The Lighthouse Group studies and meets quarterly at RMMC to talk about a selected newsletter written by Dr. Kenneth Wapnick. This quarter’s topic is “RESISTANCE: How One Studies A Course in Miracles Without Really Learning It” * (Volume 10, Number 2, from June 1999.)
Here is an excerpt from the Lighthouse article:
“Although the term resistance appears infrequently in A Course in Miracles, it is nonetheless a key concept in the process of students learning the mind-changing lessons of forgiveness that are the Course’s central teaching. Indeed, it is the only concept that can satisfactorily explain a phenomenon experienced by most (if not all) students of the Course at some point or another in their work with it. This is the seeming paradox, on the one hand, of consciously and most sincerely attempting to learn, live, and practice the Course principles under the guidance of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, while on the other hand, experiencing the ongoing frustration of not doing just that. Most spiritual seekers are familiar with the famous words of St. Paul, who exclaimed out of this same sense of frustration: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Romans 7:19). This article explores the issue of resistance in Course students’ efforts to put into practice its principles of forgiveness as taught by their Inner Teacher, the Holy Spirit.
As with so many other areas that touch on the process of healing in A Course in Miracles, the work of Sigmund Freud offers us many parallels which underscore the importance of understanding the dynamics of the problem and its solution. Very early in his psychoanalytic work, Freud observed that his patients were not improving, despite the insights he was offering them as to the cause of their neurosis. It eventually dawned on him that the problem lay in the fact that the patients did not want to get better, a dynamic he termed resistance:”
* The article is found on page 32 in chapter 2 in the print version of From The Lighthouse: To Look Upon Darkness Through Light Must Dispel It, an anthology of Lighthouse articles by Kenneth Wapnick, Ph.D. and Gloria Wapnick from the Foundation for A Course in Miracles. This anthology is also available in ePub (digital) format (in 3 volumes). In addition to Course-related products such as the Lighthouse anthology, newly re-designed FACIM website has numerous new additions, including an excellent hyperlinked glossary of terms used in ACIM and much other new material.
The quarterly Lighthouse study group at Rocky Mountain Miracle Center is facilitated by Chris Dixon-Bubick