I do want to ask you about what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one single the main book it talks about "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you'll need another specific person in order to awaken. Therefore, I believe I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the partnership that reflects enlightenment if you ask me, and I for them! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you actually have to have another to assist you awaken?

I appreciate your time so much and many thanks for the help if you ask me and others. I many thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.

David Hoffmeister: Thanks for the openness and your willingness to check deeply at what's underneath these topics and issues. A Course in Miracles teaches that the split mind contains both the situation (the ego) and the Solution (the Holy Spirit). When they're brought together, only One remains.

Your body and the entire world are always the focus of ego's perspective, for it seeks to make real problems and struggles on the planet and to steer clear of the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the merchandise of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief it is possible to make an identity which God did not create. The ego is this identity problem and it absolutely was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it seemed to arise. This one problem could be described as an authority problem or a confusion in who is the writer of Reality. The mind that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a control issue, for it believes so it can produce itself. This ego mind also thinks it is in competition with God, although this really is pushed out of conscious awareness. This unconscious ego thought system is exposed in the A Course in Miracles Workbook lessons, and Lesson 13 contains a fantastic example with this unveiling:

"A meaningless world engenders fear because I believe I am in competition with God."

That is the beginning of training your head to forgive, for the focus is cut back to your head, back to thinking, and removed from the body and the world. acim Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are types of projection, of seeing the situation where it is not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a battle with God, which means this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this kind of belief entails is then projected to the body and the world. Weight control, like any attempt to manage the script or the body, is an effort to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can only just be forgiven or released or seen as false—not fixed or controlled or changed.

Exactly the same ego dynamic is underneath interpersonal relationship struggles of power and control, of wanting to correct or change a person or a self-image. Personal relationships may appear to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the private perspective and thus is definitely on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just a decision. Atonement is the decision that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is the decision to trust that your head could be separate from God. Once your head believed so it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, as it believed it'd thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The world was made up as an alternative identity. The sleeping mind is split on the decision of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world is not Identity. This world is definitely an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your head constantly, "This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real." Whilst the mind is split it is hearing another voice (the ego) that's saying: "You've done it. You've separated from God. You'd better make the very best of it and find something of the entire world to spot with. You can never go back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind seems to be identified with the body, with family, with environments that seem to surround it (i.e., I'm an American, Japanese, I'm male, I'm female, I'm from a wealthy family, from an undesirable family, I'm Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, etc.) Most of these are thought-form associations. And these seeming other persons and places surrounding the small personal self are typical part with this construction. The mind is very shaky about that small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it appears as though other persons give the small me reality and importance (i.e., you're my son, my daughter, you're my boss, you're a loving father, etc.) and all different items that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems extremely important (i.e., you're a person and you're a good one!).

Praise and acceptance from others SEEM to stabilize this very shaky thing (i.e., you're a great lover, you're a great provider, you're great with the youngsters, you've an excellent intellect, you've this kind of heart, you help serve so many other people, you're a great team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you are a person and you've many of these positive attributes that really cause you to an invaluable and worthy person, that produce you be noticeable above the crowd. You're not merely anyone—you're somebody special. The flip side is criticism, which directly reflects the shaky sense of self. Criticism will be: you're not as great as you think you're, you're not this kind of good team player, this kind of good provider, so good in bed—all the things which are taken as insults to the private self-concept). That's the flip side of the strokes. To the ego self-concept that believes both parties (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit leads to the experience of forgiveness or the realization that none of the tiny images perceived as separate have any reality.

When the criticism seems in the future, the ego attempts a substitution. It thinks, "I don't need this. I'll go elsewhere and start other relationships with people who can appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I'll avoid those negative influences on the planet and those negative people. I'll find another person or join an organization where people are like-minded and neglect the rest of the world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an effort to steadfastly keep up a sense of specialness, a sense of separation, a sense of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They appear to reinforce worth and value and to validate personhood. And they provide a false witness for clinging to the ego as identity. To the ego, past associations serve to give personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit suggests that past associations offer nothing of value, for these were produced by the ego to deny the facts of God's Love.

Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and has an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. Whilst the ego's believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet each one will present a chance to release the belief in specifics. Divine Mind is Abstract and Universal. Forgiveness could be the bridge to the remembrance of Christ and God, Divine Abstraction. Thus the Holy Spirit teaches in A Course in Miracles:

"Once you meet anyone, remember it is just a holy encounter. As you see him you might find yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you consider him you will consider yourself. Remember this, for in him you may find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they're given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.