For 13 weeks in 2016, I did a program for Planet Waves FM – Pacifica called Miracle Hour. It’s a basic introduction to A Course in Miracles. While I don’t recommend ACIM for a diversity of reasons (I also don’t un-recommend it, that is up to you), it’s a foundational influence in my work, and I believe you should know my perspective about the material. Perhaps in this discussion you will hear a calling, though mostly, my idea is to explain the ideas as succinctly as possible.
Planet Waves FM is community-sponsored, nonprofit public radio. We are supported only by your donations and generosity. Please offer what you can. If you cannot contribute financially, please share our work to your friends via email and social media. thank you for participating in Planet Waves FM.
Miracle Hour Episode 1: Introduction
Miracle Hour is a radio program based on A Course in Miracles. In this first edition, you’ll hear my overview of what the Course is, and how it came into my life. Because I look at things from many angles, my approach will do just that; considering a religious teaching from a theological standpoint, as well as describing my experiences and those of others who have worked with it.
Miracle Hour Episode 2: The Principles of Miracles
I cover the first section of the text, called “Principles of Miracles.” This is a list of 50 concepts associated with the topic, beginning with the first and most famous one, “There is no order of difficulty of miracles.” I read them and offer commentary and personal experiences working with the material.
Miracle Hour Episode 3: Nothing I See Means Anything
This edition of The Miracle Hour is an introduction to the Course in Miracles workbook. I describe the basic purpose of the workbook, take you through the first 14 lessons, and give some ideas about how they work. I also read a piece of poetry called At This Point from a 1989 volume titled 313.
Planet Waves FM is community-sponsored, nonprofit public radio. We are supported only by your donations and generosity. Please offer what you can. If you cannot contribute financially, please share our work to your friends via email and social media. thank you for participating in Planet Waves FM.
Miracle Hour Episode 4: Everyone Teaches, All the Time
I provide an introduction to the teacher’s manual in A Course In Miracles. Here is an excerpt from the opening passage of that document:
The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe.
Miracle Hour Episode 5: Mind & Spirit: Clarification of Terms
This edition covers the theme of mind and spirit. Haven’t you ever sat around wondering what the difference is, and pondering whether it was your mind or your spirit that was trying to figure it out? This edition looks at the “clarification of terms” located at the back of the Manual for Teachers, and explores this interesting theme.
Miracle Hour Episode 6: The Illusion and the Reality of Love
I look at Chapter 16 of ACIM, titled “The Forgiveness of Illusions.” Part IV, The Illusion and the Reality of Love, discusses the differences between love and hate, and their relationship to reality.
Planet Waves FM is community-sponsored, nonprofit public radio. We are supported only by your donations and generosity. Please offer what you can. If you cannot contribute financially, please share our work to your friends via email and social media. thank you for participating in Planet Waves FM.
Miracle Hour 7: In My Defenselessness My Safety Lies
Here I introduce a series of lessons on the theme of defensiveness. I explore three relevant sections of A Course in Miracles, which are available to view here: Lesson 26 | Lesson 135 | Lesson 153
Miracle Hour Episode 8: Revelation, Time and Miracles
I return in this episode to the introductory text of A Course in Miracles, focusing particularly on Chapter 1, Section II, which lends its title to this show.
This text deals with the nature of revelation, and its connection to how we relate to the Divine and one another. This is not the apocalyptic “Revelation” of the Bible, but something much more pleasant. Here is an excerpt from the lesson:
Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully translated. That is why any attempt to describe it in words is impossible. Revelation induces only experience. Miracles, on the other hand, induce action. They are more useful now because of their interpersonal nature. In this phase of learning, working miracles is important because freedom from fear cannot be thrust upon you. Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love.
Miracle Hour Episode 9: The Branching of the Road, and 444
In this edition, I turn to one of my favorite passages in A Course in Miracles — chapter 22, part IV of the text, titled The Branching of the Road. Here is a quote from the opening of that section:
The whole purpose of coming this far was to decide which branch you will take now. The way you came no longer matters. It can no longer serve. No one who reaches this far can make the wrong decision, although he can delay. And there is no part of the journey that seems more hopeless and futile than standing where the road branches, and not deciding on which way to go.
Planet Waves FM is community-sponsored, nonprofit public radio. We are supported only by your donations and generosity. Please offer what you can. If you cannot contribute financially, please share our work to your friends via email and social media. thank you for participating in Planet Waves FM.
Miracle Hour 10: Teaching With Words and By Example
I take a closer look at the Manual for Teachers in A Course in Miracles. I consider the serious responsibility of being in a teaching position, and how the text emphasizes the importance of actions as a method of “demonstration.”
Miracle Hour 11: Special Relationship, Guilt and Forgiveness
In this program, I return to the theme of the “special relationship” — the relationship where guilt becomes a substitute for love. This is connected to the theme of forgiveness, and how and why that’s productive. This edition begins a series on A Course in Miracles, sex and relationships.
Miracle Hour 12: The Course and Sexuality
I examine the question of sexuality in A Course in Miracles. I speak directly to material in the Course pertaining to the body, to relationships, and to how everyone brings all the meaning to what they perceive.
Miracle Hour 13: The Course and Sexuality, Part 2
This edition of The Miracle Hour revisits the discussion of A Course in Miracles and sexuality. I explain the historical antagonism on the part of religion toward sexuality and the body, with which Western culture is still burdened, and the present reverse-dualism of the growing ideology in which science is the new God, but which is no kinder to the human seeker.
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