned task (while gently and whimsically reminding us it was OUR task as well) to dismantle the inner saboteur we thought we fabricated called ego.
Numerous metaphors that Tomas (and Nouk) shared stayed with me; for starters, how our inner voice for peace (a.k.a. Holy Spirit) is like a GPS; when we get off course, it doesn’t berate us for missing the optimal turn, it just gently recalculates another optimum way to see our ‘destination’ each moment without any implied guilt, blame or extra baggage. Probably my favorite analogy (that Tomas illustrated with great exuberance so that we could all identify with it, just long enough to see the joke and start DE-identifying with it is the ego as the quintessential pork-pie-hat-wearing and cigar-smoking used car salesman… To paraphrase: “I’ve never steered you right before, but never mind that, just trust me this one … more … time.” What a great image! I remember laughing with Tomas at one of our favorite local restaurants (after they gave an outstanding 3-day workshop here a little over a year ago) talking about what a great video this could make to satirize our attachment to form…
… and Tomas really LIVED the lessons about releasing his interpretations about form, including his own deteriorating body. His attitude demonstrated the truly liberating truth that we’re not bound by anything, including the fleeting vehicles we ‘hang out in’. If ‘gentle tenacity’ isn’t too much of an oxymoron, Tomas showed us, in so many loving and kind examples, how we can make fun of our own follies and enjoy the lives we think we’re living all the more so by holding to the thought system that reminds us that separation never happened… and we can afford to enjoy an internal (and eternal) inner laugh about how silly our preoccupations are – no matter how seemingly serious. The candor that Tomas and Nouk shared about their personal lives that reminded us of our shared transpersonal LIFE was, IS and forever will be a joyous example of spirit.
If our shared spirit (way beyond what our little who-ville, persona-attached, need machine-obsessed minds could possibly fathom) IS eternally, then that same spirit we all share (and the idea we call Tomas was such a great fun reminder of) IS too, so thank you, Tomas, for a life in this holographic dream well spent in sharing what we all are, what we have always been and will always be (beyond time, space and all the other silly notions we seem to get caught up in.)
Will we miss Tomas’ form? Of course. But even as a few tears arise as we recall our dear friend, the sustainable smile breaks into outrageously joyous laughter remembering that (like the Joe Hill song lyrics go) “He did not die.”
Eternal smilezenhugs!
Finding Happy Birthday Peace! By Sally McKirgan
Are we born only to die? And if so Why? That was my waking thought on the morning of my recent 60 something Birthday! “What a revolting development this is,” as a character on TV used to say in disgust. Can it be that we are born, enter the body and the world only to ultimately march steady and directly to our death? What a (bad) joke!
First we are born helpless and dependent on others for food, clothing, nurturing or maybe not, depending on your parents, circumstances and Country of choice. Then secondly, little by little, you realize that you will have to figure out how to take care of your needs yourself. You go to school, again, depending on where you were born, and what sex you are for that matter. Growing up you may be abused, have an illness, but eventually you have to figure out how to “fend” for yourself when you grow up. If you can’t figure it out, some become sad, take drugs to help the sadness, become homeless, steal to get money for food, and end up in jail or prison. There are millions of people in prisons who were unable to figure out how to care for themselves.
Here’s the kicker – We are all; prisoners; jailers; parents; children; candlestick makers; soldiers; artists; wall street brokers; Muslim; Christian; Jewish; Atheists; Buddhists; Hindus; and others; in the same boat. No one is getting out alive and everyone is fighting a hard battle!
Who created this world of disaster, the ego or God? Would a God that is Changeless, Eternal, All Love, have you accumulate some knowledge, express your gifts and suffer from an illness or accident and then die – kaput – the end? Would a loving God create that kind of scenario?
This is the ego’s world and it is a “bad joke.” God has had nothing to do with it. That thought: ”God has nothing to do with it” is the cool breeze on the fevered cheek. This is the ego’s world where it alone rules. In the Course, Chapter 7. Section VII. p.11 “Perceive any part of the ego’s thought system as wholly insane, wholly delusional and wholly undesirable, and you have correctly evaluated all of it.” It is not True and it is not Real. The only thing in this whole world that is True and Real is Loving Thought. The only reason you are here is to forgive and remember the Loving Thoughts held within your powerful decision making mind.
The ego does not want you to know you have a mind period, let alone a decision making one! In coming to this world the ultimate lesson is to realize, find and follow your inner truth with the decision making mind. The ego will try to keep you from it. That is its job. It will offer “seek and do not find” carrots and dilemmas that it insists will make you happy and offer up zillions of distractions. We are all in the same boat whether we hail from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Everyone, no matter the lesson that their soul came to learn, has entered a dream, an illusion, and in this world EVERYONE has the same problem. We think we are separate from God. That is the only problem – our wrong thinking. The good news is: It is not true.
In summing this Birthday thought: The ego is a parasite on the mind, it made up a world and bodies that die. If we choose it, which we all did when we came here, it will fill us with doubt, hatred, misery littleness or grandiosity and throw in a little piece of happiness now and then to keep you going. But it is not True. Only Loving Thought is True. Laugh at the ego and remember that as you go through your life’s lesson, forgive all mistakes, yours and theirs, for dreaming this illusion, and change your dream, with your thoughts, as only you can do. As a Course students we are told over and over that we are not our bodies in the Workbook Review lessons VI. “ I am not a body I am free, for I’m still as God created me.” And finally, in Chapter 12, Section VII p.15, s.1 Jesus says “When you are tempted to yield to the desire for death remember that I did not die!” The cool breeze of relief for some Happy Birthday Peace!
Sally McKirgan
Ashland, OR
This past week, the illusion of the dream figure I call Bruce trekked across the street twice to watch the movie Inception. Like the Matrix series, I can skip the gratuitous violence, but enjoyed the IDEAS in the film immensely.
A quick update; I just saw this very cool clip which is almost like a ‘Cliff Notes’ vignette of the Inception movie in musical and special effects form; a fun rendition of “ Across the Universe (with the ‘Nothing’s Gonna Change My World’ lyric; a fave Beatles tune) by Fiona Apple; talk about calm in the center of the dream cyclone!
Here’s a comment I just posted on my Facebook page about a review that hit many of the key ideas: waking up from dreams, projections, and yes, even forgiveness and unconscious guilt were mentioned (albeit briefly) in the film:
Just read a great review of the movie Inception; here’s my reply:
Great review: Making the leap of faith in a dream: Philosophical reflections on Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (2010), thanks! There are numerous hints in the film about the importance of forgiving our projections (the people and situations the egoic mind uses to keep us in the dream of separation and duality); our kindnesses and shared interests are the totems that awaken us with a gentle “kick” out of the addiction to unconscious guilt as you mention in this paragraph:
“Thus, resolution has something to do with the retrieval and acknowledgement of a hidden or repressed truth, followed by the work of letting go. Unless this is done, the burden of unconscious negative emotions (e.g. fear, guilt, anger, etc.) will continue to suck your psychic energy, preventing you from functioning and thriving.”
I highly recommend the work of Ken Wapnick, Gary Renard, & Nouk Sanchez/Tomas Vieira as complements or intros to A Course In Miracles to explore the dream metaphor more deeply and how we can use true forgiveness as the universal totem for gently awakening from a nightmare we forgot we made up. When I walked into the theater to watch Inception, I laughed silently, realizing I was already at least a couple of dream/theater levels deep!
Another favorite ‘virtual reality’ genre film: Waking Life. In this animated film, the protagonist is given the suggestion that you can tell if you’re dreaming by flicking a light switch, and if the light goes on or off, then you’re not dreaming. Interestingly, I had a dream (of the nocturnal variety! shortly after watching this movie, and in that dream, the light DID go on and off when I was toggling the switch in my dream within a dream world on a stairway landing! Perhaps the only ‘real’ totems are those that help us gently laugh and kindly forgive ourselves for making the world up in the first place (undoing the dream of duality and separation.)
forgiveness totem shirt
…
When Ariadne finds Mal in the basement of Cobb’s memories, she starts to tell Mal her name but Mal cuts her off: “I know who you are.” How does Mal know who Ariadne is?
Since Mal is Cobb’s projection, if he knows her, then Mal should know her as well. If you’re looking at the film metaphysically, Mal (‘Bad’ or ‘Evil’ in Latin, French, Spanish and Portuguese) is the dream figure in Cobbs mind who symbolises his guilt. Guilt is undone by forgiveness. Ariadne symbolises innocence and forgiveness and shares this key with Cobb, telling him the only way to undo his guilt and free himself from his dream-hell is to forgive both Mal and himself. She is thus recognised by Mal as her enemy, as her message of forgiveness will free Cobb from Mal’s control.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/faq#.2.1.51
The “Penrose stairs” (with a woman perpetually picking up papers) that Arthur shows Ariadne is a reference to a lithograph print by the Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher. The print is usually called “Ascending and Descending” or “The Infinite Staircase”, and was first printed in March 1960; Escher is well-known for his drawings exploring optical illusions and real architectural, mathematical, and philosophical principles rendered in fantastical ways.
Ariadne, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of King Minos of Crete and his queen, Pasiphaë. She aided Theseus in overcoming the Minotaur by giving him a ball of red fleece thread that she was spinning, so that he could find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. The name is also a reference to Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s setting of the myth for Richard Strauss’s opera Ariadne auf Naxos. The opera is a play within a play, just as the movie is a dream within a dream.
Marion Cotillard’s character is called ‘Mal’, short for name ‘Malorie’, a name derived from French word ‘malheur’, meaning misfortune or unhappiness. The shorter version ‘mal’ means wrong/bad or evil (when a noun) in French, as well as some other Latin-based languages.
Mal’s totem, a spinning top, is (probably) a reference to the Clifford D. Simak’s story ‘Ring Around the Sun’ where the spinning top is used as a way to skip from one parallel Earth to another (by way of helping characters to concentrate).
The first letter of each of the main character’s first names – Dom, Robert, Eames, Arthur/Ariadne, Mal, Sato – spell the word DREAMS.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/trivia
You’re invited to an ACIM skype chat/meeting on your computer! Starts Monday, 14June2010, 7PM PDT
Hi all:
(Update: 24June2010: We actually haven’t started yet, but if this sounds interesting, email me your skype name and I’ll add you to the list for when we get started… soon!
A handful of our local (Rogue Valley, Oregon around the Ashland/Medford area) ACIM enthusiasts from the Wed. evening ACIM/DU group have been having way too much fun (at the ‘post meetings’ on Wed. evenings we call our ‘after parties’) to not extend it, so we thought it would be fun to have an informal Skype chat on a regular (or semi-regular) basis and just see where it leads… Skype (if you haven’t already used it) is a free application you can download and install on your computer with just a few clicks that allows free teleconferencing with video and audio (if just between two computers) and audio (if teleconferencing between 3 or more computers.) I’ve used it for several years and find it’s much better than the phone in many cases and best of all, free! (You call also use it for computer to phone and phone to computer calls for a reasonable rate, which is how skype is able to subsidize the free service. I’ve talked with friends and family in Europe, Australia, Canada and all over the US.
Here’s Jonathan‘s comments on the idea (from our recent meeting talking about this fun idea):
“Our Course study group is morphing into an experiential group as we share and offer insights into the practice of forgiveness, and how it continues to clear up our murky perspective on the world and our lives. We’re guided to extend the love and celebration, and so invite you to do the same! All students feeling called to the Course or connected works by Ken Wapnick, Gary Renard, and others are welcome. With close to 20 years of the Course combined between us, we realize that this is not an easy path, and even if it doesn’t feel so loving and celebratory at times, we aspire to offer a safe space with whatever transpires as a gift toward healing our minds with the love of the Holy Spirit.”
Anyway, we thought we’d give it a go and start an informal chat session this coming Monday (June 14, 2010) at 7PM PDT (for an hour or two) and just see how it goes. It could be a lot of fun! The intention is to share the same sort of inspiration, heart-to-heart connections and support for our mutual (eternal) interest as we do with all of our other (wonderful!) local study groups, just without the gasoline and logistics for carpooling, driving, parking, etc.
At some point, we could record the sessions and put them online (It’s quite easy to upload audio, and I think it might be fun to share with folks via the web. I sure enjoy a wide variety of online media from other ACIM students, ranging from Gary Renard & Gene Bogart’s podcasts, to videos from Nouk Sanchez & Tomas Vieira and Ken Wapnick, to Regina Dawn Akers‘ audio recordings, Philip Urso’s “Crash Course In Miracles” podcasts and much more; all of these have been inspirations to share our common interest in undoing the ego and it’s sneaky made up unconscious guilt in a fun and enjoyable way. There’s lots of audio and video and other resource links on ACIMblog already, BTW, if you haven’t checked them out…
If you are interested, there’s really only a couple of steps, and the first one you only need to do once.
1) Visit http://www.skype.com with your web browser (e.g. Firefox) and follow the (relatively simple) instructions to install it. (You don’t need a video camera to use skype, but it is very fun for 1-to-1 chats. We’re going to just use audio for now.)
2) Email me your skype address, with “ACIM skype chat” in the subject heading.
This way I can add you to my skype ACIM list (different from the Wed. study group email list); since there’s no geographic boundary (aside from perhaps 7PM possibly not being a convenient time for someone in London perhaps
, there’s no reason we can’t invite ACIM-minded friends from around the planet. Please forward to anyone you think might be interested… The current limit is 25 (including the one who initiates the skype conference call) but we’ll deal with that when we get to that point. 
Then I’ll make a list of all the folks who want to get a ‘skype call’ Mon. evening at 7PM, and we’ll chat about ACIM with whoever show up!
Since we’re not limited to just the Rogue Valley (although the off-planet connections are problematic for a while), this little invite is for any ‘serious’ student of ACIM. This page is where I’ll also post announcements for folks that just want to spontaneously attend any of the future sessions…
If you’re not interested in the ongoing idea, after trying it out, just let me know and I’ll remove you from the skype-chat list. If you’re busy or not interested in a particular session, just ignore the call (if you have skype running on your computer)
when it comes in (just like a regular phone call in that sense). Pretty easy, huh!
Hope to see and/or skype with you soon!
Eternal smilezenhugs!