Becoming a Miracle Worker: Based on the Fifty Principles of Miracles in a Course in Miracles

By Bonnie Nack EdD

Miracles are designed to restore the mind to its natural state as it was created by God. God is Love, therefore Love is our natural state. In Becoming a Miracle Worker, author Bonnie Nack clarifies the unique meaning of miracles in A Course in Miracles, explains how they are done and encourages the student to become a Miracle Worker.

Nack shows how A Course in Miracles can give anyone an understanding of how to do miracles. She explains the importance of the idea that the miracle worker must take full responsibility for everything that he experiences in his mind, and ask the Holy Spirit to transform into Love, anything negative that appears there.

Uplifting and inspirational, Nack shares her wisdom based on the course principles and her own insight gained throughout years of study, practice, and teaching.

Praise for Becoming a Miracle Worker

Bonnie Nack is a skilled writer, clear and easy to read and she has an in-depth understanding of the teaching of A Course in Miracles. I enjoy her smooth, unpretentious style, her use of stories to illustrate her points, and her ability to hold the readers attention.

Jon Mundy, PhD, Author, Living A Course in Miracles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Apr 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781504398671

Bonnie Nack EdD

Bonnie Nack, Ed. D., is a retired educational psychologist with thirty years of experience as an educator and psychotherapist. She teaches A Course in Miracles and is a frequent contributor to Miracles Magazine. Nack lives in Temecula, California.

Book preview

Introduction

When we attended school we learned that books were the authority. We could find the right answer to any question in a book and get praise and a good mark for memorizing it and parroting it back to the teacher. Nowadays there are so many books written by so many different people, it is hard to know who is right and who is wrong. We can find a book to support almost any opinion or belief. We begin to realize that any book, no matter how accurately it reports facts, in the end merely expresses the point of view of its author. Before she wrote this book, the author found other authors that more or less support her point of view. That is how the human mind maintains its own point of view. It finds other minds that believe the same as it does. Sharing thoughts strengthens them, whereas thoughts are weakened when they are incompatible with other thoughts. This is one of many laws that describe how the human mind functions.

There is way to circumvent this law. It is not done by reading books or seeking support from others for a given point of view. It is done by finding and listening to inner guidance. Inner guidance begins as vague intuition, and develops into subtle feelings, imaginative images and inner hearing. Inner guidance is just that, guidance. But it also functions as a teacher. The inner Guide and Teacher in A Course in Miracles is called the Holy Spirit. It not only guides you, but it teaches you wisdom not of this world. First, through miracles, It heals the wounds and scars of your personal history, transforming your understanding of it, reducing and then eliminating its control over your thinking and behaving. Then, as you develop trust in the Guide, you begin to surrender more and more of your thoughts to It, seeking healing and guidance for your everyday life. Finally you rely upon It to organize your life. Through reliance on the Holy Spirit every day becomes a day of fulfillment, joy and love. Your whole life becomes miraculous.

Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol (something you believe in this world) falls. Heaven cannot be found where it is not, and there can be no Peace excepting there. Each idol that you worship when God calls will never answer in His place. There is no other answer you can substitute, and find the happiness His Answer brings. Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Do you prefer that you be right or happy? Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere. You will fail. But it is given you to know the truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself. (T29 VII 1:1-12)

This transformation of the thinking mind by the Holy Spirit is a gentle step by step process. You can encounter only part of yourself (at a time) because you are part of God, Who is everything. His power and glory are everywhere, and you cannot be excluded from them. The ego teaches you that your strength is in you alone. The Holy Spirit teaches that all strength is in God and therefore in you. God wills no one suffer. He does not will anyone to suffer for a wrong decision, including you. That is why He has given you the means (Guide) for undoing it. Through His power and glory all your wrong decisions are undone completely; releasing you and your brother from every imprisoning thought any part of the Sonship holds. (T8 V 7)

It is good to have companions while you are on the inner journey. Shared experience and common thoughts reassure the ego mind you are on the right track. But eventually you will learn to be, as scripture says, in the world but not of it. Your life and mind will belong only to God.

Part One

ONE MORE PATH TO GOD

Even though most people do not know it, the search for freedom from the trials and tribulations of human experience is in the end, a search for God. For most of the history of this world human beings have been looking for God in some vague place called Heaven. They believe that He is in a distant unattainable location, and they will have to suffer and die before they can know Him. Most religions are organized in such a way that they support this point of view. There is a priest or minister who can better relate to God than you can. Even Buddhists, who focus on training the mind, teach that we cannot overcome our self-grasping ignorance without receiving powerful transmissions from enlightened beings. What if someone finally told you that knowing God was the most natural thing in this world, maybe the only natural thing in this world? We have projected God outside of ourselves and dissociated from our own awareness the best part of what we are.

In this world there are thousands of paths to knowing God. We have been taught to believe that knowing God is a lofty and impossible goal. A Course in Miracles teaches that it is natural and inevitable. All religions were founded by someone who discovered a path to God and wanted to teach it to others. Each version of the path was taught in the form appropriate for the historical time and population in which it was founded. Unfortunately most followers were unable to grasp the essence of the message, because knowing God seemed so remote a goal. This has led to endless misinterpretations and misunderstandings of the message. Hence we have literally thousands of different religions. The Course in Miracles says; "A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary." (Int. 4:4) In other words; everyone who finally knows God has a similar experience.

In the Course, Jesus says; "As a man and also one of God’s creations, my right thinking, which came from the Holy Spirit or the Universal Inspiration, taught me first and foremost that this Inspiration is for all. I could not have It myself without knowing this. (T5 I 4:6-7) In the Manual for Teachers he explains; This is a manual for a special curriculum, intended for teachers of a special form of the universal course. There are many thousands of other forms, all with the same outcome. They (all) merely save time." (M1 4:1-3) This means that being shown the way back to God is faster than trying to find it on your own.

The Course in Miracles is one more path to knowing God. This one is designed for the modern man in Western Civilization who is familiar with the concepts of Christianity and Psychology. It explains the inner journey in terms of Psychology, referring to the unconscious mind, ego defenses and the mind’s proclivity for projection. It designates the Universal Spiritual force that performs miracles in Christian terms, Jesus, Christ and Holy Spirit. But this miraculous force is not exclusively Christian. It is universal and equally accessible to everyone regardless of their religious beliefs.

LOOKING BEYOND FORM

At the same time it teaches us about miracles, the Course attempts to teach us to look past form to content. Content refers to its essential message, to the idea inherent in or beyond the form. Ken Wapnick, one of the foremost teachers of The Course often used to quote, "There is nothing so blinding as perception of form. (T22 III 6:7) One way to understand what look beyond form" means is to think of the word idea. An idea is a thought or image that lights up in your mind. It has no form until you create one for it. You must find the words or images with which to express that idea. Otherwise, it cannot be born into form in this world.

In order to train the mind to look past form to the essence or idea behind the form, the Course uses many synonyms, words that appear to be different but whose meanings are so closely related they can be substituted one for the other. This is one reason The Course can be very difficult to understand because the human mind under control of the ego is captured by form. Although The Course relies heavily on the words Holy Spirit, it uses many synonyms for it. Some common and well-known ones are, Friend, Counselor, Guide, Comforter and He. In the text of the Course, Teacher, Universal Inspiration and Universal Giver are additional synonyms. In order to understand what A Course in Miracles teaches, the student must know and recognize many synonyms. Later in this book, we will draw your attention to some of them. It is hoped that the reader spends time teaching his mind to grasp the single abstract idea contained in a given set of synonyms.

In addition to its heavy reliance upon synonyms, another cause of difficulty in understanding the message of A Course in Miracles is that it is written in very abstract language. It expresses thoughts and ideas in abstract form, and provides few if any concrete examples of what these abstractions refer to. Again, because the human mind is captured by form, this makes it difficult for students to clearly understand its basic ideas. This abstract style of teaching is not uncommon among spiritually advanced teachers. It is natural for them and illustrates the gap between their and the student’s level of consciousness. I have come to realize that presenting ideas abstractly is a way to teach that accommodates different levels of understanding and interpretation.

In The Course in Miracles we are taught that God respects the thoughts and beliefs we have made, even if what we have made is erroneous in terms of His plan for us. We believe that what we think is correct in terms of our beliefs and goals, but His beliefs and goals are not the same as ours. However, He will not interfere with our thoughts or try to change them; unless He is invited to do so. The same is true for this book. If what I have written here enriches your understanding of A Course in Miracles and the Universal Path, I am glad. Better, if it convinces you to make the Holy Spirit and eventually God your daily companion; that’s the best. A Course in Miracles is a course in mind training. (T1 VII 4:1) We are designed by our Creator so that we are free to decide what to think and how to use our minds. It is your own decision. The Course attempts to teach you how to use your mind as God designed it to be used.

UNDERSTANDING

The dictionary defines understanding as comprehension. As a person matures, his understanding grows. It is a cumulative function of the mind. That means there are levels of understanding. A gross way to understand this is to compare a six-year-old understanding of sex to that of a sixteen-year-old, or a sixty-year-old. Real understanding is hard won. No one can hand it to you on a platter. It is a product you create in your own mind by your own efforts, out of your own thoughts and life experience.

The Course in Miracles teaches us that our experience in this world is our classroom and the purpose of our being here is to learn. Time and miracles provide us the opportunities for learning. It follows logically to ask, What is it we are here to learn? The answer is, "A whole new way of thinking and understanding!" Like all the questions asked in the world, this response does not really answer the question. It merely raises more questions. What is taught in A Course in Miracles cannot be understood by the mind that has not been transformed, any more than a six-year-old can understand sex in the same way a sixty-year-old understands it.

I have a doctorate in Psychology and long life experience. That is what I brought to my study of the Course. As my thinking was transformed by the Holy Spirit, I realized that all my past learning was a screen and barrier that distorted my understanding of what was written there. Why was it a barrier? Understanding is a projective function of the mind. Letters and words are only stimuli for the mind to recall what it already knows. If A Course in Miracles was presented to you written in Aramaic, Jesus’ native language, even though you know what Jesus taught, you would not understand a word of it. All the little markings on the sheepskin or papyrus, or the sounds of someone reading them to you would have no meaning. There would be no familiar stimulus in it for upon which to project what you already know. We take our ability to understand our language for granted because we have relied upon it our entire lives without a second thought. We believe we understand what we hear and read. But in truth, what we understand is only what we already think we know.

That does not mean you cannot learn anything new from reading or listening to a teacher. But the mind can expand or change what it already knows, step by step in little by little increments and only if it is open to learn. A closed mind cannot learn anything. (These are laws of how the mind works.) To be confronted with a whole new way of understanding such as given in The Course in Miracles is disorienting and anxiety provoking for the mind. And so it is protected by projecting what it already knows onto what is written there. It is protected from becoming anxious, confused and disoriented; but at the same time it is distorting and misunderstanding what it reads and hears. The fact that the Course is written in such abstract language accommodates many different projected meanings. Now you know why there are several different editions of the Course, why Course students and teachers often disagree about what The Course is teaching, or get so frustrated while reading it they throw it against the wall.

Jesus says; "All terms are potentially controversial, and those who seek controversy will find it. Yet those who seek clarification will find it as well. They must, however, be willing to overlook controversy, recognizing that it is a defense against truth in the form of a delaying maneuver. Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. It is this (universal) experience toward which The Course is directed. Here alone consistency becomes possible because here alone (in the universal experience) uncertainty ends." (Clarification of Terms 2:1-7)

Changing your understanding so radically as is necessary to truly understand what The Course teaches can only be done in little steps. What A Course in Miracles teaches is opposite of what most people in this world think and believe. Having our thoughts and beliefs so radically changed is a long and sometimes painful journey. The radical change of a way of thinking cannot be done by merely reading and hearing discussions of The Course contents. Reading and hearing can prepare the mind for change, but the radical transformation of thought taught in A Course in Miracles must be done by an Intelligence that is separate from the ego’s thought system; an Intelligence that is familiar with both thought systems, thoughts of this world and a transcendent thought system – the Thoughts of God.

In The Course the words Jesus and the Holy Spirit are conceptual symbols that represent that Intelligence. They are not the Intelligence itself. The Intelligence of God cannot be contained in any form or symbol whatsoever. However, they both understand the thought system of this world and the Thoughts of God. It is their dual understanding that gives them the ability to bridge the gap between our minds and the Mind of God.

THE UNIQUE MEANING OF THE WORD MIRACLE

The word miracle in A Course in Miracles is not defined according to the common definition of the word. The common definition is derived from a Greek word meaning "powers, an event beyond the power of any known physical law; a spiritual occurrence produced by the power