A Return to Love Workshop

1. Love is Our Core Reality; Fear is a Learned Illusion

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we have learned here.

Inherent goodness. We are born perfectly programmed, naturally inclined to love, creativity, and a sense of the miraculous. This innate state is our true self, a connection to a richer, enchanted world. However, society teaches us a "bad philosophy" based on competition, scarcity, and limitation, causing us to forget our true nature.

The great unlearning. The spiritual journey is not about acquiring something new, but about "relinquishment—or unlearning—of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts." Love is the essential existential fact, our ultimate reality and purpose. When we attach value to things that aren't love—money, prestige—we search for meaning in the meaningless, leading to pain.

A world beyond. Love is not material; it's energy, perceived through a "different kind of 'seeing' than we're used to—a different kind of knowing or thinking." This intuitive knowledge of our hearts is a "world beyond" that we secretly long for, an ancient memory beckoning us to return. Fear, conversely, is our shared lovelessness, manifesting as anger, disease, and violence.

2. You Are a Perfect Child of God, Not Your Ego

The perfect you isn’t something you need to create, because God already created it.

Divine blueprint. You are a child of God, created in a "blinding flash of creativity," an extension of divine love. Your true self is the love within you, already perfect and unmarred by anything you've done. To remember this is not arrogant, but humble, acknowledging your creation by God.

The Christ-mind. At our core, we are not just identical but the same being, part of a "divine, or 'Christ' mind." We are like sunbeams from the sun, or waves from the ocean—interconnected and indivisible. The ego, however, is our "entire network of fearful perceptions," a false belief in our separation from God and one another, a "lie about who and what we really are."

Holy Spirit's role. The Holy Spirit is God's "eternal communication link with His separated Sons," a force of consciousness that corrects our misperceptions. It is God's alternative to the ego, transforming our thoughts from fear to love when we ask. This "inexorable drive toward wholeness" exists within us, guiding us back to our perfectly loving, natural state.

3. Miracles are Shifts in Perception from Fear to Love

A miracle is just a shift in perception.

Awakening from illusion. Miracles are natural expressions of love, reflecting a shift in how we think. They are not rearrangements of our dream figures, but our "awakening from it." In asking for miracles, we seek a return to inner peace, changing something inside us rather than expecting external circumstances to change.

Thought is cause. Quantum physics reveals that our perception changes reality. Since "thought is Cause; experience is Effect," changing our minds is the ultimate personal empowerment. When we choose love over fear, a radical shift occurs, transcending ordinary physical laws. Our self-perception determines our behavior and the energy we radiate.

God's instruments. Miracles are involuntary effects of a loving personality, an invisible force emanating from those whose conscious intention is to give and receive love. As we relinquish fears, we become "God’s instruments," His "miracle workers," participating in a spiritual underground revitalizing the world. This revolution of values happens at the deepest possible level.

4. Surrender to God's Will: The Path to Inner Peace

The moment of surrender is not when life is over. It’s when it begins.

Trusting the universe. Faith is trusting the force that moves the universe, believing it's on our side and knows what it's doing. Without faith, we frantically try to control what's beyond our power, wasting time. Surrendering to God means depending on love, the highest internal law, essential for our emotional and psychological survival.

Feminine strength. We've been taught to be active and aggressive, but personal power comes from balancing masculine and feminine forces. Spiritualization is a "feminization process," a quieting of the mind, cultivating personal magnetism. This receptive, feminine aspect of consciousness is the space of mental surrender, allowing spirit to infuse our lives.

Letting go of results. Surrender means giving up attachment to how things happen externally, focusing instead on internal peace. We don't know what would truly make us happy, so we ask God for inner peace and trust His will. "God’s will, then, is loving thought." When we let go of resistance to love, God does His part, and things unfold at the highest good for all.

5. Relationships are Sacred Assignments for Mutual Healing

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter.

Teaching love or fear. Every encounter is a "holy encounter" where we teach either love or fear. As we demonstrate love, we learn we are lovable; as we demonstrate fear, we learn self-condemnation. Relationships exist to hasten our walk to God, becoming "holy encounters" when surrendered to the Holy Spirit.

Beyond judgment. Forgiveness in relationships is "selective remembering"—a conscious decision to focus on love and let go of faults. The ego seeks out guilt, but the Holy Spirit seeks innocence, seeing wounds where the ego sees faults. When someone behaves unlovingly, it's a "call for love," an illusion to be forgiven, not condemned.

Holy vs. special. The "special relationship" is the ego's delusion, seeking salvation in one person to fill an internal void, often leading to anger and exploitation. The "holy relationship" is the Holy Spirit's transformation of this, a friendship where two complete people join to share joy and heal through mutual forgiveness, accepting each other's unhealed places without judgment.

6. Your Career is a Ministry to Spread Love and Joy

The key to a successful career is realizing that it’s not separate from the rest of your life, but is rather an extension of your most basic self.

Purpose beyond profit. Success means using our talents to serve others, compensated by gratitude and the feeling of contributing to the world. Our career is an extension of our loving self, a ministry to "inject love into the world." We don't ask what we want to do, but "how should I do it?" The answer is "Kindly."

God's plan for you. The Holy Spirit reveals our function, providing the means for its accomplishment. We surrender our careers, trusting that if something makes our heart sing, it's God's way of telling us it's a contribution He wants. "The only real pleasure comes from doing God’s will," which is always to be happy and spread love.

Personal power and abundance. Our worldly power comes from our personal power, an internal stirring that emanates from within. This charisma, "of the spirit," is our natural right. When we dedicate our work to God's purposes, new talents emerge, and our careers take off. Money, like any resource, is neutral; its purpose is to heal the world, and abundance flows from a service mentality.

7. The Body is a Holy Instrument, Not Your True Self

The body was not made by love. Yet love does not condemn it and can use it lovingly, respecting what the Son of God has made and using it to save him from illusions.

Beyond body identification. We think we're separate because we have bodies, but we have bodies because we think we're separate. The body is a "tiny fence" around a glorious idea, a temporary encasement. Its holiness lies in its potential for communication, becoming a "temple to God" when used for extending love, not for attack, pleasure, or pride.

Mind over matter. Health or sickness depends entirely on how the mind perceives the body and its purpose. Disease is "loveless thinking materialized," a systemic issue in racial consciousness, not God's judgment. Healing is a return to love, remembering we are spirits, eternally healthy and incapable of sickness.

Transforming illness. Illness is a call to a religious life, a "wake-up call" to drop superficial baggage and appreciate love. It's a "psychic scream" whose message is "Love me," not "Hate me." We don't attack disease; we transform its energy back into love through visualizations and communication, recognizing that "the power of your mind does make a difference."

8. Forgiveness: The Radical Act of Seeing Innocence

To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten.

Beyond traditional forgiveness. Traditionally, forgiveness implies seeing guilt and then pardoning it. However, the Course teaches that our function is to remember there is no guilt in anyone, because "only love is real." We are to see through the illusion of guilt to the innocence that lies beyond, extending our perception beyond physical errors to the holiness within.

Right or happy? It can be challenging to forgive when we feel justified in our anger. But the Course asks, "Do you prefer that you be right or happy?" If we judge a brother, we are wrong even if we are factually correct. Our perception of someone's guilt keeps them stuck; compassion and forgiveness are more likely to elicit a healed response.

Letting go of the past. Forgiveness is the choice to see people as they are now, releasing perceptions of their past. "By bringing the past into the present, we create a future just like the past." By letting the past go, we make room for miracles, remembering that in the present, our brother is innocent. This discernment between what is real (love) and unreal (fear) is crucial.

9. Live in the Present; Choose Happiness Now

Heaven is a decision I must make.

Happiness is a choice. God's will is that we be happy now. Happiness isn't circumstance-dependent; it's a decision. We can choose to focus on what's right in our lives, knowing that "creation is an extension of thought." Thinking abundance brings more abundance.

Resisting joy. The ego battles against happiness, making us feel guilty for claiming our natural inheritance. It glorifies suffering, focusing on crucifixion over resurrection. But resurrection is the active calling forth of light in darkness, a decision to trust in a happy ending even when we can't see it.

Infinite patience, immediate results. God provides the answer to every problem the moment it occurs. "Only infinite patience produces immediate results." Our inability to accept joy stems from believing we are less than perfect. It is our right and responsibility to be happy, as happiness is a sign of accepting God's will and participating in hopeful solutions.

10. Cultivate Spiritual Discipline for Inner Guidance

An untrained mind can accomplish nothing.

Discipline for love. Love requires discipline and practice, not just sentiment. It's a radical commitment to a different way of being, a conscious choice to defy the ego's voice. Spiritual practice, like meditation and prayer, builds our "mental musculature," training our minds to think from a loving, faithful perspective instead of fear.

Hearing God's voice. Meditation is time spent with God in silence, allowing the Holy Spirit to perform "divine alchemy" in our minds. The Course's Workbook exercises train our minds to think along loving lines, making these principles "mental habits" in our problem-solving repertoire. The effects are cumulative, transforming not just what we do, but who we are.

Unleashing brilliance. We all have a direct "radio line to the voice for God," but it's often full of static. Quiet time with God melts this static, allowing us to hear the "small still voice for God." Our deepest fear is not inadequacy, but that "we are powerful beyond measure." By letting our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same, liberating ourselves and others from fear.

Last updated: November 25, 2025