The power of decision is my own (Workbook Lesson 152) SFACIM class conversation with Bruce Rawles

In this School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) video conversation, we reviewed Workbook Lesson 152 of A Course In Miracles.

Here are the first 3 paragraphs of Lesson 152:

Lesson 152, “The Power of Decision Is My Own,” was explored as a profound reminder that salvation is found at the level of the mind, not in changing the circumstances of the world. The lesson begins with uncompromising statements: no one suffers pain, grief, fear, sickness, or death without having chosen the underlying thought system that gives those experiences meaning. This can sound harsh or extreme if understood as a claim that an individual personality consciously chooses every event in form. The group emphasized that the Course is speaking instead about the mind’s fundamental choice between the ego and the Holy Spirit. The decision-making mind—not the body or the personal self—chooses how experience will be interpreted.

The ego persuades us that the world is outside us and that its events determine our inner state. We believe illness, aging, loss, conflict, pain, and other people’s behavior cause fear or unhappiness. The Course reverses this apparent sequence. The world is the projection or reflection of a prior choice in the mind. When we choose the ego, we see a world of separation, vulnerability, victimhood, and conflict. When we choose the Holy Spirit for our interpretation of the world, the forms may still appear much the same, but their meaning changes. Rather than proof that we are abandoned, guilty, or threatened, they can become opportunities to remember that peace remains available by forgiving ourselves for wanting to be separate, and choosing a masochistic thought system that needs a constant supply of blame targets, even though the crime it accuses everyone of is impossible in truth.

This distinction is especially important in confronting sickness, aging, and death. Several participants spoke candidly about physical pain, medical conditions, memory loss, fear of dying, and the practical use of medication. The discussion did not suggest denying symptoms or refusing helpful treatment. “Magic,” in Course terminology, may still be useful at the level of form when it is approached with kindness rather than panic or guilt. Taking medicine, seeking medical advice, or making a practical decision can be a loving response within the dream. The important question is not whether one does something in form, but which teacher (either ego or Holy Spirit) we ask to interpret the situation.

One participant described asking Jesus for help during a painful episode—not necessarily for a miraculous change in the body, but for guidance about how to proceed. This led to a practical insight about what might help with the pain without causing unwanted side effects. The experience illustrated a central point: the Holy Spirit does not manipulate form to help us. Help comes through a shift in purpose and perception. We can make sensible choices while recognizing that our peace does not ultimately depend on the outcome.

The group also reflected on the Course’s use of the word “oblivion.” From the ego’s perspective, bodily decline, forgetfulness, or death can seem terrifyingly close to annihilation. Yet in the Course’s metaphysics, the whole world of separation is already a kind of oblivion: an attempt to extinguish awareness of God, love, our true Identity. We cannot actually destroy that awareness, but we can believe we have hidden it. Therefore, the most meaningful alternative to oblivion is not preserving the body forever; it is becoming less lost in the body and more aware of ourselves as mind. Looking at fear with Jesus, without judgment, makes it possible to be aware of fear without being entirely defined by it.

This was described as being “unafraidly afraid”: allowing fear to be present without adding condemnation, denial, or further fear. The ego’s currency is fear, while the Holy Spirit’s response is forgiveness. Looking at fear with forgiveness does not pretend it is absent. It acknowledges the experience honestly while declining to make it proof of reality, guilt, or separation. This nonjudgmental awareness can be deeply consoling. A frightened person may still seem to be present, but one is no longer completely imprisoned within that identity.

Lesson 152 (and the entire Course) insists that truth cannot have exceptions. If truth is true, then its opposite cannot also be true. Love and perfect holiness cannot coexist with fear, sickness, loss, and death as ultimate realities. The ego finds this difficult, even offensive, because it wants some parts of its world to remain real. It may give lip service to the idea that truth is true in an abstract way, but always vehemently resists the further implication that nothing else is true. The ego wants contrast: some pleasure better than some pain, some situations safer than others, some forms more valuable than others. It treats these comparisons as proof that the world matters.

The Course, however, makes a “vertical” distinction rather than a worldly (“horizontal“) one: truth versus illusion, reality versus unreality. The Holy Spirit does not ask us to compare one illusion with another to find salvation. An improved circumstance may be welcome, but it is not the same as peace. Both favorable and unfavorable situations can be used by the ego to reinforce separation. The real contrast is between the restless, judgmental ego state and the quiet peace that reflects our true home in God.

We can experience peace in our ordinary lives by allowing every specific situation to be part of our forgiveness curriculum. “Resting in God” is not dramatic or mystical. It may appear simply as a clear mind, a settled heart, a lack of preoccupation, and a quiet capacity to do everyday things. One may wash dishes, take a walk, or speak with another person while feeling inwardly at rest. When agitation, resentment, urgency, or anxiety returns, the contrast can serve as useful information. Rather than evidence of failure, an upset is like a rumble strip on the road: a signal that the mind has drifted and can be gently redirected.

The group extended this metaphor playfully. Ideally, one notices the rumble strip before reaching the curb, scraping the wheel, or crashing into the guardrail. But even the guardrail is helpful if it leads to a new choice. The Holy Spirit provides no final dead end. There are always additional “safety nets,” no matter how far we seem to have wandered into guilt or distress. The recurring Course reminder—“I am never upset for the reason I think”—is always available. It invites us to pause, question our interpretation, and become willing to see peace instead.

The lesson’s teaching that all transitory states are false raised an important concern. If grief, pain, and misery are not ultimately true, does that minimize or dismiss lived experience? Definitely not. The Course does not ask us to use metaphysics as a spiritual bypass. It meets us in the condition in which we believe ourselves to be. We must look honestly at what seems to be happening, including suffering and fear, but look with the Holy Spirit rather than with judgment. Metaphysics functions as a diagnostic tool: it helps us recognize that our real problem is not an event in the world but the mind’s belief that it is separate from God, or more accurately, our wanting to be a separate self.

This perspective does not deny that violence, loss, illness, and fear seem to occur. It changes their meaning. Instead of asking how to prove that the world is unreal, we can ask what our upset reveals about the thought system we have chosen. The only two thought systems are: (1) the insanity of the ego, or (2) the sane correction of the Holy Spirit. The body may still feel discomfort, just as a mosquito bite may still itch, but suffering about the discomfort can be transformed. We need not deny the experience; we need only become willing to question the story we attach to it.

The lesson also redefines humility and arrogance. The ego’s usual version of humility is to see oneself as small, weak, sinful, guilty, ashamed, and at the mercy of forces beyond one’s control. Yet the Course calls this arrogance because it treats our own judgment about what we are as truer than God’s. To accept ourselves as little, damaged, or guilty is to claim that we have successfully changed what God created. True humility is the opposite: accepting our rightful place as God’s changeless, innocent, loving Son. This is not self-inflation or spiritual grandiosity. It is the quiet acknowledgment that truth is true and that we did not create ourselves.

The ego is arrogant not only when it boasts but also when it suffers self-righteously. It can wear what one participant called a “crown of suffering,” treating depression, anxiety, victimhood, and unfair treatment as evidence of specialness. It may make a large identity from pain, shame, or spiritual accomplishment. Even becoming proud of being a Course student (or comparing ourselves with other Course students or anyone else) can be another ego strategy. The corrective is not to attack the ego, body, or self-concept. They are not evil, sinful, or wicked; they are simply mistaken and, in that sense, silly. Ken Wapnick frequently reminds us that choosing the ego is just silly and not deserving of condemnation, but rather, patience and gentleness. Condemning others (which is always projection of our own hidden self-condemnation) only makes the ego seem more real and formidable.

Behind many forms of upset lies a painful thought: “I hate being what I am.” A perceived attack from another person may trigger anger and the urge to retaliate, but beneath this is often self-hatred, guilt, or shame. We feel bad about ourselves and then project the cause onto someone else. These self-condemning thoughts and feelings actually are at a deep, ontological level, but seem to involve specifics in our world because our egos will do anything to keep us from seeing the real source of our misery – our wanting to identify with it! Forgiveness means using the experience as a mirror. We do not have to explain it away or force ourselves into positivity. We bring the feeling to Jesus or the Holy Spirit and allow its deeper meaning to be revealed. When the shift occurs, we may find that the suffering self temporarily disappears into a more peaceful awareness. This does not necessarily change external circumstances, but it demonstrates that the insane ego identity built on guilt was never true.

The power of decision is therefore our way home. In Heaven, no decision between thought systems is needed, because only truth exists. But once the tiny mad idea of separation seemed to arise, the decision maker became the means of returning. Our responsibility is not to fix the world or force ourselves to feel spiritual. It is to recognize that we have been choosing the ego’s interpretation and to ask for help in choosing again. The Holy Spirit, Jesus, or God can be understood in the way most helpful to us; what matters is learning not to rely on the ego to interpret our experience.

The lesson’s practice is simple: begin the day (or any moment) by reminding ourselves, “The power of decision is my own. ⁴This day I will accept myself as what my Father’s Will created me to be.” (ACIM, W-152.11:3-4). Then wait quietly, letting self-deceptions be laid aside. Throughout the day, or when the initially inevitable mind-wandering occurs, patiently repeat the invitation. God’s Voice will replace frantic thoughts with peace, self-deceptions with truth, and the illusion of a separate self with the remembrance of our all-inclusive shared identity; the undifferentiated being that is eternally innocent and inseparable.

The movement from “my own” to “our own” matters. The decision is never private in its effects. To recognize the Son of God – our all-inclusive shared identity – in oneself implies recognizing Him in everyone. Because we tend to exclude certain people or groups from this mental blessing, it initially seems impossible. But the Course asks us to consider that perhaps the ego’s condemning verdict of guilt onto everyone is actually what is impossible. Forgiveness welcomes back those whom we have excluded through judgment. As we turn toward the light, we do not create the warmth and luminance ourselves; we simply receive and share the radiant inner light that we are always given. The lesson closes not with pressure to achieve perfection, but with an invitation to rest: to choose, again and again, the peace of God in place of the frantic ego thought system.

Editor’s note: Above is an edited AI (ChatGPT) generated summary of an abridged text transcript of the YouTube recording. I’m still exploring the use of AI to summarize and organize lengthy text material. If you find this helpful, or have any suggestions or thoughts about the content above, please let me know. Your feedback is always appreciated! My intention is to provide useful insights and information related to ACIM. I found this summary quite good and didn’t change much; just a few minor adjustments and additions to enhance clarity and coherence with the Course’s teachings.

(This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise. This YouTube video recording was made on Monday, June 1, 2026.)