I am starting a second group this coming Monday starting with Lesson 1, for anyone who missed the start-date in January.
It’s a one year program designed to help you complete all 365 lessons in one year and to begin witnessing miracles.
To read more and sign up, click here:
ACIM Workbook Lessons/Membership
To read what people say about this program, click here:
Here is what I say about it -
I am grateful there is a solution that works – a systematic way to solve all problems, to end all fear and doubt, and which results in consistent happiness.
A Course in Miracles is 100% true. For a long time for me ACIM was just nice-feeling words in a book – promises that were not my reality. I was constantly on a roller-coaster of up then down, happy then sad, certain then full of doubt, problem-free followed by chaos, joyful then depressed. But once I made a commitment to be uncompromising, to allow purification to occur, and to follow Jesus’ instruction to love, give and forgive in all circumstances – my full inheritance was given to me. Fear disappeared. Sickness melted away. Love became my consistent living reality, which is now and always.
The peace of God is shining in you now.
All Power has been given to you on earth and in Heaven.
Here are some true statements:
“There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not “harder” or “bigger” than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.”
” Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.”
“Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong.”
“Miracles are everyone’s right, but purification is necessary first.”
“Miracles transcend the body. They are sudden shifts into invisibility, away from the bodily level. That is why they heal.”
“Miracles enable you to heal the sick and raise the dead because you made sickness and death yourself, and can therefore abolish both. YOU are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator. Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist. Only the creations of light are real.”
“Miracles are examples of right thinking, aligning your perceptions with truth as God created it.”
Love, lisa
I received another letter yesterday from someone battling with food addiction. It’s like the 10th letter I’ve received in under a month so I would like to start a group for anyone who needs help.
All the letters I have received are from people who have tried every imaginable diet, including the 12-step OA program.
And still struggling.
So, I would like to start an online group, using the principles of A Course in Miracles, and we’ll help each other.
If you would like to be part of this group, please send me an email at: lisanatoli2@gmail.com
What I know for sure: Either you are transformed entirely or not at all.
There is still a tendency to believe that transformation involves process and time. It’s not true.
You will change entirely (born again, brand new, completely transformed) or you’re not changing at all. There is no such thing as process.
I’ll use the example of dieting. Some people believe that when you diet you are transforming slowly (but surely), losing 1-2 pounds a week. It seems like there is a process involved.
But it’s not true. In the moment you changed your mind and made a decision to lose weight, get in shape and change your habits, you were entirely transformed in that moment. The 1-2 weight loss that follows is the inevitable result of your total transformation … before the actual diet even started!
You changed your mind first, then you changed your habits, and then you begin witnessing the results of your change of mind.
Usually when someone realizes they need to lose weight, it almost always comes with the realization that changes must be made. These changes can be either big or small but it’s common logic that you must change something. Either to cut out sugar or processed food, or eat fewer calories or exercise more.
At the most fundamental basic level everyone knows that if you keep doing what you’ve always done, your life will be as it has always been.
The reason most diets fail is because the initial change (of being born again, of being brand new) was not a change at all. Rather, it was a hope in future transformation.
I pray you can see the difference.
This will fail every time.
A lot of people say “Act as if the thing you want is already yours” and that is great advice. If you want to be a thin/healthy person, then start eating/acting like one. If you want to be a happy and generous person, then be it today. Don’t wait to become that person. BE IT TODAY.
Let the total transformation occur in you today.
Be it. Just do it.
There is no process involved. The idea of process will keep you trapped in trying to find a solution.
I got some great letters from someone who has been depressed her entire life, in therapy since 1991, and who has been “practicing” A Course in Miracles with no success.
This is a case of a person who believed in process. I invited her to wash her past clean and start over, brand new. Look what happened:
This is her first letter to me a week ago:
Dear Lisa, I am having serious depression problems since my ex husband passed away in November. I don’t want to go on anti depressants, yet my moods are going from bad to worse-even while I am attempting to do the workbook lessons daily. Nothing is working for me.
I am seeing a doctor on Tues. to see if there is some medical issue I am having. It is so difficult studying ACIM and having depressing fearful thoughts which I know I am creating but can’t seem to stop.
I have been reading blogs from Gary Renard’s site, and find it very interesting. That is not changing my depression though. There are so many days it is a struggle to do anything. Yet here I am clinging on, trying to remember that I am happiness. My ego seems to be having a big struggle with me. I don’t think I have ever been this depressed before. It almost consumes me.
Linda
Here is her 2nd letter a few days later:
Dear Lisa, Thank you for your daily blog. I read lesson 49 today, even though I should be on 106. There is nothing to fear! That made up my mind to read the blogs you have from the beginning of the year and start with the group with today’s lesson.
I must not be doing lessons properly because my fear has not decreased. I think i just read the words but did still believe in illusions. i take medication (xanax) for anxiety attacks. I have been seeing a doctor for this problem since 1991.
I recognized that I am a fearful person. How can that be when I am not a body-but my mind says i am typing this note to you using the fingers from this body that does not compute.
i don’t know how to flip that switch. I need help.
I wrote down todays lesson so that I would remember to say it often. How do I convince my mind that all this is true and I have nothing to fear? How to I really believe I have no body?
is it just a matter of saying the lesson over and over-although I have already done that and obviously it did not work?
If you have advice on what I can do to reap the benefits of these lessons I will be very grateful. On my own I am not doing such a good job. My switch is stuck.
Linda
Here is her 3rd letter:
Hi Lisa, I was applying lesson 49 today. Since I have decided that I needed to start over where you are at this point on your membership blog because yesterday’s lesson made a huge impact on me.
Well I told you I have had fear all my life-consuming, irrational fear.
After listening to your radio show, I remembered where you said that certain words evoke higher frequencies. I have a problem with racing thoughts. My insane mind would keep me up all night. Yesterday while I was practicing THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR, I started to sing various Christmas Carols. I realized that when I sing, even silently, my chaotic thoughts disappear and I am left with peace. I even sang, while walking my dogs, I am the light of the world. I felt so calm when just before my singing I felt the usual heart gripping fear.
Today I was at the dentist having 6 teeth crowned (a very painful procedure). Things were going wrong, the lidocaine kept wearing off, my teeth were sensitive, and I was gripping the handles on the chair. As I was about to freak out, i practiced today’s lesson about listening for the voice of God. I took slow deep breaths, closed my eyes, and listened for God’s voice. What i heard in my mind was YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR.
My dental chair time was over two hours of a not so pleasant time. I had at least 10 shots of lidocaine during that time besides all the other painful things going on. Yet suddenly I realized I am God’s son and I have nothing to fear. It was like my mind told me to breath deep and slow, listen for God’s voice, and know that I have nothing to fear.
That was amazing because it got me through the rest of the procedure with little discomfort.
I seem to spend all day forgiving, because my mind likes chaos. Now all I have to do is apply the lesson and sing Christmas Carols and I am at peace.
I wanted to share that with you so you would know I am serious about ACIM, and also so you would know how grateful I am for you in my life. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Linda
And here is the 4th letter, written yesterday:
I am applying today’s lesson I AM SUSTAINED BY THE LOVE OF GOD, I felt my stomach tense up. The old fear of well what about my housing situation, or my health isn’t so great. I am now trying to implement using the lesson of the day along with there is no fear, to remember I need not fear since I am not a body. It is not easy, it is a conscious effort to remember. i pray for the day it becomes my nature to realize I am the son of God and there is nothing to fear.
I’m not sure why, but when the fear won’t seem to let go, I start singing the Christmas Carols and my ego thoughts are gone temporarily. Until the next fear event! I don’t know if there is a better way to apply these lessons, but this is what Holy Spirit directed me to do.
Thanks again for your blogs and daily commitment. And thanks for your patience with newcomers to the course, trying to find our way back to remembrance that there is no fear because we never left God.
God Bless,
Linda
Thank you Linda! Beautiful. The reason I love these letters so much is to show THE SPEED which you are transformed if you have the commitment and a little willingness to change.
Jesus makes all things new, in this very day.
Here is a radio interview I did last Thursday morning with David McMillian from Strategies for Living.
To download, click here:
Lisa Natoli Radio Interview with David McMillian/Strategies for Living
If you really want to complete the workbook lessons and would like my help, but have not signed up for the one-year membership because of money, I would like to hear from you.
To want something and not get it because of money is a major distortion. It is a delay tactic designed to keep you in limitation, and not only that: but calls more limitation to you. To stall your life and put it on hold because of a story of “no money” needs a miracle.
The moment you go beyond the stories you have been telling yourself, all doors open.
I’m writing this because I got a few sign-ups in the past few days from people who wanted to sign up in January but who didn’t have money. I want to use this as an example that if you really want something, please don’t wait. We are already in February now, and if completing the workbook and experiencing consistent joy is something you have been wanting to do, I would like to hear from you. Okay?
Please stop wishing, praying, hoping for something to come to you or for circumstances to change. Please be alive. If you want something, ASK FOR IT. Even if you have no money, please still ask for it.
Ask for everything. Be like a child in your asking. A child asks for everything and more.
I’ve got 5 sign-ups on my site who had no money and stories of poverty, and the second they signed up, more money came to them.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could know this for yourself?
A Course in Miracles is designed to remove interferences that are blocking the light and all the gifts that are just sitting there waiting for you to receive them.
The gifts are here already … but do you see them?
Whenever I have wanted something in my life and did not have the money, I still acted. I didn’t have money to go to university but do you think that stopped me from applying? I put things in motion. I wrote letters. I asked for help. I applied for scholarships. And the money came, and I started classes right on time.
I had to work my entire way through university, it was hard work, but I did it.
I didn’t sit around waiting for a miracle to occur.
A few months ago I wanted to hire one of the world’s top book publicity consultants and he is super expensive – he is the best of the best – and I didn’t have a dime to my name. Do you think that stopped me? I acted. I put thing in motion and the money came.
To wait for money and THEN act is backwards. You’ll be spending your whole life in anticipation of something that will never come. You must act first, be alive, push yourself past your comfort zones … and watch what happens. “Miracles” occur.
Which is not a miracle, but a natural occurrence of being awake, alive, and alert.
MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT.
Please stop waiting for circumstances to change so that you begin living. You’ll be waiting forever.
If there is something you want to do, you have all power to make it happen.
Here is some good advice that a wise person once gave to me: TAKE THE WORD “WAIT” OUT OF YOUR VOCABULARY.
Here is Lesson 42 from the Membership Blog:
God is my strength. Vision is His gift.
Did you do the “one long practice period” yesterday for 3-5 minutes with eyes closed to practice the lesson “God goes with me wherever I go” and then to think about nothing else?
Lesson 41 – God goes with me wherever I go – brings startling results and it is the basis for the next lessons to come, so if you did not practice yesterday lesson as it asked you to do, I would like for you to stop reading right now, go get your book, open to Lesson 41, read it again, and do the 3-5 minutes that is asked of you.
Forget about everything. Forget about coming back to this blog. Just let all thoughts and images go and turn inward.
“Try to get a sense of turning inward, past all idle thoughts of the world. Try to enter very deeply into your own mind, keeping it clear of any thoughts that might divert your attention.”
I cannot stress enough the importance of practicing.
You are NOT learning anything here, but you are asked to practice as indicated.
You’ll be shocked to learn how much you resist 3-5 minutes! You’ll begin to be aware of how you skip over paragraphs and sentences, or skip a day on the lesson and make up excuses.
Which is just fine with me. I’m not here as the babysitter but you can ask yourself if your experience is one of consistent joy and IF IT IS NOT then you might want to increase your dedication and start taking the lessons a little more seriously and to put in more effort.
If you give partial attention, you will receive partial gifts. But when you give your full attention, you will be given everything. The choice is yours.
The immediacy of your transformation will startle you and leave you in a state of wonderment. Take it from me! I know!
But if nothing much is happening (or if things are still going wrong and your life is filled with problems), take an honest look at your practicing.
Lesson 41: God is my strength. Vision is His gift.
Today we are asked to have two 3-5 minute practice periods – a time to just sit quietly and think about today’s lesson: God is my strength. Vision is His gift.
Keep in mind this lesson is NOT asking to quiet your mind. In fact, it calls the state of “no thought” interference. !! An empty mind is interference.
Interference, by definition, is an unwanted radio frequency signal that prevents you from getting a clear picture or clear sound.
What you are attempting to do with A Course in Miracles is let go of interferences that were making the light waves go all chaotic in 10 different directions and to train your mind systematically to think NEW THOUGHTS OF TRUTH.
You are not trying to empty your mind. You’re not trying to see if you can be quiet.
Trying to have an empty mind is a complete waste of time and is practically impossible to do because the mind is very active.
You trying to get to a state of NO THOUGHT is ridiculous, so please don’t bother with that time-waster. The mind is active. You are attempting to divert your mind to think thoughts of truth, of love, God, joy, function, happiness and peace. You are gently forcing yourself away from limited false beliefs of separation to new thoughts of truth.
So don’t try to stop your mind from thinking. Just quiet yourself down for a minute, and then let thoughts of truth – thoughts of God – fill your mind
See the difference?
Along with the two 3-5 minute practice periods, “there is no limit on the number of short practice periods that would be beneficial today.”
**The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will be reminding yourself that the goal of the course is important to you, and that you have not forgotten it.
Very exciting! Bastiaan Berende has asked me to be a guest speaker on a free teleseminar he is hosting today Wednesday, February 11, 2009. If you would like to participate, please register by sending an email to timetoteachacim@gmail.com with Subject: TELESEMINAR.
Free Telephone Seminar
Finding your true voice: Writing as a tool for spiritual growth.
Wednesday, February 11th, 3pm Eastern (2pm Central, 12pm Pacific).
To register for the teleseminar send an email to timetoteachacim@gmail.com with Subject: teleseminar
Message from Bastiaan:
My name is Bastiaan Berende and my goal is to help you find your true voice through practicing and teaching A Course in Miracles.
I invite you to participate in a Time to Teach A Course in Miracles Teleseminar. It will be a unique event.
I want to inspire you to use writing as a teaching tool or as Lisa Natoli puts it as a tool for spiritual growth.
My native language is Dutch and I regard English as my second language. I have written lyrics for songs and I have written some poetry. When my life got complicated I began writing my thoughts down in notepads. Since then writing has been instrumental to my awakening. A couple of years after I found the Course, I moved to the US. I have lived there for ten years now and I have written articles for a couple of newsletters. I always write for myself as I reflect on my thoughts, expose my grievances and plan and communicate my projects. I have started to write essays about the stages of my awakening last year. These essays will soon be published in a book. This is when I began reading books on writing and it has given me some valuable insights I would like to share with you now.
What I learned is that:
Writing helps me to organize my thoughts and to learn lessons from the past. Writing makes things stand still and makes me appreciate my encounters and relationships with other people.
Writing grants me a deeper understanding of who I am and why I am here as I turns my attention from the meaningless outside to the meaningful within.
Writing heightens my awareness and steers me away from destruction. Writing urges me to admit when I have gone insane and when to ask God for help and forgiveness. Writing exposes my hidden thoughts and helps them to heal.
Writing can inspire and guide others and witness to the miracles in my life. Writing makes room for grace and gratitude and helps to see things for what they are, simple and clear.
With these last thoughts in mind I want to introduce you to Lisa Natoli from Gorgeous for God. Lisa will be the guest speaker/teacher for this event. I am excited and honored to have her on this call with me. She displays an amazing clarity and character in her writing. She has the gift of telling you exactly how it is. She is an inspiring teacher not only through the written word, but she speaks with absolute certainty of her understanding of A Course in Miracles. She demonstrates how to live a life of uncompromising commitment to the truth. Here she is.
Guest speaker
Lisa Natoli is the author of the best-selling book Gorgeous for God, which is based on the principles of A Course in Miracles. She has been writing daily for over 35 years on anywhere she can think of to express an idea: cocktail napkins, paper journals, postcards, blogs, notebooks, letters, greeting cards, chat rooms, email, and facebook.
Lisa will teach us:
• How to use writing as a tool for spiritual growth.
• How daily writing is a great practice for overcoming fear and doubt.
• How writing can help you recognize unwanted habits to allow them to be transformed.
• How to find your true voice.
• How writing about every day events can make you become more honest and a better communicator.
• How writing forces you to look for beauty in the mundane.
• How writing can be a great excavating tool for bringing up old fear, desires, wishes, goals that have been buried, dormant, and unrecognized.
• How writing can help you become more conscious and aware.
• How writing can help you emerge from your old limiting beliefs.
To register for the teleseminar send an email to timetoteachacim@gmail.com with Subject: teleseminar.
You may forward this message to all your friends and contacts.
I look forward to having you on this call on Wednesday February 11th at 3pm Eastern (2pm Central, 12pm Pacific).
Within one or two days you will receive a reply with the phone number and pin code you need to dial in to the teleseminar.
Love Bastiaan Berende
Time to Teach A Course in Miracles
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust
I figured everyone talked to God.
All my life I knew there was a world beyond the one I could see with my eyes. I lived in a world of fantasy and had many conversations with my host of “imaginary” friends. I spent a lot of time alone and felt more comfortable in the presence of these invisible characters than I did with my friends and family.
As a child, I was happy and bright. I was always playing and always laughing. I was never sad. I never cried. I was happy all the time. I remember once overhearing my mother tell her friends, “I am worried about Lisa. She never cries.” This was my first memory that being happy all the time was not normal.
My friend’s parents were constantly commenting that I smiled and laughed all the time, as if happiness was a weird disease.
Around the 3rd grade, I started to go deaf. I could not hear much of what was being spoken around me. I could not hear bad things. Maybe I tuned them out consciously. I could not hear the cruel things children would say. I could not hear fighting. I could not hear chaos. I lived in my own happy bubble.
Because I couldn’t hear, I used to sit at the front of the classroom in school. I loved learning. I loved reading. I loved homework. I got perfect grades. I was happy. But once, one of my closest friends told me that no one liked me. She told me that I might be smart with books but that I was actually really stupid. She said I didn’t know anything. She said everyone was laughing at me. She said I was retarded about the things that really mattered: music, boys and sports.
Around this time, I started having experiences at night. I found that I had the ability to travel outside of my body. I used to travel down to the river and into the woods. It was always night time and I was never afraid.
About a year later, I moved to the downstairs bedroom where I began having terrifying experiences of being “trapped” in my body. I would expand out like a balloon, like elephantitis. My body began to grow like Alice in Wonderland and I would grow as large as the room and then be trapped by the four walls. Often I would stay in this enormous shape all night. I had lost my ability to travel outside of my body. One night my parents found me in my room, talking to a clock radio and ripping off my clothes. I wanted to know where the voices were coming from. Nothing made any sense to me during that time. I felt an intense need to know certain things. Where did I come from? Why am I here? What is Heaven? Why did grandpa die? Where did he go?
One morning I woke up and as I came up the stairs, I found my mother sitting on the couch, terrified. She asked me if I was feeling okay and I said “yes, fine.” She asked me if I remembered anything from the previous night and I said “no.” She said “you were doing some very strange things, and your father and I are very concerned.”
This conversation marked a turning point for me. The voices in my head stopped. The imaginary friends stopped. God stopped. The behaviors and dreams at night came to an abrupt halt.
I became a normal little girl. I continued to get good grades. I was loved by the teachers, but not so well liked by the kids my own age. I felt like an outcast, half the time. All I wanted to do was read, read, read. I loved studying. I loved books. I loved writing in notebooks. I loved being alone. I loved doing cartwheels on the front lawn. I loved riding my bike and feeling completely free. I wanted to be happy and childlike, but everyone was telling me to be serious and grow up. I was getting constant messages that I needed to change myself to be accepted.
In the 6th grade, I was ridiculed in front of an entire class because I didn’t know what the “bases” were. Someone went to the chalkboard to explain. Everyone was making fun of me, asking me questions. Had I ever been kissed? Do I like boys? Why was I studying all the time? Little Miss-Know-It-All. Goody-Two Shoes. Brown-Noser. Teacher’s Pet.
I made a conscious decision in that moment to be AVERAGE. I wanted to be liked. I wanted to be loved. I did not want people thinking I was a freak. I didn’t want to be better than anyone else. Mostly I wanted to blend in and be invisible. Disappear. I wanted to be accepted, or simply left alone. I did not want to stand out in bright light. I wanted to be bland gray, where no one paid attention to me.
So I let my grades slide. I played less outside and spent more time inside with other kids listening to loud music that I hated, when really I wanted to be home with a book. I went to sleep-over parties and make-out parties where I would sit in the corner, wishing I was home watching “The Love Boat” on television. It was like everyone was always waiting for something to happen. My happy world inside my own head was much more thrilling than the spin-the-bottle parties and loud music but I was too afraid of being ridiculed and singled out. It was easier to conform.So I kept being average. Those middle school years were a nightmare for me.
In the 9th grade, a miracle occurred. A girl named Danna showed up from California. She was smart and beautiful, a shining bright star, and she did not care about blending in. She could not be average if she tried. She got perfect grades. She was creative, happy and always laughing. She wore clothes that were outlandish and bright. AND SHE HAD TONS OF FRIENDS. Everyone loved her. But what I noticed is that none of that mattered to her. She didn’t care if anyone liked her. She was simply being herself. This is when the shift began to occur for me, back to my natural original happy state of BEING PERFECT AS GOD CREATED ME.
I started being myself – outgoing, funny, enthusiastic & smart – not caring about anyone’s opinion and suddenly I was truly happy again.
Then I went to college in Vermont where the drinking age was still 18. I chose my college based on drinking laws. I got into a lot of trouble those years, searching desperately to have a meaningful experience. Life seemed pointless to me. I was studying so I could get a good job and make good money, so that I could keep working for the rest of my life, with two weeks vacation every year, until retirement, only to then get old and die? This was life? I knew something was fundamentally wrong with this picture.
I tried to look at things logically but nothing made any sense, and so I drank. I wanted to be loved and appreciated and liked but everything seemed transitory and fleeting. I wanted stability and purpose and I kept thinking maybe those things came with the adult job, which would come later after graduation. In the meantime, I stayed out all night drinking, dancing and sleeping with strangers. I was a train wreck waiting to happen but I didn’t know what else to do.
One day during the fall of 1988, I knew something had to change in me. I was a total mess. I was in a completely impossible situation and the only thing I could think of to do was to get on my knees and ask God for help. I needed a miracle and I knew that on my own I was incapable of effecting change. By January 1989 I was in Florida, in a whole new environment. It was a fresh new start. I got accepted into a university in Boca Raton. I stopped drinking, stopped smoking and joined a gym. I lost weight. I reconnected with my family. I fell in love. I felt a new appreciation for myself. I studied hard and got good grades. I was counting my blessings every day and communicating with God again. I was happy.
But the difficulty, always, is maintaining a continuing relationship with something you cannot see with your eyes. I believed in God, but unfortunately, at that time in my life, I only turned to God when I needed help.
As soon as things started getting good, I would forget to pray. Before long, I was drinking again and smoking and screwing up all my relationships. I was continually worried, depressed and lonely. I’d have brief moments of happiness, followed by bitter disappointment.
Everything just seemed so confusing to me. I didn’t know what I wanted in life. I couldn’t tell heads from tails. I hurt people who loved me. I was terrified of stability. I didn’t want to settle down. I wanted unpredictability. I wanted the bad boy. I screwed up a lot of really great relationships with genuinely good guys. If someone was treating me nice, I’d inevitably do something to wreck it. I couldn’t stand the idea of constant happiness. It all seemed so bland to me: the house, the kids, the American Dream.
I felt I was destined for some larger purpose, but I had no idea what that was or meant. Then I met a someone new. We moved to Manhattan. I got a job in publishing. I started to feel like I could settle down. Things started to look up, right? Wrong. On the surface, everything appeared good. I was making money. I had an apartment. I had a boyfriend who loved me. It’s what everyone wants, right? But something was fundamentally OFF. I couldn’t place my finger on it. I thought I should be grateful but instead I was bored. On the surface, I was the picture of success: boyfriend, great job, money, apartment in upscale neighborhood, friends, movies, restaurants … but inside I felt like a fraud. I knew that my so-called “successful life” was a house of cards and that if I let down my guard for one second, the whole thing would crumble into a pile of dust.
I became vigilant to be the perfect girlfriend, the perfect employee, the perfect friend. I worked at creating a pretty image, never letting myself relax, not even for one second. I was exhausted trying to keep it all going. And then everything fell apart. My boyfriend left me. We lost the great apartment. I rented a crappy mice-infested apartment in a run-down neighborhood. In order to cope, I drank vodka-tonics every day convincing myself I was sophisticated. I took up smoking and pretended I was glamorous and chic. But the picture was not pretty: I was fat, bored, unhappy, and alcoholic.
Somewhere in this sordid mess I read Marianne Williamson’s book “A Return to Love” and that led me to “A Course in Miracles.” I didn’t understand a word it said, but deep within me I knew it was the answer to my prayers.
I wanted the message to be true. It said “Miracles are your natural inheritance.” At first I got little glimpses – small miraculous happenings. I suddenly noticed I rarely got sick anymore. I started to wake up happy on some mornings. I felt hopeful. I came to know moments of total relaxation and peace, and that was the biggest miracle of all.
But I was still drinking every day, still groping around in the dark. It was like a giant rollercoaster. Up, then down. Happy, then sad. Sunshine, followed by darkness.
Then on July 4, 2000, I declared God as my new boss. I didn’t even know what I was saying. I was simply frustrated and tired. I knew that if I could wish for anything, have anything, it would be to work for a guy like God. So I stood in my living room in Brooklyn and said: God, if you are there, I want to work for you.
Nothing happened.
I thought maybe I would still keep working in publishing and then devote my free time to God.
Six days later, on July 10, 2000, I, Lisa Natoli, the office darling, the superstar who had been working comfortably for 10 years and who could do no wrong, was fired. Oh boy. I couldn’t believe it. I was so shocked by the event that I wasn’t even upset. I was thrilled, in fact. God had hired me!
So I lost my job. I was working for God, winging it as I went along. I had no idea what I was doing. How do you work for someone you can’t see? I was living off unemployment and doing a whole lot of nothing. I figured something incredible would happen: like angels would appear in the kitchen or a dramatic male Voice would instruct me what to do next. Six months passed. Nothing happened.
The unemployment came to an end. I continued to drink every day while reading the Course, surrounded by candles and incense. I kept thinking something would arrive by e-mail or someone would call me. I was growing increasingly impatient with God. Where was He? Where were the miracles A Course in Miracles promised? Why was I still depressed? Why was I not having an experience? What was I doing wrong?
I told God to fuck off . I ripped up the Course. I told God that if he wanted me, he would have to come and get me. I was finished with waiting. I gave God a final “HA! HA!” because I figured he’d never find me as I only left my apartment for cigarettes, trips to the liquor store and my Wednesday night Course in Miracles group.
Three days later, a woman named Greta showed up in my life. From the minute she opened her mouth, I knew it was God coming to get me. I knew I would follow her wherever she went. She was joyful and certain and listening to her speak filled me with hope.
I followed her out of the room that evening asking for her e-mail, a phone number, some way I could contact her. She told me about an academy in Wisconsin for ministers.
It had never in my wildest dreams occurred to me to become a minister. I never considered myself religious or spiritual. But in that moment, it made perfect sense! Of course! A minister! I can become a minister! Of course! People working for God call themselves ministers! Of course!
It was like realizing my destiny, like finally finding the thing I’d been searching my whole life for. And that’s the best decision I’ve ever made – to be truly helpful & devote my life to God.
Why the Law of Attraction Does Not Work Consistently
By Lisa Natoli
Why is it that so many sincere honest people who use the Law of Attraction say “I’m doing everything it tells me to do and it’s not working.”
I’ll tell you why.
1. You’re not a human magnet. There is nothing “outside” of you to attract.
2. The world you see is a mirror reflection of thoughts you hold in your mind and have projected outward. Everything you want, desire and wish for already exists, here and now, in your mind. But it’s in a different frequency of energy and in order to see it, you must get yourself into that frequency. You are not calling things to you, rather, you are going to the thing itself … which exists in your mind.
3. Time does not exist. The Law of Manifestation suggests that if you want something you can visualize it, it will come to you, sometime in the future. It says the more concentrated your thought, the faster it will materialize. But that doesn’t make any sense because time does not exist. Anything that suggests a sequencing of time is false. There is no past and there is no future, and there is no world. There is a beautiful sentence from the movie The Matrix … “There is no spoon.” This is the REAL secret. There is no world. So when you stand in what appears to be “the now” wishing for your life to be different, you are literally trapped in dreams and you are sleeping.
4. The Law of Attraction says it’s possible to call things to you, like a house, more money, a great career, a loving relationship, and I will say, yes, absolutely, you can do this. Your mind is all powerful. But I want you to look at it carefully what exactly this entails. You are standing in a limited condition (if you think you have needs and wants) and you are trying to call something to you (a house, money, job, relationship), to attract it, to manifest it, into your condition of limitation. Look at what you are trying to do. I don’t think anyone has ever really seen this clearly. You are trying to bring heaven into hell. You are attempting to create a bubble of abundance, peace, joy and happiness within your own private life while the rest of the world suffers. So what we have now is POCKETS of abundance in a world of poverty and sickness. That doesn’t make any sense at all.
5. The flow of energy is backwards. It is asking you to attract things to you. I get a very funny image in my head when I think about this – of a person standing like a human magnet with a huge house, dollar bills, cars and powerful people sticking to him. To me, this image looks like a heap in the junkyard with the person trapped underneath all of it. There is no energy flowing. All I see is a big pile of junk, metal, green paper, and wood sticking to a person.
So, what’s the solution?
1. Make a decision to be in the highest frequency of light where there is only love. This doesn’t take any time. It’s here for you today. You don’t need visualization techniques to do this. You leave the battleground, the place of limitation and sickness, by rising up in your mind. You get above your problems. The easiest way that I know to do this is to remember that you are not a body, you are energy, pure light, pure Spirit, pure love. You are perfect as God created you. Think of the sun, which is pure light. It doesn’t have any problems. It doesn’t have any grievances. It’s never sick. It does what it was designed to do: shine and shine forever. This is you: you’re the light of the world. You were designed to shine.
2. Start flowing your energy (love, light, joy) outward. The real flow of energy that causes all miracles to occur goes from you, OUTWARD, to your brother. You are not trying to attract thing to you anymore. Suddenly, you could not care less about getting things. A Course in Miracles states that when you start fulfilling your function (to extend light and love into this world), the Holy Spirit will take care of every need before you even know it’s a need. You will be given everything you need and want without even asking.
3. Start giving. Start being helpful to your brother. Rather than trying to get your needs taken care of, see what your brother needs and give it to him. Be in a state of extending light. Keep giving. Jesus says, “Give everything away and follow me.” This means give all of yourself and follow him out of the world of limitation into the light.
4. Rather than trying to bring a slice of Heaven into hell, bring hell into Heaven. How is this accomplished? Align your mind with God. As you rise up, all darkness disappears. You bring the world with you as your rise up (because the world is contained in your mind) and darkness cannot withstand high frequencies. As you start to go higher, your problems disappear because when it merges into the light, darkness disappears. Sickness disappears. Darkness transforms to light, automatically.
Do you see the difference now? You are not trying to be a magnet. YOU ARE NOT A HUMAN MAGNET. YOU ARE LIGHT. Light shines. It lights up the world. It brings warmth and comfort. It doesn’t “do” anything. It doesn’t think creative visual thoughts to attract things to it. It doesn’t “act as if the thing you want is already your reality.”
Light simply shines.
Light is light, and all things gravitate towards it by the very nature of what it is. And so it is with you. Without your own false ideas about yourself, you are brighter than the sun that shines in the sky: pure light, all light, only light.
You are the light of the world.
If you think you have needs, wants and problems, then YOU’RE IN THE WRONG SPACE. All you need to do is change your mind and get out of the space. Move the energy to include everyone and everything. Remember you are light. The world is in your mind. Trying to bring abundance into your own private world while the rest of the world suffers is like bringing a candle into a dark room. It lights up a small area around where you stand while the rest of the room remains dark.
This world is a frequency of energy of sickness, loneliness and limitation. Don’t try to make the space into something nice and lovely. Just get out of the space! Don’t try to bring miracles into poverty. If a house has burnt down, you don’t put up pretty shades and a new couch. You move somewhere else. You get out of the space. You go somewhere new. If your body is crumbling, you don’t just want to patch it up, you want to be made entirely brand new. The only way is to pick up your bed and walk. Get out of the space.
There is a saying that if you don’t want to get drunk, stay out of the bars. That’s great advice. I say “If you want to see miracles, then stay out of the world.” Rise up. Jesus says “Be in the world, but not of it.” Everything you want is waiting for you, right now, where God is.
The other day I said the word disappointment and it immediately sounded like two words to me … as in … Dis Appointment.
I looked up the word “dis” in the dictionary and it means “to show disrespect for, to neglect, to insult.”
Disappointment: To insult/neglect an appointment
I thought this was interesting and two ideas came to mind:
1. You had an appointment with God and you missed it. Not only did you miss it, but you insulted it, you neglected it, you dissed it.
2. You neglected your appointment with life itself. You didn’t show up. You let it pass you by.
No wonder you’ve been upset! You had a great appointment and you blew it off!
Thankfully, with God and life itself, there are 2nd chances and reschedules.
Miracles are seen in light.
You have the ability to see everything clearly. It’s like being psychic, only better, and way more accurate. You have supernatural powers to see through every person, every situation, and to hear a Voice that guides and tells you what to do. It’s exactly like having x-ray vision.
I can hear what people are thinking as if they spoke it out loud. This ability naturally happened somewhere along the way as I practiced the workbook lessons.
Miracles are seen in light.
“It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception it produces. The miracle is always there.”
THIS NEEDS REPEATING, AND FREQUENT REPEATING.
A Course in Miracles says that you have abilities that you currently do not use. X-ray vision is one of them. Communicating with your mind is another ability. Knowing all things is another.
One of the main reason I became so dedicated early on in my practice of A Course in Miracles is not because I wanted to be at peace or to be happy (which I perceived as kinda boring, and also I felt these things were not exactly miracles and could be accomplished by any human being, through human efforts) but that I wanted to witness miracles, move mountains, part the sea, raise the dead, heal the sick, and tap into supernatural powers.
I was chasing after the experience that I knew could only be given by God Himself. I wasn’t interested in more self-help ways to be happy, more loving, more peaceful. Nope. I had already achieved that end through Dale Carnegie’s book “How To Have Friends and Influence People” way back when I was 19 years old and in college. I already knew how to have lots of love in my life. It’s no big secret. Anybody can do that.
The big baffling secret was HOW TO KEEP love, peace, and happiness?
I knew how to get these things but I had no clue how to keep them. Peace, love and happiness were always slipping right out of my hands. I was always falling right back into the pit of depression and confusion.
The other big mysterious secret to me was healing the sick and raising the dead. Jesus says in the bible “Greater things will you do than I” and I was always curious about how to accomplish this. It must be true if he said it, right?? So when I got my hands on A Course in Miracles is was like a book of alchemy, which I knew (with all my heart and every cell in my body) were direct instructions that would work IF I APPLIED THEM.
“There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not ‘harder” or ‘bigger’ than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal.” - Chapter 1
A Course in Miracles is THE OPPOSITE of everything you learned in time and space. Lesson 91 is the complete opposite of the AA 12-step program in which Step One says you must declare that you are powerless.
But you are not powerless!!!
You are all powerful.
In the AA 12-step program (which, for the record, saved my life, but which I finally understood still kept me bound in time and space) says I must constantly remind myself that I am an addict so that I don’t slip back into alcoholism.
It says I must constantly remind myself that I have a incurable disease.
?????????????????????????
That doesn’t make any sense to me.
A Course in Miracles says “The past is over. Let it go.”
I am not an addict because I am not a body because I am the light of the world.
I am not weak, but strong.
I am not helpless, but all powerful.
I am not limited, but unlimited.
I am not doubtful, but certain.
I am not an illusion, but a reality.
I cannot see in darkness, but in light.
I LOVE IT!!
You must stand in the light. There is no other way. You can stay in your groups till the cows come home trying to figure out why you have problems or why you are the way you are, and you will never have understanding. Your darkness is not understandable, and while you are standing in it, trying to understand it, YOU ARE BLIND.
While you call yourself an addict, you are an addict.
While you call yourself the light of the world, you are the light of the world.
Thankfully, there is no middle ground. You are either a human being with problems OR you are Spirit standing in light.
You cannot see in the dark. You can only see in the light. And in the light, here’s the miracle: You have no problems.
