A Course in Miracles

Justin M. Oles

Universal Life Church Seminary

Doctor of Metaphysics

"Metaphysics and Miracles"

            This course started out rather interesting, talking about the different levels of our mind and thought processes and how they lead to certain types of thought and how they all interconnect.  From there it moved into a more psychological method of explaining how an over or under developed ego can lead to different ways of viewing and reacting with the world around us.  Both of these chapters made sense and had a basis in logic and rational thought. 

Lesson three started to get into a mythological theory based on a myth I have not seen and heard of anywhere scholastically that I personally think the writer made up completely on her own.  Then in lesson 4 the author goes on to explain that love is the cure to all the world's problems and that all of said problems are caused by fear.  Personally I find this to be a rather touchy feely, simplistic method of looking at the world and at religion.  Although many people do follow this mindset they seem for the most part to be the cultists on the fringe of society, the people that follow individuals like David Koresh and end up finding themselves in predicaments like the Kool-Aid® incident in Jonestown.

As the course goes on it gets deeper into the above mentioned touchy-feely theory of thinking and then starts to sound like this course is based on the Matrix with this world being nothing more than a dream in which we have total control because we are in ourselves gods.  While there is some credence to the theories about miracles, or as others would call it magic, the method used to describe it is to be blunt off in left field.  The author is also fond of quoting Deepak Chopra while not fully explaining the quotes.  The author uses these quotes to try to explain parts of the theory that the author seems unable to fully explain on her own thus explaining the misunderstood with a quote that will even more easily be misunderstood.  Needless to say this is a bad technique.

As the course goes on it starts to get somewhat back into reality.  The theories presented will probably work for some people and there are some good ideas but it starts to pull away again in later lessons when it goes on to tell you that all of your problems are cause by a lack of love.  Now I understand that love and happiness and laughter have healing effects but I have yet to see any evidence where they can consistently heal disease or save lives.  There are plenty or stories of extreme cases where dying people have held on in order to help others or where they came to peace with themselves and were healed.  There are also plenty of cases where people have just decided they were going to win and have, and vice versa.  I believe whole heartedly in the benefits of holistic medicine but I'm not going to rely on it completely for my health and well being.

Lesson 17 delves deeply into ways to help or hurt relationships, both romantic and with the deities or spirits.  It explains that one of the most often causes of failed relationships is that we want something from our partner.  Not that we want to give something to our partner.  It goes on to explain that this manifestation of the ego causes you to blame your partner for not giving you what you wanted and later causes resentment.  It says to think more on what you can give to your partner and to take responsibility for what you are thinking and what you want.  For example, if something your partner does makes you angry take ownership of that anger.  When you bring it to them say "I get angry when you do that" instead of saying "you make me angry when you do that."  This rewording changes the meaning very little but it forces you to take responsibility for your emotions thus putting the onus on you for feeling that way and not on your partner for doing something.  In the end, it expresses that you are upset and that its because of something your partner does, but at the same time it doesn't place blame on others.

All in all I feel this course was useful in that it presents another view of things and that it broadens your horizons as long as you keep you mind open.  Basically, I feel that if one maintains and open mind while still staying grounded that the theories in the course can help most people.  I would however caution people who tend to go all in every time or who don't live in the same state of consciousness as the rest of us to steer clear or at the very least take everything with a grain of salt.  I look forward to reading more things by this author as it made me look at things a different way, caused me to really think, and brought about some internal conflict as to what I believe. 

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