 A lot of times, I think if we're honest, we start to realize that we have had intimacy associated with communication. Anybody who's been through relationships, friendships, family, and everything, where there feels like there's open sharing and open communicating, hey, how you doing, there's this sense of communication. We feel connected when there's communication going on and when there's no communication, there's a sense of dead space, or we could say, has anybody had the experience where somebody that you're really close to just disappears from your life, either through death or they move away, it's not so much if they move away and you're doing Skype chats and you're talking and you're emailing and this and this, you're texting each other, they're over on the other side of the planet, you're still getting text messages and everything. It seems like the intimacy continues even when the bodies are apart, as long as there's communication, but when there's no communication, hey, how so is it doing? I haven't heard from them. Well, when was the last time you heard from them? Two years ago. They haven't written or spoken to me for two years, it's as if there's a break in the intimacy, a break in the connection, and you know what that is, is that in the egoic mind, the communication is seen again between people in the horizontal realm and that can be broken pretty easily through death, moving away, or you name it. Somebody has hard feelings, feels offended, insulted or something, well, that's it, I'm not going to talk to them, some of us have heard those words again, I'm never going to speak to you again, how does it feel when a loved one says to you, I'm never going to speak to you again, you know, that's like the death of the connection, the death of the intimacy, but it's only because we've associated egoically communication with words and with the horizontal plane. And what I find with the Course in Miracles is it's saying, well, yeah, that's a problem, but it's not a real problem because God is with you wherever you go. You know, the voice for God speaks to you, guiding you, comforting you, telling you how wonderful and perfect and beautiful you are just as you are right now without even having to be different than you are. It's just so gracious and loving and the way that we get in touch with that voice, which is the voice that ultimately when we want to hear, is we have to let that voice speak to us and speak through us, we have to teach what we would learn. We have to give it away to keep it. We have to let that Holy Spirit-inspired communication come in us and through us. How does it feel when you write a love letter from the heart? Whoa, your heart is exploding with love and joy. You're just pouring it out in an email where you're communicating with somebody, you're doing a Skype chat, you're sharing on the phone. You feel the love just pouring through you and you feel completely filled up and just engulfed in love and intimacy. And when there's a sense of a block, a sense of hesitation, a sense of doubt, a sense of fear, a sense of holding back, withholding, it feels closed down, it feels contracted. It's almost like your heart is turned in the way where it starts to feel contracted instead of expansive and open. So that's why one of the workbook lessons is my happiness and my function are one. When you're in your function, when you're in your Holy Spirit-given function, you are guaranteed to be happy. And when you seek for happiness through external means, I'll be happy when my life looks this way, when I have the right partner, the right this, the right that. Whenever I get all the right pictures and the right conditions in the future sometime, I'll be happy. And then it's almost like a dream you chase that never works out. Even, I was just in Hollywood and the thing I love about Hollywood is the lessons are so apparent. In Hollywood, the rest of the world, you know, the rest of the seven billion is trying to survive. And in Hollywood, survival's, you know, not on the mind that much. There's a lot of money. There's big cars. There's big mansions. There's fame, popularity, you know, as the world would say, you know, the Marilyn Monroe factor, you know, famous husband, money being sought at, very sexually attractive. All the things that the world would say, just do these things and you'll be super happy because you have all the right things. You hit all the right buttons and then depression and suicide. Wow, does that drive home the point? Why is it the people that have the most of the things that the rest of the world is looking for are not happy? That brings home the lesson that you're not going to find it in the things of this world. We just watched The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby, that's a great movie. We actually stayed in the apartment where, what's his name? F. Scott Fitzgerald's apartment. And we were doing a gathering. They said, this is the mental piece where he died. He had a heart attack. We were on the spot. But we had just watched The Great Gatsby and Gatsby had it all, you know, in terms of the world. Massive parties, massive wealth, you know. You talk about, if you could find happiness through party making and social things, he was having these huge parties, you know. And yet, as you go on, you see there's a deep sadness in a sense of an emptiness. And it's so strong in him that he is actually using all the parties and the mansion across the bay from Daisy, his fantasy. And as long as he believes he can have his fantasy, he pours his whole energy almost like in a huge way to draw her attention. And when it doesn't work out with Daisy, you know, it's absolutely devastating. And he ends up, you know, getting shot. And so it's really great to start to see it played out on the big screen or out in Hollywood because the faster you get the lessons, like people, a lot of people I know, they don't like Lesson 128 in the course. They like a lot of the lessons in the course, but they do not like Lesson 128. In fact, I did a gathering years ago. I went to Lexington, Kentucky, and a friend of mine was in the symphony at the violinist, and I opened it up to questions. And he said, he raised his hand and he said, well, I have to say I'm not doing the workbook lessons of the Course in Miracles anymore. I said, oh, you're not. What happened? He said, well, I got to Lesson 128. And I said, well, what happened? He said, I read the lesson. I said, okay, what happened then? He said, something inside of me went, no, no. I do not agree. I object. This is not where my mind is going. This is not where my life is going. And I closed the book. That's the last lesson I did. I said, oh, 129 is such a beautiful lesson. He said, what's 129? And I said, beyond this world is a world I want. And Lesson 128 is the world I see holds nothing that I want. He shut the book on 128. He never did make it to 129. Beyond this world is a world I want. Jesus never leaves us hanging. He never takes us to a point of desperation to, you know, it's not going to work out. It's always like he's going right to the root of the ego and saying, here, let me help you all get the root of the weed out of your mind, the alien. And here's the soft place where this is all heading. He always gives us lots of pep talks. Sometimes he shakes the ego right to the roots. You feel like you're just totally devastated when you're doing the book, doing the workbook lessons. And then he comes in with this soft message to lift you up and say, you deserve so much. Your problem is you don't ask for too much. You ask for far too little. You don't believe you're worthy of divine love and you keep praying and asking for a little, just a little bit of this and I'll be happy. Just a little bit of that, I'll be happy. So it's, you know, you can see where this is going. We have to really open our minds up beyond the past, beyond the familiar, into a new way of being, a new way of looking at the world.