Fellow enthusiasts, students, and teachers of A Course In Miracles, Stefan Bolz and Bruce Rawles talk about how foolish our egos are and how gently but firmly our Inner Kindness Teacher (a.k.a. Holy Spirit) lampoons our stubborn decision for masochistic mental misery in this video conversation. Ego insists sternly and seriously on sticky, gooey gravity; the Holy Spirit undoes this silly folly with forgiveness and levity.
Here are some of the quotes from the Course we referred to in our light-hearted conversation – including a bit of wordplay – about our absurd oxymoronic desire to not learn and practice ACIM’s forgiveness curriculum:
“There can be no order of difficulty in healing merely because all sickness is illusion. Is it harder to dispel the belief of the insane in a larger hallucination as opposed to a smaller one? Will he agree more quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears than to that of a softer one? Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand to kill than a shout? And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees carrying affect their credibility in his perception? His mind has categorized them all as real, and so they are all real to him. When he realizes they are all illusions they will disappear. And so it is with healing. The properties of illusions which seem to make them different are really irrelevant, for their properties are as illusory as they are.” (ACIM, M-8.5:1-9)
“A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents his restless mind.” (ACIM, W-182.3:3)
“Here is your promise never to allow union to call you out of separation; the great amnesia in which the memory of God seems quite forgotten; the cleavage of your Self from you;—the fear of God, the final step in your dissociation.” (ACIM, T-19.IV-D.3:4)
“It cannot be too strongly emphasized that this course aims at a complete reversal of thought.” (ACIM, M-24.4:1)
“Irrational thought is disordered thought. God Himself orders your thought because your thought was created by Him. Guilt feelings are always a sign that you do not know this. They also show that you believe you can think apart from God, and want to. Every disordered thought is attended by guilt at its inception, and maintained by guilt in its continuance. Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts, and must therefore obey their dictates. This makes them feel responsible for their errors without recognizing that, by accepting this responsibility, they are reacting irresponsibly. If the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the responsibility for what is atoned for cannot be yours. The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of undoing. You would be responsible for the effects of all your wrong thinking if it could not be undone. The purpose of the Atonement is to save the past in purified form only. If you accept the remedy for disordered thought, a remedy whose efficacy is beyond doubt, how can its symptoms remain?” (ACIM, T-5.V.7:1-12)
“Resign now as your own teacher” (T-12.V.8:3) …
“Remember nothing that you taught yourself, for you were badly taught.” (T-28.I.7:1
We briefly engaged in a bit of punning and wordplay. An alliterative acronym from the Foundation for Inner Peace (FIP) website (Workbook Lessons – Overview page) that I had fun contributing for the ticker tape linked to the calendar daily workbook lessons a.k.a. tutorials:
(Shortcut: Tap the ticker tape text to take Today’s Tutorial.)
Also referenced (by Stefan): Ender’s Game (The Ender Saga) May 4, 2021, by Orson Scott Card
We also talked about how ego – the TINY mad idea – attempts to convince us that sin, guilt, and fear are unchangeable, unforgivable crimes that can’t be questioned … Like a huge, imposing door … Yet this massive door yields to our slightest touch! Our little willingness to trust Holy Spirit does the job! This reminded me of a massive door of a building at a nuclear research facility where my father worked. Here’s a photo of this door, which was a prop in the original Tron movie:
“It is this that makes the holy instant so easy and so natural. ²You make it difficult, because you insist there must be more that you need do. ³You find it difficult to accept the idea that you need give so little, to receive so much. ⁴And it is very hard for you to realize it is not personally insulting that your contribution and the Holy Spirit’s are so extremely disproportionate. ⁵You are still convinced that your understanding is a powerful contribution to the truth, and makes it what it is. ⁶Yet we have emphasized that you need understand nothing. ⁷Salvation is easy just because it asks nothing you cannot give right now.” (ACIM, T-18.IV.7:1-7)
The power of our little willingness is amplified more than we can imagine! Two metaphors that hint at this amplification:
- Pushing on the levers in the cab of giant earth movers translates via hydraulics to tons of pressure that moves mountains
- A tiny amount of electrical current is amplified by a transistor into a much larger current so the invisible and inaudible is now detectable.
We also discussed the movie Inception, featured in prior ACIMblog posts here and here.
I think Stefan spoke for so many of us in his candid observation of realizing how much we didn’t want the Holy Spirit’s Love to flow through our mind … and then learning to forgive ourselves for that foolish resistance!
Here is a related post featuring Humorous quotes lampooning the ego.
Here is a prior related conversation: ACIM: Stop thrashing in ego’s quicksand – Stefan Bolz and Bruce Rawles conversation
This video was recorded on March 31, 2025.
Stefan’s excellent YouTube channel – A Course In Miracles – Applied – has over 100 insightful, clear presentations of important Course topics; here is his description of the channel:
“The purpose of this channel is to help students of A Course in Miracles deepen their understanding of the material by discussing key concepts and applying its principles to one’s life. A Course in Miracles lays forth a complete path, picking us up from where we are, and leading us to the peace of God – the home we have never left. This journey is challenging. Not because the path is hard in and of itself, but because of our resistance to remembering who and what we are in truth. The Course is written in the Christian language but its goal is to lead beyond any religion to a true experience of peace. One way of beginning on this channel might be the playlist “A Journey Through the Teachings of ACIM” which provides a logical sequence of topics tailored to build on each other and thereby slowly expanding one’s understanding of the material. It is my sincere hope that you find the explanations helpful on your own journey with the Course. Peace, Stefan Bolz.”
He is also the author of several books and many other contributions to collaborative works that you can find here on Amazon, as well as more info on his blog: Stefan’s Writing Desk: Stories of Hope and Splendor. and Facebook page: Stefan Bolz, Author.
