“Keep it light, so light that the pull of old, sad stories cannot keep you from playing, dancing—cannot hold you down.” –Toni Labagh
My mind is like the jukebox in a sticky, smoke-filled bar. It has been playing the same old records for years. Yesterday it kept dropping quarters in the Country & Western slot. Maybe you’ve heard some of my favorites: Poor Me, Not Again, I Really Must Be a Loser.
What a huge relief to have the lessons from the Course reminding me that those familiar oldies are false ideas. They’re simply not true.
For years, I actually believed my thoughts. I believed that something was wrong with me, that I wasn’t doing life right.
Yesterday, a couple of the old melodies started playing in my mind. Because I know every word by heart, I started to sing along. The old verses are as familiar to me as old Supremes songs—only mine aren’t always in tune.
Before the Course, I’d have probably kept those lyrics going for days. I am so grateful that now I can watch those thoughts from a distance. I know not to take those oldies seriously, not to adopt them as my identity.
What’s even better is knowing there’s another consciousness, a jubilant, gleeful, brilliant consciousness that invites me to boogie on a much better dance floor.
As this lesson (which you can access at the link) says, I don’t have to believe I’m seeing the past, the false, the old familiar jukebox standards.
I just have to offer a tiny bit of willingness. The bigger thing will take it from there.
How easy it that?
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“There comes a point when you know, without doubt, without hesitation, that you cannot go back to your old life. You cannot be who you once were and also have a new life with new riches.”— Julie McIntyre
The past sometimes comes in handy. Like when I’m ordering a pair of sneakers on Zappo’s.
Eliminates a lot of back and forth shipping if I know I wear a size 9. Or when I come to an intersection. Knowing what that red octagonal signs mean prevents a lot of unnecessary collisions.
But other than a few useful details, the past is mostly a prison. It prevents me from seeing and experiencing life as it is now.
Instead, I see my labels, my prejudices, my judgements–all constructs that block the Truth. When I continue to regurgitate my past, the glorious field of infinite potentiality (the FP) can’t get in. Nothing can ever change.
I know it might seem rather pointless to look at my thoughts and call them out as the posers they are.
But it doesn’t matter what I think of the exercises. It just matters that I do them. What’s really pointless are all the decisions and assumptions I made about what’s best for me in the past.
The Course is about letting go. It’s about giving up old mental constructs and surrendering to the all-loving, all-powerful energy force that’s bigger, bolder, brighter, and, yes, stranger than anything I’ve yet seen.
This Sacred Buzz is life itself. Life, which—no matter how many walls I erect, no matter how seriously I screw up—is always there waiting with arms open wide.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“Why get rich quick when you can be rich now?”—Alan Cohen
I got a question yesterday from a newbie to the Course in Miracles and thought I’d address it today since it relates to today’s lesson (6): I see only the past.
She said she was stymied by the idea that Sandy Hook and the Holocaust were illusions or holograms. It didn’t seem quite right to ignore the fact that people died.
And while I am no expert on the Course in Miracles (or really anything for that matter), I would like to share my take on it.
When we focus on the past, we ignore the astounding love and grace of right now. To really experience this moment (which is unique in all the world and has never happened before) can make tears roll down your cheeks. It’s that beautiful. We don’t notice because we see only the past.
So it’s not about ignoring tragedy. It’s about NOT ignoring what’s possible right in this moment. I myself don’t want to miss it.
I heard this story the other day. Two celibate monks were crossing a river at the same time as a beautiful, sexy woman. She slipped in the water so one of the monks put her on his back and carried her over. The other monk was aghast. He silently stewed about his friend’s indiscretion: “That’s against our vows. We’re not supposed to touch female flesh.” Finally, able to bear it no longer, he questioned the other monk who replied, “I set her down four hours ago. It seems you’re the only one still carrying her.”
Also want to answer a couple other questions that have popped up:
1. Who am I to pontificate about the Course in Miracles? This question, by the way, came from my own head. I don’t profess to be an expert about really much of anything. I’m a seeker and, over the years, have explored everything from rebirthing, h’oponopono and tapping to Abraham-Hicks and Byron Katie’s The Work. I love them all. I just keep coming back to The Course because well, that seems like my path. It’s not everybody’s tomato nor does it profess to be. All roads, as they say, lead to Rome. I like it because I’m a sucker for miracles and being happy.
2. Will I continue to do this the whole year? That’s a really good question that’s yet to be answered. That’s my intention and as long as it’s fun for me (again, always my bottom line), I’ll be doing it.
3. Which Course in Miracles book is the right one? There’s really only one and it comes from the Foundation for Inner Peace. It’s blue and has the workbook (which is what I go through every year), the text and a manual for teachers. It’s dense and often hard to read and understand. That I’ve stuck with it all these years surprises me as much as anyone. If you don’t feel inclined to buy the book that some have called a useful doorstop, I’ve started (as of yesterday) including a link to the lesson in each post.
That’s it for now, my beautiful, wonderful friends. There are probably other questions, but I’m off to my possibility posse. Oh wait there’s one other thing I should probably mention.
Lots of people who read my book E-Squared are focused on manifestation. And today’s lesson—I see only the past—explains those times when the new car or the new job or the new iPhone X seem stubborn about not showing up. The manifestor is stuck in the frequency of the past where, indeed there was no new car or new job or iPhone X. As Elsa sings, “Let it go. Let it go.”
In this moment, anything is possible and everything is here.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“If you need to stop an asteroid, you call Superman. If you need to solve a mystery, you call Batman. But if you need to end a war, you call Wonder Woman.”–Gail Simone
Anyone who has ever attended one of my workshops knows I LOVE Wonder Woman. I have t-shirts, action figures, even underwear.
On New Year’s Day, a group of us were talking about last year’s movie. Most of us gushed praise, raved about Gal Gadot’s unquestionable badassery. Except for one naysayer: “I thought it was too violent.”
That got me to thinking. A true changemaker would never perpetuate the “old way.” A true changemaker would see that slaying bad guys just keeps the crazy going.
We will never be truly free until we move beyond the mistaken belief that bad guys exist.
Which is sorta what Lesson Six says: I am upset because I see something that is not there.
So sure, I can work to overcome all the “evils,” the “bad guys,” the “problems.”
Or I can retrain my mind to see a different reality.
Don’t get me wrong. I still LOVE Wonder Woman. I will still take her action figure to my workshops. I will continue to stand in Wonder Woman pose.
And I will remind myself (three times today, according to my Workbook lesson) that just like movies aren’t real, all those upsets I think I see are nothing but holograms that will radically change, not by fighting them, not by poking spears into their guts, but when I train my mind to see them differently.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare and does not exist.”—A Course in Miracles
I met a woman the other day whose mother came to live with her from her homeland of China. Her mom, who can’t speak English, likes to walk around the neighborhood and because she’s friendly and always waves, neighbors often strike up a conversation. Her mom always smiles and, even though she can’t understand a word, says, “I love you. I love you. Goodbye.”
Our Source (God, to use Course in Miracles terminology) is sorta like my friend’s mother. It sees us as perfect, beautiful, amazing creations and can’t understand the crazy dialog that runs like a ticker tape through our minds. It just keeps saying, “I love you. I love you.”
Lesson 5 from the Course in Miracles is “I am never upset for the reason I think.”
It might seem like we’re upset because of something happening out there (politics, our mean bosses, a snow bomb that’s wreaking havoc with our electric grid), but it’s always, 100 percent of the time something that’s happening within us.
Life itself is never painful. It is only a mirror of our beliefs. And just like you don’t look in the mirror, notice your mascara is smudged, and then try to “fix it” on the mirror itself, you can’t really “fix” your problems out there. You “fix” your problems by recognizing them as a case of mistaken identity and then changing the inner belief, the inner cause.
So that’s why I say. Don’t get even (with that problem that appears to be out there). Get odd by going inside and knowing that, despite all appearances, your Source, like my friend’s mother, is simply saying, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“If used properly, the same mental voice that has been a source of worry, distraction and general neurosis can be the launching ground for true spiritual awakening.”—Michael Singer
If there was a loud speaker projecting the voice in my head, I would have been committed years ago. This insistent voice rarely, if ever, stops yammering.
It seems to think it’s Simon Cowell, that it’s getting paid to judge, analyze, dissect and label everything.
What a huge relief to discover that all that mental verbalizing means nothing.
Lesson 4 of the Course in Miracles says this: My thoughts do not mean anything.
For a minute or two whenever you think about it, stop and notice your thoughts (that roommate in your head, as Michael Singer calls it) and simply repeat:
“This thought that I’m running late doesn’t mean anything.”
“This thought that I need to pick up the house doesn’t mean anything.”
“This thought that it’s really cold outside doesn’t mean anything.”
Believe me, it’s extremely liberating to realize that the running commentary that dominates your consciousness is not who you really are.
Have a great day, my friends!
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side
“Enlightenment is the unlearning of the thought system that dominates the planet.”—Marianne Williamson Picture a big, muscle-bound bouncer, a Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson type. His arms are crossed and he’s got that “no way, no how” look on his face.
Anyone with a lick of sense can figure out it’d be best to come back later, to try again when Mr. Tough isn’t so diligently blocking the entry.
Our current beliefs about the world are just like that bouncer. They block all the joy, peace, meaning and other Divine goodies that the Universe so desperately wants to bestow.
Which is why the Course in Miracles is all about clearing our minds, about undoing the beliefs we think are absolute fact.
Enter Lesson 3: I do not understand anything I see (in this room, out the window, etc.)
Again, we simply take a moment or two to look around and say, “I do not understand this pillow. I do not understand this cat. I do not understand this hand.”
Remember, we don’t have to believe these lessons. We just have to do them.
And as we surrender our old certainties (the world is flat, the table is solid, what we can’t see with our physical eyes does not exist), a new kinder, more loving reality comes gushing in.
Our old beliefs are dominated by fear, separation, limitations. And because our brains are private investigators looking for proof of our beliefs, we collapse the wave (a physics term that describes plucking a single superposition from all possible superpositions) to show us the “desired” superposition that supports our beliefs.
So sure, I may think I understand this pillow, this cat, this hand. But it’s possible I don’t.
And I’m willing to surrender my feeble understanding of the world to the infinite field, acknowledging that even my most brilliant ideas and plans are nothing compared to those of my Creator.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
For more than 100 years, physicists have known that Newton’s classical view of physical reality doesn’t work at its core. The subatomic realm so defies all reason and logic that most scientists, scared to endanger their academic credentials, have more or less ignored the fact that life is nothing like what we pretend it is.
In fact, the world is so freaky—particles popping up out of nowhere, time slowing down and speeding up, particles reacting and communicating with each other even when separated by thousands of miles—that the main thing scientists have done with this information is develop technology that allows us to blow each other up, send text messages and nuke leftover black-eyed peas.
We now have inscrutable proof that the two main fundaments of physical reality— space and time—are nothing but extremely convincing optical illusions.
As Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, a physicist popularly known as Dr. Quantum, says, “It boils down to this—the universe doesn’t exist without a perceiver of that universe.”
And that’s what the Course in Miracles is all about. It advocates the idea that consciousness creates the material world. It says we humans decide in advance how we’re going to experience life, that we choose beforehand what we want to see.
The problem is, we all look at the world with a giant chip on our shoulder.
So to change the course of our lives, we must actively see and expect a different reality. Most of us, devote time and attention (our consciousness, if you will) to things we don’t want.
But it’s nothing more than a bad habit. And like any bad habit, it can be changed with conscious and deliberate effort.
Which is why I go through the Course lessons every year. Which is why I’ve made mind training my number one priority. I often compare it to housebreaking a puppy.
You just keep taking it back outside and showing it a different reality until one day, it finally realizes, Wow, there’s a whole big world out there. And it’s a lot more fun to pee on trees and bushes and fire hydrants than on Pam’s ratty old house slippers.
Your mind will be astonished by the beauty that’s available when you put it on the spot. Deep peace will appear. Great ideas will materialize and expand. Joy will rise up.
The only thing you need to do is devote your mind only to things you want. If you want peace, think of peace. If you want love, think of love. If you want Jimmy Choo pumps, think of Jimmy Choo pumps. Do not think about how peace looks impossible or that love seems fleeting or that there’s no money in your bank account for Jimmy Choo pumps. Keep your mind focused only on what you want. And anytime that puppy starts heading toward those slippers, pick it up and take it back outside.
But for today, there’s simply Lesson 2: “I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me.”
For a quick minute, you simply look around and acknowledge that you have given meaning to whatever happens to cross your view.
For example, I’m currently giving meaning to a big globe, a peace tree I recently bought from an artist in Haiti, an encaustic painting I made when writing a story for Cooking Light about art camps in Carmel.
That’s it. One simple day at a time. Just know, that you do not have to seek peace and joy and love. It is your natural state and will come pouring forth once you make space in your mind.
Have an extraordinarily epic day, my beautiful friends!
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“If I have a problem I cannot seem to walk away from, there is a belief or thought, an obstruction of flow to the Presence of Truth.”—Michele Longo-O’Donnell
Rapturous New Year, my friends!!!
When I wrote E-Cubed, I begged Hay House to print it upside down. I requested this unconventional layout to make the point that everything we know is backwards, wrong side up. To avoid confusion, Hay House allowed one upside down page.
In a nutshell, that’s the first 50 lessons of a Course in Miracles. What we have learned about the world is the exact opposite of how it really is. We’ve been taught that possibilities are finite, that life is scary, that we need to protect ourselves. The Course is designed to undo and retrain our mind.
Here’s why I’ve stuck with it year after year:
1. It requires no effort on my part. In fact, the more I give up to the F.P. (the Course uses God terminology, but, as I pointed out in E-Squared, that word has more baggage than the Chicago airport at Thanksgiving), the more effective it becomes.
2. It can be practiced anywhere. I’ve worked the Course lessons on airplanes, in an African safari tent and in a Filipino hot springs.
3. When I started following this big, fat book in earnest, my life began to change. When I asked J.C. and the Holy S. (as I like to call them) for assistance, all sorts of miracles were orchestrated on my behalf.
So let’s review. I don’t have to do anything. It’s geographically flexible. Miracles appear before my eyes.
So shall we begin:
Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.
For one measly minute, you simply look around the room, out the window, whatever happens to be in your line of sight and say: this lamp doesn’t mean anything, this TV doesn’t mean anything, this computer doesn’t mean anything.
That’s it. As the Course says, you don’t have to believe it. You don’t even have to like it. Just follow the damned instructions.
And for those who fear I will no longer share miracles from readers, here’s a fun one I found in yesterday’s inbox:
“I just finished the first experiment. My results were beyond my wildest expectations. Within 24 hours I had received a call from a new riding student. Within 72 hours I won a contest that I entered the day after starting the experiment, with a local radio station, worth over $1,000 in prizes. Within that 72 hours I also received a $25 gift card for Safeway from my office as well as a second call from another new riding student. I’m not sure I’ve ever smiled, laughed and cried that much in 72 hours.”
Have a great day, my friends!
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
“We physicians and scientists have nothing to lose by a reexamination of fundamental assumptions of our models of health: on the contrary, we face the extraordinary possibility of fashioning a system that emphasizes life instead of death, and unity and oneness instead of fragmentation, darkness and isolation. –Larry Dossey, M.D.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 132 million Americans (that’s 41 percent) will make a New Year’s resolution. A good quarter of those potentially life-changing commitments will have something to do with diet and health.
But here’s the rub—most of what we know about diet and health is incorrect. It’s a series of beliefs that we’ve all agreed upon and therefore reproduce in physical reality. These beliefs about our physicality are placeholders until we can, as Dr. Dossey suggests, fashion a new system.
Which is why I’m going to tell you three stories that not only defy our beliefs about health but actually provide clues to the only resolution you really need.
1. First story is about Amelia Boone. She’s a full-time corporate attorney and a four-time world champion obstacle racer. Sports Illustrated calls her one of the fittest women in the world. Wanna know what she eats before each race? A Kellogg’s pop-tart. Needless to say, the sugary, calorie-filled pastry is not widely regarded as health food. Except to one of the fittest women in the world.
2. The BBC did a documentary about a group of Brits who overcame all sorts of ailments and illnesses by listening to Britney Spears songs.
My point? The only thing we need to change about our health is our thoughts and our beliefs.
3. The last story is about Evy McDonald, a nurse I learned about from my songwriter friend Greg Tamblyn (listen to his song below).
In 1980, Evy was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. By the time doctors finally determined her illness, she was, to use her own words, “a bowl of jello in a wheelchair.” The doctor told her, at best, she had six months to live.
After raging about the unfairness of it all for a day or two, she had this thought: “Since I’m dying anyway, why not use the short time I have left to finally learn to love myself unconditionally?”
For years, she despised her body. She was overweight, for one thing. The polio she’d had as a child left her with two withered limbs and well, she was hard-pressed to find anything she really liked about her physical body.
But she was determined. Three times a day, she’d roll her wheelchair to the mirror and sit naked. She wouldn’t leave until she’d find new positives to add to a list. Her hair was pretty, for starters. She decided that whatever it took, she was going to learn to accept herself. She also resolved to give all negative feelings and thoughts over to the bigger thing.
At some point, she crossed some kind of miraculous threshold. She actually began to feel love and compassion for herself. She began to see her body as a miracle of creation, to see herself as a blessed being who could experience joy.
Strength began to return to her limbs. She eventually began to walk, to feed and to clothe herself. She became the first person to completely recover from ALS and thirty-seven years later, she’s still ALS-free.
So, what’s the only resolution worth having? To become completely content with yourself exactly as you are. And to know that it is ONLY your thoughts and beliefs that can ever affect you.
I know there are lots of diets and rules and cultural paradigms that you’re probably contemplating right now. But do yourself a favor. Don’t resolve to change your body. Resolve to change your mind.
You can use any disturbance in your life (health, weight, whatever you believe needs to be changed) as an opportunity to expand your horizons, as a chance to evolve to a higher level.
As the Course in Miracles clearly states, the only healing that is necessary is giving up old beliefs and changing the way you think, feel and interact with the world.
As usual, I’ll be going through the lessons of the Course in Miracles this year. I plan to blog about my 2018 journey. If you feel so inclined, I’d love to have you join in.
Thanks, my friends, for being so amazingly awesome, so extraordinarily epic. I hope to see you all next year.
Pam Grout is the author of 19 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the just-released, Art & Soul,Reloaded: A Year-Long Apprenticeship to Summon the Muses and Ignite Your Daring, Audacious, Creative Side.
My mind is like the jukebox in a sticky, smoke-filled bar. It has been playing the same old records for years. Yesterday it kept dropping quarters in the Country & Western slot. Maybe you’ve heard some of my favorites: Poor Me, Not Again, I Really Must Be a Loser.
Picture a big, muscle-bound bouncer, a Dwayne (the Rock) Johnson type. His arms are crossed and he’s got that “no way, no how” look on his face. 
