Jackie Lora Jones and Bruce Rawles talk about A Course In Miracles (ACIM) in this video.
We’re all teachers 24/7/365; that is our function. We’re always teaching ourselves – either we’re teaching ourselves the belief in separation (sin, guilt, and fear) or we’re teaching ourselves the undoing of that belief (a.k.a. forgiveness). The latter is our only true function.
Here is the first paragraph or so of “The Function of the Teacher of God” that we read and commented on:
“If the patient must change his mind in order to be healed, what does the teacher of God do? Can he change the patient’s mind for him? Certainly not. For those already willing to change their minds he has no function except to rejoice with them, for they have become teachers of God with him. He has, however, a more specific function for those who do not understand what healing is. These patients do not realize they have chosen sickness. On the contrary, they believe that sickness has chosen them. Nor are they open-minded on this point. The body tells them what to do and they obey. They have no idea how insane this concept is. If they even suspected it, they would be healed. Yet they suspect nothing. To them the separation is quite real.
To them God’s teachers come, to represent another choice which they had forgotten. The simple presence of a teacher of God is a reminder. His thoughts ask for the right to question what the patient has accepted as true.”
We also read these two sentences from “Beyond Perception”:
“Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation. Correct perception of your brother is necessary, because minds have chosen to see themselves as separate.” (ACIM, T-3.V.9:1-2)
In our conversation about our respective elderly forgetful and hallucinating mothers, we touched on our non-lucid thinking that makes the big hallucination – the grand illusion a.k.a. the tiny mad idea that the separation from our Creator and each other is real – seem believable. This shared hallucination that puts us all on the same level playing (dreaming) field will also become our shared undoing achievement as we become not only proficient in true forgiveness, but also when it becomes second nature. This seems a daunting goal, yet our beloved ACIM “Inner Kindness Teacher” reminds us that this is not only possible, but happily inevitable for every part of creation, including everyone we’ve ever known or thought about, and every seemingly separate aspect of mind in creation which is actually beyond space and time, despite our stubborn beliefs to the contrary.
“And is it not a kindness to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He would teach, instead of trying to dismiss His words, and substitute your own in place of His?” (ACIM, W-198.5:3)
Achieving this grand undoing requires listening to and allowing the Holy Spirit‘s mental corrections more and more consistently. We need to bring our polarized, polarizing, divided, and divisive thoughts to the Holy Spirit’s universal corrective remedy, which consists of noticing that we’re not ever upset for the reason we think … and that we can see peace instead of whatever seems to be bothering us.
“Only the mind can create because spirit has already been created, and the body is a learning device for the mind. Learning devices are not lessons in themselves. Their purpose is merely to facilitate learning. The worst a faulty use of a learning device can do is to fail to facilitate learning. It has no power in itself to introduce actual learning errors. The body, if properly understood, shares the invulnerability of the Atonement to two-edged application. This is not because the body is a miracle, but because it is not inherently open to misinterpretation. The body is merely part of your experience in the physical world. Its abilities can be and frequently are overevaluated. However, it is almost impossible to deny its existence in this world. Those who do so are engaging in a particularly unworthy form of denial. The term ‘unworthy’ here implies only that it is not necessary to protect the mind by denying the unmindful. If one denies this unfortunate aspect of the mind’s power, one is also denying the power itself.” (ACIM, T-2.IV.3:1-13)
By not denying our experiences in the physical world of space, time, bodies, and specifics, and bringing these interpreted experiences (which really only exist in our minds) to the Holy Spirit’s correcting light of forgiveness, we make full use of our mathematically perfect classroom scripts that can deliver us from the insanity of duality as quickly as we’re willing to accept our real, eternally shared Identity.
We can stay lucidly mindful more frequently when we give “nod to God (ACIM, T-24.VI.12:4)” … when we remember that we’re “here only to be truly helpful” (ACIM, T-2.V-A.18:2)… when I remember that my sole responsibility is to accept the Atonement for myself (which of course includes everyone, since the Course is purely non-dual)… when I remember to be kind, patient, and gentle with ourselves (again, inclusive of everyone) as we forgive what never happened. We can practice the wisdom of J. Krishnamurti, who, when asked about his “secret of happiness” (or something equivalent), said:
“I don’t mind what happens.”
When we notice how much we do mind what seems to happen to us, that’s our golden opportunity to undo our projections and realize that we’ve chosen a thought system (ego) that is hell-bent on enslaving us with sin, guilt, and fear, while our Inner ego-free presence in our mind counsels calmly that our reality is eternally free of impossible criminality. We just need to stop blocking the light!
This video was recorded on Thursday, August 28, 2025.
Jackie (and colleagues from a prior ACIMblog post: Leon Joel Russell, who also has an excellent “May The Course Be With You” YouTube channel and Facebook Group on ACIM – and musician Neda Boin) will be two of the many featured speakers at the Remembering The Kingdom ACIM Festival, Derbyshire, UK, 11-14 September 2025.
Check out Jackie’s True Forgiveness Teachings podcast here. These readings provide a platform to discuss a variety of helpful ideas and practices from the non-dual metaphysics of A Course in Miracles. Jackie has conducted insightful video interviews with Gary Renard and numerous others. She and her sister, Cindy Lora-Renard, facilitate classes on ACIM in addition to equally well-regarded workshops on “The Course.” Jackie’s first book, All Peace, No Pieces – available in audiobook form – is a valuable addition to any Course student’s library, regardless of their level of familiarity with the Course’s ideas, with some fun and insightful metaphors from the Wizard of Oz movie. Here are more ACIM-related conversations with Jackie Lora Jones and Bruce Rawles.
Jackie Lora Jones