When I was in Sedona studying and practicing the Course, I attended a workshop given by Nicola Perry called, "My Journey as a Course-Based Healer." At her workshop, she told her story of her journey to becoming a spiritual healer. She described the events of her life that led her to become a healer and then described what happens in her mind when she offers healing to others.

The significant thing she discovered was that she had to dismiss someone's bodily identity, in her mind, if she were to join in a healing session. She had to get beyond differences such as male, female, likes, dislikes, interests---anything that has to do with our earthly identities. Every single bit of normal perception that determined who she think someone was had to be released in order to see no differences. Her intent was to see the person as a true Son of God, their true Self, their true nature, and their formless spirit. However, she cautioned this is something that can't be forced by trying to mentally create such a picture and superimpose it on the person while shoving all of the usual perceptions to the back of your mind. The first step is to relax, become aware of the perceptions of someone that we are holding, ask for help in letting them go, and reaffirm that we are the same One Self. "Why should I give this one a thousand names, when only one suffices? For Your Son must bear Your name, for You created him." (W.262.1.5-6)
 
No one is a stranger. Everyone is part of me and I of them. To recognize this is to know the truth about ourselves. It is only in recognizing our sameness that we can know peace. Peace is only in unity and not in differences. We spend so much of our time comparing and measuring ourselves against others. We see ourselves better than or less than others, based on our judgments of them and of ourselves. These all constitute our special relationships that depend on differences, whether they be differences based on special love or special hate. We see someone having what we don't have and what we think we need, and in the special relationship our goal is to try to get from the other what we think will fill our perceived lacks. Our perception of differences is a way to see the other as sinful so we can see ourselves as innocent of that sin. And what is their sin as we see it? It is that they have stolen from us what is rightfully ours and now they owe us. If they don't give us what we consider should be ours, we hate them for it.

Every relationship, whether of hate or love, is a special relationship. It is by definition one of differences. The ego uses these relationships in our lives to project guilt for our decision to separate from God. Fundamental to all of our special relationships is seeing each one as a body, but that is not who we are. Our reality is not that of a body.

The focus of this Lesson is on our unity. The recognition of shared interests is a condition of the Teacher of God, according to Jesus as stated in the Manual for Teachers. It is to recognize that there is only one Son. Clearly our eyes show us there are many, yet today we are asked to recognize that we all share the same Christ-Self and are truly one. Differences are only apparent in the illusion. Now we need to use every situation as an opportunity to ask for help to see beyond these differences and recognize that we share the same purpose and the same goal. The purpose of every relationship is for healing of the mind. We do this by taking responsibility for our judgments and being willing to release them. Beyond these judgments is the truth waiting for our acknowledgment.

Although we still do see differences, we are choosing today to allow our judgments to go so we could see our brothers beyond them. The body is all about defining our seeming separate state and maintaining the differences between us, but the body can be turned to a holy purpose. We can choose to put the body to the purpose of healing. We now have a choice as to how we use the body. It can be used for pleasure, for attack, for getting what we think we want, or for extending love and forgiveness, thus being an agent of the Holy Spirit. What the body is used for is simply a matter of choice. The choice is ours. Peace is found in joining with our brother and recognizing that we share the same purpose. "You cannot enter into real relationships with any of God's Sons unless you love them all and equally. Love is not special." (T.13.X.11.1-2)(ACIM OE T.13.IV.30)
 
I had a situation recently where I was making judgments about the behavior of someone whom I felt was acting in a way that was self-serving and selfish, looking after her own needs at what I thought was at the expense of others. In the process, I felt that she was less than honest and forthright. I then asked myself if those were aspects of myself? I had to look at my own self-serving and selfish behavior that I preferred to see in her. When I am truly willing to take responsibility for my own judgmental thoughts, I trust they will be healed as I turn them over to the Holy Spirit. My judgments were projections of my own mind that I preferred to see in her so that the sin was hers. What this allowed me to do is to claim my innocence and my comparative saintliness. As I released my misguided perceptions to the Holy Spirit, I was able to have a lovely, open connection with her and recognize that like me, she is innocent.

The truth about everyone is that they are innocent no matter what the body seems to be doing. When we can accept that it is truly all a dream, we can see more clearly that everyone shows up in our own dream to play the role we assigned to them for our own healing. There are no accidents in salvation. Whatever we need to experience in order to heal, we do experience. It can all seem so unfair when we forget that it is our own dream.

Yes, we still do react to events in the dream as if they were real, and we have feelings and reactions to these events that seem to come from outside of our own minds. Thus, we like some events and feel good about them, and dislike others and feel very sad and hurt. Either way we experience ourselves as victims of the events that seem to come at us. In other words, we see ourselves as the effect of the world. When we recognize that it is all our own dream, we can see it all comes from our own minds. Mind is the cause and the world is the effect. Thus, we have power over what seems to be happening to us. "For you would not react at all to figures in a dream you knew that you were dreaming. Let them be as hateful and as vicious as they may, they could have no effect on you unless you failed to recognize it is your dream." (T.27.VIII.10.5)(ACIM OE T.27. IX.86) We are free to give everything all of the meaning it has for us. In and of itself, it has no meaning. What we are seeing is really only our own thoughts that we have given away. What I was seeing in the person, with whom I was having difficulty with in my dream, is clearly only my own thoughts. Once I realized I could take responsibility for them, only then was healing possible.
 
Why do we put these thoughts out there in the first place? Jesus tells us it is our guilt that we place outside of ourselves. It is our desire to keep our individual selves separate. We think, if we put what we think we have done wrong onto others and not us, they will now have the sin in them. Whenever we are afraid to admit these are our own repressed thoughts, we see them in others. It is true that some of the things I see another doing may not be things that I have done in form. My actions may not be the same, but my thoughts are. I have not murdered anyone in form, yet I have had murderous thoughts. I may not be poor, but I may hold thoughts of lack, self-protection, self-centeredness, and greed. I may not be addicted to alcohol or drugs, but I may have other addictions. We share the same one ego mind, which contains all of our misperceptions of who we are. We project our thoughts onto others in order to get rid of them in ourselves. Of course this does not work, because we just take on more guilt. Until we can see this is the case, we will continue to project our guilt onto others in the false belief that we are getting rid of it in ourselves. We do it because we still value our separation. When we disown our thoughts, in this way, they show up in our dream figures, but they are never disowned. It is just a way to keep our own guilt intact.

Attack and judgment can only come with differences and separation. Why would I attack a part of myself? Watch your judgments today and, when differences arise, do your forgiveness work. Remember to affirm the truth that this is my brother who is a part of me and whom I love as I love myself. Affirmations will never overcome the ego, but they remind us of the truth. If we are not experiencing this as true for us, we will be motivated to see that our perceptions of our brother are wrong. Now we can ask the Holy Spirit for help to see our brother as He sees Him. If God loves my brother and I judge him instead, I am proclaiming that I am separate from my brother and my will is different from God's.

Today you might apply the Lesson by reminding yourself to see in everyone your dearest friend, while actively watching for the judgments you make that contravene this thought and be willing to be wrong about the way you see your brother. This is how we do our part as an invitation to the Holy Spirit to bring this experience into reality for us, so we can truly know there are no differences. Until the experience is there, our effort and discipline are required. It may seem like the discipline it takes and the consistency required is difficult, but all of a sudden there will be an understanding. Recently a friend described this as her "Helen Keller moment."

Helen Keller was blind and deaf and unable to communicate. Her teacher was teaching her to sign and Helen was good at repeating what she was taught because she was very bright. However, there was no real understanding until the moment when all of a sudden she made the association with the sign for water and the actual feel of the water. Then everything clicked for her and she became very excited. It is the same for us when we do this work. It may not click for a long time as we do our practice until all of a sudden there is a deep insight and we get it. This may happen again and again and is very powerful in the moment of realization. So keep up with the practice and know this moment is available when the mind is ready. Readying the mind requires willingness, vigilance and determination to practice watching our thoughts and doing the forgiveness work.