Week 73: 9/7/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-31.VII. Recognizing the Spirit
    • ​When you hear that the sight of the other world will be given you if you merely choose to recognize the spirit rather than see the flesh, what are your reactions?
    • Does it motivate you? Does it seem daunting? Does it seem believable?
  • T-31.VII. Focusing on the Good
    • ​When you imagine giving the self-concept you want to have to others, giving them a self-concept in which they are good, innocent, and trustworthy, what thoughts and feelings does that bring up?
    • Can you detect any resistance?
    • If so, what do you think that resistance is about?
  • T-31.VIII. The Savior’s Vision
    • ​Have you felt a calling in this world before?
    • This section affirms that we are called to a function here, but it also expands and deepens the concept of our function. What are some ways in which this section does that?
    • In light of it, how might you see your own function differently?
  • T-31.IX. Choose Once Again
    • ​Based on this section, what kinds of things might you tell yourself the next time you face a trying situation?
  • Review: Chapter 31
Week 72: 8/29/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-31.II. The Passing of an Ancient Learning
    • ​Do you find there are places in life where you want to be the leader and then other places where you want to be the follower?
    • According to this section, what toll does that take on you?
    • What toll does it take on your brother?
    • What is the alternative offered in this section to this choice between leader and follower?
  • T-31.III. The Sleeping Prisoner
    • ​When you contemplate the task of overlearning the idea that “You never hate your brother for his sins, but only for your own,” how do you feel?
    • How would you go about overlearning that idea?
    • What might you tell yourself to give yourself the motivation to do this?
  • T-31.IV. The Real Alternative
    • ​A central focus in this section is that we have already learned that all roads in this world lead to the same despairing outcome, but we are reluctant to take the logical step and leave them all behind.
    • Do you feel that some version of that struggle is going on inside yourself?
    • Can you think of any examples where you are pursuing a road that you know really leads nowhere?
    • What, based on this section, might you tell yourself?
  • T-31.V. The Concept of the Self (paragraphs 1-8)
  • T-31.V. The Concept of the Self (paragraphs 9-17)
    • ​How have you pursued the question of “who I am?” in your life?
    • How have you tried to find yourself?
    • How much have you been guided by the thought that you do not know what you are and must open your mind and let what you are reveal itself to you?
Week 71: 8/15/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-30.VIII. One Changeless Meaning
    • ​What are the downsides, according to this section, of assigning meaning based on purposes that are changing, that are multiple, and that are unique to us?
    • Can you detect an emotional toll that those downsides take on you in daily life?
    • What is the solution, according to this section?
  • T-30.IX. Changeless Reality
    • ​When you think about appearances that you are attached to and want to make permanent, what kinds of appearances come to mind?
    • If you were given a choice between, on the one hand, keeping a desired appearance and blocking the miracle from coming and removing undesired appearances, and, on the other hand, preferring your brother’s reality to all appearances and thus allowing the miracle to heal any of them, what would you say?
  • Cameo 30 “As You See Him You Will See Yourself”
    • ​Can you think of any duties you have in your life that you can’t shirk yet that imply that the person on the other end is not the Son of God? What would this section have you do about those duties?
  • Review: Chapter 30
  • T-31.I. The Simplicity of Salvation
    • ​What are you personally taking away from this section about your own difficulties in learning the Course’s lessons?
Week 70: 8/8/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-30.III. The Search for Completion
    • ​What is the reasoning this section gives for saying that an idol will never make us feel complete?
    • Does that fit with our experience?
    • What have been some of our biggest disappointments on the idols front--idols that we hoped would deliver everything but fell sadly short of that?
  • T-30.IV. The Thought God Holds of You
    • ​How do you feel about the idea of being a thought of God?
    • What are the positives that you can see in that idea?
  • T-30.V. The Toys of Fear
    • ​Can you think of any examples where you have gone through the cycle Jesus mentions here: You set rules for how a certain idol should behave; it obeys those rules for a time and you feel pleasure; but then it stops obeying the rules and you feel fear, hurt, and anger?
    • What is this section asking you to accept about this idol?
  • T-30.VI. The Cost of Idols
    • ​Try to think of an idol that you are afraid you will have to give up on the spiritual path. Now try to look back on your experience with it in complete honesty.
    • Has it brought you just pleasure?
    • Or has it also come with certain downsides?
    • Has it truly been, as Jesus says, “free from bitter cost and joyless consequence” (8:9)?
  • T-30.VII. Forgiveness Is Always Justified
    • ​Think of someone you have difficulty forgiving. Now ask yourself, “Do I feel like this person deserves my forgiveness?” 
    • What is your answer--on an emotional level, not on the level of your formal beliefs?
    • If, on that same emotional level, you felt like this person really deserved your forgiveness, would it be easier for you to give it?
Week 69: 8/1/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-29.X. The Dream of Judgment
    • ​Imagine that all the difficulties the world has thrown your way, including all the betrayals from who and what you thought would protect you, are penalties you laid upon yourself for your judgments.
    • If you really try to let that in...what does it bring up for you?
    • What does it make you want to do in order to get out of this painful cycle?
  • Review: Chapter 29
  • T-30.I. Rules for Decision (paragraphs 1-9)
  • T-30.I. Rules for Decision (paragraphs 10-18)
    • ​How do you feel about the prospect of doing this practice?
    • Have you done it before? If so, how well did you stick with it?
    • Did it result in a different kind of day?
  • T-30.II. Your Boundless Will
    • ​Does this section change your ideas about freedom?
    • What do you normally think freedom consists of?
    • How does this section alter those conventional views of freedom?
Week 68: 7/25/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-29.V. Dream Roles
    • ​Think about someone you have been upset with recently, perhaps someone you are unhappy with on an ongoing basis. Now ask “What function did I assign to this person that they failed to fulfill?”
    • Does a function come readily to mind? 
    • What happens in your mind when you think that this person only failed your idea of them, the function you assigned them?
  • T-29.VI. The Changeless Dwelling Place
    • ​When you contemplate the idea that there is a place in you where this world has been forgotten and where “The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace,” how do you feel about that?
    • When you consider that that same place lies in the person you judge, dismiss, or do not like, how do you feel about that?
  • T-29.VII. Swear Not to Die
    • ​This section is saying that to the extent we see a world that confronts us with dangers, illness, and death, and that inspires in us mistrust and fear, this reflects an ancient promise we made, a promise both to kill and to die.
    • Can we take in the idea that to the extent we see a dangerous world, this simply reflects our hidden promise to kill and to die?
    • What thoughts and feelings come up in us when we try to take that in?
  • T-29.VIII. Seek Not Outside Yourself
    • ​What lessons have you learned through life experience that external things cannot make you truly happy, that happiness is a matter of what’s on the inside?
    • Can you think of specific moments or situations where you learned some piece of this crucial lesson?
  • T-29.IX. What Is an Idol?
    • ​Do you find that Jesus is right about idols in relation to others--that they replace others as our main priority and that their purpose is to push others beneath us, by granting us more than others possess?
    • Where have you seen these principles at work? Can you think of any examples?
Week 67: 7/18/22
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 28
  • T-29.I. The Cautious Friendship
    • ​When was the last time your body in some way puts a limit on your interaction or relationship with another?
    • Can you imagine that your body was simply an excuse for a hidden desire on your part to be separate?
    • If so, what kind of changes does this incline you to make going forward?
  • ​ T-29.II. The Coming of the Guest
    • ​Are there gifts that have come into your life because you have accepted this path--holy instants, inner shifts, guidance, people sent into your life, miracles that you have given, wisdom, love, forgiveness, peace?
    • How do you feel when you consider that these gifts are the proof that you invited your Guest to come to you and that He has come and is here now?
  • ​T-29.III. The Body’s Nothingness
    • ​Can we get in touch with ways that we have blamed our body?
    • For instance, have we blamed its instincts and needs for our mistreatment of others? Have we blamed it for not being good enough for us? Have we blamed it for not making us happy? Have we blamed it for making us separate from others and from God? What ways can you get in touch with in which you have blamed your body?
    • Now, when you remind yourself that it is nothing, what do you feel?
  • ​T-29.IV. The Spark that Shines Within the Dream
    • ​Have you ever experienced someone’s love and forgiveness healing you on the inside? Are you willing to share an example?
    • When that happened, did you respond to them with gratitude, and love and forgive them in return, thereby healing them on the inside? If so, realize that that was an example of “the spark that shines within the dream.”
    • What implications does this have for your life going forward?
Week 66: 7/12/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-28.III. The Feast of Plenty
    • ​Think of someone you know who is sick or has been recently. Now imagine being with this person and saying silently in your mind, “I do not agree with your belief that you are separate from me.”
    • Can you imagine holding that in your mind while still being visibly caring toward them--emotionally and even physically?
  • T-28.IV. Separating the Dreamer from the Dream
    • ​What do you think it means to stand apart from a brother’s dreams, while at the same time joining with him?
    • Can you think of any examples of this, either hypothetical or actual?
  • T-28.V. Share Not Evil Dreams
    • ​What examples can you think of where we see things that are not real?
    • Based on this section, what can these examples tell us about the world we see before us now?
  • T-28.VI. The Secret Vow
    • ​Think of a sickness or infirmity you carry in your body. Then imagine that it’s a case of you punishing your body for things that you directed it to do.
    • What thoughts and feelings does that bring up?
    • What do you find yourself wanting to do to alleviate your condition?
  • T-28.VII. The Ark of Safety
    • ​According to this section, what can you do that will guarantee the health of your body and alleviate the need to spend so much time maintaining, protecting, and repairing it?
Week 65: 6/27/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-27.X. Laughing Away the Tiny, Mad Idea
    • ​Have you ever experienced a kind of higher laughter, where you don’t deny the gravity of some situation in the world, but you find a way to laugh at it from a higher perspective, a perspective in which it takes on a genuine levity?
    • Have you heard any stories, perhaps, in which such a thing happened?
  • T-27.XI. The Secret of Salvation
    • ​Think of a situation in which someone attacked you, either once or repeatedly over a long period. Now imagine that their body (not their mind) is just a figure in your dream of this world, and that you, as the dreamer, have asked that dream figure to attack you, as a reflection of what you believe you did in the distant past.
    • Does that change how you feel about what happened? If so, in what way?
  • Review: Chapter 27
  • T-28.I. Remembering the Present
    • ​Memory seems like an unquestioned good. But based on this section, what are the downsides of memory?
    • How does the concept of remembering the present strike you?
    • How does the idea of remembering God--as if God is in your mind but has simply been forgotten--strike you?
  • T-28.II. Reversing Effect and Cause
    • ​Think of some sickness you have had or some problem in your life.
    • Then tell yourself, “I caused this, as a reflection of my original attack.”
    • Then say, “This is really nothing, for I caused it apart from God.”
    • Do these two statements make you feel different about this sickness or problem? In what way?
Week 64: 6/20/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-27.V. The Quiet Answer
    • ​Have you ever had a question that was answered by guidance, and the answer was something that had never occurred to you, something that was not on your list of options?
  • T-27.VI. The Transfer of Your Healing
    • ​If you are concerned about some situation in the world, perhaps a war, what would this section say that you can do to contribute to the healing of it?
  • T-27.VII. Sin’s Witnesses
    • ​Can you think of evidence, either in your own experience or in someone else’s, that “pain” and “pleasure” are just names, and that our labeling or interpretation of sensations can actually change the sensations?
  • T-27.VIII. The Cause of Suffering
    • ​It is difficult to see ourselves as the cause of our own suffering. But what, according to this section, is the advantage of us doing so?
    • Have you ever experienced benefit from taking responsibility as the cause of your own suffering?
  • T-27.IX. The Dreamer of the Dream
    • ​Is there someone in your life with whom you generally overlook their kindnesses, thoughtfulness, and helpfulness and dwell instead on their mistakes?
    • According to this section, what are the results of dreaming about this person in this spiteful way?
Week 63: 6/14/22
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 26
  • T-27.I. The Picture of Crucifixion
    • ​Have you ever caught yourself exaggerating the hurt that you experienced or the wrong that was done to you?
    • How do you feel when you consider that you did this for the very reason that Jesus talks about here--because you want to tell another, “Behold me, brother, at your hand I die”?
    • What comes up for you when you consider that all the hurts you ever experienced were examples of this desire?
  • T-27.II. Proof of Innocence
    • ​Think of some physical malady you have currently or had in the past. Now ask yourself, “Who does this send a message of blame to?” Or “Who takes away a message of blame from this illness?”
    • Do any names come to mind?
    • If so, what would this section say you should do?
  • T-27.III. Leaving Correction to Him
    • ​Is there someone in your life that you can’t help but frequently correct?
    • What do you think would happen if you took a vacation from all the correcting and instead just focused on forgiving them and giving them the message that they are forgiven and whole?
  • T-27.IV. Power Unopposed
    • ​What are some of the contradictions that we see in people we know? We might, for instance, know someone who is both kind and vindictive. We might know someone who is objective yet can also be fiercely biased.
    • Now let’s go deeper. What are some of the contradictions that are so basic we see them in everyone? One example would good and evil. Another would be flesh and spirit. Can you think of any others?
    • How would the section have us view all of these contradictions?
Week 62: 6/6/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-26.VII. Review of the Laws of Healing (paragraphs 1-9
  • T-26.VII. Review of the Laws of Healing (paragraphs 10-18)
    • ​Have you ever had the sense that you were being called to be a healer?
    • How does it feel when you consider that God is calling you now to be a healer in some sense, because you literally have the power to save His Son?
  • T-26.VIII. The Immediacy of Salvation
    • ​Can you think of a situation in your life where you are holding back on forgiveness because you don’t think the other person will quickly forgive you in return?
    • Can you detect in yourself a reluctance to join with that person?
    • How does it feel to consider that that is the real reason you are holding back with your forgiveness?
  • T-26.IX. For They Have Come
    • ​Can you think of any examples, whether in your life or in someone else’s, where a single act of forgiveness and joining led to a healing beyond those two people?
    • How does it feel to think that that healing beyond them occurred because their forgiveness had invited the presence of God and Christ to join them?
  • T-26.X. Realizing Their Presence
    • ​Think of a person who in your eyes took something important from you and imagine that you yourself caused that experience of loss and then projected that cause within yourself onto this other person.
    • How does that make the situation seem different?
Week 61: 5/23/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-26.II. Release from Every Problem
    • ​Are there people in your life where you are just itching to see them lose and rejoice when it actually happens?
    • Are there people in your life where you rely on their constant sacrifice for you, which you see as the role they deserve?
    • You don’t need to name these people out loud, but go ahead and name them in your mind. Now take one of them and imagine releasing that person from every demand that they lose so you can gain.
    • Are there any problems that you imagine suddenly clearing up as a result? Let your imagination run wild.
  • T-26.III. The Borderland
    • ​What is a choice you are currently wrestling with that Jesus would say is just a choice between illusions?
    • What is a choice you are standing before that Jesus would say is a real choice, a choice between illusion and truth?
    • How does that latter choice look different to you when you realize that there are not two options, since one of them is unreal, which implies that there is no choice?
  • T-26.IV. Where Sin Once Was
    • ​Think of someone you hold some fairly deep resentments toward, perhaps because of years of mistreatment at their hands. Now tell yourself that you can have the scenario painted in this section--being surrounded by a world of glory, standing on holy ground, hearing the lights of Heaven singing an unbearably beautiful song. All you need to do is truly forgive this person.
    • What comes up in your mind when you think that?
  • T-26.V. The Little Hindrance
    • ​If you really accepted that your entire journey is over and that you are merely reviewing it from the point at which it ended, how would you live differently?
    • How would you feel differently?
  • T-26.VI. Your Only Friend
    • ​Can you think of an external illusion that you grant an enormous amount of time, energy, and thought to?
    • Try to locate just one. Now ask yourself, Who is displaced by this illusion?
    • What would it mean to give this brother or sister their rightful place on the throne?
Week 60: 5/16/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-25.VIII. Justice Returned to Love
    • ​What is your reaction to the idea that love and justice are the same?
    • What potential drawbacks come up in your mind?
    • What benefits do you see? How do you think this idea would change our world?
  •  T-25.IX. A Witness to Sinlessness
    • ​When this section says that the Holy Spirit is asking you to be the one witness that love and justice are the same, what reasons does your mind give that you couldn’t be that person?
    • What reasons can you give that you could?
  • T-25.X. The Justice of Miracles
    • ​Think of a concrete problem in your life that you are currently grappling with. What is this section saying about the real source of this problem?
    • What is it saying about its real and ultimate solution?
  • Review: Chapter 25
  • T-26.I. The Sacrifice of Oneness
    • ​If you have made a “sacrifice of oneness,” that implies that by giving up oneness, you have experienced loss. What forms of your own emotional pain do you think might be symptoms of this loss of oneness?
    • What is the solution to this loss, according to this section?
Week 59: 5/9/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-25.III. The Two Makers of the World
    • ​All of us see a world that, at least at times, justifies our attack. What thoughts and feelings arise in you when you hear that you only see attack as justified because you secretly want to feel guilty?
  • T-25.IV. The Light You Bring
    • ​If the world is full of “tired hearts that look on sin and beat its sad refrain,” what, according to this section, can we do for those people to make their hearts glad?
  • T-25.V. Christ Stands Before You
    • ​When you think that your choice to see the Christ in someone sets them free to perform their true function in this world, do any individuals come to mind--particular people who you know could be set free by your perception of them as genuinely holy and sinless?
    • How can you turn it around and see the Christ in them instead of what you see now?
  • T-25.VI. The Special Function
    • ​What does this topic of “special function” bring up for you?
    • Have you wanted a special part in God’s plan?
    • Have you had a sense of what it is? Do you feel you have found it?
    • What new slant would this section put on this topic for you?
  • T-25.VII. God Is Not Insane
    • ​Have you ever received--or given--the message that living a life of defenseless love is foolish, even crazy?
    • What specific examples come to mind?
    • What do you think this section would say in answer to those messages?
Week 58: 5/2/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-24.VI. Your Brother’s Holiness
    • ​Have you told yourself that pursuing the Course’s goals is too hard?
    • Imagine everything specialness asks of you--gaining special achievements, a special position, special recognition, a special partner, special friends and acquaintances, special abilities, a special body and appearance, special knowledge, a special amount of money, special possessions, a special life.
    • Now compare that with the time and effort that the Course asks of you. Which asks more?
  • T-24.VII. Your Own Beloved Son
    • ​Can you relate to the idea that you have treated your specialness as your own beloved son?
    • What main forms has this taken in your life?
    • When Jesus says that all of the tribute, love, care, and deep concern you have given specialness really belongs to your brother, is there a particular someone that comes to mind?
  • Review: Chapter 24​
  • T-25.I. Framed in Holiness
    • ​Have you ever longed to make light and holiness manifest through your body and its actions?
    • If so, what would this section tell you to do to allow that to happen?
  • T-25.II. God’s Masterpiece
    • ​If you saw someone as being literally God’s masterpiece, in what ways would you see her that are different from how you see her now?
    • In what ways would you treat her that are different from how you treat her now?
    • It might help to think of a particular person you know, imagine seeing that person as being literally God’s masterpiece, and then ask yourself these questions again.
Week 57: 4/18/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-24.II. The Treachery of Specialness
    • ​Can you think of someone you have chained to your specialness, so that their job has been to play second fiddle to it and serve it?
    • How do you feel when you contemplate that you have thereby chained your savior, making them unable to carry out their job of saving you?
  • T-24.III. Forgiveness as the End of Specialness
    • ​What forms of specialness have you felt that God could have given you but didn’t? Be as honest with yourself as you can.
    • Imagine that you forgive God by forgiving the people you unconsciously feel were His instruments in depriving you of specialness. Who are those people? You don't need to name them out loud, but you are invited to at least name them in your mind.
  • T-24.IV. The Shift in Purpose
    • ​Think of a problematic person in your life and ask yourself the following: “Do I really wish to see him (or her) sinless?” 
    • What thoughts and feelings come up in response?
    • If you feel any sense of reservation, can you detect that it’s because you fear losing some kind of specialness?
    • If so, what is the exact nature of the specialness you would lose?
  • Cameo 29: Iambic Pentameter
    • ​If you think of the Course as poetry--as written in a well-known form of poetic meter--how does that affect your picture of it? How do you see it now as a result?
  • T-24.V. The Christ in You
    • ​When Jesus speaks of using Christ’s eyes, ears, hands, and feet as your own, what do you think that would mean in more literal, non-poetic terms?
    • What would it mean to see with Christ’s eyes, to hear with His ears, to use His hands, to use His feet?
    • Which one of the four do you find most appealing and why?
Week 56: 4/11/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-23.III. The Laws of Chaos (paragraphs 11-23)
    • ​Please look over the laws of chaos once more. Which ones of them stands out to you as something you have followed in your life, even if you would put it in different words?
  • T-23.IV. Above the Battleground
    • ​How do you feel when you contemplate the idea that you have been hiding your attacks from yourself by putting them in “nice” forms, by expressing them with a smile?
    • Does this make you uncomfortable?
  • Cameo 28: The Blue-Gray Bird
    • ​Do you think it possible that you have been standing before the same lesson for your entire life?
    • Do you have a sense of what that lesson might be?
  • Review: Chapter 23
  • T-24.I. The Hidden Belief in Specialness
    • ​Do you feel the urge to minimize your own investment in specialness or to dilute specialness itself by saying that it also means being below others?
    • If so, that is proof of what Jesus is saying--that it is the premier “hidden belief.” Why do you think you might want to hide your belief in it?
Week 55: 4/4/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-22.IX. Only the Different Can Attack
    • ​Have you ever had an experience where a thought or a feeling seemed to transfer between you and another even without physical communication? If you can think of a specific example, please consider sharing it with us.
  • Review: Chapter 22
  • T-23.I. Walk You in Glory
    • ​Can you see ways in which you walk the world looking out for sources of danger and sin and then reacting to them? What specific examples come to mind?
    • If you want to instead walk the world in glory, with your head held high, fearing no evil, what would this section say that you should do?
  • T-23.II. The War Against Yourself
    • ​Think of a conflict that you are in now or have been in recently. Note how it seems to be a real conflict between you and the other person. Now realize that it is a conflict between two illusions--an illusion of yourself and an illusion of the other person. In truth, you are both as one. That is your reality.
    • Does seeing the conflict as being between two illusions--rather than two realities--make your conflict look or feel any different? If so, please describe the difference.
  • T-23.III. The Laws of Chaos (paragraphs 1-10)
    • ​Where in your life are you somehow--even in your mind--attacking the truths, beliefs, and values of others?
    • What thoughts and feelings arise in you when you tell yourself that you are doing this to establish the truth of your own beliefs and values?
    • Finally, what thoughts and feelings arise when you tell yourself that these aren’t your truths, but rather, your illusions?
Week 54: 3/28/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-22. V. Beyond the Veil 
    • Who have been your main inspirations in this respect--individuals who to some degree lifted the veil and were thus able to bring the cure to everyone they encountered?
    • If you were to pick one thing that keeps you from being one of those individuals, what would it be?
  • T-22.VI. The Need to Defend
    • ​When you look at the kinds of things you become defensive about in your relationships, what are they?
    • If a series of specific things come to mind, then can you go beneath them to arrive at some kind of general principle that ties them together?
  • Cameo 27: “I Need Do Nothing”
    • ​Are there any looming “calamities” in your life right now that you are responding to more or less like Helen did to the anticipated strike?
    • Based on this section, what would be a better way to respond?
  • T-22.VII. I Need Do Nothing
    • ​What themes strike you most about this section, and why?
  • T-22.VIII. Becoming the Means to His End
    • ​What are some examples of you using your mind to contrive ways to achieve the freedom of your body--freedom to do what you want?
    • Think first about areas where you have been frustrated because you can’t do what you want, and then note how your mind has tried to think up ways of getting around this obstacle so you can do what you want.
    • Has achieving this freedom, however, brought you the ultimate release that you thought it would?
Week 53: 3/21/22
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 21
  • T-22.I. The Undoing of Differences
    • Have you ever been in a relationship where you were living with your “bodies perhaps beneath a common roof that shelters neither, in the same room and yet a world apart”? What thoughts and feelings arise when you imagine that this experience resulted from your thought system that said, “You have what I lack and I’m going to take it from you”?
  • T-22.II. Christ Reborn into His Ancient Home
    • Have you ever felt like the Course was an alien language that you could never learn? When you imagine that it is in fact your native tongue and you are just a baby right now, what does that imply about your future in regard to learning the language and teaching of the Course?
  • T-22.III. The Escape from Misery
    • What is your reaction when you hear that, to find salvation, you must see everyone--without a single exception--as perfectly innocent? If your reaction is one of hopelessness, how would this section have you counter that? What should you tell yourself instead? Feel free to elaborate, to go beyond the specific points made in the section.
  • T-22.IV. Seeing Past the Form of Error
    • ​In one of the miracle principles at the beginning of the Course, Jesus says that “Miracles are the absence of the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the physical level. That is why they heal” (T-1.17.1:1-3). In light of this section, do you feel you understand this principle better? How would you explain it now?
Week 52: 3/14/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-21.III. Faith, Belief, and Vision
    • ​If you were to decide right now to dedicate yourself to the goal of holiness, what do you think that would mean for your faith?
    • In other words, what would you now put your faith in?
    • What would that mean for your belief--what would you now believe in?
    • And what would that mean for your perception--how would you see others differently now?
  • T-21.IV. The Fear to Look Within
    • ​Have you ever felt the fear of really facing something you’ve done or some trait in yourself?
    • That is the fear of looking within and seeing sin.
    • Now take a moment and ask yourself the question, “What if I looked within and saw no sin?”
    • How does that feel? What thoughts does it spark in you?
  • T-21.V. Reason as the Undoing of Insanity
    • ​Based on the spiritual teachings you have taken in, how have you thought about reason?
    • Can you see how much the ego resists reason, how it sees what it wants to see and is often astonishingly resistant to evidence and facts?
    • Do any examples come to mind?
  • T-21.VI. What Reason Tells You
    • ​Have there been people in your life whom you wanted to help, but felt powerless to do so?
    • What happens in you when you think that, because minds are joined, if you accept healing into your own mind, that has the power to change their whole mind?
    • What are your reactions to that idea?
  • T-21.VII. The Last Unanswered Question
    • ​Ask yourself, “Do I want to see the world I have denied for the simple reason that it’s the truth?”
    • Ask it a few more times in your mind: “Do I want to see the world I have denied for the simple reason that it’s the truth?”
    • Be sensitive to the subtle reactions in your mind to this question. What are those reactions?
    • Do you feel a hesitance or resistance to answering with a wholehearted yes?
Week 51: 3/7/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-20.VII. Aligning Means and End
    • ​Can you think of examples where you complained that the means to a goal were too hard, but if you had really wanted the goal without ambivalence, you would have done in a heartbeat what was asked of you?
    • What examples come to mind?
    • What thoughts and feelings come up when you think that is what is going on with you and the Course?
  • T-20.VIII. The Vision of Sinlessness
    • ​We often think that we love the world, but how many symptoms can you think of—on a personal and collective level—that ultimately come from constantly looking on a seemingly dangerous and terrifying world?
    • For example, doesn’t depression come from seeing such a world, and wouldn’t it clear up if we saw the world that Jesus says is revealed through vision?
  • Review: Chapter 20
  • T-21.I. The Forgotten Song
    • ​Have you had a sense at times that there must be some kind of paradise, some nobler estate, some sort of place you could be living in where all was harmony and love?
    • How have you sought that place throughout the course of your life?
    • How does it feel when you consider that this haunting sense you have is not a fantasy, but an actual memory?
  • T-21.II. The Power of Decision
    • ​When you try to imagine that you cause all of our perceptions of the world—including the extremely negative ones, your feelings—including the very painful ones, and even your life events, what happens in your mind?
    • If you find yourself to be resistant to this idea, how do you think the section would have you get past that resistance?
Week 50: 2/28/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-20.II. The Gift of Lilies
    • ​Have you ever felt that how someone saw you, perhaps over years, gave you the strength to be a different person or to take on a new function?
  • T-20.III. The Insanity of Adjustment
    • ​Can you think of ways in which you have inappropriately adjusted to the world, in which you have allowed it to tell you what you are, what is real, and what you can and cannot have?
  • T-20.IV. Entering the Ark
    • ​If you are trying to do good in some way in the world and you face what seems like an endless series of obstacles, let your imagination run wild a bit. Imagine that you truly accepted God’s plan “as the one function that you would fulfill.”
    • In what ways do you think that things could now be arranged for you, obstacles could be removed from your way, and seeming difficulties could melt away before you reach them? Let yourself dream some.
  • T-20.V. Heralds of Eternity
    • ​On what basis do you typically judge someone’s worth?
    • What sorts of things make them seem valuable to you?
    • How do you feel when you think that you are literally unable to evaluate their worth and that it’s impossible to overestimate it?
  • T-20.VI. The Temple of the Holy Spirit
    • Have you ever experienced a relationship where, even though you seemed to be together, you actually felt alone?
    • What do you think made you feel that way?
    • Do you think a focus on the body and on the need for the other person to feed your ego could be part of it?
Week 49: 2/21/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-19.C. The Third Obstacle: The Attraction of Death
    • ​Think of all the power that you give death--power to take people away from you and to end your own life. Now imagine that that power is not in death itself, but only in your own underlying dedication to it, even attraction to it.
    • What implications do you think would result from this idea--both implications mentioned in the section and additional ones that occur to you?
  • T-19.D. The Fourth Obstacle: The Fear of God (paragraphs 1-9)
  • T-19.D. The Fourth Obstacle: The Fear of God (paragraphs 10-21)
    • ​Try to get in touch with your fear of God. You may not think you have any, but there are ways to detect it.
      • Perhaps you consistently avoid the things God asks you to do to reach Him.
      • Perhaps you “forget” to ask for His guidance.
      • Perhaps you are afraid He will take away things that you cherish and feel protective of them.
      • Perhaps you feel yourself shying away from Him in meditation.
      • Perhaps you try to neutralize Him by seeing Him as impersonal, as a force or a void. 
      • Perhaps you avoid Him by focusing on the Holy Spirit or Jesus to the point where you don’t cultivate a relationship with Him at all.
    • Does any of this ring a bell? Now imagine that all of these really result from your fear of the unlimited life He offers and fear of breaking your promise to your chosen “friends”--the ego, sin, guilt, and death.
    • What thoughts and feelings does that bring up for you?
  • Review: Chapter 19 
  • T-20.I. Holy Week
    • ​How do you feel about this new theological approach to Holy Week, in which we place all our focus on the resurrection, not the crucifixion?
    • And how do you feel about this new practical approach to Holy Week, in which your decision to give your brother thorns or lilies has the power to delay him with crucifixion or speed him on his way to resurrection?
Week 48: 2/14/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-19.III. The Unreality of Sin
    • ​If you call to mind a certain perceived “sin” that you can’t seem to stop repeating, and then you change its status to being a mere mistake, what happens in your mind?
    • Does it look different now? In what way?
  • T-19.IV. The Obstacles to Peace + A. The First Obstacle: The Desire to Get Rid of It (Paragraphs 1-10)
    • ​As an analogy to the idea of letting peace out, have you ever had something in you that was positive, but was hidden within you and that you needed to learn to let out, so that it could freely express through you?
    • How do you feel when you think that you have peace inside of you, just waiting for you to let it out so it can bless others?
  • T-19.A. The First Obstacle: The Desire to Get Rid of It (paragraphs 11-18)
    • ​Can you relate to the image of the dogs of fear? How do your eyes behave like those dogs?
  • T-19.B. The Second Obstacle: The Belief the Body Is Valuable for What It Offers (paragraphs 1-11)
  • T-19.B. The Second Obstacle: The Belief the Body Is Valuable for What It Offers (paragraphs 12-21)​
    • Can you find in yourself the fear that the Holy Spirit will take all the pleasure and all the fun out of your life? 
    • How have you dealt with that fear? 
    • How would you like to deal with that?
Week 47: 2/7/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-18.VII. The Little Garden
    • Can you think of any real-life versions of the little garden--cases where someone allowed love into their mind, after which they became a kind of oasis in the desert, a place where weary people could come and find rest and healing?
  • T-18.VIII. The Clouds of Guilt
    • ​Can you think of things in this world that are explained by this idea that guilt is the substance of the physical world?
    • In other words, if the world is made of the clouds of guilt, what kinds of things should we expect in the world that we actually see in it?
  • Review: Chapter 18
  • T-19.I. Healing through Faith
    • ​Do you find it difficult to have faith in people? Which people in particular?
    • What perceptions of yours would this section say give rise to your faithlessness?
    • What perceptions would this section say would give you faith instead?
  • T-19.II. Sin versus Error
    • ​Based on this section, what are the signs that you believe in the concept of sin? Again, based on the section, how would you answer that belief in yourself? What would you tell yourself in order to dispel it?
Week 46: 1/31/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-18.II. Dreams as Protest Against Reality
    • ​Think about your morning dreams and realize they are a testament to your desire to make an unreal world. Then think of the moment you awaken and imagine that your desire to make an unreal world is still operating. Imagine that you awaken to “but another form of this same world you see in dreams.”
    • How does that feel?
    • What thoughts arise in you?
    • Do you find the idea depressing or hopeful? How would you like to find the idea?
  • T-18.III. The Advance to Truth
    • ​What signs can you see in your life that your journey to the light is a conflicted one, that you have an aversion to the light, in addition to your attraction to it?
    • What counsel from this section do you think you could take away to help you resolve this inner conflict?
  • T-18.IV. The Little Willingness
    • ​Can you find in yourself the thought “If I do this thing, I will be good, and then, because I’m good, the holy instant will come to me”?
    • Search your mind carefully for any forms, even subtle ones, in which this thought is present in you. 
  • T-18.V. The Ladder to Heaven
    • ​What is your approach to trying to solve conflicts between you and others?
    • How would you summarize your typical approach?
    • What do you imagine happening if instead you stopped and asked for a holy instant?
    • How would that change things, do you think?
  • T-18.VI. Beyond the Body
    • ​Have you ever had a memorable experience in which you joined with a sight--such as one of natural beauty--or a sound--like a piece of music--or an idea--one that you found inspiring?
    • What was that experience like for you?
    • How does it feel to consider the idea that this experience proves your mind is not really confined to your body?
Week 45: 1/24/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-17.VII. All-Inclusive Faith
    • ​What is your relationship with the idea of having faith in others to play their part in accomplishing the goal of truth?
    • How do you feel about your level of such faith? Do you wish you had more?
    • Has lack of faith in others caused problems for you in the past?
  • T-17.VIII. The Strain of Refusing Faith
    • ​Can you relate to the scenario outlined in this section, where the truth has shown up in your life and demonstrated its reality, and now you feel strain at refusing to give your faith to it? If so, please describe your version of this situation to us.
    • How do you feel about the idea that you have been feeling this strain your whole life, just not realizing what it was you were feeling?
  • T-17.IX. The Branch in the Road
    • ​Take a moment and reflect: Is it possible that you are standing at just such a branch in the road right now?
    • Is there a situation in your life where you have been traveling along a path made of both truth and illusion, and now you are faced with committing to one way or the other?
    • If so, what is the choice you face?
    • And what would this section say you should do about standing at the branch and delaying?
  • Review: Chapter 17
  • T-18.I. The Original Error
    • ​Think about a situation where you pushed someone out of your life and replaced that person with someone else. Now say to yourself, “This was an echo of the original error which shattered Heaven.” 
    • What thoughts and feelings does that spark in you?
    • Can you think of a way in which you could have made the change in your life you had to make without reproducing the original error?
Week 44: 1/17/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-17.III. Shadow Figures
    • Think about your relationship with someone from the past who failed to give you the love you needed.
    • If you were able to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in that relationship and that were given you, what effect do you think that would have on your feeling toward that person?
  • T-17.IV. The Two Pictures
    • When you compare the picture of the special relationship--not the experience you hope for but the experience you have--with the picture of the holy instant--your best moments of being transported into another state of mind--what observations arise from that comparison?
  • Cameo 26: Helen and Bill’s Holy Relationship
    • Have you had an experience that reminds you of Helen and Bill’s here, where you let in a higher influence, resulting in a wonderful experience, but then you realized that, now that it was in, it was asking for more change than you were comfortable with?
  • T-17.V. The Beginning of the Holy Relationship
    • Do you feel that you have had an experience in which you joined with another in a common goal and this catapulted you both into a “period of discomfort”?
    • What happened then? Did the relationship dissolve or did the two of you stay the course and work to reach the place your new goal was calling you to?
  • T-17.VI. Setting the Goal
    • ​How do you tend to enter and pass through situations?
    • Do you have a clear-cut, positive goal, set at the outset, which you then stay focused on throughout?
    • Or do you have only the vaguest idea of your goal, one that tends to switch around as you pass through the situation?
    • How do you think your situations would be different if you applied the counsel of this section?
Week 43: 1/10/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-16.VII. The Escape from Vengeance
    • ​Can you see that as you enter certain relationships, there is a thought in the back of your mind that says “I’ll show them”? In other words, “Through this new relationships, I’ll show them that I’m worthy of love, that I deserve what they wouldn’t give me.”
    • If so, who is the “them” you are trying to show? What names come to mind?
    • Finally, what would this section say about trying to “show them”?
  • Cameo 25: The Course’s Version of the Lord’s Prayer
    • ​Have you ever had an experience that felt anything like Helen’s experience in taking down the Course’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, where you could tell that there was a creative intelligence speaking to you that was truly beyond you?
  • Review: Chapter 16
  • T-17.I. Bringing Fantasy to Truth
    • ​Can you think of an example where you have judged someone for their fantasy solution--for trying to solve a problem in a way that gives the a feeling of solution but is guaranteed to yield no actual solution? What specific examples come to mind? 
    • How does it feel when you imagine that by failing to forgive this person for their fantasy solution you are condemning yourself for your fantasy solutions?
  • T-17.II. The Beauty of the Real World
    • ​Have you ever seen a sudden beauty in another person or in nature that could not be explained as just physical beauty? 
Week 42: 1/3/22
Reading & Reflection
  • T-16.II. The Power of Holiness
    • ​Can you relate to Helen’s mindset here?
    • Can you remember something that happened to you that at the time felt like the manifestation of a higher influence, yet that you refused to let in the full implications of?
    • If you try to let those full implications in now, what happens in your mind?
  • T-16.III. The Joy of Teaching
    • ​Have you ever felt that something essentially spoke through you, that you said things that were put in your mind to say?
    • How does it feel when you consider that an event like that demonstrates that who you really are is greater than the limited self you think you are?
  • T-16.IV. Abandoning the Illusion of Love
    • ​How do you feel about using the word “hate” to describe your feeling toward other people?
    • How often do you find yourself using that word yourself to describe your feelings?
    • What thoughts or feelings arise when you consider that any desire you feel to avoid the word “hate” is the same desire that leads you to establish a haven of “love” that effectively allows you to avoid the hate within you?
  • T-16.V. The Ritual of the Death of God
    • ​Can you think of or remember times in which you felt more pain than you really needed to, but you indulged this pain in order to send a message of blame to someone else?
    • How does it feel to consider that you were really trying to send a message of blame to God?
    • What would you say about such a tactic--how would you evaluate it?​
  • ​T-16.VI. Across the Bridge
    • ​As you look upon a certain person who is important to you and see mainly the body, imagine that you are magnifying what is little and insignificant.
    • And imagine that you are cutting down to littleness the vast light of their true reality, so that you are seeing this person completely out of perspective.
    • How does that feel? What thoughts does it provoke?
Week 41: 12/20/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-15.IX. Relationships Without Limits
    • How often would you say you remember to see other people as more than a body?
    • What do you think could help you remember this more often?
  • T-15.X. The Demand for Sacrifice
    • How have you seen God as demanding sacrifice in the past?
    • Can you see that this belief is still in you?
    • What forms of sacrifice do you see God (or the Course) demanding of you now?
    • Alternately, what kind of sacrifice do you feel the ego demands of you?
  • T-15.XI. Release from Sacrifice
    • What are the main ways in which you demand that others sacrifice for you?
    • This is a difficult question to face, but facing it can be truly freeing. If you released everyone from any and all of your demands, what do you realistically think the results would be for you?
  • Review: Chapter 15
  • T-16.I. True Empathy
    • ​Can you think of any instances in which you have empathized with someone’s pain and used it to strengthen your own sense of being treated unfairly?
    • How does seeing this make you feel about empathy as normally understood?
Week 40: 12/13/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-15.V. The Meaning of Love
    • ​When you hear that it’s not true that certain people can meet your needs better than others, what is your reaction to that?
    • How is it even possible, do you think, that everyone can meet your needs equally well?
  • T-15.VI. In the Holy Instant
    • ​What do you think it would feel and look like to really live as if all relationships are total commitments?
    • How could you reasonably pull this off, both on the inside and on the outside?
  • Cameo 24: Mike
    • ​Have you ever had a messy situation that reminds you of the situation with Mike and that was solved by guidance that happened to thread all the needles?
    • Have you had a recent delicate situation that you forgot to ask for guidance about?
  • T-15.VII. The Basis of the Special Relationship
    • ​Have you ever been on the receiving end of this dynamic--where you felt that someone’s gifts to you were secretly designed to saddle you with a debt of guilt, which then had to be paid off in the right way at the right time?
    • What specific examples come to mind?
    • How does it feel to think that your own gifts often fit this very pattern?
  • T-15.VIII. The Escape from Loneliness
    • ​Can you think of a situation where what you hoped would be a real relationship became just two bodies in the same room?
    • Did it solve your loneliness?
    • Can you think of a relationship or even just an interaction where you felt you experienced a true joining of minds?
    • What effect did that have on your loneliness?
Week 39: 12/6/21
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 14
  • T-15.I. The Two Uses of Time
    • If the ego is the voice whispering in our ear to do ordinary, self-serving things, and the ego’s secret goal for us is hell, does that frame its advice in different terms than we usually think? 
    • What does that make you think about its daily advice? 
    • How do you think that advice would serve the ego’s goal of hell?
  • T-15.II. Giving the Instant of Release
    • Have you ever given to another the holy instant in the sense of conveying to that person that they are free of all their past mistakes?
    • Can you think of people in your life who need to be given a holy instant by you now?
  • T-15.III. Littleness versus Magnitude
    • Can you put in your own words how this section defines littleness?
    • Have you ever experienced thinking that something in the world will make you bigger when in fact it made you feel smaller? What specific examples come to mind?
  • T-15.IV. Practicing the Holy Instant
    • ​Do you see the logic of how your plans for your salvation (i.e., safety, happiness, fulfillment) would get in the way of taking your part in God’s plan?
    • How would you explain that logic?
    • Do you think this might apply to any of your current plans? What examples come to mind?
Week 38: 11/29/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-14.VIII. The Sentinels of Darkness
    • ​Have you ever discovered things in your mind that had been there all along, but which you genuinely didn’t know were there until the day you discovered them?
    • What specific examples come to mind?
  • T-14.IX. Bringing Your Darkness to Him
    • ​Have you ever noticed that you were allowing some element of your ego to persist without ever really exposing it to the light of your highest ideals?
    • Can you think of any examples where you are doing that now?
    • What would this section tell you to do about these?
  • T-14.X. The Reflection of Holiness
    • ​If you feel attracted to cleaning the mirror of your mind so that it can become a spotless reflector of the light of Heaven, why do you feel that attraction?
    • Why do you want that?
  • T-14.XI. The Equal Blessing of the Miracle
    • ​How easy is it to believe that someone who did you wrong was calling for help, that they had placed themselves in a love deficit, a “need for love,” and thus need your love to help them fill that hole in them?
    • What barriers do you find to that idea?
    • Alternately, what attracts you to it?
  • T-14.XII. The Test of Perfect Peace
    • ​Do you find it easy to admit that you don’t know what some situation means?
    • How about a situation that is deeply personal and highly charged?
    • What is so hard about sincerely admitting that you don’t know?
    • Why do you think that is so challenging? 
    • And what, according to this section, are the benefits of doing so?
Week 37: 11/22/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-14.IV. Guiltless Decision Making
    • ​Have you ever been guided to do something that took into account not just your own needs, but the needs of others in ways that you yourself could not have done? 
  • T-14.V. Loving in a Loveless Place
    • ​Have you ever had the sense that you were called to do something in this world?
    • If so, how does that calling compare to the function of “loving in a loveless place”?
    • Is there a way in your mind to fuse the two in your mind?
  • T-14.VI. The Condition for Knowing God
    • ​When you imagine that God’s love for you is so pure, intense, and unconditional that “there is no parallel in your experience of the world to help you understand it,” what happens in your mind? 
    • Does this seem impossible and hard to understand?
    • Does it seem like you are undeserving? Does it seem easy to believe?
  • T-14.VII. The Circle of Atonement
    • ​Why do you think that bringing others into the circle of Atonement would convince you that you yourself are there?
    • Why do you think that leaving others outside of it would convince you that you are outside?
    • Do you find that those two ideas line up with your own experience?
  • Cameo 23: “The Savage Problem of Personal Rejection”
    • ​Are there pockets of retaliation, rejection, or anger in your life that you have been telling yourself are okay because you can keep them safely penned in, limited to this one small area? Would you be willing to share about one?
    • How does it feel to think that you have never been and will never be able to actually limit it, that it has all along been spreading out and infecting your whole life?
Week 36: 11/15/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-13.XII. The Certainty of Heaven
    • ​When you look forward into your future, do you see the certainty of your development climbing so high that you reach perfection and thus return to Heaven for eternity?
    • If not, what do you see? Uncertainty? Despair? Hope for worldly satisfaction and success?
  • Review: Chapter 13
  • T-14.I. The Logic of Blessedness
    • ​Have you ever given something and experienced the giving as proof that there must be some fullness, some light, goodness, love, or wisdom in you that allowed you to give that gift? If so, can you share a story with us?
  • T-14.II. The Happy Learner
    • ​Can you think of ways that you or others value what is essentially nothingness and try to derive happiness from it?
    • What examples--ideally, personal ones--come to mind?
  • T-14.III. Guiltlessness and Invulnerability
    • ​Have you ever beat yourself up with guilt and felt there was some kind of saving value in that?
    • What was the value as you saw it?
    • How would this section have you respond to that next time it happens?
Week 35: 11/8/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-13.VII. The World that Shines with Love
    • ​Have you ever moved into a house, driven down a road, or moved to a city that seemed full or promise, as if it was going to deliver you the promised land, only to find disappointment? Can you share perhaps a notable example?
  • T-13.VIII. Leaving Your Needs to Him
    • Can you recall feeling like a certain material thing was supplied by the Holy Spirit?
    • If so, how much did you realize that He was placing “no emphasis at all upon” it (4:2) and had “no investment in” it (3:6), except to make sure that you would not use it “on behalf of lingering in time” (6:6)?
  • T-13.IX. Golden Aspects of Reality
    • This section is talking in part about equality--seeing every aspect of reality (every person) as the same, “all beautiful and equal in their holiness.”
    • How do you think this is similar to or different from the conventional ideal of equality?
  • T-13.X. Laying Guilt upon Your Brother
    • What are some of the ways in which we throw our guilt onto the world like “a dark veil” (7:3)? 
    • What typical examples can you think of?
  • T-13.XI. Guilt and Real Relationships
    • ​Do you have pockets where you think that seeing guilt in someone is entirely sane, justified, and reasonable?
    • Do you see a pattern among these pockets, something that ties them together, some common theme that runs through them?
    • What do you think it would take for you to let all of those pockets go?
Week 34: 11/1/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-13.II. Looking Upon the Guilty Secret
    • Have you felt a recoil at times from the Course?
    • Have you perhaps been angry with it, thrown it against the wall, felt threatened by it and set it aside, or simply refused to do what it has asked?
    • How does it feel to consider that this is because it is designed to bring you the awareness that you are the guiltless Son of God, and you find that a threat?
  • T-13.III. The Fear of Redemption
    • How do you feel when you hear that you need to look upon your hatred and realize its full extent?
    • If are afraid to do so, what is Jesus saying about where that fear is coming from?
  • T-13.IV. Your Function in Time
    • Have you ever seen the shadow figure concept in action?
    • Have you ever realized that you were relating to someone in the present as if that person was someone from your past? Or have you ever realized that someone else was relating to you in that way? Please elaborate.
  • T-13.V. The Two Emotions
    • As you look at our lives and our relationships and interactions, what evidence do you see for what Jesus is saying here--that we have all withdrawn into private worlds in which we speak to and hear from those who are not there?
  • T-13.VI. The Continuous Present
    • ​Why do you tell yourself that it’s important and rational to see other people in light of their past? 
    • What reasons can you glean from this section and from the Course as a whole to see them without reference to their past?
Week 33: 10/25/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-12.VIII. The Investment in the Real World
    • ​If you think of something specific that you are very invested in in this world, and then imagine that this investment is costing you the awareness of your soul, what is your reaction to that?
    • What thoughts and feelings does it bring up?
    • What, if anything, does it make you want to change?
  • T-12.IX. The Manifestations of the Holy Spirit
    • ​Can you think of a time when you almost surprised yourself by giving love where before you would have perhaps given something else?
    • If so, are you willing to tell us the story?
    • Did this have the effect on you that Jesus talks about here?
    • Did it demonstrate to you that you have made progress and that the Holy Spirit is in you?
  • T-12.X. The Visible and the Invisible
    • ​Have you ever “seen” something that you concluded was in some sense real but that was invisible to everyone else?
    • Would you care to tell the story?
  • Review: Chapter 12
  • T-13.I. The World of Guilt
    • ​What is your relationship with the concept of guilt?
    • Do you relate to it as a significant factor in your psyche or a relatively minor factor?
    • Do you feel it at certain times or on a more ongoing basis?
    • Has anything ever given you the sense that it plays a greater role in you than you are consciously aware of?
Week 32: 10/18/21
Reading & Reflection
  • Cameo 22: “The Return of His Will”
    • What is your relationship with your will?
    • Do you feel that, like Bill, you have submerged your will to a degree, out of fear of what it has done and what it might still do?
    • If so, what do you think this teaching from Jesus would have you do about this?
  • T-12.IV. Answering “Outrageous” Requests
    • What is your typical reaction in the face of someone insisting that you do something you don’t want to do?
    • Is it resistance?
    • If it’s acquiescence, how do you think that may differ from what Jesus is advocating here?
  • T-12.V. The “Outside” World
    • What is your reaction to being told that all the attack you see in the world--from spouses and children and bosses and creditors and politicians—is really “in your own mind and nowhere else”?
    • How do you think that is possible, given all the violence that is objectively present in our world?
  • T-12.VI. Seeking and Finding
    • If you believe that your search for love has been--to some degree, on some level--a failure, what has been your explanation for this?
    • Where, in your eyes, has the problem been?
    • Can you find hope in the Course’s explanation of the problem?
  • T-12.VII. A Special Curriculum
    • ​To what degree have you felt like you’ve been in stasis in terms of learning how to love, as if you are no better at it now than you were twenty years ago?
    • How do you feel about Jesus’ solution, which is to place yourself fully inside a curriculum designed not by you, but by the Teacher God sent you?
Week 31: 10/11/21
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 11​
  • T-12.I. Interpreting the Motives of Others
    • What is your reaction to the idea that when someone is attacking you, somewhere in their mind they are silently calling to you, saying “This attack makes me feel trapped in a prison of my own making. Please help release me”?
    • Does that seem possible to you? 
    • What difficulties does it bring up in your mind? 
    • What possibilities does it bring up?
  • T-12.II. Fear as a Call for Love​
    • Have you ever thought of your fear in this way—as a denial of the love in you and as a call for that love? 
    • How does that feel to you? 
    • What would you like to do with that idea?
  • Cameo 21: “You Do Not Realize How Much You Hate Each Other” (This is now T-12.III "The Journey Into Fear" in the new paperback edition of the CE; learn more about this, including a link to the excerpt, here) 
    • Have you ever been in a relationship where there was hate but also genuine love? 
    • What solutions did you attempt to get out of this dilemma? 
    • What is Jesus’ solution here? And how does it differ from yours?
  • T-12.III. Looking at the Cause of Fear (This is now T-12.IV in the new paperback edition of the CE)
    • ​When you consider that there is actual hate in you, and then you think about “taking off the covers” and looking at it, how does that feel to you? 
    • When you consider that this will invite the Holy Spirit to look with you and that He will then see it as a bit of nothingness and shine it away, how does that feel?
    • Does it make the prospect of looking any easier?
Week 30: 10/4/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-11.V. The “Dynamics” of the Ego
    • Think about this for a moment: Your ego strives to make you autonomous, so that you’re in power. Autonomy feels good. Power feels good. But at the same time, being autonomous means being independent of everything else, which naturally brings fear. And fear is the opposite of power.
    • When you think “My ego doesn’t give me power; it just makes me afraid,” what thoughts and feelings does that bring up for you?
  • T-11.VI. Selecting Perception’s Witnesses
    • What kind of a world would you like to look out upon? Please describe it in some detail.
    • How does it feel to think that you could see that world now, at least in essence, were it not for your ego’s habit of building a world that’s a pile of errors?
  • T-11.VII. Believing in the Resurrection
    • Have you ever felt like you were guarding someone in their resurrection? Can you tell us the story?
  • T-11.VIII. The Real World
    • If you saw a world that consisted only of people’s loving thoughts and expressions--because you regarded everything else as unreal--what would that world be like?
    • How do you think it would feel to live in a world like that?
  • T-11.IX. Asking for God’s Answer
    • ​Do you remember that as a little child you saw scary things that turned out to be misinterpretations of what was there? Can you recall any specific stories?
    • How does it feel to consider that you never really outgrew that condition?
Week 29: 9/27/21
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 10
  • T-11.I. Your Place in God’s Mind 
    • Have you ever left a belief system because you decided that at its foundation was nonsense? If so, can you tell us the nutshell version? 
    • What comes to your mind when you imagine that you will one day leave the ego’s belief system for the exact same reason—because its foundation is nonsense?
  • T-11.II. Healing as the Recognition of Your Will 
    • Have you ever received guidance that seemed to go against what you wanted, but its result was that you were happier? 
    • How does it affect you to consider that this mean the guidance represented your real will—what you really wanted—and that what you thought you wanted represented a counterfeit version of your will?
    • Would you care to tell us the story?
  • T-11.III. The Dark Companions 
    • Do you have any favorite methods for inviting the Holy Spirit to be your Guest, rather than the dark companions of fear and grief?
  • T-11.IV. God’s Blameless Son 
    • Do you engage in a lot of self-blame?
    • What kinds of things do you blame yourself for?
    • When you say to yourself, “Self-blame is therefore ego-identification, and as strong an ego defense as blaming others,” how do you feel? What kind of thoughts does that spark in you?​
Week 28: 9/20/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-10.I. Waking to the Eternal
    • If you believed that when you woke up this morning, you simply shifted from one dream to another without really waking, how would you feel differently about the events of your day? 
    • How might you greet the “negative” events? 
    • How might you greet the “positive” events? 
    • How might you regard this very moment? 
  • T-10.II. The Will to Remember God
    • Let’s say you have just attacked someone—through a judgmental thought, an unkind word, or simply by ignoring that person. Now realize that through doing so, you have dissociated your reality and God’s (made the decision to forget God). You have pushed true reality down into your unconscious, so that you can’t access the awareness of it. 
    • Now try to see your spiritual journey in this light, including all its obstacles and its successes.
    • What does this say to you about your spiritual journey? 
  • T-10.III. The God of Sickness
    • When you are around others who are sick, how do you react? 
    • To what degree do you simply accept that their sickness is real? 
    • Do you think they come away from their time with you believing their sickness is less real or more real? 
  • T-10.IV. No Other Laws but God’s
    • Have you ever had an experience where you let go of some belief and then others were able to let go of that belief because you had? 
    • Do you have a story to share along these lines? 
  • T-10.V. The Denial of God
    • How do you feel when you entertain the idea that God has total power over what you are? 
    • Does this feel at all threatening? 
    • If so, why do you think that would be? 
    • What would it take for you to believe that God having total power over your identity means safety, not danger? 
Week 27: 9/13/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-9.V. The Unhealed Healer
    • Do you have any personal history with the approach of Christian theology, in which you are told you are a miserable sinner, but that, if you jump through the right hoops, you can be forgiven? 
    • Do you have any personal history with the basic approach of the psychotherapist as outlined here, in which you are told that all the attack in your mind is okay because it’s just thoughts, and thoughts don’t matter? 
    • If so, can you tell us what your experience was and if it made you feel truly forgiven? 
  • T-9.VI. The Witnesses to Your Reality
    • Can you think of a situation in which you have experienced something like this, where you saw and treated someone differently, and their grateful response taught you that you are more than you had realized? If so, we would love to hear your story. 
  • T-9.VII. The Two Evaluations
    • Have you experienced your version of this scenario, where you do something genuinely loving, but the ego then steps in and starts attacking your motives, claiming to uncover your “true” selfish motives? 
    • How would you describe your version? 
    • Can you think of any other ways in which your ego whispers in your ear its evaluations of you, to drag you down to its view of you? 
  • T-9.VIII. Grandeur versus Grandiosity
    • You can probably admit that you have a belief in littleness. But can you admit you have a belief in grandiosity? 
    • What are some of the forms that grandiosity takes in you? 
    • Can you feel that they are just blown up forms of littleness? 
  • Review: Chapter 9
Week 26: 9/6/21
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 8
  • T-9.I. Asking for What You Want
    • Have you ever prayed for something in the world, for some external outcome, that you never received? 
    • Now consider the possibility that it was because some deeper part of you was praying for the opposite, was saying “I don’t want this. It does nothing real for me.” 
    • How does it feel when you consider that? What thoughts come to mind?
  • T-9.II. Hearing God’s Answer in Everyone
    • Have you ever felt a prayer of yours was answered by something someone else said? 
    • What was that experience like for you?
  • T-9.III. The Correction of Error
    • What types of errors do you look for, point out, and correct? (We are talking about the errors of others here.) 
    • What happens in your mind when you tell yourself, since you are coming from your ego and “Errors are the ego,” that you are making essentially the same mistake as they are?
  • T-9.IV. Looking Beyond Error
    • How much do the three steps of the ego’s plan of forgiveness describe your own efforts to forgive--
      1. see their error clearly and focus on it, which 
      2. makes it real to you, and then 
      3. strain to overlook something that seems all too real? 
    • How do you feel when you contemplate that there is a whole other way to forgive, one that is guaranteed to succeed?
Week 25: 8/30/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-8.V. The Treasure of God
    • When you think to yourself, “I am the treasure of God. I am His only treasure,” what thoughts and feelings does that bring up?
    • If you find yourself resisting it or pushing it awasy, why do you think you are doing that?
  • T-8.VI. Using the Body Solely for Communication
    • Try to list all the ways in which you treat the body as an end in itself (and thus arrest the mind’s natural impulse to extend).
    • What are some of your favorite ways personally?
    • How does it feel to imagine that this actually makes the body sick?
  • T-8.VII. Sickness as a False Witness
    • What beliefs have your various illnesses instilled in you about what you are?
    • How does it feel when you imagine that you don’t have to listen to the testimony of your illnesses at all, that they can’t tell you anything about who you are? 
    • What effect on you does it have to hear that all you have to do to be healthy is “relinquish all attempts to use the body lovelessly” (13:5)?
  • T-8.VIII. Healing as the Will to Awaken
    • The fear of waking manifests as any instance in which you withdraw from others into a state of dulled awareness. Given that, what forms does the fear of waking take in your lfe?
    • What would it look like if you stopped being afraid of waking to the truth of what you are?
  • Cameo 20: The Undivided Mind
    • ​What kind of inner split in you are you aware of?
    • What opposing principles can you feel contending in your mind?
Week 24: 8/23/21
Reading & Reflection
  • Review: Chapter 7
  • T-8.I. The Unconflicted Curriculum
    • How much do you feel that your mind is torn between two different views of yourself--one view that says your will is to compete with others and to oppose God and another view that says that your will is to regard others as part of your peace and God’s will as your own true will?
    • What effects do you think it has in your mind to hold to both of these opposite views at once?
  • T-8.II. The Holy Encounter
    • How much have you been following what is described here as the ego’s approach--trying to find your “power and glory”--your divine nature--in yourself?
    • If you thought of your very next encounter as a holy encounter, how would that change your attitude and behavior in that encounter?
    • How would feel in that encounter? How would you behave?
  •  T-8.III. Freedom of Will
    • Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t step in and do more for you?
    • Can you think of specific instances or perhaps ongoing situations where you have wondered this?
    • What would this section say in response to these questions of yours?
  • T-8.IV. The Undivided Will of the Sonship
    • ​What fears do you experience along this path to God?
    • What happens in you when you see taking Jesus’ hand as the solution to those fears?
Week 23: 8/16/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-7.VI. Extending the Gift of Life
    • Call to mind a recent time when you were attacked and think, “This brother is offering me an opportunity to bless him. I need the blessing I can offer him.”
    • What happens in your mind when you think that?
  • T-7.VII. The Ego’s Use of Projection
    • When you blame others and see them as the bad guy, what feelings result in you?
    • Do you feel a sense of relief, since blaming them implies that you are not split inside yourself between light and darkness?
    • Do you also feel something else on a deeper level, a nagging, gnawing sense of feeling worse about yourself?
    • How would you describe that?
  • T-7.VIII. Your Boundless Self-fullness
    • What forms has the urge to create taken in you?
    • In what ways have you tried to express yourself by creating things in this world?
    • How does it feel when you consider that this creative urge is a distant echo of your innate urge to create in Heaven?
  • T-7.IX. The Confusion of Pain and Joy
    • ​Can you see evidence in your life that you have confused pain and joy?
    • Can you think of ways in which you have searched for joy, but instead found pain?
    • Or tried to avoid pain or difficulty, but instead avoided joy?
  • T-7.X. The State of Grace
    • ​Have you ever felt like a fish out of water here? Can you give an example or two of ways or situations in which you have felt like a fish out of water?
    • How do you feel when you consider that you felt like a fish out of water because in this world you are in fact out of the ocean, out of your natural environment?
Week 22: 8/9/21 (no meeting on 8/2/21)
Reading & Reflection
  • T-7.I. The Law of the Kingdom
    • When you focus on blaming another and feel a sense of righteousness and cleanness from doing so, have you also noticed a kind of emotional bad aftertaste?
    • ​How would you describe that? However you describe it, realize that that bad aftertaste is the result of the workings of this law.
  • T-7.II. The Unification of Abilities
    • Can you think of an example where you developed an ability in order to excel--to surpass others in accomplishment?
    • How do you think you could use that same ability to equalize--to help everyone be on the same plane?
  • T-7.III. Healing as a Way of Remembering
    • ​How much of an attraction do you feel to the two sides of the healer role here--the healer as an artist (who channels the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to inspire healing in others) and the healer as a scientist (who sees only the laws of God at work in others and thus allows those laws to heal)?
    • If you imagine yourself in each of those roles, how does it feel?
  • T-7.IV. Healing and the Changelessness of Mind
    • ​Have you ever felt that someone who was helping you was looking down on you? How did that feel to you?
    • Have you ever looked down on someone you were trying to help?
    • Do you care to share any examples of either case?
  • T-7.V. The Denial of Power
    • ​Do you feel aware of the conflict within you between the truth and the ego?
    • How would you describe this conflict?
    • When are you most aware of it?
    • How does it feel in you?
Week 21: 7/26/21
Reading & Reflection
  • T-6.VII. The Lessons of the Holy Spirit + A: To Have, Give All to All
    • How do you feel about setting the goal of learning how to “give all to all”?
    • Does it seem daunting? Impossible? Desirable? All of the above?
    • When you try to imagine that giving all to all is the way “to have,” what happens in your mind?
  • T-6.B: To Have Peace, Teach Peace and Therefore Learn It
    • Can you see ways in which you are teaching conflict--teaching God some of the time and the ego some of the time?
    • What effect do you think that has on the people around you?
    • What effect do you think it has on you?
  • T-6.C: Be Vigilant Only for God and His Kingdom
    • What benefits do you think there might be to being constantly vigilant?
    • How much do you feel you have formed the habit of being vigilant for God and against the ego? One clue is that if you are not frequently catching ego thoughts throughout the day and saying no to them, then this habit has not yet been formed.
  • T-6.VIII. The Last Step
    • ​This section says that we add to the Kingdom by creating our creations, in a similar manner to parents giving birth to children. Even though we cannot actually comprehend this, how do you imagine it would feel to create “children” in Heaven that are so radiant, priceless, and eternal that they actually increase the infinity of Heaven?
  • Review: Chapter 6
Week 20: 7/19/21
Reading & Discussion Questions
  • T-6.II. Projection and Separation
    • ​Now that you've learned how projection leads to further separation from others, please try to explain it in your own words. How can you see it manifesting in your own life?
  • T-6.III. Everything Meets in God
    • ​If your goal for your perception was to align it with the Holy Spirit’s perception, and thus parallel God’s knowledge, what kind of things would you do to get yourself more and more aligned with the Holy Spirit’s perception?
  • T-6.IV. Teach Only Love
    • Let’s assume this section is right and that we form our idea of what we are from the effects that we produce. To the extent that you have struggled with low self-esteem, what behaviors of yours might account for your low self-esteem? 
    • What effects that you’ve had on others might account for your low self-esteem?
    • Conversely, what behaviors and what effects on others could conceivably grant you a strong and even radiant self-esteem?
  • T-6.V. The Answer to All Questions
    • ​What are some of the main ways in which you have tried to answer the question of what you are--tried to find yourself, understand yourself, or prove to yourself that you are worthy and important and unique?
    • If the Holy Spirit showed up in your living room in physical form and said to you, “Do you really want Me to tell you and show you what you are?” what would you say to Him?
  • T-6.VI. The Call to Awake
    • ​Have you wondered why God hasn’t helped you more? Please share any thoughts you have had about this.
    • If you took this section as your answer, what could you say to yourself in response to those kinds of questions when they arise?
Week 19: 7/12/21
Reading & Discussion Questions
  • T-5.IX. The Eternal Fixation
    • ​What are the ways in which you have felt the attraction of God?
    • How do you feel when you consider that these are manifestations of your “eternal fixation” on God, a fixation that you can never overcome?
  • T-5.X. The Decision for God
    • ​This section implies that far more of our lack of joy than we would ever suspect is caused by our having reacted to others with a lack of love. When you imagine that being true, what does that bring up for you?
    • Have you ever seen evidence that an unloving reaction on your part can linger in the form of a sour mood (which is the manifestation of guilt) long after the reaction occurred?
  • Review: Chapter 5
  • T-6.I. The Message of the Crucifixion (paragraphs 1-12)
  • T-6.I. The Message of the Crucifixion (paragraphs 13-25)
    • ​What is your reaction to the Course’s interpretation of the crucifixion? 
    • ​How practical and usable can you see it being in your life?
Week 18: 7/5/21
Reading & Discussion Questions
  • T-5.VI. The Ego’s Use of Guilt (paragraphs 1-9)
  • T-5.VI. The Ego’s Use of Guilt (paragraphs 10-19)
    • ​How aware of guilt in yourself are you? 
    • When you are aware of it, what seems to be the cause? 
    • How does it feel to think that the real cause is your original separation from God and the fact that you are repeating that separation now by thinking apart from Him?
  • Cameo 19: The Editing of the Notes
    • How does this affect you when you read “This yes, even in the presence of her resistance, was enough?”
    • There are probably times in your life where Jesus worked through you, where your actions were to some degree inspired. Yet at the same time, he worked through you imperfectly, so that errors were still present. When you imagine that he will continue to work through you until those errors are completely corrected, so that only truth remains, how does that feel?
  • T-5.VII. The Question of Karma
    • ​In what ways have you explored your past as the key to understanding yourself?
    • Based on this section, what do you think the Course would say is the downside to such explorations?
    • Has that downside been active in your own experience?
  • T-5.VIII. God’s Higher Court
    • ​Have you had judgments of yourself that you secretly suspect God would agree with, so that it hasn’t occurred to you to appeal them to Him?
    • How do you feel when you imagine bringing them to Him only to find that He dismisses the case against you and instead declares “Thine is the Kingdom”?
Week 17: 6/28/21
Reading & Discussion Questions
  • T-5.I Being Wholly Joyous
    • Have you ever had an experience in which you gave something away, yet it was very clear that you didn’t lose and instead gained? 
  • T-5.II The Spirit of Joy
    • ​When you think of needing to acquire perceptions that are “so lofty that they could almost reach back to” God (4:5), how do you feel?
    • When you think that the Holy Spirit is here to give you those perceptions, how then do you feel?
    • Does it make your journey to God look different to you?
  • T-5.III The Voice for God
    • What is your experience of the two voices within you—the ego’s and the Holy Spirit’s? 
    • How do you tend to tell them apart?
    • What effect would it have on the process of choosing between them to take Jesus as your model for decision?
  • T-5.VI Sharing the Holy Spirit
    • ​How well do you feel able to hear the Holy Spirit in you?
    • If sharing Him with others (by seeing Him in them) could actually strengthen His voice in you, would you consider that sharing worth doing?
  • T-5.V The Foundation for Real Sharing
    • What is your relationship with guilt?
    • Do you relate to the concept of neurotic guilt feelings (seeking forgiveness by bludgeoning yourself up with guilt)?
    • Do you relate to the concept of “healthy guilt feelings” (using guilt to motivate you to not repeat the error)?
    • How do you feel about Jesus’ idea of undoing the root of the error within yourself so that you have a real foundation for replacing your error with sharing?
Week 16: 6/21/21
Reading & Discussion Questions
  • Cameo 18: Meditation and Guidance​
    •  How much time do you spend (waste!) trying to figure out what people are going to do, and how you’re going to respond? 
    • What, according to Jesus, is your only responsibility in this matter?
  • T-4.IX. Asking and Following
    • ​Can you relate to any of the problems Helen and Bill were experiencing here? For instance, have you ever had out-of-control judgments intrude on your meditations? Do you frequently forget to ask for guidance? 
    • What do you think about Jesus’ claim that this is a control issue--that you forget because you want to retain control? 
    • Finally, once guidance has been received, do you sometimes fail to follow it because you have judged that its outcome is bound to be negative?
  • T-4.X. Complete and Direct Communication
    • ​In what ways do you limit communication--by deciding to communicate only with certain people, by breaking off communication with others, and/or by keeping a great many things to yourself? 
    • How much do you want these limits to be gone, so that you communicate more fully? 
    • What thoughts and feelings come up when you think about communicating completely and directly as this section outlines?
  • T-4.XI. Being Truly Helpful
    • ​Does your ego have some version of what Bill was experiencing: a recoil from those who need help? 
    • How do you react when you see someone who appears to be weak and damaged or in need of help? 
    • Can you feel in yourself a natural impulse to help, an impulse that has been held back but that wants to break free? What do you think might happen if you let it break free?
  • Review: Chapter 4
Week 15: 6/14/21
Reading & Discussion Questions
  • T-4.VI. This Need Not Be​
    • Can you picture yourself using this four-step process? What parts of it seem daunting? What about it seems attractive to you? “How vigilant are for for the ego and its dictates and how vigilant against it?
  • T-4.VII. The Real Question (paragraphs 1-9)​
  • T-4.VII. The Real Question (paragraphs 10-19)
    • ​Have you ever had an experience in which asking yourself a single, out-of-the-blue question changed things? If so, would you care to share it? Can you think of a question right now, which, if you asked it of yourself, could potentially change your life? Please take a moment and try to find it.​
  • T-4.VIII. The Rewards of God (paragraphs 1-11)
  • ​​T-4.VIII. The Rewards of God (paragraphs 12-23)
    • ​What feelings come up when you think that you are not actually here, that you are somewhere else, merely dreaming that you are here? How easy or difficult is it to wrap your mind around that idea? Does it at all change how you feel and think about yourself?
Week 14: 6/7/21
Reading
  • T-4.II. The Devoted Teacher (paragraphs 1-13)
  • T-4.II. The Devoted Teacher (paragraphs 14-25)
  • T-4.III. The Making of the Ego
  • T-4.IV. The Ego’s Need to Confirm Itself
  • T-4.V. The Calm Being of God’s Kingdom
Questions for Discussion
  • When you are in a teaching situation (either formally or informally), how much do you feel like your image and your worth are on the line? What are the symptoms of this? How much do you feel that this focus on your image gets in the way of being devoted to the students and their learning?
  • How much have you let yourself get caught up in the question of how we could have made the ego? Do you feel that you have been caught up in the metaphysics, especially in questions of how the separation began and how the world was made, without a lot of practical implications flowing from those questions? How do you think that Jesus’ approach to this question is potentially more practical?
  • How do you see all of this at work in your own life—where the ego is constantly trying to fill the hole inside of it? What examples come to mind? How do you feel when you imagine that you engage in some particular activity because your ego feels lacking in reality and is trying to convince itself that it is real?
  • We all have base impulses that we have to keep a lid on or else risk embarrassment (or jail). Are you ever aware of higher impulses that you feel a need to keep a lid on, for fear you may do something really reckless (like the items on the list above: “giving all our money away,” etc.)? Any good stories you care to tell?
Week 13: 5/31/21
Reading
  • T-3.XI. The Unshakable Foundation
  • Review: Chapter 3
  • Cameo 16: Helen’s Extra Mile
  • T-4.I. The Last Foolish Journey
  • Cameo 17: Bill’s Class
Questions for Discussion
  • How much have you felt that who you were in this world was up to you? That you had to or wanted to make yourself in a certain way? That your self-concept depended on the image you made and projected? How willing or resistant are you to being defined by God and not by yourself?
  • Have you faced a similar situation? Are you perhaps facing one now? How does the guidance that Jesus gave to Helen affect the way you would see a similar situation if it came into your life? In light of this guidance, what might you tell yourself in the face of such a situation?
  • Do you identify with Don Quixote as Jesus is interpreting him? In what ways have you tried to compensate for an ego that feels weak and unworthy by performing deeds designed to inflate your ego? Can you give any examples? What would this section say is the real solution?
  • Have you ever had a nudge, a request, or an assignment to be in a teacher role and felt some resistance or fear? If you could apply the guidance that Jesus gave Bill to your situation, what perspective would come out of that?
Week 12: 5/24/21
Reading
  • T-3.VI. The Divided Mind (paragraphs 10-18)
  • ​T-3.VII. Beyond Perception
  • T-3.VIII. The Essential Goal of Therapy
  • ​T-3.IX. The Fear of Teaching
  • T-3.X. Judgment and the Authority Problem
Questions for Discussion
  • Jesus praises Freud for looking at the ego and knowing “a bad thing” when he saw it (10:4), though he says Freud should have also realized “that a bad thing cannot exist” (10:5). Do you relate to your own ego this way--as a bad thing that, being bad, cannot really exist? If not, how would you say you do relate to your ego?
  • How aware are you of constantly asking yourself the question “What am I?” What are the ways in which you try to modify yourself or change your image in order to come up with a better answer to that question? How does it feel when you take a moment to imagine that your actual identity is set forever by God and is incapable of even the slightest modicum of change?
  • If you think about any resentment you carry towards your own parents, what thoughts does this section spark in you? More specifically, when you consider the idea that they didn’t hurt you, but that you hurt yourself in order to justify punishing them, how easy is it to accept that?
  • Do you have the belief in you--even to a small degree--that being a teacher must come out of a desire to be superior? Could this belief be an attempt to justify your own fear of teaching? What affect does it have on you to think that instead the teacher’s role is to make his pupils his equals and that the value of the role “can hardly be underestimated”?
  • Can you feel in yourself the connection between these two things: 1) using judgment to select things in your perceptual field and 2) wanting to believe that reality is yours to select from? If you can get in touch with the desire in you to be the author of reality, how would you describe that desire? What descriptive terms come to mind? What images come to mind?
Week 11: 5/17/21
Reading
  • T-3.III. Atonement Without Sacrifice
  • Cameo 15: Edgar Cayce
  • T-3.IV. Innocent Perception
  • T-3.V. Perception versus Knowledge
  • T-3.VI. The Divided Mind (paragraphs 1-9)
Questions for Discussion
  • What has your personal history been with Jesus’ crucifixion? What has it meant to you in the past and what does it mean to you now? Have you seen it as him dying for our sins? What do you see as the downside of that concept?
  • Most of us have experienced a tug-of-war in our lives between innocence and wisdom, with one predominating at a given time, only to be replaced by the other. What has your relationship been with innocence and wisdom? Have you experienced the tug-of-war between them? Have you had periods where you emphasized one, only to have it be replaced by the other?
  • Can you feel in yourself the uncertainty of perception? How you frequently are confused? How you often change your mind? How you sometimes discover that long-held assumptions were wrong? Do any specific stories come to mind? What kind of feelings are caused in you by this uncertainty in its various forms?
  • Can you relate to the picture of mind sketched above, in which you stand on a battlefield of conflicting demands--spiritual impulses, attack impulses, and demands from the world--and in the midst of this you are equivocal, uncertain about what you see, about which demands to bow to, and about what to do? If so, how do you feel about the idea that the natural state of your mind is unequivocal, that it’s absolute in its knowing, its loving, and its creating?
Week 10: 5/10/21
Reading
  • T-2.XIII. The Real Meaning of the Last Judgment
  • Review: Chapter 2
  • T-3.I. The Need to Study
  • Cameo 14: The Chain of Miscreation
  • T-3.II. Special Principles for Miracle Workers
Questions for Discussion
  • Prior to the Course, what was your relationship with the Last Judgment? Did you believe in it? Did you ever think of it? Was it a source of fear for you? Based on the Course’s concept of the Last Judgment, what kind of relationship would you like to have with it?
  • What is your relationship with study? To what degree would you say that you actually “study” the Course? Do you assign study periods and review periods to yourself? When you don’t understand what you are reading, how often do you look around for the answer? How often do you search through the material that you have already read to find the answers to your problems? Based on this section, what relationship with study would you like to have?
  • When you face someone who needs your help, your forgiveness, or your blessing, do you find your mind occupied with thoughts about the details of what they did? How much do you find your mind drawn away by “lower-order concerns” about your schedule and your responsibilities? What do you think it would feel like to focus only on that person’s reality as spirit and ignore the other concerns entirely?
  • Do you see yourself in that description near the end, which talks about “the typical day in which unloving thoughts and unguided decisions lead to hurtful actions”? When you think about the possibility of moving into a new kind of day, “in which loving thoughts and guided decisions would lead to healing actions,” what thoughts and feelings come to mind?
Week 9: 5/3/21
Reading
  • T-2.IX. The Correction of Fear
  • T-2.X. The Real Power of the Mind
  • T-2.XI. The Basic Conflict (paragraphs 1-9)
  • T-2.XI. The Basic Conflict (paragraphs 10-22)
  • T-2.XII. The Mastery of Love
Questions for Discussion
  • How do you tend to deal with your fear? Do you usually assume that you can’t do anything about it, so that the only choice is to either change its supposed cause in the world or simply live with the fear and try to behave constructively anyway? If you picture dealing with your fear the way Jesus asks you to here, what would that look like?
  • Have you seen instances in your own experience that give evidence of the power of the mind? Please share with the rest of us if you’re willing. How successful have you been at guarding your thoughts? If you were to seriously aim at guarding your thoughts all the time, how might you go about that?
  • When Jesus says “The unwatched mind is responsible for the whole content of the unconscious,” what does that bring up in you? What kind of thoughts do you think are there in your unwatched mind? What kind of emotions and reactions would come out of an unconscious programmed by those thoughts?
  • How much do you think you try to master fear—“feel the fear, but do it anyway”? How do you feel about the goal of mastering love—becoming a master of love? Have you had aspirations along these lines in the past?
Week 8: 4/26/21
Reading
  • Cameo 12: “Defenses Are Now Being Used Much Better”
  • T-2.VI. The Restoration of the Altar
  • Cameo 13: “God Created Time”?
  • T-2.VII. The Miracle as the Means of Healing
  • T-2.VIII. The Sole Responsibility of the Miracle Worker
Questions for Discussion
  • Can you relate to 
    • deciding that you are no longer willing to tolerate the pain and that there must be a better way? 
    • looking within and seeing that your inner altar has been defiled? 
    • placing the chalice of Atonement at the center of your inner altar, so that it is at the center of your devotion?
    • Which of these three do you most closely identify with and why?
  • What do you understand to be the difference between how the Course is using the word “miracle” and how we normally do? 
  • ​How do you feel about miracles being the proper way to heal the body? 
    • Does that bring up skepticism in you about their ability to actually heal the body?
    • Alternately, do you perhaps feel a personal connection with the idea of spiritual healing?
  • Have you been aware of the sentence about “the sole responsibility of the miracle worker” (T- 2.VIII.5:1)? 
    • If so, have you taken it as supporting the idea that your only responsibility is your own mind? 
    • How do you feel knowing that it means that your responsibility is to accept Atonement yourself so that you can offer it to others?
    • What effect does this have on you in relation to being a miracle worker?
Week 7: 4/19/21
Reading
  • T-2.I. The Real Meaning of Possession (paragraphs 13-26)
  • T-2.II. The Cause of the Separation
  • T-2.III. The Proper Use of Denial
  • T-2.IV. The Reinterpretation of Defenses
  • ​T-2.V. The Atonement as Defense
Questions for Discussion
  • From your understanding of “The Proper Use of Denial” (T-2.III), what is the difference between denial of your errors as an act of concealment that keeps them intact vs. true denial as an act of bringing them into the light, which then dispels them? How much do you see yourself as using the former? How do you feel when you think about increasingly using the latter?
  • Most of us have to some degree internalized the value of mindfulness—being nonjudgmentally aware of all that is going on at the moment, without pushing anything away. What do you think about this chapter’s different skill of actively defending your right mind while defending against error? Have you had experience using this kind of defense? How do you feel about the notion of actively guarding your right mind at all times?
  • ​From the material in “The Atonement as Defense” (T-2.V), how do you understand the difference between Atonement as paying for past sins vs. Atonement as a light that shines away past errors? Can you see that while the first is condemning, the second is freeing? Have you ever had an experience in which an error you have felt locked into was suddenly lifted from your mind? How does it feel to see that as the action of Atonement?
Week 6: 4/12/21
Reading
  • T-1.47.1 - 48.9
  • T-1.48.10-26
  • ​T-1.49-50
  • Review: Chapter 1, second half (miracles principles 42-50)
  • T-2.I. The Real Meaning of Possession (paragraphs 1-12)
Questions for Discussion
  • If you really believed that expressing love was your function on earth, the way you could be most useful and constructive, and that expressing love depended on keeping yourself in a loving state of mind, what do you picture yourself doing to cultivate and maintain that state of mind?
  • ​Have you ever given love to someone in some form, thinking you were being helpful, only to find that the other person didn’t experience it as helpful at all? Do any examples come to mind? Based on what you’ve now learned about how to give a miracle, is there anything you would do differently now?
  • When you try to imagine miracle giving as your way of life, in the way just described, what comes up for you? What thoughts and feelings? Does it sound desirable, daunting, threatening--what?
Week 5: 4/5/21
Reading
  • T-1.43
  • Cameo 10: Under Instruction
  • ​T-1.44-45
  • T-1.46
  • Cameo 11: The Notes on Sex
Questions for Discussion
  • What ways can sex influence or even drive human relating even when you are not interacting with a potential sex partner? How do you feel about the idea that much of your sense of emptiness comes from relating to people from a sexual standpoint - relating to them as bodies with varying degrees of sexual attractiveness?
  • How do you feel about the idea of inviting Jesus to enter to transform sexual impulses into miracle impulses? What negative associations do you have with that idea? What positive meaning do you see in it?
  • Rather than seeing the goal as being celibate unless one is trying to conceive children, can you see the goal as moving your basic mode of relating from seeing people as gendered bodies to seeing them as minds possessing divine worth? Does this seem doable? Does it seem desirable?
Week 4: 3/29/21
Reading
  • Cameo 8: The Mother of the Children
  • T-1.36-41
  • ​Review: Chapter 1, first half (miracle principles 1-41)
  • Cameo 9: Mrs. Albert, Miracle Worker
  • T-1.42
Questions for Discussion
  • Have you had experiences where you felt a sudden shift in your perception, as if some presence came into your mind, shook up your old perception, and shifted it to a new place? Can you remember any examples you would care to share?
  • ​Have you ever had an experience of feeling like you suddenly saw a hidden reality in people, an experience in which everyone (and perhaps everything) took on a kind of radiance and/or a striking beauty? If so, that was your spiritual eye at work. Would you care to share your experience with the rest of us?
  • Have you had times where you felt you were able to naturally behave according to the Golden Rule? If so, what was your perception of the other person in that moment that made this possible?
Week 3: 3/22/21
Reading
  • Cameo 6: Letting Him Take Charge of the Minutiae
  • T-1.25-27
  • ​Cameo 7: An Experience of Revelation
  • T-1.28-34
  • T-1.35
Questions for Discussion
  • Have you ever considered that you may have an assigned role in a larger plan? Has that idea ever attracted you? How do you feel when you consider that now?
  • How do you feel about the idea that Jesus is arranging opportunities for you to give miracles ("expressions of love") to particular people who need them, and that you must be "ready and willing" to use these opportunities and give these miracles? Have you ever felt like such a thing happened to you?
  • What is your experience with asking for and listening to guidance?
Week 2: 3/15/21
Reading
  • T-1.16-19
  • Cameo 4: "An Example of the Shock Effect"
  • ​T-1.20-23
  • Cameo 5: "The Shield Report"
  • T-1.24
Questions for Discussion
  • Have you ever had an experience of seeing someone in this way—as being more than a body, as being spirit or as having “inestimable value”? Please elaborate. What was that experience like for you?
  • What do you think keeps you from seeing others in this way? What objections does your mind come up with? What do you tell yourself about why you aren’t seeing people this way?
  • Have you ever given, received, or witnessed an expression of love that carried with it effects that seemed almost too good to be true? This could have taken the form of miraculous healing or perhaps it took the form of benefit for those beyond the recipient—for the giver or for those only indirectly connected.
Week 1: 3/8/21
Reading
  • Cameo 1: “This Is Not a Selfish Gift”
  • T-1.1-3 (read the three principles frequently throughout the day)
  • Cameo 2 “My Strength Will Support You”
  • T-1.4-15
  • Cameo 3: “You Must Love the Children and Help Them”
Questions for Discussion
  • How does this view of the miracle as an interpersonal expression of love affect you? What thoughts or feelings does it bring up in you?
  • How does it affect or change your picture of A Course in Miracles?
  • When miracle principle 3 says that “the real miracle is the love that inspires” miracles and that “everything that comes from love is a miracle,” what thoughts does that bring up about the place of love in your life--the place it currently has and the place you want it to have?​