 And we're going through some of these Course in Miracles workbook lessons that coordinate with the day of the calendar year. So we started off on the 1st of January, 2024 with lesson number one. These are just spontaneous broadcasts. There will be times when I will be in quiet periods of prayer and meditation and there'll be times when I make to some traveling not have the best internet access and so forth. So basically they're just spontaneous when I get the nudge and I got the nudge. So today we're on lesson number 19. And the lesson is I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts. The idea for today is obviously the reason why you're seeing does not affect you alone. You will notice that at times the ideas relating related to thinking precede those related to perceiving. While at other times the order is reversed. The reason is that the order does not matter. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous for cause and effect are never separate. There's a lot in there. We recall our earlier workbook lesson my thoughts or images I have made and what Jesus is teaching us. He's really training us to realize that the thoughts that we think we think and the world that we think we perceive are actually the same. And that means ultimately that there is no inner world and outer world. That's the common experience in the human condition is that there's thoughts and then there's an external world that is apart from those thoughts and Jesus is basically showing us through the mind training here and of course miracles that the thoughts that you think you think and the world that you think you perceive are the same. My thoughts or images I have made. And then he's basically using that word simultaneous in this lesson. Here we are only in lesson 19. He's saying thinking and its results are really simultaneous for cause and effect are never separate. So yeah, we're getting introduced to these beautiful ideas that cause and effect are never separate. That in heaven, God, the Creator and Christ, the creation will say the idea of Christ, not the man Jesus or the bodies, but the idea of Christ is an idea in the mind of God and it has not left its source. So that's what Jesus meant when he said I and the Father are one. Basically, he was teaching 2000 years ago that cause and effect are never separate. Here he is now in his course, course in miracles, work with us in 19, 2000 years later and he's saying the same thing. Thinking and its results are really simultaneous for cause and effect are never separate. So how beautiful to start to open up to the experience of the unified field or unified awareness that cause and effect are together. The world has not left the mind of the thinker, so to speak. So now we realize that the projected world of the ego, the ego project of time and space and the cosmos, but it has not left the mind. And that's when you open up to seeing that you're the dreamer of the dream because if the world has not left the mind of the thinker then perhaps there's just one dreamer dreaming a world and once that dreamer is aware of itself, it's very peaceful watching the world without believing you're an actor in the world. It's easier to be the dreamer of the dream kind of like Plato's cave analogy where one of the prisoners escapes the cave, gets out and sees the light outside and sees the puppeteers that are there and all of the shadows that all the prisoners seem to be watching inside the cave are just projections from that light of the shadows of the puppets in the mind. You might think of that as just the judgments of the ego produced shadow land or shadowy figures and everything in time and space, all the specifics, the planets, the spears, the mountains, the rivers, the oceans and the people and the buildings and the cities and on and on and on, it's all a projection of the belief in separation, a projection of the ego. Once again, God did not create the world because God is spirit and God creates like God. So God creates a creation called Christ and Christ has creations, but they're all spirit. So we're kind of taking a metaphysical leap from the Bible, which had the Old Testament and all the begat, begat, begat, but this is create, create, create. God creates a spirit, Christ creates a spirit. Spirit, spirit, spirit. Extend, extend, extend. Joy, joy, joy. You know, you see where it's going is, wow, that's what's reality. So let's go into this second paragraph of today's lesson number 19. Today we are again emphasizing the fact that minds are joined. This is a rarely, this is rarely a holy welcome idea at first since it seems to carry with it an enormous sense of responsibility and may even be regarded as an invasion of privacy. Yet it is a fact that there are no private thoughts despite your initial resistance to this idea, you will yet understand that it must be true if salvation is possible at all. And salvation must be possible because it is the will of God. So let's just take a moment to process, to take it in. Yet it is a fact, the third sentence in the paragraph, yet it is a fact that there are no private thoughts. So the guidelines for our community, of course the miracles community are no private thoughts and no people pleasing. It's not that you should or shouldn't have private thoughts because Jesus is telling us here already in lesson number 19, it is a fact that there are no private thoughts. God didn't create private thoughts. All the thoughts of God are eternal and they're shared eternally. So you might say God and creating Christ shared an eternal extension, an eternal extension of spirit and then Christ is that spirit and then Christ extends that spirit as well. It has nothing to do with creation as the world talks about creation. I created this painting, I created this song, I created this baby, I created this company. I created this day, the whole new age manifesto that you create your own reality. No, no, God is spirit, spirit is reality. God is the creator of reality and only thing you can do is wake up to that by letting go of the belief in private thoughts, private minds, private bodies, private personalities, private bank accounts, private ownership, private, private, private. The beliefs that there is such a thing as private anything you can see is what the ego is because the ego is an attempt at a private thought and that private thought is separation from God. That thought is not true. And so everything the ego projects including the human race, including history, including everything of time and space is unreal because simply God didn't create it. And he said, salvation must be possible because it is the will of God. He also told us at the beginning, you know, he said, you know, there may be, it may be even regarded as an invasion of privacy because the ego is observing as we're going into this lesson. The ego is like saying, uh-oh, I don't like where this is going because the ego thinks individuality is real, private minds are real, private thoughts are real. And basically if you do this course, then the ego and its world will disappear. And this much we know is true. So let's go down to the third paragraph. The minute or so of mind searching which today's exercises require is to be undertaken with eyes closed. The idea for today is to be repeated first and then the mind should be carefully searched for the thoughts it contains at that time. As you consider each one, name it in terms of the central person or theme it contains and holding it in your mind, as you do, say this, I am not alone in experiencing the effects of this thought about person, place, thing, theme, object. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of this thought about that because you can see if I'm thinking of something that's separate from anything else, if I'm thinking of something that seems to exist on its own, apart from other things that exist on their own, if I'm thinking of anything, of the past or the future, basically I'm not in the stillness of be still and know that I'm God. So I'm not in the stillness of the Christ mind. The requirement of as much indiscriminate-ness as possible in selecting subjects for the practice periods should be quite familiar to you by now and will no longer be repeated each day, although it will occasionally be included as a reminder. Do not forget, however, that random selection of subjects for all practice periods remains essential throughout. Lack of order in this connection will ultimately make the recognition of lack of order in miracles meaningful to you. Apart from the as needed application of today's idea, at least three practice periods are required, shortening the length of time involved if necessary. Do not attempt to do more than four. So here we go through the day. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts because the thoughts that we think we think produce the motion picture that seems to be the linear time space world and cosmos. And so I'm experiencing exactly what I'm believing and thinking in. And if I believe in separation or I think the thoughts of separation that I'm going to perceive a world of fragmentation and separation, conflict, competition, so on and so forth. It's fragmented perception that is the error coming from the ego and forgiveness, joining with Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the mind and seeing the world from the forgiven, happy dream perspective, that's the solution. That's the purpose of the mind training is to accept the Atonement. So how lovely, let's look for some actual support for our idea for today. And let's go to chapter one and the Miracle Principle number 19 out of 50 that Jesus gives us. Number 19, the principle says 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. And then number 20, 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. And number 21, miracles are natural signs of forgiveness. Through miracles you accept God's forgiveness by extending it to others. How beautiful. 19, 2021, they give us a beautiful send-off to really start to see I am not really alone in experiencing the effects of my thought. I'm just experiencing the feelings that I choose to experience by the thought system that I'm holding onto. Love or fear, what's gonna be? That's the way it is. Remember, we had that beautiful teaching from the text that was supporting us. I am responsible for what I see. I choose the feelings I experienced and I decide upon the goal I would achieve and everything that seems to happen to me I ask for and receive as I have passed. There we go. No victimization in that. No possibility of anything like abuse, mistreatment. You're just opening your mind to that beautiful line in the Bible and the Course. Jesus, in the Bible, we're seeing, in the Bible it says, all things work together for those who love the Lord. And then Jesus says in the Course, all things work together for good. There is no exceptions. There are no exceptions to accept in the ego's perception, the ego's judgment. So all things work together for good and there are no exceptions. Well, he's pointing us to unified awareness. He's pointing us to, I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts. If I think only the thoughts that I think with God, I'll see only the real world or the happy dream because I'll see only light reflected in everything and everyone without exception. So that's really good. Let's jump to, I know sometimes the ego, when we go into these lessons, the ego is screaming inside going, how practical is that? The ego is screaming, oh, come on, all this talk about unified awareness and holistic perception. It's like, come on, come on, don't, you can't believe this. But Jesus is saying, believe it. Allow your unbelief to be corrected. And a practical way of looking at this, I'm not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts is let's talk about needs. That's a common experience in the human condition. I need water, I need food, I need air, I need shelter, I need protection of the body. These are all common beliefs. And the needs kind of like remind me of Maslow's, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. There's lower order needs, he said, basic needs. Then you work your way up into emotional needs, psychological needs, and then ultimately up to self-actualization. I think self-actualization in Maslow's hierarchy is kind of like the Beatles song. All you need is love. Ba-ba-ba-da, you know, that's all you really need is to realize who you are, to know thyself, as the ancient Greek said. And that experience of realization, self-realization or enlightenment or bliss is the sense of true abundance, the abundance of spirit, I am as God created me. But let's look at a section here in chapter one, the meaning of miracles. And let's go down to section six, the illusion of needs, because as you do the lesson for the day to come in towards unified awareness and towards holistic perception, the Holy Spirit's perspective on the world, very unified, the ego will probably throw up thoughts about what about, you know, you need to do this on your to-do list today, or you need to buy this, or you need to figure this out, or you need to handle needs of the body and that's actually where we start with our practicing because the mind that believes in the ego has projected its belief in lack or scarcity onto the body. So it seems like the body's lacking things, but actually the Beatles had it right. All you need is love. If you come deep enough inside toward the light, then the illusion of needs disappears but you have to be very practical in the approach and you have to let Jesus and the Holy Spirit guide you in exposing, unveiling and releasing the belief in the illusion of needs. So here we go, chapter six. You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. No learning is acquired by anyone unless he wants to learn it and believes in some way that he needs it. While lack does not exist in the creation of God, it is very apparent in what you have made. It is in fact the essential difference between them. Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in until the separation, which is the meaning of the fall. Nothing was lacking. Here it is. The fall from grace is really the belief in need because in heaven there are no needs. Everything's pure oneness and love and bliss, eternity. There were no needs at all. Needs arise only when you deprive yourself. You act according to the particular order of needs you establish. This in turn depends on your perception of what you are. So the order of needs you establish or the hierarchy of illusions we could call it is established by the ego and then it's again projected to the world. So it seems like the body has needs and countries have needs and it seems like communities have needs, cities have needs and so on and so forth. But it's all just a projection of the ego's belief in hierarchy of illusions. And then of course the first principle of miracles that Jesus has in his text is that there's no order of difficulty in miracles. And he will tell us there's no hierarchy of illusions. A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct. This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth and had thus perceived yourself as lacking. The idea of order of needs arose because having made this fundamental error you had already fragmented yourself into levels with different needs. As you integrate, you become one and your needs become one accordingly. All you need is love. Ba-ba-da-ba-da. Unified needs lead to unified action because this produces a lack of conflict. So it's just really, really, really simple. He goes on to say the idea of orders of need which follows from the original error that one can be separated from God requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. So there are no levels of perception even. It's just unified perception. That's what our lesson is for today. I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts. That's a corrected error that the tongueman brings but he's saying in this thing it requires correction at its own level before the error of perceiving levels at all can be corrected. So what this is really saying is when you're doing the lesson today and you have thoughts that come up then that's what you're applying these lessons for. When you say I am not alone in experiencing the effects of this thought about specifically something in the past or something in the future, and that's it. You're going to have specific thoughts that arise and you're not down to the, like in an aquarium and the bubbles keep bubbling through the aquarium but you haven't got to the pump that's generating the bubbles. And when you get down, like a fish swimming down to the bottom of the aquarium to the pump then even that, you can just see the bubbles coming out of the pump but you see it much closer still doesn't help you, still haven't forgiven then you actually have to go beyond the aquarium beyond the pump and follow the cord of the pump to where it's plugged into the outlet, you see. And then you unplug it with Jesus's help with the Holy Spirit, you unplug it and all the bubbles stop and the water gets very still and the fishes just go home, home. You know, that's a pretty graphic analogy but I hope you get it. So thank you, thank you for joining me today. This is a spontaneous live, as I say I won't be doing them for every lesson in the workbook but when it comes in as a nudge and prompt I'm so happy to be with you and when you're doing these lessons and thank you for joining me in this we're joined in one mind and I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts, hallelujah and amen. Okay, God bless you.