Peaceful Path of Inner Christianity

Tweeted feom Tahrir Square, Cairo

2011-02-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

Christian youth protecting Muslim protesters while in prayer. Beautiful!

http://yfrog.com/h02gvclj

EGYPT: The Metaphysical "Super Bowl"

2011-02-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

As many of us gather this Sunday to watch and root for our favorite football champions, it will most likely come as a welcome distraction from all the reminders of human cruelty we've watched aghast as they unfold in gory color from the land of Egypt.

How much easier it is to just turn away - at least for awhile - and forget that we are One with those beautiful people who are fearlessly demanding their freedom from authoritarian hierarchy, their demand for free and open communication and association, and their freedom to be happy instead of in denial. In short, they are claiming their freedom from the past in hope of a miraculous new future that will be granted or denied them - along with us - by what they're choosing in the present. As are we.

Everything is connected, ACIM says. There are no accidents, it flatly proclaims. Your brothers' freedom is your own. Or not at all.

Heavy stuff. And unequivocal. And urgent. For delay is tragic.

What can you do? Be aware. And alert. And mindful. And expecting miracles instead of disaster. It's all been planned.

Planned? Yes, that is what ACIM tells us. Every instant, every step, no happenstance.

In the shadow of the pyramids - the worldwide symbol of timeless power - humanity is being called upon to react as one. Many "stones" coming together in joined interest and cooperation in the hope of building something new and better. And equally enduring.

It is no accident that this is happening in the land where Western spirituality had its beginnings. And that it is there that that same spirituality's fruits are being tested at this moment. The "Indigo Children's Revolution", I've been told to call it. And it is our ability to choose our response that will determine its outcome, for love or fear. No compromises.

Is it a coincidence that the Mayan Calendar began in 3114 BC at virtually the same time as the first dictatorship (the First Dynasty of pharaohs) of Egypt began? No.

Is it a coincidence that the exact astrological alignment that ends the Mayan Calendar occurs at the exact moment of sunset behind the great pyramids on the Giza Plateau on December 21, 2012? No.

Is it a coincidence that the grandest civilizations in history on opposite sides of the globe are somehow entwined through time and space enveloping the world and converging on this place? No.

Is it a coincidence that every populous in the entire world is engage right now in the very same conflict with seemingly indestructible power structures of various descriptions? No.

When the ego looks at the pyramids, the meaning that it ascribes to them is an all-dominating worldly power.

What spiritual vision sees is the infinite potential of a power derived through the cooperation of all the earthly aspects of the Son of God.

You and me. And them - those innocent souls waking up in a bloody square in Cairo - hoping with every fiber of their being that you will have faith in them. And in their cause.

Tahrir Square. "Tahrir" means freedom. Liberation. No coincidence. Our interests are one.

Is it a coincidence that you and I are once again being given the false choice between a stability derived from oppression and a potentially chaotic freedom?

Is it a coincidence that we are being asked to choose between our own perceived best interest - stable oil prices, Israel's security, preventing the potential rise of yet another Islamic theocracy - and freedom for the people of Egypt?

No. There are no coincidences. None. It's all connected.

This is the practical application of our supposed beliefs in ACIM. Here is where the rubber meets the road.

Calling all spiritual champions to join the team...right now.

It is up to us to flood their cause with all the faith we say we have in God that those who stand on the side of freedom ARE doing the Will of God, putting aside our doubts from all the other perceptual "facts" our senses bring us, and saying with one voice that we stand there, too.

There are moments that change the history of MAN KIND. And this is one of them.

Enjoy the game!

--
With love always,
Carmen

Growing Commitment To Our Spiritual Path: Three Steps

2010-11-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

Dearest All,

The last couple of weeks in class, we have been talking about how important it really is to be ever-more committed to our spiritual path.

You can feel the growing sense of urgency in every aspect of human life that the people of the world are finally getting it that they need to find "a better way". We have found a better way. But we need to stop treating it as if it were "optional", either through a mental laziness that allows old habit to just continue or through our cherishing of some grievance or other as "justifiable" or even "worthy".

"Grace is a total commitment," the Ur tells us. And, "Your commitment is not yet total."

"[T]he Atonement is a TOTAL commitment. You still think this is associated with loss. This is the same mistake ALL the Separated ones make, in one way or another. They cannot believe that a defense which CANNOT attack also IS the best defense."

And, "We have repeatedly stated that the basic concepts referred to throughout the notes are NOT matters of degree. Certain fundamental concepts CANNOT be meaningfully understood in terms of co-existing polarities. It is impossible to conceive of light and darkness or everything and nothing as joint possibilities. They are all true OR all false. It is absolutely essential that you understand completely that behavior is erratic until a firm commitment to one or the other is made."

So, how do we begin the process of going from leaning in ACIM's direction and actually making a wholehearted commitment? The steps that I am getting are fairly simple and non-threatening, taken individually, but have the potential to have an enormous impact on us, both individually and collectively.

Step #1, as you already know if you've read my last few emails, is to take a personal inventory of those areas "out there" that trigger our most passionate but clearly not loving responses. (For me, that inventory included things like child abuse, religious intolerance, financial exploitation by some of many - you get the point. ;-) Things that really "get your dander up," as my grandmother used to say. And everyone's triggers form a unique constellation of grievances in their composition to that of others. And, contrary to the ego's beliefs, these are not areas where we can find any justification for our feelings. And despite how powerful our anger seems to make us feel, it actually tells us where we feel threatened - and that's precisely the areas where we are giving our power away to something or someone "out there". This crucial step is the beginning of self-discovery by bringing into the light of consciousness all the erroneous beliefs we hold that if we really, truly got it that we were the beloved child of God, we would simply laugh at the idea of threat.

Step #2 is just as simple - and every bit as uncomfortable - in that we are being asked to look at all the ways we give our power away to something "in here" - to the strident, demanding voice of the ego - that keeps screaming in our heads about our "need to attack" others in order to feel safe. This step is about being awake enough to begin to catch ourselves going into fear out of habit. Literally mindlessly. And once that train is set in motion (science tells us that we have a window of only 2 seconds before the brain produces chemicals that sets our bodies into auto-reaction mode), it is incredibly hard for us to derail it.

Step #3, as we shall discuss in class this week, is to be willing to be given the means to have a heart and mind in union. We keep trying to figure that out for ourselves. And therein lies our greatest failure. But steps 1 and 2 give us a road map, of sorts. A heads up to the pitfalls all around us and within us. The rest is, as ACIM says, our task to give over to the One Who knows our path for us. What's ours to do is the beginning. And then, to just be willing.

So why is there still resistance? Simple, ACIM says: "The habit of engaging WITH God and His Creations is easily made if you refuse actively to let your minds slip away. Your problem is not concentration: it is a belief that nobody, including yourself, is WORTH consistent effort."

Please believe with Jesus that you're worth it!

Loving you. Really.

--
With love always,
Carmen

How the Holy Spirit Can Use the Season of Halloween

2010-10-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

A Spiritual Version of "Trick or Treat" for Growing Adults

Is Halloween "pagan"? Well more human than pagan, I think.

The origin of Halloween is "All Hallows Eve", the night before All Saints Day which celebrates the formal saints as well as the unrecognized but saintly departed souls. It was believed that on the night before the holy day, the souls of the less-than-holy would walk the earth with a special viciousness, intimidating the good and faithful and seeking retribution on those with whom they still felt were their living enemies. So people started leaving little offerings of tasty foods outside their homes in an attempt to "buy off" the malicious spirits of the deceased that they has somehow wronged in life.

Can this very human expressiion of "guilty conscience" EXPECTING retribution (a phenomenon that we are each so familiar with) be reconciled with what ACIM teaches? Are there any lessons we can get from the annual tradition?

The Course tells us that the Holy Spirit can use the seasons to assist us in our awakening whenever we're willing. So here's a little mind-experiment that you can take into meditation, if you're willing:

1. Be as a little child -BUT NOT ALONE - holding tightly to the highest protective presence that you trust (the Holy Spirit, Jesus, any truly loving soul).

2. Allow these questions to pass through your mind, KNOWING that you are not only completely safe but also doing a potentially tremendous healing and just LET the guests who come in response to appear (you can consciously see them as tiny beings - like the little kids that they really are :-):
     - What "ghosts" still haunt you?
     - What "monsters" still pursue your days?
     - What dark and forbidding "mists" of fear still block your path?

3. Keep reassuring yourself that you are safe throughout the process understanding thst this is sacred "work" and so it will be supported by all the power and comfort of the universe.

4. EXPECT A TREAT! (No trick. ;-)

I love you. (You're beautiful.)

Carmen

Transforming Hearts and Minds

2010-01-24T12:09:00.000-08:00

Transforming Hearts and Minds

THE NIGHTMARE:

The Ego's picture of you - "The picture you see of yourselves is deprived, unloving and very vulnerable. You CANNOT love this. Yet you can very easily escape from it, or better, leave it behind. You are not THERE, and that is not YOU." T-7.VII.3.2

- "The ego’s goal is quite explicitly EGO AUTONOMY. From the beginning, then, its PURPOSE is to be separate, sufficient unto itself, and independent of any power EXCEPT ITS OWN. This is WHY it is the symbol of separation." T-11.V.4.4

THE HAPPY DREAM:

The way God sees you - "YOU are the work of God, and His Work is wholly lovable and wholly loving." T-1.III.2.3

"You are altogether irreplaceable in the Mind of God. ...You CANNOT replace the Kingdom, and you cannot replace YOURSELF. God, Who KNOWS your value, would not have it so, and so it is NOT so. Your value is in GOD’S Mind, and therefore not in yours alone. To accept yourself as God created you cannot be arrogance because it is the DENIAL of arrogance. To accept your littleness IS arrogant because it means that you believe YOUR evaluation of yourself is TRUER than God’s." T-9.VIII.10.1

CAN YOU IMAGINE...?

"Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time? Yet that is what time is for; to learn just that and nothing more." T-15.I.1.1

"You will first DREAM of peace, and THEN awaken to it. Your first exchange of what you made for what you want is the exchange of nightmares for the happy dreams of love. In these lie your true perceptions, for the Holy Spirit corrects the world of dreams, where ALL perception is. Knowledge needs NO correction. Yet the dreams of love lead UNTO knowledge. In them you see nothing fearful, and BECAUSE of this they are the welcome that you OFFER knowledge." T-13.VII.9.1

"In your [holy] relationship, the Holy Spirit has gently laid the real world; the world of happy dreams, from which awaking is so easy and so natural. For, as your sleeping and your waking dreams represent the same wishes in YOUR mind, so do the real world and the truth of Heaven join in the Will of God. The dream of waking is easily transferred to its reality. For this dream comes from your will, JOINED with the Will of God." T-18.II.9.4

"The holy instant, your holy relationship, the Holy Spirit’s teaching, and all the means by which salvation is accomplished... are all but aspects of the plan to change your dreams of fear to happy dreams, from which you waken easily to knowledge. Put yourself not in charge of this, for you cannot distinguish between advance and retreat. Some of your greatest advances you have judged as failures, and some of your deepest retreats you have evaluated as success." T-18.V.1.3

"Happy dreams come true, NOT because they are dreams, but only because they are HAPPY. And so they must be loving. ...

It is no dream to love your brother as yourself. Nor your holy relationship a dream. All that remains of dreams within it is that it is still a SPECIAL relationship. Yet it is very useful to the Holy Spirit, Who HAS a special function here. It will become the happy dream through which He can spread joy to thousands on thousands who believe that love is fear, not happiness." T-18.V.4.1

"Vision is the means by which the Holy Spirit translates your nightmares into happy dreams; your wild hallucinations that show you all fearful outcomes of imagined sin into the calm and reassuring sights with which He would replace them. These gentle sights and sounds are looked on happily, and heard with joy. They are HIS substitutes for all the terrifying sights and screaming sounds the ego’s purpose brought to your horrified awareness. They step AWAY from sin, reminding you that it is NOT reality that frightens you, and that the errors which you made can be corrected." T-20.VIII.10.4

The structure of psyche in A Course in Miracles

2010-01-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

Open PDF of full document

Monday, January 18, 2010 — 8 pm EST
Live online discussion on ACIM Chat

Class notes

In our picture of the psyche, there is an unconscious level, which properly consists ONLY of the miracle ability ... and a conscious level, which perceives or is aware of impulses from both the unconscious and the superconscious. These are the sources of the impulses it receives. Consciousness is thus the level of perception, but NOT of knowledge. Again, to PERCEIVE is NOT to know.

Consciousness was the first split that man introduced into himself. He became a PERCEIVER rather than a creator in the true sense. Consciousness is ... the domain of the ego. ... the ego is NOT the self... AND A crucial source of the ego's off-balance state is its lack of discrimination between impulses from God and from the body.

Everything that man creates has energy because, like the Creation of God, they (it) come FROM energy... Miscreation is still a genuine creative act ... To deny this is merely the previously mentioned fallacy of depreciation. AND .the individual.BELIEVES in what he has created in his unconscious.

The ability to perceive made the body [a means to see separate selves] possible... The superconscious, which KNOWS, could not be reconciled with this loss of power, because it was incapable of darkness [LIMITED ability to see]. This is why it became almost inaccessible to the mind, and entirely inaccessible to the body. [The superconscious cannot limit its Vision of the whole to the limited vision of the physical eye.]

Miracles come from the subconscious (below conscious) level. Revelations come from the above conscious level. The conscious level is in between and reacts to either sub- or super-conscious impulses in varying ratios. AND ...every level has a creative potential...

The mind is a very powerful creator, and it never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating, and ALWAYS as you will. AND The truth is there ARE no idle thoughts. ALL thinking produces form at some level.

Perception ALWAYS involves some misuse of will, because it involves the mind in areas of uncertainty. The mind is very active because it has will-power. When it willed the Separation it willed to perceive [i.e., NOT know = hide]. Until it chose to do this, it willed only to know. Afterwards, it had to will ambiguously, and the only way out of ambiguity IS clear perception.

[Knowledge] can always be REMEMBERED. This is not a literal remembering as much as a re-membering.

INSTRUCTIONS: The purpose of this course is integration.

The levels which man created by the Separation are disastrous. They cannot BUT conflict. ...one is essentially meaningless to another... They were conflict-prone by definition, because they wanted different things and obeyed different principles [uncertainty of values created a hierarchy of needs = Maslow].

Separation from God is the only lack he really needs to correct. But his Separation would never have occurred if he had not distorted his perception of truth, and thus perceived himself as lacking. The concept of ANY sort of need HIERARCHY arose because, having made this fundamental error [that he was lacking in ANY way], he had already fragmented himself into levels with DIFFERENT needs. As he integrates, HE becomes one, and his ONE need becomes one accordingly. Only the fragmented can be confused about this.

...nothing is difficult that is WHOLLY DESIRED. To desire wholly is to CREATE... AND ...unified perception ...parallels God's knowing.

The Separation HAS occurred. To deny this is merely to misuse denial. However, to concentrate on error is merely a further misuse of legitimate psychic mechanisms. The true corrective procedure, which has already been described as the proper use of the spiritual eye (or true vision), is to accept the error temporarily, but only as an indication that immediate correction is mandatory. This establishes a state of mind in which the Atonement can be accepted without delay.

Carmen's Thrusday night ACIM class

2010-01-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight! Miracle Thursday

Date: January 7, 2010

Presenter: Rev. Carmen M. Cameron
Meeting: 7:30 to 9:00 pm, Eastern time U.S.

Limited to 20 online

Love donation suggestion:
Please help feed the kitty ------------------>

Direct link to meeting room.

The grid

2009-12-21T05:28:00.001-08:00

In June of '96, a very dear friend who is a Buddhist kept having dreams where she was being instructed to attune me as a Reiki Master (when I couldn't have cared less about becoming a RM). She even got the date, time and place for the ritual and I agreed to it simply as a way of honoring her guidance.

During the ceremony, itself, I "zoned out" and had an encounter with "myself" in a seeming past life that explained ALL of my life up to that point. Then the real "show" got started. lol

For at least an hour afterward, I was "seeing" two reality levels simultaneously. One, the "normal" one of 5-sensory perception and the other, its "foundation".

There was a vibrant LIVING energy grid formed by golden "pulses" of light streaming (purposefully) across, up'n'down' and to'n'fro in my line of vision. Energy "packets" (with streaming tails) were constantly passing through my localized awareness,picking up information as we connected and using that exact information (the word literally means "the process of bringing into form" ;-) the world I could see with my physical senses.

Each energy packet was self-aware and unique while simultaneously inextricably linked to all the others. And each was also aware of me and seemed genuinely pleased that I was suddenly aware of THEM. :-)

And while that awareness continued, the living grid was far more real and distinct than the physical image of the world being projected onto it by my thoughts. But that physical world was far more beautiful than it appears through human eyes!

It, too, was living and glowing with every seemingly separate thing (like trees and sky) reaching out and blending with all of the other things around it. The trees were especially vivid and dynamic, radiating jewel-like color patterns that seemed to ripple like waves of hues. (I think I might have seen the very same phenomenon that Moses saw when he described a "burning" bush that didn't burn. ;-).

And there was an "entity" that was "off the grid", too. A radiant sphere of intelligent energy and it felt like I had ALWAYS known "her" (I say "her" because of the gentle tenderness I associate with the feminine). And in the wordless communication I had with her I *KNEW* that I was both eternally safe and completely loved. (Note to Self: I need to remember this experience this clearly more often. ;-)

Anyway, my friend and another woman had to lead me back to my car (I wasn't motivated to do anything other than communicate with each "thing" that I encountered) and they were starting to get really concerned. Something one of them said about calling a doctor penetrated my consciousness and I realized (forcefully) that I was causing them fear.

And in that realization, it was over. But not done! lol

Now, when I drop a plate or stub my toe on a table leg, I apologize to the "coalesced" energy that has LOVINGLY agreed to be contained (temporarily) so I can continue to play this game of hide and seek with Life. Until I find reality forever. (But that means you have to find it WITH me. :-)

Carmen Cameron

Louisville, Kentucky

Wide appeal of A Course in Miracles

2009-10-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

There is nothing I like more than a good question about the Course. And by "good question", I mean a thought provoking one - a question that makes me reassess what I currently believe and perhaps come to see it in a new light. As a result, we have a very interactive study group of Course students here in Louisville where everyone is encouraged to share their insights and questions. It is also a very diverse group with people from widely varying religious backgrounds so we get a lot of very insightful questions and I've been making a note of them for the last 15 years. Here is one of my favorite ones:

Question: The Course clearly appeals to people from very diverse religious backgrounds. Why do you think that is?

First and Foremost: A God you can love wholeheartedly

The diverse appeal of A Course Course in Miracles is due in very large measure to the way it completely reshapes our relationship with God. We do not have to earn our way back into our Heavenly Father’s love because we never lost it!

That’s what Jesus himself was saying when he gave us the parable of the Prodigal Son and the Lord's Prayer. Like the Prodigal Son, a child of God need only to change her direction back to home, and God the Father will run to meet her with open arms.

The appeal of the truth of ACIM is very great, undoubtedly, but even before we can get to an understanding of that truth, the appeal of a completely loving God is what kindles most student's motivation to learn and then maintains our momentum home.

Second: The desire for peace

“You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness. You never really WANTED peace before, so there was no point in being told how to achieve it.”

The horror of nuclear destruction shocked a generation about the potential costs of war. Instant video news coverage and graphic Hollywood productions shoved the routine horror of war in the world's face. All romantic nonsense about the glory of military combat could be questioned, and rejected.

For the first time in history the instructions for peace could be heard by a significant slice of the population, for the simple reason that people of all nations were ready to listen. A Course Course in Miracles is a comprehensive “how-to” manual for genuine peace.

Third: Eliminate the (often corrupt) middlemen

Eastern traditions and ideas have been percolating around the Western world for several hundred years taking root. A new generation coming of age in the 1960's flocked to the promise of a direct personal connection to the transcendent world, and to God. The stale preaching of worn out doctrines by hypocritical clergy were not enough to satisfy a growing hunger for the divine.

A Course Course in Miracles presents itself as a truth to be tested and experienced, not as dogma to be blindly accepted. A revolt against the guardian priests was gaining strength.

Fourth: The inner world

Some sixty years after Freud popularized the idea of the unconscious mind, an educated public was ready to take it seriously and to go exploring. Saints and sages throughout the ages had know of this secret, and wrote about it, but it has been just recently that the terrible fear of the unknown depths relaxed its grip on the public consciousness.

A Course Course in Miracles provides a comprehensive set of spiritual exercises designed to deal with the dark nightmares that haunt our minds, and it lends us the courage to face them.

A perfect storm

These factors combined at the perfect time and in just the right place to make A Course Course in Miracles possible. The Course came as an answer to the heartfelt cries for help from the people of a war-weary world. The Course appeals to people from very diverse religious backgrounds because the Course promises what everyone wants deep down.

Carmen Cameron

Louisville, Kentucky

Investing in yourself

2009-10-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

An incredibly successful and busy person once told me, “Find something you love to do and then just do it and you’ll never have to ‘work’ a day in your life.” He was obviously living in a state of joy and there was no doubt about his ability to be helpful to others in his chosen walk of life.

A couple of months ago, I gave a class on levels and degrees. We believe in levels and degrees because we believe that it is possible that we could SEPARATE ourselves from the Infinite - from God.

The course tells us that our only real need is to overcome that basic error. That we need to learn how to identify that falsehood as it comes up in our deciding process in all its multiple and pernicious disguises.

And one of the most painful guises of our collective belief in our separation from God is our resulting belief in our personal smallness. We are in truth cosmic beings - extensions of the One Universal Life - playing at being finite. Limited. Inadequate. Helpless in the face of a world that is far more powerful in its will for us than we are.

This world as we perceive it through our five physical senses (the ultimate premise for what the course calls our “body identification”) and our individual lives, as we have shaped them, are nothing more - or less - than our acting out of that ludicrous and erroneous belief.

You cannot be excluded from the All-That-Is. That would make All-That-Is less than Itself by subtracting what It extended AS YOU! (That’s downright silly.) So no one can deprive you of anything. That is, no one but yourself.

We must first put our faith in the limited before believing we are small – OR THAT BEING SMALL WAS EVEN POSSIBLE!

That erroneous belief in separateness - in being limited by the body in what we are capable of doing - is the entire foundation of our world. That’s why it is an illusion. But it’s an illusion we have each accepted or we couldn’t be limited by the “powers” of the world in the first place.

This belief in the collective conscience of humanity is exemplified in the extreme by a TV program called “The Apprentice” in which seemingly very intelligent people are willing to do ANYTHING AT ALL in order to secure the mentorship of one of the world’s most prominent “successes”. Many people would be willing to figuratively (sometimes, literally) kill to win that kind of prized “opportunity”. How sad and yet how logical. It’s just a matter of degrees of excess of what we each do in order to just survive in the world as we see it.

If we only limit ourselves to our physical senses in our perception of our strengths and resources, then we will readily give up our fondest wishes, our ideals - even our God-given hopes and aspirations – slowly and agonizingly losing touch with our very essence. And growing ever-more despondent in the process.

We have traded our potential for a very limited sense of security, indeed, when in reality, we have the means for direct access to the Source of the universe if we are just open to that as a possibility.

The source of life created you in order to extend Its own creation, not as a “lab rat” to be tested in order to prove your value. It already KNOWS your value! It created you beyond measure. It is YOU that made the “ruler” by which you set a value on yourself. “Infinity minus x” is how you identify yourself. And that is an insult to the Infinity that created you.

Just consider what if:

WHAT IF God is ONLY love? And love without ANY limits?

WHAT IF He created you just as loving and as limitless as He is?

WHAT IF nothing is beyond your ability to do IN PARTNERSHIP with Him?

WHAT IF God had the thought to do something wonderful for His creation and YOU (in your present form and abilities) came into existence as a result?

WHAT IF THAT DREAM YOU GAVE UP ON and locked away in the deepest recesses of your heart is precisely YOUR REASON FOR BEING?

WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO BE OPEN TO REVIVING YOUR DREAMS AND ASPIRATIONS THEN? Would you be willing to TEST what ACIM tells us and just be open to the possibility that God can open the doors YOU closed - and open new doors for you as well? Would you be willing to watch your thoughts for any reflection of the belief in limitation? Could you be vigilant for the kingdom of God? Not just for your sake alone but for the joy and blessing of all you touch!

THEN the universe of infinite possibilities can open up for you. But it needs your invitation and unceasing welcome (even when it gets a little scary) for the Mind that heard your request and answered has not left you alone to deal with the changes that He’s wrought. You are only asked to TRUST, when you’re tempted to doubt the love of the Infinite and then limitations will just fall away, like the “scales” from the eyes of the blind.

Your faith given to One’s vision instead of to your perception of appearances is the “little part” that is asked of you. So small a part, in fact, that you are likely to be insulted by it.

Be open to being You and one idea, one connection, one person, one “closed door” opening will change your life for the better in one instant. But the FIRST door you need to open is in your mind: the door you closed on the Infinite.

These are ACIM’s promises to you. Be willing to accept them - for your sake and mine.

Blessings,

Carmen Cameron
Louisville, Kentucky

My first experience with a psychic

2008-06-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Dear friend,

The first time I visited a psychic was by accident. I was in high school in New Orleans, many years ago. My friend Lana wanted a psychic reading, but she was afraid to go alone. So I went with her. Before we went, a different friend named Cheryl from my after school job requested that I ask the psychic a question for her. She said, "Ask if Mickey is with Daddy." Her father had just died a few months before, but I had no idea who Micky was.

In all the excitement of meeting with the psychic, I forgot all about Cheryl's question. It wasn't my appointment and I wasn't paying for the psychic anyway. Lana was. I was just there to keep Lana company. We had to wait in the front room of the psychic's shotgun style house for about 20 minutes before Lana's appointment. It was a little creepy. Every square inch of each wall was covered by pictures of Jesus, crucifixes, and rosaries, with dozens of statues of the Virgin Mary on little shelves sticking out from the wall. Three small tables in the room were each covered with more than a dozen pure white candles. The air was thick with incense.

When it was finally our turn, we walked down a short hallway to a small side room that was decorated with colorful drapes and printed fabrics hanging on the walls. The only light came from 7 white candles. There was one candle on each of the 4 walls of the room, and 3 on the table that the little white-haired psychic sat behind. She looked like she was ancient.

As soon as Lana and I entered the room, but before we even had a chance to sit down in the two wooden chairs opposite the psychic, she announced, "I see an old, very short and very big-chested woman dressed in an old fashioned black full-length dress buttoned up to the neck. There is something wrong with her face. It is twisted somehow, and she looks like a horse. I also see a tall thin man standing next to her. He is totally bald and he is holding a single rose against his chest. I smell roses too. Stronger than from a single rose. It's more like rose perfume."

I recognized the old woman the psychic was talking about instantly. It was a perfect description of my grandmother, who had died the year before. She had been caught in a fire when she was a young girl and her face was badly burned. The scars gave her a slightly twisted horse face. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't pretty either. Rose perfume was the only perfume she ever wore, and she wore it every day.

Tears came to my eyes. I missed my grandmother very much, and I was overcome with emotion to know that her spirit was still alive. I really had no idea who the tall bald man was, but I didn't ask. I sat in silence through Lana's reading. Every once in a while, the psychic would brush her hands down by her feet, as if she was swatting unseen insects. Once she blurted out, "Shoo! Go away!" and immediately apologized. The psychic said that a small long-haired dog was running around her feet and between her legs, and it was distracting her.

Of course, there was no dog in the room.

The next day when I saw Cheryl, she asked me about the psychic. I had to confess and apologize that I had forgotten to ask her question about Mickey and her father. Cheryl seemed a little disappointed, but not upset. She wanted to know about Lana's and my big psychic adventure, so I told her about it, just as I have told it here.

Cheryl stayed silent and wide-eyed during my story, until I got to the part where the psychic was swatting at the invisible dog at her feet. When Cheryl heard me tell that, she burst into tears. She exclaimed, "Oh, I'm so happy. Mickey IS with Daddy."

"You've forgotten about this, Carmen," Cheryl started to explain, "but when my father died two months ago the family asked that nobody send flowers and instead give the money to charity. You came to his funeral with a single red rose for my mother. It was the only flower there. I never told you this, but my mother put that red rose you brought on my father's chest before we closed the coffin. He was buried with that rose. My father was tall and thin, and very bald. That man with the rose the psychic saw when you and Lana walked into the room was him."

A chill went up my back. "But who is Mickey?" I asked.

Cheryl pause and looked into the distance. "Mickey was Daddy's dog," she continued. "He was Daddy's best friend and companion. Daddy had raised him from a pup. Mickey was a small frisky long-haired dog that was always running around Daddy's feet. Mickey loved to run figure eights between Daddy's legs. Near the end, when Daddy was using a walker, we were so worried that Mickey would trip Daddy that we almost took him away from him, but Daddy would have had a fit. When we came home from Daddy's funeral, we found Micky curled up on Daddy's bed. Mickey died that same day that we buried Daddy."

That was my first experience with a psychic, and it made a big impression on me. The most valuable lesson I needed to learn at that young age was that life goes on even after the body is set aside, and that our loved ones are still with us, always.

Since then I have moved away from New Orleans. I have lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other parts of the country, and I have encountered many different psychics over the years. Some have been good, and some have not. Some have had natural talent and it came easy for them, and some have relied on cards or charts and had to work at it.

But after that first experience of mine, I have never doubted that the ability is genuine and useful. It has shaped my whole idea about death, and what it means. I have many psychic friends. A few of them are professional psychics, but most are not. I have even developed my own psychic and intuitive abilities over the years, but I'm not a professional.

The one thing I have learned about psychics is that they are not all the same, and the ones with the biggest signs or the most impressive advertising may not be the right one for you, right now. You might be drawn to a particular psychic like a magnet, or you may trip over one by accident. But if you are looking for a psychic, you may need to look at several, or even dozens, before something inside of you clicks, and says "This is the one."

The only suggestion I have for you, if you liked my experience with the New Orleans psychic, is to be a little bit open to the possibility that Shakespeare was right when he wrote, "There is more in Heaven and earth than is dreamed of in your philosophy."

If you are looking for a psychic, click this link and follow your own intuition.

Sincerely,

Carmen
Louisville, Kentucky

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