Miracles are seen in the light.
1. It is important to remember that miracles and vision always go together.I
²This needs to be repeated, and repeated often.
³It is a central idea in your new thought system and the perception it produces.
⁴Miracles are always there.
⁵It is not your vision that brings them about.
⁶Your vision is not their cause.
⁷And if they are not seen, it is not because they are not there.
⁸They are not the effect of your seeing.
⁹You are simply unaware of them.
¹⁰You will see them in the light.
¹¹But you will not see them in darkness. II
2. Light, then, is essential for you.
²As long as you remain in darkness, you will not see miracles.
³And so you will be convinced they are not there.
⁴This conclusion follows from the premises that produce darkness.
⁵Denying light leads to the failure to perceive it. III
⁶And by not perceiving light, you perceive darkness instead.
⁷Thus, the light becomes useless to you, though it is there.
⁸You cannot use it because you do not know it is there.
⁹And the apparent reality of darkness makes the idea of light seem meaningless.
3. To be told that what you do not see is there sounds like insanity.
²It is very hard to be convinced that what is truly insane is not seeing what is there, and instead seeing what is not. IV
³You do not doubt that the body’s eyes can see.
⁴You do not doubt the reality of the images they show you.
⁵You have placed your faith in darkness, not in light.
⁶How can this be reversed?
⁷By yourself, it is impossible.
⁸But you are not alone in this. V
4. Your efforts, however small, are strongly supported.
²If you realized how great this strength is, your doubts would vanish.
³Today we will devote the day to trying to feel that strength.
⁴When you feel the strength in you that easily makes all miracles accessible, you will no longer doubt.
⁵The miracles your sense of weakness hides will rise to your awareness as you feel that strength in you.
5. Set aside about ten minutes, three times today, for a quiet time in which you will try to leave your weakness behind.
²This is easily achieved by telling yourself that you are not a body.
³Faith goes to what you want, and you will train your mind to go where you choose.
⁴Your will remains your teacher, and it has all the strength needed to do what it wills. VI
⁵You can escape the body if you choose.
⁶You can experience the strength within you.
6. Begin the longer practice periods with this statement of true cause and effect relationships:
²Miracles are seen in the light.
³The body’s eyes do not perceive the light.
⁴But I am not a body.
⁵What am I?
⁶The question that ends this statement is absolutely essential for today’s exercises.
⁷What you think you are is a belief to be undone.
⁸But what you truly are must be revealed to you.
⁹The belief that you are a body must be corrected, for it is a mistake.
¹⁰The truth of what you are calls upon the strength in you to bring into your awareness what error has concealed.
7. If you are not a body, what are you?
²You need to become aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body in your mind.
³You need to feel something to place your faith in, as you withdraw it from the body.
⁴You need a real experience of something else—something more solid and more secure,
⁵Something more worthy of your faith, and truly there. VII
8. If you are not a body, what are you?
²Ask yourself this question sincerely, and then spend a few minutes letting your mistaken thoughts about your attributes be corrected, and their opposites take their place.
³Say, for example:
⁴I am not weak, but strong.
⁵I am not helpless, but all-powerful.
⁶I am not limited, but unlimited.
⁷I am not doubtful, but certain.
⁸I am not an illusion, but a reality.
⁹I cannot see in darkness, but in light.
9. In the second phase of the exercise, try to experience these truths about yourself. VIII
²Focus especially on experiencing strength. IX
³Remember that every sense of weakness is associated with the belief that you are a body—a belief that is wrong and unworthy of your faith.
⁴Withdraw your faith from it, if only for a moment.
⁵As we go along, you will become more accustomed to placing your faith in what is truly worthy in you.
10. Relax for the remainder of the practice period, trusting that even your smallest effort is fully supported by the Strength of God and all His Thoughts.
²Your strength will come from Them.
³With Their mighty support, you will feel the strength in you.
⁴God and all His Thoughts join you in this practice, in which you share a purpose like Their own.
⁵Theirs is the Light in which you will see miracles, for Their Strength is yours.
⁶Their Strength becomes your eyes, so you may see.
11. Five or six times an hour, at reasonably regular intervals, remind yourself that miracles are seen in the light.
²Also be sure to respond to any temptation with today’s idea.
³This form may be helpful for that specific purpose:
⁴Miracles are seen in the light.
⁵I will not close my eyes because of this.
I This Lesson was dictated on September 21, 1969.
Miracles are what you perceive when you look in a certain way. They are nothing special and, in reality, they change nothing. They simply show you what was already there but what you had not seen before. For the truth is that before, you were not seeing anything either—you were merely imagining things, building stories in your mind from the shadows that the eyes of your body brought you, and which made you believe that what you thought you saw was real. And what you believed you saw, you called “reality.”
Now think of a whiteboard on which is written in black ink the following phrase: “The sky is blue and the sea is vast.” What happens in your mind when you see that? Most likely, you begin to imagine a blue sky and a wide marine horizon. It is also possible that you start speculating that someone with a poetic inclination must have passed by, and perhaps you wonder what led them to write that. It may even be that your mind takes flight and goes further still—you might feel the desire to see the sea, to meet that person, or who knows what else!
Now consider the situation differently—this is an allegory. What are you actually seeing? The truth is that your eyes have merely conveyed to the optic nerve, through the pupils, a certain quantity of photons coming from the white surface of the board. Certain areas of the board—where the black ink was—reflected no photons, and your brain did the rest.
A story appeared in your mind! You might even begin a discussion with the person beside you about your interpretation. But what is intrinsically true is that you have merely witnessed a play of light and shadow, and your mind has chosen to create a story based solely on the darkness—on that where nothing was.
The illusion of the world works in much the same way. Your will can decide what you will focus on: on the light or on the darkness, on what is there or on what is missing. The world you see you build in your mind from absences of light—from absences of love. You do not realize it, but the truth is that your mind is enchanted by things that do not exist, yet which you believe you see.
And the convincing power of your belief is such that you are willing to fight to defend that what you interpret is true; in fact, that is what you do all the time, though you are unaware of it.
This is a Course in mind training so that, by beginning to look differently, you begin to see everything differently. In a sense, what it proposes is that you reverse the mechanisms governing your perception—hence the Course speaks of “reversing” the thought system.
Where before you saw a grievous offense, it tells you it is only an illusion; where before you perceived an attack, it proposes that you interpret it as a call for help; and of the one you consider your enemy, it tells you he is your Savior. Do you see? Everything reversed.
This Course also tells you that it is not necessary at all to believe its proposals. It only asks that you consider them respectfully and put them to the test; then, you yourself will decide by their results.
Indeed, it even warns you against any belief—“good” or “bad.” It cautions that to believe is to misuse the mind, and that you are better guided only by certainty, always distrusting your “good” intentions.
You have never been a good guide for yourself—and you never will be.
II This meaning of the term “miracle”—as something you see—is the same as in Lesson 78. The Course usually uses the term miracle as an agent (a cause), something that brings about a perceptual change; but here, it is what true perception beholds (an effect).
III Realize that the reason you do not see the light is because of your will to deny it. The light is indeed there, but you deny it, and therefore you do not see it. Remember, you perceive what you will to see and have.
IV Notice that although it is said constantly that this Course is very simple, it does not necessarily follow that it is easy.
Here, Jesus tells you that seeing the light is difficult—but not because it is difficult in itself, for seeing the light is natural. It is difficult because you have identified with the ego, and that makes it practically impossible to see the light of which he speaks.
To achieve it, you must break with that identification. Seeing the light is as easy—or as hard—as letting go of your ego.
V Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”
VI Realize that this is primarily a Course about will. You will notice that throughout it you are constantly urged to forgive illusions and are often taught about love—but you are exhorted even more insistently to use your will and align it with the Will of God, following the guidance of your inner Voice and your heart.
VII It is crucial that you recognize that what you are seeking is an experience, not an explanation. Do not attempt to conceptualize what you are by assigning it attributes or images drawn from the storehouse of memory. None of that is real.
If you wish to take a journey, you need a car—not a drawing of a car. Do not settle for anything that comes to your mind while you still cling to the idea you have of yourself. Those are merely artificial attributes that will further burden your troubled, little self.
The experience of being is without attributes—it is absolute.
VIII Strictly speaking, Being is an absolute idea and has no attributes. Yet the ideas mentioned above are characteristic traits of Being—as considered from the individual mind—with which it is beneficial for the mind to associate itself.
In truth, this is an exercise in straightening or aligning the individual mind with its true identity. Do not think that what is being proposed to you is a well-intentioned, idealistic abstraction devoid of substance. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ideas proposed here will become for you experiences as real as your will allows them to be.
You can use your mind to grant yourself the small or the limitless—such is the power of your mind. Choose wisely, and do not allow yourself to think thoughts that make you feel bad.
Remember that your heart will always alert you by its mood to whether you are using the mind rightly or not. It is very simple: attend to its guidance.
IX This is a fundamental mental technique that should be practiced as often as possible throughout the day. It consists, first, of evoking in your mind the idea of strength in the most vivid and authentic way you can; it is not enough merely to think it—you must feel it within yourself.
To do so, bring to mind an image that represents energy and power: a raging sea, a hurricane wind, the engines of an airplane roaring at full power before takeoff—any scene that awakens in you the sense of immense force.
Then, expand that sensation as much as you can and remain in it, fully enjoying it.
Finally, claim that idea and make it yours permanently, as something that belongs to you forever. This is the closest the individual mind can come to what true creation really is.
Be extremely careful not to allow the ego to seize upon the powerful ideas you evoke. The ego covets them with all its might; do not let it.
Remember: you, as an ego, are not that. Rather, that is what you are—the Son of God.
Throughout the day, you will inevitably find yourself in situations that tempt you toward weakness, smallness, or helplessness.
Do not yield.
Focus on experiencing the strength within you—which, in truth, is you. In the next Lesson, you will understand why.