Sean Reagan

Miracles reawaken the awareness that the spirit, not the body, is the altar of truth. This is the recognition that leads to the healing power of the miracle (T-1.I.20:1-2).

The confusion that A Course in Miracles is given to correct is our identification with the body rather than spirit, and the various arguments and rationales that we consciously and unconsciously adopt in defense of this position.

Miracles restore to awareness our actual identity. Spirit represents what we are in truth, which cannot be contained in a body. A Course in Miracles does not deny the body or its experiences, it simply invites us to reconsider our conviction that we are the body. It recontextualizes the body away from our familiar understanding, thus allowing us to experience the self in a new way.

This principle effectively invites us to shift our focus from the physical and temporal realm of the body to the spiritual and eternal, which is the level of mind, and to remember that it is the latter level that reflects our actual identity and true nature.

The phrase “altar of truth” is used symbolically here. We are conditioned to think of altars as physical objects, sites capable of channeling divine or spiritual energy and meaning. A Course in Miracles reverses that emphasis. Love and peace are found in non-material domains; healing occurs as we allow the miracle to correct our misperception of body and spirit, and essentially realign them with the truth as God created it. In this sense, the altar is everywhere and all things. It is a way of being, rather than a place in which to be.

It is important to remember that A Course in Miracles is not advocating for conflict between body and spirit. Spirit does not change; the body does. Spirit cannot die; the body must. Perceiving a conflict between these two domains is a confusion both sponsored and egged on by ego. Our work is not fight the body or privilege the spirit; it is simply to give attention as directed by the Holy Spirit, Who is ever devoted to clarifying our perception of reality. There are lessons to learn, confusions to undo, and even problems to solve. None of that is a crisis, so long as we remember it is all given to help us remember – by teaching one another – what we are in truth.

Thus, the fundmenatal clarification – that we are not bodies and there is no world – happens in a body in the world. Again, this is not a problem! It is, rather, a solution. As the Course makes clear, everything that appears to occur to us in the world is a lesson given to help us remember our true home and self (e.g., W-pI.193.h).

Miracles are a means by which the memory of truth dawns in the mind which yet sleeps and remains unaware of what is true. Healing is the process by which the mind that believes it is a body, remembers that it cannot be a body, and thus is free to create as God creates.

Miracles make minds one in God. They depend on cooperation because the Sonship is the sum of all that God created. Miracles therefore reflect the laws of eternity, not of time (T-1.I.19:1-3).

Miracles unify all minds who yet believe they are separate and personal in God Who created all minds as one. In essence, the miracle reminds us who and what we are in truth, undoing the illusion of separation and personal interest upon which all suffering rests.

Miracles are moments of healed perception: they are moments when love, not fear, guides our understanding and interpretation of the data our bodily senses gather. The miracle’s occurrence reminds us of our connection to God and to Creation; they remind us we are not bodies.

In a sense, the miracle gently recontextualizes the body not as the center of experience but as an aspect of it, like how a starry night depends not on one star but on many altogether.

Miracles rely on cooperation, rather than competition. They rely on coordination rather than conflict. They rely on communication. The so-called Sonship, which is the collective identity of all God’s creation – all living beings are our brothers and sisters – is the site of cooperation. It is the site in which we learn to choose cooperation over conflict, in order that we might remember our shared divinity.

Miracles are evidence that we are listening to the Holy Spirit, Who is God’s Teacher, and are committed to action based in love rather than fear. It is not about the end of the body but about the body’s translation into helpfulness. Miracles are about service, not competition. In service to one another, we remember who and what we are in truth.

This principle also suggests that miracles reflect eternal, rather than temporal laws. It is the body which experiences time – time as a flow, time as a means of measuring experience, time as the cause of entropy et cetera. To the body, temporal time is reality. But to spirit, the only laws are the laws of Creation, which are the laws of love, and time is subject to them, not the other way around.

. . . you can only give. And this is love, for this alone is natural under the laws of God. In the holy instant the laws of God prevail, and only they have meaning. The laws of the world cease to hold any meaning at all (T-15.VI.5:6-9).

Love, because it transcends bodies, also transcends time. Cooperation – because it is a reflection of eternal laws – can also transcend time. Or rather, as a miracle, it can shorten time, and even render time unnecessary.

Thus, miracles occur in the context of separation. We experience miracles in these bodies in this world. A dire conflict dissolves in laughter, generations of systemic violence are healed, we wink at a crying child and they smile. The miracle always heals us here and now.

But.

The miracle heals us in this way because it is not subject either to the world’s laws nor to the ego’s interpretation of perception. It is outside of all that and, however briefly, it teaches us that what we are in truth is also outside of all that. In this way, the miracles teaches us that we are free – free to create as God creates and free to be happy in gentle and sustainable ways.

In our recognition of our freedom, we naturally lean yet further into cooperation and collaboration, extending both the frequency and the range of miracle-minded thinking. Thus, miracles are also generative of the very joy and peace that they evoke in us. They always include the other.

A miracle is a service. It is the maximal service you can render to another. It is a way of loving your neighbor as yourself. You recognize your own and your neighbor’s worth simultaneously (T-1.I.18:1-3).

Service is a form of love. It is a way of saying to our brothers and sisters that we love them, that we consider their happiness as important as our own, because it reflects our underlying shared equality, and so we are committed to bringing forth a world in which our shared happiness is paramount.

A Course in Miracles suggests that miracles – the interior transformation of fear to love which transforms our relationships with one another and the world we construct together – are a “maximal form of service” (T-1.I.18:2). This is another way of saying that there is nothing greater we can do for one another than to recognize each other as Creations of the God of Love and to respond to each other from that space.

Indeed, in that recognition and response we recognize our own self in God’s Creation.

This is not service in the sense of volunteering at a soup kitchen or tutoring aspiring GED students. Those actions are positive and if you can do them or something kin to them, by all means do. But the Course is inviting us to another kind of service, which is to become responsible for projection and to accept that the “secret to salvation” is that we are doing all of this to our self (T-27.VIII.10:1). But when we agree to try and stop, and instead do something different, we do it not only for ourselves but for all our brothers and sisters. Salvation is a collaborative, not an individual, healing process.

In A Course in Miracles, our own worth cannot be separate from that of our brothers and sisters. It is not merely that we are equal but that we are, literally, one. Accepting this oneness is the acceptance of Creation, and this acceptance brings forth a sense of unity and interconnectedness. It undoes our confused sense of self as private and personal, and restores to our mind the truth of what we are.

Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear (T-3.V.10:7-9).

When we practice forgiveness and extend love to the world, we create a shared shift in perception that creates healing that transcends the limitations of bodies and the world they bring forth.

In essence, a miracle is an expression of love and service to others that helps individuals recognize their own worth and the worth of others. To serve the other is to be committed to remembering the other as a Child of God, worthy of the same love and acceptance that we long to receive ourselves. When we serve, we teach the other their own worth, which we naturally recognize as an extension of our own.

What we give to the other, we give to our own self: this is the cornerstone of healing as A Course in Miracles frames it. Thus, our remembrance of the other as holy in Creation is also the remembrance of our own holiness. It’s not a problem that we don’t see this at first. We just have to be willing to see it eventually.

We are healed together as we remember that we are the same in Creation. The miracle is always the means by this remembrance takes form; it is the means within separation that the illusion of separate interests is undone.

Cause and effect refer to the influence X has in contributing to the production of Y. In other words, Y is partially dependent on X for its existence.

In the context of separation, we believe that external forces like weather or other people cause us to behave certain ways and feel certain things. This backwards understanding of cause-and-effect is essential for projection’s effectiveness. However, because fear cannot actually be projected – thoughts do not actually travel – the real cause is our mind’s decision to insist on separation rather than atonement, which is its refusal to recognize its own wholeness which in turn reflects its true creativity and decision-making power.

Thus, in A Course in Miracles, “cause and effect” is understood primarily in the context of the mind and its relationship to the external world. “Cause” are thoughts and beliefs held in mind, and “effect” are the experiences and perceptions that arise as a result of those thoughts and beliefs.

This is fundamental to the ACIM teaching that the outer world is a reflection of the inner world of the mind, which itself underscores that the secret to salvation is that we are doing this to ourselves. When we change our thoughts and beliefs, we naturally change their experiences and perceptions as well.

This understanding of “cause and effect” differs from the concept in physics, which is based on the principle that every action or event in the physical world has a cause, and that cause produces a specific effect. In physics, cause and effect relationships are usually described in terms of interactions between particles, forces, and energy, while in ACIM, the relationships are more about the mind and its influence on perception and experience.

The Course is not the only religious tradition which focuses on the mind’s role in shaping reality. For example, in Buddhism, the concept of karma refers to the principle that our intentional actions produce consequences or effects, either in this life or future lives.

More contemporary new age practices – kin to ACIM but not precisely identical – such as Law of Attraction also make a point of emphasizing the role the mind plays in shaping reality. No suggestion is made that those paths and traditions are more helpful or accurate with respect to reality than A Course in Miracles; rather, it is to notice the way in which the fundamental concept is not alien to human experience.

Our goal with respect to this understanding is to shift our focus on the external world as causing our experiences, and recognizing it instead as a kind of mirror which indicates our internal state.

Form and Content are related ideas which together are central to the curriculum of A Course in Miracles. Form is what the body’s eyes recognize. Form is that which we perceive, and which appears to be real.

Yet in truth, form is merely a vehicle for the content, which is always either love or a call for love. In more traditional nondualistic terms, we might say that “form” and “content” address the distinction between the appearance of things (form) and their true essence or meaning (content).

We might think of a book as an example. A lengthy book with hundreds of pages and a blue cover is not in and of itself healing – but the ideas which are reflected in its pages can be.

On this view, “form” refers to the physical or material aspects of the object – the paper, cardboard and ink that comprise the book. “Content” pertains to the underlying spiritual truth – that reality is beyond the physical world. That is the “meaning” of the book; it is the experience of understanding, or knowing, to which the book points.

In the context of ACIM, “content” typically refers to the remembrance of Love and peace (which, collectively, are healing), which are the true essence of reality and cannot actually be contained or held or possessed by form in any way. A Course in Miracles teaches that the transformation of perception reveals reality to us, and in that revelation we are saved. That is what miracles are.

Hinduism – especially Advaita Vedanta, to which the Course owes a nontrivial debt – also considers of reality and illusion along these lines. In Hinduism, “maya” refers to the illusory nature of the physical world that is experienced through our senses, which correlates to the idea of “form” in ACIM. “Brahman,” which is the ultimate reality, transcends the limitations of the physical world and is the true essence of existence, somewhat the way “content” functions in A Course in Miracles.

In both thought systems, reality is understood to be non-dual. Ultimate truth is beyond the reach of the material world.

Thus, confusing form and content is a major focus of correction in the Course. We are apt to take the form for the content, and thus miss the content altogether. Forgiveness is the means by our perception of separation – of duality – is transformed.

For example, we might see a homeless person asking for money. Responding with cash may or may not be called for – that is the level of form. But forgiveness reveals the content, which is seeing the homeless person as our equal, as our own self, and recognizing in them the same cry for love that exists in us.

When we see the content, then our response will be directed by Love because we are no longer insisting on differences. We are no longer relying on our own judgment to establish meaning and a hierarchy of values. Whatever we do will be what is most helpful in the grand plan of salvation, the scope of which is always beyond our limited faculties.