October is the month of Columbus Day which honors not only Christopher Columbus but all discoverers who are willing to put aside their fears and explore "beyond the known world." During October we praise and give thanks to all discoverers.
When the Endeavor Academy Light Team visited Salt Lake City in July and helped so many people open up to profoundly out-of-this-world experiences of themselves, most participants were absolutely in awe over their discovery of the magnitude of light available. Some went far beyond feeling overjoyed to feeling joyed out of this world, so to speak. Others watched their perceptions of who they thought they were disappear in explosions of love no one could ever have fantasized possible.
Everyone experienced more than a glimmer of what Jesus means when he says in A Course in Miracles that until now we've held ourselves so tremendously shrunk down and limited that even in our greatest earthly joy we've hardly had an inkling of the glorious experience that is available.
All of this exultant spiritual opening with all its glory and splendor was offered by Endeavor Academy teachers free of charge and gratefully accepted by participants who almost universally said to themselves something like, "Wow! We didn't know this was possible! We never knew what was really available! We never before experienced who we really are!"
Imagine yourself discovering by experience that who you really are is a thousand or even a hundred thousand times more joyous than you have ever felt on earth, infinitely more loving than you could ever think possible, and indescribably more certain and peaceful than anyone on earth could dream?
You would want more of this experience of who you really are, true or false?
That's the way it is with the members of our ACIM enlightenment community here in Salt Lake City. One of our Salt Lake brothers left for a visit to Endeavor Academy in September, another will be at Endeavor during October, and everyone else in our group says they know they have to be at Endeavor someday.
The experience of one's vastly expanded self is so incredible, so not-of-the-earth wonderful, that once you've given yourself permission to open the door a crack to the experience it is impossible not to want more.
Meanwhile, what about all our brother ACIM students in other cities who have not had the opportunity to join with the Endeavor Academy teachers and might possibly have used past learning, misunderstandings, and fears to place themselves in judgment of Endeavor Academy? Do they miss out on this incredible light?
Well, of course they miss an out-of-this-world personal experience while they are in judgment, just as we all miss everything if we are in judgment. But ultimately no one misses out. If Endeavor Academy and those who are drawn to Endeavor Academy are expanding the world into "unknown territories" of light, then the entire world benefits. Since there is only one mind, there is not one who could be left behind.
Is it okay to be fearful of the magnitude of light that is being experienced by our brothers at Endeavor Academy? Well, fear is never justified (Lesson 240), but Jesus tells us in A Course in Miracles that he's well aware that most who are called are afraid of the light, at least for awhile.
Let's imagine you said, "I'd love to visit Endeavor Academy, but it's not fear of the light that holds me back. I'm afraid of being confronted. I don't want anybody speaking with authority, telling me how I'm doing things in a harmful way. That sounds too much like a parent trying to control me. I hate the pain I feel when I am confronted like that."
Jesus understands such pain and feels it as his own pain. He would give anything to watch you open yourself spiritually in a totally painless way. But Jesus also understands your deepest desire is to not hold yourself back forever. Therefore you might possibly create yourself being spoken to with great authority in order to ultimately experience the breakthroughs you want spiritually.
Certainly if you do create yourself being spoken to with great authority and you take it as an attack on your person, you will feel pain.
But what if, being a good student of A Course in Miracles, you did not take personally what is being said with authority? What if you found yourself spoken to with authority and said to yourself something like, "Hey, look at this! This is great! Wow! This energy is incredible!"
We don't have to see confrontation, do we? We could see only love. We don't even have to feel a personal identity, do we? We could feel only oneness. What if peace of mind even during seeming confrontation is what Jesus wants for us and is an experience we really want for ourselves?
Jesus says there is nothing to fear from seeming confrontation, just as there is nothing to fear from the magnitude of light being experienced by brothers at Endeavor Academy.
There simply is nothing to fear.
Try this exercise:
Close your eyes and ask the Holy Spirit to help you feel that there is nothing to fear. "I want to feel what having nothing to fear feels like. I really, really want to feel that there is nothing to fear."
Keep asking. Keep praying for the experience. Then when you do feel that there is nothing to fear (and you will because that feeling is inside of you waiting to be felt) hold onto the feeling, relish it, cherish it, make it your best friend and constant companion.
After establishing yourself in fearlessness, then ask yourself if you still have any worry about whether a spiritual teacher speaks to you with authority, an Endeavor Academy teacher or any other teacher you've created for yourself.
Obviously, not every student of A Course in Miracles is going to visit the Endeavor Academy in Wisconsin as we know it. But what if every student of A Course in Miracles who really, really wants to go all the way spiritually has no choice but to someday surrender to the kind of experience Endeavor Academy offers, an extremely bright light out-of-this-world experience?
What if A Course in Miracles is a required course and the kind of experiences Endeavor Academy students have enjoyed as a result of living A Course in Miracles with full endeavor are also required experiences?
In that case, would the Holy Spirit soon enough see to it that little "Endeavor Academies" sprang up all over the map, perhaps with different names?
Extrapolating further, someone might ask, will the Holy Spirit eventually oversee the creation of devices that are even more wonderful than A Course in Miracles and Endeavor Academy for the purpose of inducing fully expanded states of being? Where will the Holy Spirit end it all, having no need for further devices?
Right now the brothers in our Salt Lake City ACIM enlightenment community already see no need for further devices. When they consider what has happened to them as a result of using A Course in Miracles and being with the teachers from Endeavor Academy, they are ecstatically happy, overwhelmingly grateful, and absolutely certain that their deepest inner desire since time began will be fulfilled very soon indeed.
Imagine the feeling Christopher Columbus must have felt when he landed on a "newly discovered" island and named it San Salvador, gratefully honoring his savior. Multiply that feeling by infinity, or pretty close to infinity, and see if you can glimpse how the brothers are feeling here in our Salt Lake City ACIM enlightenment community these days.
Maybe you'd like to discover yourself.
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