Sean Reagan

Miracles are teaching devices for demonstrating that it is as blessed to give as to receive. They simultaneously increase the strength of the giver and supply strength to the receiver (T-1.I.16:1-2).

An early and essential tenet of A Course in Miracles is the understanding that miracles represent shifts in perception from fear to love. They are not physical or supernatural events; they are not spectacles designed to affect the belief of observers. They are changes in the way we think about perception and knowledge in order to undo our mistaken belief in the so-called “reality” of separation.

The miracle always promotes a recognition that all life is interconnected because it was created by God in and as Love. Glimpses of this unity are evident even at the level of the body, when the mind is aligned with the Holy Spirit. So when the Course refers to miracles as “teaching devices for demonstrating that it is as blessed to give as to receive,” it means that miracles are literally examples of how the extension of Love benefits both the giver and the receiver because of their fundamental oneness.

This is connected to the principle that we “keep” ideas by giving them away. Sharing is the way we remember what is true. True abundance is always empty-handed as the world understands these things.

The Holy Spirit is the idea of healing. Being thought, the idea gains as it is shared . . . It is strengthened by being given away. It increases in you as you give it away to your brother (T-5.III.2:1-2, 6-7).

Miracles have to be shared; that is what miracles are. And the mind that is giving the miracle is not separate from the mind that is receiving it. We can experience this in the sense of relief that the miracle induces in us, and the peace that attends it. It feels personal but it’s not because it’s shared. The invitation is to focus on the “shared” part, rather than the “this is how it feels to me” part.

The “strength” to which the Course refers here is not physical strength – like being able to withstand physical pain or run a marathon. It is not even emotional strength – like being stoic in the face of injustice.

Rather, it refers to a spiritual and psychological resilience that is born of reliance on spiritual rather than physical principles. To attend the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of experience, rather than ego’s, naturally creates strength. In the context of ACIM, this strength reflects awareness of our true nature as extensions of God in Creation. It can’t be shaken; it grounds us no matter what occurs. The miracle allows us to remember this and to share the remembrance with our brothers and sisters. Together we support and encourage one another in learning what we are in truth.

In this way, we create peace and happiness both with and for one another – a happiness that is reliable and durable and a peace that surpasses understanding.

The memory of the Self-as-Love is an idea; the form it takes in the world will shift and change, according to the shared learning needs of both the giver and the receiver. It might be deep listening; it might be doing the dishes on the night it’s not our turn; it might be going to therapy.

The form is not the point; the form is in not even under our control. Our work is to remember what we are, which we do by giving attention to all our brothers and sisters, and loving them as we love our own self. This requires becoming responsible for projection, which is easier to say than to do. But when we practice this way, the form our learning takes will consistently reinforce our connection to God and all Creation. The form is nice – truly it is more than nice – but still. It is the underlying idea – that we have to do the work of attending only the lessons of the Holy Spirit – for which we are responsible.

As we give and receive miracles (we are called to do both), our spiritual “strength” is increased and buttressed because we are aligning our will with God’s Will, and thus refusing the ego’s narrow and bitter interpretation of what we are. Separation, and the fear that is separation’s calling card, are thereby dissolved and undone in us.

Together we remember what we are in truth, because it is together that we perceive correctly what is true: our shared interest in becoming Christ. Love holds everything; fear is incapable of any real effect at all.

The laws of the world teach us that sacrifice is real, that scarcity is the law, and that only competition can truly protect our interest in survival. A Course in Miracles gently undoes that confusion by teaching us how to cooperate in order to bring forth together the Vision of Christ, which does not perceive differences at all.

As we practice forgiveness, and as fear gives way to the Love that is our inheritance, we naturally accept the Atonement which brings to an end our meaningless sojourn through the world of separation. The world is not our home; Love – which gives and receives without qualification or condition – is.

The authority problem is related to judgment. When we judge another, it is because we believe that judging is our right and that judgment has value. This belief reflects an even deeper belief – that we are the author of self and world, that we are in charge of Creation.

This belief arises in – and because of – the context of separation. Separation produces an inevitable conflict between us and God, a mighty struggle to decide who has ultimate authority over our living and thinking. The authority problem does not deny God, it merely opposes God. Who is the boss – us or God?

The very question presumes separation.

In the world, in these bodies, we presume an authority that belongs to God, and because we are not God, we cannot help but wield that power in ways that hurt us and our brothers and sisters. Acceptance and application of this belief arises from the ego, which always seeks to maintain its existence by reinforcing separation. Ego argues that we are in control or should be. Ego argues that happiness is causes by what is external, and that it is up to us to manipulate the external in order to maximize our happiness (inevitably at the expense of others).

This belief is a distortion of truth and causes all fear and guilt, and thus all suffering.

The authority problem always leads to projection. It always doubles down on suffering. The solution to the problem is to practice justice, which always emphasizes mercy because mercy is what God offers us in Creation.

We are called to both recognize and accept that our actual identity is not separate from God or Creation, regardless of what label we place on it. This requires we no longer buy the ego’s lies about control and power, and instead surrender in order to more faithfully and accurately perceive our fundamental unity with all life, which is reality.

We cannot do this unaided. It is the Holy Spirit who teaches us how to remember the mercy of God and how to enact that in the dream of separation, in order to release all of us from pain. On that view, the “authority” is the Holy Spirit, Who speaks for God, and allows us to remember the peace that naturally arises when we no longer invest in or practice conflict.

Each day should be devoted to miracles. The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively. It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end. Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning (T-1.I.15:1-4).

In A Course in Miracles, the statement “each day should be devoted to miracles” should not be understood as necessarily advocating for disregarding clocks or calendars. Rather, it addresses our psychological relationship with time and how that relationship can be used constructively to facilitate the undoing of separation.

We might restate by saying that time exists in order to facilitate the acceptance of the Atonement for our selves. We want to use time, not be used by time.

The basic decision of the miracle-minded is not to wait on time any longer than is necessary. Time can waste as well as be wasted (T-1.V.2:1-2).

A Course in Miracles suggests that time is a teaching device and a means to an end, rather than an end in and of itself. There’s nothing wrong with using time to schedule a vacation or to ensure that we can meet for coffee tomorrow. But the ultimate function of time – the Course-based use of it – is to facilitate spiritual learning that will transform us by showing us how to accept Love and thus undo fear and its effects in our lives

Miracles are the means by which this shift in perception – from fear to love, from interpretation and perception to knowledge – occurs. When we devote each day to miracles, we are consciously choosing to use time for the the Holy Spirit’s purpose of ending the separation and restoring our minds to Love, which manifests as the joyful extension of forgiveness as our spiritual practice.

In practice, this means giving attention to the condition of our mind on a daily – on an hourly and sometimes even on a minute-by-minute – basis. We want to align our thoughts with God’s Will – we want to think the way God thinks and we want to not think as God would not think. It’s easy to say and it’s hard to do; that’s why this is a practice, not an accomplishment.

When our minds become aligned with God in this way, then they produce effects in the world that are compassionate and gentle and naturally guide all our brothers and sisters to ever-deepening experience of peace and happiness. This happens in the context of separation in order to undo – in time – separation (which includes time).

This work is thus a “constructive” use of time, because it emphasizes letting go of ego-based perceptions in favor of a more loving and coherent view of the world and our place in it, one which the Holy Spirit naturally teaches us.

As our learning advances in this domain, then our relationship with time naturally alters. Indeed, in time, the need for time as a teaching tool will be undone and disappear. In other words, when we full embrace our identity as Creations of God, creating like unto our Creator, then we will at last have transcended ego-based interpretations of time (all of which essentially boil down to the body’s journey from birth to death with a lot of suffering in-between) in favor of the timelessness of Love.

Again, this is not about taking Saturday off to watch football or go on a picnic. It is not about refusing to meet for dinner at 7 p.m. rather than 6 because time isn’t real. It’s not about pretending December 25th isn’t Christmas. All that is just the form time takes in the world. It’s only a crisis if we insist on taking it literally.

Instead, our focus is on how we are using time. What is time for? If we are using it to strengthen and nurture miracle-minded thinking, and if working miracles is our sole function in the context of time – then the form time takes will shift and we will become happier and less-stressed. We will better help and be helped by our brothers and sisters. If we choose to waste time, and be wasted by it, then we will remain in a fear-based illusion of separation.

There is – there is always – another way. Time is a limit that needs not bind us. Miracles demonstrate how this is so and thus facilitate the use of time for healing from the idea of limitations.

Miracles bear witness to truth. They are convincing because they arise from conviction. Without conviction they deteriorate into magic, which is mindless and therefore destructive; or rather, the uncreative use of mind (T-1.I.14:1-3).

The miracle represent a shift in perception, away from fear and towards Love. The miracle is an effect of allowing the Holy Spirit rather than ego to interpret the world for us. Because the Holy Spirit knows the Mind of God, its “interpretations” are the functional equivalent of Knowledge. They lead to peace, not conflict.

When we know, there is no doubt or confusion. Miracles remove the need to guess or estimate. To know is to be in relationship with truth, which does not include opposites not subject itself to this or that interpretation. What do you know?

According to A Course in Miracles, miracles are a natural expression of love and truth. They convince us of their efficacy because they arise from the Holy Spirit’s confidence in the power of love and compassion, which together point to our unity with all our brothers and sisters (broadly defined to include mosquitos, crows and drops of rain) in Creation. When we share the Holy Spirit’s conviction, which is an extension of its trust in God, then miracles occur naturally and extend this conviction into the minds of our brothers and sisters.

However, if we do not share the Holy Spirit’s conviction, and instead rely on the unstable foundation offered by ego, then miracles as such are degraded. They devolve into “magic,” which is the Course’s word for the use of thought to try and achieve results in the world without first establishing our shared reality in and with God. When we want a better parking spot or winning lottery ticket, we are asking mind to be magical rather than miraculous. And mind can do this! But shifting outcomes in the external world will not bring us joy. It will not bring us peace.

Magic is fundamentally the uncreative use of the mind (e.g., it “makes” rather than “creates”) because it relies on the ego’s ideas about separation and sacrifice, rather than on the Holy Spirit’s conviction about the power and presence of Love. Because it does not recognize our underlying equality, which is our oneness with God and Creation, this kind of thinking can and often does lead to destructive behavior that reinforces rather than undoes the separation. The appearance of violence in any form means we are not thinking with God, which means we are listening to ego rather than Holy Spirit.

And while it’s well and good to address the external violence – please do do this – the real healing, the real solution, comes from healing the mind that believes it is separate from God. And for that, we need a teacher.

Indeed, this principle is basically a cautionary note about the importance of staying close to the Holy Spirit before attempting to work miracles. Humility is essential, because it teaches us not to overly rely on our own thinking, which cannot help but bring forth confusion about and distortions of reality. We are good at self-deception! We are good at convincing ourselves that outcomes we desire represent healing rather than harming.

The Thought God holds of you is perfectly unchanged by your forgetting. It will always be exactly as it was before the time when you forgot, and will be just the same when you remember. And it is the same within the interval when you forgot (T-30.III.7:6-8).

It is a fundamental principle of A Course in Miracles that our thoughts, beliefs and convictions shape our experience of reality. When we deliberately study with the Teacher who teaches Love, forgiveness and unity – because it teaches only as an extension of the Mind of God – we naturally experience – we naturally create – miracles. This miracle-minded thinking manifests a world in which our interconnectedness is obvious and desirable, thus inspiring yet more willingness to work together to undo both the perception and the effects of separation.

In this way, miracles serve to strengthen our faith and remind us of the power of love and compassion in our lives. Inner peace and happiness are not accidents. They are effects of a decision to become responsible for salvation, by accepting the Atonement for our own selves.

Miracles are both beginnings and endings, and so they alter the temporal order. They are always affirmations of rebirth, which seem to go back but really go forward. They undo the past in the present, and thus undo the future (T-1.I.13:1-3).

The thirteenth principle of miracles in A Course in Miracles is an early introduction to the holy instant, the Course’s life-altering perspective on the nature and purpose of both time and miracles. It makes clear that miracles – which are shifts in perception that create Love where formerly there was only fear – literally alter the temporal order, undoing the effects of our mistaken belief in the past and the future.

But how do they do this? And is this an example of symbolic language or are we meant to take the idea literally? Because if we are to take it literally, then aren’t we essentially granting miracles a supernatural quality we have already expressly denied they have?

We can start answering those questions by recognizing that time is a perception of the body, much like a three-dimensional world, the invisibility of infrared and infraviolet light, and the ability to hear sounds only in a frequency range between approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz.

Just like a butterfly perceives colors that we do not, and a dog hears sounds that we cannot, it is reasonable to expect that a tick or a sunflower, say, have different experiences of time than we do.

When we realize that time is of the body, then we can ask a new question: what is time at the level of the spirit which, as the twelfth principle makes clear, is the only level of reality?

The suggestion is that the Holy Spirit may or may not be interested in giving an answer to that in terms that make sense to mind that still believes it is yoked to a body. But It will absolutely be interested in making clear that the real question is not whether time is real – to the body it will always be real, to spirit it will never be – but rather are we using time for atonement or for suffering? That is, are we accepting the ego’s use of time or the Holy Spirit’s?

The ego uses time to focus on death and nothingness, always laced with hints of hell. We were bad in the past, which means we are guilty now, which means we will suffer in the future. This is a bleak and merciless perspective and offers no hope or respite, which is the point. We hate it but we feel trapped by it because it seems so real. We fail to see it is merely a construction born of thinking with the ego instead of the Holy Spirit.

When we give attention to the Holy Spirit, It gently insists that the present is all of time there is, and that the past and the future are illusions which cannot cause anything – neither joy nor pain – except in dreams that accept what is unreal as real.

You are confused, says the Holy Spirit. But your confusion can be corrected. The question is, are we ready?

The instant in which magnitude dawns upon you is but as far away as your desire for it. As long as you desire it not and cherish littleness instead, by so much is it far from you. By so much as you want it will you bring it nearer (T-15.IV.2:2-4).

What does this mean in practice?

In application, the thirteenth miracle principle allows us to revisit past experiences and emotions in order to recognize the lessons they hold and to integrate these healing insights of the lessons into our present lives. By acknowledging and processing the past, we create the necessary conditions for healing and growth in the present, effectively releasing the future from the shackles of past limitations and traumas.

This is a temporary process. It occurs in the context of separation in order to undo separation, which is always how the Holy Spirit teaches us.

This is forgiveness as the Holy Spirit understands it, which is simply right-mindedness, or right seeing. It does not deny that we have tied ourselves into metaphysical and psychological knots by accepting the ego’s interpretation of time. Rather, It uses that illusion to undo the suffering that interpretation causes. It is literally the manifestation of the other way for which Bill Thetford cried out, effectively augmenting A Course in Miracles.

Miracles are experiences of release from suffering because they demonstrate that the cause of suffering is an interpretation which can be changed. We are doing this to ourselves and, when we are ready, we can do something different.