I do want to ask you in what A Course in Miracles means by Holy Relationship. In one area of the book it discusses "entering the ark" together, and it almost sounds like you need another specific person in order to awaken a course in miracles youtube. Therefore, I think I approach each new person with the expectation that maybe THIS could be the relationship that reflects enlightenment in my experience, and I in their mind! Am I taking this too literally? Or do you really need another to assist you awaken?

I appreciate your time so much and thanks for your help in my experience and others. I thanks and I thank God for you. Namaste.

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

The human body and the entire world are always the focus of ego's perspective, because of it seeks to create real problems and struggles in the world and to prevent the inner Healing Correction of the Holy Spirit. The ego's distorted world is the product of identity confusion, an outpicturing of the belief that it is possible to create an identity which God didn't create. The ego is this identity problem and it was Answered or forgiven by the Holy Spirit the instant it appeared to arise. This one problem could be described being an authority problem or perhaps a confusion in who is mcdougal of Reality. The mind that believes in the reality of the time-space cosmos has a get a handle on issue, because of it believes that it can create itself. This ego mind also thinks it's 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 an excellent example of this unveiling:

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

This really is the beginning of training your brain to forgive, for the focus is brought back to your brain, back once again to thinking, and recinded from the body and the world. Anorexia, weight issues, body image issues, and interpersonal relationship issues are types of projection, of seeing the issue where it's not: in the world. The mind cannot tolerate the belief in a war with God, so this belief is pushed out of awareness. The deep-seated control issue this type 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 endeavor to manage the past. The Holy Spirit teaches that days gone by can only 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 fix or change a person or perhaps a self-image. Personal relationships might appear to sail happily along for awhile, yet the make-believe self-concept IS the personal perspective and thus is always on shaky ground. Decisions are continuous. The Holy Spirit is just a decision. The ego is just a decision. Atonement is your choice that ends all decisions, an acceptance of the changelessness of Mind. The ego is your choice to trust that your brain can be separate from God. Once your brain believed that it had separated and built this time-space world, this time-space world of bodies became its substitute identity, since it believed it had thrown away the Kingdom of Heaven. The planet was made up instead identity. The sleeping mind is split on your choice of identity. The Holy Spirit says, "This world is not Identity. This world can be an illusion." And thus the Holy Spirit reminds your brain constantly, "This world is not your Home. This world is not your Identity. This world is not real." While the mind is split it's 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 return back for God will punish you."

Thought-form associations seem becoming a substitute identity. The ego mind is apparently identified with the body, with family, with environments that appear 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 part of this construction. The mind is extremely shaky relating to this small identity, this small self, this little me. So the small me is shaky, and it seems like 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 the various issues that these images appear to be telling this little me appear to be really important. Praise thus seems essential (i.e., you are 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 children, you have a fine intellect, you have this type of heart, you help serve so many others, you're a great team-player, on and on). This part of the self-concept says that you are a person and you have all 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 just 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 are, you're not this type of good team player, this type of good provider, so good in bed—all the things which are taken as insults to the personal self-concept). That's the flip side of the strokes. To this ego self-concept that believes both sides (the positive and negative) of thinking are real, the Holy Spirit is perceived as a great threat, for the Holy Spirit results in the ability 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 will appreciate my talents and skills and abilities, appreciate my personhood. I will avoid those negative influences in the world and those negative people. I'll find another person or join a group where folks are like-minded and forget about the remaining world. These new people will require to me and stroke me and praise me." The attempt at substitution is an endeavor to maintain a feeling of specialness, a feeling of separation, a feeling of individuality (a private mind with private thoughts). Those attempts are special love relationships. They seem to strengthen worth and value and to validate personhood. And they offer a false witness for clinging to the ego as identity. To the ego, past associations serve to offer personhood some sense of stability and consistency and value. Yet, the Holy Spirit shows that past associations offer nothing of value, for they were produced by the ego to deny the reality of God's Love.

Holy relationship emphasizes and reflects Content (right-minded thinking) and posseses an awareness of the meaninglessness of form. While the ego's believed relationships will appear to be specific, yet every 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:

"Whenever you meet anyone, remember it is just a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you'll treat yourself. As you consider him you'll 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.