ACIM Conversations, Part 21

ACIM Conversations, Part 21
The Key to Health

Student: Another teaching where there is strong disagreement is over how a Course student should handle health problems. Some think we should just get our mind right and we’ll always have good health and not need doctors, medicines or needles, and others and others think that orthodox medicine is fine and in harmony with the teachings. What are your thoughts on this?

Teacher: To understand how to put the teachings to the best use you have to understand a core approach that is used by the Course which is this. It always presents the ideal, and even though that ideal may be lifetimes beyond the reach of the average student and difficult from our view, it presents it as if it is easy to attain. For instance, have you noticed that the path to waking up is talked about like it is the easiest thing in the universe?

Student: Yes indeed. Sometimes I feel like I must be missing a lot or I would be completely awake by now.

Teacher: In fact, the Course makes is sound like it is beyond easy. Read this:

Student: “When the light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; ‘I need do nothing.’” T-18.VII.5

Teacher: So, how easy is it to do nothing?

Student: It should be a piece of cake.

Teacher: Yet many thousands have devoutly studied the course. Do you know any who have fully awakened and returned to heaven?

Student: Some may think they are awake but haven’t seen any disappear into heaven the way Jesus did. I also do not see anyone performing miracles as he did.

Teacher: What does that tell you about the presentation by the Course and the reality of attainment?

Student: It presents the ideal as if it is easy, but for us who are asleep waking up seems difficult.

Teacher: And the strange thing is that when all is said and done it is easy. Have you ever jumped out of a plane before?

Student: No.

Teacher: Imagine that you are in a situation where you have a parachute on and are all ready to jump for the first time. You are told that it will be easy. All you have to do is to jump out of the plane and pull the chord when you are part way down. How easy would it be to jump that first time?

Student: I think I’d be really frightened. Even though the mechanics are easy the fear is difficult to overcome.

Teacher: And that fear is amplified for those seeking to wake up. We have seen many parachute safely out of planes, but we can’t fine one associate who has fully awakened.

Student: Good point. So, what does this have to do with handling modern medicine?

Teacher: The point is that the Course presents the ideal before us concerning health but achieving this for the student is easier said than done. And what do you suppose the main obstacle would be?

Student: Perhaps it is the same as jumping out of a plane – fear.

Teacher: Exactly right. Read these words given to Helen:

“I am repeating here a Biblical injunction of my own, already mentioned elsewhere, that if my followers eat any deadly thing it shall not hurt them. This is what Cayce could NOT believe, because he could not see that, as a Son of God, he WAS invulnerable.” UR T 3 C 39

Here Jesus was referring to this scripture concerning believers:

“They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16:18

Now if someone offered you a drink you knew was poisoned what would prevent you from drinking it even if you were familiar with these words from Jesus?

Student: I admit that I would be afraid that my faith was not strong enough.

Teacher: And why do students not refuse modern medicine when the Course says you do not need it if you are in your right mind?

Student: I guess many are afraid they are not in their right mind.

Teacher: Correct and the Course repeatedly teaches that illness is caused by misguided thinking from the mind and has nothing to do with the body. Read this:

Student: “Only the mind is capable of error. The body can act wrongly only when it is responding to misthought. The body cannot create, and the belief that it can, a fundamental error, produces all physical symptoms. Physical illness represents a belief in magic. The whole distortion that made magic rests on the belief that there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot control.” T-2.IV.2

Teacher: The Course repeatedly refers to all healing treatments that deal directly with the body as magic. What does it say that this mistaken magic rests upon?

Student: It says it “rests on the belief that there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot control.”

Teacher: And what does that mean?

Student: It means that there is a mistaken belief that the body can create an illness or be subject to healing that is independent of mind.

Teacher: And does modern medicine have anything to do with treating the mind?

Student: No. It just treats the body with physical agents as if the body is only subject to them and not mind.

Teacher: For those who are afraid they are not centered enough in mind to heal the body the Course offers this advice:

“If you are afraid to use the mind to heal, you should not attempt to do so. The very fact that you are afraid makes your mind vulnerable to miscreation. You are therefore likely to misunderstand any healing that might occur, and because egocentricity and fear usually occur together, you may be unable to accept the real Source of the healing. Under these conditions, it is safer for you to rely temporarily on physical healing devices, because you cannot misperceive them as your own creations. As long as your sense of vulnerability persists, you should not attempt to perform miracles.” T-2.V.2

Who does it say should rely on orthodox medicine?

Student: It says those who “are afraid to use the mind to heal.”

Teacher: Yes, those who are afraid and have a “sense of vulnerability”. Can you give me an example of someone in this situation?

Student: I’d say just about everyone including myself. I got the Covid virus a while back and I’ll admit that I didn’t have enough faith to just rely on my right mind to take care of it.

Teacher: The Course almost makes fun of those who do depend on orthodox medicine. read this:

Student: “Think of the freedom in the recognition that you are not bound by all the strange and twisted laws you have set up to save you…You really think a small round pellet or some fluid pushed into your veins through a sharpened needle will ward off disease and death.” W-pI.76.3

Wow. I do not know of anyone who never takes pills or gets shots.

Teacher: And why do we rely on these remedies? Read this next passage for the answer:

Student: “If you are afraid of healing, then it cannot come through you. The only thing that is required for a healing is a lack of fear. The fearful are not healed, and cannot heal.” T-27.V.1

So, it appears that we take orthodox treatments because if we do not, we become afraid and the fearful cannot be healed.

Teacher: Now read this next one that tells us why we resist healing:

Student: “Lack of faith in the power that heals all pain arises from your wish to retain some aspects of reality for fantasy.” T-17.I.3

Teacher: A while back you mentioned that there are things you want to accomplish with your life. Just about all have aspects of life here that we are attached to and this can interfere with healing. Like I said the Course presents the ideal and the path seems simple as stated here:

“Healing is accomplished the instant the sufferer no longer sees any value in pain.” M-5.I.1

Student: Yes, it would seem easy to let go of one’s value of pain but I’ve heard it said that there are subtle values we attach to sickness.

Teacher: The Course seems to support that idea for it tells us this:

“Sickness is a decision. It is not a thing that happens to you, quite unsought, which makes you weak and brings you suffering. It is a choice you make, a plan you lay,” W-pI.136.7

Student: The choice has to be subtle indeed for I do not recall choosing to get Covid.

Teacher: We’ll end this discussion with a quote that leads us to universal healing. Read this:

Student: “Love cannot suffer, because it cannot attack. The remembrance of love therefore brings invulnerability with it.” T-10.III.3

Sounds like the Beatles were right. All you need is love.

Teacher: Love takes us to the ideal and eventually the ideal becomes the reality. The time will come that each of us will awaken to our invulnerability and let go of our fears concerning the body. Then we will have no need for the magic treatments that the dreamers think they need for the body, which is really controlled by the mind.

Links to The Mysteries of A Course in Miracles:

Read the Introduction HERE, Read Chapter One HERE. Chapter Two HERE, Chapter Three HERE, Chapter Four HERE, Chapter Five HERE Chapter Six HERE, Chapter Seven HERE, Chapter Eight HERE, Chapter Nine HERE, Chapter Ten HERE, Chapter Eleven HERE, Chapter Twelve HERE, Chapter Thirteen HERE, Chapter Fourteen HERE, Fifteen HERE, Sixteen HERE, Seventeen HERE, Eighteen HERE, Nineteen HERE, Twenty HERE, Twenty-One HERE, Twenty-Two HERE, Twenty-Three HERE, Twenty-Four HERE, Twenty-Five HERE, Twenty-Six HERE, Twenty-Seven HERE, Twenty-Eight HERE, Twenty-Nine HERE, Thirty HERE