Like the title suggests, A Course in Miracles is a guide on how to induce, well…miracles!  What isn’t so obvious, is that the Course’s use of the word ‘miracle’ means something entirely different to the meaning the world typically ascribes to it.  This often confuses people in the beginning, as it leads them to believe the Course is a guide on how to create ‘miraculous’ events or circumstances in their lives.  With such a heavy focus these days on manifestation and improving your life, it’s easy to see how many could presume that this is what it’s about.  So, let’s clear up this misconception and clarify the difference between the world’s idea of a miracle, and the Course’s definition.

 

Let’s start with the world’s version.  Miracles are a common concept in our society.  You often here the phrase, “It’s a miracle!” when something appears to happen that defies all reasonable odds.  It can be something very basic, like a football team winning the final after a 20-year drought. “They’ve come back out of nowhere and triumphed! It truly is a miracle!”  Or something more seemingly serious, such as the spontaneous and unexpected healing of a critically ill loved one. “She was on her death bed, and the disease just disappeared. It’s a miracle!”  No matter the situation, the world thinks of a miracle as something that happens in the world, in our outer circumstances, and more often than not, relates to our bodies.

 

Given this common interpretation, it’s not surprising when people first come to the Course that they assume it is about performing miracles in the world.  But this is not what it is about.  In the Course, the miracle always and only relates to the mind.  It has nothing to do with the world at all.  It has nothing to do with form, and nothing to do with bodies.  The miracle is a change in mind.

 

There are two thought systems in the mind – the ego’s thought system, and the Holy Spirit’s.  The ego is the thought system of our world.  It’s our default.  This is where the majority of people unconsciously spend most of their lives.  These are the thoughts we have of individuality, differences, comparisons and judgement, just to name a few.  They are the thoughts of separation and illusion.  On the opposite side is the Holy Spirit, whose thoughts consist of oneness, love, unity and peace.  His is the thought system of truth and reality.

 

The aim of the Course is to teach us to swap our default from the thought system of the ego to the thought system of the Holy Spirit.  It guides us to change our mind.  This change of mind is the miracle.  “Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience (the ego), or the higher or spiritual level of experience (the Holy Spirit)” (T-1.I.12:1-2).  For the most part, we think automatically with the ego.  But when we make the conscious decision to stop the train of ‘lower level’ ego thoughts and actively choose to think with the ‘higher level’ Holy Spirit instead, this change of mental direction is the Course’s definition of a miracle.

 

Here’s a real-world example for you.  You have a relative that you perceive as causing you grief.  This person has accused you of acting wrongly towards them and is now going to great lengths to make sure that you, and everybody else, know just how unfairly you have treated them.  They call up other family members and whine about you.  They plaster it all over social media.  They even bore the neighbour, who doesn’t even know you, with all the details over the back fence while she’s just trying to water the garden!

 

So, what is your response to all this?  How do you perceive it?  Initially, probably with a mix of frustration, and annoyance.  Maybe even anger?  Perhaps you are feeling unfairly treated by your relative, and believe she is all to blame.  It’s fair to say that your thoughts probably sound a little like this; 
“I can’t believe she’s acting this way!  How immature and childish.  Can she not see how  is to blame in all of this?  I haven’t done anything wrong!  She is the wrong one!”  

 

Watch how, in a situation like this, your first response is most likely to be reactive and defensive.  The natural impulse is to protect yourself from this ‘unfair’ attack.  You have gone straight to the default setting – the ego thought system.  It quickly gains a firm grip on you, and before you know it, you are carried away in an ever-increasing flow of wrong minded thoughts.  For most people, this thought pattern will continue unchecked.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  There is another option available to you.  

 

If you’re practicing the Course, at this point you may snap back to your senses and realise just what it is you’re doing.  You can see you have fallen into the ego’s trap, and you now decide to turn the tables on it.  Your thoughts now may go something like this; 

“Okay, I see what’s going on here.  I’ve just gone and made the whole thing real.  But it’s not real!  I am dreaming this up, and I want her to act this way so I can project the guilt I am feeling onto her.  And she is acting this way because she also thinks it is real, and she’s projecting the guilt she is feeling onto me.  But she’s just scared, and she’s calling out for love.  She is not this body, and she is not this identity.  I choose to look past this false image, to the pure and perfect spirit that she is in truth.”

 

With this change in mind, everything has changed.  Where you saw differences between you, you now see your sameness.  Where you were projecting division and hate you are now extending unity and love.  Where you were thinking with the ego, you are now thinking with the Holy Spirit.  This is the miracle.  It is a choice you make in the mind, to choose against the default ego setting, and switch to the Holy Spirit.

 

So, what happens next?  Sometimes, nothing.  The miracle is wholly concerned with a change in mind.  It is not designed to alter anything in the physical world.  The miracle does nothing. All it does is to undo (T-28.I.1:1-2).  It undoes the false belief in your mind that this world is real, that you are the victim of it, and that your body is who you are.  On an even deeper, unconscious level, it undoes the guilt in your mind that is causing you to project the whole dream in the first place.  This is done slowly, miracle by miracle.

 

Does this mean that things won’t ever happen on the level of the world following a miracle?  Certainly not!  Things can appear to happen as a result of your right-minded choice, and often do, but that’s not what the miracle is for.  If something does change on the level of form, it should always be taken as symbolic of your choice for the Holy Spirit.  Many times, the results of a miracle will never be known by the one performing them, but a miracle is never lost.  It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware (T-1.1.45:1).  Any worldly or physical changes are only secondary.  It’s on the level of the mind where the real change occurs.

 

As you can see, the miracle as used by the Course, really is not the same thing as the world’s miracle.  It’s important to remember that the Course is only ever talking to you on the level of the mind, and not the body.  It’s not interested in fixing up a body and world that doesn’t exist.  But it is indeed interested in healing and returning your mind to wholeness, for which the miracle is the perfect tool.