 So, you can see where this is good news because as you give your mind over to miracles, things just work out. Not based on your past learning, as Jerry was saying, and the prayer to open up, but based on trust and this divinity inside you that's guiding the way. And that's the fun part of it. Things just work out. You just feel so good for no earthly reason. You can't even come up with a good reason to feel this good. And this is good too because the ego had its own plan where, oh, feel good when you get the promotion or feel good when, you know, you find your soulmate or feel good when you get to that perfect job or that perfect whatever is kind of holding out and dangling its carrot, you know, saying you'll be happy when, oh, there you go, you got that. And then you notice in your mind's not content. It's always, you know, the old Peggy Lee song, you know, you're always looking out to see what's the next thing, what's the next project, what's the next conquest, what's the next achievement, you know, the ego's loves when the mind keeps searching and not finding. And the ego's in there saying, you've had it, you're just not very good at this. But the beautiful thing is you can learn vicariously from those that, you know, you don't have to go through the school of hard knocks in the physical realm. You can, I was talking about Marilyn Monroe the other night, you know, fame, sex appeal, money, you know, status at the President of the United States lusting after her. And all these things of the world would go, ooh, and yet, you know, very depressed and very suicidal. It's like, that's just a good extreme example about how when you follow the ego's fool's goal, bigger, better, faster, more, keep up the Joneses and then get as much as you can and grab for all you can and go for the gusto, you go down those roads and then they're empty roads. I mean, you know, you get there and it's a dead end. And it's nice that we've had a lot of symbols that seemingly in history that we've been able to see that they really got what the ego said in planning. I mean, they, you know, Marilyn Monroe was married to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller. I mean, you know, even not only her, but famous husbands on top of everything else, still suicidal, still depressed. So that was, that helped me in my journey. I was glad to read books and look at, watch movies and meet people and really talk to them. Are you happy? Are you really happy? And a lot of them had seemed to attain things and really had done very well according to the world for the ego's plan and they weren't happy. And I thought, well, this is for me. This is a good, a good lesson for me. I'm not, instead of trying to put all my energy into trying to achieve and accumulate and build all these things, I'm going in the other direction. The ego didn't like that, you know, the ego's fool and you're wasting your time and you're going to be like a bum, a big lady. And initially, those were some of the reflections I got. As I'm praying and meditating and doing all this inner work, you know, I'm calling forthwitnesses, even initially my parents, biological father, no good, lazy, dirty, rotten bum, get a job. Meditation doesn't really show up very well on your resume. Like, hey, I've been meditating for eight hours. No good, lazy, dirty, dirty. It's not showing up in the debit credit column here. So it takes a lot of faith, you know, to keep up with your inner lessons and your prayers and your meditations because initially, it's not really the people. It's like they're just reflecting your own doubt thoughts about, am I doing the right thing or am I wasting my life and am I going to end up in a gutter somewhere because I didn't put enough prudent care into these things, you know. So what I started to do was I started to have miracles and I started to show me that my inner quest was very worth it. And I was in college for 10 years and I spent, I mean, I got good grades and did all the projects and got the degrees. But I actually spent more time in the philosophy, psychology, religion section of the library asking some deeper questions like what's the point of all this in the first place and tracing it in, like why am I doing all these projects and all these committees and grades and everything like this. It came down to I thought, well, I want love. And I said, okay, I want love and so, so I want a relationship. Okay, so I went to love, I want a relationship and I thought if I date women and they say, you know, what have you got to offer? Do you have some status, some prestige, you have some money in your bank account and everything and I go, nothing. I have nothing. I said, it's not gonna be very good. In fact, I was recently joking about it. I was doing a little skit with David goes on the dating game. I was like, bachelor number three. Bachelor number three, what do you find attractive in a woman? Nothing? Okay, bachelor number two. Bachelor number three, what skills and worldly skills and abilities do you have to offer? Nothing. Bachelor number two, funny, bachelor number three, just get off the stage. You can get away from that. I have two more questions on here. What happens is you get into this divinity and you become intoxicated with the miracle and you just want to let it pour through you. But the need to create, to get things, to accumulate things, to build and say, this is me, to carve out a niche in the world and say, this is my image and it's a good image. And I'm gonna polish it like a diamond and everything, very important stuff if you're on a date. How do you make a good person pressure you to take a look at this stuff? So I had to really go into this and start to say, I guess what I really want was, I want love and peace and freedom and happiness, but I've been looking for love in all the wrong places. I've been looking for freedom in all the wrong places and peace, some of us think we just lived in a particular place in the woods or we sailed the ocean blue that we'd have peace. But the ego is still down there until you get rid of or expose and expel the ego from your mind, then you're still not gonna find it in form. So that's what I did is it just, it helped me go inward and start to say that God was offering me that happiness and peace and love and intimacy. But my definitions of those things had to be questioned and let go. And that's what the Course does. I mean, that's what I had to do about sickness and health. I mean, I, in 10 years of college, you learn a lot of stuff about health, what to eat, what not to eat, you know, all about the body and exercise and cardiovascular fitness. I went through stages of vegetarianism and on and on and on. And then you get to this Course and the same thing that Jesus said in the Bible 2,000 years ago. It's not what you put in your mouth that deviles. It's what proceeds forth from the heart. And I thought, my gosh, that's what this Course is about. It's like from the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure heart, but they shall see God. It's about clearing the altar of your mind and letting the Holy Spirit, with your little willingness, purify your thoughts. It's not about changing behaviors. It's not about morality. It's not about ethics. Those are systems of behavior. And the Course just says, what you do comes from what you think. And the only thing that you really can change is your mind. You know, you can change the way that you think and your behavior will flow automatically. You'll smile more frequently. You'll seem like you're joyful and happy wherever you go. You know, it will be a consistent state of this happiness. So that's what I mean by getting into the subtleties and like the question about sickness. You do start to realize that when you try to hold idols, that's what's being sick, that's sickness. When you try to judge, when you try to have preferences, when you try to control that sickness. And that sickness really, really isn't about the body. The body is just like a reflection of your state of mind. And so what medical, the medical model focuses on is on the body and it's like symptom management or trying to bring about the healing through drugs or through surgery or manipulating the body. Even alternative methods that seem to work with energy and chakras and so forth is still as long as you're working with the body as a cause, you're missing the point that the mind is causative and that there is no sickness in the body. So that's really what we do and it's wonderful the more you go deeper into it because you start to realize that just like Jerry was saying everything that you thought about this world and I mean everything was a mistake. And it is humbling but it is glorious when you drift into this state of humbleness and realize that you are clueless about nutrition. You are clueless about exercise. You are clueless about diets and clueless about medicine and clueless about fitness and all these different things. Your mind sinks into a state of trust and joy. And that is your health, that is your health. That's state of joy, that's state of love and glory. You might say blessed by the pure and heart, period. You can say that right there because you can put the period right there. You don't need to look for a reward. That's it. Little children are rewarded for being sick. We'll figure that out real quickly. And if I have a tummy ache, my mom is gonna just tug, came up and began. So right away we're taught that pain is a good thing. Sickness is a hope. I'm gonna get a reward from my mom. I remember my mom really tugging me a lot when I was home from school section. And I think that reinforces something that's later on in life. Some people go through their whole life sick and spend giving attention, sympathy, sympathy, and then you look back. So as you were saying it, I'm thinking, yeah, well, we were taught that. I know, I was listening, I agree definitely, and I understand what you're saying. I was just wondering, what would you, you know, what I notice is that people, some people who are searching and say someone who wants to meditate and pray and who's suffering, who's sick, who's sick in the body and wanna find the answer, you know, wanna, through meditation, or stern, of course, or whatever, Pat, there on, where they're in a situation where the body is interfering with their prayer because it's hard to pray, it's hard to sit and meditate. It's when your body is in pain or is ill, is sickness, and because it distracts you from what you wanna do. What would you suggest in that type of situation? Yeah, that's what's helpful about the course, is that it says, there's a point where Jesus says, sometimes a mixture of magic and miracle is necessary when the mind is too fearful, and that's what he's saying, is he's saying that, whatever, and magic is a broad term. We're not just talking about take the medicine or go through the physical therapy or move your posture, your position around if you feel discomfort or if you're trying to meditate and you're so cold, it's okay to go through, put a blanket around yourself. Magic is a broad word for the belief that you can change something in form to bring about a sense of minimizing or lessening the discomfort. And so what the course is saying is, magic isn't evil. And in fact, when your mind is too afraid of the miracle and too afraid of that spiritual healing, then be gentle with yourself and do whatever feels helpful and comfortable. It's not trying to draw a line and saying, oh, that's a sin, that's evil if you take that S-burn or you go to that doctor. Basically, everything that you perceive is bringing witness to your mind. So even let's say if you go to a medical doctor, that medical doctor to the Holy Spirit is just another agent or another angel that's being sent to help you, not an evil one that believes in all the stranger stuff, but actually this is just an agent. So I've had a lot of people that have come to me that are in that place where they'll say, can you give me some practical things that I could do or help them get in touch with some practical things that are intermediate steps that they feel comfortable doing? And the more that you practice them, once you get more into a comfortable state and there's not so much of a distraction, then you can get back into your workbook lessons. You feel much more inclined to attempt to meditate and to pray and everything. And you work, you do that inner work. And the more you get deeper into that inner work, then the need for magic slowly fades and falls away. So that's the way it works. Thought that's coming up is Christian Science and Mary Baker and what about her? Supposedly when I've heard Jesus also had a hand right in that, did you hear that or my? Yeah. Okay, so that would seem like I guess some people need that. That's the only thing I can think that they have. And instead of taking the magic that can temporarily just heal them, with them it's black or white, either total faith or you're dead, I guess. Maybe you can explain that, how we can piece that together. Yeah, there's been a lot of stereotypes about Christian scientists and children dying without medication and so on and so forth. I think the best thing to say about Christian Science if you really follow it in teaching is basically, pray first, put God first is the whole teaching of it. And that's really what the Course Miracles is saying as well. It's just that in the Course Jesus is clearly saying that if you're too fearful, just like this gentleman's question, he would say you want to reduce the fear. You don't want to increase the fear. And if you get to a point where you've got something in your mind where you're going, I should be able to dispel this with the power of God and it doesn't seem to be working and you start beating yourself up about it and then you start saying I am a miserable sinner because or I can't do this and on and on and on and the pain gets worse. That's not the direction you want to move. You do want to reduce the fear. And actually you could say that the same about miracles. Miracles should never be performed in the presence of fear. That Jesus is saying in order to be a miracle worker, even temporarily you need to line your mind with mine and he says let me do it through you. And miracles should be involuntary. Involuntary they shouldn't be consciously controlled that if you start going around and trying to decide where you're going to bestow the miracles but that's not how it works either. You have to let the Holy Spirit direct and in many cases smiling and not saying a word to somebody or a pat on the back or a hug is the most, the absolute most can be offered at a given point. Any words that would be offered would just be increasing the fear level. And that's why as we all take on these professions of miracle workers, we're really getting into the subtleties of that workbook lesson. I will step back and let him leave the way. It takes a lot of subtle practice at this to really stay a constant state of joy because the deeper you get into it, you get into this state of mind where you realize that it was all for you. And if you don't have to fix anybody, you don't have to change anybody. Of course he even says seek not to change the world. Seek better to change your mind about the world. How glorious! People could be saying and doing whatever and you're just sitting there beaming like, oh my God, you get into such grace, you get into that state of grace and it's so wonderful to not have to change somebody, to not have to convince somebody of something, to not have to even offer a belief system, but to just simply sit there in quiet certainty and feel all that love in your heart and it radiates out to the whole universe. So that's what I found that the subtleties are very, very important. And even with people that I work with, I've recently been doing some gathers with some friends and we had this joyful gathering and I'd get up to go in the restroom or do something and come out and there'd be this argument going on or this big debate and then somebody was really getting upset and everything and after they'd leave, I'd talk to them and I'd say, well, this is good practice. If you find your brother getting furious and you find, they were saying, no, but I am not a body, you know, and you start, you start to get into them and then somebody raging and everything, I said, well, you better turn it over to the Holy Spirit because for example, in that case, after the gentleman had left, I said, now, I said, the Course says that to deny the body is the inappropriate use of denial. In other words, if you are trying to deny something that is so deeply buried in belief and you're just on the surface trying to say, you know, I'm not a body, and it's like two course of miracles students getting into a raging fight and debate and finding one of them saying, I'm not here and you're not here and we're not having this conversation, that's going on. That's a good example of attempting to deny the body, obviously there's some anger going on there and that's not the appropriate use of denial. But what Jesus does say is, deny the beliefs that error can hurt you. Remember the power of your interpretation. You have a mind and your mind is always interpreting and you don't have to interpret ever that you are under attack. You don't have to ever interpret that anyone is under attack. In fact, that's a very little logical thing that's in the workbook. I am not a body and my mind cannot attack so I cannot be sick. And what he's saying there is, if you start to really look at it and you get deep enough into this, you will see the impossibility of attack. And that's where your invulnerability comes in. If you're still preceding attack, which just means you're holding on to attack box and proceeding through the ego's lens, it won't matter how strong you hold that smile on your face. It doesn't matter how you try to hold that body so it's not trembling and shaking. It doesn't matter how you try to keep from turning red. It doesn't matter how big of a front you seem to put on and try to control the body. If you're preceding attack, it's not going to feel good. You're going to have some churning going on inside some discomfort. And so this is, of course, in literally wiping away the belief in attack. And I would say that's what salvation or enlightenment is, is you come to this state of mind and you see that it is, attack is absolutely impossible. That you give up the dualism of attacker and taki. I mean, to have attack, you've got to have two. You've got to have an attacker and taki, a victimizer, a doer and one who's done you. You've got to have that split in the world before you can even perceive an attack. And what the Course does is it says, keep coming inside here. You're going to see that the only attack that there really is is the belief that you can separate from God. And it's such a horrifying idea that this entire cosmos was made up to project that idea out and splitter it into tiny little scenarios over a millennium to diffuse it, to try to make it not be such a horrifying thing. And that diffusing is not working. You find out more and more. You've still got the rage. The Bible said, forget 70 times seven. The Course is saying, if you could forgive one person, if you could receive salvation from a table, Jesus says, if you could withdraw all of your ideas, all of your past learning from a table, you could receive salvation or enlightenment from just a table. That would mean you'd have to forget what about length and width and height, about texture and about color, about size, about shape. You see, there's a lot there with that table. You really are honest. And you look at that table, you start to see, I think I know something about that table. And then Jesus comes along and says, don't tell the table what it is. Let the table tell you who you are. Let that table be just a symbol that the Holy Spirit uses. Let the table tell you that you are the one, you are the living Christ, you are eternal. You can never be destroyed because God created you. That's what a table has to tell you. That's quite a tale. It's a beautiful reminder that that table will tell you if you can remove all the judgments from the table. Just reading all the judgments, that's easy. That's it. It is. It's actually easier not to judge than it is to judge. Made it hard by Jesus. It's actually easier to be enlightened than it is to defend against the devil. I had a friend one time who was down in Tennessee with me and she was like going into this time of silence or whatever. And she said, David, I don't know. I know you're going to stock up with food and everything. I'm going to go into my mind and face the seagull. But she said, I've read a lot of spiritual books and I read about the saints and the mystics and John the Cross and Darth Nidus and everything. And she said, I don't know if I can do this. I mean, there's been a lot of people that came before me that tried to go for enlightenment or salvation and they seem to get her old back from the cave or something. And I said, oh, it's much easier to be who you are than to try to resist who God created you to be. It's a piece of cake. I mean, and that's the attitude you've got to go at this. When you're doing those workbook lessons, not that you're going to do the lessons for 20 years, you know, to go at it every lesson, expecting to wake up. You know, when you're doing that lesson, whatever it is, okay, here it goes, full passion here, full flow. Okay, always scared. I don't care what number this is. This will do just fine today, whatever it is. 20, 240, 360, doesn't matter. You know, that's the way I went to do the workbook lessons. You know, I expected to wake up every time. And almost like a child has that kind of glee and wonder, you know, where they don't, they aren't thinking how long have I got to do this and how am I going to have time to do this and all this and that. That's the ego getting in. Do you have a question, Jerry? Is there a comment? Yeah.