How Is Peace Possible In This World? is the rhetorical question explored by Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles in their series of ongoing conversations about A Course in Miracles, in this YouTube video.
As any student of the non-dual metaphysics of the Course probably realizes, inner peace and true perception come from a shift in the mind rather than changes in external circumstances. The world we see is a projection of the mind, so if we have given control of our mind to the ego thought system, made from a false, conflicted and polarized assumption, peace in the world we made up is always impossible. However, the correction in everyone’s mind for that insane, guilty self-concept (which we call Holy Spirit, Jesus, or any ego-free presence in our mind) restores the peace that is not only possible but inevitable.
What we commonly think of as “the world” and “our circumstances” are not the fundamental reality, but rather reflections of erroneous, incomplete, and condemning inner beliefs, fears, and judgments. Peace is therefore not a matter of altering the external world, but of transforming our minds by forgiving ourselves for wanting to have a separate identity at the expense of peace for our selves, and also everyone we mistakingly perceive as separate from our selves.
Peace becomes possible when we recognize that separation is an illusion. What appears as conflict, fear, guilt, or separation comes from believing in a separate self. By seeing that this sense of separation has no real, eternal foundation — that it exists only in perception — we begin to open to the possibility of peace. The more we forgive our projections onto ourselves, our bodies and everything else in the material world, the more we progress from the possibility to the recognition of the ultimate certainty of all-inclusive peace. The inner transformation of forgiving thoughts are the means by which the mind returns to clarity and unity.
Forgiveness is not just a moral (behavioral) gesture, but a radical reorientation of perception; from exclusion, isolation, abandonment, and uncertain, fearful loneliness, to the genuine comfort of the recognition that we can never be apart in eternity from each other or our Creator. The inner shift of seeing through the ego’s façade of form to the content in the mind is foundational to experiencing lasting peace. If we continue operating under illusions of guilt, sin, or separation, our so-called peace (based on temporary conditions) will remain fragile — because it’s built on illusions, with fear of the recurrence of war or conflict in the mind always lurking close by. Holding onto grievances or judgments keeps the fear alive. Letting go via forgiveness dissolves that fear.
It’s important to practice consistently applying forgiveness in “normal” life — day-to-day interactions, relationships, habitual thoughts. Forgiveness need not be reserved for dramatic betrayals or big moral transgressions. The usefulness of forgiveness is severely limited if we don’t make a long-term steady commitment to apply a truly forgiving attitude (that lets everyone “off the hook” for impossible crimes) to both subtle and not-so-subtle disruptions in our peace. Peace isn’t an idealistic, distant, “spiritual only” aim — it becomes accessible when the mind begins to shift, even amidst everyday mundaneness.
Peace is always possible here and now, even if at first we only apply it sporadically. Eventually we will generalize and apply the healing balm of release from the tyranny of ego’s sin, guilt and fear plague to all situations without exception. Peace is never dependent on external conditions, but it typically takes a lot of practice to convince ourselves of its real efficacy. Un-forgiven grievances keep fear alive; as long as we refuse to forgive, the internal fear structure remains intact; the cause of our internal strife, confusion, chaos, and mental battles must be addressed by looking with our Inner Kindness Teacher at the source our erroneous belief in inadequacy; separation from our Source.
Our Creator knows only peace. Our self-fabricated ego minds experience only the agony of war, being made from the insane dream of wanting to abandon peace. Peace isn’t something “out there” to be earned or obtained — it’s the restoration of the mind’s true state. The world appears chaotic only because the mind believes in separation. Change the mind, and the world — our experience of it — changes. Forgiveness is the tool for that restoration — not as a favor to someone else, but as a form of awakening to our own innate light and unity.
Daily application is essential: by consistently choosing to forgive ourselves (usually triggered by the impulse to forgive “others”) in everyday situations, the mind gradually reorients from fear to love, from fragmentation to wholeness. True forgiveness allows the miracle to occur — the healing shift in perception, the awakening to love, and reconciliation of our crazy (forgivable) choice for a split mind. Peace isn’t a passive calm, but an active transformation of how we see ourselves, others, and the world. When the mind releases its false assumptions of separation and guilt, miracles — inner peace, clarity, love — naturally emerge.
Rather than reacting out of fear, guilt, or judgment, one can pause — bring awareness to what’s really going on internally — and choose forgiveness, thereby releasing the grip of ego-based thinking. Over time, this rewiring of perception can lead to sustained inner peace regardless of external circumstances. We re-program our minds to replace the self-sabotaging habit of unconscious, unfounded guilt with the healing habit of seeing our restored inner world with kindly kinship and universal appreciation.
Forgiveness is not about changing anything on the level of form; it’s not about condoning behavioral wrongdoing, pretending nothing happened physically, or burying pain with denial of our experience of the world we call space and time. Rather it is the process of re-routing the neutral data of the world from ego mis-interpretation to Holy Spirit’s correction, seeing our projections within dualistic dreams as ultimately irrelevant to our constant All-inclusive innocence, but essential to reveal what is in our unconscious mind, needing healing. Thus, it’s vital that we not withhold, repress, or deny our experiences in the world we made up, but rather bring those experiences from ego’s darkness to the luminous healing world of Holy Spirit’s correction through forgiveness.
Forgiveness is not a superficial “letting go to feel better” exercise, but a deep reorientation of perception away from fear and toward love. Peace is not a superficial calm achieved by ignoring problems, but a deep inner shift. Only by embracing that deeper change can we reclaim our minds and restore their natural state: restful, healed, aligned with Unchanging Love.
Peace is possible because our minds are capable of recognizing truth — that separation was never real, that guilt and sin are illusions, that love and unity are our natural state. Peace is happily inevitable because we all will eventually grow weary of the intolerable warfare that ego wages against our the awareness of mind’s capacity to choose against insanity; it is the essential means by which the mind lets go of illusion and reawakens to truth. Peace is not a future goal to be obtained (postponed and procrastinated), but a present possibility to be realized — here, now, in the mind.
By practicing forgiveness continuously, by shifting perception from fear to love, we align ourselves with the innate peace of God (or Spirit), and thus experience true peace in this world.
Here is the glossary entry for peace from the newly updated ACIM Online Glossary:
Peace is the result of total non-resistance to graciously accepting the being God created us to be. This tranquility is achieved through forgiveness, bringing our dreamt darknesses to the Holy Spirit’s light for healing.
Ego’s (pseudo) “peace” is just a seeming cease-fire in its ceaseless war. Holy Spirit returns us to genuine peace “above the battleground” of the duality of separate interests.
“Stop for a moment now and think of this: Is conflict what you want, or is God’s peace the better choice? Which gives you more? A tranquil mind is not a little gift. Would you not rather live than choose to die?” (ACIM, M-20.4:6-9)
“When you have become willing to hide nothing, you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand peace and joy.” (ACIM, T-1.IV.1:5)
“You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness.” (ACIM, T-1.VI.1:1)
“You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment.” (ACIM, T-3.VI.3:1)
“To Have Peace, Teach Peace to Learn It” (ACIM, T-6.V-B)
“If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned God’s lesson, and not your own.” (ACIM, T-14.XI.5:2)
There are 950 instances of “peace” (or variations of that word) in ACIM.
Here are the first three paragraphs of the related section in the Manual For Teachers in ACIM:
“1. This is a question everyone must ask. ²Certainly peace seems to be impossible here. ³Yet the Word of God promises other things that seem impossible, as well as this. ⁴His Word has promised peace. ⁵It has also promised that there is no death, that resurrection must occur, and that rebirth is man’s inheritance. ⁶The world you see cannot be the world God loves, and yet His Word assures us that He loves the world. ⁷God’s Word has promised that peace is possible here, and what He promises can hardly be impossible. ⁸But it is true that the world must be looked at differently, if His promises are to be accepted. ⁹What the world is, is but a fact. ¹⁰You cannot choose what this should be. ¹¹But you can choose how you would see it. ¹²Indeed, you must choose this.
2. Again we come to the question of judgment. ²This time ask yourself whether your judgment or the Word of God is more likely to be true. ³For they say different things about the world, and things so opposite that it is pointless to try to reconcile them. ⁴God offers the world salvation; your judgment would condemn it. ⁵God says there is no death; your judgment sees but death as the inevitable end of life. ⁶God’s Word assures you that He loves the world; your judgment says it is unlovable. ⁷Who is right? ⁸For one of you is wrong. ⁹It must be so.
3. The text explains that the Holy Spirit is the Answer to all problems you have made. ²These problems are not real, but that is meaningless to those who believe in them. ³And everyone believes in what he made, for it was made by his believing it. ⁴Into this strange and paradoxical situation,—one without meaning and devoid of sense, yet out of which no way seems possible,—God has sent His Judgment to answer yours. ⁵Gently His Judgment substitutes for yours. ⁶And through this substitution is the un-understandable made understandable. ⁷How is peace possible in this world? ⁸In your judgment it is not possible, and can never be possible. ⁹But in the Judgment of God what is reflected here is only peace.”
(This video was recorded on November 29, 2025.)
If you have questions or comments about this video, previous videos in this ACIM-related video series, or other Course-related topics, please email them to us via the ACIMblog.com contact form. Susan and Bruce will review and try to respond to questions and suggestions for future conversations. We look forward to extending the conversation with you!
If you are interested in Susan’s excellent weekly Tuesday evening classes based on Kenneth Wapnick’s teachings, you can contact her here.
Here are some prior ACIM-related conversations with Susan Dugan and Bruce Rawles.
If you have enjoyed these conversations, check out the latest releases from FACIM and support the work of Susan (ForaysInForgiveness.com) and Bruce (via donation links at the bottom of the sidebars on their respective websites) if you feel so inspired. THANKS!
