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

make custom gifts at Zazzle

You can contact Ed directly via the info below…

=== === ===

Hello Bruce, here is the link page. The rate is $109 per night if anyone asks and includes breakfast. Cheers! Ed

Thank you for selecting the Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Ashland to host the overnight accommodations for your event scheduled from 16-Jul-2010 to 19-Jul-2010. Your group rates are valid for booking from 24-Jun-2010 through 09-Jul-2010.

As an added benefit for selecting our hotel, we are providing you the opportunity to create a personalized web site for your special event. Your personalized web site has many exciting features that will help you manage your meeting or event more easily. Use your web site to describe your event, create links to event-specific information and create messages for attendees. You may also allow attendees to easily make room reservations using your specific event rates for the Gary Renard Workshop.

To create your web site, Click here.

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ex/1/en/cwshome/DPRD-86QQG7/HSAOR
You will receive a follow-up email with further instructions on how to share this link with your event attendees and manage the information that will be shown on your web site.

Only need a direct link to our reservation web site? Click here to proceed directly to our reservation desk without creating a personalized web site for Gary Renard Workshop.

http://www.hiexpress.com/hotels/us/en/hsaor/hoteldetail?destination=565%20CLOVER%20LANE%20ASHLAND%20OREGON%20United%20States&hpCheckinDate=Jul-16-2010&hpCheckoutDate=Jul-19-2010&numberOfNight=3&checkInMonthYear=062010&checkOutMonthYear=062010&checkInDate=16&checkOutDate=19&groupCode=GRW

If you or your attendees wish to extend your stay outside of these dates, you will need to book a separate reservation on the Web site or contact us directly at Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Ashland (+1) (541) 6468332.

Please advise your guests to make reservations as soon as possible. The rate will be valid as long as we have rooms available, up to and including 09-Jul-2010.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact:
Ed Karlovich
Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Ashland (HSAOR)
(+1) (541) 6468332
ed <at> hiexashland.com

A Course In Miracles is a spiritual teaching of pure love and forgiveness, written down by Helen Shucman as she heard the words dictated by Jesus. It is 3 books in one: a text that offers the theory of pure non-duality, a workbook to apply it in daily life, and a manual for teachers. It was presented in classic Shakespearean blank verse with Christian references, partly, it is believed, to be legible for future ages, and also to offer correction to traditional Christianity. It uses the masculine to reference God, and the Holy Spirit–or the Voice for God–and Christ, only for purposes of consistency with the understanding that they are genderless and really all one.

Gary Renard became a student of the Course after numerous remarkable visitations by his teachers who helped him offer Jesus’ message from the Course in a modern conversational format and offers clarification to many of the common mistakes made by students and teachers. Gary’s sense of humor, and the lightness his teachers bring to this advanced form of spirituality is so refreshing that it slips in the keys to secret of the Universe as disarmingly as a good joke!

3-part spiritual practice:

In the “Disappearance of the Universe“, Gary Renard’s teachers, two of Jesus’ disciples, now ascended masters, describe a silent prayer meditation practiced by Jesus 2000 years ago.

They suggested this meditation as one of a 3-part practice designed to accelerate the undoing of the ego by releasing the unconscious guilt that keeps us stuck in the cycle of reincarnation, as a way of hiding in the Universe of form and the belief that we chose to separate from God.

The practical results to this doing this work become obvious when you realize that peace, love, and true forgiveness brought into any area of your life have immediate benefits, not the least of which being peace of mind and a renewed passion to contribute toward positive change in whatever walk of life you’re in. Obviously, the world could use some change for the better, but the true power that results from practicing the Course is changing how you see the world and the people in your life. The focus is on affecting change at the level of cause (the mind and your thoughts) rather than effect (the world of illusory form). This is the only place of true change, since it undoes the unconscious guilt where it originated.

Meditate morning and evening for just 5 minutes in silent joining with God and you may find, over time, that the results can lead to direct inspiration in regards to your life purpose and any major decisions. On a day to day practical level, you may find that committing to this practice helps you become more peaceful throughout the day, and the things that used to really get to you, just don’t upset you anymore.

When you notice this, you’ll have solid evidence that this is working to undo the guilt and anger in your unconscious mind, and it will have lasting effects in your daily life. Your interactions with people become more harmonious and you will feel directly guided at times as to the best course of action in every moment of the day.
It has been revealed in A Course In Miracles that prayer as Jesus taught and practiced it, was intended to be done in silence as a joining of your mind with God’s. Becoming one with His love answers all worldly problems. Thinking of your complete oneness with God, rather than seeing Him as outside of you helps to put you in ‘one-mindedness’ or right-mindedness, as the Course describes, by choosing the Holy Spirit as our teacher and interpreter.

Apply Advanced Forgiveness to whatever disturbs you during the day. This isn’t about forgiving some guilty ____ for what you think they’ve done, but overlooking it by seeing who they truly are in their innocence, and so forgiving what never happened. It is a quantum approach to applying non-duality to every situation recognizing that you are not a victim. Pure non-duality, as presented in the Course, is the awareness that what God created is whole, and completely perfect and so cannot have any counterpart or opposite. At this level of awareness, the truth is revealed that you, as Christ, are one with God and there cannot be anyone or anything separate from the one.

You can start practicing this true forgiveness now, even though you seem to be experiencing separation in a body, by letting the Course retrain the mind to recognize there’s really no one outside of you making you feel the way you do. Seeing with true spiritual sight means seeing everyone as innocent and everything in the world as meaningless, except to offer it to the Holy Spirit for reinterpretation. This is the keystone to the work of getting home, where you remember you’ve been dreaming and you are really safe at home with God. Peace is the result of practicing this level of forgiveness, returning your mind to heaven, where God’s Peace is always the natural condition.

Einstein understood that what we’re seeing with the body’s eyes is an optical illusion of reality. In short, the only real problem is the belief that we’ve separated from our Source and are wandering around inside a body observing a real world. The one correction is to forgive the images we’ve made up since the beginning of time, whether they are bodies, trees, or universes. Here, the cycle of birth and death ends, and your immortality is all that remains.

A Course in Miracles describes our particular dilemma in this way: “You are safe at home in God, dreaming of exile, but perfectly capable of awakening to reality.” The key that Jesus found to waking up was to choose reality instead of the dream. He thought of everyone he saw as perfectly innocent and whole, not a part of God, but one with God. Eventually the guilt that had him perceiving incorrectly and judging others as separate from him and God was undone and he was able to think of them as pure Spirit and eventually experience that reality for himself. This practice of advanced forgiveness he offers through the Course is designed to be a fast track home, to reawaken to what he is–perfect and constant love–and to our mutual inheritance.

A good forgiveness example was offered by Gary’s teachers for times when someone is pushing your buttons: “You are Christ, whole and innocent. All is forgiven and released.” See them released into the light of pure Spirit and you are also being released from guilt and separation.

Ask the the Holy Spirit to guide you through the day as the final part of the 3-step practice. It is very simple, but not always easy to follow. Every morning upon awakening, hand over your day to Holy Spirit (the Bridge between your mind and God’s) to guide you through the day. When you don’t have time to ask, trust that His Wisdom will be there to guide you.

The ego is based on the fearful belief that you separated from God, projecting itself outside God and into bodies, and holding on to the guilt of separation in the split mind at an unconscious level. Projecting this guilt on to others is the only way we can sense some relief from this condition. Unfortunately it doesn’t last. The ego will continue to try to place it’s terrible burden of guilt outside itself and so never bring healing to the split mind that created it. The only way out of this is to undo the ego by choosing true forgiveness with the Holy Spirit, overlooking the belief in separation, thereby returning your mind to God.

This is a life-long practice for most, since the unconscious guilt must be removed gently by the Holy Spirit or we would be overwhelmed. But the immediate results from practicing forgiveness–ever expanding peace and more awareness of God’s Love–are constant reminders that your mind is being healed–forever. I’ve noticed the benefits also include a feeling of taking yourself more lightly. May your feet tread softly through the dream as you become a passerby!

– Jonathan Joshua

* NOTE! EARLY REGISTRATION DISCOUNTS!!!
In order to encourage early registration, we’re offering the following discounts for those who send in payment before these 2010 dates:
register by Feb. 1: $45
register by Mar. 1: $50
register by Apr. 1: $55
register by May 1: $60
register by June 1: $65
register by July 1: $70
at the door: $75

Discounted lodging information for this event (first come, first serve) is here.

Here are more details about “The Endless Now”

Timeless, ageless beingness. Perfect unity with source. An experience of your true nature. This is how wisdom teacher and best-selling author Gary Renard describes what he calls -The Endless Now – and it’s an experience readily available to us all through the simple act of connecting with source.

Gary relates his personal story and we join him in remembering what it’s like to be pure spirit or love itself. You will learn how to break through all appearances including the false idea that we are separate from source – and consistently recognize what we truly are.

• True Meditation – rest in the perfect space of silence where you are one with your source and all is perfect exactly as it is.

• Place Holy Spirit in charge of your day and live each moment guided and directed from this pure space of wisdom, love, and compassion.

• Use forgiveness to release yourself from the false idea of separation from source and move into a consistent experience of truth and the endless now, out of which a high level of peace and skillfulness arises.

Jesus, Buddha and other Wisdom Masters walked and lived in the pure space of continuous connection with source – and reminded us that this is our natural state of being. Gary invites you to courageously unlearn the habits of the ego and experience life like the great spiritual masters – in eternal harmony and natural benefit of humanity. Gary offers a way of looking at the world that leads to the endless now and the full flowering of the human spirit.

An acclaimed teacher of A Course In Miracles, Gary underwent a powerful spiritual awakening in the early 1990s. As instructed by two ascended masters who appeared to him in the flesh, he wrote his first best-selling book, The Disappearance of the Universe, over a period of nine years. He was later guided to speak in public and has recently been described as one of the most interesting and courageous spiritual speakers in the world.

Gary has spoken in 41 states, 16 countries, and was the keynote speaker at the International A Course in Miracles Conferences in Salt Lake City and San Francisco. He is also the most recent recipient of the Infinity Foundation Spirit Award. The award is given to a person who has made a meaningful contribution to personal and spiritual growth. Past recipients include Dan Millman, Ram Dass, Gary Zukav, James Redfield and Neale Donald Walsch.

Here’s a Press Release (MSWord format) and a pdf version and a printable jpg flyer about the seminar and a pdf flyer about the seminar and a version of the flyer as 4 mini-posters.

I’m enthused to report that again, by popular request, Gary is offering a third seminar in Ashland. Please spread the word to anyone you know who enjoys Gary’s work and/or A Course In Miracles; thanks!

If you are traveling from out of the area and need lodging info please contact Ed Karlovich at 541-646-8332. Some rooms at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Ashland (adjacent to the Windsor Inn) are reserved and available at discounted rates for attendees of Gary’s seminar. Group rates are available for direct booking through July 17 by following this link. Additional information with links is here.

POTLUCK UPDATE!

Following Gary’s seminar, we have a potluck scheduled the same day at 6PM; the venue will also be the Best Western Windsor Inn (same room as the seminar, contrary to earlier messages which mentioned the Peace House.) All are invited, even if you can’t make it for the seminar.

Also, I am happy to report that we have a high probability that Gary’s wife Cindy Lora-Renard will also be present for this event. Cindy and Gary, in addition to roles that readers of Gary’s books are quite familiar with, are also both musicians and there are rumors that the seminar just might include a bit of music from them… We’ll see!

I had the pleasure of meeting Cindy (and her mother, both very wonderful folks!) in SF earlier this year when “Giddyup Mikey” (who posts the DU quote of the day on the DU Yahoo group) and I attended the ACIM conference there and saw Gary, Nouk & Tomas, Tom & Linda Carpenter, and so many more wonderful ACIM presenters and fellow students. Having BOTH Gary and Cindy with us in Ashland will be a real treat!

One more thing, don’t forget to check out Gary’s website, and his oh-so-fun podcasts with Gene Bogart. They’re free, fun and always full of forgiveness … no matter what the question!

If you want to automatically receive ACIM-related event news, updates and other non-dualistic musings, you might also want to subscribe to our email bulletin.

Bill Gladstone interviews Gary Renard:

“Twelve” author and Planet Change TV Advisor Bill Gladstone interviews Teacher, Best-Selling Author, Inspirational Seminar Leader, Gary Renard

Alan Steinfeld interviews Gary Renard:

(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 has been 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 has been 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.)

Gary Renard, part 1 – Intro to: The Disappearance of the Universe

Gary Renard part 2 – On the Nature of Forgiveness

Gary Renard, part 3 – on Death and the Ego

Gary Renard, part 4 – The Ego versus The Holy Spirit

Gary Renard, part 5 – Process of Forgiveness

Gary Renard, part 6 – We are at Cause

Gary Renard, part 7 – Upcoming book and the Future

Interviews with Gary Renard, for The Leap! movie:

Interview 1 with Gary Renard, for The Leap! movie

Interview 2 with Gary Renard, for The Leap! movie

Interview 3 with Gary Renard, for The Leap! movie

Gary Renard – Beyond The Ego

Gary Renard at Boca TV (Gene Bogart studio)

Contact With Ascended Masters – Gary Renard’s Experience

Gary Renard in the movie ‘Living Luminaries’

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 1 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 2 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 3 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 4 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 5 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 6 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 7 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 8 of 9)

Gary Renard on Coast to Coast AM – April 11, 2005 (Part 9 of 9)

The Manifest-Station videos of Gary Renard:

A collection of videos of Gary Renard on The Manifest-Station website; requires logging in via free account.

DU p 109
The peace of God is the goal of the Course because it must be attained in order to regain the awareness of your reality in the Kingdom.

YIR p 139
It’s through your own choice for the Holy Spirit and His thought system instead of the ego’s that your mind is returned to peace. That has to happen first in order for you to go home. You can’t skip your forgiveness homework. Everybody wants to skip to the end and be enlightened now, but it doesn’t work that way. If peace is the condition of the Kingdom, then the mind must be at peace in order to fit in. And in order for the mind to be at peace, you have to forgive. It’s as simple as that.

DU p 147
Without its practical method of forgiveness, the Course would be nothing but a beautiful and useless book – fuel for debate and the games of the ego. Fortunately, as J says in the Introduction to the Clarification of Terms, p 77: This is not a course in philosophical speculation, nor is it concerned with precise terminology. It is concerned only with Atonement, or the correction of perception. The means of the Atonement is forgiveness.

What is Forgiveness? ACIM W p 401
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. It does not pardon sins and make them real. It sees there was no sin. And in that view are all your sins forgiven.

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. ACIM Lesson 121 W p 214
Here is the answer to your search for peace. Here is the key to meaning in a world that seems to make no sense. Here is the way to safety in apparent dangers that appear to threaten you at every turn, and bring uncertainty to all your hopes of ever finding quietness and peace. Here are all questions answered; here the end of all uncertainty ensured at last.

Forgiveness offers everything I want. ACIM Lesson 122 W p 217
What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?

All this forgiveness offers and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rest upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack. And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more.

DU p 343
We came here to give people a spiritual message, a message that not everyone is ready for yet, and this is it: When you are ready to accept that the only thing that really matters in your illusory lifetime is the successful completion of your lessons of true forgiveness, then you will be truly wise indeed.

DU p 221
True forgiveness is the real purpose of life, but you’ve got to choose it in order to make it yours. Remember, practicing real forgiveness can’t help but lead you home.

YIR p 128
You can’t wake up from a dream as long as you’re stuck in it. Awareness of dreaming breaks the hold. And the more you forgive, the more you become aware that you’re just dreaming.

Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world. ACIM Lesson 62 W p 104
It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation.

God is the Love in which I forgive. ACIM Lesson 46 W p 73
God does not forgive because He has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself. Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness.

The words, Forgive(s), Forgiven, Forgiveness, Forgiving, and Forgivable show up in the Course a total of 842 times.

Forgive and let live.

Mike “Giddyup Mikey” Lemieux

Tomas & Nouk reveal why…
“you will never consistently experience what
you really want until the one unconscious
saboteur is revealed and released!”

Popular teachers of
A Course In Miracles,
Nouk Sanchez & Tomas Vieira

authors of Take Me To Truth: Undoing the Ego
will present an experiential 3-day workshop

“Love Without Limits:

Applying the Principles of ACIM Daily”

Friday-Sunday November 13-15, 2009 – 10AM-4PM
Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Ashland

For more information, contact us via email, or phone 541-973-3512. To register, please mail a check for $250* to Elysian Publishing, POB 1515, Eagle Point, Oregon 97524 and include your full name, email (very important since that’s how we’ll contact you primarily), phone number, address, and any other pertinent contact info or details.

* The cost will be $275 at the door, so save $25 by pre-registering today! If you register yourself and a friend/partner, $375 for two in advance or $400 at the door for two.

If you are traveling from out of the area and need lodging info please contact Ed Karlovich at 541-646-8332. A few rooms at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Ashland are reserved and available at discounted rates for attendees of the seminar.

Here is a printable flyer as 4 mini-posters and both pdf and MSWord versions of  a Press Release about this event.

If you want to automatically receive ACIM-related event news, updates and other non-dualistic musings, you might also want to subscribe to our email bulletin.

LISTEN to a sample of Nouk and Tomas!

If you wish to hear a sample of Nouk and Tomas, and have iTunes on your computer, click on “Podcasts” from the Library section, and search for “a crash course in miracles.” This will bring up a podcast whose logo is a red donut with a bite out of it. Listen to episodes 11 and/or 27 (which also have “Take Me To Truth” in the title.) They feature Nouk and Tomas and Ed & I have really enjoyed how clear and insightful they are. Or you can follow this link.

Potluck 6PM Sat. Nov 14 (2009) at Peace House in Ashland

We’re having another ACIM potluck at the Peace House in Ashland at 6PM
on Saturday,  November 14, 2009. This will be the evening of the 2nd day of Nouk & Tomas’ workshop, but it isn’t limited to those attending the workshop… Hopefully as many of you as possible will be able to attend! Here’s the address and details for Peace House in case you need them
541-482-9625

http://www.peacehouse.net

543 South Mountain Avenue – POB 524, Ashland Oregon 97520

Webmaster’s note:

Earlier this year (2009) I was fortunate to attend the Community Miracles Center conference on A Course In Miracles in San Francisco, where I had the pleasure of attending some wonderful presentations from Gary Renard, Tom & Linda Carpenter (both featured in our ACIM speaker series in Ashland earlier this year), as well as Earl Purdy, Lyn Corona, Martha Lucia Espinoza, and many others. They were all superb. The presentation that spoke to me with such depth and light-hearted humor (what a great combination!) that I felt drawn to attend their second presentation was … you guessed it! … Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Vieira. Having thoroughly enjoyed their brilliant book “Take Me To Truth: Undoing the Ego” I wanted to experience their insight first hand, and both sessions exceeded my already high expectations. It is with great joy and anticipation that I am enthused (with abundant help from colleague Ed Karlovich and a wonderful ACIM community here in the Rogue Valley – you know who you are!) to be able to present Nouk & Tomas’ first extended seminar/workshop for this part of our beloved hologram!

The authors/presenters share this about their workshop:

(The purpose of the workshop is to) “reveal why you will never consistently experience what you really want until the one unconscious saboteur is revealed and released! … Through a mix of delivery, reflection, journaling, experiential exercises, much laughter, and discussions, you will learn to recognize the extent of the ego’s role in your conscious and unconscious mind and how to initiate your release from the only barrier to consistent peace, love and happiness. If you’re done with seeking, suffering and pain, then you will find Truth at this workshop. Spend three profound days deepening your awareness of Perfect Love through Radical Self Inquiry, Quantum Forgiveness & Now Moment Presence.”

Biographical Information about Nouk Sanchez and Tomas Vieira:

Australians, Nouk and Tomas are the authors of bestseller Take Me to Truth, Undoing the Ego. Initiated by A Course in Miracles (ACIM), their seventeen-year Spiritual Awakening journey led to the almost total deconstruction of their lives and belief systems before emerging from the process together. No amount of theory or substitute can hold a candle to experience. Nouk and Tomas joined in a divine commitment in 1984. The call they heard beckoned them to discover the indestructible nature of love. The precious insights gained from their life-transforming experience are shared in both Take Me to Truth and their workshops. The result is this profoundly practical guide that clearly defines the blocks and the stages involved in Spiritual Awakening. Respected for their practical expansion of ACIM’s section on The Development of Trust, Nouk and Tomas have been invited to deliver dynamic workshops around the world. They are keynote speakers at the prestigious Omega Institute NY, the International A Course in Miracles Conference, San Francisco and The Miracles Network, London.

Their website contains much additional reference material.

Feedback from readers and participants:

Nouk and Tomas describe the challenge we all face which is the uninvestigated “me” also known as the ego. It is a false self that is plagued by intermittent fears, relationship break-ups, financial difficulties and ill health, and its mantra is “Seek And Do Not Find”. Their uniquely dynamic family experience of learning A Course in Miracles (ACIM), as a couple, and then with their daughter, is quite unprecedented, and truly an inspiration to us all. This dynamic duo’s presentation is absolutely engaging as they bring out the experiential dimension of the Course making it easily accessible and applicable to our daily lives and relationships.

“Take Me to Truth is not just a book; it’s a revelation!”

— Gary R. Renard, author of The Disappearance of the Universe

“Amidst much lightness and laughter there is a profound dedication to learning and living the Course, without one iota of compromise to its principles.”

— Rogier van Vlissingen, author of Closing the Circle

Last night (thanks to Bev and Don for hosting!) I watched “The Leap!” Movie DVD for a second time and found it even more inspiring. “The Leap!” Movie DVD presents a superb collection of interviews with folks like Gary Renard, Tom and Linda Carpenter, Lyn Corona, Peter Russell, Fred Alan Wolf,  Dan Millman, John Sherman, Joe Vitale, James Twyman, Puppetji (hilarious! and many others who have explored the surrealistic notion (corroborated by modern physics) that the Universe is a mental fabrication, with lots of great metaphors, conversation and inspiring quotes and video. I think it picks up where “What the Bleep” left off. Highly recommended!

The World Is Our Study Group:
Allowing the Personal to Guide Us Back To The Transpersonal

During last night’s ACIM/DU Study Group, I was observing the dialogue and appreciating how we all practiced, each in our “own” way, the shared intention of returning to source, to essence, to unity and wholeness. It was more than just about following a prescribed agenda; ostensibly we come together to read and talk about A Course In Miracles and related books and media (like the work of Gary Renard, Kenneth Wapnick, Brent Haskell and others). We can (and do) all do this “on our own.” I think I’m starting to catch on to what Gary’s teachers suggest as the true purpose of (any) relationship: forgiveness! I was noticing within myself, and as I “checked in” around the room, the recognition that as each “individual” shared their stories and experiences, the “others” slowly but surely added their strength, support and love to the person speaking; releasing attachment to personal agendas, trusting in the transpersonal (Holy Spirit), to validate the stories, but more importantly to acknowledge the true eternal being of what we ARE as one, expressing as “individuals.” Perhaps this is why we all seemed to resonate with the idea of silent meditation and savoring the serenity of the closing meditation that was offered again.

We’re writing this together! It appears that I’m sitting in my office at my computer, yet when I allow the truth to settle in, I realize that all of you are here within me. I can (and do!) vividly imagine each of your smiling faces as I go around the room last night and I also include those who haven’t attended for a while, or even those who are on the email list but haven’t yet made it to a single “meeting.” After all, aren’t meetings in our mind? This seems like such a perfect opportunity to demolish the illusion of specialness and separation. I just went through the list of folks on this email list, and if everyone showed up there would be 42 of us! (The meaning of life for Douglas Adams fans! The point is, we can make the best use of our seeming time together by extending that feeling of oneness throughout each day. As we “tune in” to “each other” with what might be called telepathy, we can directly access the transformative power of infinite support that is our combined wisdom, levity, and peace. I do this as often as I can remember by mentally reviewing the “smiles around the room” and remembering that, as the Michael Hedges song lyrics go, “I carry your heart … I carry it in my heart”…

I encourage the idea of “tuning in” and asking for the support of “each other” and gradually extending it to total inclusiveness. Sure, it seems easier, at first, to practice this with those that SEEM to be more “kindred souls” at the moment. Yet it also seems that taking the feeling of support and applying it to whoever and whatever is in our mind at the moment is what the Christ/Holy Spirit/pure non-dualistic thought system is all about!

Best of all, our mutual support is available 24/7 throughout space and time. When I think about having friends like all of you to share eternity with, it not only helps me to laugh gently at the folly of our bodies and their little petty dramas, but to emphasize the invigorating freedom and joyousness of our one spirit! We can use the “base metal” of our special relationships (including our particular study group and extended to include ALL) for the alchemy of seeing the gold, the Cheshire cat smiles that remain after the form no longer holds us captive. Why not bring the darkness (phantom egoic menace) of specialness (e.g. thoughts like I can only be peaceful with my “special friends”) to the light? Our attachments and aversions (the things we think we need; including ANY agendas can be lovingly placed on the altar of forgiveness which becomes an alchemical crucible for sustaining comfort and support!

In one of the first metaphysical books that inspired me in the early 1970s (Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East by Baird Spalding), there is a recitation by Jesus called “The Light.” In it, there are 6 “keywords” that apply wonderfully to the feeling that I experience when I engage in this quantum support/forgiveness practice: life, love, strength, purity, beauty and perfection. These qualities are evident in this thought system which goes way beyond a theoretical understanding. When I “imagine” the unity that we all share, I feel the reality of our oneness that cannot be threatened by anything space or time can throw at it!

Here are the words of “The Light” (from Volume 3, page 45):

THE LIGHT

As I stand alone in Your Great Silence, God my Father, in the midst of me there blazes a pure light and it fills every atom of my whole being with its great radiance. Life, Love, Strength, Purity, Beauty, Perfection, stand forth in all dominion within me. As I gaze into the very heart of this light, I see another light – liquid, soft, golden white and radiantly luminous – absorbing, mothering, and giving forth the caressing fire of the Greater Light.

Now I know that I am God and one with God’s whole Universe. I whisper to God my Father and I am undisturbed.

STILL IN THE SILENCE

Yet in this complete silence there exists God’s Greatest Activity. Again, I am undisturbed and complete silence is all about me. Now the radiance of this light spreads to God’s vast universe and everywhere I know there is God’s conscious Life. Again I say fearlessly, I am God; I am silent and unafraid.

I lift the Christ high within me and sing God’s praise. In the tones of my music inspiration hums. Louder and louder within me the Great Mother sings of new life. Louder and clearer with each new day, inspiration is lifting my conscious thought until it is attuned to God’s rhythm. Again I lift the Christ high and give close ear that I may hear the glad music. My keynote is harmony and the theme of my song is God and God seal my song as Truth.

BEHOLD I AM BORN ANEW – A CHRIST IS HERE

I am free with the great light of Your Spirit, God my Father. Your seal is placed upon my forehead. I accept.

I hold your light high, God my Father. Again I accept.

Here’s a Press Release and a printable jpg flyer about the seminar and a pdf flyer about the seminar. Please spread the word to anyone you know who enjoys Gary’s work and/or A Course In Miracles; thanks!

If you are traveling from out of the area and need lodging info please contact Ed Karlovich at 541-646-8332. Some rooms at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites – Ashland (adjacent to the Windsor Inn) are reserved and available at deeply discounted rates for attendees of Gary’s seminar. Group rates are available for direct booking through April 25 by following this link.

We have a tentative potluck scheduled in Ashland for the evening immediately following Gary’s seminar on the 25th; probably about 6PM; venue still TBA, but we have a couple of candidates… Details to follow ASAP!

Also, I am happy to report that we have some great lunch break entertainment lined up; local favorites
Laura Derocher and David Gabriel will be sharing some songs with us! They have some ACIM-inspired music to share.

Here’s more about Laura & David’s music:

Ashland residents Laura Derocher and David Gabriel are partners in life and on the stage. They credit Gary Renard’s The Disappearance of the Universe as being the “Cliff’s Notes” that helped them understand A Course in Miracles, which they study together regularly. Laura and David have performed everything from pop to jazz, cabaret, rock, gospel, musical theater and opera. You may have seen them locally at the Camelot Theater, the Avalon Bar and Grill, or in any number of concerts that they have headlined. David sings and plays drums with the Beatles cover band, The Nowhere Men. Laura leads musical theater camps, teaches voice lessons, and serves as Music Director for the Center for Spiritual Living in Medford. They are both songwriters and recording artists who aim to uplift and inspire through their music. Laura and David will offer songs in keeping with the themes of Gary’s books. They will also share examples of how you can set ACIM lessons to memorable melodies, helping you to study and recall the lessons. Get ready to sing along and have fun as the music helps to reinforce Gary’s message.

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