Images of Thought

Art by Oleg Shuplyak

I witnessed an experiment in a video. A woman sitting at a table was asked to hold her right arm out, resting it from elbow to hand on the surface. They erected a barrier so she couldn't see her hand and then they placed a rubber hand and arm in front of her, which she could see, with the elbow ending at her body. Then the person sitting on the other side of the table used a soft paint brush to stroke both her hand and the rubber hand. She stated she was feeling a little odd because she was beginning to experience sensation in the rubber hand. When the person moved the brush to the rubber thumb, stroking it but not hers, she jerked back because the feeling was so odd. Then the man across the table pulled out a hammer and hit the rubber hand. You can imagine how the woman reacted! This demonstrated how, in a matter of two minutes or less, a rubber hand became a human hand in the thought of this woman. This is, in essence, what we've done with everything around us. Belief becomes our reality -- and very quickly. So today I will practice moving away from beliefs and opening my thought to the reality of 4th-dimensional thought!

"Mortals evolve images of thought." "Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it with all material conceptions."

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 86:13 and 86:29:1

“It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your ‘seeing’ was made. This is the function you have given your body’s eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.” A Course in Miracles W-15.1:1-7

The Stars Called You Home

Art by Lucy Claire

Donna Ashworth wrote the following beautiful words. I share them with you this cold winter day.

“This poem was written a few days ago in honour of a friend taken tragically. The amazing Lucy Claire kindly drew a piece to accompany the words and we both hope it speaks to many of you - to help say the words within your hearts.”

THE STARS CALLED YOU HOME

By Donna Ashworth

“The stars have called you home, love. 

Up high, so far away. 

I think they missed your brilliance,

they couldn’t let you stay.

You’ve shone that light of yours, love. 

on all the lives you touched. 

We’ve known your joy for years and years,

I guess they thought ‘enough’.

They need your light up there now. 

This world grows ever dark. 

Your passion will rain down like love, 

dripped into every heart. 

The stars have called you home,

now we’ll miss you, every day. 

And every night we’ll scour the skies, 

to watch you, where you lay.

And when dark clouds are gathering, 

and air’s too cold to breathe.

The life you lived will warm our bones, 

and your star will help us see.”

“The idea for today is, of course, the reason why a meaningless world is impossible. What God did not create does not exist. And everything that does exist exists as He created it. The world you see has nothing to do with reality. It is of your own making, and it does not exist.”
A Course in Miracles W-14.1:1-5

“Human capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God’s creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 519:11-16

False Belief Engenders Fear

Photo credit; Aaron Springston

When we believe that something outside ourself is creating circumstance, we give this outside cause reality and make it and its effects our reality. This false belief engenders fear. “A meaningless world engenders fear because I think I am in competition with God." So often we act as though we're in charge and that we must tell God what we want in order for it to be done. We bargain and cajole to get our way, then get angry with God when we don’t get what we want. We blame God when anything less than our idea of good comes our way. We thank God when we get our way, perhaps in a boastful or self-satisfied way. All these actions are symptoms of the separation we feel. Allowing everything to be meaningless is similar to letting go of an addiction! Interesting symptoms show up, as could irritableness when giving up caffeine. Today I repeatedly found myself thinking less than charitable and loving thoughts toward people I barely know. While reading on social media about problems the daughter of an old friend was having, I thought to myself that she had brought them on herself. I immediately stopped and questioned my motives, uncovering the remembrance of a perceived painful period of antagonism between people I love. And then I stepped back and remembered the reasons I love and appreciate these dear old friends. Let's not be afraid of any rogue thoughts which may seem to assault us, but rather acknowledge them as symptoms of a clearing away of self to allow our Self to be demonstrated.

“History teaches that the popular and false notions about the Divine Being and character have originated in the human mind.”  

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 357:19-21

“The emptiness engendered by fear must be replaced by forgiveness. That is what the Bible means by ‘There is no death,’ and why I could demonstrate that death does not exist. I came to fulfill the law by reinterpreting it. The law itself, if properly understood, offers only protection. It is those who have not yet changed their minds who brought the ‘hell-fire’ concept into it. I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me, and to whatever extent he permits it. Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus strengthens it. Those who witness for me are expressing, through their miracles, that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.” 

A Course in Miracles T-1.IV.4:1-8

Real or Insane Thoughts?

“Black Cat With Tulips and Apple Blossoms”

Art by Maud Lewis 

Often when we’re upset, we have a desire to blame someone or, alternatively, to avoid the situation altogether. Today's ACIM Lesson #12 asks us to witness events without giving them any meaning, neither good nor bad, thereby leaving ourselves blank to see what ideas come through in place of our personal feelings. If we give no meaning to anything, if we see a meaningless world, and then become upset by this void, we may be tempted to try to figure out why this is happening. If we find this exercise upsetting, let's not act upon these feelings; instead, let's witness what happens without placing an interpretation on it. When we allow Sprit (God) to manifest through us -- which is our native state as a reflection, the image and likeness of God -- we open ourselves to the field of all possibilities. We can become a blank slate for Love to write on. Who's to know where this will lead us? To quote Rumi: "Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there".

“The objects cognized by the physical senses have not the reality of substance. They are only what mortal belief calls them. Matter, sin, and mortality lose all supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelligence. But the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by these phases of mortality.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 311:26-32

“My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning. What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.” 

A Course in Miracles W-53.1:1-5

A Meaningful World

Image by Laura Iverson

I had a sleeping dream of Utopia. There was no need to speak, as we knew each others' thoughts. We had no fear, as our thoughts were uncluttered and pure. Everywhere I looked there were happy people, busy at tasks which would benefit everyone. There was no need for television or radios, as we knew everything, and it was Good. At one point, I thought I was lost in the woods, but that was impossible because others sensed my confusion and were there immediately to lead me to a safe and beautiful home. While traveling on a road, suddenly the way was filled with huge boulders and ancient fallen trees. But to the left side there was a field filled with beautiful flowers, and a pathway leading to my destination. All needs were met before I knew of them, and there was the most wonderful sense of peace. I will hold to these beautiful feelings today, while seeing the meaningless basis of my thoughts and desires.

“Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning. What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.” 

A Course in Miracles W-53.1:2-5

“Sleep and apathy are phases of the dream that life, substance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night dream is sometimes nearer than are the thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its mundane flights quite ethereal.”

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 249:24-30

Human/Spiritual Thoughts

Photo by Gerry Toler

We are accustomed to believing that everything we think and do is important, and it can be hard to admit our thoughts mean nothing. Sometimes it is even difficult to admit we don't know or understand things in daily life, so how can we admit that our own thoughts mean nothing? For me, it's a matter of realizing that my true self isn't contained in this body, and any thoughts which are based in materialism are changeable. And so I can then admit that my thoughts (even those which seem to be pretty good ones!) are not "founded on the divine rock". With this admission, I am happy to see the beliefs of a lifetime dissipate, leaving me open to the divine ideas which are my true reality as a reflection of Love! 

"Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine." 

Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 297:24-30

“Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.” 

A Course in Miracles T-1.I.12:1-3

I See Nothing?

The Dress Controversy

“I see nothing as it is now”, ACIM Workbook Lesson #9, immediately brought to mind a topic addressed on the PBS show NOVA. It’s called Your Brain: Perception Deception — and can be found on youTube if anyone is interested in viewing it. One example given in this program is The Dress — the dress which to some seemed white and gold, while others saw a blue and black garment. Apparently, there were huge disagreements over what color this dress was. The end result of this discussion is that color occurs within the brain. The light that enters your eyes is not color; the brain interprets it. Light comes in different wave lengths, which change when they hit different surfaces. There is quite an in-depth discussion of the reasons for this, but this doesn’t hold much interest for me and I won’t bore you with my elementary interpretations. What I have gleaned from the explanation is that our perceptions are not only colored by past experiences and knowledge, but by environmental differences, too. This has strengthened my desire to hold no strong opinions which, after all, close my mind to other ideas — perhaps even the fact that the dress is blue and black!

“If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing. I can see only what is now. The choice is not whether to see the past or the present; the choice is merely whether to see or not. What I have chosen to see has cost me vision. Now I would choose again, that I may see.”
A Course in Miracles W-52.4:2-6

“The Master often refused to explain his words, because it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual Truth. He said: ‘This people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.’”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 350:15-23