 Okay, hi everyone. Welcome. Good to see you. Yes, I'm Peter for those joining you. I'm the host. And yeah, I can just let you know about the flow of the day. So we will start with the movie commentary from David. And afterwards we have a 10 minute break where you can submit any questions or prayers you have via the form link that we have. And then we'll have the closing session with David where he'll answer a few of those submissions that came in. So I'm going to pass it right over to David now. Thank you, Pete. Hi, hi everyone. Glad you're with me for another great movie voyage as we go deeper and deeper inside our mind to contact the light and have a direct experience of the light of truth. And wow, we have an amazing set of themes that you voted on this week. And I think it's like I see every week we go deeper and deeper into an experience of trusting the inner guidance, letting go of the outcomes that we had believed we wanted from the world and slowly being convinced by the Holy Spirit and Jesus that we would rather have eternal peace and eternal life than anything that the world of images could offer. That's a big turnaround because when we come to this world, that's all we know are these images. And when we look at the images, we also come with the programming that we're supposed to pursue them. We're supposed to have a lot of worldly goals. And Jesus tells us in the early part of the workbook that all of the goals that we have associated with the future, all of them are ego goals without exception. And that's why nothing that we see means anything is because we have believed in ego and ego goals and they put a filter over our mind and the world is the veil of images we perceive through this filter. And this is a filter of the past and the future. And that's why we have so many past regrets. We've had grievances. We've had grudges that we didn't want to let go of because that was our investment in the past. And then we've had worries and concerns and fears about the future. What will happen to me? How will I be provided for? If I become a mystic, if I get a deep case of Mother Teresa Idus, and all of a sudden I'm like praying all the time, what will become of me? What will happen to me if I really start taking prayer lives very sincerely and become very devoted to prayer? Will I be all right? Will the people I love be all right? So we have an opportunity to start to realize that the goal of the course for present inner peace is extremely different from the goals that we have held formerly. The things that we believe we wanted for ourselves as a person and the world are extremely different from the goal of a course of miracles. The course is not about manifesting a better life in form because the course is teaching there is no life in form. The reason that the mind is miserable because it believes in biological life. It believes in linear world and that's part of a distortion. And distortions never satisfy. We will only be satisfied with the truth of who we really are and that's why whether you call it salvation or self-realization or self-actualization it doesn't matter or just living in God's love. It's all really the same thing in the end which is just the remembrance of ourself as spirit and remembering God as spirit. So as usual you voted for a set of topics and themes and then the prayer comes in to really dive into that to really have a direct experience of the themes. And here are the top five themes that you voted for. Number one by far and this is why we're watching the movie we're watching today is being okay with not knowing what's coming next. I know you've got me. How's that for a theme? Watch out. That's the number one theme. Being okay with not knowing what's coming next. I know you've got me, you say to God. So that would if you really go into this theme with this movie today you know you will have less interest in world events because you're not so much interested in what's coming next. Your question in mind is not how will it end but more how do I feel right now? You see that's a little more practical question. Jesus likes that second one. How do I feel now? That is beautiful. Number two staying present going step by step with spirit. Ah there it is. He's saying let go of your past learning. Just stay with me step by step. I got you. That was the first one. I know you've got me and Jesus answers with yes I do. I have got you and I will guide you step by step. So just relax and enjoy the ride. It's going to be an amazing destination of the present moment. Holy instant. Number three trust that guidance will lead to an expansion of my mind and heart. That is a testimony for guidance. Guidance will lead me to an expansion of my mind and heart. If you just focus on that then you will step back and let the spirit lead the way. You won't try to tell the spirit the direction. You will actually be more receptive to say show me. Jesus you're the one that's awake so I think you're a better guide than I am in this awakening journey. So you show me. You tell me. You point the way. You give the instructions. I'll follow. Number four allow spirit to gently loosen my mind from roles that no longer serve me. Isn't that lovely? Gently loosen my mind from roles that no longer serve me. So that way you can just you can feel whatever roles you seem to have played that you can trust that the Holy Spirit and Jesus orchestrated those roles. You don't have to push them away. You just have to thank them. Thank you roles for helping build my trust. Thank you roles for helping deepen my faith. You can thank them. Give them gratitude and blessing and say and thank you Holy Spirit for using the roles to slowly guide me for a gentle unwinding from my belief in this world. So nothing's ripped away. You know even with Jesus you know we know a little bit about his story that he was he was the son of a carpenter and so when Jesus was probably in his starting maybe his late teens and mostly in his 20s he was a carpenter. He was building. He did the same thing that all of us done. He allowed the Holy Spirit to use that role of carpentry for a period of time. I see Kenneth Price is nodding. He's like well I'm in that phase right now and this is encouraging but Jesus used that for a while and then he went off to pray and he started to receive guidance that that he would be traveling and teaching and calling apostles and so he just went around and he would walk through a village turn over and see Matthew follow me you know Simon follow me you see he just he naturally went through the carpentry phase and then that was enough building then Holy Spirit said okay now it's time to to do a little preaching and so he did a little preaching do a little dance make a little love get down tonight get down tonight you know he had some fun he had some fun for a few years and then he said toward the end of those three years he didn't say oh my preaching time is over he just said Peter you are the rock on whom I will build my church and the Catholic church is is built on the rock of Peter that's that's where the Catholic church came from it goes back a long way but Peter he was basically passing the mantle over saying Peter you're going to carry on with the preaching here a little while I will go away but being not afraid I will with I'm with you always even until the end of time and then he just he finished the the carpentry skit he finished the the preaching teaching skit with the apostles and and Mary Magdalene and the women's corps and then he kind of did a Truman show good afternoon good afternoon good evening and good night except his version was I will see you good afternoon good evening and good night I will see you see you soon and and that was beautiful he was kind he was friendly he demonstrated unconditional agape love from God and then he took a bow and then he did a little encore performance where he came back he rolled the stone away came out a look for one curtain call and then it was poof it was ascension and and then he was with us forever he's with us now he's having fun with us with these movies for sure so the final one number five is Luke looking truthfully at all desires in the mind we have one new participant joining us today Natalie and Natalie Jesus I think threw that one in for you because you've been writing to me about purification of desires so yeah looking truthfully at all desires in the mind so that's beautiful we will do that today oh there's Natalie Jesus threw that one in for you number five so basically we're going to see a journey today and we're going to watch the movie it's 2007 movie called Evan Almighty and some of you might remember Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty Jim Carrey's interrelationship with Jennifer Aniston who's Grace and that movie is basically basically the main character is Bruce is letting up all of his resistance to God all of his resistance and in relationships all of his pride all of his desires to control and his partner Grace um finally you know takes off after a while because his ego part of his mind comes up in such a dramatic way that basically she's like she's like I'm out of there and then eventually God uses that relationship for the healing of the mind and and gets to a point where Bruce finally surrenders and says all I want for you Grace is you know for you to be happy and to see you as God sees you wow what a prayer that's how the relationship turns holy God I want to see you as God sees you and there's a beautiful healing and Evan Baxter is in that movie and in this movie we're going to follow Evan as he is married with children and he runs for the Senate of the United States and he's elected from Buffalo to the Senate of the United States and when he goes to Washington moves into his brand new big house and goes to the Senate to do his duties with his assistants and his fellow senators he is going to make a prayer and and interestingly enough Evan's prayer is to change the world and Jesus tells us in the course seek not to change the world seek rather to change your mind about the world Jesus is teaching us that the problem we have is a perceptual problem we're looking through the ego filter and really it's all all perfect every everything is happening absolutely perfectly but when we look through the ego filter we fall into comparison competition analysis judgment whenever we're looking through that dark filter of the ego we're really missing the light that's right there in fact every person the purpose is for for the Holy Spirit to show us the light behind the persona so if we're in a relationship the whole purpose of the relationship is mirroring so that we can see the unconscious dark thoughts and beliefs that we still hold on to and we can let them go so that we can see the light of truth that is beyond the veil that is beyond the body it's beyond the the behaviors and the personalities so in relationships through this ego filter we react and respond not directly to what people seem to be saying and doing but we react to our interpretations of our brothers and sisters behavior and our interpretations if they're egoic we react with anger we react with fear and guilt but when we pray and say Holy Spirit show me the truth here show me the innocence show me the love that I always wanted to experience then basically we we can lift up that ego perception and we just say give me a new way of looking at the world help me see the world with new eyes with with my spiritual eye sometimes in the east they call it the third eye but when Jesus was first dictating a course of miracles to Helen Shuckman at the very beginning at the very beginning Jesus used the term called spiritual eye and it was a singular spiritual capital s i capital e y e and then Jesus went back and changed that to the Holy Spirit to keep it consistent with the Bible and that's our Holy Ghost it's our spiritual eye it's our spiritual perception of the world and Jesus also is telling us wow it's going to take a lot of mind training to consistently see everything in everyone with the spiritual eye with the Holy Spirit but but what else it's the only goal there is we don't really have another goal except to to see with the eye of the the vision the vision of Christ the perspective of the Holy Spirit and that way we actually learn to truly see where what we perceive through our body's eyes and our five senses is part of the distorted filter when people get frustrated about their spiritual journey it's because the ego is sneaky it's ingenious it's tricky and it has made a whole false perceptual world to cover over the truth the light of truth in us and so that means that we need to become very intuitive and really develop our inner guidance because our five senses are working with the ego and a lot of times people ask me wow that's that's sneaky that means everything my five senses are showing me are showing me fragmentation that's right everything my five senses are showing me as differences that's right everything my five senses are showing me as is conflict competition violence and more than that it's it's showing me the nuances of preferences there's a range the ego says between pleasure and pain and there they are the five senses show us the the rainbow of experiences between pleasure and pain but that doesn't seem to help us experience eternal life because eternity doesn't know about differences eternity is pure oneness pure love pure joy pure happiness heaven is a state of mind that is changeless i remember i think it was i don't know how many years ago maybe it was a couple a few decades ago i think it was a it was a song i think it was by the talking heads and it was it was a song called heaven and i'm like what are the talking heads talking about heaven in this song heaven heaven is a a place a place where nothing nothing ever happens oh my god the talking heads are teaching a course in miracles through through their song heaven it comes in so many ways it comes to us when we're ready it just comes floating into our mind when we start to realize that we want the truth we want divine love more than anything else so in today's movie we will follow evan baxter as he goes through a very profound dismantling of the self-concept and what i like about this movie is this movie is i think recently was maybe a couple weeks ago didn't we do pray listen and follow with the little girl and everybody was writing to me going oh my gosh i had so many deep experiences after that movie and we used that as part of our pray listen and follow weekend retreat online but today jesus is going to really really show us how important guidance is because the main character will will pray for help it his wife's urging you know uh his wife has said yeah evan i know you want to change the world but but why don't you pray to god and evan actually does pray to god for help and it shows up in the form of morgan freeman god literally comes into his world i know all of you are thinking wow if i just had morgan freeman showing up in my on my lawn that would make it pretty easy you could tell me who to date or who to marry what to do what not to do you know just go out but i think if that actually happened you would find there's a little resistance to having such direct guidance from god the ego would rear up like oh wait a minute i don't care if you if you say you are god i've got to make my own autonomous decisions here and there would be pretty much resistance but evan does have he has a reluctance to pray but he finally does get down get down on his knees i believe and he prays to god for help and then god answers him very very directly why is this a great teaching movie i can relate to every single aspect of this movie i tell you i've i've been working with a course of miracles for the last 37 years and if you had to put the put guidance down pray listen and follow into one movie for teaching instruction today you're getting again from jesus one of the all-time classics for teaching pray listen and follow it's going to show us that that even if we have preconceived ideas about how our life should go even if we have ambitions about what we want to attain in the world even if we have goals in terms of the world it doesn't really matter because the prayer of our heart is to know god to know our creator and to know our true identity and so the way that the spiritual journey seems to go it's it's very much of a of a letting go in fact it's so much of a letting go that once you start to see like wow jesus says in the course early on in the stages of the development of trust he says it will seem as if things are being taken away from you and he says that's not really what's happening it's just that your mind is beginning to devalue the things of the ego and the things of the world and you no longer need certain symbols anymore on the journey inward so it seems like from a personal perspective that that you're being left sometimes you're being abandoned being betrayed betrayed or rejected but but actually those are all just ego interpretations of a perfectly unfolding script that's perfectly designed for spiritual awakening it's it's like jesus the holy spirit know exactly our ego belief system and they've given the absolute perfect curriculum forgiveness and the put the path that we have chosen deep in our mind to to say yes to uh to say yes to the path that's before us so that we can can awaken from the dream and wake up to eternal life so this movie has the the guidance theme of pray listen and follow there are so many times in this movie where we're going to see that that evan is going to have a choice about trusting and listening and following the instructions or fighting kicking biting he's going to try to do everything he can the ego will try to do everything to avoid following the very simple instructions that god gives and in the end he will find that the only way he can find happiness and harmony and have that experience is by following the guidance the the maker of this movie the director of this movie i've talked about him before tom shadiak is a spectacular movie maker if you've never seen his movie i am of course bruce bruce almighty now we're watching evan almighty tom shadiak is a very deeply devoted movie maker director who has gone through many many dismantling in his own life uh he's had to face extreme forms of of illness and and let them go he's had to face fame he he became one of a cajole wood golden boy director when he started putting out hit movies like this with jim carrey and steve carrell he actually uh he actually moved into a giant mansion i've told this before but he moved in a giant mansion in california uh in los angeles and when he moved in he walked into the giant for you and as he walked into this his new house for the first time he looked around at this for you of this giant mansion and he said he really questioned what am i here for why why do i need such a big house isn't that an amazing question to ask when you've just purchased a giant mansion why do i need such a big house he moved out and he ended up i think moving into a trailer in california oh you've got to love tom shadiak you've got to love anybody who actually walks the talk who really really cares so much about god and and connection to god that he will actually question his own perception his own values his own pursuits and goals and then hollywood kind of turned their back on the golden boy but then i did see uh he came he made a comeback movie uh about uh 10 years later and it was spectacular you know he hadn't lost his touch it was all about forgiveness and what was the name of that one do you remember it was no it was something it was the one where the football player had was falsely accused but i can't remember all the names but but i have to say thank you again thank you tom shadiak and morgan freeman and and steve carrow and everyone who's in this movie this is again one of the all-time classics at teaching and learning to pray and listen and follow and and also i think i think of this movie in terms of showing us that faith and expanding our faith is really our purpose here we are here to expand our faith and trust faith in what well it seems to be faith in god in the holy spirit but the holy spirit and god are unseen in perception that's why it's called faith uh imagine getting inner guidance that feels strong and true and you feel a deep connection and a deep union and then imagine that your five senses are just trying to trip you up trying to to trip you up at every turn when you feel this strong inner intuitive connection and i can say yeah over these last 37 years what a ride to not to not buy in to the five senses wow that that takes faith and that's what this movie is going to show us today it's going to be a huge opportunity in faith and i know we'll have a question and answer session afterwards after a 10 minute break so yeah please write in any question you want to ask and in as much detail as you want just just pour your heart out and we'll we'll go through that i know natalie had had some questions so please use the q and a there at the end we'll do that so as we head into this movie i thought we always want some good preparation from jesus to be ready for what we're going to go through so when i prayed to jesus today what would he like us to to hear from a course of miracles before we go into this movie i heard go to lesson 135 the longest lesson in the course of miracles workbook and he thankfully he just picked a part of it otherwise we'd be here all morning going through lesson 135 it's the longest lesson in the book but but what he pointed to me too was most of the time most of us could start to recognize within our mind we recognize certain defense mechanisms we notice that we react defensively in certain situations and with certain people you know maybe we say oh it's difficult for me to be around this person or that person it's not really jesus is saying no it isn't there there just is as beloved as anyone else but it's because in our mind we have thoughts and judgments and projections and people will mirror our our egoic thoughts and beliefs and that's why it can be difficult to be around certain people that's also why the intensity comes up in relationships is because it's like in your face mirroring there's so much intense mirroring that goes on in in what we call the very close significant other kind of relationships there's huge mirroring that happens but what jesus will show us in this movie is and what he's going to talk about here in lesson 135 is most people do not seem to recognize that planning is a defense against the truth planning oh come on you mean all the vices i've been dealing with and all these dark spots and now you're telling me the planning is a defense against the truth and he's saying yeah actually it is the holy instant the present moment is where you find me and when you try to plan the future based on your past learning you don't realize it but that's a defense too well you can imagine when i first got the course because guess what my undergraduate degree is in planning i spent five years getting an urban planning degree only to have jesus and the angels kind of laugh at me going let's get serious now let's get on with it you have to realize that your attempts to plan the future are defending against the kingdom of heaven which is at hand it's very present so jesus they had pretty much fun with me i met a lot of wonderful people it turns out that two of my professors the the head of my department and my professor that i worked most with were both christian scientists but they never told me i didn't find out so after i left university and i saw him in a church i was like what are you doing here they're like what are you doing here uh oh jc jc central central casting is having some fun and it seems like we don't fully recognize how deeply we need to surrender to the present moment ecartali talks about it constantly all the mystics and saints talk about it and now when we're studying the course jesus is saying actually this is this is very important because the present moment is the closest approximation of eternity that this world holds i'll say that again the present moment is the closest approximation of eternity that this world holds now i know a lot of you probably had the same reaction that i did it's like well great jesus you want me to be present but there's some details there's some details i need to handle and jesus is actually he's been singing to us through songs and calling us and saying la la la la la live for today hey la la la la la live for today and don't worry about tomorrow anyway take no thought for tomorrow wow you have to be really intuitive to to take no thought for tomorrow that there's some pretty intense unconscious programming that says prepare for tomorrow but in the course of miracles jesus says be not content with future happiness for it is not your just reward for you have cause for freedom now so here's what he told me to to uh go over today and so it's just uh several paragraphs but i think this will help us because without some preparation then we don't want to start false empathy we don't want to start to empathize with with evan today because when we start to empathize empathize with hardships and struggles and challenges it just means that we still believe in hardships and and challenges and we want to release the belief that spiritual awakening is challenging we want to release the belief that it's difficult we want to actually release resistance and that's really what this movie is about now so here's what jesus gave me this is from workbook lesson 135 to remember god is to follow his guidance and instructions even if this seems to dismantle the plans and ambitions of an imposter identity well actually this is this is our summary in movie watchers guide doing but that's that's a good sense that that covers it right there that's the whole movie in one sentence this is from what lesson 135 and herein lies the folly of defense it gives illusions full reality and then attempts to handle them as real it adds illusions to illusions thus making correction doubly difficult and it is this you do when you attempt to plan the future activate the past or organize the present as you wish wow i wish i had this before i went into grant or into the university so basically he's saying that that the ego is so sneaky that anytime you activate you attempt to plan the future activate the past or organize the present as you wish this is egoic oh my god that is deep when we look at our decision making in this world when we look at our preferences for food for for people for partners for for the environment that we seem to live in that mechanism of the ego is preferring that form be a certain way to satisfy us and then when we try to surround our mind with this particular wish of the way we want things to look and and seem then we're still not satisfied then we we try to change we try to change jobs we change partners we we change spiritual paths we do the the spiritual smorgasbord some of us i know some of us i have to admit i was one of them too some of us have really played the spiritual smorgasbord i mean i was hopping around and a little bit of this a little bit of that a little bit of this and then finally jesus said very calmly to me pick your path and go deep it's like enough of dancing on the surface why don't you follow one of them into the light you know don't just keep comparing and contrasting like you're like you're out grocery shopping you know take a little buddhism a little hinduism little christianity a little bit of zoroastrianism you know a little yoga and jesus is like pick one and go deep and then i when i finally got down deeper i realized that that's all part of a prearranged plan and that even the form of our worldly experiences is all part of a prearranged plan that we don't really even have a choice of the form all all we have a choice of is the purpose do we want to wake up then we have to give it up and say okay you you decide for me holy spirit decide for god for me so i'll jump down to the next paragraph the body is in need of no defense this cannot be too often emphasized it will be strong and healthy if the mind does not abuse it by assigning it to roles it cannot fill to purposes beyond its scope and to exalted aims which it cannot accomplish such attempts ridiculous yet deeply cherished are the sources for the many mad attacks you make upon it for it the body seems to fail your hopes your needs your values and your dreams the quote self that needs protection is not real okay so basically the personality self that is is the obsession of this world make it better more make it more beautiful make it more skillful make it more accomplished make it more famous make it more popular jesus is basically saying stop it stop it god created you perfect as spirit don't try to improve upon an illusion but rather turn your mind in sacredness to listen to the voice for god within who will help you unwind and dismantle from this false self concept that the ego made and then you will come to the i am presence that's prior to time you'll come to the i am this that jesus was was teaching us and demonstrating so the next paragraph this was interesting for me to read because i had a degree in planning he says a healed mind does not plan it carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own it waits until it has been taught what should be done and then proceeds to do it it does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it it is secure uncertainty that obstacles cannot impede its progress to accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone so that to me is what authentic spiritual awakening is about i remember it starts with a surrender like i i finished my my undergrad and i was in grad school for a couple years and then the course of miracles came into my life and i remember i had one of these surrender moments where i just said okay i don't know where this is going to lead i don't know where the form will go but uh you take everything take take everything that i seem to have and be aware of and use it for the greater good for everyone and that began like an unwinding or dismantling from the self concept and i mean by the self concept not just the personality self but i mean by the whole world that surrounds the personality self too it's like it all has to morph into a a forgiven world or a happy dream and and all we have to do is be willing to join with god and take the steps that god gives us we don't we don't have to figure out the steps we just have to be very prayerful and very sincere and then listen and follow and pray listen and follow ends with the word follow and that's going to be in this movie today that's going to be the difficult part because evan has a kind of half-hearted prayer and then when the listen part comes in he just like he wants to just shut god off after a while it's like this is this is terrible he's judging the the things that god is saying to him as as not relating to him as irrelevant and basically he goes into major denial and dismissal and then as the movie progresses we will start to see that that even if you pray and even if you listen to what you're guided to say and do it doesn't really do any good unless you follow unless you actually go that extra step and you follow what has been given and I found in my life that that's what was the key that kind of turned things because I didn't start to feel the joy and I didn't start to feel the lightness and happiness till I actually started following what what he was asking me to do it seems absurd right now but actually it's it's actually really that simple we do need to follow the instructions and follow the guidance that the prayer that we say when we say holy spirit decide for god for me is actually a very profound prayer because we're basically saying if I make no decisions by myself like if I make all my decisions in alignment with you god then I'll have a happy joyful peaceful state of mind and that that makes sense what of course it makes sense if if god knows happiness god is happiness and god's instructing us in happiness that if we do pray for that happiness and we listen and follow what we're told to do and how we're to be used we go from feeling like we're the body and the person and the doer to we feel more done through we just end up with a smile on our face going I don't even know how that happened but that was fun that was joyful I don't even know what's going on here don't ask me to play to figure it out or explain it but it's really joyful when we surrender in that way so you're in for a treat today I think oh wow and I felt this movie come in I was just like so happy for myself and everyone because because it's this is like a this is a great great great teaching movie for showing us examples of of how helpful it is to be in touch with that inner wisdom and to let it go before us whenever we try to plan our life based on our past learning it always runs into like it's a buzzsaw it's it the wheels fall off at some point like the Simon and Garfunkel song you know sometimes we believe we're gliding down the highway but in fact we're slip sliding away I like that line slip sliding away the nearer your destination the more you're slip sliding away the near you believe you're coming to your ideal form of how your ideal life should look your slip sliding away when we surrender and we say I have no clue I absolutely have absolutely positively no clue what is my best interest but I know you're here and I know you're with me and I can feel your presence in my heart that is going to be everything that's the most beautiful thing so sit back enjoy the movie today have a wonderful experience and I will pop in from time to time as Evan is going through his dismantling because I know a lot of us can certainly relate to this we laugh when we see it with Evan but then we start to go oh my gosh this is the story of my life my life this is my life this is the movie of my life and in the end we laugh though we we start to realize it was we were only suffering when we were holding on when we let go take our hands off the wheel and say Jesus take the wheel then yeah it goes a lot better so enjoy I'll see you very soon