I am honored to be among the ministers of God



Laurie, Rev. Kathy, Rev. Sharyn

 Dear Friends, I am grateful and honored to be with all of you in heart and mind and oneness.

This is to announce that I have finished the curriculum to become a Pathways of Light minister and was ordained November 21, 2010.

My first Pathways of Light minister facilitator was Rev. Kathy Thompson, who made her transition on July 19, 2010. I was blessed to have spent many hours with her during the previous year and a half before that because I had moved about a half an hour from Bumpity Road, the ONEderful, high-energy-of-love home where she lived with Robert and where everyone was welcomed.

My second minister facilitator was Rev. Sharyn Zenz, whom I had known and loved from attending the Wednesday night meetings at the Pathways facility. Shortly after Kathy’s transition, I started hearing and knowing Kathy’s guidance. One thing we both agreed on was that I needed to finish up my ministerial program post-haste and that I should ask Sharyn to help me finish it.

Sharyn lovingly accepted. Together we have shared this beautiful path with both of us knowing and feeling Kathy’s presence.

Thank you Kathy and Sharyn for your love, guidance and friendship on this amazing journey. I am honored to be among the ministers of God.

Love Laurie

Note: Pictured in order are Laurie, Kathy and Sharyn

Laurie's new Facebook picture

My sister, Julie, and my friend, Kathy Thompson, made my day yesterday.

Yesterday I looked at my Facebook picture and decided I needed one that was more current. So I took some new portrait pictures from my laptop camera to put on Facebook. After a few pictures, I took one that shocked me: I looked old! Then I started laughing, and I took pictures while I was laughing, and finally used one of those pictures.

What made me laugh is that I know in Reality [1] I am not a body, there is no time or space, I am always God's Child and in the Presence  and within the Essence of God.

But still, it bothered me throughout the day, without me being aware of what was bothering me. And I had a tough day, which is unusual for me. At the gym, Kathy said, "Do you know how magnificently beautiful you are." I felt a knot in my throat and I coughed and barked at her, then felt my eyes tingle as the tears started to come. "Most of the time I believe it when you say that," I told her. "I don't know why, but I don't today. But it's okay, this too shall pass [2] ."

When we were done swimming, I dropped Kathy off at Bumpity Road, then went home.  As usual, I checked my email before going to bed. There was an email from my sister Julie. It was a note that she had left me a message on my Facebook page. It read: Love the picture. You look so young! 

Leave it to God to find someone to give me that message. And Julie, bless her dear heart, was a perfect someone to do that.

The messages from A Course in Miracles are there of course: I am not a body, I am as God created Me, [3] and others.

Why do I think God gave me that message, through Julie? After all, I am not young, nor old. I am eternal. Why would God have her say "you look so young" when God knows that being young is an aspect of the material dimensions, something that is referred to in metaphysical literature as being an illusion, a dream.

Because God knows me soooo well. He knows me completely. He knows that was the message I needed to trigger the healing of my thoughts. That doesn't mean it was the message everyone else would need for the healing of their thoughts, although, I'm sure it would work for some others, just not for everyone. Because in this world, each of God's teachers have different gifts. [4]

The answers I receive from God are direct to me, and I'm grateful to receive them. I pass them on to you with the knowledge that they might or might not not speak to you. Please take what you can use and leave the rest, with my blessings.

Everything is Love,

Laurie


References:

1. When I say here, in Reality, I am speaking of Spiritual Reality as defined in A Course in Miracles and other Metaphysical studies. In this specific instance, the thoughts after the word "Reality" are all aspects of this.

2.  "This too shall pass." A saying many are familiar with. Eckhart Tolle uses this saying to illuminate the concept of impermanence, or of all things being temporary in the material realm or dimensions. On the internet, see also this link to the wikipedia included with this article.

3. Lessons from ACIM.

4. God gives special gifts to His teachers, because they have a special role in His plan for Atonement. Their specialness is, of course, only temporary; set in time as a means of leading out of time. (M.4.1.4-5)

Immersion in Love

I woke up in Heaven in August, 1990. I was immersed in Love. And the Love was God. And God Loved me with the intensity and core of Its Being, which is everything. And I Loved It-All-Me with the intensity and core of Being, which is everything. There is nothing more to search for after that.

Then, after some "experiences" similar to the one above, I was brought back to this world. I found myself standing in my room, my head back and my eyes up. Stunned, opened, in a state of Grace I opened my ACIM book and was led to read "The Happy Dream."

I spent two weeks in joy. During the last few days, the joy and vision and sense of completion faded, and disappeared. Then I was bereft. I didn't want to be here. But one thing I knew, God is Real. That awareness has served to bring me here, a brighter place.

It was a 20-year voyage in this place called time - world - place. A Course in Miracles (ACIM) and other tools have served in my healing, of the healing of Laurie. This healing has been to remove the blocks to the awareness of love's presence. Block by block. Surrender by surrender.

I have a vision of a computer game, remove the blocks to the awareness. It's about surrender. I have to give up playing the game, sit back and let a Higher Source play the game through me. I will try to interfere, but will be most successful when I put down my "arms."

That's this world I'm seeing. A computer game. A play. A dream. An image. An imagination. It's a tool...or a weapon, depending on how I see it. It serves me, or it serves me up on a platter. My choice. It's amazing how often I picked the latter choice, thinking I had no choice. But, no guilt. It didn't really matter wh...at I chose, because the end is sure.

The Day After Laurie's Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, but there was no yesterday, only the eternal now. What that means to me is so beautiful. I used to feel sad when I heard people talking about "all time is now" and "there are no special days." I thought I was going to lose something wonderful and happy and delicious and gorgeous and amazing, and have to go back to dreary every-dayness. But that has changed.

Now everydayness, the eternal now means all the beauty, all the joy, all the amazing loveliness of grace and peace and happiness is everyday. It's all here - now. I'm feeling it, I'm experiencing it, I'm living it. All now. Everyday is my birthday, Christmas, the Fourth of July! All Holy days are now.

I have added a Prayer Service to my daily practice. I have been praying for everyone in the world, everyone who has ever lived, who is living now, or will ever live. I pray for the highest good of all, turning it all over into the hands of our Source.

I am also praying for individuals. I will be giving specific information on the Light Experiences website very soon as to how you can submit a prayer request and/or join the group of Prayer Partners who are praying for those on this list.

Praying for others on a list is such a light-enhancing experience. It has brought more light, love, peace and joy into my life than I would ever have guessed. I will have more information on this at the LE website very soon. In the meantime, if you are interested, just email me at Laurie@lightexperiences.com. Love is all there is! Laurie

More coming soon!

Spirit Guide in my dreams teaching me

I had another amazing dream...oh, I forgot, I didn't put the other one here. Last month I had a dream and actually saw one of my spirit guides and saw/felt/experienced how we were connected by a "rope of love". It was amazing, wonderful, uplifting and I knew it was a true connection. I saw the face with love outpouring of my spirit guide and it has infused me. Then night before last I had another dream

and I saw a different spirit guide with so much love pouring into me, into everything. Again, it lifted me to a higher perspective where I am experiencing everything is divine. Thank you, Oneness, for your everlasting love. This month I have been receiving the awareness of how I am being healed more and more, how greater Self esteem is being revealed to me as the untruths fall away. I saw how before

.I had a "desire" to have a relationship with someone, and I felt like I was "without" them, like I needed them to make me feel whole. As the Spirit is healing that in me it is leaving behind the clear experiencial knowledge that I have no need for something from the outside. The "low" self esteem is melting in the sunlight of True Self esteem. It's so hard to explain, but I see it in my mind as it is happening

This is something that I have heard others explain and I sometimes wondered if they were saying that they didn't need other people anymore, meaning that they were complete in their own little self. That is not the meaning here, I am saying I already am connected to that other person, persons, in fact, all persons. I am experiencing the awareness of that connection, and in that, there is no more need

There is only need where a lack appears to be. The imagined "wall" between me and others is melting. This reminds me of that song, Macarthurs Park, LOL! Oh Macarthurs park is melting in the dark, oh the sweet cream icing flowing down...only it's not melting in the dark, it's melting in the Light of Real connection, Real Love...Oneness. So it seems like I haven't been doing much lately, but in actuality, I have been

watching this occur, and feeling so much joy in the experience, in the unfolding. It's so amazing

And the love I have for others now is magnified. It's much easier to see them as the love they are, rather than the complaints, the angers, the lacks, the irritations...those things are so so so much easier to overlook. I see on the Horizon that I will, someday, not even see those things at all. And I have noticed that the more often I take time to just get quiet with Spirit...the more I am healed.

It's not a platitude, it's a real process. Well, real in the sense that I am experiencing it happening in my awareness. So yesterday I was experiencing that everything was in perfect order, everything that I experienced was like a ballet...it all just flowed together...it didn't matter what it was, each experience just flowed into each other experience like a divine dance. Thanks for listening, Dear Love.

Spirit helps me "cope" with other's pain

As I was saying in an earlier post today, I was having an amazing experience of the divine dance yesterday. 

During this time, I got a phone call from someone who was not as happy as I was. She was saying how I whitewashed things about people and didn't see the "truth" about them, not like her. 

No, I said, I'm seeing things from a different perspective. 

Then I thought, wow, what a waste to not be able to use the "painful gifts" of others to help you learn how to forgive, how to forgive yourself, how the let go of feeling like a victim, how to learn to soar in the freedom of this joyous feeling. I was thinking, wow, I'm so glad I'm able to use this painful gift so much more than I used to.

I said, would you rather be right or happy? If you didn't recognize it, that is from A Course in Miracles. It's a a famous question because the ego always wants to be right. The ego says, I know what's going on here, they are hurting me on purpose, they are crucifying me, I'm the victim, they are the perpetrators, I'm innocent, they are devils, I'm right...miserable, but right. 

So when I don't see that about the ego, I don't realize that it's always true that what you see in others, you see in yourself. You cannot see a devil without believing it is you as well. I said, Peace is something really really worth protecting. I didn't say much because I'm letting Love guide me, when I can get out it the way, LOL. I am reminded that it doesn't matter what I say, what I said, it doesn't matter. I probably won't reach into someone else's heart with words. (Funny for an English Major to say that, LOL!) It's the love in my mind that really helps, so I just started visualizing the person I was talking to as being what they truly are, the light, the love, the Real Light, the Real Love, the Connecting Force. Thank you for the opportunity for more healing, Dear Love.

Note: I was thinking, oh my friend is not seeing that. And now I'm seeing, Neat! They are a mirror to me. There is still a part of me that sees the "devil" in others, no matter how "small" that part is, or I wouldn't even see it in that friends words. I wouldn't see anything but the Divine Light that she is.

What has Laurie been doing?

I'm speaking of myself in the third person in the title here, as if I have a staff of people who are behind the scenes going, "Well, let's see, how should we phrase this? She hasn't been posting here for so long and now she has started again. How do we explain this? Do we tell them what is really going on, or should we smooth it over with some creamy smoothing words designed to make pretend that the Grand Pretense in real, real, real..."

O sorry! As you can see from the picture I'm having fun delving into the silly meanderings of the ego thoughts that I hear. I do sometimes listen to my thoughts, as Eckhart Tolle so helpfully tells us to do, but sometimes they are just too entertaining to throw away.

What have I, the entity known as Laurie Immekus, been doing? Where have I been? How would you like that answer, in terms of where in the world or where in the mind?

Okay, in the mind until recently I had been experiencing a hellish existence, full of "delightful opportunities for forgiveness" for some time, perhaps for most of this lifetime. As I worked more and more with spiritual principles it became more and more extreme. I was too despairing to write about it here, or maybe I was taking it too seriously, because everyday was a "fracking" (scifi fans will get that word) challenge to find some peace of mind. When I was with other people, it was easier, most of the time. But not with all people.

I don't want to focus on that too much because it appears to be over. I am now, thank you All That Is Holy, experiencing such great peace and joy, and I'm so grateful.

I had friends who said that Peace was so important, it was so worth it to reorganize your life even if it meant letting go of a lot of things that were seemingly important, but were causing you too much unhappiness. Mary and Robert of Pathways of Light told me that, and thank you so much dear friends. I finally saw this was the direction for me. I let go of some things, including a friendship with someone, because I couldn't be peaceful around him. It was something I didn't want to do because I believed that I should be able to apply the concepts of the Course (A Course in Miracles) to all my relationships.

Now who do you think was thinking that I should do something? Could it be, oh I don't know--the ego? LOL! Yeah, who else?

I got clear on that part, that it was the ego that was telling me basically that I needed to make myself be peaceful about everything that was happening in my life. I had been believing I had to tow the line, and like it, or otherwise I wasn't being a good Course student. LOL!

I let that go.

Then I had another jolt! I started to see that I had been believing this: that I needed to take care of my friend, that it was my responsibility and that he couldn't make it without me. When I tried to let this friend go out of my life, I felt so guilty for abandoning him.

Wow, how grateful am I that I finally became aware of that, AND that I was able to take that to Spirit. Spirit healed me so so so so so much.

What is my responsibility? Well, if I believe the Course, and I do, my only responsibility is to accept the Atonement for myself. To me that means to accept the truth, that only Love is real, that everyone is connected, that I am not in charge of keeping the world safe or even one person safe. I am not in charge of anything except my willingness to turn to Spirit for every need. Thank you thank you thank you Spirit. I love you so much.

What happened to my friend? Within days, my friend was living with other people, safe and sound. Spirit took care of him, too, and still does, I'm sure, in every way.

Okay, so what is Lau-- , ahem, am I doing now? I think I will take that to the next post. I Love you, Dear Love Heart.

My initial experience starting the Pathways of Light Ministerial Program

What follows is going to be very embarrassing to me to share. The reason I am doing it is that Holy Spirit tells me that it will be helpful to the Mind we share. I hope you don't think badly of me for the kinds of thoughts I had which I share here, but I guess I have decided that if Holy Spirit wants me to share this, then it will be okay for me to look like a fool. Okay so here goes:

I had great resistance to starting the Pathways of Light (PoL) courses, even though I also had a great desire to do them. The first four courses took me about a year, with a lot of spaces in between.

I found the first course particularly difficult. I didn't think I liked starting with something that looked (to me) like it was for beginners.

At that time I had been studying ACIM for 17 years facilitating and educating, and had been in 12-step groups before that facilitating and sponsoring. During the last 20ish years, I had facilitated, taught, written, illustrated, ate and slept spirituality. I had also been a member of the Milwaukee ACIM community on broadcasting ACIM discussion groups on public access for three years. Further, I had a brilliant mystical light experience waking up inside of God. I was such an expert!

So I looked at the first PoL course, 132: Self-Image Transformations, and I wondered what I had gotten myself into. How was I going to complete this course? As I skimmed through it I thought, this is beneath me. It's below me. I am so much more advanced than this. I worked on stuff like this before I started ACIM. Now what?

Well, I heard the thought, I could just read the questions and fill in the answers, and I will get through the minister program and get my minister's credentials. Then I'll be a minister. And on and on with this kind of thinking.

I saw I was having these thoughts, and I felt guilty about them, but I couldn't get past them. And I didn't want to just do the courses to get my minister's credentials. I knew that was not a path I wanted to take. So while I was watching my mind, my own thoughts were repulsing me. At that time I don't think I shared that with others.

So I did meditate pretty often and one day soon after that the Holy Spirit said, "You can learn something to help you where ever you are from anything in the world, Laurie. What you can do with the PoL courses that will be most helpful to you is to apply them to whatever is happening in your life at the same time that you read that particular course. And if something comes up from the past or future that's fine also. You still can apply your thoughts and feelings about it as that thing applies to you right now. I will be with you as you read and apply these courses to your life, and I will guide you in what to do with the course you are on."

This came as such awareness to me, and I was so happy. So I started again, and lo and behold…

…course 132 was a completely different experience for me, as were those which followed. It was like a personal communication with exercises between the Holy Spirit and me: my own personal learning experience. Also, I no longer believed it was a course that was just for beginners after all, nor would there be anything wrong with that. It is for anyone at any place of Self-discovery.

That doesn't mean my resistance went away. It still took me about a year to complete the first four classes. But each one of those courses was a learning and healing experience.

Now I've been a student of ACIM for 18 years, and I am grasping the Course more intensely and seeing it come alive at a new depth because I am using these courses and applying them to whatever is happening in my life right now.

I'm seeing also not to be embarrassed or ashamed of "my" ego thoughts. They are guides to what Holy Spirit can heal for me. I can turn them over to Holy Spirit without fear of embarrassment. The ego thoughts are not really my thoughts, for they are not eternal. And I am.

(Note: I have noticed that when I shared on chat groups before, I was very caught up in how well my thoughts were regarded by others. I have been asking for help on this issue and have seen more peace surrounding this, thankfully.)

Thank you, Father.

Hugs!

Laurie Immekus

Pathways of Light Ministerial Student