Course in Miracles – Page 2

Override the programming

October 27, 2023 20 Comments

“Each of us should allow our mind energy to strengthen and expand, not keep it imprisoned within the confinement of limited beliefs.”—Betty Shine

So I’m going to tell you a story that was relayed to me. After you read it, I simply ask that you notice your reaction.

It’s about a woman who needed an extra $83 to pay a bill that was due in four days.

She wasn’t sure where the money would come from, but she knew, as I often like to say, about the power of a wealthy universal benefactor.

She put out the request for the extra moolah and felt immediately called to go to her own bookshelf and open a particular book. It fell open to page 36 where, a crisp $20 bill was lodged. Hmm, she thought.

The next day, a different book beckoned, again from her same home library. She opened it to the second chapter where another $20 bill was being used as a bookmark.

I don’t know what stopped her from immediately going through every book in her possession, but she didn’t until the next day, when a completely different book came to mind. It, too, contained a $20 bill.

The next day, same thing. Later that day, she opened her front door and there on her welcome mat were three one-dollar bills.

So notice. Does this story sound way too far-fetched? Are you scratching your head and thinking, as many admittedly do, that this Pam Grout girl is plum cuckoo?

Well, that reaction is a snapshot of your reigning belief system. We all have one. The limits of what we think are possible. We’re all programmed by our culture, our families, our religions to believe certain things can happen and others cannot. This programming is especially prevalent when it comes to money. We’re taught there’s only a couple ways to get it.

If we can’t perceive something to be possible–guess what?–our little ole’ brains will be unable to see that thing happening. Even while it’s happening all around us.

Let’s take visible light as one small example. Visible light makes up just 0.0035 of the electromagnetic spectrum. That means, even if your belief system is wide open, you still can’t see much of what’s really happening. The energy all around you is more or less invisible.

Compound that with the fact that our belief system, often centered around fear and protecting the body, blocks even more potential. What we “experience” constitutes an oh-so tiny band of frequency.

Right now, with so many fear-based stories floating around in the ether, I, for one, am recommitting to overwrite all old programming. I agree with what Maria Popova recently wrote in her blog, “If we don’t wince a little at our former ideas, ideals and beliefs, we ossify and perish.”

Fear is a low-vibrational state, maybe the lowest. And right now, none of us can afford to stay stuck in old programming. Anything is possible. Absolutely anything.

The Course in Miracles advised me just yesterday to “let no false perception keep me in its hold.”

False perception is really our only problem. Today, I commit to what the Course calls serenity, unclouded, obvious and sure. It can only happen when we override antiquated belief systems, when we allow ALL energy to flow. Peace is possible. Abundance is possible. Right now, I feel both accumulating breath.

Old programming, begone!

#222 Forever

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest book, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World)

Bursting with possibilities

August 10, 2023 15 Comments

“The things we believe carry a charge.”—Rick Rubin

Joyous 222^nd day of the year. I’m still in Spain on my ‘book tour’ and my sister is here for a week before commencing a trek on the Camino de Santiago.

Yesterday, we visited two archaeology museums, one showing the ancient Roman Theater I mentioned a couple blog posts ago and the other, the site of a Phoenician settlement from roughly 1100 B.C. Both were fabulous.

Archaeologists at the Phoenician site, because they’re only able to excavate a small section, are unable to determine a lot of important facts. Yes, they can tell the age of the pottery shards and the bones, but they can’t even begin to speculate about population size, for example. There’s simply not enough data.

Which is how I feel about any assumption or judgment I might be tempted to make. I don’t have enough data to accurately know that so and so is “wrong.” Or that such and such shouldn’t have happened.

In our human minds, we often conclude we have everything figured out, that we know exactly how things should be. But never do we have all the “facts.”

The only “fact” we can absolutely know for sure is that the Universe, the Dude is going to show up with amazing, beautiful, perfect gifts.

If—and this is key–we don’t block it with erroneous assumptions we’ve made from the tiny section of life we have so far let into our awareness.

Whenever we judge, whenever we resist, whatever we think we have figured out is never the whole picture.

All we can ever really know is that, when it comes to the Dude, peace, joy, freedom and love will always be the only items on the menu. On that, we can depend.

#222 Forever!

The only appropriate response is “wow!”

June 19, 2023 21 Comments

“We should be Grand Champion Lovers of People, and everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone should know it, see it, feel it, experience it, bask it in, and be drawn to it.”—Jen Hatmaker

A British photographer captured this murmuration of starlings. Taz, to my way of thinking, may have been involved.

I have never much liked today’s Course lesson. In fact, in my book, Course in Miracles Experiment, I labeled it an “R.S.O,’ a term that stands for Rip That Sucker Out. Bill Thetford, one of the original scribes, or maybe it was Ken Wapnik suggested (in different terms than mine, of course) that if one of the Course tenets doesn’t resonate, let it go. Don’t get bogged down with it.

But today, when I was reading it, I understood the lesson in a different way. It was talking about resistance and how, when we defend, or set out to solve “problems,” we make whatever we’re defending against real. We literally give our “enemies” or “problems” power. We make false things appear true. Our attention is that powerful.

Bottom line is they’re not real—our enemies or our problems—but by applying our mind’s superpower to their resolution we create perceptions and mental constructs that make us feel trapped. That’s the ego’s whole game.

And why my motto, “I need do nothing” is so vital. Life, without my self-created monsters, without my resistance to the wonder within each now moment is nothing short of paradise. I was telling my possibility posse last week that just walking around my yard is like going on safari, never knowing what new life form I may stumble upon. Granted it’s usually a lily, not a lion, but only a judging mind fails to see the equal beauty in all life—whatever form it might take.

Resistance and its mean girl cousins are just not that interesting to me anymore. This moment is always enough.

#222 Forever!

Living in a more expansive reality

May 15, 2023 32 Comments

“You do not ask too much from life, but far too little.”—A Course in Miracles

Miracles, as most of you know, are my jam. But the word “miracle” is actually shorthand, a convenient description for making sense of those times when life’s fathomless, ever-changing reality pops out into the patterns we’ve all constructed to make us “feel safe.”

Despite the patterned overlays, life can’t really be collapsed into a manageable framework.

So when things happen that defy our dumbed-down version of reality, we call them miracles. The dictionary defines a miracle as “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws.”

The Course in Miracles defines miracles as everyday occurrences, says they’re natural, goes so far as to claim that if they’re not happening on the daily, something has gone wrong.

Let’s take this weekend, for example, where, in America at least, we celebrated Mother’s Day. According to consensus reality (that manageable framework we construct to feel safe), I probably shouldn’t expect a gift from Taz. I mean, it’s rather difficult to deliver physical items when you’re bodiless, right?

Except if you manage to “whisper in the ear” of a former colleague of your mom’s, direct her to a 222 necklace and ask her to buy it, drive it over to Lawrence and deliver it just in time for the big holiday.

Some will roll their eyes and write this chain of events off as coincidence. But keep in mind that I have only seen this photographer once in the last 40 years. She didn’t even know where I lived.

But then, she “just happened” to see FB pictures of the dedication of Taz’s Hangout and well, the so-called “miracle” was set into motion.

After the ceremony—which was the coolest thing ever (Taz’s friends came, Big Brothers/Big Sisters made cookies and coasters and the perfect space for Bigs and Littles to hang)–I was feeling a little emotional and overwhelmed and wishing I’d told more stories about Taz. I let myself droop for a day.

And this is the real kicker. Right before Kate, the photographer, walked out my front door, she said, “You should forgive yourself!”

Say what? I mean, that’s exactly what Taz would have wanted me to do. So what if I got nervous and blew my little five-minute speech, didn’t take advantage of that opportunity to gush about my Tasmanian supernova?

So not only did Taz manage to deliver a physical gift, but she comforted me with the exact words I needed to hear.

So I’ll pass her words on to you. FORGIVE YOURSELF!

And trust that if you can loosen the reins of “safety” and drop the need to “see reality” according to conditioned patterns, miracles will drop into your life on the dippity-do-daily!

#222 Forever!

Are you dimensionally challenged?

May 11, 2023 20 Comments

“Pessimism doesn’t change the world. Seeing the bright possibility on the horizon, and declaring it real, is the act of faith that can get us there.”—Barbara Kingsolver

I have to restrain myself from starting every post with “OMG!” Blathering on about my lettuce patch and climbing purple clematis and the fox who makes his rounds in my neighborhood probably makes me sound uncool, unworldly.

But dang it! Why not find the wonder within the moment, revel in the life that’s exploding everywhere around me?

Cynicism has long been the prevailing fashion, but is it really true? Is half-full all there is to see? Or just a conditioned viewpoint we’ve spent years building up and believing in?

Today’s Course in Miracles lesson asks us to refrain from dismal thoughts and meaningless laments. It asks us to see a different world and to think a different thought from those we have thus far been practicing.

It says any thought that’s not life-affirming is a lie. Any thought that doesn’t take possibility into account is limited and untrue.

And while a lie believed might temporarily act as law, by shifting our gaze slightly to “the now,” we can neutralize and dismantle it.

Looking at life with wonder and thanksgiving is the doorway into a higher dimension, a place where another, more beautiful voice will always have the floor.

I also want to let you know that this merry, merry month marks the grand opening of Taz’s Hangout at the Douglas County Big Brothers/Big Sisters headquarters. It’s a new space where Bigs and Littles can hang. Taz’s friends and many of my friends are gathering today to officially “cut the ribbon.” BBBS is even changing the official address to 222.

So I continue to be amazed, to celebrate and to see possibilities and declare them real.

#222 Forever!

Prepare yourself for miracles today

April 17, 2023 68 Comments

“The world is an exquisite place if you can just stop for a moment.”—Chris Rush

The above headline is from yesterday’s Course in Miracles lesson. It might be my favorite lesson. But then I say that about a lot of the lessons.

Preparing for miracles is more or less my intention every day. To open my mind, to change the story I’ve long believed. As long as I limit myself to what everyone else accepts as possible, as long as I cling to what my culture tells me is statistically likely, that’s all I will ever see.

The Course says life comes with miracles a thousand times as happy and wonderful as those I could ever dream of or wish for. And that if I just surrender what I learned is possible, I will be led and guided every moment of every day.

As you know since you’ve joined this party called a blog, miracle stories drop like rain into my inbox.

I got one yesterday from a brilliant filmmaker in Moscow who was reading, E-Squared. She asked to see something that everyone knows is impossible—something that just couldn’t happen because of the snow, the cold, the….you get the picture. Yet, the very thing she asked to see (a butterfly) appeared within moments.

She said she was covered in goosebumps and wanted to cry from delight. Me thinks, that’s a reasonable plan (being covered in goosebumps) for every day.

And why not? I’ve been thinking about how we create reality. And how we don’t really start “creating” until the third act when everything on the stage of life has already been drawn up and decided upon.

But what if everything that has been drawn up, always by someone other than me, is completely wrong and only appears to be true because that’s what was created back then.

If we truly create our reality, then we need to let go of all beliefs that were automatically bestowed upon us by well-meaning parents and a culture that has historically invested in fear and scarcity.

Here’s a story that happened this weekend that I was trained to believe is preposterous, outlandish. The adjective “crazy pants” might have even occurred to a couple members of my possibility posse when I shared this with them yesterday.

But you know what? I am tired of believing in limitations and beliefs that offer so little, that preach protection and safety and you better watch out for those “other guys.” Why would I need to protect myself from life that only wants to give, that only wants to love me fiercely?

So I’d had a restless night and was sleeping in Taz’s room. The sun hadn’t yet come up. The birds were just barely starting to sing so I decided to go out and join them, to walk to where I could bear witness to the sun as it rose above the horizon.

All my clothes, of course, were in my bedroom where my partner was offering a contented lullaby of his own (read: quiet snoring). I did not want to wake him. Something told me to look in Taz’ closet. Say what?

But there, on a hanger, waiting for me to notice, was a long skirt and a jacket, perfect for my walk. I didn’t recognize the skirt as something Taz had ever worn and, believe me, I gazed on that girl’s beauty and style with great interest and love every time I saw her. The skirt was way longer than her normal size. I’m a good three inches taller than she was. The skirt was….drum beat…my size, my exact perfect size.

Needless to say, I went on a delightful walk in the outfit prepared just for me.

So yeah, it could have been Taz’s. But how much more fun to see it as a miracle that was prepared especially for me at the exact moment I needed it. And, from this point on, to know with complete surety that I don’t need to hoard things or prepare for things because what I need will always be provided by life that holds me in its ever-loving arms.

#222 Forever!

Mirror, mirror in the sky

March 18, 2023 53 Comments

“Habits create a caricature of yourself.”—Marc Maron

You’ve probably heard of mirror work—where you gaze at your reflection in the bathroom mirror and tell yourself how strong and beautiful and capable you are.

Here’s why I never do that.

That woman who looks at me from the mirror is not the real me.

Focusing on that tiny sliver of a face and a body is like worshipping a single one of my 50 trillion cells. Without the other cells, that one solitary cell is useless.

Finding meaning or identity in my physical body blocks a deeper life force that wants to move through me. It blocks real meaning, real beauty, real substance.

Most of us squander our average 75 years on planet earth believing we are the image in the mirror. We slavishly work to protect it, to keep it going at all costs, to make it look as society tells us it should look.

As the Course so plainly tells me, I am under no laws but God’s. All the strange and twisted human laws of beauty, economics, medicine and nutrition are only enforced when I cling so desperately to that caricature in the mirror.

Imagine how different our lives would be if we didn’t feel the compulsion to perpetually ensure its safety?

When we believe the image is who we are, we’re stuck and scared and unable to see the bigger glories.

We are the life force itself, stars masquerading as separated reflections in a mirror.

Instead of talking to a mirror, I like to notice myself in the night sky, in the Milky Way, in the love that flows in and throughout the entire cosmos. #222 Forever!

It’s my birthday and I’ll blog if I want to

February 17, 2023 67 Comments

“I was wise enough never to grow up.”–Margaret Mead

Just so you know, this is not a plea for birthday wishes. I already feel blessed by each and every one of you. I know (except when I occasionally get cranky) that I’m deeply loved and, if anything, I want to give birthday wishes.

Because that’s how it works. When we’re filled up with love, with the truth of who we are, it can’t help but gush over to everyone in our vicinity—even if it’s the vicinity of a blog. I write these posts for one reason. I love to write them. I do it for me.

And, yes, that’s another gravitational rule of life. When you do what you love most in all the world, it brings blessings to you AND spills on to others like an over-running cup.

When I blather on about the largesse of the world, I occasionally hear comments like “You’re out of your mind.” And I say, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!

My mind, as useful as it is, has never delivered much joy. It’s too busy keeping track of stuff, making to-do lists and filing all the reasons I should focus on the human meatball part of myself. But boy, when I get “out of my mind,” all I experience is joy and a beautiful awareness that I am so lucky to have occurred at all.

Today’s Course lesson is “There is nothing to fear.” So my third birthday wish for all of you is this: Get out of your fear-producing mind, recognize the Truth and enjoy a big honking birthday celebration on me. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

There are only two options

February 5, 2023 25 Comments

“I belong to the Church of What’s Happening Now.”—Flip Wilson

Despite its wordy reputation, A Course in Miracles is overtly simple. Boiled down, it offers two options. You either live in love or you live in fear. That’s it. Those are your only choices.

And since fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, that shrinks your choices even further. You can’t NOT live in love. You can’t NOT be love. So choice B is an illusion.

The essence of your being is love. And there’s not one thing you can do to change that. Whatever you believe you might have done has absolutely no impact on who you really are.

And those other bozos out there? How you see them can also be effortless. At all times, they’re either offering love or they’re offering a call for love. And guess what? Since now you know your true identity (big, bounteous love), it’s easy to see right through their illusion.

The Course makes no bones. It offers unspeakable happiness. And all it takes is changing our minds about the world and about who we think we are.

Suffering is only possible when we believe the evidence the ego takes to the courtroom of our minds. But when you start to realize that its wildly creative, fear-based misinterpretation of the world has changed nothing, you’re free to announce case closed. Love is all that is.

The illustration for this post (today’s Course lesson, My holiness envelops everything I see!) was created by Alberto Agraso, an incredible illustrator originally from Spain, now living in Canada. I discovered this fabulous Course artist when he sent a proposal for this year’s 222 Foundation gift.

Although we’ve chosen a different candidate, I fell in love with his work and I’ve sent it on to my editor at Hay House in the hopes they can publish an illustrated book or a card deck, making the Course even easier to grasp. I did my bit to make its profound wisdom easier to digest in my book, The Course in Miracles Experiment, but now it’s Alberto’s turn to simplify it even more.

Thank you, Alberto, for being a bright light. And thank you everyone who offered such incredible ideas for changing the consciousness of the world. As always, the announcement for this year’s gift will be made on February 22 (2/22).

#222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).

Let it be beautiful!

October 14, 2022 40 Comments

“If you allow it, your life will flow into zones of astonishment you could never invent.”–Martha Beck

Happy Friday, my wonderful cosmic tribe! I’m heading to Scotland tomorrow so I wanted to check in and tell you how grateful I am for each and every one of you. Please know your support and love keep me afloat.

I also thought I’d share a couple pictures from the dedication of the Taz Grout Memorial Library in Nepal that “just happened” to occur on her birthday, unbeknownst to HANDS In Nepal, the wonderful organization that arranged it all.

There was a tikka ceremony, kata scarves, flower necklaces, dancing and well, let’s just say it was a worthy birthday celebration. Funny how that works.

As I’ve said before, it’s pretty miraculous being the ground crew for Taz and her bigger perspective. One of the ideas she recently “led me” to is the importance of rescinding all beliefs in mind-controlled thought forms. You know, thought forms that tell us what is and isn’t beautiful, thought forms that tell us to fear, thought forms that tell us we must work really, really hard to fix problems and that, if we want to access our spiritual power, we must pray, meditate, visualize and write a bazillion affirmations.

What about the inalterable fact, Taz went on, that you are already spiritual, that you can’t NOT be? What if it’s only your gaze on the distorted illusion (those mind-controlled thought forms) that blocks the intensely alive energy field that surrounds and flows through you? And what if there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, you have to do? Except live in the awareness of the Divine frequency. And what if when you do, you can’t help but bless all life around you? Without working hard, without changing anything. But by simply being who you are and saying thank you.

So thank you, wonderful blog tribe, thank you Dude and thank you, as always, Tasman McKay Grout. #222 Forever!

Pam Grout is the author of 20 books including E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank & Grow Rich and her latest, The Course in Miracles Experiment: A Starter Kit for Rewiring Your Mind (And Therefore Your World).