Idiocy of Obama Health Care

"Everyone is equally entitled to His gift of healing. To give a problem to the Holy Spirit to solve means you WANT it solved. To keep it for yourself to solve is to decide it shall remain unsettled, unresolved, and lasting." ~ A Course in Miracles

Course in Political Miracles: Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO COURSE IN POLITICAL MIRACLES

Course in Political Miracles recognizes that if the political system of one's surroundings is not reflecting the natural freedom of one's spirit, then one's spirit calls from inside oneself evermore loudly for freedom.

If government presence in one's life is rampant and based on seemingly insane decisions being made by out-of-touch or corrupted leaders, those with means and possibilities might be guided by their spirit to drop out of the system altogether.

Others will feel guided by their spirit to become active in bringing about change in the system. Such change might seem to require a miracle ... but it can be done.

Course in Political Miracles recognizes that the only honest path available to many is what we call: "being in the system, but not of the system."

This is a path of spiritual opening, inner listening to one's spirit, and allowing one's words and actions within the system to be guided by one's spirit.

It is a path of political campaigners who speak not to voters' fears or pains or whims, but to their spirit and reason.

It is a path of teachers who are not afraid of the opening minds and spirit of their students.

It is a path of company managers who treat their lower level employees not as expenses and expendables, but as individuals who are valued for their human spirit.

It is a path of those who are choosing to "be in the system, but not of the system," following the instructions of their spirit which has no other interest than to ultimately free them from political insanity.

Course in Political Miracles is interested in helping you blast through the limitations of ego-style politics and ego-style political activism, allowing you to operate on a level of efficacy which could almost be called "miraculous," as you follow your unique spirit-directed path to change the system. To this end, we offer what might be the most life changing course you will ever take.

YOUR PRACTICE OF THE LESSONS OF THE COURSE

There is no charge for the Course in Political Miracles ... except the price you set for yourself in dedication and commitment. The Course, like life itself, gives back what you put into it. Pay a high price in dedication and commitment, and the rewards will prove to be far beyond what you could have imagined beforehand.

The Course may be practiced in two ways:

Those who benefit from schedules and scheduling can concentrate on one lesson a week. The Course's 52 lessons make it a perfect one year course. Those who survive a year in the Course in this manner will feel a strong desire to retake it a second year and a third ... because it does bring results.

Those who feel the need to not move on until they have really grasped a given lesson in all its depth and breadth can stay on the same lesson week after week until it is fully learned and integrated deeply inside oneself, then move on to the next lesson. This is perhaps the best way to learn the lessons.

To gain the most benefit from the course, do not read ahead in the lessons. Stay with the lesson you are on until the one week or longer you have allotted yourself for the lesson has passed.

Under no circumstances should anyone ever spend less than an entire week on a lesson. You may be greatly tempted to say to yourself, "Oh, I already know this lesson," and move on to the next too quickly. Do not submit to such temptation.

It's okay to say, "Oh, I already know this lesson." But remember the goal here is to integrate the lesson fully, fully, fully deep inside oneself. If you really knew the lesson in all its fullness, we would already be living with political freedom and have no need for a Course in Political Miracles.

Finally, some lessons you will find hard to believe or even jolting to your old belief system. Do not judge the lessons. You need not believe the ideas, or accept them, or welcome them. Some of them your old belief system may resist. Your initial reaction does not matter. Simply apply the lessons as instructed.

One week is not enough time to integrate a lesson thoroughly, but it is the minimum amount of time to get a good start on a lesson which when thoroughly learned will improve your life a billion-fold.



The device which more deeply prepares freedom lovers for success, A Course in Miracles , talks about our ultimate need to free ourselves from every kind of slavery:

You have been told to bring the darkness to the light, and guilt to holiness. And you have also been told that error must be corrected at its source. Therefore, it is the tiny part of your self, the little thought that seems split off and separate, that the Holy Spirit needs. The rest is fully in God's keeping, and needs no guide. But this wild and delusional thought needs help, because, in its delusions, it thinks it is the Son of God, whole and omnipotent, sole ruler of the kingdom it set apart to tyrannize by madness into obedience and slavery.



Available free of charge online:
Course in Political Miracles

The Spiritual Foundation of Liberty

You are a spiritual human being. You experience a physical body, feelings, thoughts, and spiritual impulses. You may have denied your spiritual impulses from time to time, but they are present inside you ... and you know it.

It is your spiritual nature which moves you to do marvelous things. You might be moved to write a wonderful novel, discover a cure for cancer, be a good mother, build a business that produces goods, or rescue a little animal who is trapped. Maybe you are moved to do something you can't even see the value of at first, but you do it because something deep inside you tells you it is right for you to do. That something deep inside you is your spiritual nature.

It is your spiritual nature which speaks to you from deep within saying, "We are all in this together ... every living being. What is truly good for one is good for all. What is truly good for all is good for one."

It is your spiritual nature which also says deep inside you, "It is I who will show you what is truly good."

YOUR THINKING MIND CANNOT SHOW YOU WHAT IS TRULY GOOD

Your thoughts are based on limited information and limited perception. In order to make a correct judgment as to what is truly good, you would have to be 100% completely aware of an inconceivably wide range of factors; past, present, and future. You would have to have certain advance knowledge of all the effects of your judgment on everyone and everything. You would have to be absolutely sure that you didn't have the slightest slanted angle of perception. Who could possibly have this magnitude of information? Who except in the height of fantasy could imagine themselves to have such a totally all-seeing and all-knowing viewpoint? How many times have you been so thoroughly sure you knew the facts upon which to base correct judgment, only to find out later how wrong you were?

Because philosophers and lawyers are just like yourself, subject to limited information and limited perception, neither can you rely on even the very best of scholars using intellectual reasoning to help you discover what is truly good.

YOUR EMOTIONS CANNOT SHOW YOU WHAT IS TRULY GOOD

Your emotions are brought about by your thoughts and ideas. Since your thoughts are based on very limited information and a very limited viewpoint, so are your emotions. Should your thoughts not serve you well, neither will your emotions serve you well, even unto breakdown.

YOUR PHYSICAL BODY CANNOT SHOW YOU WHAT IS TRULY GOOD

Your physical body is literally only a servant doing the bidding of your thoughts and feelings. Would a man ever risk bodily danger for a higher good if his body was his guide?

ONLY YOUR SPIRITUAL NATURE CAN SHOW YOU WHAT IS TRULY GOOD

Your spiritual nature on the other hand, because it is shared with every living being, knows what is truly good for all. Your spiritual nature is present inside you to influence, teach, and guide your thoughts, emotions, and physical body. Whether or not you listen inside yourself to your spiritual nature is another story, but your spiritual nature is inside of you waiting to be heard.

In any situation, if you quiet your thoughts, quiet your emotions, quiet the urges of your body, and listen inside yourself to your spirit, you know what is the truly right thing to say or do. You don't need a legislature, or a philosopher, or a psychologist, or a church authority of any kind to tell you what is right. If you are honest with yourself, you know the answer is inside of you. Your spirit is your guide.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LAW

But you don't always listen inside yourself to your spirit, do you? Maybe sometimes you listen to your thoughts, emotions, or even the urges of your body, instead of listening to your spirit. Does your spirit know that you are not going to always listen deep inside? Of course. Your spirit knows about human shortcomings and mistakes.

So your spirit says, "Here ... in case you forget to listen inside yourself, I'll let you know in advance that I, your spirit, am never going to guide you to murder, nor am I ever going to guide you to commit adultery, nor am I ever going to guide you to steal, nor am I ever going to guide you to bear false witness against your neighbor. If you want to, you can call these laws."

Thus laws are born. In the beginning, laws are born of the spirit ... as reminders.

LAWS NOT OF THE SPIRIT

After a long time, when the beginning has been forgotten, laws are born not of the spirit, but of the egos of men and women ... true or false?

Listen inside. Do not listen to your intellectual mind's reasoning. Listen to your spirit. What do you hear? The laws made up by men and women are not necessarily the laws of your spiritual nature, true or false?

Therein lies the first and main reason why governments, legislatures, and laws should always be suspect. They may not be in rapport with the spiritual nature inside of men and women. They may be instruments of men and women's egos and not instruments of the spirit.

GOVERNMENT GUIDED BY THE SPIRITUAL NATURE

Yet the spiritual nature of men and women could move them to set up a government, true or false? Listen inside, not to your intellect. Does your spirit inside say yes or no?

How many laws would a government need if it was based on men and women's spiritual nature? Three? Five? Ten, like the ten commandments? Probably very few, wouldn't you say? Listen inside and see what you hear.

How many laws would it take to assure that you would be a good citizen even if you didn't listen inside to your spirit at all times? A half-dozen basic laws having to do with stealing, murdering, raping ... that sort of thing? Or would it take 25 or 30 good laws written as basic principles to remind you? Listen inside to your spirit.

Would it take hundreds of thousands of pages of tax codes and regulations to make you a good citizen? Listen inside. What is your spirit saying?

NO NEED FOR A LEGISLATURE

So why not write up a constitution that outlines 25 or 30 good laws in basic principle and creates only two branches of government, the judiciary and the executive to make sure these few good laws are followed?

Another branch of government to invent new laws is not only unnecessary, but practically assures deviation from your original intent, true or false? Because if you set up a branch of government whose purpose is to make new laws, then when those law makers come to work in the morning, in order to feel good about themselves doing their job they are going to want to do what? Yes ... they are going to want to make up new laws.

What if no new laws are needed? No matter. Those law makers get paid to invent laws and they are going to want to do their job, right?

So if you are listening carefully inside yourself to your spirit you will hear that it doesn't take a lot of laws to keep you reminded to be a good citizen and once those basic few laws are identified you don't need a legislature making up new laws.

GOVERNMENT PROJECTS MOST PEOPLE WANT

But what about all the good things that governments claim they do? Let's look at building interstate highways, for example. Let's listen inside and see if your spiritual nature wants you to have interstate highways built by your government? Do you hear "yes"? Does that seem to be a good idea to your spirit? If so, now listen inside for a "yes" or "no" answer to these questions: Do you need a legislature to build an interstate highway? Do you need new laws to build an interstate highway? No. All you need is an executive branch which is given the authority to spend money for the projects earmarked by people when they voluntarily send in their dollars.

Suppose the executive branch of government broadcasts a notice that says, "All those in favor of interstate highways, please send in your money voluntarily and it will be earmarked for interstate highways." Your spiritual nature would not be offended by such a notice, true or false? Listen inside. For a little while, suspend any intellectual arguments your mind wants to make as to why such a system would be difficult to make work. Maybe it wouldn't. Maybe it would. Your intellect couldn't possibly know because it doesn't have all the information it would need to make a judgment. For the moment, just listen inside and see if your spirit would be offended by such a notice.

No, your spirit is not offended. Why? First, because your spirit lit up at the thought of interstate highways, so interstate highways must be serving the common good. Second, and very important, your spirit is not offended by voluntary donations. Nobody is being forced against their will to pay for the highways.

YOUR SPIRITUAL NATURE DOES NOT USE FORCE

But what if the executive department of the government tried to force people to pay taxes to pay for the highways? Now your spirit might be offended, might it not? Because your spirit doesn't ever force you to be good or do good things. Your spirit suggests. Your spirit guides. Your spirit urges. Your spirit might even give you a very strong nudge in some direction if it is really important. But your spirit doesn't force you, does it? Your spirit leaves you free to make mistakes and learn from your mistakes.

Any proper government, guided by your spiritual nature, would leave you free to make mistakes and learn from your mistakes just as your spirit leaves you free, true or false? Listen inside.

Would your spirit ever guide you to use force? Yes, it may so guide you in certain situations. Your spirit might say inside of you, "It is wrong for that bully to be beating up on those kids! Go stop him!" You could very well be guided to use force to stop someone when that someone is breaking one of the basic spiritual laws, true or false?

The same principle applies to governments. Your spiritual nature would not be offended if your government used force to stop someone from breaking the basic spiritual laws. In fact, your spirit might rejoice when force is used in this manner. Putting a stop to, let's say, a neighboring dictator's brutal initiation of force would be a spiritually appropriate response. For this reason you feel deep inside yourself that the establishment of responsive armies and police departments is moral, as long as there are safeguards against the abuse of power.

A THIRD BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT

What if the executive branch of your government began to use force not to stop others who had initiated force in the first place, but to further the ego-vested interests of men and women in positions of executive power? Or what if the judiciary branch of your government began to make judgments based not on the spiritual intent of the basic laws, but based on the ego-vested interests of men and women in positions to render ego-motivated judgments? In other words, what if your government started abusing its power?

Your inner voice, the voice of your spirit, might guide you thus: "In the hopes of guarding against the abuse of power, set up a third branch of government made up of elected representatives whose sole purpose is to monitor the activities of the other two branches of government to make sure they are not straying from their original mandates. Call this third branch of government ‘Congress,' if it pleases you. But, like the executive and judiciary branches of government, this third branch would have no power to make new laws. This third branch of government would only serve as auditor of the other two branches of government and as a 'Watchdog of Liberty'."

But a watchdog has a bite as well as a bark, true or false? So this third branch of government would be given authority to dismiss the officials who are abusing power and oversee their replacement through specified processes. Members of this third branch of government would not get bored from lack of work. They would be auditing everything the other two branches of government were doing, making sure there were no abuses.

YET ANOTHER SAFEGUARD

Remember, your spiritual nature is interested in you having a system of government which closely approximates the freedom that your spirit itself enjoys. If your government, which was created in the first place for the convenience of your spirit, began to take away freedoms that would rightly be yours if there were no government, then that government is no longer serving your spirit. So your spirit favors safeguards, true or false?

What if a particular political party became very adept at selling itself to the public and won effective control of all three branches of your government? Your spirit would see a problem with such a setup, true or false? Your spirit inside of you doesn't say, "The more the government is being controlled by one party, the better." Your spirit inside of you says, "The more safeguards against power accumulation, the better."

So in your original constitution you would be guided to include a clause that specifies that if a particular political party and its allies dominate the auditor/watchdog branch of government, then the executive branch of government must be operated by members of a different and opposing political party. The mechanisms for resignations and replacements of officials would be spelled out in your constitution.

SUMMARY

Your spirit wants liberty safeguarded with as many safeguards as possible, because freedom is who you are in spirit. Freedom is your spiritual birthright. Your spirit wants to be free and be in control of your life, not be dampened and controlled by the egos of others. Your spirit works to free you of pain, sickness, suffering, and death; and bring you the experience of happiness, and joy, and love. But your spirit needs freedom to do its work. A little bit of government is helpful and guided by your spirit. But a government that does not enhance your freedom cannot be tolerated by your spirit, true or false?



The device which more deeply prepares freedom lovers for success, A Course in Miracles , talks about our ultimate need to free ourselves from every kind of slavery:

You have been told to bring the darkness to the light, and guilt to holiness. And you have also been told that error must be corrected at its source. Therefore, it is the tiny part of your self, the little thought that seems split off and separate, that the Holy Spirit needs. The rest is fully in God's keeping, and needs no guide. But this wild and delusional thought needs help, because, in its delusions, it thinks it is the Son of God, whole and omnipotent, sole ruler of the kingdom it set apart to tyrannize by madness into obedience and slavery.



Available free of charge online:
Course in Political Miracles

The Spiritual Basis of Free Markets

Economists have argued for many years that a free market, in which honest men and women voluntarily trade the results of their productive effort, inevitably provides the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

For two important reasons it cannot be proven that economists are correct. First, markets have never yet in recorded history been totally free of the intervention and manipulation of political interests, so there is no historical example to study. Capitalism untainted by politics has never yet existed. Second, nobody really knows what is the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Philosophers on the other hand have argued that a free market, even if it did not produce the greatest good for everyone, is the only moral means of production and distribution of goods, because intervention in the market or manipulation of the market by those with political interests necessarily involves the initiation of deception or force against innocent people to gain ends which may not have come to pass if people were left to deal with each other voluntarily. But not all philosophers think the same, do they? A philosopher like Karl Marx can come along and say, "Hey, what's wrong with using deception or force against innocent people?"

So if the arguments of economics and philosophy don't really settle anything, where can the average citizen of a democracy go to find answers that work for all places and all time? If the answers are not to be found in outside libraries or in outside intellectual arguments, maybe there is something inside of us that knows the answers. Maybe we can ask inside.

Isn't it true that the average Mary knows inside of herself that the one thing she wants more than anything else is freedom? Her desire for security is rooted only in her body's needs. Her desire for freedom is rooted much deeper in the needs of her spirit.

She may not always pay attention to the fact that political intervention in the marketplace always reduces somebody's freedom, and she might not see clearly that if somebody else's freedom is reduced ... so is hers. But the average Mary does know that she wants freedom. So if she could stay in touch with her own truest, deepest heart's desire, then she would really be in touch with everyone's deepest, truest desire, true or false? Don't ask your intellect. Listen deep inside. True or false?

Once you have learned to hear one basic truth inside of yourself, such as the truth that your desire for freedom is far, far deeper than your desire for security, then you might feel assured that other answers flow logically from that one basic truth. So it must be true that you can confidently look inside yourself for answers, wouldn't you say?

What if you could see with some kind of spiritual third eye and look at what might be called the "aura" of free markets and then turn and look also at the "aura" of markets manipulated or influenced by political interests?

If you could open some kind of spiritual eye and give yourself permission to look at the aura of a country, wouldn't you see that country glowing with brighter light if there is a free market? Wouldn't you see that same country's light clouded over if there is a politically manipulated market?

Listen inside. Free markets offer hope, true or false?

If you were listening inside carefully, you heard "totally." Why do free markets offer total hope? Because with a free market of only voluntary transactions there is nothing which can altogether shut down the possibility of you achieving your dreams. There may be obstacles, even great obstacles, but if you have something truly good to offer, your dreams can stay alive, yes?

Now listen inside and see if markets manipulated by political interests offer you anywhere near as much hope. Why do you hear inside an answer that is not the same as the answer you heard for free markets? Because in a politically manipulated market your dreams could, with little recourse, be squelched by force, right? You could do everything required in the voluntary association market to have your dream come true and still have a politician or a bureaucrat come along and pull the rug out from under you in such a way that you could not pick yourself up and make another try.

What about honesty? Honesty is a trait your spirit likes, true or false? Listen inside to your spirit. Avoid the temptation to intellectualize. Listen to your spirit.

With free markets you can be as honest as your spirit would prefer you to be, true or false?

With markets influenced or manipulated by political interests, it is much more difficult to be totally honest, true or false? The answer is obvious. Honesty has already been subverted in a market that is manipulated by political interests. Not being totally voluntary, such a market is already colored by dishonesty inserted by politicians. In such a market, you would always be aware deep inside yourself that as honest as you would like to be, there could come a point where dishonesty might be required of you just to survive.

What about good will? Your spirit likes the idea of good will among people, true or false?

In a free and voluntary market the possibilities of good will are endless, true or false? Listen inside.

In a politically influenced market, good will ends where? Listen inside. Good will ends the first time political laws attempt to force you to do something your spirit would not guide you to do. Or the other way around, good will ends the first time politics attempts to force you to not do something your spirit would like you to do.

Consider how good you feel when you are giving of yourself. That good feeling is of the spirit, isn't it? If you were a taker and not a giver, you could not feel near as good, true or false? Because taking derives from a sense of lack and inadequacy, while giving is of your infinite and endlessly benevolent spirit, right?

Politicians who favor what are called "social safety nets," subvert the natural flow of giving, don't they? They take from you in the form of taxation, justifying their actions with the argument that if left to your own choices you might not have given. They argue this way while conveniently ignoring the fact that they are robbing you of much more than your money. They are robbing you of the exquisite feeling and personal growth that comes from making the voluntary moral choice to be giving. They also conveniently ignore just how low an opinion of mankind they are teaching. To tell people they can't do well without "social safety nets," is to utterly suffocate their spirit.

What about trust? Your spirit likes nothing better than trusting, true or false?

In a free market the conditions are present for the building of trust. But what happens to trust in a politically influenced market? Feel inside and see if trust starts to shut down in a manipulated market.

I could go on like this listing various qualities your spirit loves and enjoys, and inviting you to look inside yourself at the "aura" of these qualities in one kind of market or another. But by now you can see that your chances of being wide open and allowing yourself to be spiritually guided are totally enhanced by a free market and in every respect hampered by a politically manipulated market.

You see "auras" by looking inside yourself, don't you? Unlike the arguments of economics or philosophy where proof is impossible, "seeing" this way, with your spiritual eyes ... spiritual knowing ... could in some cases be all the proof you need, true or false?

By way of illustration, I will tell a little story. But I will not tell the end of the story. Because you know the end of the story. Your intellectual reasoning might say, "No, I don't know the end of the story unless you tell me." But if you quiet your intellectual mind and listen deep inside yourself, you'll find that you know the end of the story. Here is the story:

Once upon a time, there were three little producers of goods and services: the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. When they went to bed at night, each would say to himself, "Ah! I've produced something good for the world!" They felt very good about their work because they were responding to market demand and supplying what people wanted. All was well.

Each was giving to the world and each felt good about himself because giving feels good. Listen inside to your deepest inner voice and see if giving feels good. Actually, if you listen very carefully, you will probably hear inside that giving is the only thing that satisfies you.

In our story, there was also an enormous sense of good will between these three little producers and their customers. The little producers were providing something valued. Their customers were providing something valued in return. Can you think of a more efficient mechanism of good will among men?

See if you can feel what they felt. Listen inside to your inner self and feel what it feels like to experience the satisfaction of giving to others and the wonderful feeling of good will.

These three little producers of goods and their customers also felt substantial trust, true or false? Listen inside and see what you hear. Pretend you are a customer and see if you can feel what it would feel like to experience total trust that the things you need are going to be produced and made available to you when you need them. Pretend you are a producer and see if you can feel what it would feel like to experience total trust that your customers very much want to and will always pay you in return for the value received from you.

These three little producers and their customers also felt a sense of honesty inside themselves, true or false? If you feel total trust and you feel total good will, it's very difficult to be dishonest, isn't it? See if you can feel inside the kind of complete honesty it would be possible to reach if you were one of the characters in this story.

Now ... in our story a change happened. One day the butcher gathered the baker and the candlestick maker into a conference and said to them, "A lot of us have joined together and formed a government. You operate within what we are calling our borders, so you must obey our laws."

The baker and the candlestick maker didn't know how to feel about this idea. Nobody ever asked them if they wanted a government. But as was their habit, they withheld judgment and asked, "What laws?"

The butcher listed rules, and regulations, and laws by the millions.

Now here is the end of the story....

The baker and the candlestick maker lived happily forever after, true or false?



The device which more deeply prepares freedom lovers for success, A Course in Miracles , talks about our ultimate need to free ourselves from every kind of slavery:

You have been told to bring the darkness to the light, and guilt to holiness. And you have also been told that error must be corrected at its source. Therefore, it is the tiny part of your self, the little thought that seems split off and separate, that the Holy Spirit needs. The rest is fully in God's keeping, and needs no guide. But this wild and delusional thought needs help, because, in its delusions, it thinks it is the Son of God, whole and omnipotent, sole ruler of the kingdom it set apart to tyrannize by madness into obedience and slavery.



Available free online:
Course in Political Miracles