 Some basic question, I think, that concerns many of us is the idea of the center of teaching the causes forgiveness as a way of undoing the ego and the guilt and the unconscious fear and all that. And we're called to shift our perception, to join the Holy Spirit, to shift our perception so that we see it, we look through the eyes of forgiveness, so to speak, and we see the world of ego disappear and we have another vision. In your experience, how do you experience that? In other words, I've heard different views on that in terms of if it is something completely abstract like an attitude change or if there is a visual experience, you know, not a visual experience, I mean mental experience, accompanying that. Any comments you have on that? The feeling of peace is our one trigger point. I mean that's how we can know when we're in a state of non-judgment. But to really get at the real depth of what forgiveness really is, you know, I think it takes study and in a sense understanding of what forgiveness is. There's many different approaches that Jesus takes in the course to try to meet the mind at different levels. For instance, he even uses visualization exercises in the workbook, you know, where think of someone you're having difficulty with, you have thought of them by now and envision them in light and transfer the light and so forth. And I would say these are more initial kind of experiences. But beyond that, you get down to the deeper realms where basically Jesus says at one point that, you know, that there is nothing to forgive and that you forgive your brother for what he has not done. So now we've got to really get into that like, well that's an interesting idea. Forgive my brother for what he has not done, you know, but I just saw him proud of me or I just saw him, you know, he didn't pave the money back to me that he said he would or whatever. You know, I've got the behavior right here. What am I supposed to do? Get into denial and deny what my eyes have seen. And this is where the course really gets into perception. And when we talk about perception, I think probably the most helpful way to start to look at it is in the workbook where you've got these things. The course calls our real thoughts, which are way down in our mind. This is the light. And then these things that are like the attack thoughts that the mind ran away from the light and the attack thoughts are on top of that. And the world of perception is on top of the attack thoughts. In other words, the world is to keep the mind distracted from looking at these silly thoughts and seeing that the attack thoughts aren't real. So in that sense, forgiveness is being able to, in a sense, to be able to step back in your mind and be able to turn within and look at these thoughts without being horrified. Now, the mind believes that it is these thoughts. You know how identified we can be to cars and houses and bodies and body image and everything? And that's just a projection of the thoughts. Just imagine your own private world, the course calls the private thoughts, where you start to close your eyes and meditate and you hear all this chatter going on and everything. And you've got all these judgment thoughts about the lady down the street or the boss or whatever. The mind is really horrified of these thoughts. It feels at times almost like, what can I do? My mind is just filled with these thoughts. And in a sense, the ego is saying, right, you know, you're guilty. You don't want to look at these thoughts. Go get involved in some kind of addiction out there in the world. Get your life real busy so you can become so distracted in things and stuff that you won't ever have time to be quiet. That's too scary to be quiet and look at those thoughts. And the course is a process of gradually helping us to see that these thoughts aren't good. These thoughts aren't bad. They're unreal. They're nothing. But the mind is very convinced. They're more than nothing. They're me. You know, I'm a judgmental person. I'm a controlling person. You know, all these attributes that we attribute to ourselves have to do with these thoughts that are in there. So the course is a process of forgiveness is stepping back from those thoughts. Another way to approach forgiveness, which I think is just brilliant when you really look at it, is Jesus says that the mind is causative. That the mind is where is the cause of everything. And that once the mind bought this crazy puff of an idea, cause and effect were split off and turned around backwards so that once the mind falls asleep and now believes that it's a person in a world, it seems as if the cause of our state of mind is everything that's happening around us. In this world it's like, yeah, what do you do when a tornado is coming? There's danger. If there's a killer loose that's going through your neighborhood on the news, if the body seems to be ill or to be sick or to have cancer or something, what do you do? This seems to be taking away my peace of mind. This is like a real problem. I've got a sick body or something. And the body as well as the entire world are part of this screen that the ego counsels is where, that's where the problem is. So what he's saying is forgiveness in the alderman sense is the reversal of that is slowly being able to transfer these ideas and more and more situations as you go through your daily life and experience and to bring cause and effect back around so that that my mind is the cause that this is a decision that I'm making. And the world, my state of mind is an effect so that literally I can choose peace in a concentration camp and when my Toyota cars is suddenly vanished from my eyes. In any situation that peace is a choice. So the next thing is a lot of times when we get into these things like when we get into sickness or we get into things like that. Wait a minute. Now you're telling me that my state of mind is a choice, which in a way can be very empowering, because I'm not victimized in the alderman sense by these projections and by these things on the outside that I it's always a choice. But I but wait a minute. I don't know about this idea. When I'm sick, I feel even more guilty because look what I'm doing to myself, you know, and this is a common thing that comes up in a common track. And then ultimately, to really get down to sickness and to start to look at what's happening with that is that the course teaches in lesson 136 and back in the back of the book, how is he accomplished that it's a decision that the minds making and the mind feels guilty. So what it does is it projects the sickness out onto the body and then it kind of it's like calling a witness to up on the stand and saying, See, God, I'm not whole and complete and eternal and changeless. I'm this weak little frail body and I'm right about it. You know, I'm little and I'm right. And in a sense, sickness is comes about out of the fear of healing every time this this warm gentle reminder of light comes in our mind and this deceived mind is afraid of this light. It chooses a defense mechanism to kind of provide a witness that will say, You're wrong, God, I'm right. And that leads us into, in a sense, the authority problem, which the course tells us is the basic underlying problem in our mind of everything, that there's an authority issue going on in the deceived mind. It believes between itself and God. And it's that's too big of a thing to think about like me, I've got an issue with God. It's too monstrous of an idea. So the mind, literally, once again, projects it out into the world. So that now I'm a person in the world. And I don't have authority problem with God. I've got authority problem with my parents, or with a certain politician that I like or dislike or with a lawyer, or with my husband, or with my boss, there's a big one, you know, it's like it gets transferred and projected. When really the central authority issue is, was I created by God as spirit and changeless and eternal? Or can I make myself up? Can I make myself up as I go along? Can I make something that that is different than that? And everyone who seems to come to this world and believes that they're a person in the world has that authority issue only within their deceived mind going on. In reality, of course, you know, God knows his son is eternal, changeless, but within the dream within the dreaming of the world, there's an issue going on with God. And this is not a conscious issue. I mean, how many of us have come started off in all kinds of different routes to come to unity in the course. If you look back, and you look at your journey, you know, you can, you can see, like, maybe you believe this about God or maybe this and that. And then we finally come to unity in the course and we come to God is love. And there's something about that idea. God is love that just resonates, you know, yes, always known that had to be the truth. And then the course comes along and it says, Okay, now every time you get angry at someone, every time you're you make a special love or special relationship, every time you start to try to justify your thoughts with something in the world, you know, I'm angry, I got a good reason for it or whatever. This is just an expression of that authority problem that you may even come to a conscious thought that God is love. But the course is helping us really get down to changing our perceptions so that we can we can literally see the world differently. So that's kind of a synopsis of forgiveness. And all I can say is, is in my life, it has to be an experience, you know, I don't want the course to give me another theology, where I can go around and tell people, you know, this is the way it is. And we're projecting this and we're doing this and telling people things. I mean, that once again, we get back into that, that like talking about, you know, where it can become like another religion, we don't need another religion, we've got we've had enough religions, you know, and Jesus says that that that the course doesn't aim that there can never be a universal theology, there's never going to be a time on this planet where everybody has like one religion and everyone goes, Yeah, do you believe that? So do I. The ego is this fragmented thing where everybody has a perceived different self concept and different beliefs and within the perception of the world, you know, that there won't be any universal theology, but there can and must be a universal experience.