Perhaps you did see the welcome signs and you climbed aboard with your heart in what it had to offer you.

The self-psychotherapy a course in miracles for the mind of A Course in Miracles has helped me look at the past differently. As you look back on your life you may notice points where you think some groundwork was laid for you, and that you might have missed out.

Either way, you are where you are now for a reason that is meant to be.

Spiritual growth and inner strength

To use myself as an example:

What I was truly feeling was not endorsed by much of the world. Not until my early thirties would I be brave enough to begin expressing my attitudes, thoughts, and perceptions, by sharing them only with certain friends.

I did not doubt this voice that urged my sprouting thoughts.

All my life I had inner feelings and thoughts that in time had convinced me they were spiritual, but also controversial-- beyond the religious dogma I was taught to believe in.

I was still uncertain and plagued with questions I could not get answers to, leaving myself hopeless. One thing for certain: my unconventional thinking was growing, and it was flowing from an inspiration I knew was true and real, regardless of what the world was telling me.

Feelings

With my hectic lifestyle and fast track as a "thirty-something," I never seemed to take the time to investigate what this spiritual subject matter called A Course in Miracles was all about.

Of the ones I agreed with, I often noticed they would occasionally refer to a publication with which I was unfamiliar, called A Course in Miracles. Each time I would wonder, "What is this Course in Miracles?"

They were excited and elated about their discovery, and wanted to pass along their views to seekers like me, with no strings attached.

Your own search for answers

There are many good examples in self books, and some of the authors I agreed with; and many I did not.

I began to browse the self-help section in bookstores. As I researched and read the ideas of authors who had already been where I was, and had broken through their own fears, I found they all had one common theme.

Spiritual Growth

I always intended to look further, but I never did. As it happens, it was totally unlike me to procrastinate on anything, but for some unknown reason I continued to put it off as a "one of these days" type of reminder to myself.

Several years later I made some wrong-minded choices as a financial advisor that eventually sent me to prison over a foolish securities violation, where of all places, during my despair and turmoil, and at age fifty, I literally stumbled into A Course in Miracles.

Self-help

The librarian did offer a comment after she replied, "A course in what?" She went on to add sarcastically that "a miracle was not going to release me from prison.".

While I was in prison there were holy books and religious material, such as the Bible, lying around everywhere. For the entire eight long years I had spent in prison I had not ever, seen another single copy of the Course in Miracles.

My mission was to prove otherwise.

After my unsearched-for and unexpected "find" of this Godsend, I discreetly asked other inmates, as well as prison employees, including a librarian, if they had ever heard of ACIM, and their answers have always been a quick "No.".