My understanding of the Course during my first twenty years of study was not very different from what most other students and teachers were prepared to assimilate from these teachings, given our level of trust in Spirit at the time. We all tried our best and learned (mostly intellectually) that the cause of all problems we perceived was in the mind. And we learned forgiveness was the key to healing our mind.
Most of us were also taught that only the mind was real and the body and world were unreal and irrelevant, therefore it didn’t matter whether the body/world was healed or not as a consequence of true forgiveness. I was not ready or willing back then to see the incredibly clear message Jesus teaches us in the Course—and I remained unready to see it until my own fear of God, and of my limitless power in God, had been at least partially healed.
I see now that we all interpret the Course to the level we are able to accept at the time. Its deeper meaning is revealed to us only to the extent we’ve managed to undo the ego’s fear and hierarchy of illusions. As unconscious guilt and fear are cleansed from our perceptual lens, we begin to accept and experience Jesus’ teachings at a much deeper level. The deeper holographic message of the Course is discovered and embraced to the same degree that our unseen fear of God’s Love is exhumed and surrendered.
Until recently, my own unconscious fear of God had been obscuring my ability to recognize the profound depth of this teaching. Not to mention the subsequent paradigm shift that it asks us to embrace! Had I been prematurely exposed to these deeper teachings in the first few years of studying the Course, I probably would have rejected them. Such was the depth of my own fear of God’s Love as my Holy Self.
Few if any Course teachers or students thus far have fully appreciated the magnitude of what these teachings mean for this ego world; the miraculous thought-reversal they bring changes everything. Jesus teaches nothing less than how to overcome all forms of death including physical death, and this teaching itself is the death knell to the ego’s central dream. But death cannot be overcome in all its insidious forms, until we confront our own unconscious fear of God’s Love as our Holy Self.
“Death is the central dream from which all illusions stem. Is it not madness to think of life as being born, aging, losing vitality, and dying in the end? We have asked this question before, but now we need to consider it more carefully. It is the one fixed, unchangeable belief of the world that all things in it are born only to die. This is regarded as “the way of nature,” not to be raised to question, but to be accepted as the “natural” law of life. The cyclical, the changing and unsure; the undependable and the unsteady, waxing and waning in a certain way upon a certain path,–all this is taken as the Will of God. And no one asks if a benign Creator could will this.” M-27.1.
“Who loves such a god knows not of love, because he has denied that life is real. Death has become life’s symbol.” M-27.2:5-6
“Death is the symbol of the fear of God. His Love is blotted out in the idea, which holds it from awareness like a shield held up to obscure the sun. The grimness of the symbol is enough to show it cannot coexist with God.” M-27.3:1-3
“If death is real for anything, there is no life. Death denies life. But if there is reality in life, death is denied. No compromise in this is possible. There is either a god of fear or One of Love.” M-27.4:2-6. “The Holy Spirit guides you into life eternal, but you must relinquish your investment in death, or you will not see life though it is all around you.” T-12.IV.7:6.
The fear of Love appears in many forms, yet the last remaining barrier to be overcome is our belief in an order of difficulty in miracles. This belief exists because we still value a hierarchy of illusions, with death being the most treasured of them all.
From my own experience, I recognize most of us are secretly terrified of being healed physically by the miracle. If a total and spontaneous healing were to occur, it would be a living demonstration of the glaring defect in what we accept as nature’s universal laws. Miraculous healings like those Jesus performed would overturn the ego’s entire value system. The world as we know it, and the laws we obey, would be totally overthrown if we accepted full healing of both cause and effect.
The ego’s last defense is fear of God, disguised as the fear of death. The unconscious urge for death is the ego’s most addictive compulsion. As Jesus teaches in the Course (and as I now know in my own experience), our greatest fear, even more than our fear of death, is to awaken into the living embodiment of the Christ within. If we as the Holy Self claim our power over all the ego made, it will reverse the thinking of the world entirely. In other words, our greatest fear is to accept and embody the incorruptible power of God within us.
Physical death is the ego’s plan to make sure the body dies before we awaken to our real invulnerability and power in God. For once we truly know this power, we will recognize, accept and demonstrate as living witnesses the number one Miracle Principle: “There is no order of difficulty in miracles.” One miracle is not harder or bigger to make manifest than any other. A life-threatening illness is no more difficult to heal than a common cold.
“All forms of sickness, even unto death, are physical expressions of the fear of awakening. They are attempts to reinforce sleeping out of fear of waking. This is a pathetic way of trying not to see by rendering the faculties for seeing ineffectual. “Rest in peace” is a blessing for the living, not the dead, because rest comes from waking, not from sleeping.” T-8.IX.3:2-5
“For as long as you feel guilty you are listening to the voice of the ego, which tells you that you have been treacherous to God and therefore deserve death. You will think that death comes from God and not from the ego because, by confusing yourself with the ego, you believe that you want death. And from what you want God does not save you.” T-12.VII.14:4-5.
Jesus says through claiming our holiness the power of God is made manifest, and all worldly laws are therefore reversed. This means nothing the ego projects in the world of form can threaten us, once our mind has truly been healed.
“Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind.” W-38.1:1-2
“Through your holiness the power of God is made manifest. Through your holiness the power of God is made available. And there is nothing the power of God cannot do. Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else. It is equal in its power to help anyone because it is equal in its power to save anyone.” W-38.2.
When our trust has been transferred from the ego’s dream of death to the Christ within, it is the Christ that lives out from within us. Our bodies remain here in the dream a while longer, yet through the Christ within we experience the Real World dream of Heaven instead. The ego’s obsessive belief in a hierarchy of illusions has finally been seen through and discarded.
Now we recognize everything that is not of God is simply not real. Only Love exists. The Christ within looks beyond the illusory appearances of sickness, conflict and deprivation, and focuses only on perceiving the Truth. And from this right-minded cause in our mind, perception of Truth can then allow the ego’s effects to be healed. Although these effects appear to be outside our mind, in truth they are found within our mind along with their cause.
NOTE: My bestselling book, The End of Death, is available in AUDIO BOOK, PAPERBACK & KINDLE. To download a free Chapter of the audio book and for more valuable tools and meditations, go to:
Audioversion
Thank you so much. Looking forward to our retreat even more after reading this. Looking at my CFS/ME in a different way. Had been trying to but this excerpt made it simpler for me to ‘get it’. Love Janet
So glad it helped Janet! We’ll have some fun immersing ourselves in the “experience” of this process in Ireland…can’t wait.
Love, Nouk
Thank you so much Nouk. I read your excerpt very quickly, and I am very touched. (I am in the middle of moving from one country to another). I will have to read it many more times. What I feel is that you are completely honest and that your experiences are extremely helpful. It will be up to me to be open to the Truth you share. Thank you. Ursula
Ursula, blessings on your big move to another Country – what a living ‘symbol’ of your state of consciousness? Remember that there is absolutely no hurry to grasp these teachings…it’s a gently unfolding and organic process if you want it to be…and you’ll feel it ‘ping’ within if you’re ready.
Blessings,
Nouk
Nouk,
You have articulated aspects of what I feel I have experienced perfectly, I have never read anything more accurate in describing these realisations. Not an easy read, but a truly essential one, as it encapsulates the extremities, the challenges that serious students are likely to encounter. I believe that the ACIM movement needs this kind of material as it is so important for genuine students to relate, join minds in developing the Presence of the Holy Spirit in order to help overcome the fear and terror you have so well enunciated.
One,
Ron
Ron
Ron, thanks so much for your insights and sharing. All helpful for me.
Blessings,
Nouk
Nouk,
thank you for your articulation of the truth. I heard over the weekend that the destination is the Journey and I am guessing that the journey is accepting the atonement for ourselves in the journey back to peace. Ken and I were talking today about how we seek things that are only engaging the ego in believing in something is missing. Then I read in your article from the course “You are part of Him Who is all power and glory, and are therefore as unlimited as He is.” T-8.II.7:7. AND it put a lot of today into perspective.
I look forward to your book and sharing it with many as I did with the other.
Blessings …. Satyam
Satyam,
Glad you found this helpful and confirming! Yes, we are as UNLIMITED as He is…wow! Imagine knowing this? And ‘living out from’ this state of limitlessness, right here in the dream? El Shaddai ~ God Almighty…We will come to embody what this statement teaches.
Blessings,
Nouk
Nouk,
I loved your first book and it was life changing. But how far we have seemingly come in the last three years. I can’t wait to read more. This is a word NOW for our spirit mind-for those aspects that can hear, which will enlighten numerous others to a “higher rung” on the ladder home. The symbol of what Tomas willingly presented, the Holy Spirit has now redefined and reinterpreted. We will walk in the unlimited, totally healed, totally whole, lacking nothing until the Holy Spirit’s plan for us is complete and then we shall lay the body down and enjoy the Last Step love took so long ago. You are not alone. Saviors are coming forth.
Love,
Rich
Hi Rich,
Yes…how far have we come in the last 3 years? Tomas is instrumental to these deeper transmissions; I couldn’t have depthed this level of teaching had he not fulfilled his part. Which confirms again to me that there is no adversity in the world that cannot be totally reinterpreted, when we wholeheartedly surrender it to Love (Spirit) and expect a miracle. I love what you said here…Thank you. And yes, I’m learning that I am not alone…And that saviors ARE indeed coming forth…Imagine what’s about to unfold?
Love,
Nouk
Hi Nouk, love you and your work. So happy to see this unfold.
I have been working with ‘untreatable’ chronic progressive MS for several years now. Meeting you and Tomas helped me to find The Course and change my mind about illness. I was terrified but by the practice (just finishing 2nd round of lessons) and joining with other Course students (including Julia Day) has profoundly changed my life. Now I am grateful that MS seems to have appeared to help me slow down and listen. I am gradually healing and my health is continually improving.
Love the photo of Jesus tomb. Am reading about the role Mary Magdalene played during his lifetime and am so grateful to her too.
Melanie
Hi Melanie,
So great to hear of your healing and I also heard of the incredibly helpful work you guys are doing up there at http://www.lighttree.ca
Isn’t it amazing what role gratitude plays in healing? Give my Love to Julia too…
Love,
Nouk
This was a great article here. Excellent perspective.
@melanie, I’ve struggled in very similar ways. I agree with your thoughts.
Also you can experience perfect health. Many with MS are doing fantastic
Keep discovering love it unfolds faith and your healing and peace will be revealed.
Hi Russell,
So glad you found the excerpt helpful. Thanks so much for posting!
Blessings,
Nouk
Hello Nouk!
I am moved by the depth of your understanding as revealed in your excerpt. Most Course students I’ve come into contact with interpret a much less radical manifestation of what true healing is, and therefore, means.
I have read and studied the Course quite a bit, but am also now reading Glenda Green’s book, “Love Without End – Jesus Speaks.” I haven’t finished it yet, but it is also a book claiming the historical Jesus as it’s source material. And the story surrounding her subsequent painting of His portrait, as well as what He teaches in her book, is quite remarkable.
At first I thought some of the material might be contradictory to what the Course teaches, but then I realized He was just explaining it in a different way, but also presenting explanations of things not mentioned in the Course.
Anyway, I am wondering if you are familiar with the book, and if so, what you think about it. For me it has clarified some questions I still had – at least, so far.
Thanks for your work,
Dennis B.
Hi Dennis,
Thanks so much for sharing. I haven’t read Glenda’s book. Any book or teaching that enourages us to trust implicitly in Love rather than fear, is helpful. And trust your intuition when reading…if it ‘pings’ then it usually hits the truth chord within.
Warm blessings,
Nouk
Hi, Nouk, I read that you’re on sabbatical so may not answer this for awhile. This article is amazingly comprehensive and along the lines that I’ve been exploring in the past few weeks, as I claim healing for the appearance of a physical illness. As you noted, I too used to think healing of the body was a distortion of the Course’s message. As I examined this erroneous belief, it stemmed from thinking of God as a bully that would allow the healing of my mind, but not the body. With this illness, I had to learn that God/my Self is total love, not partial love. Love would not want me to live with an unhealthy body, and I appreciate all the Course quotes you cited to support this.
I teach the non-dualistic interpretation of the Course, and know you do too, yet the body’s healing is not contradictory as I used to think. Two years ago I wanted to die and thought I was supposed to exit the body. Then a near-miss car accident almost occurred. I was angry that I still appeared to have a body, and opened the Course at random to Lesson 191, which said, “Deny your own Identity, and look on evil, sin and death, and watch despair snatch from your fingers every scrap of hope, leaving you nothing but the wish to die.” I realized I was supposed to stick around, and the death I thought was going to happen was ego death, not death of the body.
I’ve hated the body, yet this illness is teaching me that hatred in my split mind has been projected onto the body. I know I’m not meant to exit the body due to the near miss accident, so am choosing healing of the mind that projects this sick body. It has been a wonderful release of darkness and separation.
Thank you for affirming and expanding my budding awareness of miracle healings.
You and I met in East Lansing and you sent my book, Breaking Free, to your publisher. I finally self-published it and you can see it at http://www.lorricoburn.com. When you sent it to your publisher, it made me realize it was worth publishing, so thank you. I didn’t go with that publisher because he suggested watering it down for the general public, and I wanted to stick with pure non-duality.
I had contacted you on Facebook to let you know it was published, as you’d asked me to let you know, but don’t think you got the message.
Blessings,
Lorri Coburn
Hi Lorri,
Yes, I remember you and your book. Wow, what a wonderful ride you’ve been on! I am glad you got the ‘real’ message and decided to stick around and undo the only CAUSE of all suffering and death (ego). Thanks so much for sharing here. These deeper teachings are quite radical, so it’s reaffirming to hear from others who have also been guided toward them. I’m recognizing now that that the body is the last of our ‘special’ relationships to surrender and to heal. But at some point in the ego’s dream we will all need to surrender the body fully to Love rather than disease, decay and death. Looks like you’re doing it…
Warmest Blessings,
Nouk
WOW!!! Thank you so much for these long and precise explanations and quotes from the course.It is so helpful to gain such value of your experiences so the open mind can see inumerous possibilities and extend itself in and with that love.
Heartfelt regards and blessings from Vienna/Austria
Ursula
Hi Nouk! I so much appreciate your helpful sharings and the light you bring into our minds. I just recently was on an experience that enable me to see an inner and secret desire to die. This was very shocking for me, I surrendered this desire to the Holy Spirit and I have been consciously choosing life instead. I have been choosing to embrace life and enjoy it because my focus used to be more in the sprit and thus I was somehow rejecting this experience.
I also have been replacing the false thoughts for thoughts of truth, to the best of my ability.
You helped me see that this really is fear of God and awakening to the truth that is reflected in not accepting the healing in my mind and therefore in the body as well.
I’m surrendering this to the Holy Spirit and asking for help to be able to accept the Christ within.
The message I keep receiving is to love myself, to be gentle and compassionate with my self and to learn to receive from others. I feel that this includes receiving the healing and being able to release the false opinions and judgements I have about myself and others.
I have been learning that is not so important to do but to be, and to stay connected with the Love that is always surrounding me and everyone, that holds me and guides me.
I truly desire to accept this healing and to join my will with God’s Will.
I appreciate any suggestions you have and I thank you so much. Much blessings to you!
Hi Sonia,
That is a huge leap you’ve recently taken…in choosing LIFE now. Because when you do you also choose LOVE and JOY. It does require consistent vigilance in recognizing the ego in your mind and offering it up to Spirit to heal. Please do read the rest of my blog. I think you’ll find a wealth of practical help in there. And I hope you’re signed up for our Newsletters too:
http://www.undoing-the-ego.org/newsletter.html
I join with you in Spirit Sonia, asking Spirit to guide you in how to be more Loving, gentle and compassionate with yourself. The world will change as you learn to embrace this practice…
Warm Blessings,
Nouk
PS. There are a couple of very helpful DVD and CD sets of our workshops available too. You can see them here: http://www.undoing-the-ego.org/bookstore.html
Great article, I need to read it few more times to really let it sink in. I am someone who is dealing with chronic illness and I am an ACIM student for many years too and I must admit that I am having difficult time dealing with this, how the Course sees the body and illness and how I see it, what to do to really heal me, how to heal my mind so that body will follow etc. I am giving this issue over to HS and asking him daily to help me change my perception of my body and an illness. In reading your great article I also saw that deep down I do “hate” myself, I do want to punish myself with illness, I want God but I fear him at the same time, I want Jesus´help and guidance but I fear him also etc…sorry English is not my native tongue, so I hope you can understand my rambling. Anyway, I can´t wait to get your book when its out, I loved your “Take me to the Truth”, I plan to re-read it soon again. You are one of my “teachers” and I love seeing you in Hangouts with Ken.
Much blessing, Bo
Hello Bojana,
Thank you for sharing with us here. The dis-trust of God that you speak of…is very common. This deep and unconscious dis-trust of God, is the ego’s fear of our Holy Self…our fear of LOVE.
There is a powerful exercise that you can do to expose your fear of God (Love)…please read the following article here: http://undoing-the-ego.org/noukblog/?p=1
I feel that this might help you move through to TRUSTING in Love as your Holy Self…
Warm Blessings,
Nouk
Nouk,
Question. Once we overcome the laws of the ego, which includes sickness
and death of the body, would not this reversal of thought actually result in Truth
that we are not bodies and free us to “choose” to give up the illusion of a body
and return to God as spirit? Overcoming physical death as Jesus did through his resurrection
did not seem to mean that we should eternally “choose” to be embodied in form. I can see that
believing in the laws of the ego causes the effects of sickness and death of the body within the illusion of the
which must be corrected to be healed within the illusion prior to exiting the illusion back into God. I just don’t
want people to think that having a body that would never die is what they would ultimately want
To make them happy. Having a body that would never die and willingly “choosing” to give it up is what I think
Jesus was demonstrating.
Jeff, yes. This is a point I make throughout The End of Death, but perhaps I need to include it (again) in this section while it’s published as a separate piece. We use the body to overcome the ego’s laws; to prove that the healed Mind is more powerful than the body. This is how we learn that we are literally under no laws but God’s. And then, when the body’s usefulness is over, we simply lay it aside; but not through the ego’s pain, sickness or aging. I agree, Jesus demonstrated that the body, once turned completely over to Spirit’s purpose, becomes an exceedingly convincing symbol that there is nothing more powerful than a healed Mind. The body becomes its mirror and that is all.
Once the job is done, there would be no need to be imprisoned by the body any longer…who would want it?
Thanks for your comment!
😉 Nouk
Thanks for clarifying so well. Hope to meet you soon.
Wow. Something new to ponder. Student of The Course for about 12years. Agree with your logic and interpretation. Can’t really be argued with if we read and listen to the voice. Looking forward to your book. This truly does open up a deeper “level”. Thank you for this insight.
Wonderful Ed, it’s not my logic…it’s Jesus’. Once our own fear subsides and trust is transferred from the ego over to Holy Spirit within, we’re free to finally recognize and embrace Jesus’ logic. It becomes exceedingly clear and joyful! 🙂
I still think a lot of people are not happy with the idea of physical miracles. I often get a lot of pushback when talking about raising the dead or Jesus walking on water or whatever. Part of it is to do with fear and part of it is misunderstanding what the Course is getting at.
Yes Paul, I agree.
Your insights into deeper truth of AVIM as presented by Jesus resonate with my experiences. I found two of your books on Audible and now they are in my library. End of Death, and Miracle of Trust. Audible does not yet have your A Manual for Holy Relationship on their list of avaible titles. Are you planning to make that s ails Le through Audible also?
I liked hearing your voice in the audio clip here. I hope you did the vocals on the Audible books as well.
We are one. We are sojourners on the way Home.
NancyGreenheart
Hi Nancy, I’m so glad you resonate with the deeper teachings of ACIM. I did narrate the audiobooks that you ordered. I am presently narrating A MANUAL FOR HOLY RELATIONSHIP although because it’s a 750+ page book it’s taking twice as long to record and professionally edit. I’m hoping it will be available by the end of 2023. Thank you for taking the time to comment, really appreciate it. Blessings, Nouk 💙